Post by ajk on Dec 2, 2008 16:21:28 GMT -5
"I refuse to make baseless assumptions about the king's intentions." The crown prince tells Choi Manli, My father has given me an opportunity to serve the people and I intend to accept it. Bitterly opposed to the suspected alphabet project, Choi responds, "I cannot allow you the chance to serve the people right now." He bows and leaves, fully intent on destroying his former pupil's future.
"A list of native Korean words?" Sejong has asked Yun Hwe to compile such a list for use in designing the alphabet. But what about keeping Choi Manli quiet, Yun asks; shouldn't we deal with that? I'm going to trust my son, Sejong says; I've turned over state affairs to him and so I have to let him handle it.
Hyang is with his wife; he tells her, "There is a chance I may not be able to protect you." She understands; "I'm just sad we can't turn back the clock."
Jo Malseng is summoned by Hyang, who asks him for his guidance. "I'm getting rather nervous," Jo laughs. "How can this humble man be of service?" Hyang responds, "I want to find a way to break Choi Manli!"
Choi Manli goes to Huh Jo and shows him one of the incriminating drawings of the crown princess with her lover. Huh is shocked: "How could this be?" Choi tells him that the regency must be stopped--and not just for this reason.
Assessing the situation, Jo tells the crown prince that Choi wouldn't do something like this lightly; "There must be a good reason if he's willing to go to this length. First I'd like to know that reason." Immediately we wonder if Hyang knew what he was getting into, because Jo has already deduced that there's something big underlying Hyang's and Choi's conflict. "Won't you trust me and help me without asking any questions?", Hyang asks, obviously not knowing Jo as well as we do. "What would I get in return?", Jo asks (a question we know by now to expect from him). "It wouldn't be worldly glory," Hyang tells him, trying to say without saying it that he has nothing to offer. "How about a better future for this country--wouldn't that be enough?" "You are rather arrogant. Are you saying that you can be a better king than your father is?" "I'm prepared to work harder and give more of myself than my father. Is that not enough?" This is not Hyang's finest moment; by now we're disappointed in his naivety. "I'm not a man who plays fair," Jo tells him. "Don't you know that about me?" Hyang answers, "I would be rude to say yes and a poor judge of character to say no." Jo laughs out loud at this tightrope of a statement. Maybe Hyang isn't completely naive after all.
Choi goes into the Hall of Worthies and shows the scholars the incriminating drawing he's carrying, telling them about the crown princess' indiscretion. In the process we're introduced to two new young scholars: Sung Sammun, whose eyes widen--"Wow, great painting! Who did it?" (the honest reaction we might expect from a typical guy; the first time we've heard one)--and Ha Wiji, who shows little outward reaction.
At a regular meeting of ministers: Huh Jo has one of Choi's drawings and throws it down on the table, provoking shock and consternation among the ministers. Meng Sasung tries to calm things: "I think we should first find out whether the implication is true or false." Then to our surprise, the crown princess enters the conference room! She's dressed in plain white. "It's all true," she tells them. She asks Hwang Hee to appeal to the king for her deposal. "I am solely to blame for this," she then tells the group, "so please don't hold the crown prince accountable for what I've done."
Jo has told Hyang he's sent the crown princess to the ministers' meeting. It's the only way to avoid even more trouble later on, he claims. Hyang is upset by this; he leaves the room in frustration and goes outside...
...where he finds the crown princess on her way out of the palace. He tells her he's sorry for the way this ended, but she's glad that she could do something to help him before she left. "Farewell," she tells him, and she bows. As she walks past, he blurts out, "It's not that I couldn't have liked you." He continues awkwardly, "I was taken aback by your bluntness," he explains, "but I never disliked you." He says he's always wanted to tell her that. She listens and then walks away, presumably out of the palace forever. Tears are on her face but she's visibly relieved, as though a great weight has been lifted from her shoulders.
"The crown prince is unfit to be a regent!" It's a sit-in protest by the Confucian scholars in front of the palace. "You must reevaluate the crown prince's competence! Rescind your command!" Turns out, Choi Manli stirred them up. Inside the Hall of Worthies, Jeong Inji asks Choi why he did so. Choi confronts him about the alphabet project, asking him if he's in favor of it. But Jeong doesn't even want to discuss whether or not the project exists: "This conversation is over. Just clear the protesters." From this Choi concludes, "I guess you are for it." Then he goes too far, referring to Jeong's promotion: "That's why he put you here [as assistant director]--not because you're the best qualified or most respected scholar but because you are unconditionally obedient. The king just wants men who won't fight him. He just wants men who will tell him what he wants to hear." (Of course, this is wildly incorrect. Choi is either speaking out of intense frustration or else he hasn't been paying attention to anything Sejong has done since becoming king.) "We can't stand by and let Joseon descend into a barbarian race," he argues. "We are not the Hall of Worthies if we don't fight this!"
The queen suggests to her husband that the regency be postponed. But the king says that this is another hurdle that Hyang will have to clear on his own.
Ministers are meeting, and they're angry about the lack of action over the controversy. Huh Jo even suspects a conspiracy! "Something's not right. They're hiding something." Jo Malseng smiles at him: "You're a quick man." (Which he is, to deduce that.) "Is it the alphabet? Is the king trying to create a writing system like Choi Manli and others speculate his is?" Most of the ministers present hadn't heard about this, because Huh's words create a near-uproar. Yun Hwe has entered the room, and Huh wastes no time in putting the matter directly to him: "Director Yun, you should be able to answer that question for us. If the king is hiding something, I'm sure you know about it." All eyes are upon Yun, who says nothing. "Suspicion is snowballing because you won't say anything." Still Yun is silent. But then Jo jumps in: "As you've guessed, there is indeed a conspiracy at the royal chambers. But it is not the creation of a writing system. Enter!" And who enters but the royal physician, to confirm what Jo then tells them: the king is ill. "He's in very serious condition," Jo tells them, suffering from a combination of arthritis, neuralgia, diabetes, and weakness in his eyes. "He needs absolute rest, or we could have a tragedy on our hands." This has been kept quiet, Jo says, because it could create diplomatic tension during this tense time of the northern conquest of the Jurchens.
Afterwards, Huh Jo tells Choi Manli, "it is over. And you lost." Choi is steaming mad, but Huh advises him, "If you want to stop the king, find indisputable proof." Otherwise stop pursuing it and let it drop. And he even adds, "I think the institution of this regency is appropriate." Choi asks him why. "You're the reason. The crown prince is quite an impressive young man. He's been taught never to dodge his problems and to face them head on. My guess is you're the one who taught him that." Choi undoubtedly sees the irony in this, but says nothing.
The scholars are still protesting. Then the crown prince emerges and confronts them. Ha Wiji, who we saw earlier, is at the head of the group; he's the student body president of the academy. Hyang sits down right in front of him, as two large bowls with ladles are brought out and placed next to him. He proposes...a drinking contest. The first one to pass out loses. If Ha loses, the protest is to be disbanded; if Hyang loses, not only will he turn down the regency, but he'll give up his seat as crown prince! Ha is scornful of the very idea of deciding something so important in such a manner, but Hyang cuts him off by saying, "I have one thing to gain and you have two." Which gets Ha to reconsider. He agrees, but he turns to the scholar on his left, identified as Park Paengnyon, and tells Hyang that Park will be his opponent instead. Park is well on the pudgy side and presumably would have a big physiological edge as far as alcohol absorption. But Hyang agrees without hesitation. (Which makes no sense; why would he do so when Ha is the leader?)
Jo Malseng and Yun Hwe are speaking privately. Yun is angry with Jo's maneuver: "An illness? That's absurd. This is complete fabrication." But it's not a fabrication, Jo points out; it's just exaggerating things a bit. And anyway, Jo says, you should be worrying about your own health, not his. Yun is taken aback; what does Jo know about his health? The king's physician, it turns out, knows Huh's physician, and Jo found out enough. Now befuddled and defensive, Yun wants to know, "Why did you help the crown prince? How much did he tell you?" "Are you talking about the alphabet? He told me nothing. But I figured it out listening to Huh Jo." "You helped knowing the truth?" "I did it out of pity for a dying man who is playing into the king's delusional fantasies." Yun asks him if he'll keep quiet about the project. Jo tells him that the project will never be completed: "You can't accomplish this just on desire. Why create a stir over something that's not going to happen anyway?" He turns to leave, but Huh can't resist getting the last word in: "If...If that delusional fantasy should become reality someday, your workload will become much heavier." (I don't understand why.) This angers Jo: "Just take care of yourself, you idiot!", he shouts, a rare moment of him losing his cool, and he leaves.
The drinking contest is underway. The scholars are even betting on it, more specifically, betting on how quickly Hyang will go down. Park, the pudgy opponent, is holding up better, but Hyang's hanging in there. At a distance, ministers start to gather and watch. Jinyang arrives on the scene too, and wants to put a stop to this, but the ministers hold him back and tell him to let it play out. The opponents keep knocking back cup after cup...ten, twelve, fourteen...this is getting repulsive. But Hyang's determination is keeping him going. Finally he starts to waver, fumbling with a cup. Ha Wiji asks him, "Why are you being so stubborn?" "Because I can't think of any other way. Would you listen if I reasoned with you? Words acquire strength not through eloquent speech but through action. But there is nothing I have done for this country yet to show for. Still, I cannot give up--not now, not here." "Why not?" "Because the place where I stand now still belongs to the king. The place where the king worked every single day and every single night and gave his all to serve the country, and yet cried in remorse for his lack of virtue. It would be arrogant of me to give up such a place." (He's far more lucid than we'd expect after so much alcohol. We're supposed to believe his determination is keeping him coherent, I guess.) Then the prince starts turning pale, but he keeps on knocking back cupsful. Ha urges him to give up. "Then would you give me a chance? I'm full of flaws, as you all know, but my desire to serve the country is as fervent as yours, so would you give me a chance?" Just then the pudgy guy cracks; he passes out. Hyang gets to his feet (?!) and walks away, but goes only a few steps before staggering and sitting back down. Ha Wiji runs to his side, now extremely concerned about the prince's welfare. "Keep your word," Hyang tells him, and then passes out. We see the ministers nodding their approval (?!). (All right, I try not to editorialize too much in these things, but this sequence has to have been the low point of the entire series. The premise was stupid, the way it played out was ridiculous, and the idea that high ministers would be satisfied with it all, give me a break. And all capped off by another one of those doses of absurdly out-of-place pop music. Fourteen episodes were lopped off the series and they kept THIS? Yecch.)
Out in a rural area: We see Sejong, Yun Hwe and a group walking among cultivated fields. They're dressed incognito and are listening to the work songs and chants being sung by a group of farm laborers. Sejong wants to be able to record these songs in written form, but these native songs can't be transcribed accurately using Chinese characters. Shin Sukju says that the words will have to be memorized until a proper alphabet can be designed. Then Yun Hwe says, Or else we can find someone who already knows the words.
"Please, Choonwal." We see a young man sitting on a porch in a courtyard, speaking to a middle-aged woman apparently named Choonwal. (The young man wasn't identified, and I didn't recognize him. It may be Sung Sammun, the Hall of Worthies scholar from the earlier scene, but I'm not sure.) The man is begging her, but she refuses. She's unhappy because she's always been slighted by lords for only singing native songs and not knowing Chinese ones. So she won't cooperate. He offers her a tidy sum of money, but she doesn't want money. Actually, she has her own idea: "Why don't you build a great wall with me tonight instead?" She laughs, but she's serious, and even grabs at him a bit. Then she sings a bit of a song from Baekje, a song about the moon. And a bit of one more. She obviously knows these kinds of native songs well. "That is it for today. It was just a teaser." The next thing we see is the young man being thrown out into the street by two large men as Choonwal watches. He's lying there in the street, but he's smiling like crazy because he liked the songs so much. He misses her singing already, he says out loud to himself, staring up into the sky. Then a very funny camera shot, as we suddenly see Sejong's face peering straight down as though from the man's viewpoint. "Who do you miss so much?" he asks. Getting to his feet, the man tells him, "I don't think that's any of your business." He also says he's frustrated because he has no way of writing down the songs he's heard, even showing Sejong a piece of paper with an apparently unsatisfactory attempt to record them in Chinese. Then Sejong says there are better ways to solve this problem than chasing after an ex-gisaeng, and invites him to be part of the alphabet project. Seeing the retinue that has now gathered behind Sejong, the man realizes he's talking to the king of Joseon and drops to his knees, apologizing for his insolence. Sejong and the others laugh it off. "Your talent will be put to valuable service," Sejong promises him.
Later, the young man shares some of the native songs and chants he knows with the group. Sejong is impressed and moved by them. "I really hope we can turn these songs into written words someday," he tells Yun Hwe. "You must stay with me a long, long time so we can turn that dream into a reality." The fatally ill Yun only smiles back.
In the secret workroom: Sejong and Yun Hwe are working well into the night on the alphabet project. It's so late that Sejong falls asleep on his desk. Yun gets up from his desk, maybe to leave for the night, and goes over and covers the king with his coat. But then he doubles over in pain; it's another one of those attacks. He stays silent, not wanting to wake Sejong, but we can see he's in agony. He drops to the floor and sits, gasping and sweating, but the worst of it seems to pass and he smiles with relief at not having disturbed the king. But then his eyelids flicker and his vision starts to blur, and we see his trusty pen fall to the floor. Outside, we see the moon set...Sejong awakens, finds Yun's coat on his back, and then sees Yun seated on the floor, asleep. He goes to him and kneels. "Director Yun," he says with a smile, trying to wake him gently; "Go home and sleep in bed." But Yun is unresponsive. He died.
A shrine has been set up for Yun. Sejong is kneeling before it, and all of the ministers are behind him. Everyone is in mourner's white, and every single minister is visibly sad at Yun's passing, even those like Jo Malseng who clashed with him at times. Then Shin Sukju appears beside Sejong with a letter: "Grandfather left this for you." Sejong reads the letter, as we see flashbacks of Yun Hwe scenes from throughout the series: "By the time you get this letter, I'll be in heaven drinking my heart out. I have a great friend who awaits me there, so its going to be a ball guzzling down wine by the jug together. But I'll be upset if you get jealous and try to join us too soon, so take good care of your health. Most importantly, we don't have any wine to share with you. Your majesty, I dreamed a wonderful dream because I met you. My life has been a full and wonderful ride. It's all because you allowed me to share your great dreams. I have no regrets but I do feel sad. How I wish I could have left this last letter to you in the beautiful new script that you will create!" Finishing the letter, Sejong asks Sukju, "How long did he suffer?" and is told a year or so. He recalls some of what he now realizes were Yun's attempts to cover up his pain and illness, and is saddened by them. Then Sukju produces the mini-cup! The one that Sejong ordered Yun to drink his small allowance of wine from. Sukju explains, "He said he would take his altar wine in this cup as promised." "No," Sejong says, tears streaming down his face. "Bring me a larger cup."
"A list of native Korean words?" Sejong has asked Yun Hwe to compile such a list for use in designing the alphabet. But what about keeping Choi Manli quiet, Yun asks; shouldn't we deal with that? I'm going to trust my son, Sejong says; I've turned over state affairs to him and so I have to let him handle it.
Hyang is with his wife; he tells her, "There is a chance I may not be able to protect you." She understands; "I'm just sad we can't turn back the clock."
Jo Malseng is summoned by Hyang, who asks him for his guidance. "I'm getting rather nervous," Jo laughs. "How can this humble man be of service?" Hyang responds, "I want to find a way to break Choi Manli!"
Choi Manli goes to Huh Jo and shows him one of the incriminating drawings of the crown princess with her lover. Huh is shocked: "How could this be?" Choi tells him that the regency must be stopped--and not just for this reason.
Assessing the situation, Jo tells the crown prince that Choi wouldn't do something like this lightly; "There must be a good reason if he's willing to go to this length. First I'd like to know that reason." Immediately we wonder if Hyang knew what he was getting into, because Jo has already deduced that there's something big underlying Hyang's and Choi's conflict. "Won't you trust me and help me without asking any questions?", Hyang asks, obviously not knowing Jo as well as we do. "What would I get in return?", Jo asks (a question we know by now to expect from him). "It wouldn't be worldly glory," Hyang tells him, trying to say without saying it that he has nothing to offer. "How about a better future for this country--wouldn't that be enough?" "You are rather arrogant. Are you saying that you can be a better king than your father is?" "I'm prepared to work harder and give more of myself than my father. Is that not enough?" This is not Hyang's finest moment; by now we're disappointed in his naivety. "I'm not a man who plays fair," Jo tells him. "Don't you know that about me?" Hyang answers, "I would be rude to say yes and a poor judge of character to say no." Jo laughs out loud at this tightrope of a statement. Maybe Hyang isn't completely naive after all.
Choi goes into the Hall of Worthies and shows the scholars the incriminating drawing he's carrying, telling them about the crown princess' indiscretion. In the process we're introduced to two new young scholars: Sung Sammun, whose eyes widen--"Wow, great painting! Who did it?" (the honest reaction we might expect from a typical guy; the first time we've heard one)--and Ha Wiji, who shows little outward reaction.
At a regular meeting of ministers: Huh Jo has one of Choi's drawings and throws it down on the table, provoking shock and consternation among the ministers. Meng Sasung tries to calm things: "I think we should first find out whether the implication is true or false." Then to our surprise, the crown princess enters the conference room! She's dressed in plain white. "It's all true," she tells them. She asks Hwang Hee to appeal to the king for her deposal. "I am solely to blame for this," she then tells the group, "so please don't hold the crown prince accountable for what I've done."
Jo has told Hyang he's sent the crown princess to the ministers' meeting. It's the only way to avoid even more trouble later on, he claims. Hyang is upset by this; he leaves the room in frustration and goes outside...
...where he finds the crown princess on her way out of the palace. He tells her he's sorry for the way this ended, but she's glad that she could do something to help him before she left. "Farewell," she tells him, and she bows. As she walks past, he blurts out, "It's not that I couldn't have liked you." He continues awkwardly, "I was taken aback by your bluntness," he explains, "but I never disliked you." He says he's always wanted to tell her that. She listens and then walks away, presumably out of the palace forever. Tears are on her face but she's visibly relieved, as though a great weight has been lifted from her shoulders.
"The crown prince is unfit to be a regent!" It's a sit-in protest by the Confucian scholars in front of the palace. "You must reevaluate the crown prince's competence! Rescind your command!" Turns out, Choi Manli stirred them up. Inside the Hall of Worthies, Jeong Inji asks Choi why he did so. Choi confronts him about the alphabet project, asking him if he's in favor of it. But Jeong doesn't even want to discuss whether or not the project exists: "This conversation is over. Just clear the protesters." From this Choi concludes, "I guess you are for it." Then he goes too far, referring to Jeong's promotion: "That's why he put you here [as assistant director]--not because you're the best qualified or most respected scholar but because you are unconditionally obedient. The king just wants men who won't fight him. He just wants men who will tell him what he wants to hear." (Of course, this is wildly incorrect. Choi is either speaking out of intense frustration or else he hasn't been paying attention to anything Sejong has done since becoming king.) "We can't stand by and let Joseon descend into a barbarian race," he argues. "We are not the Hall of Worthies if we don't fight this!"
The queen suggests to her husband that the regency be postponed. But the king says that this is another hurdle that Hyang will have to clear on his own.
Ministers are meeting, and they're angry about the lack of action over the controversy. Huh Jo even suspects a conspiracy! "Something's not right. They're hiding something." Jo Malseng smiles at him: "You're a quick man." (Which he is, to deduce that.) "Is it the alphabet? Is the king trying to create a writing system like Choi Manli and others speculate his is?" Most of the ministers present hadn't heard about this, because Huh's words create a near-uproar. Yun Hwe has entered the room, and Huh wastes no time in putting the matter directly to him: "Director Yun, you should be able to answer that question for us. If the king is hiding something, I'm sure you know about it." All eyes are upon Yun, who says nothing. "Suspicion is snowballing because you won't say anything." Still Yun is silent. But then Jo jumps in: "As you've guessed, there is indeed a conspiracy at the royal chambers. But it is not the creation of a writing system. Enter!" And who enters but the royal physician, to confirm what Jo then tells them: the king is ill. "He's in very serious condition," Jo tells them, suffering from a combination of arthritis, neuralgia, diabetes, and weakness in his eyes. "He needs absolute rest, or we could have a tragedy on our hands." This has been kept quiet, Jo says, because it could create diplomatic tension during this tense time of the northern conquest of the Jurchens.
Afterwards, Huh Jo tells Choi Manli, "it is over. And you lost." Choi is steaming mad, but Huh advises him, "If you want to stop the king, find indisputable proof." Otherwise stop pursuing it and let it drop. And he even adds, "I think the institution of this regency is appropriate." Choi asks him why. "You're the reason. The crown prince is quite an impressive young man. He's been taught never to dodge his problems and to face them head on. My guess is you're the one who taught him that." Choi undoubtedly sees the irony in this, but says nothing.
The scholars are still protesting. Then the crown prince emerges and confronts them. Ha Wiji, who we saw earlier, is at the head of the group; he's the student body president of the academy. Hyang sits down right in front of him, as two large bowls with ladles are brought out and placed next to him. He proposes...a drinking contest. The first one to pass out loses. If Ha loses, the protest is to be disbanded; if Hyang loses, not only will he turn down the regency, but he'll give up his seat as crown prince! Ha is scornful of the very idea of deciding something so important in such a manner, but Hyang cuts him off by saying, "I have one thing to gain and you have two." Which gets Ha to reconsider. He agrees, but he turns to the scholar on his left, identified as Park Paengnyon, and tells Hyang that Park will be his opponent instead. Park is well on the pudgy side and presumably would have a big physiological edge as far as alcohol absorption. But Hyang agrees without hesitation. (Which makes no sense; why would he do so when Ha is the leader?)
Jo Malseng and Yun Hwe are speaking privately. Yun is angry with Jo's maneuver: "An illness? That's absurd. This is complete fabrication." But it's not a fabrication, Jo points out; it's just exaggerating things a bit. And anyway, Jo says, you should be worrying about your own health, not his. Yun is taken aback; what does Jo know about his health? The king's physician, it turns out, knows Huh's physician, and Jo found out enough. Now befuddled and defensive, Yun wants to know, "Why did you help the crown prince? How much did he tell you?" "Are you talking about the alphabet? He told me nothing. But I figured it out listening to Huh Jo." "You helped knowing the truth?" "I did it out of pity for a dying man who is playing into the king's delusional fantasies." Yun asks him if he'll keep quiet about the project. Jo tells him that the project will never be completed: "You can't accomplish this just on desire. Why create a stir over something that's not going to happen anyway?" He turns to leave, but Huh can't resist getting the last word in: "If...If that delusional fantasy should become reality someday, your workload will become much heavier." (I don't understand why.) This angers Jo: "Just take care of yourself, you idiot!", he shouts, a rare moment of him losing his cool, and he leaves.
The drinking contest is underway. The scholars are even betting on it, more specifically, betting on how quickly Hyang will go down. Park, the pudgy opponent, is holding up better, but Hyang's hanging in there. At a distance, ministers start to gather and watch. Jinyang arrives on the scene too, and wants to put a stop to this, but the ministers hold him back and tell him to let it play out. The opponents keep knocking back cup after cup...ten, twelve, fourteen...this is getting repulsive. But Hyang's determination is keeping him going. Finally he starts to waver, fumbling with a cup. Ha Wiji asks him, "Why are you being so stubborn?" "Because I can't think of any other way. Would you listen if I reasoned with you? Words acquire strength not through eloquent speech but through action. But there is nothing I have done for this country yet to show for. Still, I cannot give up--not now, not here." "Why not?" "Because the place where I stand now still belongs to the king. The place where the king worked every single day and every single night and gave his all to serve the country, and yet cried in remorse for his lack of virtue. It would be arrogant of me to give up such a place." (He's far more lucid than we'd expect after so much alcohol. We're supposed to believe his determination is keeping him coherent, I guess.) Then the prince starts turning pale, but he keeps on knocking back cupsful. Ha urges him to give up. "Then would you give me a chance? I'm full of flaws, as you all know, but my desire to serve the country is as fervent as yours, so would you give me a chance?" Just then the pudgy guy cracks; he passes out. Hyang gets to his feet (?!) and walks away, but goes only a few steps before staggering and sitting back down. Ha Wiji runs to his side, now extremely concerned about the prince's welfare. "Keep your word," Hyang tells him, and then passes out. We see the ministers nodding their approval (?!). (All right, I try not to editorialize too much in these things, but this sequence has to have been the low point of the entire series. The premise was stupid, the way it played out was ridiculous, and the idea that high ministers would be satisfied with it all, give me a break. And all capped off by another one of those doses of absurdly out-of-place pop music. Fourteen episodes were lopped off the series and they kept THIS? Yecch.)
Out in a rural area: We see Sejong, Yun Hwe and a group walking among cultivated fields. They're dressed incognito and are listening to the work songs and chants being sung by a group of farm laborers. Sejong wants to be able to record these songs in written form, but these native songs can't be transcribed accurately using Chinese characters. Shin Sukju says that the words will have to be memorized until a proper alphabet can be designed. Then Yun Hwe says, Or else we can find someone who already knows the words.
"Please, Choonwal." We see a young man sitting on a porch in a courtyard, speaking to a middle-aged woman apparently named Choonwal. (The young man wasn't identified, and I didn't recognize him. It may be Sung Sammun, the Hall of Worthies scholar from the earlier scene, but I'm not sure.) The man is begging her, but she refuses. She's unhappy because she's always been slighted by lords for only singing native songs and not knowing Chinese ones. So she won't cooperate. He offers her a tidy sum of money, but she doesn't want money. Actually, she has her own idea: "Why don't you build a great wall with me tonight instead?" She laughs, but she's serious, and even grabs at him a bit. Then she sings a bit of a song from Baekje, a song about the moon. And a bit of one more. She obviously knows these kinds of native songs well. "That is it for today. It was just a teaser." The next thing we see is the young man being thrown out into the street by two large men as Choonwal watches. He's lying there in the street, but he's smiling like crazy because he liked the songs so much. He misses her singing already, he says out loud to himself, staring up into the sky. Then a very funny camera shot, as we suddenly see Sejong's face peering straight down as though from the man's viewpoint. "Who do you miss so much?" he asks. Getting to his feet, the man tells him, "I don't think that's any of your business." He also says he's frustrated because he has no way of writing down the songs he's heard, even showing Sejong a piece of paper with an apparently unsatisfactory attempt to record them in Chinese. Then Sejong says there are better ways to solve this problem than chasing after an ex-gisaeng, and invites him to be part of the alphabet project. Seeing the retinue that has now gathered behind Sejong, the man realizes he's talking to the king of Joseon and drops to his knees, apologizing for his insolence. Sejong and the others laugh it off. "Your talent will be put to valuable service," Sejong promises him.
Later, the young man shares some of the native songs and chants he knows with the group. Sejong is impressed and moved by them. "I really hope we can turn these songs into written words someday," he tells Yun Hwe. "You must stay with me a long, long time so we can turn that dream into a reality." The fatally ill Yun only smiles back.
In the secret workroom: Sejong and Yun Hwe are working well into the night on the alphabet project. It's so late that Sejong falls asleep on his desk. Yun gets up from his desk, maybe to leave for the night, and goes over and covers the king with his coat. But then he doubles over in pain; it's another one of those attacks. He stays silent, not wanting to wake Sejong, but we can see he's in agony. He drops to the floor and sits, gasping and sweating, but the worst of it seems to pass and he smiles with relief at not having disturbed the king. But then his eyelids flicker and his vision starts to blur, and we see his trusty pen fall to the floor. Outside, we see the moon set...Sejong awakens, finds Yun's coat on his back, and then sees Yun seated on the floor, asleep. He goes to him and kneels. "Director Yun," he says with a smile, trying to wake him gently; "Go home and sleep in bed." But Yun is unresponsive. He died.
A shrine has been set up for Yun. Sejong is kneeling before it, and all of the ministers are behind him. Everyone is in mourner's white, and every single minister is visibly sad at Yun's passing, even those like Jo Malseng who clashed with him at times. Then Shin Sukju appears beside Sejong with a letter: "Grandfather left this for you." Sejong reads the letter, as we see flashbacks of Yun Hwe scenes from throughout the series: "By the time you get this letter, I'll be in heaven drinking my heart out. I have a great friend who awaits me there, so its going to be a ball guzzling down wine by the jug together. But I'll be upset if you get jealous and try to join us too soon, so take good care of your health. Most importantly, we don't have any wine to share with you. Your majesty, I dreamed a wonderful dream because I met you. My life has been a full and wonderful ride. It's all because you allowed me to share your great dreams. I have no regrets but I do feel sad. How I wish I could have left this last letter to you in the beautiful new script that you will create!" Finishing the letter, Sejong asks Sukju, "How long did he suffer?" and is told a year or so. He recalls some of what he now realizes were Yun's attempts to cover up his pain and illness, and is saddened by them. Then Sukju produces the mini-cup! The one that Sejong ordered Yun to drink his small allowance of wine from. Sukju explains, "He said he would take his altar wine in this cup as promised." "No," Sejong says, tears streaming down his face. "Bring me a larger cup."