How to Love a Mob Princess: Dangermousie's Guide to one of her favorite Korean drama ships, Part 1
This post is inspired by a conversation with ambergold
And thus, I present to you the Dong Chul/Young Ran guide to East of Eden. If you are like me, and the thought of 56 episodes is horrifying, especially if convoluted politics and construction put you to sleep and the thought of watching the Villain and is family go around their boring lives is unpleasant, I encourage you to watch Dangermousie's Version (or at least read about it behind the cut). Not only is it much shorter, it focuses solely on the awesome ship that is Dong Chul and Young Ran (otherwise known as Grace).
She is a feisty Mob Princess who knows what she wants (him). He is a day laborer with tragic family history and mad fight skills who becomes a mobster underling to her father in order to protect his family. The one condition the Mob Boss makes? He will protect our hero and give him power if Dong Chul promises to never reciprocate the feelings of his wayward daughter.
O-M-G. Angst and unresolved sexual tension ensues. I finally understood the appeal of slumming.
There is kissing, slit wrists, motorcycles, fights to protect the kidnapped OTP (yes, fights - plural), time jumps, forced weddings, evil fathers, manly and womanly weeping, running on the beach, sleepovers, and more sexual chemistry then should be legal.
So, why do I ship them so? I confess I love the ship all the more because it totally snuck up on me - like most viewers, I went into EoE expecting (and excited about) the promised love story between Song Seung Heon and Lee Da Hae. But then something happened - Lee Yeon Hee showed up and she was so funny, gorgeous, and adorable - I fell in love with her character. And I fell in love with their insane chemistry, and then the sheer power of the OTP to hit all my kinks sucked me in - I adored that here was a female character who was utterly forward about what she wanted (she is clearly the initiator in all their early encounters) and it was not portrayed as stalkery or ridiculous. Plus, it was pretty wonderful for someone like Dong Chul who gave a lot of love but was starved of receiving it to have someone who was so open in affection. Anyway, I kept loving them but being pretty sure it was going to end so he could 'move on' and be with Lee Da Hae. Only a funny thing happened - we reached the halfway mark and he and LDH had barely met and he was still weeping over Young Ran and she was still madly in love with him and...I still get giddy to think that my OTP actually became the drama's OTP when I had no expectations of the sort!
In the fair Macao, some time ago, Dong Chul is a day laborer with a penchant for scarves...
While Young Ran (also called Grace) is a rich quasi-girlfriend of a rich casino runner who employs Dong Chul. She sees Dong Chul and is smitten, and who could blame her?
I mean...
Ohhhh, she wants to go slumming SO bad!
Luckily, her dimwit boyfriend asks Dong Chul to be Grace's errand guy. Genius, genius, genius.
Did I mention that he offered her a sandwich and she refused:
But instead invited herself over to his place. She might as well put a sign saying 'take me' on her chest (side note: she does declaim it later)
*SHIPS LIKE MAD*
Smart girl! Motorcycle riding means more bodily contact!
And she kisses him as thanks. Are you shipping yet?
Having once acquired a target she decides not to quit. Dong Chul should change his address if he wants peace and quiet. She does get rewarded by some wonderful sights:
But their idyll of insulting each other while smouldering is interrupted as our hero is forced to kidnap Grace otherwise the pregnant wife of his friend gets it!
And now he is helping mobsters guard her while wallowing in guilt. The boy knows how to multitask:
Our Mob Princess has been controlled and used by men all her life. Which left her with a destructive streak a mile wide. Her reaction to finding out her newest man betrayed her? "Here, take a look at my wrist scars, doesn't it make you feel good?"
Oddly, it does not make him feel good. (Notice the ever-present bruise. Dong Chul spends 90% of the drama with some sort of cut on his face - it's amazing he didn't die of sepsis).
She is self-destructive and he is protective. Can it get any better?
Why, yes it can. He finds out the mobsters plan to off her to send a message. And he decides to get her to escape at all costs. And thus my shipperiness goes from liking to total obsession. He tells her to escape, that he will get her out. Her response? "Promise me, if we escape, you are going to fall in love with me." Oh God. You go, Young Ran!
It's the first kiss she initiates but not the last...
So he helps her escape. This being EoE, it's almost at the cost of his life. Not the last time, yay!
If he wanted to dissuade her from her feelings, telling her she is loveable and saving her life was not the way to go about it.
He does try to break it off, though telling the girl her eyes are pretty right before telling her they should not meet again is perhaps not the most effective method.
But let's face it - Young Ran is like a mountie, she always gets her man. Especially since she has a Dong Chul radar, seemingly.
Sweetie, holding her hands if you mean to dump her, isn't really the thing :P Just do it! I do love how the thing he is caught most by isn't her looks or even her bubbliness or fragility or whatever but by her open feeling - nobody's ever been that way with him before. Even with his mother and brother it has always been very conditional.
And here we get to the lynchpin of their relationship - while earlier he refused Yong Ran's Mobster father's request to give her up in exhange for various awesome things, he now has no choice (his little brother is being tortured to death by the government back in Korea for daring to protest) and offers himself to Mob Boss. He gives in - in exchange for protection to his family, he promises to never reciprocate Young Ran's feelings.
She begs him to reconsider. After all she has no idea about his family. No luck, of course.
In a bit of deliciousness only to be expected from a drama, Mob Boss, either from sadism or stupidity, decides that the best thing to do with the sexy dreamboat his daughter is hot for is to appoint him her bodyguard. This leads to yummy scenes of manpain:
Young Ran, of course, assumes he is one of many men who has sold her out for power and advancement. In revenge, she wears the most hideous skirt known to man and slaps him.
She also tries to tip him. He revenge via hideous outfits continues.
Sweetie, I hate to break it to you, but while his baby brother is like this, he will just tolerate the epic manpain but won't go back on his word to Mobster Daddy:
Bros before hos after all:
Their relationship continues all angsty.
What with that, his unfulfilled revenge against the man who killed his father, his little brother being tortured in the army, his mother refusing to deal with him etc, it's a good thing Dong Chul can blow off some steam via gangster activities.
There is also mondo eye-fucking of the choicest kind.
And forbidden touching:
Did I mention the fobidden kissing of ANGST?
Despite their forbidden lurve, she watches him sleep:
And begs him to stay alive as he goes on his dangerous missions. She does warn him that her father uses desperate men like him and throws them aside - listen, woobie! She is Mobster Jr, she knows whereof she speaks.
He tries so hard not to hug her but fails:
What did I tell you? Epic manpain!
Even when she is forced to get engaged to a richie rich that her Daddy wants to protect our hot hero, she can sense Dong Chul getting the stuffing beaten out of him - in the middle of her engagement dance. Considering how much he gets beaten up, she must have a constant migraine.
Is it any wonder that their lurve, which has already survived one time-jump, finally wins out and he breaks, going on the run with her. YES.
They have about the most perfect two days ever. He cooks for her:
And they watch each other all night (unfortunately just watch)
(God, just do it already!)
There is more sneaky backhugging:
And mobster parties
Where he sings to her! In presence of his underlings. Did I mention that her Daddy's flunkies are on their tail?
There are more sleepovers on the beach of Emotional Significance for our hero:
Ahhh, yes, there is spoon-feeding:
And then he piggybacks her. She tells him she loves him, not expecting to hear anything back but he's finally broken down for good and tells her he loves her and she makes him repeat it over and over.
But of course the big mobsters finally track them down...
When we continue, even an insane asylum and a marriage can't break up our OTP!
ETA: Continued in Part 2.
And thus, I present to you the Dong Chul/Young Ran guide to East of Eden. If you are like me, and the thought of 56 episodes is horrifying, especially if convoluted politics and construction put you to sleep and the thought of watching the Villain and is family go around their boring lives is unpleasant, I encourage you to watch Dangermousie's Version (or at least read about it behind the cut). Not only is it much shorter, it focuses solely on the awesome ship that is Dong Chul and Young Ran (otherwise known as Grace).
She is a feisty Mob Princess who knows what she wants (him). He is a day laborer with tragic family history and mad fight skills who becomes a mobster underling to her father in order to protect his family. The one condition the Mob Boss makes? He will protect our hero and give him power if Dong Chul promises to never reciprocate the feelings of his wayward daughter.
O-M-G. Angst and unresolved sexual tension ensues. I finally understood the appeal of slumming.
There is kissing, slit wrists, motorcycles, fights to protect the kidnapped OTP (yes, fights - plural), time jumps, forced weddings, evil fathers, manly and womanly weeping, running on the beach, sleepovers, and more sexual chemistry then should be legal.
So, why do I ship them so? I confess I love the ship all the more because it totally snuck up on me - like most viewers, I went into EoE expecting (and excited about) the promised love story between Song Seung Heon and Lee Da Hae. But then something happened - Lee Yeon Hee showed up and she was so funny, gorgeous, and adorable - I fell in love with her character. And I fell in love with their insane chemistry, and then the sheer power of the OTP to hit all my kinks sucked me in - I adored that here was a female character who was utterly forward about what she wanted (she is clearly the initiator in all their early encounters) and it was not portrayed as stalkery or ridiculous. Plus, it was pretty wonderful for someone like Dong Chul who gave a lot of love but was starved of receiving it to have someone who was so open in affection. Anyway, I kept loving them but being pretty sure it was going to end so he could 'move on' and be with Lee Da Hae. Only a funny thing happened - we reached the halfway mark and he and LDH had barely met and he was still weeping over Young Ran and she was still madly in love with him and...I still get giddy to think that my OTP actually became the drama's OTP when I had no expectations of the sort!
In the fair Macao, some time ago, Dong Chul is a day laborer with a penchant for scarves...
While Young Ran (also called Grace) is a rich quasi-girlfriend of a rich casino runner who employs Dong Chul. She sees Dong Chul and is smitten, and who could blame her?
I mean...
Ohhhh, she wants to go slumming SO bad!
Luckily, her dimwit boyfriend asks Dong Chul to be Grace's errand guy. Genius, genius, genius.
Did I mention that he offered her a sandwich and she refused:
But instead invited herself over to his place. She might as well put a sign saying 'take me' on her chest (side note: she does declaim it later)
*SHIPS LIKE MAD*
Smart girl! Motorcycle riding means more bodily contact!
And she kisses him as thanks. Are you shipping yet?
Having once acquired a target she decides not to quit. Dong Chul should change his address if he wants peace and quiet. She does get rewarded by some wonderful sights:
But their idyll of insulting each other while smouldering is interrupted as our hero is forced to kidnap Grace otherwise the pregnant wife of his friend gets it!
And now he is helping mobsters guard her while wallowing in guilt. The boy knows how to multitask:
Our Mob Princess has been controlled and used by men all her life. Which left her with a destructive streak a mile wide. Her reaction to finding out her newest man betrayed her? "Here, take a look at my wrist scars, doesn't it make you feel good?"
Oddly, it does not make him feel good. (Notice the ever-present bruise. Dong Chul spends 90% of the drama with some sort of cut on his face - it's amazing he didn't die of sepsis).
She is self-destructive and he is protective. Can it get any better?
Why, yes it can. He finds out the mobsters plan to off her to send a message. And he decides to get her to escape at all costs. And thus my shipperiness goes from liking to total obsession. He tells her to escape, that he will get her out. Her response? "Promise me, if we escape, you are going to fall in love with me." Oh God. You go, Young Ran!
It's the first kiss she initiates but not the last...
So he helps her escape. This being EoE, it's almost at the cost of his life. Not the last time, yay!
If he wanted to dissuade her from her feelings, telling her she is loveable and saving her life was not the way to go about it.
He does try to break it off, though telling the girl her eyes are pretty right before telling her they should not meet again is perhaps not the most effective method.
But let's face it - Young Ran is like a mountie, she always gets her man. Especially since she has a Dong Chul radar, seemingly.
Sweetie, holding her hands if you mean to dump her, isn't really the thing :P Just do it! I do love how the thing he is caught most by isn't her looks or even her bubbliness or fragility or whatever but by her open feeling - nobody's ever been that way with him before. Even with his mother and brother it has always been very conditional.
And here we get to the lynchpin of their relationship - while earlier he refused Yong Ran's Mobster father's request to give her up in exhange for various awesome things, he now has no choice (his little brother is being tortured to death by the government back in Korea for daring to protest) and offers himself to Mob Boss. He gives in - in exchange for protection to his family, he promises to never reciprocate Young Ran's feelings.
She begs him to reconsider. After all she has no idea about his family. No luck, of course.
In a bit of deliciousness only to be expected from a drama, Mob Boss, either from sadism or stupidity, decides that the best thing to do with the sexy dreamboat his daughter is hot for is to appoint him her bodyguard. This leads to yummy scenes of manpain:
Young Ran, of course, assumes he is one of many men who has sold her out for power and advancement. In revenge, she wears the most hideous skirt known to man and slaps him.
She also tries to tip him. He revenge via hideous outfits continues.
Sweetie, I hate to break it to you, but while his baby brother is like this, he will just tolerate the epic manpain but won't go back on his word to Mobster Daddy:
Bros before hos after all:
Their relationship continues all angsty.
What with that, his unfulfilled revenge against the man who killed his father, his little brother being tortured in the army, his mother refusing to deal with him etc, it's a good thing Dong Chul can blow off some steam via gangster activities.
There is also mondo eye-fucking of the choicest kind.
And forbidden touching:
Did I mention the fobidden kissing of ANGST?
Despite their forbidden lurve, she watches him sleep:
And begs him to stay alive as he goes on his dangerous missions. She does warn him that her father uses desperate men like him and throws them aside - listen, woobie! She is Mobster Jr, she knows whereof she speaks.
He tries so hard not to hug her but fails:
What did I tell you? Epic manpain!
Even when she is forced to get engaged to a richie rich that her Daddy wants to protect our hot hero, she can sense Dong Chul getting the stuffing beaten out of him - in the middle of her engagement dance. Considering how much he gets beaten up, she must have a constant migraine.
Is it any wonder that their lurve, which has already survived one time-jump, finally wins out and he breaks, going on the run with her. YES.
They have about the most perfect two days ever. He cooks for her:
And they watch each other all night (unfortunately just watch)
(God, just do it already!)
There is more sneaky backhugging:
And mobster parties
Where he sings to her! In presence of his underlings. Did I mention that her Daddy's flunkies are on their tail?
There are more sleepovers on the beach of Emotional Significance for our hero:
Ahhh, yes, there is spoon-feeding:
And then he piggybacks her. She tells him she loves him, not expecting to hear anything back but he's finally broken down for good and tells her he loves her and she makes him repeat it over and over.
But of course the big mobsters finally track them down...
When we continue, even an insane asylum and a marriage can't break up our OTP!
ETA: Continued in Part 2.