Love Rain eps 11-14, kicking you in the gut with the best of them
While blogs and flisties rave about King 2 Hearts (solid if slowly losing me), Queen In Hyun's Man (perfection) and Roooftop Prince (dropped it, so no idea), I continue to be dedicated to my underrated, delicate underdog darling - Love Rain. And the latest batch of episodes certainly ratcheted that love even higher. Oh, LR, why are you so good?
I just love how uncomplicatedly happy they are, how Hana has come into her own, being in love, how she shines. And how Jun, despite his dysfunctional background and lack of relationship experience (sure, he's got a ton of sexual mileage, but when it comes to emotion, he's even more of a novice than Hana because at least Hana had an example of functional caring with her mother) also shines and is a good boyfriend. Hana is pretty much his center and his source of comfort - when he finds out his father has a lover and after that ugly scene with his mother (who really has no class), he is still able to be happy because of Hana. In fact, this is probably the first time in his life he's been just happy. They are young and in love and so compatible, that it hurts because you know what's coming. Also, the way he looks at her makes me wish kdramas didn't have that thing about no sex scenes. Because you know it would be hot as hell. (Though, heee, we might have almost gotten one, or at least some heavy petting, if Hana's mom didn't come home early. Ahhh, being young is fun).
But then, of course, he finds out whose daughter Hana is and his world shatters. What I love, even more than I love the former careless cynic being so emotionally exposed, so hurt (and then I realized that his cynicism was his armor, the result of the little boy, who's been hurt so often by those who were supposed to put him above all, building a wall to protect his heart precisely because it is so fragile), is that even with all of that, Hana is his source of comfort - even after standing her up for their dinner and picking drunk fights in bars, it is her room he comes to (and I love that you can tell he feels like a heel when he sees dinner remnants), it is her bed he crawls into for comfort - it's not even a reasoned process, it's purely a visceral reaction. And I love that Jun, with so many issues about his families, doesn't even for a second blame or associate Hana with the whole clusterfuck - he is appalled at the implications for them for her being who she is, but there is no resentment. As he said later "to me, you are just you." He actually tries to force normalcy back into the relationship, tries to be extra good to her.
But of course it can't last - they don't live in a vacuum. Their situation would raise eyebrows even in the much more liberal US, and in conservative Korea much more so. Not to mention that the family relationships are so poisonous (congrats, Hye Jung!). And Hana really nails the final nail in the coffin when she, unwittingly, keeps going on and on, that her mother's happiness is more important to her than her own. And so, looking like he wants to die, Jun forces out "Let's break up." It is so out of nowhere for poor Hana (who is not privy to everything Jun and we are) that my heart breaks for her. One moment they are on an adorable date, the next she is being dumped...
And the aftermath is not pretty for either of them...
And then he tries to act like a jerk so she'd ditch for good but his heart isn't in it, and his explanations for break up ("I was playing around") are so patently absurd, Hana (who is so spunky and awesome) is not buying it.
The hug I posted about before but it's so gorgeous, I can't help but repost. I love his vehement denials even as he clutches her, seeking any excuse to stay, unable to not touch her one moment longer.
Oh darlings!
Hmmm, Jun, perhaps she'd buy your indifference better if you didn't do things like that...I love how tender he is with her when he thinks she won't notice.
Photshoot from hell. Such a contrast to their earlier one. But I love how much of a trooper she is.
Hana throwing down the gauntlet, telling Jun she is staying in this town overnight and Jun should stay. Ohhhhh. But Jun drives away.
Of course, he is utterly helpless as far as she is concerned, so this gorgeous scene follows...
I really love how their trip to the hotel is each of them daring the other to give up first. And of course, you know it's Jun. The moment they sit there and his hand falls next to hers, you know it's over. I love that the look on his face isn't joyous. It's set and resigned. Oh woobies.
And sure enough, the next morning (after that heartbreaking conversation about his childhood and how he wanted to be first to someone at least once), the truth comes out. It's such a juxtaposition between their fairy-tale surroundings and their emotional nightmare.
The ride back. I love the contrast between that and Yoon Hee and In Ha's ride back way when. That trip at the beach was the new beginning for old lovers (and is another beginning now) but it is the end for Jun and Hana.
Oh, this little scene took my heart and stomped on it. Hard. She is walking away and he calls her name "Hana-ya" and she tells him how nice it sounds and he should have done it earlier, and so he calls out again. Ohhhhhh.
It's pretty much like a slow tearing of a bandage. Horrible. I love how they both try (Jun more than her) to sporadically deny the reality and desperately claw a way to find together but they both know it's doomed before it started.
Hana trying to incoherently explain to him about her longing for a family and his telling her she doesn't have to choose, they can break up. I just love this mutual break up, as they are clutching each other for dear life.
I just like this shot...
Meeting each other 'for the first time' as future siblings. Ouch. My heart.
All their interactions are so painful and full of suppressed longing and the fact that at one point Hye Jung stumbles on them and is her own bitch self doesn't help.
YESSSSS! Hana confesses to baby doc that she wishes she picked Jun and not her mother (yessss! He came first to someone!) and Jun overhears it and finally breaks and grabs her hand, telling her, 'let's go tell our parents!' And she goes along. EEEEE!
But the situation disintegrates before they can open their mouths and it's shoved into their faces how much they can't.
Ohhhh, my heart! Jun: "I am sorry. I am sorry." Hana: "I am sorry, too."
Hello, there, theater of pain! (Jun's despairing comment to baby doc earlier is so on-point. If they became strangers and never saw each other, it would be one thing. But they will always be stuck together now, yet unable to be together. As Jun puts it 'hearing occasional news of her, and one day news of her marriage). Oh, woobies. This is the worst kind of torture - always seeing, never touching.
Jun finally can't take it any more and goes to confess to In Ha but it turns out In Ha already knows. This is going to be interesting. I don't think In Ha is capable of giving up Yoon Hee for anyone and much as my heart breaks for the young lovers, I can't blame him.
QIHM post coming up next :)