A Love to Kill: how can it get better? But it does
My shiny, gorgeous DVDs of A Love to Kill arrived in the mail (worth every penny) so plans to watch Veronica Mars or Devil Beside You got junked for the night. I am afraid ALtK trumps.
I am afraid my watching of ep 7 (excellent) was punctuated by 'You stupid stupid boy!' or other audible noises and thus it's a good thing no one else was at home.
This continues to be the most gorgeously shot drama I've seen. Love it.
So this is where Bokgu decides that his way of punishing Eun-Seuk is by making her fall for him by replicating things she did with his brother. As a plan, it's spectacularly flawed (personally, if a guy was wooing me in a way eerily similar to an ex, I'd be freaked) but I really think in a lot of ways it's an internal excuse for Bokgu to be close to her and not feel guilty. Because it's clear that whatever his mind tells him about her, he can't really control the emotion he feels towards her. I am sorry, but his rolling over to protect her with his own body is not a rational 'this will make her like me' move. Not only is he barely conscious, there is every chance he won't survive the beating, and besides her being beaten to a pulp? Quite a punishment. But whenever push comes to shove, he always always protects her, to his detriment or not. He rescues her from being date raped, he pulls her up when she is about to fall (since I don't believe in people really being able to hear voices of those who are in a vegetative state in their head and neither seems the show, I think it's really his subconscious rationalizing not letting her go there) or rescuing her from the motorcycle at the end (OMG, such a cool scene).
I do love that as he's just started, she doesn't associate the stuff with her ex. Realistic enough: they are little things from a time aways back. She is not going to remember every gesture (unlike Bokgu who has access to his brother's detailed diary). And I love that as it progresses, she is beginning to remember associations and it's making her uneasy at the coincidence.
And I love that their interactions have a layer of duality. Because he looks at her smile and remembers what his brother wrote about loving it and plans his next step but on another level you can see he is falling for it too, for himself. All their scenes really do have that charming-uneasy duality. Just look at the scene where he takes her to play soccer and on one level it's swoonily gorgeous: the music and the playfulness and those glorious blazing autumn leaves, but on the other level we keep flashing to the time she came there with Bokgu's brother and there is the level of deception always present which gives the whole scene a dark, disturbing undertone.
That duality is in Bokgu as well. Sometimes I want to hit him so hard his teeth would rattle, even as I understand the brotherly love that is making him do this, but sometimes he looks like a five year old and the little lost boy vibe is so strong, I just want to hug him and make it all OK. It's interesting that the stepmother mentions to the fiance in passing that ES likes tough guys. Because it's true. Even though Mingu was law-abiding, he was clearly working class and rough. And Bokgu is a real tough cookie. But of course, ES herself grew up in a poverty stricken, working class environment (until her acting career hit it big) so she'd have more in common with those type of men than she does with her polished, born with a silver spoon fiance.
And let me mention how much I love the fact that ALtK breaks a major drama trope in that it's the woman here who's had a previous love prior to meeting the hero. And unlike the 'rooted in childhood, not really deep and real' love the heroes often get, here there is no such thing. ES's love for Mingu was a grown-up love, and it was deep and true and the dissolution of the relationship scarred her terribly and if it wasn't for meddling of others and fate, she and Mingu would still be together. Her pre-Bokgu love was real. Even as the show keeps drawing parallels between ES and Bokgu, to show their compatibility (even in their wounds, I think), I love how it shows that other loves could have been possible for them, and were, at one time.
I just love the scene when we see her sleep and she is dreaming of what happened after gangsters left and she is left with his almost-dead body and she is crying in the rain and kissing him as he is almost entirely out of it and then we morph to him opening his eyes in the hospital as if they'd shared the dream and he was dreaming of it too.
Silly boy, stop digging your emotional grave. Because I can just tell he is going to wreak havoc with Eun-Seuk (who is warm and adorable and a more battered by life version of Ji-Eun from Full House, aka a darling) and then he will find out the truth about her innocence in the thing that happened to his brother and he won't be able to live with himself. OMG. Am I sick? Because I am both dreading that and looking forward to it.
And the sad thing is, happiness is within the reach of his fingers but he won't grab it and instead will ruin it. I love seeing his warm interactions with Da Jeong and you so see the potential there for him to just be this awesome guy, but the circumstances are going to screw it all to hell and I can't see how he and ES can ever be happy.
P.S. How hot was that scene where ES is attending some event and some stalker breaks through and Bokgu just really quickly and efficiently breaks his arm and it's all so contained and minimalist and effective and quick and ES looks at him with that look of hers and Da Jeong sees him and he sees her and that whole scene!
I am afraid my watching of ep 7 (excellent) was punctuated by 'You stupid stupid boy!' or other audible noises and thus it's a good thing no one else was at home.
This continues to be the most gorgeously shot drama I've seen. Love it.
So this is where Bokgu decides that his way of punishing Eun-Seuk is by making her fall for him by replicating things she did with his brother. As a plan, it's spectacularly flawed (personally, if a guy was wooing me in a way eerily similar to an ex, I'd be freaked) but I really think in a lot of ways it's an internal excuse for Bokgu to be close to her and not feel guilty. Because it's clear that whatever his mind tells him about her, he can't really control the emotion he feels towards her. I am sorry, but his rolling over to protect her with his own body is not a rational 'this will make her like me' move. Not only is he barely conscious, there is every chance he won't survive the beating, and besides her being beaten to a pulp? Quite a punishment. But whenever push comes to shove, he always always protects her, to his detriment or not. He rescues her from being date raped, he pulls her up when she is about to fall (since I don't believe in people really being able to hear voices of those who are in a vegetative state in their head and neither seems the show, I think it's really his subconscious rationalizing not letting her go there) or rescuing her from the motorcycle at the end (OMG, such a cool scene).
I do love that as he's just started, she doesn't associate the stuff with her ex. Realistic enough: they are little things from a time aways back. She is not going to remember every gesture (unlike Bokgu who has access to his brother's detailed diary). And I love that as it progresses, she is beginning to remember associations and it's making her uneasy at the coincidence.
And I love that their interactions have a layer of duality. Because he looks at her smile and remembers what his brother wrote about loving it and plans his next step but on another level you can see he is falling for it too, for himself. All their scenes really do have that charming-uneasy duality. Just look at the scene where he takes her to play soccer and on one level it's swoonily gorgeous: the music and the playfulness and those glorious blazing autumn leaves, but on the other level we keep flashing to the time she came there with Bokgu's brother and there is the level of deception always present which gives the whole scene a dark, disturbing undertone.
That duality is in Bokgu as well. Sometimes I want to hit him so hard his teeth would rattle, even as I understand the brotherly love that is making him do this, but sometimes he looks like a five year old and the little lost boy vibe is so strong, I just want to hug him and make it all OK. It's interesting that the stepmother mentions to the fiance in passing that ES likes tough guys. Because it's true. Even though Mingu was law-abiding, he was clearly working class and rough. And Bokgu is a real tough cookie. But of course, ES herself grew up in a poverty stricken, working class environment (until her acting career hit it big) so she'd have more in common with those type of men than she does with her polished, born with a silver spoon fiance.
And let me mention how much I love the fact that ALtK breaks a major drama trope in that it's the woman here who's had a previous love prior to meeting the hero. And unlike the 'rooted in childhood, not really deep and real' love the heroes often get, here there is no such thing. ES's love for Mingu was a grown-up love, and it was deep and true and the dissolution of the relationship scarred her terribly and if it wasn't for meddling of others and fate, she and Mingu would still be together. Her pre-Bokgu love was real. Even as the show keeps drawing parallels between ES and Bokgu, to show their compatibility (even in their wounds, I think), I love how it shows that other loves could have been possible for them, and were, at one time.
I just love the scene when we see her sleep and she is dreaming of what happened after gangsters left and she is left with his almost-dead body and she is crying in the rain and kissing him as he is almost entirely out of it and then we morph to him opening his eyes in the hospital as if they'd shared the dream and he was dreaming of it too.
Silly boy, stop digging your emotional grave. Because I can just tell he is going to wreak havoc with Eun-Seuk (who is warm and adorable and a more battered by life version of Ji-Eun from Full House, aka a darling) and then he will find out the truth about her innocence in the thing that happened to his brother and he won't be able to live with himself. OMG. Am I sick? Because I am both dreading that and looking forward to it.
And the sad thing is, happiness is within the reach of his fingers but he won't grab it and instead will ruin it. I love seeing his warm interactions with Da Jeong and you so see the potential there for him to just be this awesome guy, but the circumstances are going to screw it all to hell and I can't see how he and ES can ever be happy.
P.S. How hot was that scene where ES is attending some event and some stalker breaks through and Bokgu just really quickly and efficiently breaks his arm and it's all so contained and minimalist and effective and quick and ES looks at him with that look of hers and Da Jeong sees him and he sees her and that whole scene!