in episodes 7 and 8, the viewer is forced to view the consequences of geum jan di and ji hoo's kiss. i guess if i were to take one view, i am baffled by how geum jan di has become goo jun pyo's girlfriend. is she so young and overwhelmed by his wealth, physical attractiveness, his attention to her not to mention a sense of "loss" at ji hoo's unavailability that she allows her self to be drawn into an intimate relationship with goo jun pyo?
what exactly is a girlfriend? even if there is no physical intimacy (kissing, holding hands, hugging) what about emotional investment and emotional intimacy (sharing secrets, being together, talking to each other, making time for each other) doesn't all this require some degree of volition and commitment toward loyalty? if you allow yourself to have someone call you his girlfriend don't you owe something to this person? if you don't want this obligation or feel confused, can't geum jan di say that she is not ready? she certainly is quite vociferous,
stubborn and pugnacious over a number of other things. is her honor and her well-being not worth the effort of stating to goo jun pyo she doesn't want to be his girlfriend. also frustrating is how she constantly allows herself to be sucked into the lifestyle of the wealthy f4. she makes such a show of being opposed to their tactics and so forth and yet once she gains their interest she so docilely follows along only with a minor show of resistance.
and if in her heart she can only think of ji hoo, does she not owe herself the right to honor that feeling and be true to the extent possible allowed by honor and true regard for ji hoo's and his love's well being? to go out to comfort ji hoo, allow him to kiss her, continue to go on outings with ji hoo even after goo jun pyo declares himself, gives her a token of his love, and so forth really casts our heroine in a very poor light. she is flawed. this is wonderful. she makes a mistake. she is not capable of always doing what is morally correct. she is not even capable of fighting enough for what is true and right by attempting to engage both men in a conversation. goo jun pyo barely gets a few muttered responses. while she is tongue tied with ji hoo. there is limited credibility to the inconsistencies, impulsiveness and immaturity associated with being a high school student. at some point geum jan di's behaviour is simply inexcusable even if you want to believe that she really is trying to do what she believes is right. she fails to act with moral clarity. she fails to discern what is true or right. she just drifts along doing what is easy with only token instances (like swimming for herself - how difficult is this when she swims competitvely?) of standing up for herself.
while boys before flowers is based on hana yori dango, a classic storyline that pits good against evil, it fails to capture this dramatic conflict. it seems as if the director or producer or scriptwriter has failed to understand the true spirit of the japanese hana yori dango which they seek to ape. they have failed to understand that the power of the japanese story comes from a clear, effective capturing on film of makino's fight to do what is right at all times despite all her obstacles, both within and without. and these are not trivial - wealth, power, luxury items, the prospect of living in absolute comfort even as plaything of one these rich young men, physical pleasures of any and all kinds, rare exotic material possessions. it is about a spirit which sees through all this and really really tries to hold on to what is true. it is a spirit which understands and appreciates wealth but also understands it in its full context. those filming the japanese drama were able to capture this struggle effectively so the viewer is aware of her situation, of her internal struggle, her psychological states, and most importantly her unflinching integrity in the face of some really overwhelming situations. boys before flowers on the other hand really becomes a soggy typical korean melodrama with none of the power of the japanese hana yori dango. geum jan di and her friend ga eul have none of makino's moral fiber, her integrity, her honor, nor her determination to fight to the very end even if she loses. geum jan di is neither admirable nor special but a routine female protagonist in a korean melodrama. boys before flowers seek to capitalize on the hana yori dango brand by putting out a product that tantalizes the eyes but fails to nourish the spirit and in the end fails to even be a shadow to the japanese hana yori dango. at least thus far. it remains to be seen whether the show improves in the coming episodes. but i fear there will be no change. the korean producers simply don't seem to have grasped the idea that motivates the japanese filming of hana yori dango. if they have not communicated this theme by this point in the series, it doesn't seem likely they will do so in future episodes.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
sensations evoked by watching andrew lau's daisy
daisy (2006, korean movie) identified as an urban melodrama, the subject of the movie is a love triangle with classic touches: a beautiful young heroine who is a gifted painter; an unlikely hero who is an assassin-for-hire; and an interpol police who isn't particularly looking for love.
the heroine is all of twenty-three or twenty-four. she lives with her aging grandfather in a charming townhouse-cum-shop where she and her grandpa sell her paintings and other artistic odds and ends. in addition there is a wonderful studio where she paints when she is not outside doing plein aire work. oh la, a setting just ripe for romance.
and indeed romance is waiting in the wings. one day on one of her plein aire painting excursion in a particularly comely landscape of a flower filled field bordered by a meandering stream, she is seen at her art by a man sitting on the porch of his house surveying the scenery. in attempting to cross a stream using the lone log that has been thrown across it to serve as a bridge, she encounters a mishap, looses her balance and falls into the stream below. she is able to recover her sketch book but alas is separated from her bag of painting supplies. the man on the porch is too late to offer any assistance to our heroine in her distress but he does recover her bag from the stream and builds a proper bridge so the possibility of an event such as the one he witnessed will not be repeated our fair heroine. on her next outing to the spot, she avoids the stream to get to her particular painting spot. it is only after she arrives at the spot that she discovers the bridge and her satchel with painting supplies. finding her satchel she is not sure if the bridge had been built especially for her. regardless of this uncertainty, she decides to thank whomever had placed her satchel on the bridge with the painting of the field by the bridge. in the spot where her satchel had been hung on the bridge waiting for her, she places her painting of the field as a gesture of gratitude.
thus it is romance comes tiptoeing into her life. she is baffled by the daily delivery of potted daisies which begins after her gift of her painting. the subject of her painting was a daisy covered field. she is moved by this gesture and also mystified. why is the sender refusing to introduce himself to her? why does he prefer to remain unknown? this mystery piques our heroine and serves as a further goad to the viewer who is already inundated from movie's opening scenes
already drenched quite heavily with romantic feelings. the viewer knows who is sending the flowers to the heroine. the lovelorn swain behind these gifts is the man who had seen our heroines adventures on the log bridge, her subsequent fall, and received her gesture of thanks in the painting of the field she had hung for him on the bridge he had built for her. it turns out
he is an assassin-for-hire who works for some sort of hong kong crime syndicate. not really sure what drives a person to becoming a professional murderer. you need to train with a gun. have stomach and nerves of steel. and not particularly care to live.
since the movie utilizes voice-over narration the viewer is made to understand the events unfolding are primarily from his perspective. but our heroine doesn't know who the sender is. our lover is a classic anti-hero - a good mishmash of admirable traits and horrifying predilections. a murderer-for-hire, he nonetheless has a heart of gold, a quivering aesthetic sensitive and appreciative of the landscapes and floral paintings our heroine churns out, and is literate to boot. he not only speaks korean and mandarin he can also read german. add to that an attractive physical appearance and a capacity to give his life for love we have a very cunning specimen of an anti-hero.
moody, observing the heroine as she spends her days in a plaza earning money by painting people's portraits in between assignments, the viewer gets a full stomach full of melancholy, wistfulness. he is the watcher, observing his love as she paints, and chats and dozes and sips coffee, from the window of an apartment he selected because it is especially well suited to watching her, he is in control of their relationship. he cannot afford to interact with her. to do so would mean endangering both their lives. so he satisfies himself with watching her and
sending her potted daisies from the bed of daisies he raises on the deck of the riverboat in which he lives.
the elements in the story are nothing if they are not picturesque. the sweet quaintness is effective in heightening the distortion from a storyline we would expect from such a setting. the movie gains momentum with the arrival of the third figure in the love triangle. an interpol officer participating in an operation to stop a drug trafficking ring, he finds himself standing in front of our heroine on one of his data gathering sorties. on their first encounter, he happens to be holding a pot of daisies. he had grabbed it deflect attention from his investigations but the painter has her own life. in her life, potted daisies, the bridge are part of a romance. with the appearance of the interpol officer in front of her one day holding a pot of daisies, she comes to the only conclusion a young woman in her situation can come to - the man standing in front of her is the same man who built the bridge for her, the man who accepted her painting, the man who sent her potted daisies whenever the daisies in the previous pot start to decay.
the interpol officer is flattered by the obvious attention of the painter. since the painter is quite attractive, he initiates a relationship. even though he later comes to find out the reason for her initial interest, he never corrects her misunderstanding. even though the interpol officer is used to represent all that is honorable as a law-abiding citizen, in two very important things he fails. he uses the painter as a cover for his undercover drug bust operation which ends in a shootout wherein she loses her voice. instead of dealing with this responsibly, he avoids her because he cannot face the fact that it through his actions that this happens. he lies to her about the flowers.
we discover, as we watch the movie unfold, our anti-hero doing things typically performed by the hero. he protects his love. he is willing to allow the painter and the interpol police officer to live their lives. but things go terribly out of hand as they tend to in this sort of situations. the climax and conclusion of the movie continue and finish the intentions of the director in providing to the viewer a particular experience.
the actors are all effective at enacting their roles. the feeling of the cities with its antique buildings and plazas, the bucolic serenity of the countrysides with their meandering streams and flower-bedecked fields create a suitable canvas for the frolic of the movie's characters. seemingly a charming european idyll, picturesque, quaint, sweet, viewers are treated to some interesting what-ifs that i can only imagine would please those appreciative of dramas of this genre. viewers enjoy all the pleasures and thrills that a plot such as this promises. the setting for the movie, the netherlands, is caught in expert cinematography to further enhance the viewer's experience of bittersweet melancholy. indeed if a medieval psychic were consulted he would say that the humor that this movie panders to is melancholia. and melancholia, the humor, is associated with imbalance of perhaps the liver or gall bladder. but whichever organ it is associated with, this movie serves up a dish that is sweetened by love, made piquant from a love story gone awry, spiked with a fiery undercurrent from the inevitable conclusion.
i walked away from this movie with an appreciation for how a movie generates physical sensations and emotions in me as i watch. i understood how each gesture and smallest aspect of a movie is a carefully orchestrated event designed to achieve an effect in the viewer. this physical and mental experience is different from any messages that those involved in the creation of the movie may have. for me watching a movie then is about the physical and emotional experience, along with a storyline, and other messages that might be embedded in it.
the heroine is all of twenty-three or twenty-four. she lives with her aging grandfather in a charming townhouse-cum-shop where she and her grandpa sell her paintings and other artistic odds and ends. in addition there is a wonderful studio where she paints when she is not outside doing plein aire work. oh la, a setting just ripe for romance.
and indeed romance is waiting in the wings. one day on one of her plein aire painting excursion in a particularly comely landscape of a flower filled field bordered by a meandering stream, she is seen at her art by a man sitting on the porch of his house surveying the scenery. in attempting to cross a stream using the lone log that has been thrown across it to serve as a bridge, she encounters a mishap, looses her balance and falls into the stream below. she is able to recover her sketch book but alas is separated from her bag of painting supplies. the man on the porch is too late to offer any assistance to our heroine in her distress but he does recover her bag from the stream and builds a proper bridge so the possibility of an event such as the one he witnessed will not be repeated our fair heroine. on her next outing to the spot, she avoids the stream to get to her particular painting spot. it is only after she arrives at the spot that she discovers the bridge and her satchel with painting supplies. finding her satchel she is not sure if the bridge had been built especially for her. regardless of this uncertainty, she decides to thank whomever had placed her satchel on the bridge with the painting of the field by the bridge. in the spot where her satchel had been hung on the bridge waiting for her, she places her painting of the field as a gesture of gratitude.
thus it is romance comes tiptoeing into her life. she is baffled by the daily delivery of potted daisies which begins after her gift of her painting. the subject of her painting was a daisy covered field. she is moved by this gesture and also mystified. why is the sender refusing to introduce himself to her? why does he prefer to remain unknown? this mystery piques our heroine and serves as a further goad to the viewer who is already inundated from movie's opening scenes
already drenched quite heavily with romantic feelings. the viewer knows who is sending the flowers to the heroine. the lovelorn swain behind these gifts is the man who had seen our heroines adventures on the log bridge, her subsequent fall, and received her gesture of thanks in the painting of the field she had hung for him on the bridge he had built for her. it turns out
he is an assassin-for-hire who works for some sort of hong kong crime syndicate. not really sure what drives a person to becoming a professional murderer. you need to train with a gun. have stomach and nerves of steel. and not particularly care to live.
since the movie utilizes voice-over narration the viewer is made to understand the events unfolding are primarily from his perspective. but our heroine doesn't know who the sender is. our lover is a classic anti-hero - a good mishmash of admirable traits and horrifying predilections. a murderer-for-hire, he nonetheless has a heart of gold, a quivering aesthetic sensitive and appreciative of the landscapes and floral paintings our heroine churns out, and is literate to boot. he not only speaks korean and mandarin he can also read german. add to that an attractive physical appearance and a capacity to give his life for love we have a very cunning specimen of an anti-hero.
moody, observing the heroine as she spends her days in a plaza earning money by painting people's portraits in between assignments, the viewer gets a full stomach full of melancholy, wistfulness. he is the watcher, observing his love as she paints, and chats and dozes and sips coffee, from the window of an apartment he selected because it is especially well suited to watching her, he is in control of their relationship. he cannot afford to interact with her. to do so would mean endangering both their lives. so he satisfies himself with watching her and
sending her potted daisies from the bed of daisies he raises on the deck of the riverboat in which he lives.
the elements in the story are nothing if they are not picturesque. the sweet quaintness is effective in heightening the distortion from a storyline we would expect from such a setting. the movie gains momentum with the arrival of the third figure in the love triangle. an interpol officer participating in an operation to stop a drug trafficking ring, he finds himself standing in front of our heroine on one of his data gathering sorties. on their first encounter, he happens to be holding a pot of daisies. he had grabbed it deflect attention from his investigations but the painter has her own life. in her life, potted daisies, the bridge are part of a romance. with the appearance of the interpol officer in front of her one day holding a pot of daisies, she comes to the only conclusion a young woman in her situation can come to - the man standing in front of her is the same man who built the bridge for her, the man who accepted her painting, the man who sent her potted daisies whenever the daisies in the previous pot start to decay.
the interpol officer is flattered by the obvious attention of the painter. since the painter is quite attractive, he initiates a relationship. even though he later comes to find out the reason for her initial interest, he never corrects her misunderstanding. even though the interpol officer is used to represent all that is honorable as a law-abiding citizen, in two very important things he fails. he uses the painter as a cover for his undercover drug bust operation which ends in a shootout wherein she loses her voice. instead of dealing with this responsibly, he avoids her because he cannot face the fact that it through his actions that this happens. he lies to her about the flowers.
we discover, as we watch the movie unfold, our anti-hero doing things typically performed by the hero. he protects his love. he is willing to allow the painter and the interpol police officer to live their lives. but things go terribly out of hand as they tend to in this sort of situations. the climax and conclusion of the movie continue and finish the intentions of the director in providing to the viewer a particular experience.
the actors are all effective at enacting their roles. the feeling of the cities with its antique buildings and plazas, the bucolic serenity of the countrysides with their meandering streams and flower-bedecked fields create a suitable canvas for the frolic of the movie's characters. seemingly a charming european idyll, picturesque, quaint, sweet, viewers are treated to some interesting what-ifs that i can only imagine would please those appreciative of dramas of this genre. viewers enjoy all the pleasures and thrills that a plot such as this promises. the setting for the movie, the netherlands, is caught in expert cinematography to further enhance the viewer's experience of bittersweet melancholy. indeed if a medieval psychic were consulted he would say that the humor that this movie panders to is melancholia. and melancholia, the humor, is associated with imbalance of perhaps the liver or gall bladder. but whichever organ it is associated with, this movie serves up a dish that is sweetened by love, made piquant from a love story gone awry, spiked with a fiery undercurrent from the inevitable conclusion.
i walked away from this movie with an appreciation for how a movie generates physical sensations and emotions in me as i watch. i understood how each gesture and smallest aspect of a movie is a carefully orchestrated event designed to achieve an effect in the viewer. this physical and mental experience is different from any messages that those involved in the creation of the movie may have. for me watching a movie then is about the physical and emotional experience, along with a storyline, and other messages that might be embedded in it.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Comments on Pretty Girls
pretty girls(2002) is a japanese drama that follows the trials and tribulations of our cast of characters in a department store that has seen better days. watching this drama now, it is easy to see it as a response to the economic conditions of the time. some of the issues that inform the material of the drama include the struggle department stores to remain in operation and decreased consumer spending in a time of economic turmoil in japan. it is amusing to see how in an attempt to keep the institution of the department store alive in a new world order, things like "lifestyle packaging" based on acquisition of detailed customer profiles and data amongst other things are sold to viewing audience through the medium of the drama.
another noteworthy aspect of the drama pretty girls is the allusion to the little mermaid. this theme crops up in a lot of japanese drama. i think it is worthwhile exploring this fairy tale since it appears to have a certain psychological power with the audiences in japan and elsewhere in the orient.
the little mermaid is a fairy tale written by hans christian anderson. a lovely young mermaid falls in love with a prince. when his life is in danger she rescues him. for love of him and also because of a longstanding curiosity about the land above the waters, she sacrifices her voice and leaves her family to be with the prince. in her bargain with the sea witch, she creates an opportunity for herself that is breathtaking and perilous. if she succeeds in winning the love of the prince and he marries her, she will remain human and acquire a soul. if she fails, she will turn to sea foam. it is an all or nothing bargain.
unfortunately, while the prince is very fond of the little mermaid, he does not love her. and in time he marries another princess. her sisters who have remained in contact with the little mermaid are aghast at this news. they in their turn go and bargain with the sea witch and return with a dagger. they give this dagger to the little mermaid with the instruction that she is to use it to pierce the heart of the prince as he sleeps with his bride on his wedding night. when his blood falls on her feet, she will become as she once was, a beautiful mermaid able once again to live under water and rejoin her family to live out the remainder of her days allotted to the lifespan of a mermaid.
the little mermaid decides to forgo killing the prince and his bride on their wedding night. thus, she loses her chance to reunite with her family. with this decision she not only gives up her lover and her family, but also her own life. why does she decide to do this? she had sacrificed both her voice and being with her family in a gamble to win the love of a young prince. both he and his world are alien to her but she risks all in the hope she will not only gain his love but another family, a new life. instead the lack of a voice prevents her from building a bond with the young prince to whom she is devoted. in a world alien to her she has to not only learn how to walk, an activity that is immensely painful and exacts a bloody toll, she has to learn the norms and culture of the world her prince lives in and she has to win the prince's heart. each day she lives with the knowledge that the success of her project is not in her hands. every day she confronts the likelihood of her failure. but she continues to hope.
unfortunately the prince never falls in love with her. early on in their association, the prince had revealed to the little mermaid his heart belongs to the maiden who rescued him from his shipwreck. unbeknownst to him, it was his new-found companion who as a mermaid had saved him in the treacherous waters of the stormy sea as his ship was sinking. it was she who had held his head above the raging waters, protected him from the deadly debris of the shipwreck and brought him safely to shore. if there is anyone who has a right to claim she saved him, the little mermaid certainly has the right. but the woman the prince associates with his rescue is a young princess who was attending a convent by the sea when she happened upon him on the beach as he lay there after the ocean rescue during a morning walk.
the little mermaid with her fishtail could only bring him ashore to the edge of the beach. her domain was the ocean; on land she was powerless to help him further. she could only mutely watch as the young princess woke the prince and called for assistance. this mute watching is replayed day after day once she acquires her land legs and waits on the prince as his page. she is doomed to simply be in his presence without ever being able to express her love, without ever being able to engage the prince in conversation to elicit the warmth of friendship and perhaps love. however, she does all in her power to serve him faithfully in all the ways that are available to her. but in the end, all her service and attention to him are fruitless.
it is seductive to think the little mermaid loves the prince. it is easy to feel frustrated when the prince does not recognize his true savior. this implies that the prince only loves his betrothed because he believes she saved him. the little mermaid knows in her heart the truth. the prince's love is not his to give nor hers to acquire. the prince does not love his betrothed because she saved him; he loves his betrothed simply because he loves her. there is no reason for his love other than its birth and existence.
it is easy to bewail the little mermaid's situation. however, she has the satisfaction in knowing all her decisions and actions are of her own choosing. she is guided in all of her actions and decisions by what she wants, what she feels. in this she has remained true to herself. she is not a victim of circumstance. she knew that she was walking into a difficult situation even if she did not anticipate how difficult. she remained hopeful. but love is not a thing to be purchased with rescuing someone nor acquired through proximity or service. she may have saved him. she may think she loves him. but neither of these conditions entitle her to the prince's love. love is something that neither the little mermaid or the prince can control. she won for herself the privilege of unlimited access to the prince's presence, the opportunity to remain beside him and serve him. if love for her does not blossom in the heart of the prince of its own accord, is she to manipulate it into existence with words and conversation? what sort of love is this? can such a thing even be called love? what is love in the first place?
what the little mermaid learns is that love is not the sort of thing that one grasps. love exists. love is not a single faced thing. love is pain and pleasure, beauty and ugliness, acceptance and rejection. love is another way of pointing to existence in all its murky, enthralling complexity. in this regard her adventure which made her leave her home, give up her voice, endure much pain to win the prince's love brings her to freedom. by being able to accept the pain of his
rejection, she has freed herself from attachment. love is usually one of the most potent methods to seduce the mind to hold on to something. but life, reality, the universe is about multiplicity, of change, of things always in flux, starting and stopping, of constant rearrangement.
ultimately holding on to the prince would only have harmed her. her decision to spare the prince is in keeping with her habit of making difficult decisions that challenge and force her growth. when she ceases to struggle to hold on to the prince and her life, she transcends her attachment to both. with this she is free to soar as a bird, a spirit of the air, not fixed to any one emotional experience but free to see all the varied range of emotional experiences of those who do exist. one can compare the freedom the little mermaid wins for herself to a state of enlightenment and liberation commonly expounded in the traditions of asia. in transcending her pain, she transcends limitedness, limitation. but there is still much for her to learn.
she takes this step into enlightenment unconscious of what she is doing. she simply decides it is not worth it to her to kill the prince to rejoin her family under the waters. what she has been granted in life is enough. she accepts this truth with grace. she accepts her time with her family with its joys and pains and the passing of that time. similarly, she accepts as a gift the time she
was allowed with her prince. she accepts the close of this time and the close of her life. she has no regrets. it is enough.
in this regard, the little mermaid is not a superfluous fairy tales. in general very few fairy tales are superfluous or silly. but this particular fairy tale is about transcendence, enlightenment, moksha, nirvana, of attaining one of the ranks of bodhisattvahood. not all fairy tales dwell on this particular theme. this is heady stuff to use to sell a department store's attempts to survive.
another noteworthy aspect of the drama pretty girls is the allusion to the little mermaid. this theme crops up in a lot of japanese drama. i think it is worthwhile exploring this fairy tale since it appears to have a certain psychological power with the audiences in japan and elsewhere in the orient.
the little mermaid is a fairy tale written by hans christian anderson. a lovely young mermaid falls in love with a prince. when his life is in danger she rescues him. for love of him and also because of a longstanding curiosity about the land above the waters, she sacrifices her voice and leaves her family to be with the prince. in her bargain with the sea witch, she creates an opportunity for herself that is breathtaking and perilous. if she succeeds in winning the love of the prince and he marries her, she will remain human and acquire a soul. if she fails, she will turn to sea foam. it is an all or nothing bargain.
unfortunately, while the prince is very fond of the little mermaid, he does not love her. and in time he marries another princess. her sisters who have remained in contact with the little mermaid are aghast at this news. they in their turn go and bargain with the sea witch and return with a dagger. they give this dagger to the little mermaid with the instruction that she is to use it to pierce the heart of the prince as he sleeps with his bride on his wedding night. when his blood falls on her feet, she will become as she once was, a beautiful mermaid able once again to live under water and rejoin her family to live out the remainder of her days allotted to the lifespan of a mermaid.
the little mermaid decides to forgo killing the prince and his bride on their wedding night. thus, she loses her chance to reunite with her family. with this decision she not only gives up her lover and her family, but also her own life. why does she decide to do this? she had sacrificed both her voice and being with her family in a gamble to win the love of a young prince. both he and his world are alien to her but she risks all in the hope she will not only gain his love but another family, a new life. instead the lack of a voice prevents her from building a bond with the young prince to whom she is devoted. in a world alien to her she has to not only learn how to walk, an activity that is immensely painful and exacts a bloody toll, she has to learn the norms and culture of the world her prince lives in and she has to win the prince's heart. each day she lives with the knowledge that the success of her project is not in her hands. every day she confronts the likelihood of her failure. but she continues to hope.
unfortunately the prince never falls in love with her. early on in their association, the prince had revealed to the little mermaid his heart belongs to the maiden who rescued him from his shipwreck. unbeknownst to him, it was his new-found companion who as a mermaid had saved him in the treacherous waters of the stormy sea as his ship was sinking. it was she who had held his head above the raging waters, protected him from the deadly debris of the shipwreck and brought him safely to shore. if there is anyone who has a right to claim she saved him, the little mermaid certainly has the right. but the woman the prince associates with his rescue is a young princess who was attending a convent by the sea when she happened upon him on the beach as he lay there after the ocean rescue during a morning walk.
the little mermaid with her fishtail could only bring him ashore to the edge of the beach. her domain was the ocean; on land she was powerless to help him further. she could only mutely watch as the young princess woke the prince and called for assistance. this mute watching is replayed day after day once she acquires her land legs and waits on the prince as his page. she is doomed to simply be in his presence without ever being able to express her love, without ever being able to engage the prince in conversation to elicit the warmth of friendship and perhaps love. however, she does all in her power to serve him faithfully in all the ways that are available to her. but in the end, all her service and attention to him are fruitless.
it is seductive to think the little mermaid loves the prince. it is easy to feel frustrated when the prince does not recognize his true savior. this implies that the prince only loves his betrothed because he believes she saved him. the little mermaid knows in her heart the truth. the prince's love is not his to give nor hers to acquire. the prince does not love his betrothed because she saved him; he loves his betrothed simply because he loves her. there is no reason for his love other than its birth and existence.
it is easy to bewail the little mermaid's situation. however, she has the satisfaction in knowing all her decisions and actions are of her own choosing. she is guided in all of her actions and decisions by what she wants, what she feels. in this she has remained true to herself. she is not a victim of circumstance. she knew that she was walking into a difficult situation even if she did not anticipate how difficult. she remained hopeful. but love is not a thing to be purchased with rescuing someone nor acquired through proximity or service. she may have saved him. she may think she loves him. but neither of these conditions entitle her to the prince's love. love is something that neither the little mermaid or the prince can control. she won for herself the privilege of unlimited access to the prince's presence, the opportunity to remain beside him and serve him. if love for her does not blossom in the heart of the prince of its own accord, is she to manipulate it into existence with words and conversation? what sort of love is this? can such a thing even be called love? what is love in the first place?
what the little mermaid learns is that love is not the sort of thing that one grasps. love exists. love is not a single faced thing. love is pain and pleasure, beauty and ugliness, acceptance and rejection. love is another way of pointing to existence in all its murky, enthralling complexity. in this regard her adventure which made her leave her home, give up her voice, endure much pain to win the prince's love brings her to freedom. by being able to accept the pain of his
rejection, she has freed herself from attachment. love is usually one of the most potent methods to seduce the mind to hold on to something. but life, reality, the universe is about multiplicity, of change, of things always in flux, starting and stopping, of constant rearrangement.
ultimately holding on to the prince would only have harmed her. her decision to spare the prince is in keeping with her habit of making difficult decisions that challenge and force her growth. when she ceases to struggle to hold on to the prince and her life, she transcends her attachment to both. with this she is free to soar as a bird, a spirit of the air, not fixed to any one emotional experience but free to see all the varied range of emotional experiences of those who do exist. one can compare the freedom the little mermaid wins for herself to a state of enlightenment and liberation commonly expounded in the traditions of asia. in transcending her pain, she transcends limitedness, limitation. but there is still much for her to learn.
she takes this step into enlightenment unconscious of what she is doing. she simply decides it is not worth it to her to kill the prince to rejoin her family under the waters. what she has been granted in life is enough. she accepts this truth with grace. she accepts her time with her family with its joys and pains and the passing of that time. similarly, she accepts as a gift the time she
was allowed with her prince. she accepts the close of this time and the close of her life. she has no regrets. it is enough.
in this regard, the little mermaid is not a superfluous fairy tales. in general very few fairy tales are superfluous or silly. but this particular fairy tale is about transcendence, enlightenment, moksha, nirvana, of attaining one of the ranks of bodhisattvahood. not all fairy tales dwell on this particular theme. this is heady stuff to use to sell a department store's attempts to survive.
Friday, January 23, 2009
Comments on My Mighty Princess
my mighty princess (korean movie,2008) has an interesting kafkaesque feel to it with elements of magical realism. it was like watching a live action manga/wuxia. very romantic, hard hitting and yet still light. despite the gritty ambiance created by a color scheme favoring various shades of grey and other dark colors, the story managed to be positive and cheerful.
the movie starts with the most mundane of daily rituals in the lives of most middle class families around the world: a parent waking their child for school. in my mighty princess, the family is a rather forlorn unit of two individuals: the father and his daughter, kang sohwi. the father harangues his daughter to wake up, which she does, while he prepares breakfast. then there is the inevitable argument over eating breakfast, which the daughter decides to skip. what makes this trite sequence mesmerizing is how the daughter does some not-so-ordinary things in the course of getting ready for school. as soon as i saw some of her stunts i was hooked. next we follow the daughter on her way to school as she continues to do things that seem trivial to her but are nonetheless amazing.
this opening sequence in addition to capturing my interest also alerted me to the fact that these characters were masters of their chosen martial arts discipline. having enjoyed movies like crouching tiger hidden dragon, hero, house of flying daggers, shaolin soccer, and other wuxia with this sort of opening sequence i knew i was in for a treat featuring nice special effects work and imagery. this anticipation was borne out by the rest of the movie.
the story line follows the heroine kang sohwi as she joins the hockey team as an assistant, attempts to get closer to one of its star players, honor her father, and remain true to herself. i thought it was funny how the hockey player our heroine was interested in was infatuated with an older woman - a woman who is old enough to be his mother as she says. it seems in her role as a police officer, she had saved his life by pulling him out of a car wreck. his romantic interest in the police officer may have its roots in his attachment for his mother whom he lost as a very young child. he had tremendous difficulty in coping with her loss. perhaps in the police officer he sees a replacement maternal figure who gives him a second chance at life after the car collision.
the second male character who has a romantic interest in our heroine is ilyeong the son of her father's friend. both the father and son are also fellow martial arts master. ilyeong's devotion to our kang sohwi is longstanding having trained alongside our heroine since childhood to continue the martial arts discipline and lineage his father represented.
the context of the story is the following: there is a group of four masters who represent four different martial arts traditions. of these four, only two have children: kang sohwi our heroine and ilyeong her childhood martial arts partner. unfortunately, the group faces challenge from a heuk bong, a lone master who is after an important sword which belongs to our heroine's mother. in addition he is interested in destroying and displacing the existing group of four masters. it seems this antagonist was only able to succeed in obtaining the sword as our kang sohwi and ilyeong were practicing illicitly with the sword one night. by this time they were both high school students and fairly advanced in their training. unfortunately they were still not able to withstand the lone master heuk bong who came upon them practicing from stealing the sword.
the loss of the sword is not the only damage perpetrated by the lone master heuk bong. our heroine kang sohwi sustains a near fatal injury that wipes out her memory of her fight with the lone master for the sword. it is after this event she ceases to train with her father in martial arts. it is also when she ceases to have contact with ilyeong her martial arts companion and partner, the son of her father's friend.
her life had been saved by ilyeong who had gone to the lone master heuk bong to bargain for her life. in exchange for her life he has to give his. ilyeong becomes the disciple of the lone master heuk bong and continues heuk bong's agenda of destroying the other four masters. ilyeong is powerless to stop himself as his obedience has been ensured through the use arcane sound technology.
this is the background against which the events in the movie unfold. the storyline was skillfully filmed to keep my interest. although there wasn't too much psychological depth i thought some of the ideas and filming techniques were noteworthy: the idea of a thought language that remains independent despite the general enslavement of ilyeong, sign language, the use of sound to enslave, and of course the martial arts. i also noticed that our heroine and hero, kang sohwi and ilyeong, for all their strength/prodigious aptitude are kind of wonky almost as if to make up for the fact their excellence in the discipline of martial arts. she is not excellent in every way, she has a wonky side to her as well. we see this sort of characterization in other movies as well (for example, my baby and i, another korean movie where young female genius is wonky despite her enormous intelligence).
overall, i found my mighty princess very elegant and pleasant to watch. i wasn't as flooded with questions as i was after watching hana yori dango or hana kimi. for this reason, i found watching my mighty princess a lot more relaxing. another aspect of the film making i was struck by is the hybridization between western story telling and eastern story telling (perhaps it should be movie making?). there are a lot of body jokes and body language in comedic scenes that i recall from western comedy. for example, in my mighty princess, when ilyeong takes off all his clothes except for his underwear in the laundromat so that he can wash them seems so familiar. almost chaplinesque. as you watch him take off each piece of garment and put it in the washing machine, there is a sort of completeness to the act that is reminiscent of a sort of innocence which marks many of the more memorable sequences in a charlie chaplin movie. as i watched him removing and placing each garment into the washing machine, i found myself almost expecting him to put himself also in the washing machine to wash himself as well as his clothes. the visual equivalent of a punchline is delivered when he finishes loading the machine and squats in front of it to wait. the camera pans to the right and we see that we are not the only witnesses to this scene. this is viewer's cue that we have reached the end of the scene. we can stop gazing in marvel, wonder. we can laugh now. in fact we are prodded to laughter by ilyeong's subtle body movements of surprise and startlement when he notices he is not alone. the scene evokes pathos, sympathy, innocence, the ridiculous and the absurd.
overall, i found my mighty princess very elegant and pleasant to watch. i didn't get flooded with as many questions as with hana yori dango or hana kimi. for this reason i found watching my mighty princess a lot more relaxing.
the movie starts with the most mundane of daily rituals in the lives of most middle class families around the world: a parent waking their child for school. in my mighty princess, the family is a rather forlorn unit of two individuals: the father and his daughter, kang sohwi. the father harangues his daughter to wake up, which she does, while he prepares breakfast. then there is the inevitable argument over eating breakfast, which the daughter decides to skip. what makes this trite sequence mesmerizing is how the daughter does some not-so-ordinary things in the course of getting ready for school. as soon as i saw some of her stunts i was hooked. next we follow the daughter on her way to school as she continues to do things that seem trivial to her but are nonetheless amazing.
this opening sequence in addition to capturing my interest also alerted me to the fact that these characters were masters of their chosen martial arts discipline. having enjoyed movies like crouching tiger hidden dragon, hero, house of flying daggers, shaolin soccer, and other wuxia with this sort of opening sequence i knew i was in for a treat featuring nice special effects work and imagery. this anticipation was borne out by the rest of the movie.
the story line follows the heroine kang sohwi as she joins the hockey team as an assistant, attempts to get closer to one of its star players, honor her father, and remain true to herself. i thought it was funny how the hockey player our heroine was interested in was infatuated with an older woman - a woman who is old enough to be his mother as she says. it seems in her role as a police officer, she had saved his life by pulling him out of a car wreck. his romantic interest in the police officer may have its roots in his attachment for his mother whom he lost as a very young child. he had tremendous difficulty in coping with her loss. perhaps in the police officer he sees a replacement maternal figure who gives him a second chance at life after the car collision.
the second male character who has a romantic interest in our heroine is ilyeong the son of her father's friend. both the father and son are also fellow martial arts master. ilyeong's devotion to our kang sohwi is longstanding having trained alongside our heroine since childhood to continue the martial arts discipline and lineage his father represented.
the context of the story is the following: there is a group of four masters who represent four different martial arts traditions. of these four, only two have children: kang sohwi our heroine and ilyeong her childhood martial arts partner. unfortunately, the group faces challenge from a heuk bong, a lone master who is after an important sword which belongs to our heroine's mother. in addition he is interested in destroying and displacing the existing group of four masters. it seems this antagonist was only able to succeed in obtaining the sword as our kang sohwi and ilyeong were practicing illicitly with the sword one night. by this time they were both high school students and fairly advanced in their training. unfortunately they were still not able to withstand the lone master heuk bong who came upon them practicing from stealing the sword.
the loss of the sword is not the only damage perpetrated by the lone master heuk bong. our heroine kang sohwi sustains a near fatal injury that wipes out her memory of her fight with the lone master for the sword. it is after this event she ceases to train with her father in martial arts. it is also when she ceases to have contact with ilyeong her martial arts companion and partner, the son of her father's friend.
her life had been saved by ilyeong who had gone to the lone master heuk bong to bargain for her life. in exchange for her life he has to give his. ilyeong becomes the disciple of the lone master heuk bong and continues heuk bong's agenda of destroying the other four masters. ilyeong is powerless to stop himself as his obedience has been ensured through the use arcane sound technology.
this is the background against which the events in the movie unfold. the storyline was skillfully filmed to keep my interest. although there wasn't too much psychological depth i thought some of the ideas and filming techniques were noteworthy: the idea of a thought language that remains independent despite the general enslavement of ilyeong, sign language, the use of sound to enslave, and of course the martial arts. i also noticed that our heroine and hero, kang sohwi and ilyeong, for all their strength/prodigious aptitude are kind of wonky almost as if to make up for the fact their excellence in the discipline of martial arts. she is not excellent in every way, she has a wonky side to her as well. we see this sort of characterization in other movies as well (for example, my baby and i, another korean movie where young female genius is wonky despite her enormous intelligence).
overall, i found my mighty princess very elegant and pleasant to watch. i wasn't as flooded with questions as i was after watching hana yori dango or hana kimi. for this reason, i found watching my mighty princess a lot more relaxing. another aspect of the film making i was struck by is the hybridization between western story telling and eastern story telling (perhaps it should be movie making?). there are a lot of body jokes and body language in comedic scenes that i recall from western comedy. for example, in my mighty princess, when ilyeong takes off all his clothes except for his underwear in the laundromat so that he can wash them seems so familiar. almost chaplinesque. as you watch him take off each piece of garment and put it in the washing machine, there is a sort of completeness to the act that is reminiscent of a sort of innocence which marks many of the more memorable sequences in a charlie chaplin movie. as i watched him removing and placing each garment into the washing machine, i found myself almost expecting him to put himself also in the washing machine to wash himself as well as his clothes. the visual equivalent of a punchline is delivered when he finishes loading the machine and squats in front of it to wait. the camera pans to the right and we see that we are not the only witnesses to this scene. this is viewer's cue that we have reached the end of the scene. we can stop gazing in marvel, wonder. we can laugh now. in fact we are prodded to laughter by ilyeong's subtle body movements of surprise and startlement when he notices he is not alone. the scene evokes pathos, sympathy, innocence, the ridiculous and the absurd.
overall, i found my mighty princess very elegant and pleasant to watch. i didn't get flooded with as many questions as with hana yori dango or hana kimi. for this reason i found watching my mighty princess a lot more relaxing.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
analysis of hana kimi
i just finished watching hana kimi, a japanese comedy set in a high school context. it is about a girl who dresses as a boy to attend an all-boy's school to rehabilitate a star athlete who has lost his will for the sport at which he excels. there are all sorts of plot contrivances, expert circus showmanship, masquerades, dramatic techniques, etc to create a package that is a a marvelous bit of chicanery ensnaring the viewer visually and emotionally.
there is more to hana kimi than a simple high school romance. the premise of the drama is actually complex and interesting. Why did ashiya mizuki leave california, her parents her school, her friends, adopt a lifestyle that requires her to dress and act like a boy, trespass enroll, in short take on the responsibility of lying to an entire institution from school administrators, faculty and students in a single-sex (boys) only school to help a boy who has lost his smile, his heart for a sport he adores?
the ostensible reason stated in the drama premise is ashiya mizuki wants to help sana izumi. but why help this particular individual as opposed to helping some other individual? there are lots of individuals existing even in the space of this drama that need her help. yet ashiya mizuki has very single-mindedly focused on sana izumi. for her there is no one else. he is the only one who needs her help.
her justification for her actions stems from the following circumstance. sana izumi transforms from being an abstraction, someone she idolizes for the perfection of his ability and grace to someone who has an immediate personal relevance. as she is about to enter some sort of promotional event at which he will be present she has a run in with a group of thugs. he saves her from these thugs and in the process sustains an injury that bars him from participating in his sport until he recovers. unfortunately even after he recovers he never returns to his sport. when she comes to know of this she feels compelled to do something about it and so embarks on the journey which is the material for the drama.
there are two reasons which motivate her. her first reason is that she feels it is her fault sana izumi was injured. her second reason is to say "thank you" to sana izumi for rescuing her. it is this dual reason that lies behind her unshakable resolve to do what she does. i think it is easy to dismiss her belief that sana izumi's current condition is her fault. but i think this sort of thinking is an accurate reflection of a young person's psychological state in relation to its world, to what happens to it. to an adult, it is absurd to think something so vast as the workings of the universe is one's fault. insofar as the drama spends time elaborating on this motivation it is sensitive to the truth of a particular sort of being who in its youth perceives things in a particular way.
the second reason, to say "thank you", is for an adult a more sensible reason and just as compelling if not more so than the "fault" reason. someone has risked his life and well-being for you. in a similar situation many would feel that they owe their lives to their rescuer - in short their life would belong to the individual who had saved them. there is a relation that is created between the "rescued" and the "rescuer". this relation is not simply a "debt of gratitude" but the rescuer now occupies a role in the rescued person's existence. in the case of ashiya mizuki and sana izumi, the relation transforms from an abstract relation of star athlete and his fan to a personal relation of rescued and rescuer. this relation is intimate in that, one individual has irrevocably entered into the most personal and private and important space for the individual who has been saved. ashiya's life and person were protected and defended by sana izumi on the night she was attacked by the group thugs. before this incident he didn't know her and she knew of him but only as a fan. after the rescue, this had changed.
this sort of complexity is not something a teenager is going to grasp fully at a mental level. but this is immaterial in many ways because even without understanding all this ashiya understands the preciousness of this relation. in this she is honorable. she has enough clarity to see that this is no longer a fan's interest and also that it is not love or teenage infatuation. it is this relation that she is honoring when she feels compelled to help. just as he put his life and body on the line for her without thought, it generates a reciprocal response in her when she finds out that he is not well.
she puts everything that is important to her on the line to help him in his time of need. this is why lying to the school administration and faculty, to the other students, leaving her family and friends are all undertaken by ashiya. she is doing all this because she is honoring the sense of responsibility within herself towards sana izumi. everyone who comes to know of her motivation has no choice at that point but to stand aside and let her do what it is she feels she must do. it is not teenage lust for a "hottie" or fan obsession but honor and integrity that drives ashiya's actions.
the honor and integrity come from being committed to the logic of herself. her actions and decisions are situated in her organization of the world around her particular viewpoint, the life that she is. her clarity and focus - he helped me. i want to help him and will do everything in my power to help him - honors not only herself but also sana izumi and their relation. along the way this firmness of resolve to do what must be done elicits the admiration from those around ashiya in the drama and also the viewers.
in the course of enacting her resolution, the relationship between ashiya mizuki and sana izumi transforms into a love relationship. usually there is a strong bond that is created between two individuals in a life threatening situation, esp when one saves the other. how this bond is fleshed out is unique to the individuals involved. in some cases, nothing other than saying "thank you" is required of the individual who is saved/helped. in other situations this initial bond of relation develops into friendships of varying grades. in yet others, it transforms into love. this is what we have in hana kimi. ashiya mizuki and sana izumi fall in love with each other.
while watching hana kimi, i finally understood that the first step a lot of oriental girls take in the whole mating ritual is to identify the guy they like or love as "friend". it is only through an intensive process of self-understanding that they recognize the significance of their emotional investment in a young man. and it is through this self-understanding that a "friend" is transformed into "boyfriend."
in general until the girl develops the capacity for self-reflection and acquires the maturity to handle psychologically the responsibility and complexity of love between lovers, she will continue to consider the person a friend. ashiya mizuki in hana kimi is absolutely unaware of how important sana izumi is to her in this regard. of course sana is important that is why she has left her family, friends and country she grew up in to go to another country, dress up as a boy, etc. but he is not identified as someone she loves.
at first her actions are initiated out of a sense of honor. but later on her actions are motivated by her love for sana izumi. when does this transformation occur? ashiya mizuki does not catch this transformation. her actions motivated by love are as free and open as when they were motivated by honor. however, our heroine slowly figures out what she has identified as friendship is not really friendship. sana izumi occupies a unique position in her internal landscape. no other boy who is a friend is allowed the privileges she grants to sano izumi. no other person occupies a position of centrality in her consciousness as sano izumi. it takes ashiya mizuki some time to see this truth and to deduce from this truth she actually loves sano izumi.
her recognition of her love for sana izumi initiates the next phase in her growth as a character in the drama. we see her negotiating and managing her decision to leave the school, say goodbye, and finish whatever she needs to finish and so forth. but this material constitutes the denouement of the drama. the primary material was sufficiently well handled the viewer is satisfied as the drama comes to a close.
there is more to hana kimi than a simple high school romance. the premise of the drama is actually complex and interesting. Why did ashiya mizuki leave california, her parents her school, her friends, adopt a lifestyle that requires her to dress and act like a boy, trespass enroll, in short take on the responsibility of lying to an entire institution from school administrators, faculty and students in a single-sex (boys) only school to help a boy who has lost his smile, his heart for a sport he adores?
the ostensible reason stated in the drama premise is ashiya mizuki wants to help sana izumi. but why help this particular individual as opposed to helping some other individual? there are lots of individuals existing even in the space of this drama that need her help. yet ashiya mizuki has very single-mindedly focused on sana izumi. for her there is no one else. he is the only one who needs her help.
her justification for her actions stems from the following circumstance. sana izumi transforms from being an abstraction, someone she idolizes for the perfection of his ability and grace to someone who has an immediate personal relevance. as she is about to enter some sort of promotional event at which he will be present she has a run in with a group of thugs. he saves her from these thugs and in the process sustains an injury that bars him from participating in his sport until he recovers. unfortunately even after he recovers he never returns to his sport. when she comes to know of this she feels compelled to do something about it and so embarks on the journey which is the material for the drama.
there are two reasons which motivate her. her first reason is that she feels it is her fault sana izumi was injured. her second reason is to say "thank you" to sana izumi for rescuing her. it is this dual reason that lies behind her unshakable resolve to do what she does. i think it is easy to dismiss her belief that sana izumi's current condition is her fault. but i think this sort of thinking is an accurate reflection of a young person's psychological state in relation to its world, to what happens to it. to an adult, it is absurd to think something so vast as the workings of the universe is one's fault. insofar as the drama spends time elaborating on this motivation it is sensitive to the truth of a particular sort of being who in its youth perceives things in a particular way.
the second reason, to say "thank you", is for an adult a more sensible reason and just as compelling if not more so than the "fault" reason. someone has risked his life and well-being for you. in a similar situation many would feel that they owe their lives to their rescuer - in short their life would belong to the individual who had saved them. there is a relation that is created between the "rescued" and the "rescuer". this relation is not simply a "debt of gratitude" but the rescuer now occupies a role in the rescued person's existence. in the case of ashiya mizuki and sana izumi, the relation transforms from an abstract relation of star athlete and his fan to a personal relation of rescued and rescuer. this relation is intimate in that, one individual has irrevocably entered into the most personal and private and important space for the individual who has been saved. ashiya's life and person were protected and defended by sana izumi on the night she was attacked by the group thugs. before this incident he didn't know her and she knew of him but only as a fan. after the rescue, this had changed.
this sort of complexity is not something a teenager is going to grasp fully at a mental level. but this is immaterial in many ways because even without understanding all this ashiya understands the preciousness of this relation. in this she is honorable. she has enough clarity to see that this is no longer a fan's interest and also that it is not love or teenage infatuation. it is this relation that she is honoring when she feels compelled to help. just as he put his life and body on the line for her without thought, it generates a reciprocal response in her when she finds out that he is not well.
she puts everything that is important to her on the line to help him in his time of need. this is why lying to the school administration and faculty, to the other students, leaving her family and friends are all undertaken by ashiya. she is doing all this because she is honoring the sense of responsibility within herself towards sana izumi. everyone who comes to know of her motivation has no choice at that point but to stand aside and let her do what it is she feels she must do. it is not teenage lust for a "hottie" or fan obsession but honor and integrity that drives ashiya's actions.
the honor and integrity come from being committed to the logic of herself. her actions and decisions are situated in her organization of the world around her particular viewpoint, the life that she is. her clarity and focus - he helped me. i want to help him and will do everything in my power to help him - honors not only herself but also sana izumi and their relation. along the way this firmness of resolve to do what must be done elicits the admiration from those around ashiya in the drama and also the viewers.
in the course of enacting her resolution, the relationship between ashiya mizuki and sana izumi transforms into a love relationship. usually there is a strong bond that is created between two individuals in a life threatening situation, esp when one saves the other. how this bond is fleshed out is unique to the individuals involved. in some cases, nothing other than saying "thank you" is required of the individual who is saved/helped. in other situations this initial bond of relation develops into friendships of varying grades. in yet others, it transforms into love. this is what we have in hana kimi. ashiya mizuki and sana izumi fall in love with each other.
while watching hana kimi, i finally understood that the first step a lot of oriental girls take in the whole mating ritual is to identify the guy they like or love as "friend". it is only through an intensive process of self-understanding that they recognize the significance of their emotional investment in a young man. and it is through this self-understanding that a "friend" is transformed into "boyfriend."
in general until the girl develops the capacity for self-reflection and acquires the maturity to handle psychologically the responsibility and complexity of love between lovers, she will continue to consider the person a friend. ashiya mizuki in hana kimi is absolutely unaware of how important sana izumi is to her in this regard. of course sana is important that is why she has left her family, friends and country she grew up in to go to another country, dress up as a boy, etc. but he is not identified as someone she loves.
at first her actions are initiated out of a sense of honor. but later on her actions are motivated by her love for sana izumi. when does this transformation occur? ashiya mizuki does not catch this transformation. her actions motivated by love are as free and open as when they were motivated by honor. however, our heroine slowly figures out what she has identified as friendship is not really friendship. sana izumi occupies a unique position in her internal landscape. no other boy who is a friend is allowed the privileges she grants to sano izumi. no other person occupies a position of centrality in her consciousness as sano izumi. it takes ashiya mizuki some time to see this truth and to deduce from this truth she actually loves sano izumi.
her recognition of her love for sana izumi initiates the next phase in her growth as a character in the drama. we see her negotiating and managing her decision to leave the school, say goodbye, and finish whatever she needs to finish and so forth. but this material constitutes the denouement of the drama. the primary material was sufficiently well handled the viewer is satisfied as the drama comes to a close.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Analysis of Boys Before Flowers
episodes 1 through 6
the basic story thus far seems to be the following:
there is a school for the children of the uber wealthy elite of korea, shinwa school, serving students in grades pre-k through university. it is an integrated unit and institution of the world of the wealthy. the students going to this school continue to be part of a clique, an enclave of exclusive families that live by their own rules of the jungle, have their own motivations, problems, culture and so forth. they don't associate with those outside their class except insofar as those outside their class exist to serve them. even these servants belong to an exclusive group. in general, outsiders are not permitted easy entry into a group that prohibits inclusion at
a genetic level whether at the level of servant or master. even if an outsider were to gain admittance to the school through some chance, they would never be integrated into the world of the wealthy. they would pass through the school, not comprehending whatever they do see. usually they are blinded by their own genetic expectations, their own cultural norms so that they don't perceive anything. they leave the school and system undamaged, the status quo undisrupted. for the wealthy who go to shinwa school alongside these few outsiders, these few anomalies are specimens at best, non-entities, or exploitable commodities at worst.
the power structures that exist outside the school inform the power structures inside the school. if an oligarch runs korea his scion, his son rules the school. both rule their respective spheres with the same domineering ruthlessness and brutality that informs the rules of the jungle in which they exist. the school exists almost as a test bed, a training ground for the scions of the elite: how to behave amongst themselves and how to behave with the rest of the world. they
learn pecking order, power structures in school and abide by them both in and out of school. marriages, freindships and any other alliances are determined here - they come into being, evolve, transform, disintegrate or endure.
the f4 is the acknowledged leaders of the school. actually, f4 is really a moniker to identify the "prince" and three closest retainers, servants. goo jun pyo is the prince. his servants are yoon ji hoo, song woo bin, and so yi jung. these three are the next wealthiest, most powerful students in the school. just as goo jun pyo is the scion of the shinwa group which runs korea, these three
represent similarly powerful families. yoon ji hoo is the son of the former prime minister of the country. similarly woo bin represents a family with deep connections into the world of finance perhaps and yi jung the world of arts and aesthetics. in short however they are all thugs whose wealth and power gives them the veneer of something attractive. they don't have to live in filth. they can arrange things gracefully. they are the arbiters of what is considered attractive. for an outsider, there is the initial shock at what wealth and power can achieve. but true refinement is not present.
each depiction of the story on which boys before flowers is based, hana yori dango a japanese comic book written for teenage girls, shows what is considered wealthy, what is powerful at the time of the filming. and each depiction is even more grand than what came before. but each
production will eventually become dated and to some extent derided. what is fashionable now will fall out of favor. what marks the wealthy now will mark the fool later. as such, the drama is a commercial vehicle loaded with propaganda and marketing for brands and an entire lifestyle to lure the foolish who succumb to this seductive vision. the typical viewer is never really allowed to answer for himself what constitutes true wealth and well-being.
if we focus on the story that drives the drama viewers can see that for all their wealth, their world is as riddled with pettiness, fights, grief, grievances, love ache, hatred, ugliness, injustice, unhappiness, dissatisfaction, and death. all the gilt and appurtenances of wealth the sponsors would like the viewer to associate with wealth, cannot cover forever the true nature of reality.
and reality comes riding in to shinwa school in the form of geum jan di making a drycleaning delivery.
geum jan di belongs to a different jungle and abides by its laws and culture. she is immediately pulled into an exhibition of f4's power. her customer is a boy who has come under the censure of f4. as such he has endured non stop physical violence so that by the time geum jan di reaches him he is standing on at the edge of a roof on one of the school buildings about to commit suicide. when he does not listen to her reconsider and jumps off she immediately throws herself to grab hold of him and thus saves his life. even after becoming a student at the school she continues to resist and rebuff and challenge f4 policies and actions.
geum jan di does not accept the existing power structure; she does not accept the rules that govern the system and she does not necessarily see any reason to be afraid of challenging it. in many ways she is a queen. she is challenging the existing status quo because she has a different vision. she wants to live by her vision and she want to enforce her vision. however much she may chafe at the existing power structure, she has no real reason to disrupt the status quo. so
she simmers in her dissatisfaction. this is not unusual. if there is one geum jan di, silent objectors, there are others in the school and in the system. this is why goo jun pyo has to be as ruthless as he is in order to retain his position at the top. he cannot afford to be any other way.
the dissent has even entered his circle. yoon ji hoo does not agree with goo jun pyo's vision but he has neither interest nor motivation to really challenge goo jun pyo. he is not interested in exerting himself. he doesn't have the requisite energy. and finally he has no reason to motivate him to transcend whatever limitations he may have. we see him acquiring this motivation in episode 6 when goo jun pyo has geum jan di expelled from school.
unlike the other silent dissenters in the school and in the system, she is clear about her dissatisfaction but does not really have any opportunity to really do anything about it short of forcing a confrontation. this is soon rectified. in her short time at the school she picks up a "friend' oh min ji who becomes an unwitting spearhead for action. when min ji slips and falls and spoils the bespoke shoe crafted by an italian shoemaker with her ice cream, the chance to really do something about her dissatisfaction presents itself to geum jan di. and she takes the opportunity with both hands. thus begins the struggle for power between geum jan di and goo
jun pyo.
in the confrontations that ensue to beat geum jan di into submitting to the existing power structure she finds unexpected support from yoon ji hoo. he may not intend to overtly assist geum jan di but viewers repeatedly see him in a position to assist geum jan di. and he does even though he makes sure to disown his acts or downplay any real responsibility. perhaps the irresistible attraction that draws his attention to geum jan di has its basis in an inchoate recognition of someone who is powerful enough to do something about the dissatisfaction about
the existing power structure in place at shinwa school.
but these are kids. this means they are the young of the animals that run their world. they are still coming into their own. they need to mature. and all five of these players are still in the process of developing and sorting themselves out. yoon ji hoo believes himself to be in love with min seo hyun, a young woman who belongs to their circle. but the truth of the matter is yoon ji hoo is not particularly interested in living. his love for min seo hyun is a romantic fiction, an excuse he can hide behind. he may not agree with goo jun pyo's policies or actions but he is not interested in exerting himself to do anything about it. he exists in a state of stupor. all he does is sleep...forever looking for out-of-the-way nooks where he can be by himself and loose himself in his book or his naps or his violin playing. he finds himself drawn to geum jan di but does not try to understand his attraction. he takes various actions to help her by trying to dissuade goo jun pyo from his attack vendetta against geum jan di and directly when she is in need. already this is a lot for someone like him as his love interest min seo hyun points out before returning to france.
geum jan di may be a queen. she may have clarity about how she wants to be and how she wants to live, the energy to fight for it. but she does not have the mental resources/maturity to negotiate all the decisions that need to be made. "rescued", shown unwitting compassion she finds herself falling into a bond with yoon ji hoo. she comes to care about him and assumes she loves him. she does not know what to do when she discovers yoon ji hoo loves min seo hyun. she cannot stop her attachment to him. and she doesn't know how to proceed to resolve the matter.
on the other side of the battle lines, goo jun pyo finds himself falling in love with geum jan di. he finds her a worthy opponent and his equal. and proceeds to do what princes do: appropiates geum jan di as his girlfriend. he fails to ask her if she would like to be his girlfriend. he just tells her she is his girlfriend.
geum jan di is mired in sorting through her quagmire of questions regarding yoon ji hoo. the questions slowly take on a different slant, become far more intense when goo jun pyo declares his interest in her:
initially her questions are all about her and yoon ji hoo: should she confess her feelings to yoon ji hoo? if you love someone shouldn't you wish the best for that person? if the person you love loves another, shouldn't you let that person alone?....allow the person you love to love whomsoever they select and live their life? and what do you do when the person you love is in love with someone you admire, idolize, understand very well and like?
later on as goo jun pyo slowly creeps into her affections without her knowledge, new questions emerge: what is the extent of her concern for yoon ji hoo? does she in fact love yoon ji hoo? can she really be satisfied by yoon ji hoo?...not because he has loved another person first and she is not his first love, but because of who he is as a person? certainly she finds him attractive. she is grateful to him for his assistance in her moments of need. and they share a bond. but what is the nature of this bond?
what about her own happiness, her love, her well-being? what does she want for herself? what sort of person is compatible with her? who can she love? she is propelled into love triangle. she is not quite sure what to do with either man.
i guess what we will see her discover as the drama unfolds is that the man she ultimately chooses will be comparable to her in drive, in motivations, and so forth. and in this regard, right off the bat, it becomes obvious, that goo jun pyo is her fit mate. while she shares a very special bond with yoon ji hoo, he is a very different sort of person. ultimately geum jan di has to resolve for herself if this difference can be overcome and whether or not she can have a satisfying relationship with yoon ji hoo. for those who have watched hana yori dango, both yoon ji hoo and geum jan di come to understand that while they can never be mates/lovers they nevertheless share a very special bond of friendship.
it seems that the process of seeking a mate is really a process of self-discovery. it is a path to self-realization. as viewers of Boys Before Flowers, we are allowed to trace this evolution of the principal characters in the drama.
Geum Jan Di is a queen in her own pool. Before she is cast into a wealthier pool, she and her family represent the top of the chain for the majority of the working and poor classes. this
pool is densely populated since the wealth of the world is held in the hands of a very very very few. insofar as geum jan di comes from a family capable of owning a drycleaning establishment that provides sufficient income to meet the needs of her family, she represents a regular well-to-do person. maybe this sort of financial level is not so glamorous. the masses rarely recognize such individuals and families because the media defines as wealthy whomever they feature in their programming and magazines.
in many ways geum jan di as a person is far more wealthy than most of the students who attend shinwa school. despite her relatively mundane financial status, she is allowed the space to flourish without having to toady unduly to anyone in her schools and classes. she fights back when there are bullies. she enjoys a certain dignity as a person that the students in shinwa, including the three who are goo jun pyo's attendants in f4, for all their wealth don't have. these students for all their wealth don't seem to display healthy characteristics that is a result of a sort of personal freedom where they see themselves solely, without having to constantly measure themselves against and manage themselves in the context of the world dictated by the shinwa heir, goo jun pyo. all of these students seem to be handicapped as a result of living in world that is unduly poisoned by fear and other negative factors.
until her insertion into the shinwa school, geum jan di enjoyed the freedom of growing up with nothing looming over her. she stood more or less in a space where she could look up at the sky without worrying about the powers and institutions that existed in the distance. with her entry and enrollment in shinwa that changes. but her characteristics of groundedness, fearlessnes, courage that were allowed to blossom in her during her childhood is not going to disappear or change because of her new circumstance. perhaps it is an unconscious recognition of this that drives the fury of geum jan di's tormentors at shinwa school. she joins the shinwa student body with the personal resources and willingness to challenge the f4, goo jun pyo, and to meet
the subsequent confrontations engendered by her position with some resilience of spirit.
however this does not mean that she is not above wishing for allies and assistants and as she runs low on her reserves even someone to shield her from what she initiates. but this does not mean she changes her mind or her position with regard to f4. she is certainly not intimidated by the f4. she is not cowed by their physical attractiveness, power or wealth. there is a sense of wonder and pleasure at all she sees. there is even a sense of bafflement as she struggles to understand all that is wrought by their wealth. she does not pass judgement - she is just simply
struck by the lifestyle. she doesn't loose herself, she pauses to take in and assess what she is seeing.
what she sees does not unmoor her from her firm grip on reality, on the issues of death, disease, old age, hunger, heartache, and other problems. what she sees of the world f4 lives in is deemed pretty and interesting but beside the point. and it is in this regard that ultimately even
goo jun pyo has to curtsey and bow before geum jan di. in her firm grip on reality, in her, in her willingness and capacity to guide her actions accordingly, in her ability to see through the trappings of wealth, in her ability to appreciate but ultimately put aside the baubles of wealth, her focus on what matters and how she conducts herself not according to some fantasy but according to her best understanding of the world as she sees it, she towers over the f4. she wins not only goo jun pyo's love and loyalty, in the end she wins over all the members of f4. ultimately she is adorable and irresistible to everyone around her - boys, girls, men, women, friend, foe, and viewers of the drama. it is this characteristic of geum jan di that makes boys before flowers and the japanese original hana yori dango so powerful and potent despite the number of times it has been filmed - a true goddess story in the grand asian tradition.
the basic story thus far seems to be the following:
there is a school for the children of the uber wealthy elite of korea, shinwa school, serving students in grades pre-k through university. it is an integrated unit and institution of the world of the wealthy. the students going to this school continue to be part of a clique, an enclave of exclusive families that live by their own rules of the jungle, have their own motivations, problems, culture and so forth. they don't associate with those outside their class except insofar as those outside their class exist to serve them. even these servants belong to an exclusive group. in general, outsiders are not permitted easy entry into a group that prohibits inclusion at
a genetic level whether at the level of servant or master. even if an outsider were to gain admittance to the school through some chance, they would never be integrated into the world of the wealthy. they would pass through the school, not comprehending whatever they do see. usually they are blinded by their own genetic expectations, their own cultural norms so that they don't perceive anything. they leave the school and system undamaged, the status quo undisrupted. for the wealthy who go to shinwa school alongside these few outsiders, these few anomalies are specimens at best, non-entities, or exploitable commodities at worst.
the power structures that exist outside the school inform the power structures inside the school. if an oligarch runs korea his scion, his son rules the school. both rule their respective spheres with the same domineering ruthlessness and brutality that informs the rules of the jungle in which they exist. the school exists almost as a test bed, a training ground for the scions of the elite: how to behave amongst themselves and how to behave with the rest of the world. they
learn pecking order, power structures in school and abide by them both in and out of school. marriages, freindships and any other alliances are determined here - they come into being, evolve, transform, disintegrate or endure.
the f4 is the acknowledged leaders of the school. actually, f4 is really a moniker to identify the "prince" and three closest retainers, servants. goo jun pyo is the prince. his servants are yoon ji hoo, song woo bin, and so yi jung. these three are the next wealthiest, most powerful students in the school. just as goo jun pyo is the scion of the shinwa group which runs korea, these three
represent similarly powerful families. yoon ji hoo is the son of the former prime minister of the country. similarly woo bin represents a family with deep connections into the world of finance perhaps and yi jung the world of arts and aesthetics. in short however they are all thugs whose wealth and power gives them the veneer of something attractive. they don't have to live in filth. they can arrange things gracefully. they are the arbiters of what is considered attractive. for an outsider, there is the initial shock at what wealth and power can achieve. but true refinement is not present.
each depiction of the story on which boys before flowers is based, hana yori dango a japanese comic book written for teenage girls, shows what is considered wealthy, what is powerful at the time of the filming. and each depiction is even more grand than what came before. but each
production will eventually become dated and to some extent derided. what is fashionable now will fall out of favor. what marks the wealthy now will mark the fool later. as such, the drama is a commercial vehicle loaded with propaganda and marketing for brands and an entire lifestyle to lure the foolish who succumb to this seductive vision. the typical viewer is never really allowed to answer for himself what constitutes true wealth and well-being.
if we focus on the story that drives the drama viewers can see that for all their wealth, their world is as riddled with pettiness, fights, grief, grievances, love ache, hatred, ugliness, injustice, unhappiness, dissatisfaction, and death. all the gilt and appurtenances of wealth the sponsors would like the viewer to associate with wealth, cannot cover forever the true nature of reality.
and reality comes riding in to shinwa school in the form of geum jan di making a drycleaning delivery.
geum jan di belongs to a different jungle and abides by its laws and culture. she is immediately pulled into an exhibition of f4's power. her customer is a boy who has come under the censure of f4. as such he has endured non stop physical violence so that by the time geum jan di reaches him he is standing on at the edge of a roof on one of the school buildings about to commit suicide. when he does not listen to her reconsider and jumps off she immediately throws herself to grab hold of him and thus saves his life. even after becoming a student at the school she continues to resist and rebuff and challenge f4 policies and actions.
geum jan di does not accept the existing power structure; she does not accept the rules that govern the system and she does not necessarily see any reason to be afraid of challenging it. in many ways she is a queen. she is challenging the existing status quo because she has a different vision. she wants to live by her vision and she want to enforce her vision. however much she may chafe at the existing power structure, she has no real reason to disrupt the status quo. so
she simmers in her dissatisfaction. this is not unusual. if there is one geum jan di, silent objectors, there are others in the school and in the system. this is why goo jun pyo has to be as ruthless as he is in order to retain his position at the top. he cannot afford to be any other way.
the dissent has even entered his circle. yoon ji hoo does not agree with goo jun pyo's vision but he has neither interest nor motivation to really challenge goo jun pyo. he is not interested in exerting himself. he doesn't have the requisite energy. and finally he has no reason to motivate him to transcend whatever limitations he may have. we see him acquiring this motivation in episode 6 when goo jun pyo has geum jan di expelled from school.
unlike the other silent dissenters in the school and in the system, she is clear about her dissatisfaction but does not really have any opportunity to really do anything about it short of forcing a confrontation. this is soon rectified. in her short time at the school she picks up a "friend' oh min ji who becomes an unwitting spearhead for action. when min ji slips and falls and spoils the bespoke shoe crafted by an italian shoemaker with her ice cream, the chance to really do something about her dissatisfaction presents itself to geum jan di. and she takes the opportunity with both hands. thus begins the struggle for power between geum jan di and goo
jun pyo.
in the confrontations that ensue to beat geum jan di into submitting to the existing power structure she finds unexpected support from yoon ji hoo. he may not intend to overtly assist geum jan di but viewers repeatedly see him in a position to assist geum jan di. and he does even though he makes sure to disown his acts or downplay any real responsibility. perhaps the irresistible attraction that draws his attention to geum jan di has its basis in an inchoate recognition of someone who is powerful enough to do something about the dissatisfaction about
the existing power structure in place at shinwa school.
but these are kids. this means they are the young of the animals that run their world. they are still coming into their own. they need to mature. and all five of these players are still in the process of developing and sorting themselves out. yoon ji hoo believes himself to be in love with min seo hyun, a young woman who belongs to their circle. but the truth of the matter is yoon ji hoo is not particularly interested in living. his love for min seo hyun is a romantic fiction, an excuse he can hide behind. he may not agree with goo jun pyo's policies or actions but he is not interested in exerting himself to do anything about it. he exists in a state of stupor. all he does is sleep...forever looking for out-of-the-way nooks where he can be by himself and loose himself in his book or his naps or his violin playing. he finds himself drawn to geum jan di but does not try to understand his attraction. he takes various actions to help her by trying to dissuade goo jun pyo from his attack vendetta against geum jan di and directly when she is in need. already this is a lot for someone like him as his love interest min seo hyun points out before returning to france.
geum jan di may be a queen. she may have clarity about how she wants to be and how she wants to live, the energy to fight for it. but she does not have the mental resources/maturity to negotiate all the decisions that need to be made. "rescued", shown unwitting compassion she finds herself falling into a bond with yoon ji hoo. she comes to care about him and assumes she loves him. she does not know what to do when she discovers yoon ji hoo loves min seo hyun. she cannot stop her attachment to him. and she doesn't know how to proceed to resolve the matter.
on the other side of the battle lines, goo jun pyo finds himself falling in love with geum jan di. he finds her a worthy opponent and his equal. and proceeds to do what princes do: appropiates geum jan di as his girlfriend. he fails to ask her if she would like to be his girlfriend. he just tells her she is his girlfriend.
geum jan di is mired in sorting through her quagmire of questions regarding yoon ji hoo. the questions slowly take on a different slant, become far more intense when goo jun pyo declares his interest in her:
initially her questions are all about her and yoon ji hoo: should she confess her feelings to yoon ji hoo? if you love someone shouldn't you wish the best for that person? if the person you love loves another, shouldn't you let that person alone?....allow the person you love to love whomsoever they select and live their life? and what do you do when the person you love is in love with someone you admire, idolize, understand very well and like?
later on as goo jun pyo slowly creeps into her affections without her knowledge, new questions emerge: what is the extent of her concern for yoon ji hoo? does she in fact love yoon ji hoo? can she really be satisfied by yoon ji hoo?...not because he has loved another person first and she is not his first love, but because of who he is as a person? certainly she finds him attractive. she is grateful to him for his assistance in her moments of need. and they share a bond. but what is the nature of this bond?
what about her own happiness, her love, her well-being? what does she want for herself? what sort of person is compatible with her? who can she love? she is propelled into love triangle. she is not quite sure what to do with either man.
i guess what we will see her discover as the drama unfolds is that the man she ultimately chooses will be comparable to her in drive, in motivations, and so forth. and in this regard, right off the bat, it becomes obvious, that goo jun pyo is her fit mate. while she shares a very special bond with yoon ji hoo, he is a very different sort of person. ultimately geum jan di has to resolve for herself if this difference can be overcome and whether or not she can have a satisfying relationship with yoon ji hoo. for those who have watched hana yori dango, both yoon ji hoo and geum jan di come to understand that while they can never be mates/lovers they nevertheless share a very special bond of friendship.
it seems that the process of seeking a mate is really a process of self-discovery. it is a path to self-realization. as viewers of Boys Before Flowers, we are allowed to trace this evolution of the principal characters in the drama.
Geum Jan Di is a queen in her own pool. Before she is cast into a wealthier pool, she and her family represent the top of the chain for the majority of the working and poor classes. this
pool is densely populated since the wealth of the world is held in the hands of a very very very few. insofar as geum jan di comes from a family capable of owning a drycleaning establishment that provides sufficient income to meet the needs of her family, she represents a regular well-to-do person. maybe this sort of financial level is not so glamorous. the masses rarely recognize such individuals and families because the media defines as wealthy whomever they feature in their programming and magazines.
in many ways geum jan di as a person is far more wealthy than most of the students who attend shinwa school. despite her relatively mundane financial status, she is allowed the space to flourish without having to toady unduly to anyone in her schools and classes. she fights back when there are bullies. she enjoys a certain dignity as a person that the students in shinwa, including the three who are goo jun pyo's attendants in f4, for all their wealth don't have. these students for all their wealth don't seem to display healthy characteristics that is a result of a sort of personal freedom where they see themselves solely, without having to constantly measure themselves against and manage themselves in the context of the world dictated by the shinwa heir, goo jun pyo. all of these students seem to be handicapped as a result of living in world that is unduly poisoned by fear and other negative factors.
until her insertion into the shinwa school, geum jan di enjoyed the freedom of growing up with nothing looming over her. she stood more or less in a space where she could look up at the sky without worrying about the powers and institutions that existed in the distance. with her entry and enrollment in shinwa that changes. but her characteristics of groundedness, fearlessnes, courage that were allowed to blossom in her during her childhood is not going to disappear or change because of her new circumstance. perhaps it is an unconscious recognition of this that drives the fury of geum jan di's tormentors at shinwa school. she joins the shinwa student body with the personal resources and willingness to challenge the f4, goo jun pyo, and to meet
the subsequent confrontations engendered by her position with some resilience of spirit.
however this does not mean that she is not above wishing for allies and assistants and as she runs low on her reserves even someone to shield her from what she initiates. but this does not mean she changes her mind or her position with regard to f4. she is certainly not intimidated by the f4. she is not cowed by their physical attractiveness, power or wealth. there is a sense of wonder and pleasure at all she sees. there is even a sense of bafflement as she struggles to understand all that is wrought by their wealth. she does not pass judgement - she is just simply
struck by the lifestyle. she doesn't loose herself, she pauses to take in and assess what she is seeing.
what she sees does not unmoor her from her firm grip on reality, on the issues of death, disease, old age, hunger, heartache, and other problems. what she sees of the world f4 lives in is deemed pretty and interesting but beside the point. and it is in this regard that ultimately even
goo jun pyo has to curtsey and bow before geum jan di. in her firm grip on reality, in her, in her willingness and capacity to guide her actions accordingly, in her ability to see through the trappings of wealth, in her ability to appreciate but ultimately put aside the baubles of wealth, her focus on what matters and how she conducts herself not according to some fantasy but according to her best understanding of the world as she sees it, she towers over the f4. she wins not only goo jun pyo's love and loyalty, in the end she wins over all the members of f4. ultimately she is adorable and irresistible to everyone around her - boys, girls, men, women, friend, foe, and viewers of the drama. it is this characteristic of geum jan di that makes boys before flowers and the japanese original hana yori dango so powerful and potent despite the number of times it has been filmed - a true goddess story in the grand asian tradition.
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