L13

Is Big Hazelnut sponsoring this show?

Still convinced this show would have been much better if the hot stoic widower who challenged Hae-ryung intellectually and supported her in meaningful ways, put his principles, his honour and her success above his own happiness, and had angsty reasons like his evil father and his dead wife to deny his feelings was the male lead and the airheaded prince who became infatuated with the first adult woman he met outside of the palace and pestered her for attention was the second male lead, but alas...

I wish he knew too, and think he should have suspected it at least when he realised Captain Leng took him in after his dad, who’d never been close to Captain Leng, died in an incident they were both connected to. Sangeng knew Captain Leng was a man who understood moral responsibility and could distinguish good from evil, but also that he was capable of doing evil for selfish reasons. This alone should have tipped him off that Captain Leng was trying to compensate for wronging his father by being kind to him.

But the fact we wish Sangeng knew the truth doesn’t mean the writer made a bad decision by leaving him in the dark until the end. I think Sangeng’s ignorance is of vital importance to the identity he’s fashioned for himself as Captain Leng’s apprentice. I don’t know if he would be able to bear the knowledge that the man he loved and obeyed like a father killed his real father, to whom Sangeng owes absolute devotion. He allowed his father’s killer to usurp his father in his heart and remained ignorant of the truth while paying lip service to his father’s memory; this would crush him. Would he be able to go on living as the man Captain Leng made him, in the yamen, with Gui’er, etc., if he had to confront the truth? But what would he do otherwise?

We might wish to spare Sangeng this agonising dilemma, or we might wish to pacify his father’s restless spirit. But either way, this final unspoken/unspeakable secret serves to remind us that the truth can never be fully uncovered and the past can never be fully resolved. There’s always more pain and injustice buried beneath the surface, no matter how deep you dig for it. There’s no end to it once you start keeping track.

I think your confusion about the chronology of events will be resolved when you consider that Rikito WAS ALWAYS ANTISOCIAL. He didn't suddenly "become a hikikomori" after Chiho died the way people enter a monastery. He had always been a loner and he had always stayed in his room.

HOWEVER, as several of the people interviewed by Kaori and Mahiro said, for a brief period of time (i.e. while he was dating Chiho and while they were on a break) he tried to be more outgoing and hold down a proper job. He had a reason to try to be a "normal" member of society, namely to become a worthy partner for Chiho the big shot pianist.

This was an aberration from his usual routine. He did not go to university or find a full-time job after high school. He did not have friends. He only went out to feed the cats at the local shrine (and that's where he met Chiho).

He wasn't a hikikomori in the strict sense of never leaving his room, but he was a NEET, i.e. someone not in employment, education or training, and he did not fit in socially. When Sara told him that she wished Chiho would have seen him that day, she was just playing on his insecurities about living with his parents, being looked down on by his younger sister, not having a proper job (he was still a part-timer at the factory), etc. In Sara's eyes, Rikito was always a pathetic loser, and that's how she was saying he would have appeared to Chiho if she had seen his home life. It doesn't mean he had already become a hikikomori by the time of Chiho's death. For Sara, there was no difference between Rikito the complete and total recluse and the old Rikito; they were both the same person she despised and wanted to distance herself from.

In any case, this is all immaterial since Sara was, as usual, lying. We know/suspect that she deliberately caused Chiho's accident. If I remember correctly, she saw the light change right before she urged Chiho to cross the street. She told Rikito that she had just wanted to bring Chiho over, but that's probably because even while she was taunting him she lacked the courage to confess that she had killed his girlfriend.

Re. the exact chronology of events, even though we see Rikito looking at the newspaper article about Chiho's death on the day when he killed Sara, in reality several months or even a year must have passed between the two tragedies. The newspaper was shown for dramatic effect IMO.

Viki is saying episode 12 will be "available in 1 day," but it already aired in China. Are they delaying it for some reason, or can we expect it today?

I was also thinking Captain Yi had to be involved somehow because of his beard, but the bearded man did tell the fortuneteller in episode 11 that the beard was fake when the fortuneteller asked him why he looked different. Presumably he's Magistrate Wei, whom the fortuneteller recognised as someone from the past in an earlier episode.

Remember also that when Gui'er visited Lin Siniang in the brothel, LSN told her that her fake facial hair was obvious, and fake facial hair has to be done differently from eyebrow makeup.

I think we might find out that LSN was involved in the bearded man's disguise.

I was thinking about adding that one! I agree with your amendment.

Under the Microscope, The Wind Blows from Longxi, The Longest Day in Chang'an, Luoyang are all gritty, well-made historical dramas, but the last two have a bit more action. The Wind Blows from Longxi is a spy thriller, so there is an investigative element. Under the Microscope is the most like Ripe Town IMO, and they both take place in the Ming period.

The Long Night and A Murderous Affair in Horizon Tower are good Chinese mystery thrillers that juggle multiple timelines and slowly reveal the truth about the past like Ripe Town, but they take place in the modern day.

Most other historical dramas people might recommend are too cartoony and psychologically shallow to compare IMO.

Right, thank you for clarifying the fishermen's identities! So scratch that...

Re. Magistrate Wei's reason for avoiding Mr Xue, that's surely what he told Judge Song and it makes sense, but I suspect he also just didn't want to be recognised.

I do think Magistrate Wei is someone from the past, and also the man who met with the fortuneteller in episode 11—the fortuneteller recognised him when they met briefly in an earlier episode—but I'm not sure he's Lu Buyou and I'm not sure he's the killer. Remember that the fortuneteller was certain that it would be safe to blackmail Magistrate Wei because he's not the kind of person who would go on a killing spree... also wasn't Magistrate Wei one of the two fishing buddies who were discussing the murders as if they were mere observers? Or was that Mr Xue?

I wonder if Magistrate Wei is not actually Turtle...? And then Lu Buyou would have to be Judge Song? But maybe I'm overthinking it.

There's also the fact Magistrate Wei avoided meeting Mr Xue face to face, but Judge Song didn't have any qualms about that, so I do think it's unlikely Judge Song has a past connection to Lu Manor, but I don't know how else to fit all the pieces together.

Sangeng, what are you doing! Why are you telling Mr Xue!

My guess right now is that Sangeng realised that Magistrate Wei planned to have his identity leaked (remember how he told the fortuneteller guy "let me tell you how to sell me out"), but I'm not sure to what purpose and whether Sangeng is actually trying to help Magistrate Wei or is brewing a counter-plot to get him and Mr Xue both.

His acting during the drunk scene was more natural and convincing than any drunk scene I’ve seen in a romcom.

Holy crap, Lu Zhi's heel turn in episode 10 was really abrupt. It makes sense that he would go along with Mr Zhong's plan to kill Lu Yuanbao because he felt he was in a kill-or-get-killed situation—which, by the way, I don't think he was? Based on what I remember, LYB told Mr Zhong to kill Lu Zhi ONLY IF Lu Zhi looked like he was plotting revenge or becoming insubordinate; it seems Mr Zhong exaggerated the truth and told Lu Zhi LYB had ordered his death to manipulate Lu Zhi into joining Mr Zhong's conspiracy—but now that LYB's blood relatives have appeared and Lu Zhi is presumably about to come up with the idea to set the manor on fire to get rid of them, his plan has strayed way too far from its original purpose of merely ensuring his survival.

Which, again, if he'd stopped and thought for a moment when Mr Zhong came to him in the countryside, Lu Zhi would have realised he didn't have to go back to the Lu residence and kill LYB. If Mr Zhong had truly approached him out of the goodness of his heart, he would have told Lu Zhi to run away and then reported back to LYB that Lu Zhi died (but his body couldn't be recovered for some reason). Lu Zhi should have been capable of thinking of this solution himself and wondering why Mr Zhong didn't suggest it.

But he was so anxious and overexcited in that moment that he went along with Mr Zhong's plan to return to the Lu residence, kill LYB and steal his wealth without a second thought. And from then on, as I said, every subsequent step on the path of conspiracy led him further astray: first when he used Mr Wang's crime to blackmail him instead of trying to bring him to justice, which he had once considered the right thing to do; then by threatening Dr Cheng's daughter and toying with her future prospects in order to convince Dr Cheng to become an accomplice to murder; and finally, as we will probably see in the next episode, by killing off LYB's innocent relatives after LYB dies (and Lu Zhi's safety is guaranteed) for no reason other than money.

Again, Lu Zhi's descent into villainy happened all in the span of a single episode. It's not like there weren't warning signs earlier—he was always a bit too scheming for his own good—and LYB's savage treatment of him in episode 9 would certainly be enough to jokerfy me, so I don't blame Lu Zhi for taking it badly, but I'm still shocked by how quickly he betrayed his principles. He was such a sensitive kid! He sincerely cared about justice and goodness! He vomited when he saw a dead fish after Mr Zhong kill the two guards in front of him! All that's out the window now.

Which, by the way, let's go back to the moment when things really started to go off the rails for Lu Zhi. It's when Mr Zhong killed those guards to shut them up. That's when Lu Zhi started keeping secrets from LYB, which LYB sensed (though I'm not sure why he only blamed Lu Zhi for that and not Mr Zhong, who must have been the one to report their deaths), and that's what led to LYB deciding to give Lu Zhi a warning, LYB taking offence to Lu Zhi's drunken babbling, the kowtowing, the exile, Mr Zhong coming to tell Lu Zhi LYB wanted him dead and ultimately the whole murder conspiracy.

When I look at the full chronology of Lu Zhi's downfall, my question is, did Mr Zhong have it all planned out from the start? Is it possible that he wanted Lu Zhi to join him against LYB, whom he was already planning to kill and rob, and that's why he put Lu Zhi in compromising situations that put him on a collision course with LYB?

It kinda feels like Mr Zhong is emerging as the evil mastermind here, the one person the killer should feel the most anger toward... but we have no idea where he is in the present day. Also my theory that Lu Zhi is the killer looks way more unlikely after this episode, unless Lu Zhi came to regret his actions later in life and is now going after his old accomplices one by one and plans to turn himself in/subject himself to punishment after he gets them all...?

Dude, I don't give a shit, I want to watch this drama. Other people cheating is none of my business, nor should it be a reason to lose your job. Your private life is called private for a reason.

I've watched 4 episodes so far and in each one there's a different person behaving unbelievably rudely toward Himari. First some nosy woman who was trying to spy on her thought she was dead and the entire neighbourhood decided that was her fault for lying on the floor in her own house and wanted to take her to the police station (for what?!); then some annoying child smacked her phone out of her hand because she wasn't paying attention to him and she felt so guilty about it that she cried and apologised to him (for what?!); then her husband's ex showed up at her door, barged into her house without asking permission, and told her she was her husband's ex instead of introducing herself like a normal person, AND THEN the same woman showed up again the next day to tell her to get a divorce because the woman didn't like the NEET law and didn't like that her ex seemed to be happy with someone new... now her husband's kid brother has barricaded himself in her house, brought his annoying parents to her door and taken her hostage...?

It's insane that in every single episode there's someone walking all over Himari and treating her like absolute shit and she just takes it every time. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to get out of watching it happen over and over again. That Himari is so nice that she can win over even the worst people in the world? Dude, no one's even apologised to her and she keeps cooking and cleaning for other people! I don't think being likeable is working out for her so far!

That's certainly what it looks like re. Mr Zhong's relationship with Lu Zhi, but I wonder if there's not more going on in Mr Zhong's head. When he killed those guards I thought it might be not just to protect Lu Zhi but also to protect the wounded assassin. I'm wondering if Mr Zhong might not belong to some kind of martial arts sect or criminal organisation and have been sent to inflitrate LYB's household...

I love how different episodes shine a spotlight on different characters. Earlier we had an episode about Judge Song's backstory and the experiences that shaped him into the complex, damaged—I mean morally, not physically!—and charismatic figure that he is. And in this episode we got to see Lin Siniang's backstory and her sad romance with Captain Leng. Can you imagine being in her position, looking back on the moment that decided the course of your life, and wishing for 20 years that you had been just a bit braver that night?

(Although I would blame Captain Leng too for not just telling her to come with him and promising to find her a job or keep her on as a maid or concubine—or indeed wife. Yes, it would have been reckless, but he fell irrevocably in love with her after meeting her once, which was reckless too. If either of them had been just a bit more decisive that night in the alley, their lives could have been so different.)

The grace with which Siniang and Gui'er treated each other was really touching.

On an unrelated note, Sangeng's default position at Gui'er's shoulder really makes him look like a substitute husband... boy, get a clue!

And then we got to see Lu Yuanbao's true colours when he humiliated Lu Zhi so brutally and unnecessarily. LYB always seemed like a bit of a thug to me, a greedy, ruthless man without deep emotional attachments or the capacity for self-reflection, so I already suspected Lu Zhi's gratitude to him was misplaced, but even so I got whiplash when LYB suddenly turned off the charm. I guess he really saw Lu Zhi as a pet rather than a person.

But again and most importantly... MR ZHONG CAN SPEAK? Why the heck would be pretend to be mute? Does LYB know? I think he doesn't! And why is Mr Zhong more loyal to Lu Zhi than to LYB? I mean, sure, Lu Zhi is definitely more endearing, but Mr Zhong is not a sentimental man usually... or rather, he only allows himself to be sentimental when he's with Lu Zhi. I need to know what happened after that!

I can't believe we only have 3 episodes left. That doesn't feel like enough time to wrap up all the subplots in the present and past timelines.

The last ten seconds of episode 9 shook me more than any other plot twist so far lmao

Am I blinded by how handsome he is or is Cha Eunwoo a bit more animated in this drama than in his previous ones? Or does his acting seem improved to me because the last romantic kdrama I watched was My Lovely Liar with Hwang Minhyun?

In any case I could stare at Cha Eunwoo’s polite blank face forever. Park Gyuyoung is charming and distinctive as usual. Her hairstyle even makes her look a bit animalistic (in a good way). Her styling and performance are a major improvement on the webtoon, where the female protagonist looks and acts quite generic.

Other than that, the drama is stupid (like basically all webtoon adaptations) but fun so far.

The drama ended on an uplifting note, with Kaori and Mahiro reaffirming their desire to make a movie about Rikito's story, but I'm not sure what I'm supposed to think will happen after that. Will the movie's release lead to renewed public interest in the case and a retrial? Will Rikito avoid the death penalty?

That's the only outcome that would warrant triumphant string music playing as the sun sets over the horizon in my mind, but there's no indication that we're leaving Rikito in a place where he is mentally capable of fighting for his life and demanding a retrial. It's true he tapped Kaori's finger through the glass at the end of her visit, but was that small gesture a sign Kaori was able to encourage him/convince him he had to live on, as she was hoping? I wish the drama was more explicit about that.

I can appreciate a good open/unresolved ending, but here I needed more closure. Too much was foreshadowed/promised earlier and left untold—for example regarding Rikito's mental health and low self-esteem and his relationships with his sister and parents—and the tone of the final scene suggested emotional resolution that felt unearned in the absence of a corresponding narrative resolution. I can well envision a scenario in which Kaori's movie doesn't actually improve Rikito's situation at all but simply "gives hope" to viewers—Kaori was saying movies exist to give meaning to life when she was talking about her dad, so I can imagine her being satisfied with just telling a moving story—but that wouldn't be a triumph in my book.

Speaking of which, another running theme that the finale completely forgot to revisit is the value/ethics of bringing to light truths that people wish to keep hidden. Whether Kaori was right to dig up every ugly detail of Rikito's story against his wishes and make a movie about his life without asking him will depend on what kind of movie she ends up making and its effect on the Japanese public; it's kind of off-putting that she herself never acknowledged these issues, even though other characters raised them with her, and they were not addressed even once in the final episode. Again, this theme could have been revisited, which would have resulted in the drama ending on a more thoughtful final note, if there were more scenes at the end. Because showing us Kaori's determined figure limned in the golden light of the sunset as the final shot of the drama strongly suggests we're meant to think she's a hero for persisting, but the drama itself raised doubts about her motivations and how much good she's actually doing multiple times, and then it refused to tell us what the actual outcome of her whole obsession was, so I can't be blamed for finding myself a little confused and underwhelmed at the end of it all rather than filled with admiration.

Basically, the ending felt rushed and unsatisfactory IMO, at least relative to the preceding episodes. But still, I really enjoyed the drama overall and thought it was very well made.