I dropped this after Episode 10. The show was middling - not good, not bad. It didn't seem to be going anywhere and it's pretty male favorable sexist for a world that's supposed to favor women. For example, FL and ML made a deal where he could rule the roost in private, but he had to follow her lead in public. That didn't even last until the end of the deal episode. ML is constantly upstaging FL in public so I lost the point of having a female centric society as part of the plot.
Let me do a recap for all the commenters leading a bizarre backlash (Selfish! Manipulative!) against Im Yoon-Ah's character: Go An Na was a frightened child who was accosted by her mother's murderer in the room with the still warm, freshly dead body.
Subsequently, and for more than a decade, An Na was isolated, abused, and neglected by her only remaining parent and under constant threat of death from the murderer. Having essentially been held captive and isolated through the rest of her childhood, all of her adolescence, and into adulthood, she is naive, socially phobic, unworldly, suspicious of the right people, and trusting of the wrong people.
An Na didn't want to die while trying to expose her mother's killer, so she "selfishly" accepted the protection of Kim Je Ha (Ji Chang-wook), who was actually getting a paycheck to protect her, so that seems fair to me.
She got tricked by the uncle who professed to care about her. *He* then manipulated *her* into cooperating with his scheme to punish the murderer and into withholding information from her spanking brand-new bodyguard/boyfriend Je Ha, who continued working for the murderer but wouldn't tell her why, blowing her off with some vague, paternalistic pablum. Se Ha misled An Na that he was free to leave Korea with her. Those deceptions left An Na open to trickery by her evil stepmother.
Yet, I'm seeing comments about how An Na took advantage of Je Ha. The Je Ha who, besides being a tough, formidable former mercenary soldier for hire, was a whole mature, grown a$$ adult man responsible for his own decisions, AND was in a position of authority over An Na. That's some serious confusion, or sexism, about who had the experience and position to take advantage of whom.
How on God's green earth does anyone come off believing Go An Na is somehow a villain here? At worst, she is woefully, and understandably, immature and easily duped. For those who say her character is weak, anyone who endured what she did without going batsh!t burbling crazy, is anything but weak. In fact, An Na - even while desperate for her father's love - is the only person strong enough to tell him to his face the truth about his pathetic failures. She also openly confronted the person she believed to have murdered her mother. This is not, in any manner, a weak person.
Im Yoon-Ah turned in a beautiful performance, many times conveying terror, despair, astonishment, disgust, and love with nothing more than her eyes.
My theory about the folks snarking at Im Yoon-Ah: y'all are just pissed Im Yoon-Ah/An Na got to kiss the very, very pretty Ji Chang-wook/Se Ha and you didn't.
Song Yoon Ah is masterful in playing a neglected, affection starved wife/daughter and amoral puppeteer driven to protect what she believes should be hers, even at the cost of her soul and any number of random lives. Her vicious, yet vulnerable, performance reminds me of Kim Ok Bin's similarly brilliant Tae Al Ha in "Arthdal Chronicles."
What’s going on with Yoo-jin - Je - ha comments?! She is way too old to be shipped with him. I don’t know…
IRL women with the age, power, and experience of Choi Yoo-Jin are catnip for young men, so why not in drama. And for women, too, judging by Secretary Kim's possessive protectiveness. Even though it's not developed here, I love to see the age gap trope turned on its head, à la "Something In The Rain." The subtle, near tongue-in-cheek love quadrangle in K2 is entertaining.
Subsequently, and for more than a decade, An Na was isolated, abused, and neglected by her only remaining parent and under constant threat of death from the murderer. Having essentially been held captive and isolated through the rest of her childhood, all of her adolescence, and into adulthood, she is naive, socially phobic, unworldly, suspicious of the right people, and trusting of the wrong people.
An Na didn't want to die while trying to expose her mother's killer, so she "selfishly" accepted the protection of Kim Je Ha (Ji Chang-wook), who was actually getting a paycheck to protect her, so that seems fair to me.
She got tricked by the uncle who professed to care about her. *He* then manipulated *her* into cooperating with his scheme to punish the murderer and into withholding information from her spanking brand-new bodyguard/boyfriend Je Ha, who continued working for the murderer but wouldn't tell her why, blowing her off with some vague, paternalistic pablum. Se Ha misled An Na that he was free to leave Korea with her. Those deceptions left An Na open to trickery by her evil stepmother.
Yet, I'm seeing comments about how An Na took advantage of Je Ha. The Je Ha who, besides being a tough, formidable former mercenary soldier for hire, was a whole mature, grown a$$ adult man responsible for his own decisions, AND was in a position of authority over An Na. That's some serious confusion, or sexism, about who had the experience and position to take advantage of whom.
How on God's green earth does anyone come off believing Go An Na is somehow a villain here? At worst, she is woefully, and understandably, immature and easily duped. For those who say her character is weak, anyone who endured what she did without going batsh!t burbling crazy, is anything but weak. In fact, An Na - even while desperate for her father's love - is the only person strong enough to tell him to his face the truth about his pathetic failures. She also openly confronted the person she believed to have murdered her mother. This is not, in any manner, a weak person.
Im Yoon-Ah turned in a beautiful performance, many times conveying terror, despair, astonishment, disgust, and love with nothing more than her eyes.
My theory about the folks snarking at Im Yoon-Ah: y'all are just pissed Im Yoon-Ah/An Na got to kiss the very, very pretty Ji Chang-wook/Se Ha and you didn't.
But about Go Anna, who tf has a right to be angry at a child for the parents she's born to? That's absurd.