THE EPITOME OF YEARNING AND LONGING
Can you hear it? This sound… The sound of flowers…
i will be your servant. my body is yours. my soul is yours and my heart is yours too
do you truly not know? you're all i need. even if you are poor, rich, insolent or obedient. even if you do not love me, and even if you say that you love me.. whatever you are, you are all i need, gilchae
-then.. what if i say a foreign intruder took advantage of me?
then i should give you a hug for it must have been painful
This has been truly one of those dramas that kept me thinking about it while sleeping and made me cry my heart out not just once or twice but several times. It is undoubtedly a masterpiece and truly deserves all the accolades that it received. I wish I could give more than 5 stars. Entire cast gave stellar performances but Nam Koong Min and Ahn Eun Jin embodied their characters perfectly. The drama's main theme was about how two lovers found their way to each other despite different struggles during the time of war. Along with this, I thoroughly enjoyed that it explored several themes and profound feelings like yearning, longing, social dogma, de stigmatisation, sisterhood, loyalty, unconditional and unwavering love, classism, gender bias, trauma, grief, endurance, resilience, honor and autonomy. Two main characters showed immense growth and had the most compelling and inspirational character arcs. The cinematography, ost , direction and entire screenplay/storytelling was very well executed. The korean name of the drama "yeonin" is so befitting as it exactly translates to the beautiful connection between the characters - lover. Yeon means to long and in means person - a person one longs for.
SLIGHT SPOILERS AHEAD:
Lee Jang Hyun is literally the epitome of yearning. Initially, he might have been an aloof and care-free character. He played one of the major roles to somehow uphold certain diplomatic relations between the two dynasties with his wit and courage. He is the personification of calmness, stoicism and composure. Even in life-threatening situations, he always came out of it by acting cleverly. But when it comes to his love of the life, he hears sound of flowers when he first saw her. He thinks of her whenever he sees moonlight and swears by it to promise that he will return to her again. He thinks and dreams of her when he is sleeping. She is his hometown. He loved every form of her. He never felt that women were guilty for losing their chastity against their will. He respected her autonomy and choices though they broke his heart several times. He believed women were not to be forced into the marriages only to turn into widows during wartime. He saved several people by putting his life in danger.
Gilchae is the embodiment of resilience and courage. She was a spolied noblewoman but immediately comes out of that comfort zone once war breaks. She put her survival instincts to the best use in order to escape from intruders and save not only herself but her peers as well. She always believed survival is more important than succumbing to their life due to social stigmas. She defied every stigma. She emerged as a leader was like a matriarch in her family. She bravely did business that are often male-centred to feed her family. She had autonomy and agency towards her own life. She sincerely loved jang hyun and pushed him away due to her own insecurities and guilt but later ultimately reunited with him in the best way they ever could.
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This review may contain spoilers
IMO NOT EVEYONE'S CUP OF TEA
firstly, this drama has been on my watchlist for so long and heard it is quite popular modern cdramas and is recommended by manyi started it randomly on sunday afternoon with the thought that i would not be able to binge once the week starts but the drama was insanely good that all ive been doing was binging it
this has not been the cliche youth idol drama but also carried dark and mature themes of their love story
i like how drama starts with their present situation and draws audience's attention while making them wonder how did things fall apart
li xun is definitely not the standard green flag character but is actually so cold and extremely stoic. all he wanted was to protect his mom and sis after the demise of his father but failed miserably both the times. life has been cruel to him but him being a technical prodigy - he put his skills to the best use in order to move forward in his life.
zhu yun is the definition of princess that had an amazing life sorted out by her mom but against her will from the beginning. like she mentions although she was made to study cs by her mom but it was li xun who challenged her and pushed her to extremes which made her feel passionate about coding.
they have natural and effortless chemistry. they were so buzzy in their enemies era and goddamn sweet during their lovers era. zhu yun although found him annoying but as she comes to know about his life and subtly good things that he does , she starts falling for him. tickling is his love language and they're truly each other's lighter and princess. they light up each other's world.
her love language being repairing his lighter and his being gifting her a princess dress.
li xun had known her for a very long time when infact she had been kind to offer him an umbrella and they were truly destined to meet again in the same class.
coming to the angst part - both of them nailed the acting down to perfection. grief can change people a lot and i think li xun loses himself and the shred of sanity that he has left in him. he loves zhu yun so much that he feels letting her go is the only way to keep her safe and not suffer along with him.
zhu yun never left his side or their memories tbh as she still reminisces it even after 3 years. i dont find her obsession to be unhealthy as she was not literally behind him and was not planning to stay back though she saw he was released. the initial trigger for her to legit stay back was due to gao and zhijing ruining l&p.
i feel moreover they did not have perfect closure although they spoke in the jail so they do still have feelings for eo (coz we must not forget they dated for around 3 yrs and we were robbed off of that dating phase) and they must be grateful to eo as they were each other's safe place once. their connection has been so deep and strong.
i feel this drama has lot of repeat value and their eye acting was also impeccable. li xun and zhu yun are just two strong people who fit like jigsaw puzzle pieces and believe in each other's ability. this drama wrecked me with lot of emotions.
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