Gaksital is a South Korean TV drama series I have been wanting to watch (because it seemed so full of angst) for a long time but couldn't find a dvd for purchase. And now that I have watched all 28 glorious episodes of it I can say that I was right. It was full of angst, melodrama, bromance, romance and action and intrigue. And a bit of a comedy (but as S.Korean tradition not towards the end). So everything but the kitchen sink and I loved it. This time I'll try to write about it in the way of characters. Lots and lots of spoilers ahead.
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This is our hero wearing the Gaksital (Korean bridal mask) acted by Joo Won, and he is also called Gaksital when wearing the mask. This hero has many identities and names so normally
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He looks like this and is called Lee Kang to. His father has passed away when he was young and he worked hard as a rickshaw puller to put his elder brother through University. Also he works for the Japanese Police during Japanese occupied Korea.
Photo credit: http://www.ohkpop.com
He doesn't have any emotional or ideological values. He took a shot in being the best he can, earn money, do a job he likes and does well and is loyal to the Japanese who feed him. Partly because in his pragmatic view there is not a better life for a Korean at the time and maybe he wanted to help out to his mother and brother who acts like he is mentally challenged (after torture at the hands of Japanese police) but is actually Gaksital who helps out opressed Korean citiziens but has the ultimate agenda to kill the men who betrayed their father (who was given the task to take King and Queen out of the country but the royals were killed and he had to escape to China and on the road he was assasinated by a secret organisation who he has refuses to be a part of). This hyung, while being sad that his kid brother is pro Japanese and actually catches freedom fighters and hunts down Gaksital, does not share him his burdens and one day gets killed by Kang to who only knows him as Gaksital. And he was trying to avenge the murder of their mother at the time too. Anyway Kang to is actually Lee Young and at his childhood he has met and a loved a young girl called Pun Yi who mother has died and she was looking for her father in China so joined their family who was running away from Korea to China at the time.
Of course it was not easy for Kang to to become a policeman while being a Korean. His best friend and helper is a Japanese man who is pro Korean and a very nice guy who is called Kimura Shunji acted very nicely by Park Ki Woong,
Who was like this at the beginning
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And slowly turned psycho as the show progressed and turned into this
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Kimura Shunji is the other side of the coin. Our villain of Greek tragedy proportions.
One of the things I like best in a story is the choices the characters make and how they end up based on these choices.
Kang to had a hard life. He not only had to perform hard physical labour at a young age but also the brother he invested in turned out to be mentally challenged and his mother who of course loves Kang to but nevertheless is not happy with his pro Japanese actions. He had no peace at home. And he finds out on the same day that the criminal he finally caught and shot is his own brother who was only faking stupidity and was actually after revenge, and he dies in his arms and right after this major tragedy he finds out his mother's corpse and deducts that he killed his own brother while his own brother was trying to avenge their mother's murder.
Anyway at first he goes berserk and kills his mother's murderer (who happens to be Shunji's elder brother) and then takes on the task of revenge. But along the way he finds out that the Korean independence has a valid claim and starts to work for the resistance, defending the ones who cannot defend themselves, trying to protect people from Japanese agression.
Shunji also was not a happy child. His father distant, his brother a facist psychopath he felt lonely and unloved. Nobody actually paid much attention to him. He is a gentle soul who liked to teach and put his rather remarkable intelligence for the benefit of children and people close to him. However when his brother is killed in front of him (by Gaksital) the weakness in his character emerged. He turned to the dark side torturing and killing people, alianeting the friends who once loved and respected him.
While Kang to's sufferings turned him good, Shunji's sufferings turned him bad. They both love the same woman who also has more than one name Pun Yi and Mok Dan and Esther
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She actually is the daughter of a famous resistance fighter and she is also a valuable member of the resistance. She is Kang to's first love but neither recognise each other as grown ups (there is a dagger which Kang to gave to Pun Yi and that is how they knew who is who). Shunji knew her as Esther (her catholic name) when she worked as a nurse and helped his nanny get treated.
Of course Esther loves her first love and Gaksital (who she thinks is her first love) and hates Kang to in the first episodes but loves him fiercely and with a good brain in her head after he finds out everything about him. Mok Dan's mother died while they are trying to escape from Korea to find Dad in China (since he is a resistance fighter Mok Dan saw her mother often tortured by the Japanese police to try to learn his whereabouts), the only time she was a little bit happy with Kang to ended up they being attacked and torn apart (Kang to separated from her in order to divert the soldiers' attention away from her and save her). Later her father and she were always apart and she is officially and emotionally adopted by incognito resistance figthters. Growing up here and there hiding away and in fear. And then her dad dies running away from Japanese (it was a very touching scene and I got most of my cries from Damsari, Mok Dan's dad) and still she didn't turn evil. And then the poor thing died on her wedding day. I'm still tearful about it.
We have another lady called Ueno Rie
This is our hero wearing the Gaksital (Korean bridal mask) acted by Joo Won, and he is also called Gaksital when wearing the mask. This hero has many identities and names so normally
He looks like this and is called Lee Kang to. His father has passed away when he was young and he worked hard as a rickshaw puller to put his elder brother through University. Also he works for the Japanese Police during Japanese occupied Korea.
He doesn't have any emotional or ideological values. He took a shot in being the best he can, earn money, do a job he likes and does well and is loyal to the Japanese who feed him. Partly because in his pragmatic view there is not a better life for a Korean at the time and maybe he wanted to help out to his mother and brother who acts like he is mentally challenged (after torture at the hands of Japanese police) but is actually Gaksital who helps out opressed Korean citiziens but has the ultimate agenda to kill the men who betrayed their father (who was given the task to take King and Queen out of the country but the royals were killed and he had to escape to China and on the road he was assasinated by a secret organisation who he has refuses to be a part of). This hyung, while being sad that his kid brother is pro Japanese and actually catches freedom fighters and hunts down Gaksital, does not share him his burdens and one day gets killed by Kang to who only knows him as Gaksital. And he was trying to avenge the murder of their mother at the time too. Anyway Kang to is actually Lee Young and at his childhood he has met and a loved a young girl called Pun Yi who mother has died and she was looking for her father in China so joined their family who was running away from Korea to China at the time.
Of course it was not easy for Kang to to become a policeman while being a Korean. His best friend and helper is a Japanese man who is pro Korean and a very nice guy who is called Kimura Shunji acted very nicely by Park Ki Woong,
Who was like this at the beginning
And slowly turned psycho as the show progressed and turned into this
Kimura Shunji is the other side of the coin. Our villain of Greek tragedy proportions.
One of the things I like best in a story is the choices the characters make and how they end up based on these choices.
Kang to had a hard life. He not only had to perform hard physical labour at a young age but also the brother he invested in turned out to be mentally challenged and his mother who of course loves Kang to but nevertheless is not happy with his pro Japanese actions. He had no peace at home. And he finds out on the same day that the criminal he finally caught and shot is his own brother who was only faking stupidity and was actually after revenge, and he dies in his arms and right after this major tragedy he finds out his mother's corpse and deducts that he killed his own brother while his own brother was trying to avenge their mother's murder.
Anyway at first he goes berserk and kills his mother's murderer (who happens to be Shunji's elder brother) and then takes on the task of revenge. But along the way he finds out that the Korean independence has a valid claim and starts to work for the resistance, defending the ones who cannot defend themselves, trying to protect people from Japanese agression.
Shunji also was not a happy child. His father distant, his brother a facist psychopath he felt lonely and unloved. Nobody actually paid much attention to him. He is a gentle soul who liked to teach and put his rather remarkable intelligence for the benefit of children and people close to him. However when his brother is killed in front of him (by Gaksital) the weakness in his character emerged. He turned to the dark side torturing and killing people, alianeting the friends who once loved and respected him.
While Kang to's sufferings turned him good, Shunji's sufferings turned him bad. They both love the same woman who also has more than one name Pun Yi and Mok Dan and Esther
She actually is the daughter of a famous resistance fighter and she is also a valuable member of the resistance. She is Kang to's first love but neither recognise each other as grown ups (there is a dagger which Kang to gave to Pun Yi and that is how they knew who is who). Shunji knew her as Esther (her catholic name) when she worked as a nurse and helped his nanny get treated.
Of course Esther loves her first love and Gaksital (who she thinks is her first love) and hates Kang to in the first episodes but loves him fiercely and with a good brain in her head after he finds out everything about him. Mok Dan's mother died while they are trying to escape from Korea to find Dad in China (since he is a resistance fighter Mok Dan saw her mother often tortured by the Japanese police to try to learn his whereabouts), the only time she was a little bit happy with Kang to ended up they being attacked and torn apart (Kang to separated from her in order to divert the soldiers' attention away from her and save her). Later her father and she were always apart and she is officially and emotionally adopted by incognito resistance figthters. Growing up here and there hiding away and in fear. And then her dad dies running away from Japanese (it was a very touching scene and I got most of my cries from Damsari, Mok Dan's dad) and still she didn't turn evil. And then the poor thing died on her wedding day. I'm still tearful about it.
We have another lady called Ueno Rie
Photo credit: http://sweetmissfifi.blogspot.com.tr
Her family died when she was 9 years old and she had to be a Gisaeng (a high level prostitute) and then later when she refused to serve an old Japanese man since it was the her father's death day, she was almost killed. She is first saved by Kang to (then working for Japanese police in earnest) and then the Japanese man took her with him to Japan and adopted her. This part is very creepy since I think there was a sexual relation between them but she called her father and he introduced her to everyone as his daughter. Anyway she is in love with Kang to but alas that could never be for a lot of reasons. She is a survivor this one, a logical, calculating woman who likes power above anything else but in the end just when I thought she was going to die (in the hands of either Shunji or the old man) she actually managed to get out of that life and had a chance to build a new life for herself. She also released the poor bodyguard who was in love with her and wanted to come with her but she said it is not very nice to love and constantly be with someone who doesn't and will not love him back. I thought that was a good unselfish start to her new life.
In the end Shunji committed suicide and Kang to continued to be an active part of resistance movement.
Now this show was a nationalistic show. All the Japanese were either bad or stupid or both. The not so nationalist Koreans either saw the light in the end or died horrible deaths. I'm not nationalistic but I hate facsism and am a child of a country who actually fought and won against invaders. So it was not possible for me not to feel sympathetic towards our resistance fighters.
All in all this show is gold and I am very glad I watched it.
Edit : And I loved the soundtrack and listened to it while writing this post.
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