It depicts the tragic romance between Joseon’s first Soprano Yun Sim-deok & the genius playwright,Kim U-jin. The final goodbye is as tragic as beautifully picturised. The opening sequence leaves no mystery & yet it is no less painful.
I kept on thinking of the dutiful wife who had married him without meeting him. In all the Asians it is a norm or was that the parents decided the bride or the groom. The match was suitable if the parents approved. What if the star-crossed lovers had met before his marriage ? Would the wealthy family allow their daughter-in-law to sing in front of unknown men? This was the objection his father raised. So it would have been smothering one more individual.
He wished his son to handle the company being the eldest son. Would it be easier if he was the second or the third son? When he lost his mother when he was five, he still missed her at 25. He fell ill regularly at that time of the year. Oblivious to his son’s needs his father had married many times… he tells her so.
But when the son chooses someone other than the wife it is not done. Marrying him off before he completes his education was wrong. In another country, if he falls for a beautiful girl, who is oblivious of his being married, is just something that happens. He never told her.
Her family asking her for money. Her father also pressuring her to earn to send her younger brother & sister to study abroad! If you can’t afford why have such dreams? Dream high..Fine ! Do it on your own not at the cost of the elder sister slogging off.. They have the audacity to question her how she made the money!
Can they not know their own sister being a honest & loyal citizen of the country? The debatable points are many.. but it cost them their lives… whose fault is it anyway? Blaming a female for the deeds she has never done is so simple. A flick of the tongue & the reputation is ruined! She can’t sing because people believe she has a loose character. That she has made the deal with her body. So simple to blame & to spread such rumours.
He is away & not able to save her from this character assassination & feels bad for her. He who knows her from some five plus years but in the family they know her from their birth! Her siblings should have shown some respect for their “Unni’ at least! She is the sole bread earner & treated like dirt! She is to marry a wealthy heir who has promised money to send them abroad.. A deal?? Nobody cares for what she wishes to do?
It throws up a slew of questions, the answers are not so easy to give for today’s scenario. The state of lovers, the passion of the parents, the professions of singing & writing on the back burner… Who earn ? only those who are well known! Others starve..
Asian Entertainment 