Oasis: Episodes 1-2

by Dramaddictally

Get ready for old school melodrama with an epic saga feel. Historical drama Oasis is gut-punching us back to the 70s and 80s to take on politics, family, friendships, and romance. If you’re not prepared to cry and throw things at your screen in a rage against injustice, then this one might not be for you. But with sympathetic characters, emotional breadth, and surprising turns in the story, I know I’m in it for the long haul.

 
EPISODES 1-2

I love this! I went in with low expectations and had them flipped upside-down. What I thought this drama was going to be about has already happened in the premiere week, and we are moving onto new territory. I’m stoked they didn’t drag out the criminal case storyline too long and I’m really excited for what’s next — because we still have room for a solid love story here.

Let’s dig in and hope I can do this justice without writing every single detail. I’ll start with the context. We’re in late 1970’s Korea, in the southern city of Yeosu, with political and economic conflict tearing into every frame.

Our two male leads, LEE DOO-HAK (Jang Dong-yoon) and CHOI CHEOL-WOONG (Choo Young-woo), are high school classmates, supposed best friends, and die-hard competitors. The truth of their relationship is that Doo-hak’s parents are servants on Cheol-woong’s parent’s farm.

Both boys are great at school, always coming in first and second place, but they have a mischievous streak that sometimes gets them into trouble. Aside from being paddled every once in a while when they’re late, they often have run-ins with a gang of bullies, headed by a thug named KI YOUNG-TAK (Jang Young-joon). We quickly learn that Young-tak mostly picks on Cheol-woong, but Doo-hak is a good fighter and always steps in for Cheol-woong.

One day, when the boys are cutting class to go to a movie theater, they meet our heroine, OH JUNG-SHIN (Seol In-ah). Her family owns the theater and she gets testy when she sees them trying to sneak in through the back without paying. Cheol-woong argues with her, but Doo-hak is instantly smitten. When she finally agrees to let them into the movie, she decides to join them — sitting in the middle and beginning our love triangle.

When the three leave the theater, they get chased by the bullies, and end up hiding in Cheol-woong’s family’s lumber yard. The scene does at least two things: it gives both boys a chance to accidentally hold onto Jung-shin at one point or another, and it lets us see that Jung-shin doesn’t need to be protected by either of them. She turns out to be argumentative (and good with a set of nunchucks), kicking the boys around physically and verbally. Of course, they both fall head over heels for her.

Later, Cheol-woong suggests he and Doo-hak should compete for Jung-shin if they both like her — though Doo-hak is skeptical of competing with Cheol-woong for anything due to the relationship between their families. Nonetheless, they seek out Jung-shin at her all-girls high school and ask her if she wants to date one of them. This results in a totally unnecessary, but much appreciated, few seconds of Choo Young-woo without a shirt on (don’t ask me how or why because even in a lineup of shower scenes this bit would seem gratuitous).

Jung-shin says she barely knows them but she’ll hang out with them as friends for the next year to decide which one she wants to date. Cheol-woong — true to his “I can’t lose” disposition — isn’t happy about this, but Doo-hak thinks it’s a good arrangement. This way, he can get close to Jung-shin without having to win against Cheol-woong. And so, our two troublemakers gain a third. Cue montage of super happy and fun times together.

Now, as we all know, super happy and fun times lead to nothing but heartbreak and turmoil. To set this up, we have to talk about both boys’ families. Cheol-woong comes from a political family, where his paternal grandfather is revered all over for being a leader in the Korean independence movement. The backstory is that Doo-hak’s father, LEE JOONG-HO (Kim Myung-soo), was a servant to Cheol-woong’s grandfather. However, the grandfather sent Joong-ho to school to learn to read and now Joong-ho feels eternally indebted to Cheol-woong’s family.

This puts Doo-hak in a terrible position. His father tells him he has to stop competing with Cheol-woong for grades — and he must never beat Cheol-woong at anything. Ever. Doo-hak wants to object, but then Joong-ho hands him a new pair of sneakers, since he’s been wearing ones with holes in them. No matter how conflicted he is, Doo-hak understands that his father is able to support their family because of Cheol-woong’s family.

All of this tension comes to a head when Doo-hak and Cheol-woong are meeting Jung-shin’s parents. Before they arrive, Doo-hak has just outranked Cheol-woong in class, coming in first place. So, Cheol-woong already has a bruised ego going in. Jung-shin’s dad asks the boys what their fathers do and smiles when he hears the name of Cheol-woong’s famous grandfather, but his face falls when he hears that Doo-hak’s dad is a farmer. When Jung-shin speaks up to defend Doo-hak, jealousy roars through Cheol-woong and he tells the story of their families’ history.

Jung-shin yells at Cheol-woong in front of everybody, but he plays innocent, saying he was just trying to show that Doo-hak has risen out of difficult circumstances. It’s clear from this moment forward that Jung-shin’s feelings are with Doo-hak. It’s also clear that Cheol-woong is a little more unstable than we were first led to believe. He’s not just a competitive prankster — he has deep-seated control issues and acts out when he doesn’t get his way.

These parts of Cheol-woong’s personality come out full strength after Doo-hak’s father forces him to transfer to an agricultural high school and give up studying for college. Without Doo-hak to defend him, Young-tak is beating up Cheol-woong all the time. On top of that, Jung-shin comes clean with her feelings for Doo-hak — laying a kiss on him while he’s working in a field (now there’s a dead-fish kiss I can approve of!). The two start dating and Cheol-woong becomes increasingly jealous, ignoring Doo-hak, who is still trying to be his friend.

After one occasion where Cheol-woong is beaten pretty badly, Doo-hak hunts down Young-tak, bruises him up, and then drags him to Cheol-woong, saying he wants Young-tak to apologize. Things don’t go as planned, though. Cheol-woong screams at Doo-hak for getting involved and then gets the crap kicked out of him again by Young-tak. As Young-tak is walking away to leave, Cheol-woong picks up a rock and bashes him in the head with it.

Young-tak collapses and the boys pick him up and run him to the hospital but it’s clear he’s going to die. Doo-hak suggests they turn themselves in immediately. Cheol-woong says no and that it’s all Doo-hak’s fault for bringing Young-tak to see him. Doo-hak admits he was wrong and Cheol-woong softens, saying he’s scared and he doesn’t know what to do. His family will be ruined if he’s charged with murder. Then he looks Doo-hak in the face and asks him to take the blame. He kneels in the rain, promising he’ll devote his life to Doo-hak when he becomes successful. Doo-hak is irate, asking why he should have to do that. “Is it fine for you to live and me to die?”

But as it turns out, he’s pressured by his own father to take the fall for Cheol-woong. In a pitiful scene, we see Cheol-woong and his mother begging Doo-hak’s father to save them. The next thing you know, Doo-hak is being escorted away in handcuffs as his mother and Jung-shin chase down the police car. At the hearing, Cheol-woong gets a fine and Doo-hak is sentenced to three to five years in prison. (Yeah, here’s your chance to cry and/or throw things.)

But before you think this story is too simple, let’s talk about the political intrigue that’s running in the background. Cheol-woong’s parents are on opposite sides of the ideological spectrum from each other. His father is an anti-dictatorship activist who wants Cheol-woong to take after his grandfather and fight for freedom. His mother is all about money and supports the status quo.

Around the same time the boys are getting to know Jung-shin, Cheol-woong’s mother, KANG YEO-JIN (Kang Kyung-hun), goes to visit her ex-beau, HWANG CHOONG-SUNG (Jeon No-min), and asks him for a favor (a.k.a. hands him a stack of cash). He will be running for the upcoming election and she wants him to nominate her husband for assemblyman in his political party. He agrees, and she goes home to tell her husband the good news.

Cheol-woong’s dad, CHOI YOUNG-SHIK (Park Won-sang), flips out when he hears what she wants him to do. She must be crazy if she thinks he going to work for a dictator. We learn — but Young-shik does not know — that Yeo-jin has been funding the party, and now that they say they’ll nominate him, he can’t turn it down or else they could come after the family.

And that’s exactly what happens. At first, Young-shik says he’ll run for office. But when he gathers all his supporters, he announces “together we’ll take down the dictatorial government.” Choong-sung has sent a spy into the meeting and learns quickly that Young-shik is planning to run as an independent. He also learns Young-shik is projected to win even without party backing. Choong-sung vows to destroy him “one bite at a time.”

And so, enter our tragedy with Cheol-woong and Doo-hak. Choong-sung pays the bully Young-tak to take a few hits from Cheol-woong so they can plant some dirt on Young-shik by turning his son into a criminal. Of course, nobody expected Cheol-woong to kill Young-tak — and certainly no one expected Doo-hak to take the rap. But due to Cheol-woong’s involvement in the crime, Young-shik decides to withdraw his campaign anyway.

After Doo-hak goes to prison, we get a four-year time skip. When we see our leads again, Jung-shin’s father has passed away and she’s dropped out of college to take over the theater. It’s in financial trouble and she’ll have to sign it over to her aunt if she can’t pay off her debts.

Cheol-woong is in college in Seoul, but has become heavily involved in the student movement, joining the pro-democracy protestors. One day, during a violent protest, he’s rounded up by riot police and one of them escorts him away from the rest of the crowd. When the “officer” takes off his gas mask, it’s actually Doo-hak, saving Cheol-woong from being arrested. He punches Cheol-woong in the face and says, “You clearly said you’d take responsibility for my life by becoming successful. Why are you out here trying so hard to get arrested?”

The two haven’t seen each other since Doo-hak went to prison and they go to talk at a café. Doo-hak tells Cheol-woong, “Our positions are different now. Back then my family owed you a debt. Now you owe me a debt.” To pay it, he wants Cheol-woong to stop protesting and study for the law exam to become a prosecutor.

At the mention of Jung-shin, Doo-hak can’t even look Cheol-woong in the face. When he went to prison, they didn’t break up right away and she continued to visit him. But when her father died and she quit school, he broke it off with her. Jung-shin called out his noble idiocy right away but he insisted, leaving her heartbroken and unable to see him again. At the end of this week’s episodes, we see Doo-hak enter into a criminal ring with a guy he met in prison who orchestrates real estate fraud. Afterward, he goes to watch Jung-shin from afar, clearly still in love.

How’s that for a premiere week? I’m so excited to see where this story goes. Episode 1 had me thinking this was a simple tale of good and evil. I was hating Cheol-woong and assuming he was going to be a villain throughout the drama. Maybe he will be, but at least now they’ve given the character some nuance by having him join the fight for democracy. We learn at the end that his father has passed away (my guess is: not from natural causes), and then we see him follow in his father’s and grandfather’s footsteps — against his mother’s position. This is a good setup for family turmoil to hug up against larger social issues.

His mother, unfortunately, has no nuance. She’s a clear villain here and the source of a lot of the tragedy that’s just unfolded. Had she not gone to see her ex and ask for that favor, her husband and son likely wouldn’t even be on his radar.

The loveliest thing about this drama is Doo-hak. Jang Dong-yoon fits this role and from start to finish he had me empathizing with his character without ever pitying him. I’m especially excited to see where this goes now that Doo-hak has grown so much in prison. He’s tougher, but doesn’t seem to have any hard feelings toward Cheol-woong — though it’s annoying that Cheol-woong doesn’t act overly thankful or guilty either.

I was worried this was going to be the kind of over-the-top melo that has me sticking around only to see the exceptionally pretty faces. But, in just two hours, I feel completely invested in these characters and what happens to them. If I could binge it, I would. Ugh, it’s going to be a tough wait until next week!

 
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