So, Red Sleeve Cuff (*blows nose and sighs)
What a beautiful drama! Every scene is like a painting. That lighting! Those colours! So much pretty! Junho’s face going through all sorts of heart-wrenching emotions!
And the soundtrack: poignant but understated.
I don’t find RSC a perfect drama by any means – I had loads of issues with eps 13 to 15, especially because I didn’t like some plotlines that needlessly relied on violence against women to create conflict. On the same note, I felt that drama was romanticising a relationship that was very much in coercion territory. Still, episodes 16 and 17 drew me in again. I ugly cried during long stretches of episode 17. Why is reality so sad? These people lost so much 😥
SPOILERS AHEAD:
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    I appreciated it that drama didn’t gloss over the fact that even if Deokim chooses to accept San, it is far cry from a free choice.
    Drama establishes that she loves him, but her feelings are conflicted and she’s well aware that the little autonomy she previously had is lost forever. I also loved it that instead if San, her friends – with whom she keeps on having a trusting relationship – are her emotional centre. I’m here for Deokim/Uibin being a complicated, self-aware person. I lost it when she said “When you see me the next life… just pass me by”.
    On the other hand, episode 17 dedicates a lot of time to San/Jeongjon’s perspective, it almost feels like a biopic. It’s sad, but probably true to his status as a king that he never got to really know Uibin as a real person because there was so much she couldn’t express next to him. Besides, his responsibilities – and even the way court life was organised – simply meant his focus had to be somewhere else. Him forgetting about her for decades feels like honest storytelling.
    This approach to their story is actually less disappointing for me than the romanticised version of previous episodes, because it feels more respectful of the historical characters and their reality. So, for me, RSC ended on a beautiful, 3-hour-long high note.

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      I look at their relationship as a most-likely realistic (I measure my words in this way because one can never really know how life and relationships were like in the past) romance for that time, considering differences in gender, rank, and social status. Some audiences might have been disappointed by Yi-san’s behavior or Deok-im’s luke-warm response to the romantic relationship, but I think I am okay with these elements. Too often, modern sensibilities are injected into period pieces from any culture; so I think it can be shocking to some people to see such a different portrayal in a modern work. I felt for both parties in this relationship, and I cried for Deok-im. Even Yi-san’s seeming indifference or blindness to her real sadness once she becomes his concubine, while disheartening, is probably more realistic…I don’t know.

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        Same here! I definitely connected a lot more with the characters these last episodes, and they made me look back and understand better the characters’ previous actions

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          Yes the last two episodes actually tried to show how the dramas was never a romantic fairytale. I just wish they had done some of this before. And totally second both of your views. San’s indifference for DI after they were together and him forgetting her all felt realistic.

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      I have lots of issues with this drama—maybe more than you do—but I do think that they loved each other as they were portrayed *in the drama*. And I actually think the Senior Court Lady was right when she said that San ignoring her in the next life was just a kind of petty denial that hid her true feelings. In fact, I kind of think her asking him to walk by her in their next life might have a deeper significance. It may not be that she doesn’t want to be with him in their hypothetical next lives. Maybe she does. But it’s that she wants to be the one making the choice to be with him in her hypothetical next life. If she is with him, she wants to be the one doing the pursuing.

      Ultimately, I think Deok-im’s life in this show is extremely sad. Her marriage is so deep in coercion and inequality that I’ve called it essentially legalized rape. Not because I deny she loved him—as mentioned above, I think she really did in this story—but rather because she never had power over her body or her relationships. There was always so much pressure brought to bear on her, and I fear it ultimately may not have mattered whether she loved him. It’s fortunate that she did, but she was always aware that in the final evaluation her wishes and her thoughts and her emotions were superfluous. When San said he couldn’t imagine her as anything other than a court lady, I cried.

      In the end, she never had choices. In the end, she lost two beloved children and close friend in the same year she died. Her life was so short. She never even got to see her baby boy before he succumbed to the measles.

      I also think that San, for all that he says he forgot her and didn’t think about her, spent the years after she died constantly thinking about her and just pretended otherwise. I think it was the only way he could go on.

      Episodes 9 through 16 really rubbed me the wrong way, but episode 17 was nice as well as sad. I can’t recommend the show because the dynamic between this OTP is just so poisonous. But I don’t regret watching this.

      I also just want to say that my bb Junho was so amazing in this show. There were so many scenes where he gave me literally chills. For example, in the last episode, when Sun passed away, when Deok-im passed away, when Bugyori praised him, when he spoke with the Senior Court Lady, when he opened the box with Deok-im’s belongings and reminisced about their lives together and hugged her court lady hanbok—these were all scenes where his acting was amazing. I look forward to bb’s next drama, though I hope he chooses a better script (lol)

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        “It may not be that she doesn’t want to be with him in their hypothetical next lives. Maybe she does. But it’s that she wants to be the one making the choice to be with him in her hypothetical next life. If she is with him, she wants to be the one doing the pursuing.”

        That is an interesting interpretation. Thanks for sharing. 🙂

        “I also think that San, for all that he says he forgot her and didn’t think about her, spent the years after she died constantly thinking about her and just pretended otherwise. I think it was the only way he could go on.”

        I second that opinion.

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        We all agree that the drama is flawed, and yet here we are talking about it. When a story engages me enough to start thinking about the characters’ motivations and what their lives could have been outside the narrative, that’s a drama high. I’m happy that I get to share it with you, guys! 💚

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        The whole I forgot about her was for drama purposes. In fact, Jeongjo wrote her epitaph and visited her grave more almost 200 times, as it was recorded. So yes, he remembered her. As everything that was done in the drama, it was for San/Jeongjo’s motives.

        And URI bb Junho was amazing, even if I keep saying he had ups and downs in acting during the second half (I blame it not on him but on the weak script). He’s a born actor.

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      I haven’t visited DB in January, that’s why I’m late in my answer.
      My feelings are much yours. I was utterly disappointed by drama from episodes 11 to 15. I found the violent way San/Jeongjo was described to be totally unnecessary, specially as it was so romantised (that forced kiss was everything but romantic).
      But Junho was a great seller for the drama and we had to change the focus, leaving Deok Im and court ladies aside. Yes, they were there, but we learned so little about their real feelings and motivations.
      As I mentioned on the WWW post, I wished we had more of DI’s inner voice explaining why she felt that way.
      From the very beginning I understood her point of view, as well as I understood San (even the violence). As a reenactor and someone who loves history, I can place myself in the real context, and I could understand them both.
      But there were so many pieces out of context, like not having Queen Hyoiu (randomly mentioned from the first time when he learns DI is pregnant and deciding to spend the night with her, when during the whole drama the only Queen mentioned was Queen dowager), or not making it clear that Jeongjo never slept with Wobin, or making Deokro going mad because of his sister’s death and being expelled for the whole torturing court ladies when there were political reasons and mainly his corruption…
      History was far better than this horrible, terribly and lazy writing.

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        “History was far better than this horrible, terribly and lazy writing.” This! Such a missed opportunity with this drama

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    @sicarius because…this one has nuance and if I had time, I’d join in.

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