Haneuljae
Murder
하늘재 살인
MBC (2013) 1 Hour Drama Special
Historical Romance, Grade: A
Korean Drama Review by Jill, USA
(Warning: Full Spoilers)
~~~~~~~~~~
Part of
a series of ten drama specials that station MBC in
Korea produced in 2013, which were supposed to
showcase unusual or forbidden love relationships, Haneuljae
Murder lasted only a little over an hour and the
action takes place during and right after the Korean
War, when Korea's people were eking out an existence,
and even finding food to eat was a daily challenge,
much less finding true love. It's yet another "Noona
Romance" (older woman, younger man) that the Koreans
seem to love so much.
Starring young actors Seo Kang Joon (Watcher,
I'll
Go To You When The Weather Is Nice, Cheese
In The Trap) and Lee Se Young (The
Crowned Clown, Memorist),
with older actress Moon So Ri (The
Legend, Legend
of the Blue Sea) basically stealing the
limelight in the production with her fine acting
skills, it was written by Park Eun Mi who also wrote
the Sci-Fi drama Circle:
Two Worlds Connected, and her mind
certainly does not work in traditional
script-writing ways, judging by these two dramas! I
will be giving full spoilers here (something I
rarely do) because of some of the more sensitive
material in the script. You can then make your own
choice whether or not you want to watch this strange forbidden
love story.
A Wedding With A Twist
The
Story:
A timid but kind Korean War widow named Jung Bun
(Moon So Ri) has worked hard for years trying to
survive in an impoverished country, raising her
one daughter named Mi Soo (Lee Se Young), while
also trying to care for her mentally fragile older
sister named In Bun (Shin Dong Mi). In Bun had
become brain damaged during the war when a bomb
fell near her and almost killed her, and did kill
her own little daughter at the time. At certain
moments it comes out that mentally damaged In Bun
blames Jung Bun for her daughter's death, even
though Jung Bun had
actually tried to save her life when the bomb
fell. At times when she panics In Bum is only
comforted when they give her a rag doll to play
with, a doll that her daughter had loved when she
was alive.
Whenever something upsets her, like a
reconnaissance plane flying overhead, which
reminds her of the turbulent war period they had
just barely managed to survive, poor motherly Jung
Bun has her work cut out for her to calm her down.
Every day, trying to feed and clothe and house
both her daughter and this troubled sister over
the years, without the help of a man, Jung Bun
works tirelessly and sacrificially to try and give
them as normal a life as possible.
Then
Jung Bun's daughter meets a young man at
school, a recent transfer student named Yoon
Ha (Seo Kang Joon), whom she seems intrigued
by. After school they walk a country lane
together, and suddenly Jung Bun and In Bun
appear and approach them. By the looks on Jung
Bun's and Yoon Ha's faces we sense they have
met before, and that both remember each other
vividly.
In flashbacks we learn that Jung Bun had saved
Yoon Ha's life during the war when he was a
starving orphan (child actor Sung Yoo Bin
takes this role, and I remembered him playing
Jo In Sung's character when young in It's
Okay, That's Love), and he had
fallen into stealing food to survive,
including the food Jung Bun had sold at
market.
After a
confrontation, out of gratitude for forgiving him
his theft, Yoon Ha helps her sell her food at
market better than she had been doing, cleverly
showing her how to acquire new customers by being
more dramatically loud and boisterous than the
other peddlers, and in turn she continues to feed
him so that he will no longer starve to death
without someone to take care of him. Then for some
unknown reason Jung Bun stops coming to the
market. Yoon Ha feels deserted by this mother
figure he has grown to care for, but decides to
take school more seriously from then on, to
improve his lot in life, even planning on becoming
a teacher someday.
It is obvious
when they meet again years later that Yoon Ha has
developed more than simple fond, thankful feelings
for Jung Bun; he has, in fact, fallen deeply in
love with her, in his own quiet way, due to her
continued sweetness and kindness toward him.
Daughter Mi Soo doesn't catch on for quite some
time about their repressed feelings for one
another.
Yoon Ha as a male helps the family out more,
bringing them fruit to eat, helping with household
chores, even showing the ladies how to use a gun
if ever the time came that they would need to
protect themselves when he was not around.
However, Jung Bun is only too aware that her
daughter has fallen in love with Yoon Ha. She also
senses that Yoon Ha doesn't love her daughter. She
suddenly and secretly moves her family away from
their cottage, and Yoon Ha feels deserted yet
again by the woman he loves.
Time passes. Yoon
Ha graduates teacher college, gets a teaching job;
then when Mi Soo, who also became a teacher,
begins to teach at the same school he does, they
start to date tentatively. It's obvious that Yoon
Ha feels the only way Jung Bun won't disappear out
of his life again is if he marries Mi Soo. After
some delay the wedding finally takes place. When
the vows are exchanged the new groom is encouraged
by the priest to hug his new mother-in-law, and he
does so, and suddenly whispers to her, "Now we can
never be parted." Uh oh. You know trouble is on
the horizon!
Of course events
don't go smoothly after the wedding. One night
Yoon Ha overhears Jung Bun talking about a moment
when she was young, when she and her sister In Bun
had had a happy time together on a picnic in the
woods, playing with their dolls. During a
community treasure hunt, while Mi Soo is watching
children, Yoon Ha suddenly grabs Jung Bun's arm
and shows her a place in the woods where he had
recreated that happy scene for her, with handmade
picnic tables and chairs, and cute dolls to play
with. She is very touched. He tells her to dwell
there and get some rest for awhile until the
treasure hunt is over.
Jung Bun ends up falling asleep under a tree.
Fatefully, Yoon Ha returns, and seeing Jung Bun
sleeping so soundly, and looking so peaceful and
content, he lays down next to her, stares at her
lovingly, and touches her hand. Then he falls
asleep too. Mi
Soo then happens upon her mother and Yoon Ha
sleeping side by side under the tree, with
Yoon Ha holding Jung Bin's hand. The light
bulb finally goes off in Mi Soo's head, and
she eventually confronts her mother, who is at
a loss what to do or say to calm her down.
Then Jung Bun's own disturbed sister In Bun
takes the gun Yoon Ha had given the family and
shoots Jung Bun in a wild, jealous fury,
screaming again that she was responsible for
her own little daughter's death. As she lays
dying, Yoon Ha runs to her and holds her in
his arms, telling her he loves her, and when
she passes on he puts the gun to his head and
shoots himself dead.
Mi Soo and her
mentally ill Aunt obviously bury their two bodies
in the woods, along with items that were important
to them in life. In the final shocking
moment of the story both of them SPIT on their
graves ... and walk away laughing! Goodness
gracious! Jung Bun had sacrificially taken care of
both of them for years, and had never once acted
on her feelings for the boy. There had never even
been a kiss. Now ... just who were the REAL
"twisted" ones in this story?
It's rather
difficult to track down this haunting 2013 drama
special, only substandard clips are available in
the obvious places and without English subs, but I
did find a full HD print of it with English
subtitles, but the audio was severely out of sync
with the actor's mouths. I fixed that and you can
come watch it if you join
our message board; we often privately share
our rare goodies with one another there.
I liked this
special because it's unusual to see a drama where
an older woman struggles to survive but still
appears attractive enough for someone younger to
fall in love with her. Jung Bun's life had been
harder than most people's, and she took what
little joy she could get in life before it was
over, in small ways. Entirely understandable, in
my opinion as an older fan. There was some
criticism from younger fans toward this drama, of
course. Someday young people will be older, too,
and hopefully wiser, seeing with their hearts, and
not just with their eyes. In my opinion, left to
their own devices, without interference from
family members, Jung Bun and Yoon Ha could have
found their own way to live together in peace;
despite the age difference they were obviously
crazy about each other, but in the social norms of
that time their relationship would definitely have
been frowned upon by their contemporaries.