The Legend Of The Blue Sea (2016)
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Starring: Lee Min Ho, Jun Ji Hyun, Shin Wo Ho
Seen: early 2019
I have always been a sucker for the supernatural! I love a good werewolf story, demons, origins of the belief in vampires, different kinds of monsters.... you get my point (yes I read the Twilight Saga, yes I was obsessed with it, yes I kind of regret it now, no that's not where my interest in the subject came from). I have never been a mermaid lover however, I impersonated one instead. Always loved splashing around in the water as a kid ^^ What caught my attention about this drama was probably a mix between the mermaid lead character, reincarnations between two different historical times and Lee Min Ho. This is the second drama I saw with Lee Min Ho. How I navigate which dramas I watch usually starts with the actors. Do I recognize them, I'll check the drama out. That's why/how I found this drama at all. It's also thanks to this show that Jun Ji Hyun became one of my favorite Korean actresses too~
Storyline summary:
The Ledgend of the Blue Sea is a love story between Heo Joon Jae, a con-man and the son of a rich businessman, and the mermaid Shim Cheong. The story is parallel between modern time and their Joseon ear incarnations - town head Kim Dam Ryeong and mermaid Se Hwa. It's a story about rebirth, fate, unrequired love and love beyond worlds. Being a fish on dry land isn't easy, even Ariel said that, but with a loved one by your side it gets a little easier.
The story was inspired by the historical tale "Eou Yadam" by the scholar Yu Mong In, recorded from the Joseon-era. This drama was the last one in which Lee Min Ho acted before entering his mandatory two-year military service and also the first in which Jun Ji Hyun took a role after giving birth to her first child.
First impression:
I'm going to start with the intros, because they definitely deserve some recognition. When Joon Jae sits on the beach and you see the mermaid swimming in the stary sky was my favorite. I love watching the starts in the sky as well as the sound of waves so that combo was really beautiful to me. The one in Joseon era when he’s sitting in a small boat with a lantern reaching for her hand in the water was so touching. I felt like that one fit the general feeling of the story best, even if I personally liked the beach one best.
I also really liked the underwater scenes! I feel like a lot of people would say this. They were so well acted, I can't believe how she could keep her eyes open like that! I'd be a disaster trying to act under water if I had to keep my eyes open! Heck no! Ouch! I do, however, think that the mermaid outfit really shouldn't have looked like a costume. It was so sad. You could very clearly see it was a costume and even if it's obvious to an adult eye that it was, it still shouldn't look obvious in my opinion. The texture of her tail extended to her chest and it looked like one of those cozy mermaid blankets you can buy now adays, but made with stiffer material. She'd just slipped right into it, no more work with it done. It wasn’t slick against her skin, following her curves as she swam, it wasn’t scale-y like fish and the skin beneath the bodice showed. It was pretty, but not very well made. That was a bit sad, since her mermaid persona was the whole plot of the show they could've put a little more effort into her mermaid look, I feel like.
I found Shim Cheong really charming. She's utterly genuine. She had absolutely no clue about anything on land, or about humans and their daily lives. She was so cringe, so embarassing and she didn't care at all. She didn't know about it. It was funny and while, yes, cringy, sweet. She tried! Kudos for that. Jun Ji Hyun was the perfect fit for this character, even if I generally think that she fits better with more mature characters - that's the impression I got from her as a person and thus it balances a bit. Shim Cheong does mature while on land, and it's a nice thing to see how you can fit into an enivronment just because you want to. It's up to you whether you fit in or not and I think she learns that very well. It's a bit inspiring.
A big part of this drama is the relationship. Sure, that's usually the focus in a romance but this drama showed the evolvement of love between these characters in a less "every single romance movie" way. It was sweet to see Joon Jae gradually fall for Shim Cheong. In the beginning he probably found her on the edge of annoying, concidering her strangeness, but after some time it was like seeing small, white pebbles drop whenever his eyes shined at the sight of her. I loved the touch of how he could hear her thoughts more and more as he fell for her. That was an epic eternal love detail. Some would probably find it too much, I found it gave a different kind of depth to their love story. It was hilarious when she was thinking all night and he was just dying for her to shut up, it was sweet when he could hear her distressed thoughts and came to comfort her and it was heartbreakingly beautiful when she came back after having erased everyone's memories and he could still hear her. When she realized that, I cried. Omg I cried. That was such a relief! I hated that she erased everyone's memories, it was very unnecissary and it was just heartbreaking for her to go back without them knowing it. She didn't have to do that, she could just have said she'd be away for a while, or tell them the truth even. She spent so much time meeting those people and becoming friends with them all to just earse herself completely from her? It’s similar to the attitude of Do Min Joon in My love from the star (review coming!), that all the people he met were nice but the story was portrayed in the way that it seemed like they didn't matter at all. It was only the lovers who actually mattered. It was a comfort that she couldn't take away the little girl, her friend's, memories though. It was a curious touch to add the assumption that she was a mermaid too in her past life. I love that. It would've been perfection if they had a little epilogue with a scene of her in mermaid form, like a confirmation. Maybe a flashback to the Joseon era where she and Shim Cheong swims together. One can dream~
Cultural imput:
A big part of the Korean culture is the hierarcy system. Age is very important in Korea and it's an old historical herritage they've kept. This system isn't unique to Korea, but more to general East asia. I have a Japanese friend who while being in my home country as an exchange student, quite strongly exclaimed how much he hated his own culture when it came to the age part. He put it as that 'it puts a wall between me and people older than me, I can't make friends with them only because they're older than me'. He repeated time and time again how much he though it was "f*cking awsome" that it didn't matter to us. He could be friends with me, for example, even if he was a year older than me. It didn't make us any different from each other. For me, age doesn't matter. Manners does, but they're not automatically demanded to be "more" just because someone older is present. Respect is something you earn, not something you can demand either and so is politness, kind of. If you are being rude, you can expect to get a rude approch back. So, here, you can be friends with who ever you want to be. Nobody is going to pay it any attention if there's an age gap between you. This little detail, they kind of... not ignore per say but lessen in this drama. Shim Cheong befriends a little preschool girl, in a very funny way, sure but nonetheless. If you are familiar with how the Korean hierachy speech system works, you'll notice that the little girl is being formal to Shim Cheong, but I'm not focusing on that here since I know that she'd be in big trouble if she wasn't being polite....
Shim Cheong treats this little girl like a friend, not only like "a little sister" but a genuine friend. She hangs out with the elementary school kid when she’s in need of life advice. The irony of the age reversal is poignant and quite funny~ I adore how she comes to Yoo Na's Christmas graduation (I think it is..?). It was a big sign on support that I appreciated for and with Yoo Na. Especially when Heo Yoon Jae and his con-friends also showed up. They were there as Yoo Na's family, when her real one never showed up.
From my personal interpretations of the Korean culture, as well as spending time with my Korean friends (who btw, are all older than me), this situation isn't that common. Befriending over ages, sure, but it's not called friendship, exactly. The word for "friend" in Korean is the same as the word for "same age". Therefore, you are not allowed to call anyone who isn't the same age as you the word "friend" (친구 chingu). You'll use honorific titles such as 형 (hyeong - big brother from a male's perspective), 누나 (nuna - big sister from a male's perspective), 오빠 (oppa - big brother from a female's perspective) and 언니 (eonni - big sister from a female's perspective). And no, I don't call my Korean friends "언니" - none of us want me to call them that (and I'm obviously not Korean either so).
I found this inspiring, how she is so genuine - knowing or unknowing of the way on land. It seems to be just the way she is in her peson. She also makes friends with a homeless woman, someone who is among the people who usually gets ignored in society. Some people would probably call Shim Cheong naïve and crazy for continuing talking to the homeless woman, but it gives out a message that even homeless and dirty people are indeed people. There are a lot of stereotypes of homeless people, them all being drunks and/or junkies but even though that sadly is true for many, it's not the case for everyone. The cover is not the book, so open it up and take a look. I keep saying this and I stand by that you shouldn't tar everyone with the same brush. Shim Cheong definitely doesn't.
The classic "and they lived happily ever after" ending fit this drama like a koala in a tree and it was overall a very sweet drama. It has a lot of humor in it and some goldshine moments crossing over social boarders and unwritten rules.
Until next review~ 안녕~
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