[HanCinema's Drama Review] "The Full Sun" Episode 13

Yeong-won comes into her own this episode as far as personal agency goes. Instead of weeping in frustration at the sidelines, she insists on taking a personal stake in the greater storyline. This affects her character quite a bit. For most of this drama Yeong-won has just been a passive observer in a plot that she hasn't been allowed to participate in, because her family is pretty terrible about giving her confidence about anything except technical diamond work.

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Here, Yeong-won straight up apologizes for her own failures. Technically speaking, of course, Yeong-won's only fault has been placing trust in a family that doesn't deserve it. Coming from any other character this kind of assault on Yeong-won's character would be cruel and malicious. But from Yeong-won herself, the tone struck is a sad one. The woman has wanted to feel guilty about what happened to Woo-jin for so long, and it's only now that she can concretely say it was because of her that he met his untimely end.

While he musical score of "The Full Sun" is always strong, the emotive feelings it creates here are particularly plaintive and appropriate. Yeong-won (and Se-ro) are motivated less by anything that happens in the moment as they are by wishful memories of better times in their lives- moments they both know will probably never come back. The use of flashback is especially appropriate for this purpose, particularly since they don't last for very long.

Kang-jae, by contrast, is going to a much darker end. The man practically admits that he's fueled more by spite at this point than any constructive emotions. This is all a game to him, and he hates losing. The absurdity of all this is difficult to miss- Kang-jae is doing significant damage to the long-term relations of his entire team just for the sake of pulling off this job. He acts like a leader, not an emotional confidant, with awful implications for a team which is for the most part reasonably tied together by feelings of camaraderie.

The trouble with forgetting past mistakes is that they're never really stuck in the past. The events which destroyed the lives of Se-ro and Yeong-won appear to be repeating themselves, and the emotional damage seems inescapable regardless of what happens to the immediate short term scheme. These are the strengths that have made "The Full Sun" worth watching. This is a drama about the struggle of inevitability with no heroic undertones. They call it inevitability for a reason.

Review by William Schwartz

"The Full Sun" is directed by Bae Kyeong-soo, Kim Jung-hyun-III, written by Heo Seong-hye and features Yoon Kye-sang, Han Ji-hye and Cho Jin-woong.