[HanCinema's Drama Review] "The Full Sun" Episode 14

Take note of the rather anticlimactic car chase that opens the episode up. The characters are driving at moderately fast speeds. There's no real reason for this to turn into any kind of serious confrontation. And then, almost out of nowhere, something very serious happens that makes Kang-jae wonder what exactly he's even doing anymore. It's only for a brief moment, yet the sentiment remains. Kang-jae clearly has had multiple reasons to reconsider his course of action, yet stubbornly plows ahead anyway.

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There are lots of sad reminders here that the villains of "The Full Sun", however unlikable and unreasonable, are still human beings with real loving emotions. They just make a conscious decision to ignore these emotions for the sake of fulfilling a plan that they think will work in the long term. The obvious fallacy in this logic is rooted in the flashbacks. The last several long term strategies they conducted in the distant person have, in the long term, only succeeded in making Se-ro and Yeong-won miserable.

Se-ro and Yeong-won are not motivated particularly by justice, revenge, or even love. They've just been thoroughly beaten down and wrecked by their willingness to go along with whatever their families. The symbolism of the whistle is particularly potent- the only time either of these characters needs rescuing are in physically calm states of emotional brutality. That's when Se-ro and Yeong-won need someone to just care.

Their families understand this. Se-ro's gang of con artists is a bit better on this score. They at least seem to like each other, and are worried about the long term consequences of the fight between Se-ro and Kang-jae. But in the end they're simply not that helpful. There's a similar sense of helplessness in their efforts to convince Tae-oh to just ignore the problems for awhile until everything's solved. These families have finally realized the mess everything is in, and yet for the sake of their own protection they can only stop and try to wait it out.

What Kang-jae and Tae-oh simply don't get is that Se-ro and Yeong-won don't care about preserving themselves anymore. They've realized that the status quo is what's destroying their souls. As "The Full Sun" moves into its final moments, it increasingly seems like a moral victory is all they care about, and it's difficult to blame them. They can at least hold on to a moral victory. If they back down from this stand now, though, it's all over. They've accepted that their lives are awful and unchangable, and that lack of control has now become incorrigible.

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.