This is my take on the evils in Episode 5.

I must admit that it takes me quite a while to appreciate the craftsmanship of the Hong sisters because, like you all, I get distracted by the romantic antics of OhGong and SunMi.

But as phikyl and I have said somewhere in our exchange of replies here, the Hong sisters are on a whole different level when it comes to their script. There are several seemingly disjointed things happening at the same time — which you don’t realize are actually interconnected, until much later on.

The show’s like a giant jigsaw puzzle. You can see the big picture EASILY only when the “negative space” becomes defined and you recognize which “knobs” fit into which “holes.”

credit: mycustomer

I think Episode 5 is prime example of this interconnection.

For instance, we started off with Mawang at a historical museum to hand over a 1930s film. On the way out, he encountered a ghost of a lowly woman who, he pointed out to his Secretary Ma, was the authentic owner of some general’s sword. Cynically, he added that the lowly servant was the real hero who saved the country, not the famous general.

At the end of the episode, we see SunMi’s assistant, HanJoo, receiving a special commendation for capturing the motel owner who installed hidden cameras in the motel rooms. Did you see that? Hanjoo was very much like the general who received a dubious award and recognition for something he did NOT do.

We all know that it was OhGong who blew magic dust (like Peter Pan) to make Hanjoo fly through air and land on the fleeing motel owner. OhGong, like the ghost of the lowly woman, was the true hero. It was he who found the hidden camera and stopped the escape. But it was another person who was given the credit.

That was the backdrop of this whole story of the grandmother/ Japanese collaborator/ Korean freedom fighter.

The grand doyenne was being given an award for her work in the independence of Korea when, in reality, the award should have gone to the GHOSTS of the freedom fighters who died nameless (like the ghost of lowly woman) and unheralded (like OhGong). The real freedom fighters’ unseen and untold deeds – or the “negative spaces” in a puzzle – have actually become clearer now that the Korean society is beginning to see the big picture of their history under the Japanese occupation. The society owns a debt of gratitude to the real heroes, but the awards and accolades are given to the wrong people.

See the subtlety and subversiveness of the Hong sisters at work here? 

Another example of interconnection in Episode 5 is found between the demon found in the motel rooms and the evil soul of Akiko, the kimono child. They’re related. 

If you notice, the demon in the motel rooms had no mouth. That was by design.

pic credit: dramabeans

That’s because the evil is SECRECY. First, the clientele of the motel was involved in illicit love affairs and clandestine liaisons. Second, the motel owner was involved in illegal videotaping with the intent to blackmail his guests. The dirty actions of both the owner AND his guests thrived under the cloak of secrecy. They aren’t “spoken” aloud or discussed in public. No mouth, no mouthpiece.  (Clever imagery, right?)

Same thing with the evil in the guise of the Kimono child. It’s secrecy again.

Mawang actually said the word when he saw the donated museum pieces. He said that a number of the artifacts might hide terrible secrets, and then we saw the ghost/soul of the Kimono child smirking in the dark. She represented secrecy or the suppression of truth.

The eight-year kimono girl was proud to be associated with Japan. Even though she was Korean, she had a Japanese name and dressed up like a Japanese. She refused to speak Korean even when ordered by SunMi.

She rejected being Korean.

She also treasured the award given by the emperor, keeping it hidden in her dresser.

That child is the shameful past of the present-day grandmother of a future presidential candidate. She didn’t want anybody to know about her family’s dark ties with Japan so she tried to keep it hidden.

Literally and figuratively, the shameful past, in the form of Akiko, was playing hide-and-seek with the present time. 

The young 8-year soul of the grandmother wanted to keep her family’s collaboration secret so she got rid of everybody who knew the truth. First, she got rid of the bodyguard and the museum curator, then killed SunMi, and, ultimately, even turned against her own self.

That’s why I thought the the grandmother’s bequest of a VANITY dresser was such an apt metaphor. She was excessively vain — or proud of her ignominious family — for collaborating with Japanese back then and for reinventing themselves as patriotic citizens of the new society.

Both are creepy medals: one for being fake, the other one for being real.  

As vain as she was of her family, she didn’t foresee that the sins of her father child would eventually catch up with the children her.An aside: I hope this poor child didn’t get a nightmare after her appearance in this drama. 

Now, the last thing I want to point out here is the movie/film part. I kept this till the end because 1) it’s purely speculation and 2) I’m leaving up to you to decide whether there’s basis for this or not.

Last year in March, there was this big brouhaha when actor Kang Dong Won’s great-grandfather was found to be a Japanese collaborator, and KDW tried to suppress the news. What triggered the incident was a report, published on or around March 1 which was Korea’s Independence Movement Day from Japan. The report supposedly listed famous actors’ ancestors as being pro-Japan or freedom fighters during the Japanese Occupation. KDW’s great-grandfather was on the list of traitors. It also didn’t help KDC that a decade ago, in 2007, (see? netizens are good about researching this), he praised his great-grandfather as a “great man.”

Now, it’s entirely possible that KDW didn’t know the source of his ancestor’s wealth or the extent of said ancestor’s support and participation in the Japanese occupation. But in 2017, what exacerbated the issue for KDW was not his 2007 praise to his great-grandfather, but his ATTEMPT to keep everything secret about his great-grandfather’s collaboration. After the report became big news, he and his agency, YG Entertainment (the same as Big Bang) tried to do “damage control” by claiming that this report was defamatory and that it had to be removed from the internet sites.

Being a Washingtonian, I know that it’s not the original scandal that gets people in trouble, but the attempted cover-up of the scandal. The netizens were in an uproar over KDW’s actions and demanded that he REFLECT on the past and acknowledge the truth. The vanity dresser metaphor again: he should take a good look at the man in the mirror.

The ironic thing was KDW had an upcoming movie that time about the 1987 student protests and the pro-democracy movement.

Dispatch investigated this on its own and you can read the translation of their findings here:

http://netizentown.blogspot.com/2017/03/dispatch-investigation-on-kang-dong-won.html

Again: I’m speculating here that there’s a connection between KDW mess and Episode 5. But I wouldn’t be surprised if the Hong sisters, given their awareness of social and cultural conventions, did use Mawang’s film award and OhGong and SunMi’s theater date night, to poke fun at the vanity of vanities.

“Open your eyes! Open your eyes.” pic credit: kdrama coolonlinereview

 

-edited 2/5/18 KDC to KDW. Thanks, Oppa’s Goddess.