“Red Sleeve” (2021) is one of those kdramas, like “Twenty-Five, Twenty-One” that has the (dis)honor of getting the epithet “k-trauma.” According to google ai, there are the four reasons for the audience’s discontent. I’ll go over them briefly, then show how “To My Beloved Thief” (TMBF) resolves those issues. First, a brief note on the […]
To My Beloved Thief: On Sartorial Elegance
No doubt I’m not the only one who noticed the lovely hanboks of the Grand Prince. But instead of merely gushing over them, I’ll do a deep dive into the extra layers they add to the story. I’ll do the first four episodes because that’s all the time I have now. Episode 1 Seeing his […]
To My Beloved Thief: Ep 16 On HEA, continued
There are some who quibble that the ending isn’t a happily-ever-after, so let me just go over some points. 1. Happiness is fleeting, but contentment is enduring. I get it. All fairy tales end with, “And they lived happily ever after,” so we’re conditioned to strive for happiness, and to set a yardstick or conditions […]
To My Beloved Thief: Ep 16 HEA
Updated: part 2 is here. To My Beloved Thief: Ep 16 On HEA, continued 🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸 All’s well that ends well. I just scrolled to the ending so I don’t know the full details. Be warned, though, I have a low bar for HEA. As long as she isn’t food for maggots, I’m satisfied. 🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸 To the […]
To My Beloved Thief: Ep 14 The “EunJo Effect”
I don’t do recaps as you know. But since we’re entering the final weekend of this kdrama, it’s about time to retrace our steps to see how we’ve arrived at this junction. Episodes 5 & 6 gave us the first body swap. Unlike many viewers, my gut reaction to the body swap trope wasn’t disdain […]
To My Beloved Thief: Ep 13 Confession Time
If there’s one theme that runs through this episode, it’s the confession. The characters are confessing one after the other. 1. First, there’s EunJo’s love confession to the sleeping Yi Yeol. I already discussed this at length in the previous post but I’ll copy the confession itself. EJ: Do you know what I was thinking […]
To My Beloved Thief: Ep 13 On Memorable Dialogues
It is said that there’s more to a script than just dialogue. It must possess a unique concept, topical theme, compelling plot, relatable characters, worthy opponents, high stakes, a twist or two, and great ending. With that being said, a script will still flounder into mediocrity without a memorable dialogue. Hence, I patiently transcribe the […]
To My Beloved Thief: Ep 12 On Lopsided Romance
Before writing on Episode 13, I’m answering @birdie007’s comment here. She posted: I, too, feel like he loves her more than she loves him. I think the reason I like this heroine so much is for the same reason I liked the heroine in The Red Sleeve—their practicality. However, I like this hero more. It […]
To My Beloved Thief: Ep 12 The Warrior Ethos
Remember my long discourse on arrows for Ep 9? The arrow functioned like bookends for the episode, visible at both the opening and ending scenes to frame the plot narrative? I said that, while for JaeYi, his optional “second arrow” continued to hurt him, our heroine EunJo was able to calm her urge for retaliation […]
To My Beloved Thief: Ep 11 Quick Takes
I got several things correct. 1. Back in my notes for Episode 7 & 8 when the Buddhist nun was introduced, I said that she was likely a concubine of the deceased king. She wasn’t the Dowager Queen (because the Dowager Queen was Yi Yeol’s mom) nor the deposed queen as some people were speculating. […]
To My Beloved Thief: Ep 10 Loose Ends
This is a hodgepodge of things I should remember. 1. The different ranks of Princes At the bottom of the hierarchy is the prince or wangja. Any son of the king (or wang) is a wangja. But if the prince’s mother is a concubine, then he’s a gun or wangjagun. Now, if the prince’s mother […]
To My Beloved Thief: Ep 9 The Parable of the Two Arrows
If a prop can get an award to highlight its contribution in an episode, then I nominate the arrow for stellar performance. I’m sure it didn’t escape our notice that the arrow was the focal point in both the opening and ending scenes of the episode. But what if I tell you that there were […]
To My Beloved Thief: Ep 9 The Lantern Trope
Like the body swap trope, the lantern trope is a narrative device common in kdramas (but I don’t see anyone complaining about it. Hmph!). After the main characters deliberate on the wishes to handwrite on the paper lanterns, they light the candles and release the lanterns to float in the water or up into the […]
To My Beloved Thief: Eps 7 & 8 My Notes
My thoughts of a few things: 1. Historicity or the historical authenticity of the drama I’m neither a historian nor literature major so I can only give as much creative license to kdrama screenwriters as I do Shakespeare. I accord The Bard the freedom to pen and embellish historically accurate events like Henry V rallying […]