Shine or Go Crazy - Episode 4 (A Quickie Cap)
This episode was a total filler! I didn’t realize the first time I watched (that’s what this show does to me!), but when you recap, you do spot all the faults in a script immediately (if you want.) So, the plot only moves forward in the babiest baby steps in this (and I so don't care.) The gist of it: So So and Kaebong break up at least 3 times, but in the end, he’s right next to him again. I guess that’s unmyeong.
So far it just feels like a forgetful man and a pissy woman, though.
becca: Personally, I thought the episode was, uh…. *distracted by Jang Hyuk's smile* Was I saying something?
S@ki6: Eye-candied-filler, though.
Episode 4 verdict: quite slapsticky. Lots of Jang Hyuk smiles. I’m good. I’m very good. (Objectively, this was not a very good episode though)
Is he supposed to spill his guts to a stranger, though? I like her I just find this hang up of hers very irritating.
Hm. I understand why she's disappointed, and why she might be upset at first. But after that, she should realize that he has no reason to tell her everything. They're practically strangers, and she has no idea who he is or what his life is like. She assumes a lot.
I get she's this genuis merchant and all, but she's not very bright.
He is feeling much better though - Kaebong took the weight off his shoulders, he tells Eun-chun. They're at the port, on the look-out for the assassins from China, who are coming back to Goryeo. These assassins are quite smart, though - they have a few ruffians pick a fight at the docks, to create a diversion, while they land in secret. Our undercover good guys get involved involuntarily and that makes them almost blow their cover: they can't show their sword-skills here! The fight that follows could be straight out of a Terence Hill movie. I love Terence Hill.
I loved the fight choreography, especially the bit you giffed. They pack a lot of humor into it. I commented on the music, while watching - and I should say here that in general, I love the music chosen for this drama. It fits perfectly while standing out as quite unusual sounding in the setting. (It's very western to me, and often sounds like the type of music I heard on American shows growing up.)
With ruffians and guards on their heels, Eun-chun and Wang So run for cover - in his case, that cover happens to be Shin-yool's ship. So much for breaking up with him.
Of course.
Ah, fate.
She now thinks he's a semi-legal poor wandering swordsman (Hedge Knight) while he finds out he is working for the almost magical Chunghae Trading Company. Somewhere in the woods, Hot Assassin hears from the Chinese Assassin that one of the men 5 years ago called the other "Your Highness, the Prince". Uh-oh.
We need to see Hot Assassin in more dramas, soon. With or without sageuk hair. He is very handsome, his voice is dreamy, and he has that perfect (for me) mix of mystery/sadness. What else can he do? I want to see! (He does MUSICAL THEATER...eeeeeeeeeeeee!)
I like all the side men in this show. Swoooooonnn.
Which basically is this: the Weak King tries to be strong and ceases financial support of the Western Castle - there’s a movement to move the Capital there, which would weaken the King even further. That's the beginning of the end for him, of course, because he has become a liability now.
I'm sad because of course he will die soon, and he's a sweetheart who means well and cares about his people.
I'm stocking up on the tissues already. :(
I don't care.
Princess Yeo Won is on top of things too (thanks to another net of spies), starting from tracking the price of ginseng, to being informed about the movement of the entire royal family, and all the nobles. Damn! She is inches away from realizing that Wang So is much more than he wants people to realize. Okay, I hate her, but I love her, too. Thank you, show, for having capable females.
Is it because it's Goryeo that it feels like the women have more freedom? Is Goryeo basically the Wild West period?
Yes. Three Kingdoms period, too, was better since an actual woman, Great Queen Seondeok, ruled. I really would like Yeo Won to be another Lady Mishal, though knowing how writers write, no big hopes there.
Shin-yool recovers - but not before we learn why she gets the chills all the time. Back in Balhae maaaaany years ago, her mother threw the newborn her into a river (to save her from the henchman and another prophecy saying the child would be "a light to a nation" that wouldn't be Balhae) before she was killed herself.
I keeping thinking how romantic 'The last princess of Balhae' sounds. Balhae itself is a lovely word. I looked up the history, and now I want to watch The Three Kingdoms.
Three Kingdoms the Chinese warfare sageuk? That's lengthy. Balhae is a lovely word, I agree. Makes you think the princess is a fairy of light and stardust.
The princess was saved by Baek-Myo, a servant at the time, but barely. Hence the chills. And hence the extreme devotion of her foster mother. The doctors didn't give Shin-yool more than 20 years to live, we learn ... I don't like that. I also don't like that they don't tell her that both her mother and brother were murdered back in Balhae and let her continue the search for her. That’s assuming they actually WERE both murdered. I hope there won’t be any zombie relatives in this drama’s future??!
Right? They know her family is dead, they've always known it. Why the silence? If Myung Hee was strong enough to learn that Young Shin was still alive and that her asswipe husband kept it from her, then Shin-Yool is CERTAINLY strong enough to learn that her family is dead. #MoonHoMustDie #HealerFeelsForever
JO!!! Wrong hashtag!! #MoonShikMustDie #LongLiveMoonHo
But look who’s here to see her … the King’s younger brother, who is nobody else but Wang Wook, here upon his sister’s wish.
Every single time, I lisp to myself, 'Wook, it's a Wang!'
*muffled giggling*
Wang Ho! Oh, wait, that's probably someone else's name.
Baek-Myo already hears the wedding bells chime and Da-kyul can only think of that prince’s incredibly beautiful sister, whom he met at the Buddhist temple. And thus, Wang Wook meets Merchant Miss again, and has the same flashback as before. Yeah, he didn’t know the capable female merchant was that lady he saved from getting wet. Covering his confusion, he asked to be shown all the goods there are. I think it’s about time you tell us what that is all about, show.
Yes, I'm very curious. Right now I'm leaning toward mystical elf dreams, but who knows. And can they PLEASE take off his bad Barbie doll wig? His face is already strange enough for me.
He's got the hair I always wanted but never had. Le Sigh.
Wang Wook the weasel tells Evil Wang he supports the moving of the Capital to the West AND suggests there should be a contest to choose the next King. I do like contests! I guess it won’t be sewing.
Excuse me, there's a king already. Who the FFFF died and left YOU guys in charge? Don't bother explaining, I know the answer, but it just IRKS ME.
The Wangs are talking to each other now. I am disturbed.
Kings are always in danger of losing their thrones, especially when a kingdom was only recently created. This is normal politics.
In private, Evil Han asks Yeo Won what the biggest impediment is to see her brother on the throne and she says: “The throne needs to be empty first”. Fine, says Evil Han, then they must find a way to make it empty.
You fuckers, die.
Where do you keep your voodoo dolls, Kakashi? My fingers are itching to some stabbing.
Among Kim Jon-sik’s belongings, the assassins finds a strange bill of exchange. He bought 7 high-quality items for a lot of money. Probably gifts for other noblemen, but for whom? The high price of the goods means they were given to special people. … probably the Western Pupeteers, says Wang So. The only place to find out whom the items went to is the merchant’s ledger.
There's a lot of lucky guessing going on throughout, show. Don't think I haven't noticed.
I really don't understand how they figure out half of the things that they figure out.
Becca, me neither.
Undercover mission for So So! Of course, the merchants were the Chunghae Trading Company. But how to get back in, after shouting he would never ever return there? Yeah … use the idiot brother. He cries his eyes out to pllleeeaaaase call Kaebong and gets “dead drunk” and then claims he has nowhere else to go. He is completely broke and has no job. Won’t Kaebong buy him? Since he has quasi sexually harassed him?
Their faces as he describes what 'Kae Dong' did, when they know all along that Kae Dong is really Shin Yool, a woman. I was cracking up here.
So funny!
He then ventures to show them his butt (since she said she “wants his butt”, at least that’s how he turns it), but is prevented by the Mute Warrior-Protector that Saki likes so much with a blow to the head.
It ain't just Saki... that's the Hunky Henchman from Night Journal!
I like the character, but I'm not swooning over him, so I'll leave him to you ladies.
I'm swooning. I'm swooning a lot. I'm ready to have a cup of tea to recover but I will plough on instead.
And just like that, he is in. They drag him into one of the warehouses and throw him into a corner. Just as she is about to leave, he makes a sound and she looks back … to see half the butterfly talisman she gave him that has slipped out of his shirt. Oh no … he hasn’t forgotten about her. Not at all.
Awwww.
Aww, okay, now I'm swooning.
Still got mute henchman on the brain, so this really didn't do anything for me.
I agree, I liked that bit. And I love that everyone just man-handles him and treats him like nobody, and part of his shock about that is that no matter whether he lived on a mountain hunting pigs with nobody for company but the Leech or not... he IS a prince of Goryeo and he's accustomed to a certain amount of deference. I look forward to THEM being mortified that he's royalty, and HIM being thrilled that she's a princess.
And I'm hoping this whole sister-wife situation gets sorted out soon. Because, yeah, it's gross and I'm praying that they never do it, but… he is married. We'll have to address that sooner or later.
Think of it like some sort of Targaryen fantasy. Although that was pretty gross too.
So far it just feels like a forgetful man and a pissy woman, though.
becca: Personally, I thought the episode was, uh…. *distracted by Jang Hyuk's smile* Was I saying something?
S@ki6: Eye-candied-filler, though.
Episode 4
After totally ending it with "So So" (at least in her head), Shin-yool/Kaebong blows out the candle, takes her candle stick, and leaves. But a loud "Kaebong-aaaaaa" (get used to that) makes her turn around. So So wasn't sleeping (no wonder, that upright-sleeping really doesn’t work well) and he wishes her/him a safe return, seeing how the rain might have made the streets slippery. She, however, is still VERY hurt he doesn't remember her and even thought his time in Kaebong (oups, that sounds wrong) was pure misery and doesn’t even say goodbye.Is he supposed to spill his guts to a stranger, though? I like her I just find this hang up of hers very irritating.
Hm. I understand why she's disappointed, and why she might be upset at first. But after that, she should realize that he has no reason to tell her everything. They're practically strangers, and she has no idea who he is or what his life is like. She assumes a lot.
I get she's this genuis merchant and all, but she's not very bright.
I loved the fight choreography, especially the bit you giffed. They pack a lot of humor into it. I commented on the music, while watching - and I should say here that in general, I love the music chosen for this drama. It fits perfectly while standing out as quite unusual sounding in the setting. (It's very western to me, and often sounds like the type of music I heard on American shows growing up.)
Of course.
Ah, fate.
She now thinks he's a semi-legal poor wandering swordsman (Hedge Knight) while he finds out he is working for the almost magical Chunghae Trading Company. Somewhere in the woods, Hot Assassin hears from the Chinese Assassin that one of the men 5 years ago called the other "Your Highness, the Prince". Uh-oh.
We need to see Hot Assassin in more dramas, soon. With or without sageuk hair. He is very handsome, his voice is dreamy, and he has that perfect (for me) mix of mystery/sadness. What else can he do? I want to see! (He does MUSICAL THEATER...eeeeeeeeeeeee!)
I like all the side men in this show. Swoooooonnn.
After things have quieted down, Wang So wants to thank Kaebong for saving him from the guards and buys alcohol for another drinking-buddy session. He has Kil-bok show him the Chunghae Trading Company HQ, to find him. Of course, nobody there has ever heard of any "Kaebong”. Jang Hyuk is delightfully silly in this scene! But he does have partial amnesia (or at least a very bad face-memory), because he doesn't recognize Baek-Myo at all. How convenient, show. It's also the first time he meets Kyu-Dal. Epic bromance follows.
They clear that up pretty well though. I think it's quite likely he wouldn't remember Baek-Myo or her adorable co-foster parent. There's a decent argument that he should remember Shin-Yool's VOICE at least, if not her face, vaguely. It's just that who would expect her under the circumstances? At least he starts to wonder. But the elders? I can buy that.
Me too. And the Kyu-Dal/Wang-So bromance? I love it, I adore it, I'm crazy about it.
Shin-yool finally hears of the weird guy looking for her and changes into her disguise again (Bob. And I've hyperlinked to rub in how stupid it is that the show is taking her disguise seriously.) . She is excited, believing he has "remembered something". Nope. Just here to ask him to be his drinking buddy again. Extremely disappointed, Shin-yool breaks up with him again. This time for realz (and afterwards, promptly falls ill again, duh). Wang So doesn't get that person AT ALL (it is difficult, yes!). All frustrated, he tells Kil-bok to come home with him ... home being the brothel. Buahahaaa. He has an undercover spy there: assassin Cheong-Ok! Oh, and everybody else there is a spy too! She tells him this and that about the situation at the palace.
There is a LOT of spying in this drama. It sort of feels like Cruel City, with undercover cops just falling out of the sky at every turn.
Yes, but less traumatizing.
This is what people did when there wasn't any TV.
I'm sad because of course he will die soon, and he's a sweetheart who means well and cares about his people.
I'm stocking up on the tissues already. :(
I don't care.
Princess Yeo Won is on top of things too (thanks to another net of spies), starting from tracking the price of ginseng, to being informed about the movement of the entire royal family, and all the nobles. Damn! She is inches away from realizing that Wang So is much more than he wants people to realize. Okay, I hate her, but I love her, too. Thank you, show, for having capable females.
Is it because it's Goryeo that it feels like the women have more freedom? Is Goryeo basically the Wild West period?
Yes. Three Kingdoms period, too, was better since an actual woman, Great Queen Seondeok, ruled. I really would like Yeo Won to be another Lady Mishal, though knowing how writers write, no big hopes there.
I keeping thinking how romantic 'The last princess of Balhae' sounds. Balhae itself is a lovely word. I looked up the history, and now I want to watch The Three Kingdoms.
Three Kingdoms the Chinese warfare sageuk? That's lengthy. Balhae is a lovely word, I agree. Makes you think the princess is a fairy of light and stardust.
Right? They know her family is dead, they've always known it. Why the silence? If Myung Hee was strong enough to learn that Young Shin was still alive and that her asswipe husband kept it from her, then Shin-Yool is CERTAINLY strong enough to learn that her family is dead. #MoonHoMustDie #HealerFeelsForever
JO!!! Wrong hashtag!! #MoonShikMustDie #LongLiveMoonHo
Every single time, I lisp to myself, 'Wook, it's a Wang!'
*muffled giggling*
Wang Ho! Oh, wait, that's probably someone else's name.
Baek-Myo already hears the wedding bells chime and Da-kyul can only think of that prince’s incredibly beautiful sister, whom he met at the Buddhist temple. And thus, Wang Wook meets Merchant Miss again, and has the same flashback as before. Yeah, he didn’t know the capable female merchant was that lady he saved from getting wet. Covering his confusion, he asked to be shown all the goods there are. I think it’s about time you tell us what that is all about, show.
Yes, I'm very curious. Right now I'm leaning toward mystical elf dreams, but who knows. And can they PLEASE take off his bad Barbie doll wig? His face is already strange enough for me.
He's got the hair I always wanted but never had. Le Sigh.
Wang Sik-Ryeom steps up the game to identify the prince that went to Gaebong five years ago. Evil Wang shows the Chinese Assassin a portrait of the King, but no, this guy wasn’t in Goryeo 5 years ago. And it wasn’t Wang Wook either. That leaves: Wang So … surely, though, that idiot cannot be the one who knows of the assassination plot?!
But if it's absolutely not the other two, you evil idiot...Wang Wook the weasel tells Evil Wang he supports the moving of the Capital to the West AND suggests there should be a contest to choose the next King. I do like contests! I guess it won’t be sewing.
Excuse me, there's a king already. Who the FFFF died and left YOU guys in charge? Don't bother explaining, I know the answer, but it just IRKS ME.
The Wangs are talking to each other now. I am disturbed.
Kings are always in danger of losing their thrones, especially when a kingdom was only recently created. This is normal politics.
You fuckers, die.
Where do you keep your voodoo dolls, Kakashi? My fingers are itching to some stabbing.
There's a lot of lucky guessing going on throughout, show. Don't think I haven't noticed.
I really don't understand how they figure out half of the things that they figure out.
Becca, me neither.
Their faces as he describes what 'Kae Dong' did, when they know all along that Kae Dong is really Shin Yool, a woman. I was cracking up here.
So funny!
It ain't just Saki... that's the Hunky Henchman from Night Journal!
I like the character, but I'm not swooning over him, so I'll leave him to you ladies.
I'm swooning. I'm swooning a lot. I'm ready to have a cup of tea to recover but I will plough on instead.
Awwww.
Aww, okay, now I'm swooning.
Still got mute henchman on the brain, so this really didn't do anything for me.
Comments
Overall, this was quite funny (unless it's not because the poor weak king is bullied), but when I switch my brain on, the back-and-forth between Wang So and Shin-yool is actually more annoying than cute. Yes. Sadly true. I need the truth to be revealed soon. It's annoying to the point I would do other things. He obviously likes her/him a lot - if she only stopped being angry all the time, she'd realize that. She'd also realize how stupid it is to keep wearing men's clothing about him. Since they're all apparently half blind, maybe not. She could easily go female and tell him she's her own twin (as she considered in the last episode) or, god beware!, she could tell him the truth. Even if he DIDN'T like her she could do that, because the two things aren't related at all. But as JoAnne wrote, it's just a thing to keep the lovers apart, which works one or two episodes for me, but then it gets old. That said, him going undercover at the Trading Company to find out who is connected to Kim Jon-sik wasn't too stupid, I thought that plot-point was nicely done.I agree, I liked that bit. And I love that everyone just man-handles him and treats him like nobody, and part of his shock about that is that no matter whether he lived on a mountain hunting pigs with nobody for company but the Leech or not... he IS a prince of Goryeo and he's accustomed to a certain amount of deference. I look forward to THEM being mortified that he's royalty, and HIM being thrilled that she's a princess.
And I'm hoping this whole sister-wife situation gets sorted out soon. Because, yeah, it's gross and I'm praying that they never do it, but… he is married. We'll have to address that sooner or later.
Think of it like some sort of Targaryen fantasy. Although that was pretty gross too.