The Thorn Birds

Begun on May 4.

 *spoiler warning*



It's not only because of my current infatuation with Han Hye Jin (who has such beautiful tears) that I am enjoying The Thorn Birds (가시나무새). It's a good drama. The moral contrast between the two abandoned girls is very stark, and while the drama does focus on human relationships, it also has a moral aspect that is lacking in Uhmerican dramas. (One was given up for adoption, while the other was left at an orphanage.)

Maybe the drama is as overwrought as American dramas and as "artificial" in playing upon the audience's emotions. I admit that my impressions at the moment are not "objective" -- all I can say is that this drama has been engrossing. Once my being a fan of Han Hye Jin subsides, I may be able to evaluate the drama more impartially.

Nonetheless, the advantage of East Asian dramas is that they are produced with a set number of episodes in mind, even though those that are more successful may have more episodes ordered, and episodes may be produced even though scripts for the whole series have not been completed. I suspect though that the writers and producers have a general plot outline in mind at least, even if the scripts are not finished yet by the time the first episode is produced.

American dramas, on the other hand, are usually designed to continue indefinitely, although there may be short story arcs that are completed in the meantime. American dramas on broadcast network TV rarely feature a great moral conflict; this may be different with dramas on cable networks. Even if dramatic (i.e. serious) things happen in American dramas, I find that the shows end up trivializing them.

Han Hye Jin's character, Seo Jeong Eun may be too good to be true - gullible, trusting, too loving, sacrifice
She's the typical self-sacrificial, fairy-tale character, and so feminine in the drama. She has been looking for a family -- while there is a desire for romantic love, that is not the only thing that drives her. I don't know if her situation reflects the reality in South Korea, but her plight is of an orphan who has no family. As a result, she has difficulty finding work. (She is considered as someone who does not have social stability or good family influences?)

If it is the case that this is the social reality for orphans in Korea, that there perhaps is too much emphasis on having family ties in the social system (if not the legal system as well), this does not negate the human need for family and its importance to society. The orphan displays filial piety and devotions to others that would put to shame some of the other characters, who have normal family ties.  It is somewhat incongruous that Jeongeun's chosen profession is acting. (I'd have to review the early episodes to see if this is a coping mechanism of some sort.) After she is accepted into a family and finds a real "home," her senior Myeongja, who accepts Jeongeun as if she were her own daughter, says that it's good she left the movie industry. Presumably she wouldn't haven't survived long because of her character. She's too generous and kind.

We can contrast her with her childhood friend, Han Yugyeong, who has the pride of a self-made woman. She  rejects her mother because of anger and hurt, not understanding why her mother gave her up. Is the writer of the drama making another statement when it is Han Yugyeong who has premarital relations with her boyfriend and ends up getting pregnant, while Jeongeun remains chaste until she gets married? (I least I think she does, though I haven't watched the episodes up to when Jeongeun gets married.) Jeongeun is so modest that when Lee Yeonjo takes off his shirt and asks her to put a therapeutic pad on his shoulder after a long day carrying rolls of fabric, she looks away. Yugyeong gives up her child because she never intended to have one, and the child would only be a hindrance to her dreams.

That Jeongeun is the moral center of the drama is never put into doubt. Am I incorrect to think that Han Hye Jin's character is a Confucian paragon of virtue, and the drama is an example of Confucian didacticism?
It touches upon  healing, forgiveness, family, and friendship, and is a good reminder that the family is the basic unit of society. Liberals may dream of universal brotherhood, in which society at large replaces family and the government replaces parents, but this is not yet the Korean ideal. Ties of adoption are important, but do not replace blood ties. Many Americans identify their culture with a false individualism; with their love of mobility and separation, they do not live with the model of an extended family as the norm. While Americans might (rightly) chafe at the idea of an extended family living under the same family, as it might happen in East Asia, there are American extended families in which members live close to one another.



(Only recently did a Korean drama feature a romantic relationship between two homosexual men. How soon before a Korean network features an "alternative family model"?



The series just ended last week in Korea, but there are still 9 episodes to go on KBS America. The series ending is mostly a "feel good" one, but I can't say that it is undeserved or inappropriate. Not all Korean dramas have to be tragedies. I don't think my perception of the ending will change once the English subtitled version is aired.



We could probably apply what Aristotle says about pathos in the Rhetoric and catharsis in the Poetics to the analysis of Korean dramas.