[Spoiler alert: If you have not seen Mr. Sunshine, the article below contains spoilers. Please stop reading now if you do not want the details to the episodes.]
Warning: If you want to read the summary of the episodes, I’m afraid you are in the wrong place. As a huge fan of history, I will dive deep into themes and historical events. We will explore the motivations of characters and really get into the Korean tradition and culture.
One more thing before we start. This drama contains many inaccurate historical events that scholars found difficult to get over. I may pick up that subject at a later date, but my posts will be mainly about storytelling and why it is compelling.
The first two posts are mainly catching the readers up on historical events that set the stage for the rest of the series and providing some cultural context to help viewers enjoy the drama.
So, if you want to skip the historical and cultural backstory, you can skip to Episode 3: Justification.
Let’s start.
Episode 1 has tremendous amounts of historical events packed into just over an hour. The reason why I title this episode “Power” is because it is filled with what power means to each character. These range from power of Joseon against the Americans and vice versa, power of Eugene and his family against their masters, and power of individuals against society or even within their families.
Here is a quick 30,000 feet summary of the events leading up to our first episode.
Joseon Dynasty was established in 1392 and the Yi family held onto the royal seat for over 500 years. The period leading up to our series, there was a power vacuum in Asia after China lost in the Opium War against Britain and France. Japan saw this as an opportunity to fill that void and looked towards Joseon as a good place to begin their long campaign on the mainland. There were other Western countries that also flocked to the region. Rather than taking part in the new global politics, Joseon withdrew further and held a policy of isolationism. This is the reason why it was known as a Hermit Kingdom.
In 1864, the twelve year of Yi Hui became King. The previous King did not have a male heir and the Dowager Queen appointed the new King. Since the new King was too young to rule, his father was appointed as Regent.
By the time of our first episode, Joseon Dynasty was already facing great number of changes and challenges. Joseon Dynasty’s conservative policy and Andong Kim’s family power for many decades had led to its decline even before the Battle of Ganghwa.
I began writing about the opening scene with Eugene in Washington DC, but this post was becoming too long. So, I going to ignore what is happening in the U.S and keep my focus on the events in Joseon.
Let’s take a look at some of the key historical moments.
1871 Shinmiyangyo Incident
We see this event play out between the royal court and Jang Seung-goo (Gunner Jang in future posts) in Ganghwa Island.
Back in court, a teenage King, Gojong is listening to several men’s advice on how to deal with the tension with the new foreigners, the Americans.
One of the men is his father and regent, Heungseon Daewongun. It’s the angry older guy who’s telling people to shut up.
Daewongun’s power in court is clear. The young King doesn’t even get a chance to voice his opinion before Daewongun “guides” his decision. There is a great Korean word that has no English translation. It’s called noonchi. In a way, it’s reading the room or the person and acting in accordance. Noochi is an important hint to see who has power over whom.
Example: The young King is afraid to say anything. Well, he is probably unsure of himself, but mostly because he’s afraid to go against his father. Remember, this is a highly Confucius society. No one speaks out against their parents – not even the King. So, he “reads” his father’s mood and tone to see what he should say or do.
Here is another example: You know when someone says something super awkward and another person quickly changes the subject? That person who changed the subject has noonchi. She read that the room was uncomfortable, so she changed the subject to bring the room back to a comfortable state.
Anyway, back to our story.
Daewongun doesn’t want to give away any power to foreigners within his country, which is why he is denying access to trade. He refers to America as some small village that negotiated its freedom from England. He doesn’t want Joseon to open trade because it wouldn’t be any different than opening up trade with barbarians. The true motive is likely that he doesn’t want others influencing the people’s mind with new ideas.
Daewongun also doesn’t want to lose power over the people. You see this play out very briefly in a conversation between Lord Kim and Minister Lee. Joseon was plagued by peasant revolts and Daewongun did not want to send more soldiers to Ganghwa because he didn’t want to incite another revolt. He was more concern about domestic issues (revolts) than in international ones (trade and open war).
Now to Ganghwa Island.
The power difference during the battle is pretty big. You see Americans with the latest rifles and cannons and Koreans fighting with old muskets and bow and arrows. The number of deaths show us just how much of a difference there was. Americans lost 3 men, while Koreans lost 243 men. The Americans also captured twenty prisons.
Koreans power over the Americans was summed up in one way. Despite the Koreans being overwhelmed, the determination to protect their country from invaders took the Americans by surprise. That fiery is something even a superior military could not extinguish.
The potter finds Seung-goo at his father’s grave. People are crying at their love ones’ graves as the sun sets. The potter says it’s a righteous death because it was for protecting the land and the people. Seung-goo doesn’t see it that way. He would rather become a rebel than die like his father. He feels resentment to his country for failure to protect; he feels abandoned by his country. This is the moment Seung-goo takes power to protect himself because his country cannot protect him.
Class Hierarchy
During this period, Korea was divided into several classes. For the purpose of this post, we will stick to the noble, common, and slave classes. Lord Kim is a yangban, noble class. He hires slave hunters, common class, to track down Yu Jin (Eugene), a nobi, slave class.
There are four major events:
Event 1: Lord Kim was exercising his power by doing what he wanted with his “assets”. He planned to give away Yu Jin’s mother to Minister Lee. When Yu Jin runs away, Lord Kim hires slave hunters to track him down. Here is the interesting point that his son brings up. He asks why bother going after a young boy who would end up dead anyway. Lord Kim isn’t worried about the money. He is the richest man after the King. He wants to set an example for his other slaves – to show them what happens for disobedience.
Event 2: Yu jin’s mother takes power in two ways. First by holding Lord Kim’s daughter-in-law as hostage. This is a bold move, but she sees this as the only way to save her son. She knows that she has the upper hand for a brief moment because no one wants to jeopardize the safety of the unborn child – the future heir of the household.
Then second, she decides to take the ultimate power away from Lord Kim by committing suicide. She has nothing left to live for once she sees Yu Jin run away. If Yu Jin is successful in his runaway attempt, she will never see him. If he is caught by Lord Kim’s men, he will die. Latter would bring her great pain and distress. Knowing that her husband died at the hand of her master and she will never see her son again, the only thing awaiting her is hell. She would rather die than live in that torture.
Event 3: In 1894, slavery in Joseon was abolished. This would seem to be a power shift. The slave hunters lost their source of income and career with this decreed. But being the savvy businessman that he is, Il Sik has a new business idea. He and Choon Sik open a pawn shop that provides whatever service their patrons need. In a twist of fate, an ex-slave asks for help in finding his ex-master. This scene adds a bit of a comic relief in otherwise dark episode, but reality of these manumitted slaves would have been quite different.
Event 4: In Korea, slaves were used as household and government servants. It was mostly the common class that farmed either on their own land, or as we see in this episode, by tenant farmers. Lord Kim sells his land to pay for his grandson’s present. He’s the baby who was born shortly after Yu Jin’s runaway scene. The baby is now a fully grown man, who is ready to embark on his study aboard. His grandfather doesn’t care what happens to the poor tenant. The tenant is powerless against his landlord and asks for leniency because he has mouths to feed and debt to pay back. Lord Kim has no sympathy for the man and says that he should just pay with his body – sell himself to slavery – – – even though slavery has been abolished. This type of power by the nobles were so rampant that it led to several peasant revolts – the ones Daewongun was worried about at the beginning of the episode.
I know I didn’t get to many important points in this episode, but 30 years is a lot to cover. If you are interested in more historical events leading up to this point, drop me a line.
Join me next time to discuss Episode 2: Identity where we finally see our two main characters meet in a very remarkable way!