[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.
Let’s start.
The theme for this episode is identity. We see our characters struggle with the idea that hey must conformed to certain identities.
Women’s place in Joseon:
Ae-shin gets into trouble with her grandfather after her cousin finds newspaper articles. We know that this was not the first time as her grandfather reminds her that he had repeatedly warned her to stay away from what is happening outside the house.
This leads to the very heart of our theme “identity”.
Who is Ae-shin and what is her role in this society? She is searching for this answer.
“Do you know why Queen Min died at such a young age?” her grandfather asks.
“Was it because our country is too weak?” she answers back in defiance.
“No, you’re wrong. She socialized with Western barbarians and interfered with government affairs as well as the King’s duties.”
“Joseon is changing.”
“Wrong again. Joseon is not changing. It is falling apart.”
Unless you are familiar with Joseon’s history, you may be confused about the reference to Queen Min. This was gloss over quickly in this episode, but let’s talk about the implication.
Queen Min, later known as Empress Myeongseong, was assassinated by Japanese soldiers on October 8, 1895. Based on the newspaper handed out in a later scene dated February 19, 1898, we assume that Queen Min’s death was a recent event during Ae-shin and her grandfather’s conversation.
Why was the Queen assassinated?
First, Queen Min and her father-in-law, Daewongun were often at odds over politics. He’s the scary old man telling the King what to do in Episode 1. Daewongun was aligned with Japan, while Queen Min favored the Western countries. Daewongun resented that Queen Min had such power and sway over the King. And she was a woman interfering in government.
Japanese lieutenant general Miura Goro and his men with the help of royal guards (loyal to Daewongun) marched into Joseon’s palace and assassinated the Queen. Historian described this as a brutal execution. The Queen of Joseon was murdered then burned in her own home by foreigners. This was the state of Joseon.
Lord Go is also a product of his generation. Women were to stay home and have babies. He tells her to stay in her husband’s shadows and live like a flower. But another reason for his resistance has nothing to do with her being a woman. He had already lost two sons to this fight and he was afraid he would lose his granddaughter as well.
Clearly, Ae-shin has no interest in living as a flower. She is rejecting her identity and role as a noble woman. You don’t often see this type of character in Korean dramas, a true feminist. She also sheds the weak helpless woman as she begins her training with Gunner Jang.
Joseon’s place in world politics:
The second reason why the Queen was assassinated was that Japan saw her as a threat to their agenda because the King depended on her heavily. She had the intelligence and political savvy that the King lacked. Japan didn’t see King Gojong as a threat because he was weak and uneducated. But Queen Min blocked Japan agendas every chance she got. Japan saw Joseon as a small, weak country – she was the obstacle to their plans.
Korea provided Japan access to the Asian continent. We all know what happened to Japan during World War II. This was its first strategic position in its quest for regional dominance.
Joseon was trying to hold on to its identity by holding off foreigners. The royal court was surrounded by American, English, Russians, French, and Japanese. We see ministers arguing whether Americans, Russians, or Japanese should come to the aid of Joseon – as if it was helpless and needed protection.
Yangban versus commoner, teacher versus student:
It’s easy to miss the importance of the first few scenes between Gunner Jang (Seung-goo from Ganghwa) and Ae-shin.
Why is it so important?
During this time, social classes were not there just to differentiate people. There were certain laws – moral codes to follow.
When Gunner Jang tells Ae-shin that he is her teacher, he lets go of his formal speech to her. He remarks that it will be hard for her to speak to him formally. She speaks informally and gets a raised eyebrow from him and awkwardly repeats by adding the proper formal ending. She goes back to speaking informally to him, but she pretends that she was just talking to herself. He lets her know that it sounded like a question (to him).
This scene is so important because they are letting go of thousands of years of tradition – literally. It was against the law for commoners to speak informally to anyone in the noble class. Gunner Jang is aware that if anyone saw the interactions between the two, he could be arrested.
Ae-shin must let go of her yangban (noble) identity and embrace her new identity as a student. Likewise, Gunner Jang must let go of his commoner status to truly become her mentor and teacher.
Friend or Foe: Identity revealed
Eugene Choi (Yu Jin) is sent by the U.S. government to assassinate Logan Taylor for colluding with the Japanese and ruining American’s reputation. Ae-shin accepts her first mission as a member of the Righteous Army.
Eugene’s identity is put to test because he says that if he succeeds, all the credit will go to America. But if he fails, all the blame will go to Joseon. That’s why he was chosen for the task.
Even though he had lived in the U.S. for most of his life and achieved great success in the Spanish American War, he still feels that he had not earned that identity, American.
High on the rooftop, there are two snipers and one target. When they finally point the gun at each other, they both hesitate – contemplating whether the other is a friend or a foe.
After they both escape, they run into each other in their normal clothes. They both smell gunpowder on the other and look back at each other.
They are both aware of the other person’s identity – at least in relations to what just happened.
Eugene finds her alone and tries to find out who she is. Ae-shin says that he must be a foreigner. Why?
Because no man in all of Joseon would ever dare to talk to her in that manner. It’s clear to her that he has no idea who she is. And his clothes gave him away.
They both continue to wonder the true identity of each other. When Ae-shin finally arrives at the American Legation, she is surprised to find Eugene working there. When they are alone, he asks her point blank if she saw anything. She says she didn’t see anything.
Now for the icon move of the show.
They each slowly place their hands near the other person’s face to reveal only their eyes. He says he think he may have seen something. She replies that if that’s how suspicions work, she may have seen something too.
Without really knowing who the other person is or what their motivation may have been to kill the American, they just revealed a secret – their identity – in the assassination.
That’s it for this episode!
Join me next time to discuss Episode 3: Justification to find out the consequence of their reveal to each other.