[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.]
I know it seems too early to talk about choices, but this episode has too many to ignore.
So, let’s take a look at some of our characters’ choices or the lack thereof.
Ae-shin’s choice:
We see Ae-shin make one important choice. She doesn’t want to marry Hui-seong.
Why?
As she says, he is exactly how she envisioned him: “a fair-skinned and fragile weakling.”
Ouch!
This goes back to Ae-shin most important choice, joining the Righteous Army. She has trained for ten years. She has decided that defending her country was more important than her survival. She has hardened herself to the idea violence must be met with violence. She has already said that she would rather fight with guns than words. This is the conversation she had with Gunner Jang in the beginning of her training. She says that words have no power.
But she sees this man, her fiancé, come waltzing into her life and telling her that she looks like a flower. He is everything she is not. She has already rejected her identity as a noblewoman bound to her husband and household for the rest of her life. Clearly, Hui-seong doesn’t know what Ae-shin has been up to for the past decade. It’s something he would not have imagined – ever! He sees her as the world sees her, a pretty young noblewoman.
Even though she never says it, we can see her comparing Hui-seong to Eugene. We already know that Ae-shin and Eugene have some kind of feeling towards each other. She first meets Eugene on the rooftop pointing a gun at each other. Her initial curiosity towards him is based her assumption that they share the same ideology. And Eugene is everything Hui-seong is not, a capable military man.
Ae-shin’s choice also changed her. She tells Hui-seong that for the first year of their engagement, she waited – as young noblewomen were expected to do.
After five years, she was disappointed. If a man can’t keep a promise, what can he really do in life. Her view on life has already changed by questioning the action of a man. Another thing women of Joseon didn’t do.
She continues by saying that she forgot about him after that. Hui-seong is no longer in her sphere of thought; he has become meaningless. For her to admit that she completely forgot about her fiancé and thought him unworthy is a huge departure from her tradition and teachings. Women’s concerns are only of marriage and children.
When Ae-shin is pacing back and forth in her room, she admits that the reason why they must annul the engagement is because he is the type of man with flowers in his hands…she probably prefers to see a man with a rifle. Remember, Ae-shin decides to open up to Eugene after he gives her some unsolicited advice on guns.
Let’s get back to Ae-shin’s big decision.
Eugene asks her why she is doing it, rescuing Joseon. Ae-shin tells him that during the 500 years of Joseon history, they have defended successfully against many enemies. But the country is being torn apart. Someone must fight as others have done. He asks why her. This is the best answer Ae-shin can provide, “Why not me?”
This is why Ae-shin is such a compelling hero. She made her choice based on her convictions when no one asked her. She’s not the reluctant hero we often see. She saw a need and she felt she needed to act. She does this knowing that the very society she is trying to save would frown upon her choice- for being a woman.
Eugene’s Choice:
Eugene goes to visit the Kim’s household and he has them at gun point. It would have been easy for him to exact his revenge and shoot them, but he is our male protagonist – so, he doesn’t. He does warn them that they will need to find out where his parents are buried, or he will destroy the Kim’s household.
Eugene also makes sure that he is able to back up his threat by telling them to report it to the American Legation. Why?
“I am a Captain of the US Marine Corp, Eugene Choi.” This leaves the husband and wife stunned and afraid.
Eugene knows that killing them will not bring satisfaction to him. It is more important to know where his parents are buried then to kill the Kims. In Korean culture, honoring one’s deceased parents is extremely important. [Even today, families pay respect to their ancestors during Chuseok, Seollal, and death anniversaries of their parents either by visiting grave sites or holding rituals at home.]
This is clearly not the end of their story, but for the time being, the Kim household has been saved from Eugene’s revenge.
When Eugene is in his office, he begins to connect the dots. Gunner Jang is connected to Ae-shin and Ae-shin visits the potter.
Interpreter Im, who is way too good at his job to Eugene’s dismay, brings a list of gunners. Eugene wasn’t too interested in finding out the truth, but Interpreter Im’s action forces Eugene to at least pretend to do his job. This makes it more difficult to cover up for Ae-shin and her comrades.
While Eugene half-heartedly investigates Gunner Jang, he meets Ae-shin near the hut. He admits to her about his curiosity. When he first took the assignment, he decided that he would do nothing in Joseon. If he did anything, it would be in the direction of harming Joseon. This upset Ae-shin because she doesn’t have the information to understand him yet [why he is so anger at Joseon].
He says that he should have arrested her, but he was curious. Did Joseon change or is this woman different? He expected noble class to do as they have always done, lord over their slaves and servants.
Ae-shin, a noblewoman, was risking her life to protect Joseon.
These two things were so contrary to the other, Eugene has a hard time making sense of them. So, he chooses to find out more about Ae-shin. He does ask her to be just Lady Ae-shin while he figures things out. His confession softens her and she takes one step closer to him. “Which way are you going? I’m thinking of walking that way?”
Dong-mae’s choice:
Dong-mae’s conversation with Hayashi is interesting because we see two things. First, Hayashi still sees Dong-mae as Korean despite Dong-mae’s dress and speech. Hayashi tells Dong-mae not to collude with Rinoie just because they are both Korean. Second, Dong-mae tells him that it was for a short time, he was still Japanese.
When neither side (Japan and Korea) trust you, should you even make a choice one way or other?
Has Dong-mae already make a choice? Or does he even feel the need to make a choice?
Dong-mae and his men go to meet Lee Wan-ik. He’s the one that killed Ae-shin’s parents and was shot by Gunner Jang. This is when we find out that Lee Wan-ik is using a Japanese name, Rinoie.
Rinoie already knows what Dong-mae/Hayashi are looking for. Dong-mae, who in the previous scene is warned about colluding with Rinioe, asks whether he should give it to Rinoie if he finds it. Talk about fleeting alliances. Dong-mae tells him that he is a Korean starting today.
Perhaps, Dong-mae’s choices are ultimately based on whoever pays him.
Dong-mae continues to make choices based on his obsession with Ae-shin. He has resorted to spying on her by paying people for information. Go household servant goes to Dong-mae and tells him about Ae-shin’s fiancé. He gives the servant way too much money saying that it will encourage the servant to come back – with more information.
Dong-mae has limited choices when it comes to Ae-shin. Her status is beyond his own and he knows that she thinks little of him. So, he is left with anger when he finds out about her fiancé. Since he can’t beat up on his new man in her life, he picks a fight with a stranger on the street.
The only choice he has to appease his anger is in violence. His anger still had not subsided as we see him beating up on his men during training.
We will see our characters make many more important choices in future episodes. It was important to talk about the choices that they made and are making now. Why? As they say, things have a way of coming back to haunt us. Will their choices come back to haunt them?
That’s all for today. Join me next time for Episode 6: Self Control.