(KBS2, 2008) Women of the Sun

DY's failing is with her sister, because above all other people (including her mother and Dong Woo), her sister did love her more than anyone else. The end -- which itself was the sum-zero consequence of Do Young's choice -- was the end result of DY absolutely expending every single chance she was given to accept her sister.

But, at the same time -- and this is why I loved this version of the revenge drama -- the story doesn't really focus on the morality of Do Young's situation. Women in the Sun's fault is in how it seems content on using Do Young's pathetic and unwanted station in life to delay her mea culpa. But, at the same time, I really enjoyed how within Do Young's claustrophobic circumstances, DY herself admits her only escape isn't love, but oblivion. And that as she continues on her wicked ways, she only sees more and more facets of her oblivion. In that regard, I loved the treatment of the ending. Because if DY ultimately sought release and escape, we got to see what release and escape would look alike, beyond the evil of her acts or the tragic absence of love in her entire life.

I really liked the Dong Woo and Do Young relationship. Not because it was a romance, not because anything really happened. He was her confession, and he -- they -- knew that she would slowly fall. That can't be emphasized enough; Do Young truly believed that through the end of her days, she would never really be forgiven, that she would never really experience love or true happiness. That doesn't justify her actions; but that puts the story into context. Through the 2nd half of the story, she believed that her end was inevitable, that she was only buying time until every illusion she created, every hope she put on others would be destroyed. In a way, she waited Ji Young to take justice upon her and finish her off.

The last third of Women in the Sun plays like a suicide in slow motion. Even when she experiences the happiness with her adopted mother -- and it feels so good to her -- she knows that one day her mother will recover her memory. When she learns that her adopted mother was in fact projecting Ji Young onto her, well it was a crushing blow but also a reminder that, even her happiness was an illusion.

Unwitting to her, she doesn't realize that, by her same decisions to remain complicit to her original sin, she also plunges her sister into madness. Love turns into hatred and hatred turns back into love. Because familial habits are still familial habits, and Do Young still cannot but act out the role of older sister, and Ji Young cannot but re-enact her standing as younger sister. Even at its most vicious, it is still a fight between sisters. Do Young, in spite of her vicious selfishness, never really hated Ji Young for being Ji Young, and Ji Young, as much as she hated Do Young, wanted to forgive Do Young because she was a necessary part of her existence too.

That leads to the final scene. Do Young finally experiences release. Do Young and Ji Young finally are restored as sisters. It was so simple. If she had accepted Ji Young, all things could have been forgiven. But, at least in the end, Do Young can go in peace.

The moral of the story is that, if you do not accept love into your heart, then you will see no love around you. Ji Young loved Do Young. Ji Young forgave Do Young. It was Ji Young's voice that came through to Do Young from the other side. And Ji Young's voice was the last thing she heard before she finally rested in peace. You see, in childhood and when JY came back, Do Young was never really alone as she had thought. Ji Young was not the curse of Do Young's existence; Ji Young was God's gift to Do Young. Finally, in the end of her life, she realized that.