The publishing company TokyoPop will be releasing English version of the Utsukushii Kare novel and manga in the second half of 2024. YES!!!
And all of a sudden I need to check out the short drama “Have a Soft Spot for Her.”
!!!!
I’ve been watching it since it started airing. I loved the first 7 episodes or so. The makeouts are epic and the actors have great chemistry, plus Richard Li’s character is incredible, utterly in love with the heroine. The downside - the heroine does NOT deserve him! She is dumb and literally loves everyone else more than him, while he does and sacrifices everything for her.
So far he even dies for her (at least seemingly, I mean he was pierced by some 20 arrows), though, there are still three episodes left, so who knows. But I expect another non-sensical ending which shows him alive and happy with her. Frankly, I had only two thoughts as I watched him dying. First, “good for you, now please reincarnate and fall in love with a better woman”, and second “you should have banged him while you had the chance, you idiot sandwich!”
But it’s worth the time just for Richard Li and the makeouts, I mean:
I’m shocked the censors gave it a permit, it’s that HOT!
So, apparently, it took seven years, but the Moon Lovers scriptwriter has actually managed to get a publisher for her entire unabridged script and it’s going to include the DELETED MODERN DAY MEETING/ENDING BETWEEN HAE SOO AND WANG SO aka probably the perfect ending we were robbed of. Naturally, the script is in Korean.
Talk about blast from the past!
In other news, the buyers get the by now famous handkerchief Wang So gives her in the modern day with the last words we heard him utter at the end of the final episode when he wiped the makeup away and vowed to find Soo no matter where she was.
It’s the first time Gu Won has offered his hand to anyone for other reason than to make a contract or to get a hold of his tattoo, and he gets rejected. He genuinely wanted Do Hee to choose him, to be her choice, even if out of jealousy, because for someone so averse and sceptical to love, it’s what the first stirrings of actual love feel like.
The painting in My Demon is an actual early 19th century artwork by Sin Yun-bok, Ssanggeomdaemu, it features kisaengs performing geommu (sword dance), which used to be be almost exclusively performed by courtesans. Considering Gu Won has been a demon for 200 years, add the Wheel of Fortune tarot card, which hints on reunion and a possible end of a shared fate, and the puzzle pieces start to come together. I’m curious whether the painting is only a hint, or they will actually create a story behind it, making Do Hee the kisaeng dancing in it. My guess is it’s the latter.
If Do Hee used to be a kisaeng (a low caste courtesan whose parents were either slaves, criminals, or her mother also a courtesan) in the past life and Gu Won a noble, then it makes sense their love was ill-fated.
Throughout her second chance at life, Xue Ning gets to realise how much she misunderstood other people and did them wrong, most of all, Xie Wei. The moment she finally realises he has never wanted to kill her in both lives is truly when the whole circle becomes complete. Moreover, she has always considered herself to be a terrible person, who has only ever hurt people, and her sole purpose of her second life has been to remedy her past mistakes, but Xie Wei shows her that not only has she judged him unfairly, but also herself. He is the living proof of her goodness, that a single good, unselfish deed can echo and make ripples across time and space.
Xue Ning doubted she could positively impact someone else’s life, but she had, in both lives. She shook Xie Wei and turned his life upside down, so when he once told her that you reap what you sow, he really meant his debt to her, but as always, she took his words as criticism, because she always suffered from guilt and inferiority complex and expected others to blame her and criticize her, since she had been conditioned that way first and later truly deserved them with her deplorable actions.
Moreover, he always used harsh words and threats to cover his true feelings and protect himself, which didn’t help the matter either.
The man she once thought to be her most feared enemy turned out to be her greatest ally, protector and debtor, who imprinted himself on her back then, because she was the only one to ever save him, without owing him any loyalty, when even his own aunt and father would rather sacrifice him and kill him to protect themselves and their power.
The experience that someone, anyone at all, would finally protect him, whether 4 years ago or now - from the bandits, the cold, Lord Pingnan, the lynxes, the whole world, even from himself - is heart-palpilating.
It affected him so deeply that he had dedicated his life in both universes to repaying her, something that even trumps his obsession with revenge, and whether it’s with his life or hand, doesn’t matter to him.
It finally dawns on Xue Ning that everything she believed and assumed about Xie Wei has been so terribly wrong. She suspected him of killing her, when he was the only one who has been protecting her all along in the pits of vipers into which she threw herself and the hole she dug for herself. What makes it even more heart-wrenching is that not even his continuous disappointments with her in the first life could erase Xie Wei’s feelings for her.
It’s quite meaningful how Gu Won is gradually and unwittingly finding his true calling and becoming the very thing he has always been supposed to be - a guardian - someone who doesn’t make others fall but protects and saves them from falling instead.
If you are afraid of heights, perhaps don’t live in a penthouse in one of the tallest skyscrapers in South Korea, but then, if it gets you being saved by the handsomest and most ripped demon in all seven Hells in a swoonworthy fashion, good plan, Do Hee!!!