If you’re going in with history chops, though, you’ll probably have a good time either A) patting yourself on the back for knowing what’s going on or B) catching little mistakes. This can be especially confusing if you go in with zero Korean history, as I did. It also cuts between past and present often in episode one, which was hard to follow. One of the reasons this is so great, though, is that every moment in the first episode will later become relevant. The show packs a whole lot of backstory-character and historical-into the very beginning. If you decide to dive in, stick it out for the first few episodes. This had the strange effect of making their first handshake feel like a wild plot development, and their first hug had me nothing short of aroused. Sunshine’s strangest accomplishments is its ability to keep me deeply invested in a romance in which-over the course of 23 1.5-hour long episodes-the couple never kisses. But it’s fun to watch the classic, anime-esque quality of the hero who comes in and makes everything okay no matter what (except for maybe in the end when his heroism is his demise, cough-cough).Įugene and Ae-shin do have great on-screen chemistry. All of his decisions are motivated by his love for Ae-shin-her cause is his cause-and his loyalty to the men who helped him escape Korea as a child.
When young Ae-shin helps Dong-mae escape in her palanquin, he wipes his blood on her silk skirt and says, “You’re just a noble fool who lives in luxury.” These words haunt Ae-shin into adulthood and inform her decision to be more than just a noblewoman, and Ae-shin haunts Dong-mae into his adulthood-as, of course, he is also in love with her.Īnd last but not least, we have Eugene, who while being the protagonist and the sexiest is the least interesting of our men. But in the end, when he being beaten and interrogated by the Japanese about his newspaper, he repeats this: “I only like beautiful and useless things.”
But this becomes heavier as the show progresses-he decides to begin a nameless newspaper to spread information about the Korean resistance, empowering the people to fight back. Throughout, he tells people he only likes “beautiful and useless things,” things like flowers and poetry. While Hee-sung is insufferable for the first half of the show, his character gradually becomes more and more lovable as you realize he is willing to release Ae-shin from their arranged engagement so that she can be independent. And guess what? His family are the ones who killed Eugene’s parents and used to own Eugene. Kim Hee-sung is a pretty boy who spent 10 years in Tokyo as a student but mostly stayed away to avoid his overbearing family. All three ultimately sacrifice themselves in the name of that newfound morality. Sunshine start at a high-with strength, power, and badassery as a through-line-the men in this show are more dynamic, arching from more simplistic alliances toward drastic change in moral direction. It’s about the men who treat them as such. The way the three central male characters treat Ae-shin and Kudo Hina as equal partners and friends, even when these women are breaking so many rules, presents us with a cast of characters driven by mutual respect and equality-feminism, of course, isn’t just about women being badasses. Sunshine is a beautiful hunk of feminism not only because of the women, but because of the men.
Who is it for?” What does it mean to fight to free your country when not all citizens of your country are free? Ae-shin becomes still more interesting when she finds herself trapped between wanting to protect her homeland and feeling ashamed of it-Eugene says to her when he finally reveals his origins, “This Joseon you are trying to protect.
Then we have Lady Go Ae-shin, Eugene’s immediate love interest who was born into Joseon’s elite and disguises herself as a man to be a vigilante sniper for the Korean resistance. Joseon has never taken me in.” This idea brings Korean history to our global present. Within the first 10 minutes of the pilot, we are shown that national identity is at odds with birthplace, that patriotism is a matter of who belongs and who does not.Įugene is the embodiment of this: He says to his American friend, Major Kyle Moore, before they deploy to Joseon, “I may have been born in Korea, but America is my homeland. Screenwriter Kim Eun-sook (one of many badass women that make the show a sort of feminist gem), brilliantly uses each character’s unique backstory to approach the complexities of Korea in the early 20th century.