First Impressions: “My Dearest” Is A Heartwrenching Story Of Enduring Love In A Country Torn Apart

It’s always good to see Namgoong Min back on the small screen, and he’s chosen something a little different from his usual contemporary fare. “My Dearest” is poised to be a lush sageuk in the vein of “The Red Sleeve,” “Tree With Deep Roots,” and “Empress Ki.” It’s been a while since there was a non-fusion historical drama, and the premiere episodes deliver all the intensity, beauty, and heartache that traditional sageuks do so well. Here’s what we loved about the first couple of episodes!

Warning: spoilers for episodes 1-2 below.

1. The dual timelines

We start off in 1659, where a historian happens to get his hands on a record that should have been erased from all knowledge. It states that Crown Prince So Hyun (Kim Mu Jun) was manipulated by a man who lied about his exploits on the battlefield. The man was also somehow responsible for the fall of the crown prince and rise of the present regime. Something about it doesn’t sit right with the historian, so he assigns up-and-coming investigator Shin Yi Rib (Ha Kyung) to find out more about this mysterious man, Lee Jang Hyun (Namgoong Min).

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Yi Rib’s search takes him to a white-haired man who is considered insane and has been locked up for years. We don’t see who this other man is, but we know from his doctor that he’s been vowing for years that Lee Jang Hyun would come back for him. Yi Rib asks how this all came to be, and we cut to a bloodstained Jang Hyun, injured and weary, facing off against a sea of enemies who strangely appear to be Korean. He looks like he’s at the end of the line but still picks up his strong and turns to them.

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The show cuts to 1636, 23 years in the past and prior to the Qing invasion. The dual timelines here work to build a sense of dread and anticipation for what could be coming the characters’ way because we know that Jang Hyun is considered a liar in the present and that the only record with his name wasn’t supposed to exist. Just what happened over 23 years for things to go so wrong? Is Jang Hyun alive now? And who is the white-haired man being locked up? There are so many questions!

2. Lee Jang Hyun’s quiet intensity

Lee Jang Hyun walks into the sleepy village of Neunggun-ri and scandalizes much of the scholars and young women there by charming all the elders and flouting many social mores. No one knows where he’s from, but they do know that he’s a wealthy trader with a knack for knowing just what people need. Jang Hyun becomes a hot topic because he drinks in broad daylight and has openly vowed off marriage. He’s cultured and intelligent but has no interest in showing people just how much. He doesn’t brag, reads people well, and it never takes him long to have someone wrapped around his finger. This includes the many women who’ve tried and failed to snag him in marriage. And he’s always up front with them from the start: marriage isn’t something he’s interested in. Naturally, the village’s women have equally little interest in him.

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But something lurks beneath Jang Hyun’s surface that hints at ruthless intelligence, coupled with a life that showed him too much at too young an age. Outside the village, he’s the ruthless righthand to an outpost trader and even orders a murder without flinching. Namgoong Min excels at playing characters who are more than what they seem. He has this incredible way of showing that several undercurrents are running beneath his character’s outward calm. And that makes Lee Jang Hyun an incredibly magnetic character, both fiercely restrained with his emotions yet exhausted with the world and everyone in it. Until he happens to run into Gil Chae.

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3. Yoo Gil Chae, charmer extraordinaire

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At first, Yoo Gil Chae (Ahn Eun Jin) seems like she doesn’t have any depth. She’s pretty, and she knows it and uses her looks to ensure that every scholar in town is chasing after her even though she has no interest in them. She uses them as a means of showing all the other girls in town (who hate her) that she’s better than them. It’s a chicken and egg situation. The other girls in town can’t stand the way men fawn around her, so they gossip about her being a fox (a girl who seduces any man in sight). Gil Chae hates the gossip, so she goes out of her way to enchant all the men the other girls want. In a time where a woman’s only social currency was how rich, connected, and handsome her husband was, the fact that Gil Chae and the other young women do this every day is just a byproduct of systemic failure.

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But Gil Chae isn’t just a flighty, rich girl who dreams of love. She’s in love with Nam Yeon Joon (Lee Hak Joo), a scholar who attends Sungkyunkwan in the capital. The trouble is that he’s in love with Kyung Eun Ae (Lee Da In). Determined to secure his heart, she decides to learn about city people so she can impress and charm him. And who better to enlist than Jang Hyun, even if she really doesn’t like him?

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Gil Chae sees Jang Hyun as a man up to no good where women are concerned. Still, part of her is surprised when it seems like he has no interest in her. She makes him an offer. Seeing as they have no interest in each other romantically, if he shows her the ways of city folk, she’ll let him in on the exams questions to be admitted as a scholar to the town’s academy. She’s elated when Jang Hyun agrees, unaware that he’s doing it because he’s fallen head over heels for her.

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What’s so refreshing about Gil Chae and Jang Hyun is that they don’t play games with each other, but they also don’t force people to reciprocate their feelings. The second Jang Hyun realizes that he’s in love, he doesn’t dump it on her. He lets her believe that she’s using him but genuinely shows her the best of the city. He even laughs when she believes that he’s impotent.

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Namgoong Min’s smile is a dangerous weapon

He gently points out that just because he isn’t falling at her feet like all the scholars doesn’t mean that he isn’t a man. It’s only when she’s brutally rejected by Yeon Joon that he express his interest, of course with marriage not on the table.

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Gil Chae is equally honest. Despite her immaturity at times, she’s hard not to love. She senses that Yeon Joon is interested in her, so she pursues him. And she isn’t wrong—he absolutely does have interest in her. He just is more interested in Kyung Ae. When Jang Hyun expresses interest right after she’s rejected, she doesn’t run into his arms to soothe her pride. She informs him that she has no interest and storms off. He takes no for an answer and almost gives up, until he sees her crying. He can’t help himself and reaches to wipe the tear, when disaster strikes. War has begun.

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4. The political warfare that’ll split our duo apart

The first couple episodes show fragments of the larger political movements taking place while citizens go about their lives. Much of the events here are historically accurate, though altered for the purposes of the drama. In brief, at the time in China, the Ming Dynasty was in the middle of warfare with the Later Jin dynasty, led by Hong Taiji (Kim Joon Won). The Later Jin had invaded Joseon in early 1627, and Joseon technically lost. However, the king at the time was deposed, and King Injo (Kim Jong Tae) was placed on the throne. Injo severed all relations with the Later Jin and formed strong ties with the Ming Dynasty. However, that turns out to be a bad idea.

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Nine years after the first invasion, the Later Jin have weakened the Ming Dynasty and had enough of being ignored by Joseon, so they’re back. Hong Taiji demands that Injo acknowledge him as the true authority in China. Injo doesn’t. And Taiji, fresh off a series of military victories, commences war. Historically, the war lasts about two months, and the Later Jin wins and becomes the Qing Dynasty. Even King Injo will fall and be replaced by King Hyojong. The show has much to cover in 23 years, and it’s done a fantastic job of balancing and situating the smaller moments between the characters within the larger shifting political landscape.

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“My Dearest” has done an incredible job thus far, carefully crafting two lovers whose fates will hang on forces they cannot control. This show is split in two parts, with 10 episodes now and 10 in October, so I’m anticipating cliffhangers and heartbreak a plenty. The show is beautifully shot with every actor bringing their A-game that this is going to hurt so good. Bring it on, show!

 

Source: Soompi