Just look at how difficult it is for a marriage where women are strong and men are weak
Some people say that after acting in "My Liberation Diary", Kim Ji-won finally returned to her drama domination field - boss.
▲《The Eye Weeping Queen》
In her recent new drama "Queen of Tears", she and Kim so-hyun played a chaebol couple. The character design with gold and beauty and a cold personality is old-fashioned, but I can't help but have enough emotional lines.
▲The composition of the poster is simple and clear
illustrates the status of the two at home.
Photo source: "Queen of Tears"
Different from the trick of exchanging the souls of men and women in Korean puppets in the past, here, the material reversal behind the identity is real. The heroine Hong Hairen is not only the daughter of the chaebol, but also the eldest daughter and the pending heir of the family business, and she also has a certain say in the family.
It can be said that Hong Hairen is the sexual transformation of the previous boss, and her social status determines that she must be in a high position in this relationship. And the relatively poor and empty male protagonist Bai Xianyu has become a "coquette" who is responsible for cutting vegetables and cooking with the rest of his sons-in-law every time the women's family sacrifices day, and cannot serve them on the table.
▲《The Eye Weeping Queen》
As a weak "husband", his daily life is exactly the same as that of women after marriage. Not only was he urged to have a child and go abroad for further study to package himself, but even if he was unhappy to meet with friends, he was closely watched by the bodyguards sent by his wife.
▲《The Eye Weeping Queen》
Love turned into repression, and his legal knowledge was reduced to a tool to serve his wife's family, not only was he not qualified to share property, but he also suffered from being teased by others, and the only counterattack could only be to drink and cry: "Why do I look so cute, and I am favored by Hong Hairen." ”
▲《The Eye Weeping Queen》
Park Ji-eun, who has written popular dramas such as "My Love from the Star" and "Crash Landing on Love", has always been very good at creating humor, even if it is a serious capital game buried behind the marriage of wealthy couples, it can be written very interestingly.
But maybe it's too light-hearted and funny, and many viewers haven't understood the satire and thinking of Korean female screenwriters about modern marriage in East Asia, so they feel that the plot is too "crazy" and give the work a negative score. Some people even criticized Kim so-hyun, who played the male lead outside the play, and chose the script role as "disrespecting the feelings of fans" - love to be a "big heroine pendant", always playing a weak man, how can this work?
▲《The Eye Weeping Queen》
Dissatisfied with the male protagonist's simplicity and soil, and unable to accept that the male protagonist's status in the relationship is far lower than that of women, which itself is a trap of self-limitation under the inheritance of ancient concepts.
When men become people on the edge of power, why do relationships start to be dangerous? Why do women themselves perceive that something is wrong? This kind of "vague imbalance" is essentially a latent concept, and a series of crises triggered by women who are tacitly regarded as "inferior" become "superior".
▲ In the face of any instructions from my mother-in-law,
Even if he is unwilling, Baek Hyun Woo is not qualified to refuse.
Photo source: "Queen of Tears"
In the past, Korean dramas also had a lot of scenes where the identities of men and women were changed, but most of them were just reversing gender characteristics. For example, in "Secret Garden", the female protagonist is a poor stunt stand-in, and the male protagonist is the president of the "super good at making money".
▲ "Secret Garden"
And sister and brother love is another current Korean drama narrative in which men are strong and women are weak, but the model of "royal sister and wolf dog" that people expect to get along peacefully will only appear in the dating stage in more cases. At this time, the inversion of power is justified, after all, in the tradition men are "naturally" endowed with the ambition of "hunters", and all actions in the pursuit can be rationalized as part of the plan.
But marriage is different. When love comes to the end, it is the reorganization of interests and power. The "breadwinner", "male power" and "housekeeping" and "virtuous help" expected by society will make men and women constantly and passively adjust their positions in society and intimate relationships.
▲《Ranyu》
Even Kim so-hyun, who is not afraid of playing a "weak man", once revealed his former "inferiority" on the show. Because the name sounded too girly, when he was younger, he would give himself a masculine nickname "Xiuman". Funny deeds can be regarded as a kind of self-ridicule, but you can also see that the concept of the division between men and women is extremely deep.
▲《The Eye Weeping Queen》
The real controversy caused by "Queen of Tears", as well as the "strong women and weak men" in the play, are a ridicule of this patriarchal narrative. When Hong Hairen became the core of the family, the power also revolved around her, and all kinds of traditional demands were invalidated on her.
After discussing "whose surname is the child" for so long, there seems to be a new solution here. Hong Hae-in's father not only named the child who had not yet appeared, "Xiubin, it must be a girl", but also asked to follow the woman's surname: "Everyone doesn't mind this thing now."
But this kind of treatment can only be obtained by the heroine. Hong Hairen's brother-in-law also wanted the idea of the child taking her mother's surname, but her father quickly pushed it away.
▲《The Eye Weeping Queen》
The ladder that defines the status of men and women is itself a lie. Power is genderless, and in its perspective, it doesn't even care if the "spokesperson" is male or female. Men, on the other hand, are more like the party chosen by capital and history. Those who have not yet been detached from lies are also trapped in an obsession with power.
Ken in "Barbie" is an example of being constantly influenced. At first, he lived in a female-dominated world. He is used to flattering and flattering Barbie as the "protagonist of the world". In his subconscious, this is normal.
▲《Bahi》
But when he arrived in the human world and received the "knowledge" that men must become man, and that only men can master and transform the world, he also transformed himself, wearing a masculine coat and playing men's games.
▲《Bahi》
Greta Gerwig, the casting director at the time, also said that she was worried that Ryan Gosling would not play Ken, after all, such a "feminine" male role is usually resisted by male actors.
This instinctive concern of women is actually the inertial spread of traditional concepts. In most romantic dramas, the pairing of strong men and weak women is normal, and once women are too strong, the relationship is destined to separate. Because this is not conducive to the "self-esteem" of the partner, and this has become the marriage and love crime of most strong women.
▲ "Fair Competition"
The big heroines of countless dramas, while dealing with the deceitful workplace, have to worry about their own abilities and whether they will cause an imbalance in their intimate relationships. The new women of the 21st century should be proud of their freedom in life and standing on a higher stage, but in countless moments, they are still afraid of encountering this unequal love.
The separation brought about by the change of power structure between lovers is already a "gentle presentation" in a pure love scene. If you put this relationship in the workplace, the conflict is even greater.
At the beginning of "Fair Play", Emily and Luke are just a loving couple who are about to get married. At night, they are intimate lovers, and during the day, they are colleagues of the same level who work in the same office in a hidden underground relationship.
▲ "Fair Competition"
One day, Luke's immediate boss was fired without cause. Emily, who learns from rumors that Luke is about to be promoted, excitedly congratulates her boyfriend. But unexpectedly, it turned out to be herself who was favored by the boss.
Faced with her promotion, Emily's first reaction was "sorry". The reason why she felt anxious was not that she was not incompetent, but that she was worried about whether her boyfriend would become more depressed because of it. Because it wasn't other male colleagues who beat him, but his girlfriend.
▲ "Fair Competition"
She promised to do her best to support her boyfriend to the top position, but Luke, who was saying congratulations, watched his girlfriend get promoted and raised, and was picked up by a special car, and his heart became more and more uncomfortable.
An inexplicable "jealousy" took over his mind, and he became more and more suspicious that his girlfriend's success depended on his physical superiority. He insinuated that his girlfriend has no leadership skills and "dresses like a cake" at work every day, if it wasn't for the shady deal behind it, why could she gain favor faster?
▲ "Fair Competition"
The movie tears out the dark side of love through a simulation of an imbalance of power. In Luke's eyes, his own success is hard-working, while his girlfriend's success is dirty. Driven to the brink of madness by not being able to accept defeat, he eventually regains his masculine dignity by destroying Emily.
He completely exposed the underground love between the two. But he seems to have completely forgotten that at the beginning, when he thought that the person he was promoted would be himself, he was the same person who advised Emily not to announce his relationship for the sake of his future.
▲ "Fair Competition"
In "Queen of Tears", the answer given by the screenwriter is still ancient, even if he does not change his social identity, the two must form a dislocation from a certain angle to complete the hollowness of the original power relationship.
At the beginning of the ambiguous germination, Bai Xianyu, who didn't know the identity of the heroine, always thought that she was a fool with little strength, and it was likely that she would not even be able to pass the company's internship period. The desire to protect born of pity prompted him to say in his confession, "I have 35 cows in my hometown, and I have a little savings, even if you don't work, I can support you."
▲《The Eye Weeping Queen》
In his cognition, the status of the two at this time is "normal". But with the revelation of the heroine's identity, his loss and decadence also came. It turned out that the other party was not an ordinary person, but the future heir of the company, and people did not need his protection at all.
He fled to the countryside, and although the heroine who came to "chase her husband" prompted the two to finally get married, as a man, he was still trapped in the depression that was bred by an unequal relationship.
▲《The Eye Weeping Queen》
The turning point of the whole play happens to be the moment when the heroine becomes weaker. The heroine's rare terminal illness has become the glue that binds the broken relationship between the two, and her physical discomfort when arguing with her family, and the dangerous moment she encountered due to weakness in the hunting ground, are invisibly sending him a "distress signal", and the relationship between the two quickly warms up.
▲《The Eye Weeping Queen》
The decline of the female protagonist in the emotional position has given the male protagonist a superior spiritual level. It seems that only at this time can the intimacy between the two be continued. Just imagine, if the Korean drama three-piece set did not make a comeback, Baek Hyun Woo might have silently prepared for the divorce in suffocation, just like the beginning.
As an exchange for the restart of love, perhaps in the future, Hong Hairen's career and status will continue to decline. An irremediable terminal illness seems to be a prediction, after all, death is also a metaphor for the dissipation of power.
Otherwise, how can they spend the rest of their lives together in an unbalanced love?
▲《The Eye Weeping Queen》
Content Editor: Nico