Wen | tongshu
He has no money, no house, no car, no parents, a job a year, no fixed home, with an older brother who is autistic and needs close care... His name is Wen Gangtai and he is a nurse in a mental hospital. Playing this role is Kim so-hyun, who has returned from the army.
In 2013, with "You from the Stars" throughout Asia, Kim So-hyun's career reached its peak, this highly anticipated return work, he did not like the same male actors, enthusiastic about the role of prince or officer with Mary Sue effect, to kill back to the rapid iteration of the idol drama market, but the sword went to the peak, chose Moon Gangtai, a tragic social low-level figure.
In front of others, Wen Gangtai will always be hard-working, gentle and capable, even if he gets along with mental patients who smash and make trouble, he can be methodical, smiling and comforting. But in the locker room, a place that outsiders could not see, in the shadows, he was scarred, plastered, and indifferent.
In the face of the time bomb-like brother who did not know when he would erupt emotionally, Wen Gangtai had to keep rushing to clean up the mess, and when he turned his back on his brother, he had no expression, and his drooping eyes looked tired and low, but only turned his head, and he immediately squeezed out a smile at his brother. He is like Arthur in Joker, with extreme pain and sadness in his heart, but "to always put on a smiling face, you have a mission to make the world full of laughter." "Because as long as Gang tai smiled, the brother recognized that expression, and he would be at ease and think he was fine."
Such a life, Wen Gangtai has been more than 20 years. This stagnant day was broken by the appearance of Gao Wenying.
Gao Wenying is a well-known children's literature writer in the Dark Department who has published many best-selling books. She is beautiful and rich, but under the beautiful makeup and gorgeous clothes, she has an "anti-social personality": arrogant and rude, revenge, unobstructed, fond of sharp objects...
Fatalistic, Wen Gangtai and Gao Wenying, two people with emotional deficiencies, although in a completely different class, met when they rescued the little girl who was chased by her mentally ill father. In the face of the handsome and handsome Wen Gangtai, Gao Wenying was moved. "Wen Gangtai, give you to me", Wen Ying began her unscrupulous straight ball confession.
In Wen Gang's numb life without sorrow and joy, love is illusory and has no time to take care of it. With his brother such an indefinite burden on his shoulders, he had long since bid farewell to the lives of ordinary people. Wen Ying, on the other hand, was a rampage intruder, she didn't care about the eyes of others, and went to the hospital where Wen Gangtai worked to chase and block, speaking hot and boldly: "Do you want to sleep with me once?" "I said I love you, why are you running away?"
In the korean traditional romantic love drama, it is the domineering president who stalks Cinderella and pursues everything. Here, the "sexual transfer" storyline and the role perspective of "female chasing men" make the image of Gao Wenyingshuang's heroine more vivid and enjoyable, and maximize the sense of confrontation and conflict of the drama. On the one hand, Wen Gangtai, who lives a life of forbearance, and on the other hand, Gao Wenying, who does not want to do as he pleases, "Is there any grand reason for satisfying desires?" Gao Wenying's words stabbed Wen Gangtai's heart.
Because he never faced his own desires. The moral demands of harmony, face, and social responsibility in East Asian cultures have led to the isolation of the public from the mentally ill and their families. The sense of shame experienced as a family member of a mentally ill patient makes Wen Gangtai have a strong sense of rejection of pulling other people into life, "I don't want to become a necessity for anyone anymore."
Since childhood, Gangtai, who has struggled to live with his brother at the bottom of society, has seen all the cold and warm people, and the only way to survive is to suppress himself and work around, in order to carefully maintain his livelihood. He had no hobbies or dreams, and his mission to take care of his brother was round the clock, and he was open all year round. He does not manage the relationship for more than a year, does not allow himself to live a normal life, and there is only his brother in his world, which is a heavy weight for his life.
Freud proposed that personality consists of three levels: "self", "self" and "superego", and the superego is internalized at the level of social morality; the original self is dominated by primitive impulses and desires, following the "pleasure principle", that is, the satisfaction of desires and the greatest happiness as the greatest goal. In his years of escort life, Wen Gangtai suppressed the "original self" and was accustomed to living with the dedication spirit of "superego", and when he met a charming girl like Gao Wenying, who was extremely individualistic and self-aware, could he awaken himself?
Gao Wenying looks like her Dark Witch on the surface, but as an excellent writer, she has a strong sense of perception. She can see that Wen Gangtai, who has struggled to support the family, "also wants to be loved", and persuades him not to be a hostage of her brother anymore and pursue ordinary happiness; she tells her brother Wen Shangtai, "Wen Gangtai is Wen Gangtai's own and does not belong to anyone"; she treats her brother with autism like any ordinary friend, discovers his brother's talent for painting, and hires him as her own illustrator...
Love, on the other hand, is the mutual attraction between two souls. Wen Gangtai's problems and barriers were constantly dismantled by Gao Wenying, and Wenying gradually entered his heart. Wen Gangtai also found that this seemingly strong girl was fragile and lonely inside. Gao Wenying's mentally ill father wanted to strangle her when he saw her, and her mother imprisoned her at home as a child and controlled everything about her. She was so similar to him that they only comforted each other when they were together. In the absence of family affection, both of them are trying to use the rest of their lives to heal their unfortunate childhood.
For Gangtai, the brother is a love-hate existence. In his current life, he just passively accepts, wearing a mask in disguise. Because GangTai has always been a "tool man" for his mother, his mother said, "I gave birth to you to take care of my brother." "The mother gave all her love and energy to her sick brother, and as long as she didn't take good care of her brother, she would get a scolding."
This has become a hurdle that Wen Gangtai has been unable to pass in his heart for many years. It was as if from the moment of birth, his life and mission were predestined. As the famous psychologist Adler commented on the influence of maternal love: "The mother is the child's first bridge to social life, and a baby who cannot relate to the mother at all will surely embark on the road to extinction."
But after being with the flammable and explosive Gao Wenying, steel tai began to be subtly changed. "Aren't you the best at concealment?" people all said of Gangtai. Insulted, slapped, and beaten by his brother, Gang Tai endured without a word. Washing his face became the only way for him to calm himself. "As long as I endure, nothing will happen."
It was such a Wen Gangtai who actually beat people. Seeing that the visitors who came to make trouble hit wen Ying who was unevenly drawing his sword to help him, he couldn't bear it any longer. With a fierce punch, everyone was shocked, and Gangtai was suspended for reflection. But he smiled and left. "This is the rebellion I have dreamed of in my life." All along, steel seemed to be sinking in the bottomless sea, drowned by depressed emotions. Wen Ying, on the other hand, was the only light in his dark life.
"I had a dream," Gang Tai said of the two days and one night of a beautiful outing with Wen Ying during the suspension. He just wants to be like an ordinary person, have the most ordinary happiness, and spend some time with the person he loves. And this turned out to be his "wishful thinking", he thought that he was not qualified to leave his brother alone to be happy.
This is because wen Shangtai, an older brother who has no social relations, is afraid that his brother will abandon himself after falling in love, so he regards Wen Ying as a thorn in his eye. Knowing that Gang Tai and Wen Ying were traveling behind his back, his brother's reaction set off a climax of the whole play, and he angrily shouted: "Do you want me to die, my brother wants to kill me", and one roar after another was like a dart to Gang Tai, becoming the last straw that crushed the camel. The pressure and pain that Steel had been unable to describe for many years surged up in an instant.
From the initial panicked explanation, to the anxious and helpless persuasion, to shouting at the brother together, desperately denying, and finally leaning against the wall a little crouch and crying bitterly. Kim so-hyun handles the crying scene here in a very layered way.
This is the most common and "heart-wrenching" situation encountered by the family members of those who accompany the mentally ill in the real society. Continuous higher labor intensity care and higher psychological burden, so that they often bear greater mental pressure and emotional pain, but also bear economic pressure and social discrimination, and this is a long-term and repeated state, the relatives and friends around them can help is also very limited, often in a state of isolation, the need for social support and understanding and the respect and kindness of "bystanders".
With the development of the plot, with the efforts of Wen Ying and Gang Tai, and with the help of the mental director and Gang Tai's relatives and friends, his brother Shang Tai finally began to accept Wen Ying's existence. Because he saw gangtai in his sleep, he showed a happy smile for the first time, which was an expression that his brother had never seen before, and he also understood that "Wenying's existence is not to rob Gangtai, but to have one more person to accompany him." ”
"Although it is mental illness but it does not matter", the title of this drama sets the tone of the whole play, it does not use a condescending perspective to examine the mentally ill, nor does it use a sympathetic and compassionate attitude to consume patients, it breaks the stereotype of the mentally ill in society, and many metaphors buried under the lens and well-designed pictures are worth mentioning.
When the drama involves the picture of the mentally ill person, the tone is fresh and gentle, like the tone in the daily comic, which looks refreshing, without the sharpness and tearing feeling in the traditional mental patient plot.
In many scenes, Gang Tai, Shang Tai and Wen Ying are in a variety of "frames": in the window frame, in the door frame, in the circular wall hole, in the square mirror... They seem to live in a besieged city, bound by emotions and unable to break through the cage, only embattled. But after Gang Tai and Wen Ying were together, such compositional pictures became less and less. I don't know if it is also hinting that Gangtai, who was slowly being fired, finally walked out of his "prison".
When it comes to the fantasies of mentally ill people, the plot is often expressed in the form of cute animations, accompanied by cheerful music. Mentally ill people, in a way, are just like those children who love to watch cartoons, and need a steady stream of love, care and encouragement from society. Behind this cruel illness and torture, the play chooses to wrap and heal the pain with warm pictures, creating a simple and beautiful animation world for them, temporarily withdrawing from reality.
The whole play is carried out in this fairytale atmosphere, and each transition is unique. Like sharing the time flying carpet with the people in the play, shuttling through various moments: a bus that "explains the past" drives away, and the people living in the present come out; the traces of a piece of dirt will become the shape of the next shadow; the "gaze" across a wall can shuttle to another person's home... The imagination of the imagination makes the love-hate sadism in the plot become light and witty.
The "witch" Gao Wenying's costume is always gorgeous, dazzling, princess Fan. The skirt was her trench coat, and she painted her protective colors with an incomparably noisy exterior, arming her fragile self. Just like the "little pervert" Villanelle in "Kill Eve", the same antisocial personality, she has become a cold-blooded killer, and it is gratifying that Gao Wenying, a dragon-slaying girl, did not become a dragon when she grew up, and she used her own efforts to melt and heal people with the same difficulties.
"In the days I grew up, I forgot who I was, but the power of love is to make people find themselves again and rejuvenate themselves again." 」 Gao Wenying learned from Wen Gangtai to love his lover and think differently; Wen Gangtai was healed by Gao Wenying and found the meaning and happiness of life. No matter what kind of pain, we can choose to heal with love, rather than camouflage it by closing ourselves off. This is probably the idea that the play wants to convey.
Mental illness has long been a new topic in Korean dramas, but in this drama, there have been new breakthroughs.
"It's Okay, It's Love" is The first Korean TV series about psychiatry, "Love is two imperfect people to bravely face, chase happiness" theme, comforted the hearts of many people. But its core is still focused on the depiction of love itself, and spiritual problems are just obstacles that need to be overcome in love.
"Kill Me and Heal Me", which later hit the climax of the ratings, went a step further, showing the story of patients with multiple personality disorders falling in love with ordinary people. The highlight of the play is to show the chain reaction brought about by the 7 personality variables of patients, and let more people understand and care for this type of patient with a soft tone. In the treatment of the male-female relationship, it is a simple relationship between the "troublemaker" and the "trouble solver". Moreover, because of the addition of romantic comedy elements, the pain of the families of mentally ill patients is blurred.
Stills from "Kill Me and Heal Me"
"Although it is mental illness, but it doesn't matter" pays attention to the hidden corner of the patient's family in this series of themes, and shows the social, economic and psychological difficulties of the patient's family in multiple dimensions. Due to the particularity of mental illness, the patient's family is not only the bearer of the patient's disease care, but also the leader of the patient's struggle for rehabilitation. However, the family of a patient under multiple pressures may not only hinder the patient's recovery, but also seriously affect their own quality of life. How to care for the families of patients with mental illness and critically ill patients is a social problem that needs to be solved urgently.
After watching the play, a fan with autism very much wanted to play with Shang Tai's brother, and Wu Zhengshi, the actor of the brother in the play, actually wore Shang Tai's costume and accompanied the fan to play in the amusement park for a day with the same tone and action, which made the fan's family particularly moved: "This is the meaning of the play and the strength of the actor."
Fan family members posted photos on social networking sites