MOON LOVERS: SCARLET HEART RYEO
MOTHER AND
SON
The Fourth Prince, fresh from his killing spree at the temple,
strode silently but confidently towards his mother’s bed. Not having stood on
ceremony, he had barged right into her bed chambers. It was not clear how he
was able to gain access to his mother’s sleeping quarters. It was a security
breach that exposed the security weakness of Queen Yoo’s quarters.
Awakened by his presence, the startled queen demanded his
identity be revealed.
Emerging from the dark shadows, Wang So, with his blood-soaked
body and sword, looked sinister in the ghoulish light.
Greatly incensed at his intrusion, Queen Yoo demanded that he
make his motives and intentions clear.
With glazed eyes and warped pride, he gleefully bragged that he
had already removed all traces and connections which tied her to Wang Mu’s
assassination attempt. He revelled in his triumph of being able to help her. His
mother had not truly fathom the carnage that he had left behind.
It was obvious that he craved his mother’s love and praise when
he disclosed that he had committed a horrendous crime for her sake.
Unimpressed that he had killed all the monks and razed the temple to the
ground, she callously screamed at him to leave.
In a searing rebuke, she declared that he resembled an animal.
She said, ‘Do you think I’d tell you that you did a good job?’ She told him
in no uncertain terms that he stank of the acrid smell of blood and his
presence prevented her from sleeping.
His hope of being on the receiving end of his mother’s love was
short-lived; it was made crystal clear that he would never gain her love.
Shocked by his mother’s response, the young prince cried
pitifully, ‘It was for you, mother.’ Though it was dark, one could almost
swear that there was the look of a wounded animal in Wang So’s eyes.
Wang So was such a sucker for punishment. Broken, troubled,
screwed and confused. That pretty sums up his ‘motherless’ life.
Although viewers do not condone his savage killing, it is
disheartening to watch the cruelty and the frostiness of Queen Yoo. She
disclaimed being his mother. She took a cruel stab at his heart, ‘Hearing you
call ‘Mother’ makes my skin crawl!’
He sounded pathetic when he said forlornly, ‘Why is it that you
don’t have pity for me? He implored, 'If you were my mother, you would care if I was injured.'
Then, he asked the very pertinent question, 'Why is it that your eyes do not meet mine?'
It was precisely this question that hit the nail on the head.
She dared not look him in the eye because if she did so, she would see her
own guilt. The mask over his scarred face was a reminder of what looked like
the handiwork of a reckless, irrational and selfish woman. His physical looks
were her own making; to admit it was a confession of her personal imperfection.
Wang So had been suffering for long years without his
family by his side, neglected and unloved in a foreign place and in a foreign
household who regarded him with hate and contempt. On the surface, he was an
adopted member of the Kang clan but, in truth, he was a political hostage.
And yet, his heartless mother has no ounce of love nor sympathy
for him. In the Goryeon era, where good looks were cherished, even men wore
cosmetics. To Queen Yoo, his less than
perfect looks made him ‘unfit’ to be her son. Wang So, in fact, stuck out
like a sore thumb in her royal life.
Crestfallen, he slid
to the floor. He narrated his sorrowful experiences at the hands of the Kang
family. One shocking incident was they purposely threw him into a den of
wolves and he spent the whole night fighting the beasts which growled at him
with gnashing teeth. The Kang family had expected him to die but it was
nothing short of a miracle that he was still alive. In his fury, he burned
down the entire mountain. The revolting stench of the burnt bodies of the
beasts still lingered in his memory.
Wang So tried to appeal to Queen Yoo’s maternal instincts. He
also divulged the story about the mentally unstable Kang concubine, one of
Taejo’s concubines. The woman would not let the Fourth Prince out of her
sight thinking that he was her dead son. When she came to her senses, she condemned
him as an ugly monster and had him locked up.
If his mother had shown love to him, he would not have to resurrect
his horrendous life with the Kangs. It was a life that speaks of a
never-ending cycle of abuse and neglect.
The young prince had excavated his feelings to show his mother
how much he craved her affection. The hurt he had suffered was crystal-clear;
he craved his mother’s love which, so far, had been denied to him. The deeply
flawed mother had never pretended to love him.
 But, Queen Yoo’s cruelty was beyond belief. She spelt it out clearly for him; he, Wang So, was 'her shame, disgrace and flaw'. It was a poignant moment. The Fourth Prince immediately cast aside any illusions he may have harboured about her love for him. 
Shocked by his mother’s rejection and coldness, he declared
with chilling censure, ‘Today is a day you will remember’.
The darkness of the scene reflected the darkness in Wang So’s
life. The audience must have felt an icy shiver run down the entire length of
their spine when he mouthed those words. His words foreshadowed the future that
she could not see; they would come back to haunt her till the end.
Distraught by his conversation with his mother, Wang So went to
the palace temple. Caving in to his grief and anger, he smashed a doltap or a stack of stones. Despite a palace full of royalty and palace servants, Wang So never felt so alone.
Hae Soo arrived in time to stop him. He was startled by her
kindness. The young lady sounded like the mother
that he did not have but wanted; she was gentle, loving, understanding and compassionate. But, most
importantly, she was concerned about his well-being.
The teenager was unfazed when he disclosed that he had killed many people. She shot him a knowing look. He was confused when she quietly asked why he killed them. Declaring
that it was not a crime to want to live, she reassured him that he need not feel guilty about killing in order to survive. She understood his deep-seated
pain because he had to defend himself from a very young age.
For the first time in his life, someone empathized with him. It
was an angelic melody that he only could hear.
This segment of the drama shapes the viewers’ opinion of Wang
So, the Fourth Prince.
Lee Joon Gi is in the premier league when it comes to acting
the part of the dejected prince. The audience could sympathise with Wang So for
his misguided attempts to gain his icy mother’s love. When he expresses his
raw pain over Queen Yoo’s sharp remarks which cut deep into him like the
edges of a serrated knife, the viewers could feel his deeply wounded heart.
It was a festering wound that refuses to heal.
It is Lee Joon Gi’s realistic acting that makes the audience empathize
with Wang So; they cry when the Fourth Prince's eyes are bright with unshed tears, they also weep angry tears when he has to fight back his tears of frustration and despair.
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‘SHALL I CALL
YOU, MY PERSON?’
The Fourth Prince was a lonely figure. Since his mother did not
want him, he accepted Wang Wook’s offer to stay at his mansion. As Hae Soo was staying with Wang Wook's family, it would
only be a matter of time before Wang So and Hae Soo’s paths crossed.
The Fourth Prince had a habit of taking to the hills to meditate on his
unfortunate situation. A colossal shadow had fallen over his hopes of being
accepted by his royal mother.
The servants distanced themselves from him. He was, by
reputation, a fearful prince – one who was difficult to please. None were
drawn to him except for the kindly Hae Soo. To the maids’ relief, Lady Hae
assigned Hae Soo, not them, to serve Wang So his meals which he regularly took
on a hill top.
Wang Wook raised his eyebrows on one occasion when Lady Hae,
who was sick, had advised him to take another consort. She, obviously, had
Hae Soo in mind.
But, Hae Soo had many pursuers. One was Wang So. Another was the
juvenile Wang Eun, who with childlike simplicity, had, on one occasion, tried to amuse her with an array of
children’s toys which included a slingshot, a rattle drum and a xiu qiu, an embroidered silk ball. The embroidered silk ball, a traditional Chinese token of love, was probably made by the Zhuang ethnic group of South China and sold to Song Dynasty traders. Chinese History was not Hae Soo's strong point. During Taejo's rule in the tenth century, the ruling dynasty of China was not the Qing Dynasty but the Song Dynasty.
 
Hae Soo still had in her possession Wang So’s hair brooch that he had earlier dropped at the bathing pool. She requested Chae Ryung, the maid to secretly
return it to his room. When Chae Ryung sneaked into Wang So’s room, she was
caught red-handed by Yeon Hwa.
The maid was accused of stealing the prince’s hair brooch and was
thrashed with a cane. Hae Soo tried unsuccessfully to intervene and in the
end, offered to be whipped by Yeon Hwa. The princess of the Hwangbo family
did not hesitate; she had a heavy hand and whacked Hae Soo so hard that it
shook her. Some of the princes, including Wang Wook, had gathered around but did
not intervene.
When Wang So appeared out of nowhere, he caught hold of Yeon
Hwa’s hands to restrain her. With an incredibly smug look on his face, the
Fourth Prince told her that Hae Soo belonged to him. Wang Wook had been aware of the conflict between Wang So and Hae Soo but the about-turn of the former shocked him. Evidently, Wang So had come
to Hae Soo’s rescue to impress upon Yeon Hwa that she had no right to beat
whomsoever belonged to him.
Later, Wang Wook was patiently waiting for Wang So to tell him
in no uncertain terms that he was mistaken about everything. Neither Hae Soo
nor Yeon Hwa belonged to him. In fact, nothing in the palace belonged to him.
The Fourth Prince did not freeze but stared wordlessly at him.
Wang Wook would soon learn to his dismay and regret that he was
utterly wrong. It turned out that in the end, many years later, everything
belonged to Wang So. In fact, when Wang So ascended the throne, he, as
Gwangjong, would not only make Yeon Hwa his queen but also had Hae Soo installed
as a companion by his side. A bride and a spare. And, everything belonged to
Emperor Gwangjong then.
One iconic scene that the audience would always remember is Wang So
and Hae Soo’s meeting by the lake near Wang Wook’s mansion. Hae Soo had
accidentally bumped her head into Wang So’s chest. It seemed like a coincidence that they had crossed paths yet again. She was genuinely worried
that Wang So had harboured some wrong ideas about her. So, she took the opportunity to reprimand him
about his public declaration that she belonged to him. 'She was a human being; she
was neither a thing nor an animal.'
With a lightning-fast response, Wang So leaned forward provocatively
to stare her in the eye, ‘Shall I call
you, My Person, then?’ His face was far too close for comfort. His tone was
light and jovial and his cheeky grin made her uneasy. She felt her temper
boiling. Getting upset would only give him a chance to mock her further so she left without another word.
Like Wang Wook, Hae Soo was wrong. Curiously enough, when Wang
So ascended the throne, her destiny would be entwined with his and she would eventually
belong to him body and soul.
But for now, there was only a slight whiff of romance in his
words.
Hae Soo’s life would also be entangled with the lives of the
other princes.
In one instance, Wang Jung had been kidnapped by a group of
vengeful thugs and taken into the woods. Hae Soo was in time to thrash at
them with a bamboo stick. Her courage, with the timely appearance of Wang So
and Wang Wook, had saved Wang Jung’s life. in fact, it was Wang So’s physically
threatening figure and the fearful reputation that preceded him that had sent
the thugs fleeing for their lives.
Her relationship with Wang Wook was more complicated. Full
realization of the Eighth Prince's deep love for her finally dawned on her on the day of the kidnap incident. But, the guilty thoughts about her cousin, Lady Hae, initially made her hesitate
in reciprocating his feelings. Perhaps, she couldn’t reconcile with the fact
that she would be stealing another woman’s husband, her own cousin's consort. Would the
betrayal of her best friend who stole her boyfriend in the 21st
century stop her in her tracks?
After Wang Jung's abduction by the thugs, Wang So upbraided his younger blood
brother for his grossly irresponsible behaviour. Being involved in public brawls brought shame to the royal family. His life could have been
lost in his fights with the thugs. Turning on his brother, the recalcitrant Wang Jung made demeaning
remarks about him. His air of defiance angered Wang So, who then slapped
him.
Their mother arrived unexpectedly on the scene. Although Wang Jung had
the grace to praise his brother for saving his life, Queen Yoo wasn’t
appeased. It was ironical that she immediately swooped down at Wang So and thrashed
out at him saying that he brought misfortune to everyone who went near him.
She made Wang So promise not to go near his younger brother.
A wave of bitterness must have swept over him. His mother still
had the power to hurt and emotionally exhaust him. Queen Yoo’s cruel words
throbbed inside his mind. He slunk off to his sanctuary, the place with the
doltaps and cried with frustration.
 
In a surprising turn of events, Taejo allowed Wang So to remain in Goryeo. By the looks of things, Wang Mu, the Crown Prince
and Choi Ji Mong, the royal astronomer were his cheerleaders; they championed
his cause, his birthright to remain in Goryeo. Wang So was fortunate to have supportive people to fill the void in his life. With their complete backing, he, as a prince, was allowed to return to the main palace.
 
The night before Wang So left Wang Wook’s residence for the main palace, it was
snowing. The visual imagery of falling snow symbolises the presence of a divine voice telling us that in our own process of educating others and ourselves, we need gentleness.
In this scene, Hae Soo, who was in the company of the Fourth Prince, imparted to him some gentle words of advice and also, gems of wisdom. 'Eat proper meals.' 'Have proper sleep.' 'Don't be too quick to draw your sword over nothing.' Amused, his eyes travelled the length of her face. He took her motherly concern for him to be a love of some sort, something that he had never experienced before. Unknowingly, Hae Soo’s concern over him, which at first intrigued him, had now started to worm its way into his heart and made it flutter. 
It was inevitable that with her guidance, the wolfdog-prince would slowly transform into a
more civilised member of the Wang royal family.
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