MOON LOVERS: SCARLET HEART
RYEO
WANG EUN: MERCY KILLING
None of the Wang Princes could match Jeongjong’s murderous
instincts. Attempted Patricide. Regicide. Fratricide. Political cleansing.
Call it what you may. Wang Yo had been involved in a failed conspiracy to kill his father. After
Wang Yo killed King Hyejong, his oldest brother, the usurper of the Goryeo throne went on a
slaying spree of those whom he considered to be his political enemies. Wang Eun, his
playful and unambitious tenth brother and his consort, together with his maternal family who was headed by the ambitious Wang Gyu, were mercilessly mowed down by the new king,
Jeongjong.
Initially, Wang Eun and Park Soon Deok managed to escape.
Needless to say, Jeongjong left no stone unturned to hunt them down. To save
her own skin, Yeon-Hwa offered information about the hideout of Wang Eun and his
consort. Jeonjong set the palace militia on the Damiwon to ferret Wang Eun
out.
Park Soon Deok had a modicum of hope that one of them could
escape. She had instructed Hae Soo to spirit Wang Eun away but the Tenth
Prince was not a coward.
Confronted by the palace militia, Wang Eun and his consort knew
it was a fight to the finish as King Jeongjong refused to pass up such
a perfect opportunity to kill them. Jeongjong watched the desperate couple
like a hawk at his elevated position in the palace building.
Park Soon Deok’s martial arts skills were astonishing. She
swung her blade at the soldiers. The warrior princess even jumped onto one of the men and locked her legs around his torso to bring him down. But, her luck ran out. She was slashed.
Wang Eun appealed to Jeongjong to set them free and he promised that they
would never set foot on Songak again.
But, the cold-hearted king did not have an ounce of mercy in
him. Fratricide was not foreign to Jeongjong. After all, he had already
killed King Hyejong, his first brother. He slyly signalled his henchmen to kill Wang Eun. Park
Soon Deok, who tried to fend off the attack, was slashed to death.
Jeongjong signalled for an arrow to be handed to him. He was
going for the jugular. It was hunting time and his target was not a wild
beast but his innocent half-brother! He took careful aim but fortunately, the
arrow only grazed Wang Eun’s arm.
With another arrow aimed at Wang Eun, Jeongjong was ready to
shoot his prey down.
Acting with spring-steel swiftness which was too quick for the
eye to follow, Wang So burst onto the scene to defend Wang Eun. In a
flurry of black and grey robes, he whirled around with amazing agility and
lunged at the assailants. The tremendous force of his violent tornado kicks
threw the soldiers to the ground.
When Wang So landed on the ground, he defended the wounded
prince with his sword. The Fourth Prince questioned the necessity of slaying
their harmless and unambitious half-brother who would pose no threat to his
position. Wang Jung, the Fourteenth Prince, and Hae Soo arrived at the scene
in the nick of time to witness the tense situation.
Some soldiers suddenly sprang to life without warning, and in
the commotion that erupted, Wang So left Wang Eun’s side for a brief moment
to deflect some attacks.
But, that fleeting moment was enough time for Jeongjong to take
aim and shoot. Being the focussed sharpshooter that he was, Jeongjong finally hit the bull's-eye. The arrow lanced through Wang Eun’s chest! Hae Soo’s heart cried out for
Wang Eun. She realised too late that Wang So was Wang Eun’s protector, not
his killer. Her fears about Wang So had been totally unjustified.
 
Wang Eun was in excruciating
pain and he was aware of his own imminent death. Much to the Fourth Prince's chagrin, Wang Eun, in
his dying breath, chose to be put out of his
misery by him. He did not want to die in disgrace from Jeongjong’s arrow but an
honourable death. Dying
violently at the hands of an enemy was a fate worse than death itself.
Admitting that he was gullible to have been manipulated by Wang Yo, Wang Eun apologized for having requested,
as a birthday gift, that Wang So unmask himself and reveal his facial scar. The
bird-brained prince had unwittingly and unsuspectingly made Wang So bear the
brunt of Wang Yo’s cruel joke.
It is a poignant moment. His timely confession strikes a chord with the viewers.
With a long searching stare,
Wang So listened in despair to Wang Eun’s request. The Tenth Prince insisted
on being together with his consort, Park Soon Deok, who had just been slain. Glancing
up to where Jeongjong was imperiously standing, Wang Eun could see him taking
careful aim with another arrow. Although the plea felt like a knife piercing Wang So’s chest, he had no other option than to acquiese to his request. Time was running out. Their goodbye had to be
said with the swing of Wang So’s sword.
  
Wang So’s features, contorted into a silent rage, turned into fierce determination. Bile
must have churned in his stomach. Small hurricanes must have been eddying round
and round his head.
The thought of killing Wang Eun wrought havoc on his nerves. Having
been trained and groomed to be a cold and unemotional killer, he had killed
men and beasts alike in Shinju. But, he recoiled at the idea of slaying his
innocent and unambitious brother. Previously,
Wang So could not even kill his evil and ruthless brother, Wang Yo, who had
been trapped at the precipitous cliff.
Wang So struggled to hold back
his tears and to compose himself. As a true Goryeo prince, he had to fulfil
his promise. Wang So rose to his feet. Overwhelmed by what he was about to
do, his body swayed.
 
Just before Wang So executed his act of mercy, the viewers’ hearts must have stopped.
The moment was fraught with
tension. He steeled himself to do it. With the devastating speed of a
hurricane and the thunderous roar of an injured lion, the Fourth Prince
raised his sword in a chilling gesture above his head to execute his
mercy-killing with force and precision. In just one calculated move, he slashed
Wang Eun to ensure that death was quick and painless. The blood was spilled. Even
as Wang Eun tried to reach out to his dead consort, his life ebbed away.
Wang So, with his pallid face twisted in pain and suffering, staggered backwards. Did Wang So remember slaying his beloved horse when he was recalled from Shinju?
  
Wang So’s heart must have shattered into a million pieces. Aghast
at the enormity of what he had just done, hurt welled up in his eyes and
tears rolled down his cheeks.
Rage. Bitterness. Agony. Despair. Guilt. Shame. Then, his pent-up
fury exploded into hysterical laughter. Hae Soo realised too late that Wang
So’s fiendish laughter was the unleashing of the sorrow within. Never
had she seen the Fourth Prince so mired in a maelstrom of conflicting emotions.
Seething with wrath and
repugnance, he turned defiantly to watch Jeongjong who promptly avoided further eye
contact. With that, Wang So slunk away from the scene of death.
Wang So’s tear-jerker
mercy-killing scene has become etched in the memory of the viewers. Suffice it to
say, the audience cried with him. It is another one of Lee Joon Gi’s best
scenes in Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo.
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THE REIGN OF WANG YO
Something inside Wang So had snapped. It was impossible for him
to remain unchanged. He had finally seen the light; he realised what he had been destined for.
‘I, Wang So, will become
the King of Goryeo.’
Both Wang So and Choi Ji Mong had to face the reality. Wang
Eun’s credibility had been attacked. Having been labelled a traitor, the
deceased prince would not be allowed a funeral.
The astronomer disclosed that Hae Soo had previously left a letter stating that Wang Eun was at the Damiwon but it was already too late.
  
Wang So was furious with Hae Soo for distrusting him and for
hiding the fact that she had hidden Wang Eun and his consort in her room. Blaming
her for their deaths, he declared that he had decided to end their
relationship.
Their romance had ground to a halt. With the decision, the pain was so great, it was palpable.
 
Jeongjong tried to change the political landscape. Wang So was
tasked to oversee the moving of the capital to Seokyeong. This was to please
his uncle Wang Shik Ryeom.
A Review of Korean History Vol 1 Ancient Goryeo Era (wrtten by
Han Young Woo & trans. by Hahm Chai Bong)
When Wang So left Songak, Hae Soo promised in her heart to wait
for him. She wanted to get back into his good graces and entertained the wild
hope that he still had her in his heart. She pined for him as the seasons
came and went. Spring. Summer. Autumn. Winter. Spring.
Jeongjong’s mental stability had, by then, seriously deteriorated. The worried Queen Yoo demanded that he write a decree to name Wang Jung, his youngest blood brother, as his successor.
Returning to Songak after a year, Wang So made a less than
positive report about the progress of the Seokyeong project. Angered by Wang So's sabotage, the depraved king twisted Hae Soo’s arm. Her agony wrenched his heart. Wang So instantly
fell to his knees and apologized for his mistake.
Hae Soo had been practising her Chinese calligraphy; she was addicted to copying
Wang So’s calligraphic writing style.
Knowing that Wang So was in the palace garden, Hae Soo went to
him, hoping that he had a change of heart. She kissed the bewildered prince
on his lips but she was confronted by an unforgiving Wang So.
Jeongjong and Wang Won, standing in a palace pavilion, had been
observing them. Jeongjong thought that it would be fun to take a potshot at Hae Soo
with his bow and arrow. Fortunately, the alert Wang So, in one fluid motion,
had swiftly grabbed her and swung her out of the trajectory of the arrow. But, the
arrow bit into his shoulder.
Wang So admonished the king for his unholy pleasure of using a
court lady as a target for his sporting practice.
The incident would be etched
forever in the court lady’s memory.
When Wang Jung returned from his successful border pacification
campaign, Jeongjong was willing to reward him with something of his choice. It
was revealed later that the Fourteenth Prince had requested for Hae Soo’s
hand in marriage and a decree was issued in his favour.
 
In order to win back the Fourth Prince’s heart, Hae Soo took proactive
steps to approach him in his residence. It was hardly appropriate for her to flout convention but she couldn’t care less. She treated his arrow wound and
they finally reconciled.
Jeongjong had everything - power, status, money, the works but,
according to Choi Ji Mong, the king’s problems had taken a toll on his mental and emotional health. The astronomer and the anti-king conspirators had been trying to
scare the daylights out of him. Once, they had even chosen a lightning-prone day to strike fear into his heart. The ruse worked in their favour. A monk was killed by a bolt of lightning in Jeongjong's presence.
Shock wasn’t the word for it. The superstitious and wrought-up king
had instantly fallen unconscious. Choi Ji Mong postulated that King Hyejong and Wang
Eun’s deaths might have gnawed at Jeongjong’s conscience as the king had been practising Buddhism and visiting the shamans.
The astrologer determined that the time had come.
Hae Soo asked Wang So whether he desired the throne. He
answered in the affirmative. If she asked him to give up his ambition, would he try to
please her? His reply was he would persuade her until she fully understood his destiny. He argued that
things would only change if the king was replaced. Wang So saw himself as
destined to stop his brothers from killing each other.
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