FLOWER OF EVIL
THE
UNMISTAKABLE
STAMP
OF
A GENIUS
|
Think that you’ve got Flower of Evil all figured out? Think again. Every time you watch Flower of Evil, your perception changes. Not everything is what it seems. You may not have thought that the story of Flower of Evil is a dream. The mind sees what it chooses to see. We choose what to look at; what we perceive is how we have been shaped. This is one of the powerful messages of Flower of Evil, a masterpiece story which is a dream. Drama of Evil bears the unmistakable stamp of a genius. Directed by Kim Cheol Kyu and written by Yoo Jung Hee, the drama stars Lee Joon Gi who has given a tour de force performance, and Moon Chae Won, a remarkable actress.
We may not have sufficiently
understood Flower of Evil and we may not have realised that the whole drama
itself is actually a metaphor about life. Life is a river; it goes through
ups and downs. When it comes its end, it meets with the sea, God’s paradise. Kim
Cheol Kyu cleverly and repeatedly tests our perceptions throughout the drama.
Flower of Evil, an adrenaline
fuelled-drama packed with white-knuckled twists and turns, tells of the traumatic
life of Do Hyun Soo, portrayed by Lee Joon Gi. Do, the son of a serial
killer, is on the run from the law. A victim of mental health misdiagnosis,
social abuse and public ostracism, the mentally and psychologically tortured Do
Hyun Soo, fights desperately to prevent his buried past from being exposed. The
damage to his life is incalculable. Through a trick of fate, he assumes the
identity of Baek Hee Sung, a psychopath. Ironically, Baek is one of the
causes of Do Hyun Soo’s abject misery. Their showdown ends at a cliff above a river
which meets the sea.
Like the metaphoric river meeting the sea, the psychopath meets
his end there but not before he shoots Do Hyun Soo. The unfortunate
metalcraft worker falls into a coma and when he awakens, 14 years of his life
have been entirely removed from his memory.
THE DREAM
The dream is captured from the opening
sequence in Episode 1 until the closing climatic scene
in Episode 15.
Episode 1 shows Do Hyun Soo, portrayed by Lee Joon Gi, being rescued from a drowning death in a disused shrimping pool by his detective wife, Cha Ji Won, played by Moon Chae Won. This dream is a plot device used in Flower of Evil. The audience have been seamlessly drawn into Do Hyun Soo’s dream but when the entire story is revealed to be a dream at the end of the drama, some viewers are shocked. But, if you have not discovered that the whole story is a dream, then you have not understood the drama. Let me put it to you in this
way: Your perception is wrong. Not everything is what it
seems.
If you think, in any way, that
the plot may have veered into the illogical, you may have to watch the drama
again. You have to be educated on this fact that in
dreams, not everything is logical; logic,
reason and time frames may have little or no relevance or significance in the
misty, shadowy and surreal world of dreams. It is also unsurprising that
events or incidents might be jumbled up.  Awkwardness
inevitably sneak into Do Hyun Soo’s dreams. For example, the psychopathic Baek Hee Sung rises ‘like a giant’
from his wheelchair after being confined to his bed for more than a decade.
The Baeks have employed a maid with the singular intention to give the comatose Baek Hee Sung round-the-clock care, 24/7. But of course, his parents, his
hospital director father and his pharmacist mother knew the latest techniques
on how to administer drugs or to use exercise gadgets etc to strengthen his
body, particularly his legs.
When the parents are at home, they see to his needs. In Episode
12, Gong Mija, his mother, is shown to be massaging his leg.
The maid and Baek Hee Sung’s parents have probably been
massaging his body, particularly his legs to strengthen his muscles for that
length of time that he was immobilised – 15 years. The miracle of a
recovery after a coma could demonstrate the tenacity, persistence
and love of people around the patient. Baek Hee Sung’s miraculous recovery may be strange or awkward, but ‘stranger things have happened before.’
The unusual situation builds up
until Do Hyun Soo wakes up from his dream and coma in his hospital bed one
month after he had been shot by the real Baek Hee Sung.
Anyway, it must be emphasized that the story is a dream. So, do all dreams accurately depict real events? If our previous perception of what happened in the drama was wrong, we now have to revise our perceptions and re-examine the drama from this perspective.   The ‘Do Hyun Soo and Cha Ji Won
bed scene’ sequence which is shot totally in white shows Do Hyun Soo to be in
a dream-like state.
It is crystal clear that the 'wavy dissolve' which
shows a close-up of Do Hyun Soo having his dream is the transition
between his dream and reality.  When he wakes up, he has lost
the last 14 years of his memory.
When the audience realises that the whole story is a dream, they pinch themselves again for missing the ‘Life is but a dream’ pitch. If, at first, you have not understood that the story in the drama is a dream, it is proof that your perception of reality is incorrect. You have to realign your thinking. Can certain things in life be just an illusion? Is director Kim Cheol Kyu trying to tell us that our perception about reality may be flawed and 'Not everything is what it seems'? HOW THE DRAMA IS STRUCTURED There are 2 parts in the telling
of the story of Do Hyun Soo, which is enclosed in dreams. The first part comprises a
series of 16 prologues in the 16-episode drama. The prologue before each
episode comprises disconnected snippets of the past in the form of flashbacks
with the exception of the first prologue which is a flashforward. The
flashforward in Episode 1 is the beginning of the dream. The flashbacks,
although jumbled up as in some dreams, explain the past clearly. As in some dreams, not everything is
sequenced properly but jumps here and there.
The second part is structured chronologically to improve the viewer's understanding of Do Hyun Soo's story. It contains images that are cinematographically interesting. Almost complete memories are replayed but time and logic may be irrelevant as in most dreams. Dreams can be weird and may or may not
make sense; they are usually more emotional than logical. We lose track of
time but the jumps in time are almost imperceptible. A High Priest of Dreams might
spell out the message, ‘Life is but a dream.’ These two parts form the story
of Do Hyun Soo and Cha Ji Won’s life from their meeting to their married life
before he was shot which amounted to about 14 years. Those years were wiped
out from his memory when he awoke from his dream or coma. Amnesia. The unique storytelling and the
way the dream is structured set Flower of Evil apart from other stories. The
viewers, having been drawn into the drama, use their imagination to
interpretate the story. NOTHING IS WHAT IT SEEMS
‘Nothing is what it seems’. This world is built entirely by each person’s imagination and preconceptions. The drama establishes from the beginning in Episode 1 that people choose to believe what they see. Cha Ji Won believes what she sees but what she sees may not be the truth. Do Hyun Soo informs Baek Man Woo and Gong
Mi Ja, his fake parents, ‘Ji Won only
believes what she sees. And I only show her what she wants to see.’ So, Cha Ji Won’s perception of Do Hyun Soo is based on
what she sees.  The viewers know that her perception of her husband is incorrect. Her view of him is a form of delusion. ‘Nothing is what it seems’ is emphasized again and again in the drama. Baek Hee Sung is not Baek Hee Sung; he is, in fact, Do Hyun Soo. Do Hyun Soo has assumed the identity of Baek Hee Sung. Kim Moo Jin, his former schoolmate, calls Do Hyun Soo a
psychopath.    The audience is tricked into
thinking that Do Hyun So is a psychopath. The metalcraft worker may have some
psychological or mental issues but the perception of him being a psychopath
is wide off the mark. That Do Hyun Soo
is a psychopath is the key point that drives the story forward. The idea is reinforced by the erroneous reports
of the psychiatrist and the police. The reports give us a wrong impression of
Do Hyun Soo. It is chilling to learn that the psychiatrist’s mistake-ridden
records and the police’s shoddy and slipshod investigations have the power to
shatter lives.
It can be seen that the two parties are indifferent to an individual from a vulnerable section of society. The misleading information is emotionally and psychologically degrading to Do Hyun Soo. Humiliating. And, the youngster is left with
a bleak and harsh reality. The young man’s deeply-scarred life comes apart
until fate draws Cha Ji Won to him. Not everything in the drama is as it seems. In dreams and real life, not everything is what it seems. Different people see different things and we are constructing what we see in the moment. Our perception is programmed by our prior knowledge, experiences and biases, and we are shaped by them. The question is: ‘Do we see reality as it is? Could we be misinterpreting our experiences or what we see? We see what we want or choose to see, not what we see as reality. The mind can trick us. Our brain may make false assumptions. So, when we watch Flower of
Evil, could we be misinterpreting the contents in the drama? The whole drama
talks about distortions of reality, hallucinations, false perceptions and
beliefs, delusions and what people see or should not see.  One important thing to note is the drama is not interested in stereotypical expectations. Do Hyun Soo is generally a mild and genial househusband unless provoked. One is surprised that he is also namby-pamby and vulnerable; he survives on being patted and mollycoddled by his wife, or feigning indifference and coldness due to his horrifying past.    Cha Ji Won is a career woman – an aggressive and assertive lady detective. The two characters do not conform to stereotypes.
Flower of Evil’s transformative
power is it sensitizes the audience and expose them to the gross injustice
inflicted on the vulnerable sections of society. While speaking about the
loss of the soul in an uncaring society, Flower of Evil, puts the negligence
and apathy of civil servants under a microscope and raises the highly emotive
issue of the marginalised mentally-unstable segments of society. NOTHING IS WHAT IT SEEMS How does the director try to
persuade us that we may be misinterpreting what we see? We are endlessly teased by the
ingenious director.
Let’s look at what we may
perceive to be the symbols used by the Freemasons. You wonder if the drama
alludes to the Freemasons, the secret fraternal (traditionally men-only)
organization consisting of powerful men. The freemasons have attracted much
wild speculation.
THE RED BRICK WALLS
If you’ve prior knowledge about the Freemasons, when you see the red brick walls in Flower of Evil, the first thing that creeps into your mind is the dominant red walls with the running brick pattern; they seem to look like the brick walls of Freemason buildings. Could our eyes be playing tricks on us?
Our brain constructs what we see
and reconstructs the reality. The appearance of the ‘brick walls’ is quite frequent and becomes a motif in Flower of Evil: in Do Hyun Soo’s bachelor pad, Do Hyun Soo and Cha Ji Won’s home, the Baek family home, Do Min Seok’s house, homes in Gakyeongri village, Yeom Sang Cheol’s office and so on and so forth. If you think the walls allude to
the Freemasons, the assumption is false. Not all of the walls are completely
red; some of the brick walls are white, grey, white and black, red and black.
So, what it means is: the brick walls are not similar to those of the
Freemasons. Your mind is tricked. ‘Nothing is what it seems’. The walls remind us of Randy Pausch’s wisdom. He reminds us that ‘The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something.’
Do Hyun Soo badly wants a normal
life as he has been living a lie for 18 years. When the past catches up with
him, he doesn’t want to lose his beautiful family life with Cha Ji Won and
their daughter, so, he fights to stop people from uncovering the truth about
his past. DO HYUN SOO AND CHA JI WON’S HOUSE EPISODES 1, 12 & 16
   PARK SEO YOUNG THE SOCIAL WORKER EPISODE 1
DO HYUN SOO & NAM SOON KIL EPISODE 2
 DO HYUN SOO’S BACHELOR PAD AND WORKSHOP EPISODE 3
 DO HYUN SOO AND CHA JI WON’S FIRST DATE EPISODE 4 HOUSES IN GAKYEONGRI EPISODE 5
 DO HYUN SOO’S CHILDHOOD HOME EPISODES 7 & 13
   DO HAE SOO THE PSYCHIATRIST’S OFFICE EPISODE 10
 DO HYUN SOO YEOM SANG CHEOL’S OFFICE EPISODE 11  DO HAE SOO THE BAEK’S FAMILY HOME EPISODE 11
DO HYUN SOO, DO HAE SOO & KIM MOO JIN DINNER EPISODE 16
THE ‘ALL SEEING EYE’ The second thing is the ‘all
seeing eye’ of the Freemasons. Their eye symbol is enclosed in
a pyramid.
When one sees the arched window
in the basement of Do Hyun Soo’s childhood home in Episode 7, one thinks of
the Freemason’s eye. On closer inspection, they look quite different. What we
have perceived had deceived us. We are wrong.
One begins to see the other ‘eyes’ which appear in doorways, windows, car wheels, pictures, as two circles et cetera. There are a lot of ‘eyes’ in the drama including the electronic eyes, the CCTV or cameras in cars or eyes that we think we see. Many cultures also have the idea of the all seeing eye of God or a higher being in our lives. Anyway, the message is that we are constantly being watched.
  
GOD / GEOMETRY
The third misconception is about the compass. The Square and Compass are really the most well-known or recognized Freemason symbol. The circumscribed circle drawn with a pair of compasses (the spirit / soul) symbolize boundaries, restraint and self-discipline. The capital letter G is enclosed in the Freemason symbols of the square and the compasses. Some say that the G stands for God or geometry.
In Episode 10, Gong Mi Ja discovers that her son, the real Baek Hee Sung, is a serial killer. She walks around in her house in a stupor. Then she sees him trying to bury Do Hyun Soo in the circular grave that he has dug out in the lawn of the family mansion. Do Hyun Soo is dragged into the circular grave and there he lies, in a near-foetal position. But if your imagination runs wild, he looks like the capital letter, G.
Your perception is wrong again because there is no square nor compass in this image. The Freemason symbol consists of two objects – the combined square and the compass enclosing the capital G. Do Hyun Soo likens himself to Hephaestus, the Greek god of fire, stone masonry and metalworking. However, Hephaestus is a god with a small 'g'. 
The circular grave could mean ‘The Circle of Life’. Not everything is what it seems. The director is just teasing the viewers again.  Surprisingly, there are many geometric shapes all over the drama, even in Do Hyun Soo and Cha Ji Won’s home or in the home of the Baeks. They include squares, rectangles, triangles, diamonds, circles, ovals etc. Perhaps, geometric designs were stylish at the turn of the century. On second thoughts, it can be argued that it is not that surprising because our world is full of such shapes.
Do Hyun Soo, who is probably clueless about interior design, has taken charge of decorating the house because Cha Ji Won is heavily pregnant. So, it is not surprising that he has copied some decorative designs of his fake parent’s home.
   
THE COMPASS
Let's talk about the compass which seemingly appears in Flower of Evil.
The symbol of the scissors suggests the idea of cutting the non-essential out of our lives. The pair of scissors (or shears) appears twice
in the Flower of Evil story, one in physical shape, the other in verbal form.
Do Hae Soo kills the headman of the village with a pair of scissors or shears. That pair of scissors symbolises the severance of the siblings from the village and also, the separation of the brother and the sister. The siblings only reconnect 18 years later. The scissors is verbally mentioned in Episode 16. Do Hyun Soo has lost his memory of the past 14 years
due to his coma. Cha Ji Won, his wife, is devastated.
 Cha Ji Won asks him tearfully, ‘How could you forget me like
you’ve cut me out with a pair of scissors?’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCOIAj4q73Q&feature=youtu.be
These two incidents give meaning to the presence of the scissors symbol at the opening sequence of each episode of the drama. 
The symbolic imagery in Flower of Evil creates layers of meaning to the story. It possesses emotional power that sometimes, the audience must have felt a sharp twinge of sadness and guilt, and also, complete surprise or amazement. DO
HAE SOO & GAUDI
But, what adds interest to the story is when Do Hyun Soo awakens
from his dreams, Do Hae Soo, his sister, informs him and Kim Moo Jin that she
intends to leave for Spain to study Antoni Gaudi’s work. It seems
it is Do Hae Soo’s turn to disappear into a 'dream' of her own. It is already obvious that the Do siblings are odd, quirky or
socially awkward. Do Hae Soo has suffered mentally and emotionally due to her
appalling history.
Could she be escaping into unreality when she says she wants to start life anew in Spain? Millions of tourists descend
upon Antoni Gaudí’s dazzling masterpiece, La Família Sagrada and his other
architectural marvels every year. His projects are whimsical visions of brick
and stone created from his wild imagination which he had embellished with
fanciful ornamentation, mosaic-tiled patterns, twisty lines, intricate geometric
and nature-derived motifs. His fairytale-like creations seem to appear only in dreams.
Thankfully, the director does not elaborate on her decision and leaves this nugget of information to the viewer's imagination. The drama ends on an optimistic note. The metalcraft worker and his detective wife have reconciled. The last piece of the puzzle has
fallen into place.
At this stage, your perception
of the drama must have changed. Is everything really what it seems?    Flower of Evil holds our
attention. It compels us to fill in the gaps and connect the dots. In this way, it keeps us invested in the outcome of the story and allows us to synthesize the moral of the story. We should not be encumbered by
our preconceived notions or else we lose sight of the drama’s message. The viewers must have been impressed by the extraordinary ingenuity, imagination and skill required in the crafting of Flower of Evil.
No question about it, Flower of
Evil is a global masterpiece; it has the stamp of a genius. The drama has astounded
international audiences and piqued global interest. The ingenious
storytelling makes viewers curious and engaged and they are emotionally
invested in the characters. It is a tribute to Kim Cheol Kyu that he has
assembled such an amazing cast including the perfect leads, Lee Joon Gi and
Moon Chae Won; Seo Hyun Woo, Jang Hee
Jin and Kim Ji Hoon. Flower of Evil is given a powerful emotional charge by the impressive performance of Lee Joon Gi, whose face registers the complex emotions of his character down to the tiniest nuance (split
second facial muscle twitches, tiny flickers of his eyelids and emoting with
his eyes). He has, in fact, eclipsed every actor as the audience is also stirred by his great
chemistry not only with Moon Chae Won, his leading lady but also with the
camera. ‘Feel You’ sang so passionately by Shin Yong Jae is simply heart-breaking. The script and the cinematography are also great. So, what more can we ask? |
