DO HYUN SOO
THE MASK
OF
SANITY
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Anticipation had been building
when global fans were told in 2020 that Lee Joon Gi, the acting powerhouse, would
portray a psychopath in the suspense-melodrama, Flower of Evil. No
doubt, they were shocked at first as they had not anticipated a dark anti-hero
on his professional plate. But, Lee Joon Gi, a passionate, visceral actor whose performances as legendary
heroes have enthralled audiences for nearly two decades did not disappoint.
He has yet
again demonstrated his virtuoso performance. The viewers, who were primed to
see him as a psychopath-serial killer, were in for a surprise. Part of Lee
Joon Gi’s appeal in Flower of Evil is his nuanced multifaceted
portrayal of Do Hyun Su, an emotionally disturbed metalcraft worker.
It is a breathtakingly realistic portrayal that resembles the
many faces and colours, the twists and turns, and the complexity and mystery
of the mysterious puzzle, the Rubik’s Cube.
Watching Lee Joon Gi play the mentally unstable Do Hyun Su in this drama while conscious of the drama’s context is quite strange. After all, Lee had always been playing the strong, confident, powerful and masculine heroes. Flower of Evil has given Lee Joon Gi the opportunity to turn in a tour de force performance depicting a psychopathic condition he has never tackled before. He had burrowed inside the mentally unstable character and added a certain poignancy to his role, making a credible name for himself as a sterling actor. Lee's task is made more difficult because he not only has to portray a mentally unstable and criminally-inclined character but also a wide spectrum of seemingly sane characters: husband, father, brother, friend, biological son, fake son, son-in-law and normal citizen.
We see Do Hyun Su, who wears a mask of sanity, as an
individual who shows silence and rage. The impression gains strength as the
drama continues. The storytelling, with a multi-flashback structure interwoven
with present-day events, serves to illustrate this aspect of his
personality. Do Hyun Su, who is
trapped in his inherited psychological mental instability, is compelled travel
into a journey of darkness after his father died. Things gets ugly as he and
his sister are preyed upon by the village head man who has orchestrated
schemes to swindle them out their inheritance. The head man capitalises on the centuries-old
traditional shamanistic exorcism rituals to pull wool over the eyes of the
ignorant villagers. The result is Do Hyun Su begins to hallucinate; he claims to
see the spectre of his dead father.
The Do siblings flee the
village. The exposure of the serial killings of his psychopath father has
hurtful and devastating effects on Do Hyun Su's psyche. His delicate situation is
aggravated by his unsympathetic employer, the owner of the Chinese restaurant, who underpays him. Nam Soon Kil, his co-worker, tries to murder him
for his money. Hyun Su is forced to live an isolated and lonely life
until he meets Cha Ji Won, his wife.
Cha Ji Won, the
strong motherly figure, is the only person who sees Do Hyun Su as a
human being. Her unconditional love is crucial to the telling of the love story as heart-warming stories are not the norm in dramas about psychopaths. Hyun
Su has been treated as just a statistic, not a human being until his
assertive detective wife appeared. What resonates with the viewers is that Ji Won's unconditional
love, which is more powerful than a mental illness, enables the damaged soul to
bounce back.  It is fortunate that Do Hyun Su has assumed a new identity. He, a stranger to the loving experiences of life, embarks on a new life after his union with Cha ji Won. An interesting aspect of Flower of Evil is Do Hyun Su begins his adventure of reinventing himself with a game of pretending. One is tickled pink by his antics in front of a mirror. Imagine using Internet tutorials to learn how to smile and cry sincerely so as to fit into society and family life!
   When the drama opens, we see a
man whose eyes smile and twinkle when he makes romantic gestures to his wife.
The audience ask, Is Do Hyun So really a psychopath? Deranged? Nothing could be
further from the truth, you say. He is sweet, loving, charming and romantic
towards his wife. A pleasant, loving family man who plays happy families at
home with his wife and daughter.
However, Hyun Su's relationship with
his fake parents is full of tension. He is not only cold and unemotional but also stiff and distant with them.
It seems, Do Hyun Su, has
probably been trying to rein in his psychotic mind. The audience suspect he carries
with him a strong sense of unease. There are a couple of jaw-dropping scenes
of homicidal behaviour. One is when Kim Moo Jin, his former schoolmate
drops in for a surprise visit. The characterization of Do Hyun Su by
Lee in the scene is astonishing in its depth.
One must be excused if one’s
imagination runs wild. Think of Shakespeares’s Macbeth who plans to kill King Duncan, or Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. As
one sees it, the tense, cold Do Hyun Su is probably planning war and murder.
The audience can sense Do Hyun Su’s primal feelings and instinctive
emotions which are percolating inside his brain.                       The camera also sees what Do
Hyun So is trying to hide. When no lines are said, one feels that his
train of dangerous thoughts is alive and running precipitately through his mind. But, what strikes a chill in one's heart is before he subdues his former schoolmate, Hyun
Su is viewing him with cold detachment and scheming with eerie calm. The viewers recoil in horror.
 By the end of Episode 1, the
viewers have understood what horrors that the cold, calculated and detached Do
Hyun So is capable of. The idea that he is really a psychopath fills the audience with abject dismay. They wonder
if Do Hyun Su resembles Do Min Seok, his psychopath-serial killer father. Viewers continue to be startled by Do Hyun So’s tendency to violence. He could explode into terrifying brutality at a moment’s notice as exemplified by his murderous scuffle with Kim Moo Jin, his schoolmate in the basement of his home and Nam Soo Kil, his former co-worker in the hills. In Episode 2, his death threat towards Kim Moo Jin is hilarious. He plays with the emotions of his prisoner. With an amused facial expression and
meticulous voice modulation, he sneers as he slides a hammer over the
latter’s face. The ploy is immediately funny and entertaining.
     
In a phone conversation with his former co-worker, Nam
Soo Kil, the audience can feel Do Hyun So’s increasing exasperation and
suppressed anger on hearing the evil remarls of the treacherous man. The
unscrupulous man, out of greed, had attempted to murder him in the past. When
Nam Soon Gi declares that it is better for Do Hyun Su to die, it cuts him deeply to the bone. The
metalcraft worker looks out at nothingness as he stares at the Cheongyecheon stream.
One does not know precisely what to make of the character. Bear in mind that it is Nam Soon Kil who has wronged him. If Hyun Su is outraged, he swallows it. This interesting scene is an
example of Lee Joon Gi’s ability to express supressed rage without actually
exploding.
Lee Joon Gi has also added
another facet to Do Hyun Su, who is seen as strong, masculine and
athletic. Other than the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Rear Naked Chokehold which Do Hyun Su has applied on Kim Moo Jin, Lee has a scene
where he is standing on the edge of the balcony hanging for dear life. It
gives those who have acrophobia the jitters. Another exciting action scene is the
chase scene on foot that involves his clambering up a wall, running through a
wooded area and along the road with Cha Ji Won lagging behind.   In the humorous scene, Kim
Moo Jin suggests that Do Hyun Su leap over the stony garden wall just
in case he has to flee the place. In Moo Jin's imagination, Hyun Su would be leaping gracefully over the garden wall. But, the reality is different; the latter has to scramble over it.   In Episode 5, Do Hyun Su loses control of himself; he is unable to rein in his violent anger, rage, resentment and frustration when provoked and goaded beyond endurance by the mentally ill Park Kyung Choon. Park subjects Hyun Su to his idea of water torture in a shrimping pool. It turns out to be a very dramatic moment in the drama. The audience empathizes with Do Hyun Su’s unbridled rage and impassioned speech of being wrongly maligned. The metalcraft worker’s brutality is marked by his attempt to bite off Park Kyung Choon’s ear. Do Hyun Su's mask of sanity falls off as
depicted by the huge symbolic mask in the water. How much of his father’s
psychotic genes has he inherited? 
Do Hyun Su’s life’s problems and obstacles seem insurmountable. His life is a stark portrait of great mental suffering and alienation. The clinician has claimed that he has Schizoid Personality Disorder. However, she makes a mistake in her report so her professional opinions cannot be wholly trusted. Instead of reporting that Do Hyun So has thrown a puppy into a well, she notes that he has thrown it into the river, an error which mars her reputation. To her, Do Hyun Su is just a statistic and his illness is dismissed as untreatable. The question posed is, Is Do Hyun Su less than a human being? Anyway, Cha Ji Won thunders at the
clinician and rebukes her for failing to help the young Do Hyun Su. The clinician's lackadaisical attitude towards her patient is interpreted as
irresponsibility, dereliction of duty and lack of accountability. Has Do Hyun Su's life been blighted by his link to his psychopath-serial killer father? Kim Moo Jin informs the police that his friend is said to have Anti-social Personality Disorder but the villagers were convinced that he was possessed by his father’s evil spirit. Both Kim Moo Jin and Baek Hee Sung also called Do Hyun So a psychopath. It is interesting that in the drama different people have different opinions about Do Hyun Su. The situation in the drama mirrors real life. One thing that stands out in Flower of Evil is the screenwriter and the director make the viewers think deeply about Do Hyun Su's mental health. What do the audience think? Some viewers think that Hyun Su has Alexithymia.
During his revealing reunion with Do Hae Su, his emotional sister, at the abandoned Alps Ski Resort in Episode 8, Do Hyun Su is his natural self, which is cold and detached. He resembles an injured soul as exemplified by the image of the rhinoceros without its horn in the large bank of windows at the swimming pool. When his sister asks him whether he loves his wife, his negative
answer is overheard by his eavesdropping wife, who has been spying on him.
Back home, Do Hyun So
affects to fake-bantering when he is confronted by his wife. She deliberately pins him down by asking him
whether he loves her. His answer is not direct. When he fakes sincerity
with his fake smile, the audience can feel the hostile undercurrent. The audience cannot but notice
his wife’s knowing, cynical smile. But, as much as she smirks at him then, she makes
the decision to continue to love him later on.
When Cha Ji Won finally learns of her
husband’s dark secrets, she fights tooth and nail to protect him and even
pleads with Jaesup, her superior, on bended knee, to be allowed to
participate in the sting operation that involved him.
Lee Joon Gi’s chemistry with Moon Chae Won is undeniable. This gets to the core of what acting is. Do Hyun Su and Cha Ji Won, the two very forceful Flower of Evil characters, portrayed by the remarkable actors, are able to feel the pain and also express nuances of love. Lee, unlike actors who portray macho, harsh, rough and clownish mentally unbalanced characters, is able to express all the subtle nuances of romantic love.
The viewers balk at Do Min Seok’s successful attempt to take Baek Hee Sung under his wing so that they could embark on an exciting psychopathic lifestyle. Baek Hee Sung has psychopathic parents to begin with. Baek Man Woo has tried to urge Do Hyun So to kill Park Kyung Choon. And he has even paid Yeom Sang Cheol to kill his fake son in turn. Baek Hee Sung's mother is also evil. Had Baek Hee Sung not strangled the maid, she would have killed the maid with her own hands. She even tried to frame Do Hyun Su for the murder of the maid. Nature and Nurture play an important hand in forging psychopaths. Born of psychopathic parents and being mentored by Do Min Seok, the psychopath-serial killer, it meant that Baek Hee
Sung's fate is sealed.
Fortunately, the criminally-inclined Do Min Seok fails to nurture and set his son on the wrong path. But even so, has Do Hyun Su inherited some of his genes? Do Hyun Su’s history and dark secrets take a mental, psychological and physical toll on him. His
lifeline, Cha Ji Won, his wife who loves him unconditionally, is
determined to compel him to come to terms with the truth.  Initially, Lee Joon Gi affects
an air of calm resignation when Cha Ji Won cuffs her husband in episode
13 but the appearannce of Do Min Seok’s spectre brought about a drastic change of heart.
  Lee Joon Gi has that ability to give an unnerving intense stare and he gives one at that point in the story. It is what you call the million-mile stare that is earth-shattering. From
then on, Do Hyun Su’s mind descends into chaos. His father’s spectre
accompanies him on his journey back to his childhood home and also appears in
his final confrontation with Baek Hee Sung at the cliff.
  In Episode 11, Lee Joon Gi’s
virtuoso performance reveals itself when the child-man surfaces. The
befuddled and fearful Do Hyun Su whimpers like a baby in the arms of his motherly wife after a chaotic and emotional situation. The audience cry with him. That child-man performance is intensified in the face-off in Episode 15 between Do Hyun Su and Baek Hee Sung, the two strongly troubled characters. When Baek Hee Sung dilvulges that he has murdered his wife, Hyun Su's pain is searing and unbearable; his face is contorted with anguish and rage. He surveys Baek coldly with pure venom. Suddenly, Do Hyun So, like a savage caged animal being released, pounces on the other man.
         The enraged animal in him could not be bridled. The audience is horrified by his description of the punishment that he would exact on Baek. What the audience imagine is the blood-curdling Chinese punishment, Death by A Thousand Cuts. The naked truth is both are psychopathic. Do Hyun Su is just as vile and ugly as Baek Hee Sung but Lee Joon Gi's poignant portrayal of Do Hyun Su makes the audience partial to him - the man who has been driven to the nadir of despair.
 The deadly showdown with Baek Hee Sung ends at the cliffs. As Hyun Su was about to plunge the knife into Baek, he catches a glimpse of his dead father. The child-man Do Hyun So again astonishes with his babyish cries. Wailing in sheer desperation, he laments to Cha Ji Won that he sees the dead. Reality has merged with a nightmarish unreality. Do Hyun Su is an emotional mess. Baek Hee Sung takes the opportunity to shoot him and Hyun Su falls into a coma.      In Episode 16, there is not even a glimmer of a smile or warmth on Do Hyun Su’s face. Upon awakening from his coma, he faces amnesia and loses memories of his wife and daughter. The mask, which he had carefully constructed and worn for nearly two decades, is irretrievably ripped off. It is the moment of truth. With amnesia, a disease that has wrested personal control from him, his life is publicly exposed. In the end, he
winds up embracing a new life with his family. It is without question that he will take baby steps in reconstructing his new self and identity.
The impression that is forged in
everyone’s mind is the vulnerable Do Hyun Soo in Flower of Evil
is not at all manly. At the two crucial moments, in episode 11 and 15, the
audience are surprised by Lee Joon Gi, whose Do Hyun Su has been reduced to a desperate, blubbering baby.  Do Hyun Su is unlike the tough
guy or clown who walks tough, talks tough and smells tough that abounds in many dramas.
Lee Joon Gi’s portrayal is new and original; he refuses to be forced into the
usual crude caricatures of the rough, tough and macho psychopathic or
psychologically unstable characters that have infested the television
screens.  In essence, Lee Joon Gi’s emotionally moving and organic performance with his raw cries and tears, are impressive moments on the screen. With his virtuoso performance, Lee, inspired by his imagination and creativity, has crafted a unique multi-faceted character that elicits a sympathetic emotional reaction in the audience. That is the measure of a great actor.  |
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