LEE JOON GI
WILL TERRIFY
AS
BAEK HEE SUNG
A MAN
A MAN
WITH A FRACTURED MIND
IN
THE FLOWER OF EVIL
All eyes would be riveted on Lee Joon Gi when we kiss goodbye to all the legendary heroes that he has played in his
dramas and movies. With heroes taking a holiday, Lee will
transform into the calm, collected, cold-hearted and detached Baek
Hee Sung, a terrifying psychopath in TVN’s The Flower of Evil. Fans
are convinced that he would give a spine-chilling performance and strike fear
into the hearts of the audience. But, Baek could very well turn out to be a man with a fractured
mind whom the audience can deeply sympathise with.
Lee stars opposite Moon Chae Won whom he had
previously collaborated with in TVN’s 2017 Criminal Minds. Their friendship in the previous drama is purely platonic but as husband and wife in The Flower of Evil, he would be the love of her life.
Whenever there is an announcement about Lee Joon Gi being in a new drama, every fan’s heart would skip a beat. When it was announced that Lee would play a psychopath in the new drama, many jaws nearly hit the floor but Lee can be counted on not to disappoint his fans and the audience.
Curiosity has gotten the better of everyone
since the announcement and there have been intense on-going discussions and
rife speculations about Baek Hee Sung. An extraordinary transformation
will take place. The audience will watch a psychopath come to life. He would
certainly terrorise the audience. Baek would probably be similar
to all psychopaths; he is likely to be charming, cunning, callous, impulsive,
irresponsible and manipulative. But, is Baek the kind of killer
who would rip another person to shreds without remorse, guilt or empathy?
Well, we will have to check him against the Hare Psychopathy Checklist.
The title of the drama seems
perplexing. The Flower of Evil. The FOE. ‘Flower’ is juxtaposed with ‘Evil’. ‘Flower’ and ‘Evil’
stand in stark contrast to one another. The beautiful and the ugly. Flowers
are beautiful. Their beauty and their fresh, rich, heady, delicate or strong
scents can inspire happiness. Some scents linger in the air. Evil is bound up
with ugliness, darkness, sin, death, despair, murder, disease, pain
and suffering. It is a destructive force on the mind.
Flowers are a metaphor for beautiful
women. But, ‘the flower’ might not refer to Baek’s beautiful wife. Could it refer to a real flower? Some
flowers are ‘evil’. They are deadly, dangerous and poisonous. Some, if
ingested, have hallucinatory effects. They include poppy, angel’s trumpet, monkshood
and foxglove.
Angel’s Trumpet
Angel’s Trumpet contains poisons. The entire
plant is deadly. Other than muscle paralysis, confusion, migraine headaches,
ingestion of the poisons also induces strong visual and auditory
hallucinations. It can also lead to coma and death.
The seed of the beautiful poppy is the source
of raw opium and can be processed into morphine, codeine and heroin. The
drugs impart a state of euphoria and can lead to death. Opiates, drugs
derived from opium, cause, among other things, memory loss, convulsions,
confusion, and hallucinations.
There is speculation that Baek Hee Sung has a
mental disorder. Cha Ji Won, Baek Hee Soon’s wife might be dead. Their
child could also be dead. In his hallucinatory state, he might imagine that
his wife is still alive and he talks to her as if she is still alive. Monologues.
Wow. Lee Joon Gi would be spell-binding in such scenes. Baek would probably remember that he has enjoyed the
sheltered security of family life. In his hallucination, he is living in
an Ideal World, an imagined joyful world where everything is
perfect and his family is united in love and happiness.
But, one has to be reminded that some scientists believe that psychopathy
is a personality disorder, not a mental disorder. To them, psychopaths are not insane; they know the difference between right and wrong.
They are not psychotic, a feature of mental illness. Psychopaths do not hear voices or experience
other hallucinations. That is, unless they have contact with hallucinogens. Many flowers, including the poppy from which the mind-altering opium is
derived, are 'evil'. Could Baek have taken some mind-altering drugs that are related to
the ‘evil’ flowers?
If that is true, Baek
Hee Sung, a tormented
soul with a fractured mind and excruciatingly painful secrets, escapes
from Reality by being a metalsmith or taking a metalwork job
in order to hide away from the eyes of the world. That is, if he has not yet been
caught.
Whatever the tale is, it is certain that Lee
Joon Gi would create a fresh perspective on psychopaths and take us on a
thrilling, entertaining and emotional white-knuckle ride in The
Flower of Evil. The audience would laugh and cry with him. A
terrifying but gut-wrenching story unquestionably awaits all viewers.
Everyone is waiting impatiently for summer to
arrive. The Flower of Evil, a TVN drama which is written by
Yoo Jung Hee, directed by Kim Cheol Gyu, and produced by Studio
Dragon and MonsterUnion will be broadcast on every
Wednesday and Thursday in, hopefully, June 2020.
One last question, ‘Is Baek Hee Sung leading
parallel lives?’
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