FLOWER OF EVIL
ASIA’S GREATEST
MODERN LOVE STORY
LEE JOON GI
AND
MOON CHAE WON
RESONATE WITH VIEWERS
AS
THE KING AND THE QUEEN OF
ROMANCE
AND
MELODRAMA
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A beautiful love is a terrible thing to waste if it is held
back by prejudice, wouldn’t it? Cha Ji Won, the ambitious and
assertive homicide detective played movingly by Moon Chae Won could not be
accused of such prejudice; she fell head over heels in love with Do Hyun
Su, a psychologically unbalanced man who was falsely accused of murder,
portrayed poignantly by Lee Joon Gi in the suspense-melodrama masterpiece, Flower
of Evil. It is no surprise that viewers have hailed Lee Joon Gi and Moon Chae Won as The King and The Queen of Romance and Melodrama after watching their dramas including what is considered to be Asia's greatest modern love story.     Women who love mentally ill men are an endangered species. When
Ji Won uncovered the truth about her husband, including the fact that
he was the son of a serial killer-psychopath, the tenacious, determined truth-seeking
sleuth not only didn’t back down but also left no stones unturned in her quest to
prove his innocence. That is the gist of the great romance of Flower of
Evil, Asia’s greatest love story. 
Lee Joon Gi is pretty deft in his role as the detached and cold pretty blond boy-damaged young man who has left the audience heartbroken. The viewers empathise with the pain and anguish of the lowly educated lost soul who was all alone, trying to find his way in the complicated dog-eat-dog world. He was lucky to have met Cha Ji Won but was unfortunate to lose his memory. In the end, Do Hyun So attempted a bold gesture of reconciliation to win back her love. The tortured but strangely charismatic Do Hyun Su is a walking contradiction. The audience can see how devotedly Lee had crafted, built and fleshed out his portrayal of the complicated masculine Do Hyun Su who, shockingly turned out to be babyish. At the end of the drama, he was no more the tough, rough adult guy but a man-child. Actors, who have taken on roles of psychopaths and the like, ape very violent Hollywood maniacs or lunatics while others, if they cry copious tears, they come off as an ordinary tearful adult man. But, Lee Joon Gi, who had thrown himself into his Do Hyun Soo role with customary vigour, proves his acting prowess by bringing something new and unique to the table. He has shown us a babyish man-child and his heart-rending infantile tears.
It is clear that the ecstatic reception for Flower of Evil
is partly due to the intriguingly unique and unconventional Do Hyun Su-Cha
Ji Won romantic relationship. It is a ‘no holds barred’ romantic story. The drama brings the hammer down on Do Hyun Su straight
away. He is portrayed as psychopathic. Loving someone who was the son of a
serial killer-psychopath and who had been blighted by mental illness was
tough. Ji Won might have been shocked at first but as a first-rate, upright,
passionate, hard-hitting, no-nonsense homicide detective with a heart of
gold, she had a firm grasp of truth and believed only what she saw. She
decided that the love of her life was worth saving. Where do we begin to tell the story? Flower of Evil, the
richly detailed story about psychopaths, has a startling twist. After Hyun
Su was involved in an accident, he assumed the identity of Baek Hee Sung,
the careless driver, who fell into a coma. It was a life-altering opportunity
to lead a new life; it was a quantum leap from a hunted man to a man with a
new identity. But, Hyun Su didn’t realise that he had assumed the identity of a
psychopath who was the accomplice of his serial killer father. What irony!
 The beginning of Hyun Su and Ji Won’s love
relationship is a revelation. It was a non-traditional start; she fell deeply
in love with him at first sight and persistently pursued him, without
realising his shameful secrets. She, with her feminine wiles, was the hunter
and he was the cold, detached and clueless prey in this romance. But, in the
end, the confused handsome young man succumbed to her considerable charms.
 Ji Won had no inkling that Hyun Su wore a mask of normalcy. The
young metalcraft worker did not quail at his sufferings but he had to
mentally barricade himself with an emotionless mantle. He could be calm,
cold, calculating, aloof, and manipulative in the face of reality. But, he could also explode into rage with extreme provocation. The drama points out that it was Ji Won who had set her sights on Hyun Su. Oblivious of his mental illness, she frequented his bachelor pad, often bearing gifts. For the life of him, he couldn’t figure
out why she loved him, a man unworthy of her love and attention. Rejections were not a
problem; the young lady was determined and persistent. The maternal side
of her needed him as much as he, having lost his mother early in life, needed
her.               Their first date was memorable. He stood in the pelting rain
and stared at her. Probably, it was that time that he realised how beautiful
she truly was. Hyun Su was prone to hallucinations involving his dead
father. In his own strange way, he was convinced that it was only in Ji
Won’s presence that the power of his father’s spectre would weaken.
Eventually, the hallucinations disappeared.
 On the night of their first kiss under the cherry blossom tree,
she guileless declared, “I’ll like you a lot from here on out, I’ll be
good to you …. I’ll teach you everything you don’t know.” This speech endeared her to him. What was striking was it demonstrated
the superior-subordinate relationship; she had more love to give and
she knew more about the world than he did. Ji Won loved him. Hyun
Su, a drowning man who lacked self-esteem and confidence, was desperately grabbing at
the straw she offered him. She predicted that things would change for him, and
it did. The audience might have thought that her love was unrequited
but their view would eventually change in the end.             
The couple married, moved into their new home and had a baby.
The love, security and trust that surrounded the family shaped Hyun Su’s life,
and his mental and psychological health improved. He showered his wife with love and showed his pregnant wife
that he cared for her. He surprised her with beautiful decorations for their
new house and the food that she craved.      The birth of their child was another turning point. Hyun Su had fathered a daughter but the emotionless man did not have the faintest idea what fatherhood was all about. He even doubted that his daughter would love him. Ji Won looked beautiful and radiant like what a new mother would. How did Moon Chae Won manage to have such a flawless radiant glow?      The drama focusses on the role of nurturing love that can save
a person’s soul. Love nourishes the soul. Hyun Su basked in his wife’s
unconditional love and protection. Her calming presence and their secure,
peaceful and idyllic life were actually good for his soul and psychological
health. Grateful that his life had turned out to be so pleasant, he took to his
role of househusband like a duck to water. The best thing about the marriage was Hyun Su’s opportunity to
make his wife’s life richer and more comfortable. Sparing no effort in
pleasing Ji Won and making her happy, he took care of their baby
daughter and household chores; he put his wife’s needs above his own. An
example was he looked after the baby, allowing his wife time to sleep. They
had no senseless lovers' quarrels. He was the perfect husband that every girl
has ever dreamed about. While Do Hyun Su had inherited certain characteristics
like coldness and detachment from his psychopathic-serial killer father, he
had no criminal proclivities. His father, in his conversation with Baek
Hee Sung, his apprentice-cum-accomplice, bitterly discounted the
possibility that his son would follow in his footsteps.     Having a cute daughter made him complete. He learned to be more
emotionally empathetic, responsible and caring. He built a better personality
for himself and became a doting father and househusband. Using internet
tutorials, he trained himself to smile pleasantly and genuinely.   Though theirs was an uneven relationship, they were as loving
as a new couple even after 14 years of marriage. It doesn’t take a keen eye
to notice that Ji Won was a strong character. She was confident, dominant,
aggressive and maternal, while he, a fugitive from the law, was docile but
relished being in an unconventional subservient househusband role. Do Hyun Su deferred to his wife and it
was obvious that Cha Ji Won sometimes treated her husband like a child who
needed protection. In Episode 3, she was on duty but, upon learning her
husband was sick, she was anxious to return home to check up on him. Even the
rookie detective working with her was utterly shocked. And when her husband
was hurt because of the fight with Kim Moo Jin, she mollycoddled and
defended her man-child. The Lee Joon Gi-Moon Chae Won-Seo Hyun Woo scene in
Episode 3 is hilarious. From Ji Won’s reaction, one would have thought the Hyun
Su-Moo Jin basement fight was a conflict between two children; Ji Won
resembled an indignant helicopter mother who demanded that the offensive
outsider apologise to her baby, Hyun Su!             But, Hyun Su’s life after 14 years of marriage was not smooth sailing. With the appearance of Kim Moo Jin, his schoolmate, his past came back to haunt him. Moo Jin knew Hyun Su’s secrets. But, there is a little more to it than meets the eye when it comes to Do Hyun Su’s mental health. Hyun Su was misdiagnosed by the clinician as suffering from Schizoid Personality Disorder when he was a child. Then, at eighteen, he realised that he was the offspring of a psychopath-serial killer. It was every child’s nightmare to have such a parent. The situation was aggravated by the police’s slipshod investigations into the serial murders. After his psychopath-serial killer father died, grossly misleading
stories were fabricated by the village head and his nephew to discredit Hyun
Su. Lies took on a life of their own. Vilified as having been possessed
by his father’s evil spirit, he was dragged to the shamanistic exorcism rites
which were regularly arranged for him. The brutal reality was the rituals
worked as a smokescreen for the village chief to fraudulently cheat him and
his sister of the inheritance money from their dead serial killer father. The list of humiliating incidents he endured is a blunt look at
the village culture of the times, at the turn of the 21st century.
Being easily susceptible to prejudice, lies and distortions, the conscience
of the villagers did not gnaw at them. They were made to believe that the
apple didn’t fall far from the tree. Like father, like son. Even though their
actions were born of ignorance, they were responsible for Hyun Su’s
traumatic, nightmarish experiences. The voice of the young, powerless boy, who
must have quaked in his shoes, was muted. The exploitation illuminates man’s
inhumanity to man. Hyun Su’s mental health was
aggravated by the false accusation of murder. The pressure, shame and
humiliation led to his descent into mental instability. It was the beginning
of the visual and auditory hallucinations of his dead father. But, such
incidents disappeared when he was seriously involved with Ji Won. For a closet mental health sufferer like Hyun Su, experiencing hallucinations was a lifetime sentence
he had to endure. When Hyun Su was kidnapped and tortured by Park Kyung
Choon, his mask of calmness fell off; he exploded. It seemed a volcano
had erupted. He could not hold in his frustration and outrage at the web of
elaborate lies that were woven about him. When his wife rescued him, he realised how much she loved him. Half drowned, he looked groggily at her while she was staring fearfully at his almost lifeless body. Dragging him out of the shrimping pool, she tried to revive him. Probably, her desperate deafening screams more than her skilful cardiopulmonary resuscitation techniques brought him back to life. Lee Joon Gi and Moon Chae Won have pulled off a beautiful
romantic performance in Episode 5. The death and life sequence in Flower
of Evil has the audience eating out of their hands. It is difficult to deny Lee Joon Gi and Moon Chae Won the
status of The King and The Queen of Romance and Melodrama.          However, the couple hit a rough patch in their marriage when Ji
Won suspected that her husband had been hiding some dark secrets from her.  Knowing that he was living a double life, Ji Won tried
to unmask him; her suspicion of him made him a withering mess. She tested him
and lured him to his childhood home hoping that he would crack under pressure
and reveal his true self. The audience empathise with Hyun Su’s look of desperation,
anxiety and fear of exposure. Would he come clean with her about his past?                   Hyun Su’s refusal to face the truth created tension and
distrust in the marriage.  Lee Joon Gi and Moon Chae Won’s performance in the Hyun
Su-Ji Won bed scene exceeded expectations. It was tense and
heart-breaking. The heart of everyone in the audience swells with excitement
and anticipation when they watch the suspicious wife and the vulnerable but
weird man locked in a passionate embrace. Do Hyun Su, who was almost certain
that his wife knew the truth about him, was tense and nervous in bed. Goodness,
what could she have been thinking? A tear vividly fell from her left eyelid
as Hyun Su kissed her. It shows Ji Won’s nagging doubts,
agonising pain and intense suffering in their relationship; she could hardly
handle the intimacy of being held in the arms of a liar and perhaps, a murderer.
It was difficult for her to express her suppressed feelings. The audience
empathise with her. This bed scene demonstrates the wonderful acting skills of the
two actors. The scene effectively assists the audience in identifying with
the emotional turmoil of the two characters who were at odds with each other.    Ji Won continued to be baffled by Hyun Su's behaviour and trailed him to
the Alps Ski Resort, near the border between North Korea and South
Korea. The location makes the audience think of the history and the cultures
of the two nations: one people-two nations. Do Hyun Su led a double
life; he had two faces - one which everyone could see while the other, is
well-hidden.       Ji Won’s animosity towards Hyun
Su came to a head when she heard Hyun Su’s confession to Do Hae
Su, his sister, that he didn’t love her at all. He had been lying to his wife all this time - his deep, dark secrets and his love for her. But, to her
relief, Ji Won learnt that he wasn’t the murderer that she suspected him to be.  Their relationship, which was built on a web of lies, went on a
downward spiral. While washing up after a splendid family dinner at rooftop
of their house, the cynical lady tearfully declared that she not only hated him but
also wanted a divorce.          Hyun Su panicked; he decided she
was stressed out because she couldn’t solve the Yeongju serial murder
case. To restore her faith in him, he tried to help her by striking a
dangerous deal with Yeom Sang Chul. Frustrated by her work mistakes and pressures, Ji Won did
some quick soul searching and realised that she couldn’t live without Hyun
Su. They reconciled.            To give Hyun Su the benefit of the doubt in her
investigations, Ji Won ploughed through and analysed all the clinical and
police reports. She stumbled on some truths. Ji Won knew that he was not a psychopath. He had been wrongly diagnosed. A psychopath could never take care of or protect those weaker than him and Hyun Su had taken care of her and their daughter so well all those years. She admonished the clinician for not having understood his psychological condition and her failure to help him. What do we call this? Dereliction of duty or lack of accountability.               Reality swept into their lives like a tsunami. Her undying love
for him make her go to great lengths to crack the case. The viewers feel her
pain as she knelt in front of Jae Seop, pleading with him to allow her
to join the Yeom Sang Cheol sting operation that involved her husband
but her pleas were duly rejected. Ji Won’s piteous cries and anguish have led the astonished viewers to
be even more emotionally invested in the story.
      
Hyun Su’s attempt to hoodwink Yeom
Sang Cheol failed; the deal with Yeom Sang Chul was nixed. But, his wife
arrived in time to save him from a fiery death.       When Ji Won ordered him to flee from the police, it was then
that he realised that he had lost it all. In the end, he refused to leave. He had thought his life lay in tatters. But, he was wrong. Keeping his secret from his wife was an intolerable burden but he was relieved when it was revealed that his wife had already known all about him.        There was a huge meltdown. Ji Won had protected him like a child. For the first time, he felt he had lost his wife and family. As it
turned out, he was reduced to a withering childlike mess in Ji Won mummy’s
presence. The scene is emotional and
heart-breaking. One’s eyes grow moist when he cries in a childlike voice:
‘I want to go home, Ji Won’ Lee Joon Gi has brilliantly played his man-child role, applying a babyish vulnerability to his tears. The depiction has left everyone in tears. This is a story of Lee’s power and ability to disappear
into his role.
 When the Baek family maid was murdered, Ji Won was suspicious about her husband and wanted to cuff him. In that moment of intense pressure, Hyun Su's mental illness surfaced. His father’s spectre appeared and he was experiencing hallucinations again. To her shock, Hyun Su stood up to her and took her hostage. One is reminded that the tormented man had once revealed to Kim
Moo Jin that he needed his wife’s presence to keep his father’s spectre
away. The hallucinations happened in the moments of great anxiety or doubt in
the past. But, now that he had lost his wife’s trust, Hyun Su became
vulnerable to his psychological illness again.    Her love for him had kept the hallucinations at bay but now
that she had turned against him, he was reduced to rubble. He had a relapse;
his calm façade was completely ripped off. His perceived reality began to
crumble.
  
    Lost without his wife’s love, trust and support, Hyun Su went on
his own mission to solve his problems once and for all. He lured Baek Hee
Sung to his childhood home for their final showdown. During his long and
boring bus journey, he hallucinated again. His father’s spectre insisted on
being his companion.
 Hyun Su’s shattered mental state keeps the viewers
uncomfortable. During the Do Hyun Su-Baek Hee Sung showdown, Baek
taunted Hyun Su about having killed his wife. It seemed then that Do Hyun Su’s truly dangerous psychopathic
tendencies rose to the surface. At this juncture, the questions are: Is Do Hyun Soo really a psychopath? Has Do Hyun Su’s psychopathic tendency, like a dormant volcano,
been lying dormant but is ready to erupt when great pressure is exerted on
it? The audience has seen Hyun Su's violent outbursts several times. He nearly killed Nam Soon Kil, who had attempted to kill him for his hard-earned savings. He ferociously bit his mad tormentor, Park Kyung Choon’s ear. He had pummelled Yeom Sang Cheol mercilessly after the latter had tried to strangle Ji Won. Now, was Hyun Su going to kill Baek Hee Sung in
revenge?
           
The strongest emotional reaction the viewers have of Flower
of Evil is the climatic confrontation at the cliff. It must be pointed out that there are so many dramas about
psychopaths and mentally ill people; they are not different from all the
psychopaths or would-be psychopaths we see in movies. They are murderously
violent. However, this scene in Flower of Evil sharply demonstrates
the distinction between the performance of Lee Joon Gi and that of other
actors, the distinction between Flower of Evil and other dramas about
psychopaths or mentally ill people. It separates the wheat from the chaff. When Do Hyun Su was about to kill Baek Hee Sung, he
heard Ji Won’s cry of fear and anguish. Like a frightened toddler, the addled Hyun Su bawled poignantly
that he could see his dead father’s spectre. The tension hanged over the
scene like a pall. The hallucination added a dramatic punch to it; it allows
the audience to see the three-dimensional humanity of Do Hyun Su in
the heart-breaking scene. The motherly detective encouraged him to walk into
her arms. Lee Joon Gi creates the distinct impression that Do Hyun Su,
the vulnerable grown man was a whimpering baby as he took tentative
wobbly steps towards Ji Won, his mama. This helpless toddler scene would be forever lodged in one’s
consciousness. Imagine Do Hyun Su as a man-child.
 What goes around comes around. Baek Hee Sung was shot
dead by the police at the cliff near Hyun Su’s childhood home but not
before he took aim at his enemy. Hyun Su was shot and fell into a
coma.  The shooting scene dissolves into a purely white scene that seems like paradise. What some viewers do not realise this: the dissolve effect
in Episode 16 of the drama initiates the dream sequence, triggering
flashbacks and what was happening in the mind of the coma-stricken Do Hyun
Su.  It was all a strange dream. If you think some things veer into
the illogical, you’re right. Dreams can really be illogical. Bizarre, weird
and inexplicable things happen in dreams. The events are tangled up in a
dream.
Upon awakening from his coma, everyone was aghast that Hyun Su’s memories were ripped off from him. Although his desperate wife and his concerned best friend, Kim Moo Jin rallied around him, he could not remember the past. The metalcraft worker had lost his memories of his life with Ji Won. When he stated he had no memory of loving her, he had also effectively wrenched her heart. The vagaries of life. However, the fragrance of the past remained; traces of his habits had been engraved in him. Hyun Su’s trial reaped a maelstrom
of publicity. Life proved to be difficult although it was established that he
was not a murderer. Ji Won was hurt that Hyun Su
reverted to his original self; he was cold, detached and manipulative. It was
yesterday once more.    She still loved him even when he admitted to his psychological
illness. He knew she longed to hear the words of love from him, ‘I may have lost
all memories of you but my feelings for you remain the same.’
 
The scene in the car where he confessed his fears to her not
only tore her heart out but also tore the hearts of the viewers to shreds.
       Later, Ji Won explained to her daughter that she wants Hyun
Su to be happy. Hyun Su had not lived his life as himself and they
had to give him the chance and space to be himself.  
   The audience empathise with Ji Won; there is a lump in their
throat when tears well up in eyes of mother and daughter. The viewers have to
fight back their tears. The love story is subverted by the painful reality. Ji Won
understood the bittersweet transience of earthly love. It took time to heal her
emotional and psychological wounds. In the end, the wall in Hyun Su’s mind is brought down and he could pick up the pieces of his life again. The amnesia seemed to be temporary. He knew he would be fumbling through life without Ji Won and he finally took one step of reconcilation towards her. Do Hyun So gingerly repeated the profound, loving words she had
said to him at the beginning of their relationship. The words were not
obscured by the mists of time. It was a beautiful, heart-warming moment that affects everyone. ‘I’ll be good to you. I’ll like you for real.’       
          Many drama buffs and experts will have by now fully realised
the wonderful romantic chemistry shared between Lee Joon Gi and Moon Chae Won.
The Lee Joon Gi-Moon Chae Won starpower oozes charm. Do Hyun Su and Cha
Ji Won’s devotion and love for each other are like fingers which expertly
hit on the piano keys of each other’s soul. That the viewers cannot envision Do
Hyun Su without Cha Ji Won and vice versa is the barometer of the
popularity of the romantic partnership.  The drama has a first-rate cast. Other than the two leading
actors, Jang Hee Jing, Seo Hyun Woo, Kim Ji Hoon, child star, Jung Seo Yeon and others have given an amazing
performance. Both Lee Joon Gi and Moon Chae Won, who have dazzled the
audience with their performance, have been lauded for their many exciting, heart-breaking
and poignant scenes.
What resonated with global viewers about Lee Joon Gi’s
performance is not just the nuances and extraordinary sensitivity that he
shows but also the way that he comes off as almost babyish and childlike in
Episode 11 and the climatic Episode 15. Flower of Evil succeeded where other dramas
of the mentally ill-psychopath ilk had failed; it has given audiences a
credible Hyun Su whom one could sympathise and empathise with. Lee Joon Gi’s performance, which has eclipsed others in 2020
and even 2021, has made critics and the industry sit up and take notice. The masterpiece, a unique suspense-melodrama written by Yung
Joo Hee and directed by award-winning director, Kim Cheol Kyu, is definitely not your
run-of-the-mill psychopath drama.  FEEL YOU SHIN YONG JAE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kXf75h5wUs |
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