The backstory revelations end up going down a lot better than I was expecting, because the emphasis is less on the danger child Woo's actions have on adult Woo's relationships, and more on the central character flaw both Woos possess- arrogance. I was somewhat surprised to see that even as a child Woo was considered an all-star at the royal court, but this is consistent with what we've seen from the very first episode. Woo may well have been thought of as a good potential match for Princess Hyemyeong even at that time.
However, because Woo lacked central guidance and was simply encouraged to do whatever brilliant thing he wanted, it was probably inevitable that Woo would choose poorly. But I really feel bad for Pil-yeong- he's been in the bad situation for quite a long time now of knowing about Woo's failures and doing everything he could to avoid letting any such information seep out. He's as badly compromised as Gi-joon, even if Gi-joon was the more obviously malicious actor.
A malicious actor whose fate seems fairly inevitable at this point notwithstanding Queen Jungjeon's last ditch efforts to try and destroy any remaining evidence trails. I suspect we're going to find out that while Wol-myeong was indeed as loyal as he claimed, the man was also not stupid enough to assume that this loyalty was a two way street. As the man in charge of destroying all the conspiracy's evidence, Wol-myeong more than anyone knew just how important this evidence was.
Mind, there are plenty of other pay-offs in the here and now. Da-yeon's big move ends up being motivated from a direction I was not expecting at all- given her ignorance of the wider conspiracy, it's actually possible that she might end up repenting. This will of course not be a sincere repentance, since Da-yeon's sole selfish motivation is to get together with Woo. But I really was expecting her to do something more explicitly malicious.
Although naturally, the biggest pay-off of all is the big confrontation between Princess Hyemhyeong at the end, one which like most of the confrontations in these episodes takes on a radically different tenor than what would normally be expected. The fundamental trust in the relationship between the two leads in "My Sassy Girl - Drama" is quite good. It allows for some pretty strong emotional scenes, even when they're just reminiscing about past encounters.
Review by William Schwartz
"My Sassy Girl - Drama" is directed by Oh Jin-seok, written by Yoon Hyo-je and features Joo Won, Oh Yeon-seo, Lee Jung-shin, Kim Yoon-hye, Son Chang-min, and Yoon Se-ah.
Episode 14
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Staff writer. Has been writing articles for HanCinema since 2012, having lived in South Korea since 2011. Started out in Gyeongju, then to Daegu, then to Ansan, then to Yeongju, then to Seoul, lived on the road for HanCinema's travel diaries series in the summer of 2016, and is currently settled in Anyang. Has good tips for utilizing South Korea's public bus system. William Schwartz can be contacted via william@hancinema.net. He also has a substack at williamschwartz.substack.com where he discusses the South Korean film industry in broader terms and takes suggestions for future movies to review.
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