Wednesday, April 23, 2014

God's Gift-14 Days Finale Week Thoughts


Today's post is going to be a big fat rambling on why good drama endings are always hard. Mostly because of the God's Gift-14 Days ending and I want to rant about it. Hopefully this will all make sense. But I'm in a puddle of emotions right now. Spoilers galore for obvious reasons. For actual comprehensible writing on K-drama endings, you can read fellow blogger Indigo's writing here which is really funny and totally true.

Let me start by saying why do they have to make Dong-chan suffer till the very end. WHY?! The ending is so ambiguous it's driving me crazy. I'm hoping that he snaps out of his drunken sorrow and lives on. There's no reason for him to die if Saet-byul didn't die either. But what the hell, can't I get a good ending please? Like a reassuring hug or something?


So here's the deal. For all the characters, lots turned out a lot more decent than I thought. Wrist tattoo guy? A total softy. I felt so bad for him. Even though he was the one kidnapping Saet-byul, he was so nice to her. To the point where Saet-byul feels comfortable around here. Now this is Saet-byul we're talking about. She's a bit too welcoming of strangers. But the fact that he went out of his way to make her comfortable despite the situation she's in makes me feel so bad for him. He was there because he wants to avenge his son. He wants his son's murderer to die. But he's a father after all. And a good one I'm sure. He's such a pitiful character, that guy.


Ji-hoon. Oh my, what a roller coaster this guy. He's a lot like wrist tattoo guy in that he's willing to do anything for his child. When he was being very vulnerable in front of Lee Myung-han, he seems very pitiable. But he was the one who put himself in there in the first place. He had goals he wanted to accomplice that couldn't be attainable the rightful way, if that makes sense. So in the end, he's not a good guy after all.


About the president not knowing what his own family and his right hand man was doing behind his back seems to be a more common theme than I thought. Or maybe that's just me? For the president's wife, it goes with the theme of mother's love and how much a mother is willing to go through to save their own child. As for Lee Myung-han, he's the descendant of the devil, that's what.


Somehow this actually chills me. I don't live in a particularly conspiracy ridden country (corruption is not conspiracy. It's the truth). But neither is the world of God's Gift initially. I wonder what kind of crap is going on behind our backs. What kind of strings all these powerful people are pulling. Just imagine. Someone Lee Myung-han is willing to do literally everything to keep his power and to make sure he's in a good light to those important to him. But little do we know how much blood is splattered all over the floor where the light doesn't hit. This is a characteristic of several characters, mainly Ji-hoon and Woo-jin. And scary enough these people actually exist in real life. Lee Myung-han is a rare evil, but people Ji-hoon and Woo-jin are a dime in a dozen sadly enough.


Another common characteristic is the willingness to do whatever it takes for a loved one. Soo-hyun is the freaking mascot of this, but others like Dong-ho, creep guy's father, wrist tattoo guy, the president's wife and later Dong-chan himself also have this characteristic. It's really nice and all, to love someone so much that's you'd do anything to save them. Or at least alleviate their misery. Makes for a great background story for sure. But also results in a lot of stupid decisions. Oh emotions, you can be a little brat sometimes.

My face during the final minutes.

Talking about Dong-chan, I am not satisfied with his ending at all. So he was Saet-byul's killer in the beginning and that was why he was drowned by different gang members than the one he was chased by. Okay. But that was in the first timeline. If he realized he could save Saet-byul, why not save his own damn ass?! He came back from the dead only to die a month sooner? There's no reason for him to die. Or did he? Who was the suited guy welcoming Dong-ho? Was it Dong-chan or Woo-jin? I NEED ANSWERS DAMN IT! Did the writer do this because they want to stir us crazy because boy did they succeed. I will go back to punching pillows now. Please call me if you need me.

So there you have it. 8 weeks full of crazy. What a drama, right? I will totally miss having Jo Seung-woo for basically two hours every week. I mean, he proved himself totally capable of being an amazing actor and a fireball of hotness. A week without Jo Seung-woo is not something I look forward to. I don't know if I'm more sad about the ending or because of the lack of Jo Seung-woo in my immediate future. But hey, at least there was 8 weeks of glory.


(No seriously, I will miss having Jo Seung-woo on my screen every week. And to have him, and by him I mean him by way of Dong-chan, leave before a proper and satisfactory goodbye is just so sad. I'm going to miss you ajuhssi! Please come back with lots of photos and editorials okay?)

Thank you everyone who have read my posts the past 8 weeks. It has been a crazy ride. If there's another drama that's I feel worthy of writing weekly again, I'd totally do it. But for now, this will be the end.

7 comments:

  1. OMG don't even get me started on this finale! If the writer's goal was to create buzz, frustration and backlash for this ending then brava, mission accomplished!!!

    First off, how was it that the writer decided to cram all the important moments, literally, in the last 10 minutes?!?! Secondly, if they were going to kill DC (best character ever!) why did they give him such a stupid reason? Just because some lady who couldn't predict her own daughter's death prophesied that "for one to live the other must die"? Like he was literally holding SB, who was alive in his arms, and he just thought that it would make complete sense for him to die?! It would have been so much more emotionally salient if he died in place of DH or something! Another thing I hated about the ending was the fact that they made DC out to be a weak and stupid character! During the entire show he was always ahead of the game and quick on the uptake. It's unbelievable that he would fall for such a contrived set up.

    Also, why did the writer have to make it such an ambiguous ending? But I say that DC's alive! It's totally JSW in the scene where DH is picked up.

    And yes, I'm actually not sure if I'm sad about the show ending or the fact that I won't be able to watch JSW on my screen 2x a week! Actually I have the answer, it's the latter. He was so amazing! I would have been even more pissed at the ending if it wasn't for JSW's amazing acting carrying that scene! And yay, he has definitely established an international fan base and viewers everywhere acknowledge that he's a great actor and I'm glad they separated JSW's amazing acting from the terrible ending.

    And my wish is that JSW and LBY will collaborate again in the future! Their chemistry on and off screen is amazing! Would love if it was romance based! (If LBY wasn't married, I'd be shipping them like crazy!)

    Looking forward to more of your posts on JSW!!! :D

    -autumn93

    p.s. If you have a chance, you should check out my rant on the finale on my blog post (because of JSW, I started writing on my blog again lol):
    http://dramapenchant.wordpress.com/2014/04/22/gods-gift-14-days-episode-16-finale-ramblings/

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    1. I was about to write it would've been better if Dong-chan died like wrist tattoo guy. His death was better than Dong-chan's. What the hell.

      As for JSW working with LBY together, I guess so? Is it just me that wasn't shipping them all too much? I get love vibes from Dong-chan (only very slightly) but from Soo-hyun none whatsoever. Even after she finds out her own husband is a conniving snake, she was too focused (and slightly cray) about saving her daughter.

      I just want ahjussi back on the screen but sadly he'll be on stage for a while for Hedwig. Maybe I should write an article on that.

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    2. Honestly after seeing this terrible ending I would have been up to any of the other theories people threw out there like DC having multiple personality disorder...dying in place of DH...getting shot while blocking a bullet for SB. Like anything!

      Really? I absolutely loved the chemistry they had every time they were on screen together! It was sizzling! But of course romance was thrown to the back burner for the sake of solving the mystery and SH definitely didn't have time for it, but if DC lived, I'm confident they'd be together. SH and SB were alone at the lake for a reason! Divorce...There's so much potential that's why I wish they'd act together again in a romantic comedy or something! It also helps that they seem to get along super well in real life as well!

      You should!!!

      -autumn93

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    3. Conan,

      Did you see how the 50th Baeksang Arts Award snubbed uri Jo Seung Woo? ;(

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    4. Yeah, I know. That sucks, but I don't really care for awards that much. Like the Dramabeans crew, I only look forward to the red carpet. I hope he'll come though, but not sure since he wasn't nominated for anything anyways.

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    5. The awards committee actually edited the nomination list that night and included his name in the popularity awards category, which I don't care for.

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  2. From what I thought, its a good ending. If you pay a really close attention at the very end especially the "story-telling" part between Dong Chan and Saet Byul the background is completely different from episode 10's background. Moreover, in ep 10, Dong Chan still have a plaster (bandage) in his head and yet in story telling scene at ep 16 he didn't have it anymore. I concluded that they both re-read the book after everything ended.

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