Snowdrop (2021)

best way i can explain it: the feeling of euphoria you would only be able to obtain from hard drugs

"I guess love is more important to her than ideology or principles."
"Of course, love is more important than ideology or principles. Whether you're a man or a woman, that's the truth of life."

writing this review after about 2 hours of finishing the last episode of Snowdrop because i haven't been able to stop sobbing (lol). i feel like the quote i added above is a pretty good summary of the whole show. love: it's the human condition. it's not something that is necessarily in our control. you can try to make soldiers out of children, you can train them not to form bonds with each other, you can sever their familial ties, but love is the human condition and you can never really put an end to all the parts of us that want to love. even when you haven't loved anything before, even when you think you can't, even when you are not supposed to; you are still human and you want to love. every cell in your body responds to love. in the end, you do everything for love.

this show was a masterpiece. i consume a lot of media and yet, this was the best thing that i watched in years. it was perfect, so perfect to me. i loved it so much that i wanted to watch all the episodes at once, but i loved it so much that i wanted to savor it and never reach the end. every episode was so full of tension that i was always at the edge of my seat, not knowing what to expect. i was happy, i was nervous, i was excited all the time. so much so that, i'm pretty sure i will be chasing this high for a long time to no avail. the cinematography, the sound design, the lighting, the scene composition, the story, the dialogue; everything was so well-done. every detail was thought about. you could see the amount of effort that went into every aspect of this show. i was happy and sad the whole time i was watching it; happy because it crossed paths with me and now i get to see it but sad because it would eventually come to an end and leave me emptier than ever. it was unreal. it was such an experience.

RE: CONTROVERSY -- when this show first came out, i was privy to the controversy surrounding it online but i didn't partake in the discourse since i wasn't planning on watching the show at the time. i want to say that, knowing what the controversy was about, i do believe Korean people were rightfully mad at what seemed to be a distortion of history in the first few episodes. in the first few episodes, we saw the ANSP, which was the anti-communism unit working for the South Korean dictatorship at the time, through the character Gang Mu, who was presented as the good guy. while it, later on, becomes clear that the show was trying to show Gang Mu as a good guy in a corrupt organization, this was not immediately clear nor is it historically accurate; therefore, it is expected that people reacted the way they did. as many Koreans addressed, the ANSP were ruthless in their treatment of student protestors who were tortured and killed under the guise of anti-communism when they were in fact fighting for democracy to be established in South Korea. someone pointed out that some of the people who were framed as being communists and tortured by the ANSP are still alive as this is recent history, which makes this whole thing a lot more disrespectful and controversial. also, it needs to be acknowledged that you cannot just make your show take place during the democratization movement, involve the actual organizations and other parties from this period, and add in a "this is all fictional" text to your episodes to avoid the criticism. because that just simply is not how this works when you use actual names and actual historical events, even though the show does not address the movement or the events of this period in detail. as we also know, the truths about the ANSP are depicted in explicit detail as the show goes on, especially the torture, the framing, and the suppression of free speech, as well as the manipulation through media channels. nevertheless, i do feel that the initial backlash was justified; however, the show also doesn't really delve deeply into any political event and it is more focused on the romance that blooms in an unexpected circumstance, as well as the juxtaposition of the human condition and ideologies/revolutionary efforts.

ANTI-COMMUNISM -- one thing that confused me prior to watching the show was how it seemed like both leftists and people who hate leftists were mad at the show for the ways they portrayed certain things. now, we know that South Korean dramas are riddled with anti-communist propaganda and this is almost a given at this point. so, i was really interested to see how, while Snowdrop also had anti-communist propaganda all around, especially in the last episode, they were surprisingly honest about it. they showed how the police force, the ANSP, and the politicians were only there to enact the orders of the state and not to protect the citizens. we saw how free speech and people's right to information through media was controlled and manipulated by these people under the dictatorship. we saw how these parties spread and enforced anti-communism to further divide the South and the North and how the propaganda started as early as childhood (e.g., one of the characters mentioned they won an award as a kid for depicting a scary North Korean spy in a drawing.). i remember reading a statement by JTBC after the backlash and they mentioned how they tried to take a neutral approach to the events depicted and i do partly agree. but i guess that's what some people were mad at since i also saw people complain about the main lead being a communist.

DESIRABILITY -- on that note, with kdramas comes desirability discourse. it was interesting how they even addressed this in the show. when they were going to release the pictures of the North Korean spies, they complained about Soo Hoo being too pretty to be a believable "villain." they also often times mentioned drawing the spies uglier or crasser than they were to push this bad person = bad looks idea. it was also done to make South Koreans see their Northern counterparts as these vile monsters who are inhuman or just very different from them. as a result, it goes without saying that the desirability discourse applies to the show itself as well, where pretty much every character, "good" or "bad,' was conventionally-attractive. i also recently came across a video explaining how this is apparently embedded in Korean culture where they believe your inside is reflected on the outside, so there is a lot of value put into one's appearance and your character will be judged by your appearance, which is the most extreme form of beauty standard i have ever seen, especially when considering a lot of these standards are full of biases and are white-centric.

SOO HO & YOUNG RO'S ROMANCE -- this show had one of the best romance storylines i have ever seen with the way they shot the couple, the way they wrote the couple, and the way the actors acted out their roles. Jung Hae In is an incredible actor whose good looks was honestly distracting throughout the whole show, but i also thought Ji Soo did amazing and I could really see her passion for acting. this romance storyline is a great example of why i prefer "romantic" stories over romance-focused dramas because, for example, in this show, it's really not about the skinship. it’s how their eyes lingered on each other’s faces every time they got a chance to look at one another. it’s how Soo Ho's eyes always seemed to find her even in a room full of people, in the middle of all the chaos. it's how even if i didn't see it, i could feel both Soo Ho and Young Ro immediately think of and look for each other whenever they felt they were in danger. it was poetic. it was romantic. it was layered and so, so deep. their love was young, tender, and full of guilt. his helplessness, and her representing light and hope. her guilt, and him representing righteousness and sacrifice. there was a lot of chemistry between the actors but this show was also a great example of how good filmmaking and writing can elevate a romance story and intensify a couple's chemistry levels. the writing, the way they played with the lighting during their scenes, the way the director focused on their eyes: these things intensified the whole experience for me. i specifically want to make a note of how the director's focus on eyes in speaking scenes was really a great choice. i always value eye acting over anything else and that's clearly where we hold the most emotion. focusing on the actor's eyes only as they said their lines.. they didn't have to write disappointment, i saw it in their eyes. they didn't have to write the guilt, the butterflies in the stomach, the fear.. we saw it all in their eyes in these shots.

THE ENDING -- first of all, it was such a unique experience to watch all of this unfold in 16 episodes where only about 2 weeks had passed in the show. they gave us 2 full weeks of these characters' lives and it was everything. now, from the start, i knew that Soo Ho and Young Ro would not have a "happy" ending. i also knew that he would likely not survive the show. i knew they would kill him in front of me in a scene but i didn't expect to witness soldiers emptying their clips on his back as Young Ro watched. yeah, that was devastating, for lack of a better word. Soo Ho came back to die. he knew he was going to die. i knew he was going to die. we were both okay with it. because all this time, i was thinking; say he doesn't die and then what? there is no way they could have actually been together. forget about being together, if he was to get hurt, they wouldn't even treat him at the hospital and let her stay by his side. he was far from home, in a land that was foreign to him, fighting for the people that had forsaken him long ago. they had already given up on him. in fact, he had no business falling in love and he knew it too. but as i said, it's the human condition and Soo Ho's story was the saddest one next to Young Ro, who lost everything in the span of 2 weeks. she had already lost her mother; then, she lost her beloved brother in such a horrid way. she lost her respect for her father and she lost all of her friends. then, she lost her first love. the man who protected her even when she didn't know it. the man who loved her to death. and Soo Ho was doomed from the start. he had so much love to give but no way to communicate it. he cared a lot but had no way to rationalize it. he did everything to save everyone and it was just heartbreaking to see that all of his efforts to take back the things he has done were in vain. his comrades that he was responsible for died. he himself died never being able to step foot in his homeland again. he didn't get to hold his sister's baby. he didn't get to hold her either. he didn't get to drink with his comrades. he didn't get to become a musician and sing at a cafe to his loved ones. he didn't get to love, let alone grow old with the people he loved. what did he die for? what would he have lived for? it was just sad.

OVERALL -- okay, the more that i write, the closer i'm getting to breaking down again lol. overall, this was a very special project and i hope everyone involved in it knows they created something amazing that i know will be appreciated even after so long. this show had so many memorable and layered characters with their own, interesting storylines. Ms. Pi was such a prominent and memorable character and the actor gave amazing performances over and over again. comrade Joo was another character that was interesting; that scene where the cafeteria lady wanted to feed him because she thought he was her son almost broke me. he was just a kid. there is a lot more to say and i probably have so much more to say as well but i guess this is it for now.

basically, if your Snowdrop experience was not like the feeling of euphoria you would only be able to obtain from hard drugs, then i am so sorry lol. because that is exactly how i would describe it. every. damn. episode. EUPHORIA.

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