That Winter The Wind Blows (2013, South Korea)
Are you looking for a drama what will completely blow your mind and make your brain spin like the cold winter wind? A drama that will toss around your emotions as if you were sitting in a 90 degree angled roller coaster? A drama that will portrait the very complex love story between a con artist and a blind heiress? The this is the drama for you!
Title: 그 겨울, 바람이 분다/ That Winter The Wind Blows
Also known as: Wind Blows In Winter
Genre: Romance, Melodrama, Psychological
Episodes: 16
Broadcast network: SBS
Broadcast period: Feb 13, 2013 to Apr 4, 2013
The Winter, The Wind Blows is a story about a man who is known to be the best gambler in Cheongdam neighborhood. He lives a meaningless life after being abandoned by his parents and failing at his first love relationship. In order to pay his debt, he starts living with a rich girl who is the heir to a large corporation. However, he falls in love with the girl, who is also as lonely as him. She has also lived a difficult life. She has lost her eyesight and her father has passed away. She will have to protect herself from those around her. Source: MDL
Character Development: 10/10
Plot Development: 9/10
Acting: 10/10
Soundtrack: 9/10
I must say that since 2013 seemed to be a melodrama year, I kind of got tired of them and thought that this drama would be just another title. But boy was I wrong. From the very first episode I got pulled onto a ride on one of the world's most dangerous rollercosters. This drama will play with your emotions, it'll make you jump around like a happy bunny, it'll make you cry a river, it'll make you question morality, it'll make you ship couples and feel the bromance and then it'll rip your heart out and let you bleed all over your floor and....okay now it's getting a bit too gory. Sorry ._. my point is, it's very emotionally wrecking and you'll end up loving people and then hate to love them and then love to hate them...confusing? Well, it's a melodrama, what do you expect? 100% good and 100% bad people? Heck no, melodrama characters are always grey. Because everyone's a little bit mad, ain't that right Cheshire? (Alice In Wonderland references, because that's completely relevant xD).
There were times when I thought like "omg will he really succeed in doing this?" or "omg will they find out his real identity?" etc. It was like watching a suspense movie that constantly held you sitting on the edge of your seat, and at the same time it had those cute and romantic moments where you feel as if the time had stopped for our main characters and you get drowned in all the emotions. But the plot is not the only amazing thing about this story, what both amazed me and surprised me where the characters, or to be more precise, the actors and actresses. Jo In Sung was simply pure epicness in this drama. He did an amazing job portraying Oh Soo, a man with many sides, a man who both hated and loved life. Song Hye Kyo was just....wow O_O. No comments, seriously. She shun in this drama so much that it made me speechless. She played the role of a blind girl, and I had to check as I watched the drama if she was actually blind in real life. How did she manage to play it so well? It looked so real! I loved the tense love-hate relationship between Oh Soo and Oh Young, they envied each other, hated each other, and loved each other at the same time. How can a woman who wants nothing else but to die and a man who wants nothing but to keep on living get so entanged into each others lives and slowly but surely start to heal each other? I can't even describe it with words xD.
Last but not least, how can we talk about TWTWB without mentioning the other two "main characters" played by Jung Eun Ji and Kim Bum. If Jo In Sung's and Song Hye Kyo's romance didn't blow my socks off, then this couple certainly did! I shipped this couple like crazy! I'm not even joking. I loved their craziness, their inside jokes, the way they looked at each other....gah just everything about them made me fangirl. Omo, not to mention that Kim Bum rocked the red hair *_* As for the OST, I think it fit very well with the drama. There weren't any cheerful songs, most of them had a very sad undertone, but that's how it was supposed to be. It set the right mood. I didn't expect anything less coming from a melodrama xD Which is also why I wasn't that surprised with the direction the ending decided to take ~
-WARNING YOU'LL FIND SPOILERS FOR THE ENDING DOWN BELOW-
Some people were a bit disappointed with the ending and said that it felt a bit rushed and unexpected, but I personally loved it. I think the ending was perfect and if you look into more detail around it, it didn't just come out of the blue. all I can say is that I felt that the ending fit this kind of genre of drama. Oh Soo played a dangerous game, which could mean death to both him and the people close to him and in that kind of gambling-gangster-business having to deal with decisions such as "is it worth risking the lives of the people I love just to gain this?" is a everyday life-style. Sure we can see it as betrayal when Jin Sung stabbed Oh Soo, since he always said "i'll never betray you" they were really bros before anything else. However, considering the fact that they lived in that kind of world, it's safe to say that there was no escape from that world. We've seen it a lot of times how drug addicts try to get out of their addiction but can't, not because they lack willpower but because all of their life is centered around other drug addicts. It becomes your identity, you have your friends, and even if you try to throw away that old life "and start anew", it's not going to work, the sad fact is, you can very rarely escape entirely. That is why, as much as the scene made me cry my eyes out, i understood that that kind of scene couldn't be avoided. The main guy managed to escape the "world" he lived in, however Jin Sung couldn't. Why? Because the world controlled his life. He thought everything was under his control, that he could decide things for himself but in the end, when lives were at stake (the lives of his parents and Hee Sun) he realized what kind of world he lived in, then it was already too late. Throughout the drama, Oh Soo constantly told Jin Sung to leave the con artist world, that he deserved better but because of "loyalty" and friendship Jin Sung stayed beside Oh Soo, which in the end took a very bittersweet turn. I can't hate Jin Sung for what he did, I doubt Oh Soo can either, it's already bad enough that Jin Sung might never be able to fully forgive himself. Jin Sung picked Oh Soo over himself when he had the chance to escape, and killing Oh Soo was the price he had to pay. I'm a sucker for bittersweet bromances, and that one tore my heart to pieces T_T.
As for the real real ending, I do like that it was kind of "open", it leaves an opening for people who wished for a happy ending to see it as that, while others can take the scenes that followed as the contination after Jin Sung stabbed Oh Soo and left him to bleed on the ground. I personally believe that Oh Soo died. I don't blame people who wish for a happy ending, but I think the sad ending would make more sense both to the overall plot and how certain events played out. In the scene where Jin Sung and Hee Sun drove to "Oh Soo's" grave, sure we can speculate that it perhaps was Oh Young's brother and not our main guy Oh Soo, but as I kept replaying the scene I couldn't help but to notice how sad Jin Sung looked. Why would he look so sad if it wasn't because of guilt? And if it's true that Oh Soo survived the stab, wouldn't it be kind of as if the producers showed us the middle finger? The gangster made Jin Sung choose between Oh Soo and his family and we saw Jin Sung have a breakdown as he stabbed Oh Soo, we saw the heartbreaking bromance betrayal be played out in front of us, only to in the end second find out that "oh....he survived, everything's cool". I would find that as complete bullshit. Some people may comment on the fact that "well if Hee Sun knew that Jin Sung killed Oh Soo, would she stay with him?" Well, this is purely my opinion but I doubt Jin Sung would admit that he killed him. He's already broken as it is, no need to add salt to the wound by telling her the truth, in the end, they're con artist and Oh Soo was a skilled liar too. We have to be reminded that even if they are in the core nice peoplel the world they lived in formed them into a bit "cold" individuals. It's hard to change just in a couple of months if you've lived a certain way for years. Jin Sung may never be able to tell Hee Sun the truth, and he'll keep the secret hidden in his heart his entire life and he'll have to live with the torment and guilt of having his friend's blood on his hands because he didn't want to leave the con artist-gangster world when he had the chance. It's cruel, but it's reality, more or less XD. One wrong step and it could change your entire life. As for the ending with Oh young and Oh Soo, I think it was all in Oh Young's head. We never saw Oh Soo ACTUALLY standing there physically so since I seem to want to believe that he did die because it'd fit the concept and message of the story more, I think that scenario was all in On Young's head. She wanted to see Oh Soo so much that in the end he stayed as a fragment memory in her mind and what we saw was a dream scenario being played out. She was finally free, he was finally free, they could finally live happily together, only, that it wasn't reality but a dream. But of course, since it was an open ending we're all free to believe what we want, as long as we put together out pieces of evidence xP -END OF SPOILER-
What do you guys think? Did you like the drama? Do you agree with my theory or do you disagree? I'd love to hear your opinion!
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