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[HanCinema's Drama Review] "The Heirs" Episode 4

It turns out that, almost as soon as she gets back to Korea, Eun-Sang discovers that her life is once again ruined thanks to money. At this point it seems like Eun-Sang getting put through the ringer on this should be getting tiring- but I find it works really well with the overall theme of the drama being the impossibility of escape. Having to live in the house and be an apprentice maid is the ultimate indignity for Eun-Sang. Fortunately, it's also literally the ultimate indignity, as once she's adjusted the bad stuff finally stops happening.

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Eun-Sang's mom, Park Hee-Nam (played by Kim Mi-kyung) is in an interesting position. Regarding family matters, her insistence on forgiveness and respect is driving Eun-Sang crazy. It's easy to see why the prodigal sister left in the first place- the constant reminder that they are beneath other people solely as a matter of birth must be a maddening one. Of course, running off to America living like a tramp and blowing the family's entire life savings in the process is more evil by an order of magnitude, and it feels like exactly the kind of thing Hee-Nam should have no patience for.

And yet she does. And even more strangely, Hee-Nam's relationship with her bosses is a rather ambiguous one. On the one hand she's constantly demure and respectful, on the other hand it seems imminently clear that Hee-Nam is smarter than her supposed betters. At multiple points this episode she's able to shrug off the wishes of her bosses with just a well-timed implication as to what information Hee-Nam is privy to that other people might like to know.

The position Eun-Sang and Hee-Nam are in as the token low-class people in the cast is an odd one. There are clear rumblings of straight-up corporate brawls in the immediate future, and it's hard to imagine how the Cinderella story between Kim Tan and Eun-Sang is supposed to develop in the midst of all that. It just seems like Kim Tan has more important things to worry about than some random romance.

But then that might be part of the point. While Kim Tan decides to come back to Korea for reasons that have nothing to do with Eun-Sang, the presence she fills at the back of his mind is just as much a metaphorical one as it is a romantic one. Her life stinks. And yet every time she falls down, she grits her teeth and gets back up for another go, without any expectation of charity. If Eun-Sang can bear the weight of a crown she'll never even get to wear, Kim Tan must feel pretty pathetic not even trying to grab it himself.

Review by William Schwartz

"The Heirs" is directed by Kang Sin-hyo and written by Kim Eun-sook and features Lee Min-ho, Park Shin-hye, Kim Woo-bin and Jung Soo-jung.

 

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