Phoenix

Phoenix - 2004 (MBC Drama)

Lee Eun-Ju as Lee Ji-Eun
Ji-Eun comes from a rich family and is treated like a princess at home. She falls passionately in love with Jang Sae-Hoon and her life takes a tragic turn.

Lee Seo Jin as Jang Sae-Hoon
Jang Sae-Hoon was raised by his father to have great ambitions for success and fame. He loses his parents to a car accident and had to work at a gas station to support himself while studying. He is a confident man even though he is not in the best of situations.

Ji-Eun falls passionately in love with Sae-Hoon. Against his better judgment, Sae-Hoon falls in love with Ji-Eun. He cannot turn away from her passionate pursuit even though he knows that their path is difficult. She is an heiress while he works at a gas station. He loves her deeply but his pride gets in the way when her parents object to their union. Ji-Eun seduces Sae-Hoon in hopes that her parents will have no choice but to agree to their union if she gets pregnant. Her plans backfire when her parents find them together and she is sent away to school in Boston. She finds out that she is pregnant and returns home. She is convinced that her parents will give her their blessings. Unfortunately, it was not to be and she elopes with Sae-Hoon. They start life together but Sae-Hoon is not able to afford her the luxuries she is used to. His pride prevents him from accepting any financial assistance from Ji-Eun's parents. Ji-Eun learns that marrying Sae-Hoon is not the bed of roses she imagined it to be.

Jung Hye Young as Yoon Mi-ran
Mi-ran was a friend of Ji-eun. It was at Mi-ran's father's villa on Jeju-do that Ji-eun and Sae-Hoon spent their first night together. Mi-ran later meets Sae-Hoon as Will in the United States and becomes his fiancée. She learns of Sae-Hoon and Ji-eun's past together when the couple (Will and Mi-ran) returns to Korea.

Will and Mi-ran meet while in the United States. While Will does not love Mi-ran, he has gotten comfortable being with her. They get engaged and return to Korea when Will is offered the position as CEO of the Seolin Group.

Mi-ran is a self-absorbed person and her love for Will slowly turns into a psychotic obsession when she discovers that Will and Ji-eun were married to each other. She was convinced that Will would leave her if she ever recovered from her injuries despite his constant reassurance that he would not leave her. She was in an accident with Will in the United States which left her wheelchair-bound. Will discovers that she can walk again and leaves her because of her deception. Her jealousy and obsession consume her and she plots to destroy Will and Ji-eun.

Eric Moon as Seo Jung-min
Jung-min is the son of Seo Moon-soo, a one-time business rival of Ji-eun's father, Lee Sang-bum. Albeit his persona of a rich irresponsible playboy, Jung-min is kind and passionate. He hides his pain of guilt of having caused his brother's death by going down the road of self-destruction until he meets Ji-eun.

Jung-min is lifted out of his abyss when he falls in love with Ji-eun only to be dropped deeper when he learns that his father had orchestrated events that unwittingly led to Ji-eun's father's death. He tries to run away from Ji-eun but he cannot let go. Instead, he goes against his conscience and hides the truth from Ji-eun rather than risk losing her.

Lee Kyung Jin as Jo Hyun-sook (Ji-eun's mom) and Han In Soo as Lee Sang-bum (Ji-eun's dad)

Lee Sang-bum was the owner of the Shin Young Corporation. Hyun-sook came from a rich family herself and married beneath her social standing when she became pregnant with Ji-eun. Sang-bum worked hard and rose from his humble beginnings but his efforts are constantly diminished by his wife's constant reminder that her father had helped them make their start. Sang-bum and Hyun-sook, in an ironic twist, object to Sae-Hoon and Ji-eun being together as they look down on Sae-Hoon. They see Sae-Hoon as nothing but a pauper trying to marry into money.

Sang-bum is killed in a car accident when he tries to chase after Ji-eun to stop her from meeting Sae-Hoon at the airport on the night of Sae-Hoon's departure to the United States. After he is killed, the fate of his family takes a drastic turn as his company falls into the hands of Seo Moon-soo.

Synopsis

A rich spoiled girl (Lee Ji-eun) gives a poor student (Jang Sae-Hoon) a makeover a la "Pretty Woman" and passes him off as her boyfriend to win a bet from her friends. She falls in love with him when she sees past his exterior and starts a relentless pursuit for his heart. He resists her, recognizing the futility of their union in light of their social mismatch. She is naive and believes that love conquers all. She is prepared to give up everything to be with him - not realizing what "everything" meant. She gets herself pregnant thinking that her parents will then give her their blessings to be with him. They marry against her parents' wishes. Reality sinks in hard and fast when she has to give up her life of luxury to live with him. He tries hard to work for a future for them both and is not able to spend as much time with her as she wants - she sees nothing but the present misery she is in. She loses the baby when she falls trying to run away from him after a quarrel. She returns to her parents' home and asks for a divorce under pressure from her parents. His pride cannot take the beating and he shields himself from hurt by blaming her for leaving him. He leaves with anger towards her - he will work hard and become successful - not for anything else but so that no one can look down on him ever - especially not her.

10 years later
Sae-Hoon returns as the CEO of the Seolin Group with Mi-ran as his fiancée. Ji-eun works as a personal maid and carries the burden of having caused her father's death with her. Jung-min falls in love with Ji-eun and wants to marry her - a union which is his father objects to because of Ji-eun's situation. By some twist of fate, Ji-eun is given the opportunity to work at Seolin when an investor takes a liking to her. Because of her work in Seolin, she often meets with Sae-Hoon which fuels Mi-ran's jealousy further.

Jung-min pursues Ji-eun with a vengeance and she finally relents. Moon-soo agrees to the union only after Jung-min learns of Moon-soo's role in causing Ji-eun's father's death. Jung-min is torn between telling Ji-eun the truth and risk losing her or keeping the secret from her and be burdened by the guilt of deceiving her.

In the end, Jung-min loses Ji-eun but then he never had her in the first place. She never really loved him but saw him as a refuge but when she discovers his father's misdeeds, she is quick to turn on Jung-min. Even when Moon-soo suffers a stroke and is at death's door, Ji-eun does not have it in her to forgive him or Jung-min. She cannot recognize Jung-min's pain or love for her even though she says she knows he is in pain. Instead, she chooses to leave him with the parting words that she can never forgive him.

In a bid to cover up his misdeeds and to prevent Sae-Hoon from going to the authorities about the Seolin Group's business impropriety, Moon-soo frames Sae-Hoon for embezzling. To prevent Sae-Hoon from being further implicated, Ji-eun begs Jung-min to help Sae-Hoon, even promising not to pursue the matter of her father's death. Jung-min accepts the reality that Ji-eun never really loved him as she had earlier refused his request to not pursue the matter even when he knelt to beg her. Nonetheless, she would give up everything for Sae-Hoon. Sae-Hoon is subsequently cleared of the charges.

Seolin falls and Sae-Hoon is left penniless - where he first started. Mi-ran does not give up on making Sae-Hoon her own and offers to give him back all the shares of J-River (once Sae-Hoon's company) if he would return to her. Sae Hoon turns down her offer. Mi-ran makes the same offer to Ji-eun to leave Sae-Hoon to no avail. When Sae-Hoon is unable to get a job due to Mi-ran's maneovering, Ji-eun seeks out Mi-ran to help Sae-Hoon - even kneeling to beg her. Sae-Hoon witnesses the incident and leaves with Ji-eun. Mi-ran finally commits suicide in what would have been her wedding gown. Sae-Hoon and Ji-eun realise finally that love is not enough to bind two people together.

Review

The drama starts off asvery promising - this happens in the first 4 episodes. The drama continues in a timeframe - 10 years later and the pace of the action drags on for the rest of the episodes.

Ji-eun's character grows from being a spoiled carefree rich kid to a young woman carrying the burden of the world on her shoulders. She blames herself for causing her father's death and for the pain she caused Sae-Hoon during the time they were together. She does try to reconcile with him - she calls Sae-Hoon for comfort after her father's funeral, but Sae-Hoon was in too much pain and anger to recognize her call for help. Ji-eun moves on from there and learns to face the reality of life. The discovery of Jung-min's father's misdeeds gives her a new lease of life - in a way, she can unburden herself of the guilt of causing his death. She is no longer responsible. In doing so, she blinds herself to Jung-min's love and leaves him torn between loyalty to his father and his love for her.

In the end, Ji-eun never really loved Jung-min. He just reminded her of her love for Sae-Hoon and it was a bit of selfishness, emotional tiredness, the need to finally lean on someone, and a bid to forget Sae-Hoon that led her to Jung-min. While she is prepared to give up anything for Sae-Hoon, she was not willing to give up her pursuit of punishment for Moon-soo's misdeeds for Jung-min.
Sae-Hoon's driving force for success was the overriding need to prove to Ji-eun and her parents that he could succeed without them. He slowly learns that love requires more than passion and that understanding and patience are also important. There was no foundation to their love. It was all passion. As such, he comes to realize Ji-eun's position and regrets that he never gave her any lasting memories to hold on to (at least good ones) during their time together.

Jung-min loved Ji-eun with all his heart. It was his heart that ruled his decisions and caused his downfall thereafter. He thought he found salvation in Ji-eun - but she could not love him the way he loved her. Instead, she caused his ruin. She only pitied him and saw herself in her pursuit of Sae-Hoon - in his pursuit of her. Jung-min never captured Ji-eun's heart - although he succeeded very well with her family. They needed something from him - and Ji-eun needed to make up to them for the death of her father. Ji-eun was selfish in her relationship with Jung-min. He gave his all - she took his all and gave him only tidbits to hold on to. Although Jung-min realized all along that Ji-eun's heart wasn't with him, he could not help himself. He sustained on whatever little glimpse of "love" she showed him. She needed more than he could give and he needed more than she was willing to give. He lost everything because of her. She left him a far more broken man than he was before he met her.

Mi-ran never really understood Sae-Hoon (Will). She could have had him if she had taken heed to Jung-min's advice to capture his heart instead of acting on her jealousy. Will would have stayed with her even though part of Sae-Hoon's heart was still with Ji-eun. In the end, she loses her man, her mind and her life.

At the end of the series, one cannot help but pity Jung-min. His only mistake was giving his heart to Ji-eun who did not know how to treasure it. His love was pure until she "poisoned" him. He never got the assurance from her that she truly loved him - even for him to be confident not to lose her even in the discovery that his father had a hand in her father's death. He wanted her badly and was constantly torn. He gave up his soul for her but she was never ever able to reciprocate.

Ji-eun was self-absorbed from the beginning to the end. She never really learnt her lesson. She pursued Sae-Hoon with a passion, then dropped him just as easily. When her father died, she turned to him because she had no one else to turn to - her mother and sister both blamed her for causing her father's death. She had to face up to the harsh reality of everyday living when the family fortunes turned. When Jung-min pursued her, she was still preoccupied with feeling sorry for Sae-Hoon instead of truly looking at Jung-min. She never really gave Jung-min a chance. There was always a reason for "loving" or "not loving" him. Her feelings for him were never unconditional - they were weak and fragile and like her initial "love" for Sae-Hoon, she never allowed Jung-min's and her relationship to stake the foundation it needed. When she discovered Jung-min's father's involvement in her father's death, she was quick to pin all blame on both Jung-min and Moon-soo even though she had been a root cause of why he was out that night.

If she truly saw herself in Jung-min's pursuit of her, then she should have understood the intensity of his feelings and not toy with him as she did to a point of callousness. She only saw the need to make good with Sae-Hoon for what happened to him 10 years ago but she callously hurt Jung-min and destroyed him in the end. It would have been better to have left Jung-min to nurse his heart through wine and women, then for her to "heal" it only to shatter it - leaving him a broken man. One can only imagine that Jung-min would never be able to love again, let only with the passion he once had.

The final realisation that dawns upon Sae-Hoon and Ji-eun that love is not enough comes at a heavy price for all those who became tangled in their web.

Postscript

Lee Eun-Ju committed suicide on the 22nd of February 2005. She was only 25 years old.