This drama was still ongoing at the time I started writing this. But it is over now, with a sad ending. Ops, spoiler alert!
To those who have no ideas about this drama, let me share a bit of its synopsis. The full title is Black Knight: The Man Who Guards Me. I don't remember if the story started with life in Joseon years or current one. But it is about tangled relationships between few people - consist of long lost childhood plus long term grudges and curse. A very interesting drama as it has different timelines that are hundreds of years apart.
credit - Pinterest
Soo Ho, is a successful businessman who has lost his parents. He has arguable childhood when his father died in a fire and he was 'taken care' by Hae Ra's father. Soo Ho then left Korea to live abroad while Hae Ra lives a miserable life since her parents died. On a stressful day, Hae Ra dreams of a coat her parents ordered when she was a child and had not pick it up. Only then, Hae Ra meets Sharon / Seo Rin.
So what are actually relationships between all of these 3 people?
Who is holding grudges against who?
Watch it yourself. Hahaha. Tak larat nak taip panjang-panjang.
But if you can't tolerate sad ending, don't do it. To be honest, I would prefer another style of sad ending T_T
A thing that keep me watching... is the views of Slovenia.
I am sure there are lot of other life lessons we can learn from the drama. But this is the main point I realised throughout the story.
Greed
There is a character named Park Chulmin. He is actually a father of Haera's friend, Gon. In this drama, if you watch it, Chulmin's greediness started when he fell in love with Cheo Seorin, a lady who has lived for 250 years and she always mentioned to Chulmin to be rich in any means. He is doing everything he can to raise his wealth even by threatening people.
I once watched a video about things that can threaten our iiman. When the presenter asked the audience about what are those dangerous things to our iiman, many people will answer majority stuffs that are certainly haram, prohibited or forbidden in Islam like drinking alcohol, adultery, murder etc.
There is a hadith about the greatest threat (At-Tirmidhi).
Narrated K’ab bin Malik: Allah’s Messenger said, “Two hungry wolves sent in the midst of a flock of sheep are not more destructive to them than a man’s greed for wealth and fame is to his religion.” (At-Tirmidhi)
Greed for wealth and fame.
Wealth is important though, even some of Prophet's companions were wealthy and they used their wealth for Islam.
But the greed beyond what is needed and involve unnecessary values are not good. Greedy people can do many things to get what they want - no matter how illegal they are.
T_T
This can be reflected to our life.
Bribe is almost everywhere, in almost every organisation.
I am a fan of Ji Sung for his works and talents that are pretty amazing. I had the chance to watch Defendant (actually after it finished airing). Some websites refer it as Innocent Defendant, anything you wish. I think I read about this drama in few blog posts before. Even though it is very tense and mind-challenging to me, I skipped many scenes as I can't spend too much time on it.
Okay, maybe a little bit of introduction about this drama.
It is a thriller drama about a prosecutor named Park Jeong-woo who is accused to kill his beloved family (his wife and daughter). With temporary amnesia, he can not remember what happened to him and why he is in prison, to be more specific he is on death row! So basically this drama is trying to show how Park Jeong-woo tries his best to recall every single memories he has forgotten and to find out what actually happen to his family.
There are few things that are mind opening for me from this drama. Let's check on them together :)
1. A lie will lead to another lie.
Be yourself, even though we think we are full of weakness. To believe that we are special is already a great achievement, honestly. Even though most of times we need to refrain ourselves from saying the reality in a bad way, I believe it is good to show our true colors and be honest to people. Eventually we will realize our bad habits and try our best to improve our life qualities.
To make a lie true, you need seven lies. When a lie produces another lie, and that lie bears another lie again, you became a lying machine.
When we are too attached or too focus on something until the moment we think we are not able to bear the consequences of losing anything...that is when we need to rethink the purpose of we doing something. Obviously it is actually greed.
Credit to UsefulGen
Greed for money.
Greed for status.
Greed for attention.
It is definitely hard to do, but I'm trying my best to think that everything in this world is temporary whenever I feel like I am greedy for something. For me, it is good to have desires anyway, just we need to control them.
3. Love of a man and a father.
Somehow throughout the early episodes of the drama, I was wondering if the prosecutor really killed his family members or not. And if yes, what are the reasons? Homicide is something I used to learn in forensics and it usually happens due to intense continuous arguments, psychological problems etc.
But Park Jung-woo did not seem to have any of these problems and apparently he had a great life with family despite he was so busy.
He tried his best recall his memories to understand what was going on. He tried his best to get his daughter back. You can really feel the struggle of him for the sake of love to his family.
4. Adapt ourselves with the environment.
Living in prison is something unfavorable. Prisons are obviously nightmares for commoners like me.
From this drama, you can watch and feel how the lead tried his best to get into the community of the prisoners but at the same, he planned well how to get out of the situation. He learned well how to deal with other prisoners who can be cheaters as well. At the end of the drama, I love the idea of most of his cellmates are free from prisons and they still keep in touch with each other.
----
There are many other life lessons we can learn actually. The drama itself is not disappointing, Ji Sung and the rest of actors nailed their characters, with the similar feeling when I watched Ji Sung in Kill Me Heal Me. :)