the art of contract relationships ~ an excessive rambling about romance and an alchemy of souls part 2 reflection
Being an Indian, I'm no stranger to arranged marriages with almost everyone in my family including my own parents being in one. Though as someone who aspires to be "unconventional" and likes to stir up shit to unsettle my familial homeostasis on a daily basis and therefore would never be in an arranged marriage, I find the idea of them quite fascinating because of not only how terribly convenient they are since you have to do very little to woo your significant other, but there's something quite fruitful when it comes to plotting the arc of an arranged/contract marriage. There's this wonderful cognitive dissonance that arises when two people, who are practically strangers and have no inkling of affection for each other , are in forced close proximity to each other and have to put on the performance of a lifetime to convince those around them that they're in love with each other until they truly end up liking each other. Watching these dramas is like watching a block of ice boil on a stove- It's a slow burn of microscopic collisions (both good and bad) between two individuals inside the confined pot of marriage that forces them to let go of the frigid impenetrable boundaries of insecurity that they've closed themselves in and instead they choose to find liberation and happiness from where they least expected it.
The "contract" relationship trope is truly the amalgamation of all romance tropes you can have a little bit of every other trope in a contract relationship plotline- enemies to lovers, friends to lovers, soulmates, opposites attract, innocent cohabitation, unrequited love, etc. Now, if you're Indian, you also probably know that there only 3 types of marriages possible in our society - arranged (parents chose), love come arranged (you chose but your parents are okay with it), and love (you chose and your parents absolutely hate you and now you're disowned). With the third, love marriages, if you're Indian, you would also know how big of a trope "elopement" is with in Indian films. There's this rush of excitement, anxiety, and pain that hits you simultaneously as you watch a young couple risk it all as they hitch-hike across the subcontinent, leaving everything they know behind in "love" or whatever.
If you combine the elopement trope with the contract/arranged/ forced proximity relationship trope, then you've just unlocked my favorite romance trope of all time- when two people, much to the chagrin and shock of everyone around them, get married/live together, but it's not because they love each other, but rather because they are dependent on each other for protection or to fulfill their respective goals. A great example of this trope in action is from the Tamil movie Ghilli and the experience of watching it in theatres is perhaps the earliest memory that I can recall. In Ghilli, a young 20 something Kabbadi player named Velu , who runs coincidentally into Dhanalakshmi, a young woman who lost her family and is currently on the run from a predatory gangster, who wants to marry her. Velu fights the gangster's henchmen and brings Dhanalakshmi to his home, where he secretly hides her in his room from his parents and younger sister. Comedy and romance ensues as Velu tries his best to keep his secret and Dhanalakshmi finds her self falling one-sidedly for Velu. As a toddler, watching Ghilli was an intoxicating experience, there was something absolutely fascinating about watching Velu and Dhanalakshmi feel so naturally at ease with one another and enjoy the mundane everyday simplicities of celebrating birthdays, stopping hiccups, and looking at baby pictures even at the face of impending doom as a state-wide search has every police officer trying to find her.
After nearly two decades, I felt the same sort of excitement and awe watching the second part of Alchemy of Souls (AoS 2) After watching the first two episodes, I genuinely felt as though the writers of the show secretly hooked up an EEG machine while I was asleep, analzyed my brain, and wrote an entire show with every possible trope out there in the romance that has me squealing, jumping, and giggling:
Soulmates from a past life (technically 3 years ago) ✅
3. Marriage of convenience ✅
4. Running away and getting married in secret ✅
6. Accidentally spooning because it's cold✅
8. Playing too hard to get only to become an absolute simp at the end ✅
10. Lots of hugs, hand holding, and accidental kisses ✅
Apart from checking off almost everything in my fantasy romance bucket-list, one of the reasons why Light and Shadow works so well for me as a show is because it so blatantly ditches the idea of rationality when it comes to portraying the relationship progression between Jang Uk and Cho Yeon (known earlier in the season as Jin Bu-Yeon). If you think of other popular romance k-dramas that aired in the past few years, such as Hometown Cha Cha Cha, Business Proposal, or Run On, there's a logical development of events that push the two characters into falling for one another as they end up understanding each other better over the course of the show. Then, there's AoS 2 like Ghilli, where all of that is completely thrown out of the window.
Though the marriage of convenience between Jang Uk and Cho Yeon is set up with the premise of freedom in exchange of ice stone removal, there's this wonderful cognitive dissonance that bubbles quickly within the first two episodes. Our frontal lobe is telling us how absurd it is for Cho Yeon/Bu-Yeon to already be falling in love hopelessly with Uk when she barely knows him, and yet our amygdala can't help but empathize with her when her sincere wishes for Jang Uk to see her beyond her powers. Then there's Jang Uk, whose words never really align with his actions. Just as Jang Uk put up another barrier between himself and Cho-Yeon, we see him go out of his way to illuminate her path with fireflies when she's trying to find her way back. In the same vein that Uk leaves Cho-Yeon waiting all night for him in his room, Uk spends an entire morning searching for her everywhere in Daeho Fortress, practically worried sick about her wellbeing, until he finds her happily shopping at the marketplace.
Jin Bu Yeon: I was hoping for this. I hoped you were the one who turned off the lantern and I hoped that you would come for me despite being of no use to you.
Jang Uk: Even if I did turn it off, it would not be due to the reasons you were hoping for. You know that. So, what are you going to do? If you want, I can help you create that witness you must bring to Sejukwon by the 21st day. That is, if you give up on that futile hope of yours.
Even Jang Uk mentions that he feels like he's going insane when he's with Bu-Yeon. In Episode 7, when Uk, goes back to Jeongjinjak to find Bu-Yeon, he refers to the Jinyowon lantern that brought them together in the beginning and complains to Bu-Yeon that it's broken and it wont stop flickering on and off.
Jang Uk: I am not done yet. I told you that the lantern was flickering.
Jin Bu Yeon: So what?
Jang Uk: So...When it is on, I am sane. It is clear to me that I must send you back as I promised. But, I go insane when it turns off. I just pine for you. That is why I came to see you.
Jin Bu Yeon: So, what about now?
Jang Uk: If you are upset and want to leave, I should get a hold of myself and let you go.
Jin Bu Yeon comes close and blows air like she's trying to turn off a candle
Jang Uk: What was that?
Jin Bu-Yeon: I turned it off
In many ways, the lantern is Jang Uk, who battles internally with his growing inclination towards Bu-Yeon and his resolve to drown himself in misery and grief until the ice stone can be finally taken out of him and he can die. There's something beautiful about how illogical their love is because it speaks to how instinctual and effortless loving each other feels because they've been destined to be with each other from the very beginning. Even when they've lost their memories and have been revived from the dead, they manage to find each other every single time. Jang Uk and Cho Yeon are magnets that can't help sticking together even at the face of impending doom, even when its clear that Bu-Yeon will take over the body permanently, as much as both try to resist, they can't help but want to spend their last moments together even if it only lasts a couple hours. Nothing about their lives feel logical and it doesn't make sense, but it doesn't matter because everything feels right when they're together.
Jang Uk to Master Lee: I did not come hoping to spend a lifetime together. I just came to stay by her side until the very last moment. That could last a month, two weeks, or even just a few days. But, I decided not to keep count. I am going to believe that we will always have tomorrow.
The depth of Jang Uk and Bu-Yeon's relationship would not have been convincing if it were not for their dialogues, but also because of the actors themselves. Both Lee Jae Wook and Go Youn Jung did wonderfully in portraying their characters and the chemistry both shared was palpable throughout the show. In previous posts, I talked about how I felt that an actor's eyes play a crucial role in their ability to express themselves in a nuanced matter and add credibility to their lines. As Light and Shadow, Go Youn Jung''s doe-like eyes and Lee Jae Wook's steely gaze both contrasted and complemented each other like their respective characters' yin and yang jade. But, it's also how their facial expressions soften and become more fluid in every scene that they're together. Bu-Yeon's cheery demeanor brightens ten fold when Jang Uk does something to make her smile, and its only in her presence do we ever see him be so genuinely happy.
Even moments of heartbreak between the two feel so real like the scene in Episode 7, where Jang Uk tells her to go back to her maternal home and that he's letting her go, there's so much pain and anger communicated through her body language. The way that her eyes widen and maintain steady contact with Uk and how a tinge of redness in her eyes progressively become larger as she holds back tears has never so thoroughly had me empathize deeply with someone who has felt abandoned.
Another favorite scene of mine that really highlights this is when Uk goes back to Jinyowon to say farewell to Bu Yeon after she leaves him saying that she regained her memories. This scene is truly a testament to how far Jang Uk has become from "playing hard to get" to being the guy who has fallen too hard. The desperation in his voice as he chokes a little before he questions the ludicrousness of Bu Yeon's sudden change in behavior before he proceeds to ramble haphazardly about how he's not letting go and he'll wait for her is *chef's kiss*.
Jang Uk: I CANNOT DO THAT! I thought about it over and over again. The reason I want you to stay was not that I was confused or crazy. I just [...] I just like you that much. I had buried my memories but you took them out and helped me face them. You held my hand when I never thought I could. You helped me sleep when I could not [...] And for that, I cannot stop anymore. So I will be the brazier on a summer day. This time, I will be the one waiting until you begin to miss me
And don't even get me started on the kissing scene they had earlier in that episode. I've watched that scene an embarrassing amount of times, but only because its so eloquently constructed from the way that it's edited perfectly to coincide with the other characters talking about how the two weren't a real couple to begin with to how lost they are in each other that they're completely oblivious to the fact that they're in a library to how flushed they both look with Lee Jae Wook's ears turning a distinctive shade of scarlet red. After the infamous "Birthday Kiss" in It's Okay to Not Be Okay, I think the AoS "Lantern Kiss" will go down as one of the best in kdrama history
I also really enjoyed the other interactions that the show featured such as the dynamics between the Crown Prince and the rest of the characters including his turtle. I also enjoyed the chemistry and fluff between Maidservant Kim and Park Jin as well. Even So-i and Seo Yul made my throat choke up a little. This show's greatest strength this season is how it doesn't shy away from emotional vulnerability and the actors and written dialogue, which become the medium through which this vulnerability is embodied are what carry the show to its finish line.
AoS 2 isn't a perfect show and its clear from how uneven the pacing of the plot is. Despite only having 10 one-hour episodes this season, the show moves at a fairly sluggish pace for the first eight episodes as it takes nearly nine episodes for Jang Uk to discover that Bu-Yeon is really Mudeok. However, what is my biggest gripe with the show is that the writers made Jang Uk too powerful, at the cost of weakening the writing. The last two episodes feature the final showdown after two seasons of tension building up between Jang Uk et al. and Jin Mu et al. Yet, the conflict resolves itself in an underwhelming manner. Jang Uk is truly unchallenged and in order for him to take down some of the most powerful Daeho mages, all he has to do is simply plant his sword firmly down the ground to completely derail their plans of burning down the world. Even when face to face with the mighty firebird, Jang Uk manages to astrally project a bow at the perfect angle to take down the bird in his first try.
At the cost of making Jang Uk powerful, the writing reduced every character to being powerless. For instance, Jin Ho Gyeong, a powerful priestess, responsible for protecting Daeho's most powerful relics, is made out to be someone, who can barely fight back when the Unanimous Assembly attempts to retrieve the Firebird. Worse than Ho Gyeong is Jin Cho Yeon, who has neither showed magical prowess nor strength, despite also have promising potential as a priestess and mage. Jin Mu, once a formidable antagonist in the first season, is reduced to mockery as he does simply nothing when Jang Uk derails his plans. It's also this lack of engaging conflict, which pushes the writers to add unnecessary bait to keep the viewers engrossed in the show. There's a lot of moments in the show, where the writers bait a major character death only to Control-Z and miraculously save the characters thanks to Jang Uk. For instance, in Episode 6, which up till then, made a cure for Seo Yul seem impossible and his death along with So-i's evident, Jang Uk enters the picture and miraculously he's able to force Ho Gyeong to disclose the cure saves his friend. In Episode 10, when Maidservant Kim, Park Jin, and Lady Jin, are all hinted at dying while attempting to protect Jinyowon, Jang Uk again comes in and reveals to everyone that he and his group of allies have managed to save them. Finally, Master Lee, who has been portrayed throughout the season as an unreliable source of foreshadowing. I think these moments hinder the show's legitimacy and the plight of the characters. It's almost like "A Boy Who Cried Wolf", where we can't truly take anything that the writers throw at us earnestly.
Despite its flaws, I would like to reiterate that before AoS, I would have not seriously ventured into the historical fantasy kdrama genre. AoS was the show that had me watching kdramas again after I personally became tired of the "melodrama" genre that dominated Spring and Summer 2022. I can't wait to see the future works that the cast gets involved in the future!
