Phoenix (English Subtitled) (MBC TV Series) DVD Region All

Phoenix is a love story. The underlying theme being how important timing is to make love work. But Phoenix explores much more than that. This k-drama explores a lot about circumstantial love. What would love be like again for a couple in a different time, in a different environment, in a different situation?

When I finished this k-drama, I was really awed by how realistic the multi-facets of love were, put across in such an interesting setup. Love is happiness, love is sadness, love is holding on, love is letting go, love is compromise, love is sacrifice, love is giving, love is taking, love is possessing, love is blind, love is meaningless, love is reality, love is warm and love is lonely. Love is all of the above, and how it is exhibited and/or interpreted depends on the individual, and they are all found in this k-drama!

Lee Ji Eun (Lee Eun Joo) starts out as a rich, spoilt, carefree and idealistic girl. She falls head over heels for Jang Sae Hoon (Lee Seo Jin) and is willing to risk everything to be with him. But when put to the test, i.e. enduring hardship, she fails Sae Hoon. After her father’s death, Ji Eun has to grow up overnight. She realizes that love alone is not enough to carry a relationship through and that making a commitment is also about bread and butter as well.

I read about the audience's frustration towards Ji Eun’s wavering behavior, but I did not find it to be so. It is consistent with the character. After her father’s death, she is burdened with the thought that she has caused her entire family’s misfortune with her moment of willfulness by marrying Sae Hoon. She cannot forgive herself, and puts herself in a love-exile. She is afraid to reach out, as she is not confident of making a commitment and failing again with such devastating results. Seo Jung Min is like a breath of fresh air for her pent-up frustrated life. Deep inside, she never forgets Sae Hoon, yet she can’t allow herself to be with him again.

Sae Hoon is the poor student that Ji Eun loved. He is a self-made man of strong principles, and that explains why he could not bend for Ji Eun to accept her parents' help, why he cannot leave a wheelchair-bound Miran after the car accident, and why he cannot forgive himself after Miran's suicide. But his strength has also made him lonely, as he can’t accommodate anyone in his world. Then, just as he thinks he has healed after ten years of pain and struggle, Sae Hoon meets Ji Eun again and the old scars are reopened. It is obvious from the very first meeting that Sae Hoon still has feelings for Ji Eun. If he had felt nothing, he would not have behaved so bitterly towards Ji Eun. Your heart will only react if you still feel for that person, and Ji Eun's place in Sae Hoon's heart is confirmed when he buys the villa on Cheju Island from Miran's father.

It is never easy to understand a situation from another person’s perspective, and in that way, Sae Hoon and Ji Eun are lucky. They have the chance to switch positions, and to understand and appreciate how each other felt, and learn what went wrong in their relationship the first time round. Ji Eun begins to understand Sae Hoon’s pride as she is now getting the same treatment from Jung Min’s family. Sae Hoon begins to appreciate the power of compromise as he persuades a hurt Ji Eun to hold on to her happiness with Jung Min.

A good love story is incomplete without the usual roadblocks and villains. Seo Jung Min is the strongest challenger for Ji Eun’s heart. Jung Min’s emotions are so intense and overpowering that Ji Eun can’t help but be touched and moved by them. Jung Min elbows his way into Ji Eun’s heart the way she bulldozed her way into Sae Hoon’s life ten years previously. But he is also emotional and selfish. In the end, he is unable to do the right thing and come clean to Ji Eun about his father, and it ultimately leads to his pathetic end.

Of all the characters, I felt the most sorry for Jung Min as he was the one that was put on an emotional roller-coaster. I felt that Jung Min’s love for Ji Eun was doomed from the start. The writers had it all set up! He loves her more than she loves him. Sad but true, Jung Min can never replace the untainted and innocent love that Sae Hoon and Ji Eun shared ten years ago. The writers made Jung Min walk the same path that the younger Ji Eun did, undermining his best intentions with his selfishness.

Eric Mun is so charming as the lovelorn Prince, and the writer left a lot of the cheesy lines for him. Yet his delivery was so natural and touching (especially with those bad boy eyes) as to make any woman weak at the knees and beg him to come whisk them away. It was a credible and confident effort, balancing well against the outstanding performances of Lee Seo Jin and Lee Eun Joo.

The villain - or rather, the villainess - comes in the form of Yoon Miran. She is a manipulative, insecure and possessive woman. She does not possess an ounce of kindness in her, her only virtue is her love for Sae Hoon. So complete, so hopeless, so destructive. Remember when Ji Eun first fell for Sae Hoon, Miran was so curious how anyone could fall so hard that she asks Ji Eun about her experience. And yet when Miran does fall, she creates a crater with no way out for herself. Miran is a strong woman with a strong resolve. The way she works to get back on her feet shows that it is not going to be easy for her to give Sae Hoon up, and she is true to her emotions to the end.

I like Jung Hye Young’s performance. The way she gripped her ring when she was jealous, her look of hatred and despair... I really wished the writers gave Miran a second chance to wake up from her madness. My only complaint about Jung Hye Young is her choice of nail polish colors. Did you see those luminous green-colored toes and her blue-tipped French manicure? Hideous!

Lee Seo Jin was so convincing as the strong, stable yet somewhat emotionally complex Sae Hoon. His weakness was only visible to the audience and no one else. The longing looks he cast at Ji Eun gripped my heart and choked me every time. He was able to display this sense of youthful innocence when playing the student Sae Hoon with his wide eyes. And he carried off the older and successful Sae Hoon with a straight face, soft gaze, and confident gait.

Lee Eun Joo transformed her perky character into the burdened divorceé very well. Her body language was much more exaggerated and flippant as the younger Ji Eun. Lee Eun Joo changed the way she walked in the latter part, and the light sighs she constantly gave out were also little actions added to illustrate age in her character.

There was a lot of dialogue in this k-drama, and many good lines that are thought-provoking and well-written, especially for Miran (you can almost forgive her for her crazy actions). The only problem I had with this k-drama was the ending. Everything seemed to fall into place for all the characters. Although Jung Min's kidnapping and Miran's suicide worked well in the story, I wished it was not so. I had hoped for something less extreme, but then I guess it would not be a k-drama without extreme drama!

I highly recommend Phoenix for anyone who wants a lesson about living in someone else's shoes. A long, painful journey it may be (26 episodes is a struggle, even for me!) but ultimately, it is worth every tear.

Reviewed by il_mare