How would the name Cho Pil-yeon (Jung Bo-suck) be written in Chinese characters? How about “必 (necessity)” for “Pil” and “然 (obvious)” for “-yeon,” which adds up to mean “inevitable?” It was pure coincidence that Manbo Plaza collapsed on the day he was at the hearing to be designated a prime minister of the country. However it was only a matter of time that Manbo Plaza, the pinnacle of all shoddy constructions, crumbled to rubbles or his account book of illegal funds testifying to his years of corruption got disclosed.
The final episode of “Giant” reminded two disturbing events of the past, the collapse of the Sampoong Department Store and slush funds accumulated by former presidents both in 1995, implying that those events are no coincidence but a result of all the sins accumulated by people like Cho Pil-yeon for a long time. By revealing the cause to the incidents that remind us so much of other past tragedies in the country, "Giant" depicted on how power and violence influenced the modern history of Korea.
However, while Cho in the drama is gone there are still many Cho Pil-yeon look-alikes still well and alive and occupying the seats in today's National Assembly. Even if it is impossible to punish each and every one of them for their sins we can at least see, learn and forever remember the kind of era they created in the past. Only when those people repent for their sins like Hwang Tae-seop (Lee Deok-hwa) did in the drama can we bid goodbye to the sins of the past. Therefore, as typical as it sounds, it makes sense that all the characters were promised a happy future at the end save Cho Pil-yeon and Lee Sung-mo (Park Sang-min). After all, won’t those people who at least struggled to sin less amidst the age riddled with immoral value, need hope of being with a family to move forward? This may be the kind of hope that “Giant,” which gave a frank portrayal of the violence of the past but remained faithful to popular codes of drama, wanted to offer to itself. We do not know if a happy ending lies ahead for all of its characters but as demonstrated by “Giant” we need to look back and face our past properly in order to build such a future.
Senior Reporter : Kang Myoung-Seok two@
Editor : Heidi Kim heidikim@
꼭 봐야할 주요뉴스
"하이브 연봉 1위는 민희진…노예 계약 없다" 정면... 마스크영역<ⓒ투자가를 위한 경제콘텐츠 플랫폼, 아시아경제(www.asiae.co.kr) 무단전재 배포금지>