Pinocchio

Yes, I know that my Orthopedic exam is this coming Wednesday, and my finals is in a month's time. I don't really know whether the reason I'm relaxing is because I want to reserve energy or it's because I have none left. Anyway, I really enjoyed this drama, Pinocchio.

Just like most of the typical Korean dramas, it consists of two parts - the main conflict and the love story. I shall address the main conflict first. So In Ha, the female lead, has 'The Pinocchio Syndrome' - where in this drama she has hiccups every time she tells a lie. The story starts when the leader of a firemen team and his crew dies in a fire. Later on, the body of the leader is not found. Quickly, speculations were made saying that the leader left his crew to die in the fire, and in fact instructed his team to go into the building, knowing there was going to be a chemical explosion later on. What makes things worse is that, there will be a random person with the Pinocchio syndrome that will testify he saw the leader alive and well somewhere. Without blinking an eye, the community shuns the leader's family and the media portrays the leader of the fireman team to be a murderer. Not long after the family is destroyed due to this tragedy. 

While the father is missing, the elder brother takes off to go look for answers. The younger brother (which will be the lead actor later on) stays with his mother. Eventually his mother gives up, and attempts to commit suicide, and she pulls the youngest son along - off a cliff. However, after jumping off a cliff, only the mother dies, and the younger brother is saved by a very old man. The old man takes care of him in some faraway island. 

There will be a specific reporter that the brothers hate for life due to the way she portrayed the news about their father. It was because of they way she reported it, that the public opinion was manipulated out of proportion and their lives were destroyed. Turns out, the daughter of this reporter will be the lead actress, who will eventually fall in love with the youngest son of the alleged murderer. 

As the story unfolded deeper and deeper, it started to freak me out a little because all I could think off was the incident of MH370. How the media quickly shifted the blame towards one person - the pilot. Before you knew it, evidences such as the pilot bringing in passengers into the cockpit and he had a flying simulator device at home pointed to him being guilty of taking a joy ride. What freaked my even more is what I read on twitter today, of all days while watching this drama.

Of all days, today the sister of the pilot twitted this. Even if we don't want to believe the media, people are quickly swayed by it. Just like in the drama, a couple of news about the fireman being a murderer - be it a fact or fantasy - destroyed a family within a blink of an eye. Similarly, I now realize how much damage a news like this would have caused the family of the pilot of MH370. In the drama, the blame is shifted to shield the senators involved in a bigger circle of bribery and corruption. It doesn't matter whether the fireman actually committed the crime or not. What I've learnt from the drama is that, all news have a half-life. In its hot period, people will spend investigating the most important thing. After which the news is almost forgotten. So all they had to do, was buy time. During its heated period, they shifted the public's attention towards the 'coward fireman who left his team behind' and people almost forget that the main issue - 'how did the fire start?'

I cannot fully convey how much this drama has affected the way I view the media. All I can say is that, this drama was an eye opener for me at least. I also realized how challenging is can be to do a reporter's job. You can either be a puppet or you can be a real reporter while living your life recklessly. The ugly truth is - there's no middle ground. 

As for the love story, as usual - it was very appealing for most parts. What I disliked about this drama would be a part of the love story of course. It's the part where he leaves her and also his adopted family just so that he can focus on his revenge plan. It would be justified if no one understood his purpose of revenge. Here, she actually understood the fact that he had to do what he had to do, and yet he left? She said that she will stay by his side through everything, and what more does he want? He still chooses to isolate himself until he sorts everything out. This is quite common in average Korean dramas, and its just bloody annoying. It took the pity-party character to talk some sense into him. To be honest, I actually remember what I thought about this exact choice, 6 years ago. When I watched another movie that had this kind of option, I felt it was okay, I felt it was justified. I'm not entirely sure I was immature back then or my age is currently regressing.  

Sometimes I just have to chill, and enjoy common love stories. Those ridiculous moments of hitting each others' shoulders in attempt to pick up the same book - stuff like that. Its normal - but nobody said being normal is an easy task. I'm not saying life is simple, but I shall learn to embrace simplicity before I embrace complexity. 

The Final Scene