Currently Watching: Heaven's Promise

Currently Watching: Heaven's Promise

You don't need to say it - I'm aware of the uphill battle. A small percentage would've been lost, just by their kneecaps trembling. The prospect of facing a 100 episode drama, would make them break out in cold sweat. How much time they would have to waste, is the first thing they'd wonder. How many hours sat in front of their computer and/or android device would they need to endure? The biggest question can be answered with simple mathematics, to make everything look less scary.

100 episodes which are 30 mins each.
So, it could be 50 one hour episodes.

The drama airs daily every Monday to Friday, so it is testament to watching your favourite soap. Just spare 1/2 hour each day, and suddenly everything makes sense. Perfect sense.

The main theme of this drama is revenge.

I am a big fan of the vendetta. Vendettas are one of the most compelling personal motivations to make a story tick. There is a focus. A tangible target. Once revenge is sought; you know things are never going to be the same again...

Having reached a quarter century in this drama, with things still being laid out for the audience, this is perfect time to jump on the "Heaven's Promise" ship. The key to any revenge-orientated drama, is of course, the characters. 

Lee Yoo Ri as Lee Na Yeon

and doubling as Baek Do Hee.

Na Yeon is a typical doormat and self-sacrificing martyr rolled into one. As a child, her mother dies in a tragic car accident, and at the scene of a crime, a mysterious earring is left in her hand. When Na Yeon visits her dying mother, never to regain consciousness, she pries it out of her hand. Couple of days later, at her mother's funeral, a strange man appears and offers Na Yeon a home. He is kind-hearted and warm, as opposed to his wicked, selfish, cold wife and quickly unsettled daughter, Se Jin. Both mother and daughter, turn against Na Yeon - the wife, because she has former history with the girl's mother, and Se Jin, because she feels like she's being replaced in her father's heart.

Na Yeon is expelled from the family home and she goes to live in an orphanage, but is rescued by the wife of the driver who killed her mom. She also reconnects with a school-friend, and starts a romantic relationship with him as they get older. He is called Kang Tae Joon.

What she doesn't know, is that she has a long lost twin sister, called Baek Do Hee, who is living a privileged life and grows up to be a cynical, ground-breaking journalist finding juicy stories on wealthy families. One of her targets is the Jang family, of which Se Jin is a part of.

Seo Jun Yeong as Kang Tae Joon

Kang Tae Joon has always been ambitious in nature, due to a rough start in life and being abandoned by his mother, who is always chasing after the latest guy. He is quickly enamoured with Na Yeon, and starts a lifelong courtship ritual (with hem hem, benefits), which culminates in a daughter he knows nothing about. Since Na Yeon is such a "martyr", working odd jobs to put him through college - she doesn't tell him about her pregnancy, because she knows he would stay behind, and lose everything he worked for. Naturally, Kang Tae Joon with his roving eye and ambitious nature, ensnares an adult Se Jin in the States, and impregnates her - rushing forward a marriage, that Se Jin's mother is unhappy about.

Park Ha Na as Jang Se Jin 

The woman caught in-between Tae Joon's and Na Yeon's rocky relationship. She is not a typical, bitchy second lead lead at all - and is actually kind of badass. She treats people around her very well. Like her uncle, she doesn't stop rumours that the reason why her first marriage failed was because of infidelity (this is true in both their cases - but for both of them, they were the ones cheated on). It's only when Na Yeon enters the picture, the green-eyed monster comes out. She will presumably get married to Tae Joon, and watch as "Na Yeon" marries her uncle. It will make her spout fireworks for sure.

Song Jong Ho as Park Hwi Kyung

Park Hwi Kyung is the one adrift in our little four (five, if you count Do Hee). Although he is the direct heir to a conglomerate, and an uncle of Se jin, he doesn't mind mucking in and doing menial labours with the task force. He just does his own little thing, and doesn't engage with the other three that much. That all changes, when Do Hee, still unaware she has a twin out there, is arranged to date Park Hwi Kyung. They are both cynical of the dating game, and bond over their parents forcing them to date would-be suitors, quickly finding common ground. This is important, because the synopsis states:

"A woman puts on the face of her dead sister and marries the brother of her enemy for revenge. 
Bright Na-Yeon supports her boyfriend Tae-Joon, who is from a poor background, and has even given up entering a university. But Tae-Joon dumps her for his success and goes with Se-Jin, who is a granddaughter of Baekdoo Company president. Arrogant and tough Do-Hee, Na-Yeon’s twin sister, works as a reporter at a weekly magazine. After Na-Yeon’s death, Do-Hee decides to take revenge. She takes on the identity of her sister and meets Hwi-Kyung, the successor of Baekdoo Company."

What I think so far:

This drama is unusual because if the summary is correct - Na Yeon is going to die. But yet we spend quite a lot of time with her, instead of just seeing her life in flashbacks, and jumping to the twin about to commit revenge. Maybe this is the beauty of a 100 episode drama. Although Na Yeon spends quite a lot of time, imitating a doormat, she starts to display a resilience we've been missing as the countdown to doom ticks inevitably closer.

Of course I'm left with a lot of questions:

- How is Na Yeon going to die?

- How will Do Hee successfully assimilate herself into the Baekdoo Company as Na Yeon, when she's been dating him with her true face?

- What will happen to Se Byul, Na Yeon's daughter? (Some speculate Se Byul will meet an early death or be kidnapped.)

- How will the twins meet, and will they spend any time together before one carks it?

I wish I could give you predictions, but since Na Yeon isn't even officially dead yet, (and some are saying it's Do Hee that dies) the above questions are still whirring in my head. If I were to answer my own questions, I would say:

- Na Yeon is murdered. Or if she isn't murdered, she will die but people from the Jang family will be present at her death and witness it. What they don't do, is recover the body, so when "Na Yeon" pops up again, they will be staring around dumbstruck and wishing they'd made sure.

- I think Do Hee, will find out all about Na Yeon, but to succeed, lets' Hwi Kyung into her game plan and tells him she's seeking revenge. THAT, or she "disappears" and comes back as Na Yeon, and tries to take advantage of his sympathy to make him see her in a romantic light.

- Se Byul....I don't want Se Byul to die! What a sweet, innocent kid. Why kill her? At the very least, I hope she doesn't die.

- I think the twins will meet before death. You see Do Hee reaching out, and making contact with Na Yeon's elder sister, who is also a reporter, so if that meeting takes place, then the older sister would immediately see they look exactly like each other!

Heaven's Promise airs on KBS2 every Mon-Fri and subbed on the same day on various websites. Please join the small fan club and cheer this drama forward.