Age of Feeling: Episode 12

by HeadsNo2

Our hero turns to revenge in his darkest hour to fill the empty hole in his heart that once/an hour ago was consumed by hatred for his father. Now he has the opportunity to fill it with hatred for his father’s murderer, so, healthy choices are being made all around. As far as the gang politics go, Ka-zzzzzzzz…

Also, ratings dropped (if only slightly) back down into the single digits, going from last episode’s 10.3% to 9.8%.

SONG OF THE DAY

Age of Feeling OST – J2M – “Good Day To Die” [ Download ]

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

 
EPISODE 12 RECAP

Doctor Jung and Ok-ryun get an unexpected delivery to the clinic in the form of Daddy Shin’s body, brought there by Jae-hwa’s men.

But it seems like they may not be the only ones behind the body switch, since Jung-tae heeds So-so’s words about where his father’s funeral should rightfully take place and sheds his funeral clothes. So-so beams: “I guess you’re not fake after all. Let’s go.”

Jung-tae claims he has some business to take care of first, which leads us back to the body reveal with Leader Seol and Kaya. Leader Seol is the only one to open the casket and spot the random dead person inside, and closes it before a sudden letter arrives from Jae-hwa informing him of what he’s already confirmed: that they don’t have Daddy Shin’s corpse.

Leader Seol sends the Chilinbang Elders home, even though they don’t seem the least bit concerned that they didn’t see the actual body. (So all that hubbub for nothing?)

Kaya is the only one who insists on seeing the body, but she has to fight Baek-san to get to it. She opens it to find that Daddy Shin isn’t inside, smirks, and declares that they’re even—I’m guessing in regard to the whole body-stealing thing from earlier, since neither party ended up with it in the end.

Jae-hwa’s minions start freaking out about what Hwangbang will do to them for stealing the body, while Doctor Jung calmly goes about autopsying the corpse and photographing it.

She finds a stab would as the direct cause of death (due to Kaya), but only after cutting into the body does she find that there was another cause of death. Daddy Shin would’ve died from his internal injuries whether or not he was stabbed. Hah. Remember how Shinichi was supposed to die eventually from his internal wounds? (…Remember Shinichi?)

Leader Seol discusses the swapped body schematics with Jae-hwa, only for Jae-hwa to reveal that he was a step ahead of them the whole time—he’d switched the bodies with the help of Old Man Fly before Baek-san came to take it. Smart.

With the body as his leverage, Jae-hwa gives his conditions: Club Shanghai stays under his management and that Chilinbang is made aware that he controls Bangsamtong.

Leader Seol isn’t too thrilled at this prospect, even though Jae-hwa threatens him with revealing to the world that Hwangbang tried to hold a funeral without a body. It would jeopardize Leader Seol’s place in Chilinbang (he’s one of the elders?). But the elder just smirks as he threatens, “Do you think your club would be safe then?”

Cut to: Leader Seol’s men breaking into Club Shanghai to look for the body. Jae-hwa knew he’d pull this move and all but sighs, “Do you think I would have taken him there?” Leader Seol takes out his Unlit Cigar of Arrogance as he names the next place it’d be—Doctor Jung’s clinic, which also happens to be a clinic of the Shanghai International Red Cross Committee.

So that means that Leader Seol can’t dare to touch it or risk stirring up trouble on an international scale, though Leader Seol looks like he needs a furless cat to stroke as he wonders, “Why wouldn’t I be able to do that?” His answer is still clear: he won’t give Jae-hwa Club Shanghai.

Jae-hwa pulls up his shirt to show Leader Seol the bruise he got from fighting Baek-san as yet another reason for the elder to comply. He threatens to show the Chilinbang Elders Daddy Shin’s body and give them the autopsy report, because the unique bruises covering his body look remarkably like what Jae-hwa received from Baek-san’s hands…

His implication—that Baek-san might’ve been Daddy Shin’s murderer—has Leader Seol looking mighty nervous. When Jung-tae enters, still oblivious to the goings-on, Jae-hwa is all, “Our generous leader approved the funeral in Bangsamtong! Let’s go!”

Leader Seol can only bite his tongue and smile, now mercy to Jae-hwa’s will. He declares that he’ll come to the funeral and discuss the topic of management with Chilinbang, ideally in Jae-hwa’s favor. Based on how afraid Leader Seol is, I wouldn’t be surprised if he really WAS behind it all.

Jae-hwa’s men trumpet their victory over Hwangbang in Bangsamtong, and declare to the people that Daddy Shin will be returned to them. Even though Jae-hwa takes to a soap box to tell everyone that all the funeral food and drink will be on him, the people don’t look at all enthused.

So-so finds Jung-tae standing amidst the meager crowd to reassure him that he’s done his duty as a son by bringing his father here.

Kaya is updated on the state of affairs, and seems pleased that Jae-hwa ended up with the body after all. It means that they don’t have to worry about Hwangbang seeking retribution for Yamamoto stealing the body, since Leader Seol couldn’t afford to let the rumor slip out that he lost the body in the first place. (Body body body.)

She sends all this in a message to her grandfather and Shinichi(!), so that Denkai knows Hwangbang lost to Jae-hwa. This means that Hwangbang’s reputation will go down while Jae-hwa’s will go up, which Denkai thinks is only a good thing in the end.

He’s not even upset that Kaya lost Club Shanghai, because he thinks she gained something greater: intel. She now understands the conflict between Hwangbang and Jae-hwa, and can use it to her advantage. “That will lead to Jung Jae-hwa’s death, just wait and see. Kaya has grown up so much,” he adds with a proud smile.

Jae-hwa celebrates his victory with minions and women, drunkenly telling them his rags-to-riches story of being sold by his parents at the tender age of ten, and how it took him twenty-five years to get to where he is now—the leader of Bangsamtong.

Doctor Jung pays a visit to the club to give Jae-hwa the autopsy report, causing him to swiftly push away the girls he’d been holding out of guilt. He seems delighted when she tells him that Daddy Shin’s internal injuries were an indirect cause of death, and would have been the direct cause had he not been stabbed.

He remembers Baek-san’s blow to his solar plexus, and wonders aloud whether Hwangbang was the true culprit after all. But when Doctor Jung gets up to leave, he pitifully grabs her wrist as he asks, “You didn’t forget the promise you made, right? That you’d date me if I became the owner of Bangsamtong? Did you forget?”

She gives him a rueful smile: “Try becoming the real leader of Bangsamtong. Then I’ll date you.” Jae-hwa’s completely flummoxed as he holds up the autopsy reports, all, “But I am the owner! This is proof!” Aw. I’m warming up to him.

Jung-tae presides over the smaller and much more intimate funeral for his father in Bangsamtong, which at least he gets to hold in the traditional Korean fashion. The line of people paying their respects is endless, even including Russian refugees that Daddy Shin took in after the communist revolution.

All of a sudden, Jung-tae is swarmed by children (his favorite things!) trying to touch him in some way. So-so explains that there’s a belief among the children in Bangsamtong that they’d become strong like Daddy Shin if they touched his body, and that their sicknesses would be cured. To parents with sick children whom they couldn’t afford to have treated, it was their only way of comforting them.

So-so comforts Jung-tae by telling him that he can become just as strong as his father, the owner of Shanghai. Now that he’s seen the kind of person his father was to the people of Bangsamtong, he can gather the courage to be like him.

Old Man Fly comes to pay his respects (more or less) after reaming two guys for bringing meager food offerings, before he sets to eating the altar food anyway. So-so cringes at both the fact that he’s there, and that he and Jung-tae seem to know each other—likely because the crusty Old Man Fly is her father.

At the old man’s urging and guilt-tripping, Jung-tae finally goes inside to send his father off to the next world in peace. “I don’t hate you anymore, Father,” Jung-tae admits, as he tells his father to go in peace and forget all the sorrow and pain of this life. He wants him to leave only with the good memories.

“Father… do you have any good memories to take with you?” Jung-tae asks, as tears start to well up in his eyes. His voice grows hoarse as he adds, “If you don’t, then take this one memory with you: Your son and your daughter have never once forgotten about you. We missed you so much. And we love you.”

Tears start falling, both from Jung-tae and everyone in the room mourning with him—and okay, also from me. It’s sad to see Jung-tae struggling so, so hard to hold back his tears enough to say these words to his father, because his grief is just that raw.

As the people of Bangsamtong bow formally to his father, Jung-tae loses all control over his emotions and devolves into terrible, wretched sobs. (*grabs tissue*)

Jung-tae and Ok-ryun spread his father’s ashes into the sea, with Ok-ryun taking some time to say goodbye to Daddy Shin personally. She starts holding back tears as she tells the spirit of Daddy Shin to tell her mother, when he meets her in the next world, that her daughter is living well.

“I couldn’t give her a funeral and just sent her away… please tell her that I’m so sorry,” Ok-ryun cries. “Please tell her… that her daughter loves her.” Awww.

Baek-san and Leader Seol get into a tiny tiff about him “temporarily” leaving Club Shanghai’s management in Jae-hwa’s hands, since he’d once said that Daddy Shin’s management would also just be “temporary.” Leader Seol defends his choice as being due to Jae-hwa knowing that Baek-san killed Daddy Shin (now they’re admitting it as fact), and they can’t afford to let that rumor leak out.

Leader Seol gives Baek-san permission to kill anyone who might’ve seen him on the day he fought Daddy Shin, and assures his most trusted warrior that Jae-hwa’s time on this earth is coming to an end. Baek-san: “Does that mean you will groom Jung-tae?”

Leader Seol says yes, and that with a little time, Jung-tae can become something great. Baek-san firmly disagrees, claiming that he watched Jung-tae fight and that he’s not even worth the effort. He asks Leader Seol’s permission to test Jung-tae, which the leader grants on the basis that if Jung-tae can’t beat Baek-san, then he certainly can’t beat Ilgookhwe.

But then when Baek-san asks if it would be okay if he killed Jung-tae in battle, Leader Seol all but shrugs. “If it’s the only way, then there’s nothing we can do otherwise. It’s fine if he dies.” Um, okay. I don’t understand you people.

Ok-ryun asks Jung-tae what he plans to do now that his father’s funeral is (thankfully) over with, and whether he’ll go back to Shineuijoo. To her surprise, Jung-tae says he’s staying: “I will find the person who killed my father.”

She grows concerned when Jung-tae’s talk turns to revenge, as he plans to find the man who deprived him of his father and make him feel his pain. In order to do that, he asks Ok-ryun if he can work at her clinic/restaurant/hot water fountain, because he needs money as well as a place to live. She wishes that he’d drop the revenge talk, but isn’t about to say no.

Suddenly they hear the sound of police whistles and horses, causing Ok-ryun to look wildly around her as though she forgot something. “What day is it?” she asks, before Chinese police come riding in on horseback to beat every single person they see. Aw, did someone forget it’s Police Brutality Day?

Jung-tae leads her to a hiding spot, where they remain until the police drag off their latest victims. Ok-ryun takes a decent stab at explaining the politics of the situation, though I’m still admittedly very lost—because Bangsamtong is partially controlled by both the French and Chilinbang, they do a routine monthly check on the citizens’ papers.

Apparently, the people of Bangsamtong have to lie about their identities depending on whether the French are checking their papers or the Chinese, and bad things happen if they’re caught lying.

There’s a visible change in Ok-ryun once they’re alone, like she finally can’t hold it in anymore. She finally asks why he never sent any word after he left Shineuijoo. Did her mother, Mal-sook, and Mal-sook’s mother mean nothing to him?

At least Soo-ok gets a mention: Ok-ryun claims he died and that she buried him with her bare hands. Everyone around her died, and so Ok-ryun returned to Shineuijoo to try and find Jung-tae. Even though she had no one and no place to go, she stayed there for six months to wait for him, just in case he’d come back.

“I’m sorry,” Jung-tae sighs. And then again, “I’m sorry.” Ok-ryun’s eyes grow distant and unfocused as she says that for as much as she longed for him, her contempt for him has also grown. “You shouldn’t expect too much from me,” she adds bitterly.

She returns to the restaurant/clinic, and her unni Doctor Jung seems to know what happened without Ok-ryun saying a word. She tries to comfort the younger girl by telling her she should’ve yelled at Jung-tae that she’s hurting, and that she should’ve demanded to know why he came only now.

Ok-ryun just shakes her head as tears fall. “I couldn’t. The blood flowing out of his heart… it still feels like it’s on my hands. I feel so guilty about it. How could I?” Jung-tae listens from outside and sighs.

After Jae-hwa proves just how differently he’s running things in Bangsamtong (“I was acknowledged by Chilinbang!”), he seems surprised to spot Jung-tae working as a hot water delivery boy. He didn’t even know he was still in the area until one of his minions tells him that Jung-tae is staying for the long haul, and now works alongside Ok-ryun.

So-so works at the shop too, and gives Jung-tae instructions for his next delivery. But when he doesn’t set out right away, she gets after him for waiting about—Ok-ryun isn’t at the shop anyway.

Jung-tae gets nervous and defensive (“Who was waiting?”), causing So-so to have a lightbulb moment: “He likes Ok-ryun? It’s not me? Why? What am I lacking?” Haha, and aww.

Jae-hwa meets with Kaya to return the pieces of silver they’d given him to rent Club Shanghai, since he is officially kicking her out. She tries to sweeten the deal by offering a chest of gold pieces, but Jae-hwa still refuses.

Before he leaves the table, Kaya asks him about Daddy Shin’s body—he saw it, so that means he knew how he died. She wants to know. Jae-hwa doesn’t tell her the full truth, only that the autopsy stated that Daddy Shin died from an injury caused by two swords. Nothing about the internal bleeding.

Jung-tae is suddenly attacked by a shady man who’d been following him, but is at least aware enough to defend himself against the attacker’s samurai sword with his water jug. The man doesn’t say who he is, nor does he answer Jung-tae when he asks if he’s his father’s killer.

They fight in the middle of the street, and Jung-tae’s unarmed state actively works against him—his attacker lands a cut on his arm, his leg, and then flat-out stabs him in the side. Jung-tae tries to remember his fight with Shinichi, but it’s not of much help when his attacker’s style is different. He doesn’t know why.

Nonetheless, his attacker is relentless in trying to end him. He outmaneuvers Jung-tae enough to stab him in the belly again, even twisting the blade for good measure. Eek. Who is this guy?

Meanwhile, Kaya asks Jae-hwa if the sword wounds weren’t all that killed Daddy Shin—were there no internal injuries? Jae-hwa knows that there’s only one way she would know that, and asks, “You know who killed Shin Young-chul, don’t you?”

Kaya refuses to answer Jae-hwa’s question, and turns on him with her two jitte swords when he tries to stop her. He throws his arm up as a shield, protected by the chain mail (hah) he’s wearing beneath his suit.

But once he sees her two swords, he swiftly puts the pieces together: Kaya killed Daddy Shin.

And all this happens as Jung-tae is brought to his knees by his wounds, no less ready to keep fighting.

 
COMMENTS

I had a feeling Hwangbang was really an eeevil organization when the camera kept lingering evilly on Leader Seol last episode, so while it’s not that much of a surprise that they’re the ones behind Daddy Shin’s death, it did feel like something of a disappointment. After nine episodes where all the warring organizations (save for Ilgookhwe) were made of humans with actual beating hearts, it’s a major regression to end up in a dreary place filled with dreary characters who only know how to be greedy, secretive, or inordinately pleased with themselves.

Jae-hwa is the most interesting out of the lot, since he at least mimics being a person much better than his fellow side characters in Hwangbang, both of whom are such bores. Even if Leader Seol is a villain, we should be given at least one reason to care about him, right? I mean, it’s in every storyteller’s best interests to humanize their characters, so that even if they’re evil they have some redeeming quality that makes them worth watching, no matter how despicable their acts… right? (New Writer: “Wrong.”)

So with the major players coming down to Hwangbang and Ilgookhwe, what makes either one of them better than the other? Nothing. While the time skip did everyone a disservice, Kaya’s treatment is perhaps the most criminal—literally and figuratively. She says stuff and does things that have immediate scene-to-scene motivations (like trying to out Leader Seol, or trying to kill Jae-hwa), but which have no clear overall purpose other than to serve Ilgookhwe’s wishes. Which is fine and all, if your goal is to dehumanize a villain, but not so much when she’s supposed to be someone we care about. All we see is the smirking facade Kaya puts on for others, but not who she really is underneath it all. (Unless we are, and this is all there is to see.) It doesn’t help that she’s surrounded by extras almost constantly, and that she doesn’t even have a familiar face like Shinichi to act as a sounding board. Sigh.

I don’t know whether Jung-tae has given up his search for his sister, but at least he has something to do now, even if it’s another vague and possibly-endless motivator like revenge. I can buy it at least, and am still invested enough in his character to see what becomes of it. Mostly, I was just holding my breath when Ok-ryun confessed to him about how the past five years have been for her, eagerly waiting for him to chime in to explain why he never sent word or looked for her. And then he didn’t.

All I want to know is why he apparently chose to be incommunicado for five years, because when he says “I never forgot you, Ok-ryun,” it seems like he just forgot to finish his sentence. At least the episode gave us one consolation prize:

RELATED POSTS

• Age of Feeling: Episode 11
• Age of Feeling: Episode 10
• Age of Feeling: Episode 9
• Age of Feeling: Episode 8
• Kim Jae-wook quits Age of Feeling on heels of writer change
• Age of Feeling makes sudden writer switch
• Age of Feeling: Episode 7
• Age of Feeling: Episode 6
• Age of Feeling: Episode 5
• Age of Feeling: Episode 4
• Age of Feeling: Episode 3
• Age of Feeling: Episode 2
• Age of Feeling: Episode 1