Gamsahabnida, Mr. Sunshine

I just finished watching Mr. Sunshine. I have not cried like I did over a drama for a long long time. There are so many moments in the drama that broke my heart and many moments too when I laughed. What stands out for me are all those gamsahabnida and gomapseumnida moments, the thank you moments, the take care moments, the be strong moments, the may you live moments.

 

Why do I choose these thank you moments among the many powerful themes of Mr. Sunshine? A dear friend pointed out to me how thank you’s are so much a part of my life.  I was never conscious of this until now. I say thank you for every little gift, big and small, a surprise, a hello, a visit, a call. Gratitude is a mark of my life. Gratitude has given me lasting friendships. 

 

The first moment in Mr. Sunshine that comes to me is when Kim Hui Seong meets Eugene Choi and thanks him for taking time to visit his parents. “Root for him,” says Eugene to Kim Hui Seong’s parents.  Then there is the moment of the dying Kudo Hina piggybacking on Gu Dong Mae and telling him, “Tell him I said, ‘Welcome back.’ He owes me a handshake.” Flashback to the day she first met him. She offers him a handshake but Eugene hands her his handkerchief instead, seeing that her hand was bleeding.  (I think I will cry again!). Then there is the moment when Ae-sin thanks Hui Seong for saving her family, followed by "Take care," and meant it so deeply; and when Ae-sin meets Dong Mae to pay her debt and thanks him from the bottom of her heart for delivering his grandfather’s unsent letters. And when Dong Mae saves Ae-sin from the Musin society in Japan, she said to him, “Even you…even you came all the way here to my rescue. Thank you.”

There are all those times when Ae-sin thanks Eugene Choi for those moments of being there for her always. There was that heartbreaking moment when Aesin’s loyal servants, Haengrang and Madam Haman, as a way of saying their final gamsahabnida, tried to reach for each other’s hand as they lay dying on the street after taking bullets from the Japanese army. Shortly after, Ae-sin arrives at the scene. Seeing the bloodied Madam Haman she cuddles her and breaks into sobs. That was enough to show her love and gratitude to this woman who has been a mother to her. The people of Joseon watch this moment with sympathy and surprise, as this masked member of the Righteous Army turns out to be their beloved Lady Aesin. When they see the Japanese Army coming back, they cover Aesin and Haman with their clothes and create a human barricade to protect them, their way of saying gamsahabnida for Aesin’s acts of kindness and charity toward them in the past. 

There is the loyal young soldier saluting Eugene’s grave to say gamsahabnida.  There are those moments when both Ae-sin and Kudo Hina say thank you to each other; moments when Eugene thanked the interpreter, the young boy who served him, the sister. People bound by a common mission, by the sorrows they carry and by the love that is deeply embedded in their hearts. Gamsahabnida, gamsahabnidato all – to Gunner Jang, for such deep love for his wife, for his fierce loyalty to Aesin and Joseon, for his courage and determination; to the potter Hwang Eun San who showed kindness to Eugene Choi while he was running from slave hunters, for his leadership and audacity and even for those carefree moments of drinking beer with Eugene. 

These gamsahabnidas, these thank you’s are not just mere spontaneous moments.  Every gamsahabnida carries with it a story – a story of the persons who speak it – their joys and sorrows, their triumphs and failures, their wounds and healing, their hopes and dreams.  These thank you’s live on in the persons who receive them. In Mr. Sunshine, they live on in all those people who survived because someone had made a sacrifice and made sure they are protected and prevented from suffering what they themselves endured. 

       photo from dramabeans.com

Gamsahabnida to all these characters, human beings we can recognize in us and around us, for showing me what it means to transcend all the sorrows and the pain, to not wallow in my wounds and to find a purpose to live for. Thank you for teaching me the meaning of self-giving and for protecting Ae-Sin with all your might so she can continue to fight and tell the story for the next generations. Wear your wedding ring forever, Ae-sin! Wear it as your badge of courage in loving Eugene Choi and Jeoson! 

 

And lastly, gamsahabnida, my dear Eugene Choi, for the largeness of your heart, as vast as the sky. Go with the wind, brave one!   

Author: Mang-tae