Sari History

I am doing a series of posts on sari fashions 1870s onwards. Its taking a long time but you can follow the link for updates.

Secret Love Affair - Milhwe - 밀회

Knight in Silent Armour

Secret Love Affair is by no means a shabby movie. Even though its male protagonist does save our heroine, albeit not in the manner of shabby movies where they "completely flip out" to save the damsel in distress.  Rather it is an elegant, unhurried 16 episode long morality tale at the heart of which is a May-December romance. And its heroine is less damsel in distress than a damsel in unconscious wait for redemption. You maybe forgiven for the momentary thought of it being a mash up of The Piano Teacher and I am Love, with perhaps just a hint of The Beat That My Heart Skipped.  But it truly is it's own luminous thing shot through with both the romantic, poetic feeling and the absolute morality of many Korean works.  And in this it is possibly quite different from its source material.

Briefly the 16 episodes follow 40 something Oh Hye-won (Kim Hee-ae), calm and collected professional or an "elegant slave" to the filthy rich, whichever way you like it. Hye-won is a keeper of secrets that allow her a hold over her unscrupulous and opportunistic super rich employers but on more than one occasion the power imbalance is also clear.  Yet she is good at her job of leaving no trail of their dirty dealings (I shall never view music schools and arts foundations the same way again) and perhaps even relishes some of the power games as they unfold in offices and over mahjong sessions. And the job affords a fabulous lifestyle, albeit with a transparently ambitious and easily manipulated husband. That is until she meets Lee Sun-jae (Yoo Ah-in), genius self-taught pianist whose 20 year old self is incorruptible and not for sale. And as it happens, he falls deep in love, equally incorruptible, on a first glimpse of Hye-won. 

Post piano orgasm

Post piano cold shower

That romance unfolds over music. Hye-won herself played the piano as a young woman till an injury stopped a professional career. Music represents their inner selves, more than one character mentions that "Sun-jae plays like Hye-won" i.e. with a certain abandon and passion that cannot be taught. Like with Lucy Honeychurch, the implication is that if Hye-won lived as she played music, it would be exciting for everyone concerned. Just as much as with Sun-jae's playing which is also linked with the life he leads.  The scenes where Hye-won and Sun-jae play together are intentionally orgasmic in nature (a bit heavy handedly underlined by the script). Their attachment is a recognition at a deeper level of being indubitably connected, a fact recognised by Sun-jae instantly. It takes Hye-won longer to recognise this but once she does, she doesn't really turn back. In this, it's treatment of the romance is mature and made believable by the actors. Given so much turns on the two leads, they are excellent.

The world thinks about money more often than sex

 

But the romance is merely a catalyst to the larger questions posed by the drama.  Though a little squandered towards the latter episodes, an ensemble cast on good form provides the underpinning to these questions.  Hye-won's workplace is an arena where female ambitions are constantly played out. From ruthlessly ambitious wives to lonely yet vicious daughters whose social position is assured to Hye-won steely in her resolve to consolidate her social position to secretaries gauche in their desire for professional advancement, the drama differs from everything I have seen in showing female protagonists who are less empowered by careers and more compromised and corrupted by the pursuit of power and money.  The men fare no better, the family space itself is not sacrosanct.  Hye-won's husband is greedy and weak and loose cannon. On Sun-jae's side, his friends have both an easy morality and a morality that is mixed with a street toughness. The plot is largely driven by Hye-won's slow move towards understanding the hollowness of her existence and attempting to remove herself from it. And it is very slow.  Hye-won is complex - and it's a pleasure to watch an actress who can go from self-preservatory cunning to softness and doubt within a few scenes - she is deeply rooted in a corrupt world but also aware that the love and moral force that is Sun-jae is going to willy nilly propel her out of it.  Sun-jae is seemingly far simpler though the actor playing him pulls off the difficult task of conveying the moral steadfastness and purity of his person so that we too can see Hye-won seeing herself in the mirror that Sun-jae provides. And his character grows through the series without losing his essential self.

No plastic surgery then

The drama also touches on the lives we should live and what really matters.  There is a lot of reference to music biographies and artists. Music in fact as they say is a character in the movie. In the absence of musical knowledge, the finer points of this, the meaning behind the pieces is a little lost on the lay viewer. Nevertheless the pieces are placed in the episodes so that each piece conveys its meaning in the context of the episode.

And the answer was get thee to jail

Because Korean dramas often tend to be moral and idealistic in tone, throughout the episodes it is clear that the conclusion is unlikely to be open ended.  As restrained and realistic as it is, the drama requires Hye-won's purification and repentance. True as the drama is to the conventions of its culture, the end episode leaves the viewer in two minds. Because there is a dark side to Hye-won. In the absence of Sun-jae, she would have continued as before. Her friends for example (a lovely, sweet counterpoise to the sterility of Hye-won's life), tread the fine balance of being part of the system and yet keeping their values. Which is an alternative Hye-won has never chosen. In fact so unerring is her knowledge of the world she operates in that in the drama's concluding episodes, it is she who has the power to checkmate before overturning the chess board.   Sun-jae himself is troubled by this, it isn't even clear to him how willing she is to walk away from this.  And he himself is utterly moral to the core, it is all or nothing. Despite the build up to her moment of facing the truth about herself and the redemptive power of Sun-jae's love (in early sequences Sun-jae cleans the floor and stairs of his house, it is evoked later in the court scene almost like a broom and mop has been applied to Hye-won's soul), there is a small part of you that remains unconvinced. Perhaps the shortened run (it seemed to have an original 20 episode run) did not allow a complete exploration. There is in fact a slightly rushed quality to the later episodes.

Sun-jae applies his charm

 

For all that it is a satisfying conclusion holding both the promise of Sun-jae when Hye-won leaves prison and much more importantly the reclamation of  her true self.  Because redemption dramas tend to be male centric - think rise, fall, soul searching, atonement - all of which require a full engagement with the world - Secret Love Affair is quite unusual and perhaps even bold in its subject matter.

Shoe Sex

While Korean movies tend to be explicit in their depiction of sex, the dramas are often restrained. There are a few kisses and barely any skin in the scenes between Hye-won and Sun-jae in the drama. It doesn't in any way reduce the erotic charge between the leads and works to the drama's advantage in being with the overall mood of the piece.  Interestingly almost all the intimate scenes occur in Sun-jae's house or public spaces but rarely at Hye-won's home.  The idea of home recurs throughout the drama. Hye-won's house is a trophy home with not a note of colour.  Sun-jae's is shabby and lived in, crowded with things important to him. The idea of the two being home to each other is brought out now and then, Sun-jae's number is saved as "Home" on Hye-won's phone and in the drama's final moments Sun-jae indicates that where Hye-won is is home to him.

There are so many layers and details to the drama that it almost demands a re-watch.   There are a few missteps. There is self taught Sun-jae (go youtube!) but you can go along with that conceit. The death of Sun-jae's mother is a bit of a drama cliche.   Throughout Hye-won encounters situations that cause her to question her own position, one is with a lady in a restaurant who I think was a leftist in her youth and cannot be bought by money.  It somehow rings false.  There is a Billy Joel song called what else but "Piano Man" amidst all the exquisite music, though to be fair it is intended to evoke a specific time in Hye-won's youth.  And so on. Still those are minor quibbles in a work that asks you to be immersed in its thoughts and pleasures. And you are more than willing to be so immersed. 

__*__

Not that it means anything but I was a little surprised by the classical music world depicted in this drama.  Western classical music as high culture in the East is a little surprising to Indians I suppose given that a similar work in India would be rooted in our own musical traditions.

Also Korean dramas seem to have a lot of female scriptwriters who seem to be quite well known. Far as I know it is true of Secret Love Affair too. 

Photographs - 2

I think this photograph was taken sometime in 2001 at the Botanical Gardens in Kolkata.  It was a happy day.  And it presaged a period of unconditional love, unconditional hate and unconditional acceptance of the way things were.  My exterior is calm, beneath I am on an emotional seesaw but right at my core I am again calm. But never have I been flung on and off that seesaw more violently than during my relationship with P and never has my inner self returned so rapidly to an astonishing tranquillity a few years later.

For a long time, these extreme emotions embarrassed me. Because extreme emotions are undignified.  Being utterly torn, wearing your heart on your sleeve, these make for blowsy sentiments. Bottled up, stoic silent hurt is much more attractive, it can even seem more truthful.. But in all that shakeness as you make your way back to life, you find that you don't regret falling into events without a thought, without anything but some true feeling in your heart.  And when one's heart is engaged, something true always lies at the centre. Not everyone feels this way. It can be difficult to maintain relationships with exes sometimes, especially if your history together is painful or burdensome. It can be hard to get right the balance of  being true to your past feelings and at ease with your present. For some reason this has always been easy with P. 

And of course this is an attractive photograph.  Perfect for a novella based on the events of 2001:)

버스커 버스커 (Busker Busker)

K-pop is quite popular in Singapore. Not a fan. Or of K-indie music for that matter.

But I just can't stop listening to Busker Busker. Like anything at all from their albums. Even if it has resulted in a few Bas kar Bas kar jokes:)

Photographs - 1

Because we moved around a fair bit, home for us was just a few possessions.  Books, clothes, curios, photo albums, that kind of ephemeral thing.  About the only things of permanence was my mother's kitchen and the large wooden boxes painted Army green and stamped with my father's name and address that we used for packing.  These doubled as furniture so they moved with us everywhere.  As a result, I am far more careful with the small things that make up my life than say furniture or white goods that I see as entirely expendable.

My photo albums haven't travelled with me for a long time. They are at my father's place in Mumbai and every time I am home I browse through them and digitise them if required.  Of late, more than a few are falling apart which makes me melancholic but also reminds me that the value of photographs goes this far and no further.  Looking at them gives me pleasure, not just for the nostalgia of The Way We Were but because each time there is a difference in the way I perceive them.

The exception to photographs I keep is those of people I have gone out with.  When I was young, the intensity of a relationship was such that in the aftermath a small bonfire of letters and photographs was cathartic.  It is not that one feels less intensely as one grows older, it is merely that photographs of happy coupledom are merely that, photographs. Plus your taste for the dramatic decreases with age :).  So I was a little surprised to find a small stash of photographs dating back to the early 90s of my then boyfriend (a term I dislike but let's stay with it) that had remained behind. Partly I think because this was a time when I was learning to use a camera and I kept the whole lot of my first attempts.  R had an excellent camera, in retrospect it was more than excellent given that my parents couldn't afford even an instant camera and they were not alone in this. To his credit - and he was utterly sweet like that - not only did he teach me the basics but he let me play around with it quite a bit. A number of IIT photographs I have are taken on his camera. I guess I kept these pics for the way they are composed with identical backgrounds but are not really "couple" photographs. In a sense they evoke the mood of the time rather than existing merely as a testament of a romantic relationship. Almost I think like a Frankie magazine project.

This also reminds me that we had possibly the best kept student rooms in the history of student life:)

Newcastle

I had to return to Australia for awhile, principally to meet family in Newcastle.

I hadn't spent much time in Newcastle while I lived in Australia.  It turned out to be a pretty town with spectacular beaches and a relaxed lifestyle.  And it was good to have some downtime with family. Though my life at the moment is a LOT of downtime!

What was most surprising was the mild culture shock in returning to Australia given that I lived there for a decade and it is not long since I moved.  Partly this was because Newcastle is a very white town unlike Sydney which probably has the most diverse population of all Australian cities. Partly because it has been easy to slip back into Asian life, not that I anticipated that it would be difficult given how frequent my trips to India were in the decade I was in Australia.  At any event I felt like I was navigating a familiar and yet strange landscape . Again I had that old feeling best captured by DH Lawrence. A landscape of mystery and beauty yet somehow colourless lives. Having lived in Australia I know this to be not true, rather life is good and bad in equal measures much like elsewhere.  Yet this is the overwhelming impression left by over large houses, quiet streets devoid of people and the general lack of colour and movement in public spaces.

Additionally I had forgotten how large houses are in Australia. Previously I hadn't given it much thought but suddenly it seemed pointless, every house has a good deal of unused space, each room requires furniture and so on.  This in turn creates the feeling of emptiness, already present in a vast country. Compounding this is the poor public transport away from Sydney.

Still autumn is probably one of the best times to visit Australia. The weather is crisp and cool, the Australian light at its best and everywhere along the coast there is dense grey green vegetation broken by blue seas.

My nieces have grown. The elder one is a lot quieter though her zany self breaks through now and then. She is in school and her studies, her peers and their interests occupy most of her time. The younger one, still at home, is a scamp and not surprisingly a lot of attention is focussed on her.

The nieces are about 1000% into Frozen.  I have to confess that I dislike Disney products and Frozen is no exception.  I tend to prefer Anglo-French whimsy and gentleness (like Charlie and Lola) or original fairy tales that are dark and complex, unlike their sanitised Disney versions. Frozen is touted as a female empowerment story but in reality it is a trite tale that is so common to modern Western feminism (I can do without a man, sisters forever!) laced with Disney pop ballads that are simply not my kind of music.  Still it was lovely to listen to my nieces singing, one in her high, clear voice the other with her childish lisp.

Given Newcastle, my niece is probably the only child of Indian heritage in her school.  She is a third gen Australian and yet you can see that there are still issues she has to negotiate.  On the one hand she is (rightfully) immersed in the culture of the country. But this cocktail of Disney stories (and Australian Disney products are overwhelmingly white, its rare to spot a Mulan, Pocahontas or Tiana), fairies, gothic Mattel and the like have little correlation with how she looks. It is one thing to consume it as foreign product as one may in India, another to negotiate it as part of the culture. At the same time, her grandparents tales from Indian mythology are alien to her in some ways. The niece is a well adjusted child but also an intelligent one and you can see that her schooling experience i.e. her position in the larger society and culture at home raises some questions.

We also went shopping for the kids. Everything, and I mean everything, is gender segregated, from clothes to toys to kiddie TV shows. The entire girl section is pink, the entire boy section blue and camouflage print.  In some ways we have to feel grateful that there is no kid consumer base being tapped into in India - for the large part children watch and read and play with the same things. Having said that, the nieces do have the beach, the playground, even their own little garden all of which they enjoy and it is fun for the adults too.

Going back meant looking at everything with a fresh pair of eyes.  I don't know what the future holds but it looks like it will be awhile before I contemplate a return to Sydney. And at the moment being here, dividing time between Singapore and India, feels right.

Singapore Shrines

Some old buildings are preserved in Singapore, you see a few of these when you are walking around Tiong Bahru, Joo Chiat, Tanjong Pagar and Little India, where these pictures were taken. On many of these buildings you often find a small metal shrine of red and gold either mounted on a column or on the ground.  Its a pretty simple affair, largely joss sticks and oranges. Sometimes what looks like a yellow sweetmeat. Though pretty much identical in a way, each is also quite different.  Some are well tended, some aren't cared for at all. And in Little India, sometimes a little idol of an Indian god is added.  

I couldn't get much information about them except of course that they seem to be shrines for houses and shops, for perhaps the usual purposes like bringing good luck or warding off the evil eye.  One old gentleman was amused by my interest in his shrine but didn't speak enough English, instead he pointed heavenwards and made a prayer sign so I take it that they are some kind of domestic gods.  It's possible that these are also present outside flats but of course they are not part of street life in the manner of older structures. 

In fact now and then walking around you see temporary structures for religious purposes. The other day there was a structure with a lot of red paper objects in it, from The Billion Shop I gather its some kind of old funeral ritual.  And it's not uncommon to stumble upon ceremonies that include singing and prayer. 

The pleasures of flaneuring:)