Alice in Secret Garden

Alice in Wonderland Syndrome

 

Every girl must have wanted the adventures that Alice had.
Every girl must have wondered where is their wonderland.

But do you know that “Alice in Wonderland” is a disoriented neurological condition that affects human perception.
The syndrome involves distortions in body images and shapes.
Either objects appear much larger (macropsia) or smaller (micropsia) like dwarf or giant in a fairy tale.

Thus Joo Won did not lied, Alice in Wonderland is a mental illness...
Except he does not see anything growing nor shrinking.
He only see her..

And I wonder, do I have that illness too?
Can I also live in my own fairytale...

如果我没有遇到另外一个人的话，
我可能会考虑跟你交往喔。
因为我不想再爱上一个幻想中的人了，
你知道到啊，有时候你遇到一个人你爱上他，
然后你就会开始幻想，
后来有一天你会发现，这一切都是你的幻想。
你就会觉得现实好残酷喔。
不过可以认识你，我还是觉得好幸福哦。
—林晓洁 《胜女的代价》

Little Mermaid in Secret Garden

I always believed watching drama needs affinity sometimes especially those that I am willing to sit down and blog.

The first time I heard of Secret Garden (SG), it was showing on TV and my mum wanted me to find some previous episodes that she missed. I knew it was an old drama then but I didn't have the urgency to watch it. Maybe because I didn't know Hyun Bin was in it haha. Then someone left a comment in my blog on My Lovely Samsoon. Saying how good Hyun Bin was in SG. And I thought, oh that's the one I caught bits and pieces with my mum a couple of months back. (Sidenote: I finally flipped through Remembrance of Things Past but couldn't went past the first chapter because I'm not a fan of that style of writing.)

Role reversal isn't a new theme to me anymore. I have seen movies like Just Follow Law etc. So I was not overly enthusiastic though it would be interesting to see Hyun Bin's feminine side. But all that changed when Ji Won says Ra Im

will be the little mermaid who will be stuck between two worlds, then disappear, like bubbles.

Maybe it was because embedded in this k-drama is my favourite fairy tale - Little Mermaid which has been modernised to sound like a sad love story about a mistress who loves her prince but has to disappear into thin air when the affair is over. After all in most secret affairs, the prince does not love the mistress back.

Let's say that I throw everything away and choose you.
Get a house to live in and a bed.
We'll just sleep together and then wake up.
But..
How long do you think the happiness would last?

I lost everything and the two lived happily ever after?
You have no thoughts of becoming the little mermaid.
That's why I'm going to be the little mermaid.
I said I will be your little mermaid.
I'll be right next to you as if I am not there and disappear like foam.
So right now, I am the one shamelessly hanging onto you.

But this is not the typical affair we know. And thus Ji Won decided, if Ra Im does not want to be the mermaid, then he will be the merman. And he starts singing that song, which became my mood song of the week. 

One man loves you-
That man loves you with all his heart.
Everyday like a shadow, he follows you around
When that man smiles, he is crying on the inside
How much longer
Do I have to just look at you alone?
This stupid love-
This beggar-like love,
If I keep trying will it make you fall in love with me?

-That Man sung by Hyun Bin from Secret Garden OST

And so begin the love story of the little mermaid who embarked on a path of a hidden lover that will never be accepted by his elders.
She has no one to turn to.
She cannot tell anybody.
She cannot confide.
She cannot vent.
And she fervently wishes she will not end up like the mermaid,

“looking at the prince with sad eyes and threw herself into the sea. At the end, the little mermaid turned into bubble and disappeared”

Afterall,

where in the world is there a woman who would foster a tender, happy love only to disappear like sea foam? No woman starts a love with a designated end.

So with a heavy heart and a troubled mind, the little mermaid always frown in her sleep.
When asked it's because the prince is in her dreams.
Which is sad because even in the dreams, they are not happy.
Just like in the real life.
Nonetheless,
she wants him to visit her dreams daily.

The prince not only indulges in this simple wish of hers. He even re-wrote a new ending for her.

“The Little Mermaid was about to disappear, and at that moment, the prince realized the truth and said to the princess, ‘Is this the best you can do? Are you sure?’ and broke off the engagement.

He ran to the Little Mermaid, but she’d noticed the water bubbles and developed an air-bubble washing machine and became a chaebol.

Meanwhile, the prince went broke with a bad investment and became the Little Mermaid’s Secretary Kim, and they lived a long, long, really looooong time.”

In the not so happy but fully realistic ending, the little mermaid did manage to register her marriage with her prince but will never be able to hold a wedding because of the family's disapproval. And the prince continues to manage the corporation but was stripped of his royalty. Thus

“We still don’t have a single wedding photo.
But we live every day, loving and being loved, living a magical life.
Maybe being in love is a lot like swapping souls.
May your soul have flowers that bloom, a cool breeze, a shining sun, and…
once in a while, a magical rain that falls”