BimiluiSoop

It isn't. The Korean locals who aligned with the Japanese during colonial rule are deeply despised. It recently came out that a Korean actress's grandfather was deeply aligned with Japanese colonial rule and the family made their wealth from it, the actress is as good as cancelled, her new drama which should have been released by now is postponed and her career could very well be over. She apologized and said she would deeply study Korean history but the general public does not even want to see her face anymore. This is the level of anger the Korean public still feels towards the colonial past. There have been a few celebrities who were foolish enough to post pictures of them vacationing in Japan on Korea's independence day, that drew intense wrath and fury from the general public too. So no, there is very harsh judgement and an extreme moral clarity when it comes to Japanese colonial rule in Korea.

So-ran was going to die after the successful assassination and Philip had accepted this fact, albeit unwillingly. So to me, it isn't even guesswork. We did already see them make those choices, for So-ran to give up her life and for Philip to carry on with the cause, as an international journalist.

The actress did phenomenal award-worthy acting in her previous drama too: Dear X. She played a pyscho character so well that the actress herself was traumatized by that role.

Exactly. He is a morally grey character who is willing to prioritize the greater cause over one individual. It is a sign of his level of commitment to the independence movement that he is not willing to let someone who has critical knowledge about the resistance and who can identify multiple resistance members just walkaway.

I insist on it

FL does not have any way of achieving this definition of freedom, which is exactly why the FL has willingly agreed to become an asset for the resistance. The FL is living under a cruel colonial occupier, none of the SK citizens have any freedom of movement or any ability to leave the country. Not to mention, America was not accepting any immigrants at that point of time in history. America had not even given equal civil rights to all its citizens at that point (different laws for black people). America is just a symbol for the FL's desire for wanting to escape her situation. The only way for her or any of the occupied people to truly escape and achieve freedom is for the occupation to end. I believe this is exactly what the story is trying to show by having a FL who will evolve into a key resistance member and change her goals.

The resistance has made the FL their asset, not their chief spy or commander or anything. We shouldn't be expecting that a serious organized resistance would not be compartmentalizing its assets and its information. They can't blindly start trusting every recruit from the get-go. They have no choice but to act with the utmost paranoia. This is the nature of it. It isn't meant to be some happy-go-lucky organization, it is a place where everyone who has joined is taking the highest possible risks that they can take. The person who was the resistance's spy on the inside was injured, they immediately needed someone else and FL was the best fit they could find. The FL did ruin their assassination plot. These sequence of evens led the FL to become their asset, it was done out of sheer desperation and necessity. The FL was in a really difficult spot too, she was essentially living a life of slavery and indenture. The resistance is a way out for her and to find meaning with her life.

Well said!

Ga Gyeong can identify multiple members of the resistance. They can't just let her walk away at this point. The resistance's actions are not born out of selfishness, but because their mission is far greater and more important than one individual's life. The entire resistance movement is willing to lay their lives for the cause and they are all taking immense risks. Ga Gyeong did willingly agree to become their spy. The resistance has not gotten rid of any innocent people yet. They are handling their asset, who willingly became their asset. You are conflating how resistance manages its own members and assets with the entire colonized SK population shown in the drama, these 2 things are not the same. Ga Gyeong has made her choice to work for them, her choice to not want to become involved is not valid anymore, she is already involved. The writers are showing a nuanced story of Ga Gyeong's transition into the resistance and becoming a key member, I would expect. Her reaction and having cold feet to the events of episode 5 makes perfect sense. The resistance's response in part to protect its members and prioritize the independence movement also makes perfect sense.

"You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom", Malcolm X

Hahaha! XD

Ga Gyeong can identify multiple members of the resistance. They can't just let her walk away at this point. They shouldn't have lied to her about America of course. But it was not done out of selfishness, but because their mission is far greater and more important than one individual's life. The entire resistance movement is willing to lay their lives for the cause and they are all taking immense risks. Ga Gyeong did willingly agree to become their spy. It would be naive of them to start trusting her blindly so quickly. They need to compartmentalize their information and assets. I wouldn't take them seriously as a resistance organization if they didn't show this level of paranoia. The story would be too convenient if the resistance didn't fall into traps and didn't suffer any major losses. They have now learnt the important lesson that the FL's intel can be trusted.

The resistance has a doctor on the inside. We saw him in last week's episodes, the one who treated the FL, his hospital is a resistance meeting spot. That doctor would have treated the injured privately. What sort of organized resistance would walk into a hospital to get treated for gunshot wounds. Secondly, the wounded resistance members who survived did not have any fatal injuries, no critical organs damaged. The resistance lost multiple members, I thought the situation was portrayed very realistically.

The FL is going to be completely smitten when she finds out that the ML taught her favorite human to read. It might also become a window for the ML to discover FL's tragic past. IMHO, this subplot will pay off big time.

Indeed, this drama is very traumatizing to watch for a lot of people, for many reasons. For example, people from countries which were under European colonial occupation would find this a very emotional watch.

I have to stop multiple times while watching every episode because it takes my breath away that the writers and average viewer does not get confused about how and why resistance is born and needed as a response to a cruel and evil occupation in historical fiction like this drama or in popular fiction like Star Wars. Yet, these same people stay silent watching a livestreamed genocide of the Palestinian people for 3 years straight on top of 75+ years of the occupation of Palestine. These same countries like South Korea which struggled with the most awful colonial occupation less than a century ago now have very strong bilateral trade ties with the genocidal state of Israel.

Yes. This is literally from Samsung's own website (see all the links at the bottom):
"Samsung Research & Innovation Israel (SRIL) was established in 1997 with the role of developing advanced technologies, and sensing for innovative technologies in the Israeli ecosystem.

In addition to the local research activities, SRIL is exploring the values of Israeli high-tech companies and academic researchers, and exposing the potential benefits of their solutions for Samsung Electronics products.

In order to discover new emerging technologies, as well as evaluate Israeli companies and solutions fit to Samsung Electronics, SRIL is running an open innovation team to allow Samsung Electronics to evaluate the possible integration of those technologies into their products. SRIL is also involved in investments in Israeli companies through the Samsung's investment vehicles."

On top of SRIL directly supporting technological development in the blue & white state, a deeply intrusive application called AppCloud is pre-installed on Samsung’s A and M series smartphones. AppCloud, developed by the controversial Israeli-founded company ironSource (now owned by the American company Unity), is embedded into devices. Without users’ knowledge or consent, this bloatware collects sensitive personal data, cannot be removed without compromising device security, and offers no clear information about its privacy practices. Despite the serious privacy and security risks, Samsung has offered no transparency on how AppCloud functions, what data it collects, or why users cannot opt out.

Sources:
https://masjidalaqsa.com/boycott/samsung-israel-bds
https://research.samsung.com/sril
https://smex.org/open-letter-to-samsung-end-forced-israeli-app-installations-in-the-wana-region/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2025/11/18/has-samsung-installed-unremovable-israeli-spyware-on-your-phone/

"No nation in the world has the right to occupy another country by force and oppress its people."

It's funny how much clarity there is about a rightful resistance to an illegal occupation, when it comes to historical colonizers. Meanwhile, this same country of South Korea, many South Korean corporations like Samsung and hordes of right-wing South Korean citizens today support the colonial occupying state of Israel and categorize indigenous resistance as terrorism.

Nice! I really like that one <3

Have you seen Beautiful Love, Wonderful Life? It was a weekend drama from a few years ago and the first drama of this ML that I saw. With 100 episodes, you will have no shortage of episodes!

Maybe it is a mix of both