The world is a harsh place, but life East of Eden is hell on earth.

East of Eden is one of those dramas that I both love and hate.  I love it because its poignant, intense, intriguing and soul-wrenching (we all know I love angst), but then it lacks something.  I always feel that this drama would've been better if one more potential story arch had been developed, namely a romance between two of the characters.  Until recently, it always seemed strange to me that the drama never went down that road until I recently saw this article and the riddle was solved.  I like to think that that story arc was left hanging because the actress left the drama, even if that is not the case.  Otherwise, I would just have to chalk it up to terrible writing and  I really don't want to to do that.  

The main premise of East of Eden is a tale of love between two brothers and their quest for revenge against the main who killed their father.  It is an amazing story of what the power of love for a sibling can cause one to do.  At the centre of this story are the brothers Lee Dong Chul (Song Seung Hun) and Lee Dong Wook (Yun Jung Hoon).  We watch them grow from young children to adults overcoming their harsh living conditions, in a world plagued with poverty and corruption, to become influential powers in the society as a whole.  While achieving these goals they never forget the one thing that binds them together, their familial bond.  There is only one problem, that familial bond is not as strong as they might think.  This is what makes East of Eden a drama worth watching.

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS LEFT, RIGHT AND CENTRE!! SO AS ALWAYS PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK!! YOU CAN'T SAY I DIDN'T WARN YOU. 

At 56 episodes, the drama has enough time to delve into deep character development and give us a great background spread.  We find ourselves and some unspecified time in history in Macau.  A group of men on motorcycle are all chasing after a man in a car.  They corner him at the docks and then we see Dong Chul dismount and begin to pummel the man.  He is Shin Tae Hwan (Jo Min Ki).  There is clear enmity between the two and then Dong Chul accuses Shin Tae Hwan of killing his father.  Dong Chul is about to kill him but recalls his father's words about being a great man and stops himself.  Then Shin Tae Hwan gets the upper hand and runs off, while a crane crashes into Dong Chul, while in is remounting his motorbike.  Sparks go everywhere as the bike skids along, only to ignite the petrol canisters, which surround him.   There is a huge explosion that sends Dong Chul flying into only dramaland knows where, while sending us to Hwang-Ji, 1961.

Young Dong Chul and his Love bigger than the mountain

In this mining village, we meet Lee Gi Chul (Lee Jong Won) head of the miners and also Dong Chul's father. He is a diligent and hard-working man trying to provide the best he can for his family.  His wife, the pregnant Yang Chun Hee (Lee Mi Sook), is a force to be reckoned with.  She comes across as a miserable and nagging wife, but that is just her default setting it seems.  She and her sister own the Eden beauty salon.  Ah, nice one drama very nice one.  We also meet Jung Ja (Jun Mi Sun), a lady working at a simple restaurant in the town.  She and the Gi Chul obviously have some kind of history together, but the father is still faithful to his wife, though from the wife's constant nagging you would think they were having an affair.  Then there is five year old Dong Chul (Shin Dong Woo) who wants to follow in his father's footsteps.

Life in the mines is not an easy one, and danger lurks around every corner, but life becomes even more dangerous thanks to Shin Tae Hwan.  He is the son-in-law of the mining company's owner and not pleased about it.  He would rather be in the big city than wasting his time in a mining town, but he is working to own his father-in-law's favour.  His marriage is clearly only for convenience and he has had an affair with Yoo Mi Ae (Shin Eun Jung) who is now pregnant with his child.  He cannot have an illegitimate child born and disrupting his future, so he has her kidnapped and the baby aborted, destroying Mi Ae's life.

The baby switch

As fate would have it, Tae Hwan's wife who is also pregnant goes into labour the same day as Chun Hee.  Both women give birth at the same hospital although in extremely different conditions.  One in a private room, the other a communal area.  Further pushing the bonds of fate, it turns out that Mi Ae is a nurse at the hospital where both babies are being born.  She takes the opportunity to seek revenge on Tae Hwan.  At first, she intends to kill his son, but at the last minute she is unable to do so, as she recalls the loss of her own baby.  Still in an unstable frame of mind, she comes up with the "brilliant" idea of switching the two babies, so that Tae Hwan's son will grow up in a life of poverty and hardship, while a poor family's child will have splendor and riches.

However, Mi Ae's switching shenanigans were only one small ripple in the sea of drama intrigues.  Gi Chul, as representative of the miners, rebels against the horrendous, not to mention dangerous conditions, Tae Hwan has the miners working in.  This of course, earns the ire of Tae Hwan, and one thing leads to another with Gi Chul ending up dead in a mining "accident".  Everyone knows that Tae Hwan is responsible, but alas there is no proof.  However, Chun Hee being the tenatious woman that she is promises that her "sons" will grow to make something of themselves and seek revenge for their father.

Teen Dong Chul and his love bigger than the mountain

Jump forward ten years in the future where we meet teenage Dong Chul (Kim Bum) and young Dong Wook (Park Gun Tae).  The brothers have a great dynamic working together to provide for their family.  Dong Chul remains the same warmhearted boy that he has always been, while we see that Dong Wook is quite a hot head.  We also meet ten year old Shin Myung Hun (Won Duk Hyun).  He is a very nice boy, and desperately wants to be friends with the Lee brothers.  Alas, for the Lee brothers the son of my enemy is also my enemy and they disregard Myung Hun.  Making matters worse, Tae Hwan gets involved and forces Myung Hun to beat up Dong Chul.  I immediately feel bad for young Myung Hun because he clearly got the bad end of the switch deal, since his father is a menace to the world.

Meanwhile, Chun Hee has been working in her own way to obtaining rights for the people of the mining village, which means she is becoming a thorn in Tae Hwan's side.  Furthermore, she keeps accusing him of killing her husband, which doesn't settle well with him.  So how does he fix it?  He burns their home to the ground.  Dong Wook, being the hothead that he is, seeks revenge without thinking and attempts to burn down Tae Hwan's house.  Since Tae Hwan has power and influence, he sets off to have the criminal arrested.  It is here that the decision that will set the pace and patter of the drama occurs.  Dong Chul, being the protective older brother, sacrifices himself for Dong Wook, and pretends to be the criminal.  This sets Dong Chul on the run.

Eventually, Dong Chul is caught and imprisioned in juvenile detention where he patiently tries to bide his time not getting into further trouble.  Alas, dramaland cannot have that, as the drama would be too boring.  HEHE.  Instead, his mother becomes seriously ill requiring surgery to save her life, however, they have no money to pay for the operation.  So what does he do?  He breaks out of juvie with other deliquents and finds himself working on a shady deal.  He gets the money for his mother's operation, but has to continue on the run as an escaped criminal.

Adult Dong Chul and his love bigger than the mountain

The next time we meet Dong Chul we are in the 1980s in Macau, where he is living as an illegal immigrant. This places us in the time period where the drama begins.   He desperately wants to return to Korea and his family, but there is no way that he can do so.  Meanwhile, the rest of the family have moved east, to the bigger city, where Dong Wook is now busy studying to become a prosecutor and gets involved in the university protest against martial law and other political issues.  Here he meets Min Hye Rin (Lee Da Hae), as she is also involved in the same activities.  The two become good friends and she seems to fall for him, however, Dong Wook only has eyes for his childhood friend Kim Ji Hyun (Han Ji Hye).  Interestingly, Shin Myung Hun (Park Hae Jin) is also interested in Ji Hyun and this leads to conflict between the two men.  Unfortunately, time with Tae Hwan has had a bad effect on Myung Hun and he has become more jaded than he was as a boy.

Dong Wook's involvement in the political scene triggers Tae Hwan's interest and the two unpleasantly cross paths.  Tae Hwan has Dong Wook incarcerated for being involved in illegal protest, which would mean life in prison, or worse, for him.  Dong Chul, who has been following up on his brother through the different communication channels that he has established, learns of this situation and agrees to work for President Gook (Yoo Dong Geun), a casino king pin, who's daughter Grace/ Young Rang (Lee Yeon Hee) Dong Chul has saved.  Dong Chul's price for entering this shady business world- His brother must be saved.  

Dong Wook the prosecutor

Just as was the premise established when they were younger, Dong Chul places himself in the gutter so that his younger "brother" remains protected.  This is an action repeated time and time again throughout the drama.  Dong Chul earns his mother's "hate" for dirtying the Lee name as he slowly climbs the ranks in the mafia world, in order to ensure his brother Dong Wook is protected.  Dong Wook continually finds himself in troublesome situations due to his hot temper and quickness to act rashly, however, due to his "brother's" sacrifices, he manages to succeed in life, climbing the legitimate ladder and becoming a well-known prosecutor.  Every time Dong Chul makes a decision to leave mafia life, Dong Wook does something stupid, which could cause him to end up in jail or worse.  Then, Dong Chul sacrifices himself so that Dong Wook can be saved.

This is what makes East of Eden stand out in my mind over and over again.  It is heartbreaking and so emotionally powerful, to watch Dong Chul's love for his brother manifest itself repeatedly.  The audience is caught in an extreme conflict of mixed emotions as we watch the mother curse, insult and despise her elder son, for his "dirty life" while praising her younger son, when we all know is the reason Dong Chul lives the  way that he does.  Even more heart-wrenching is that as an audience, we know the secret that none of the characters are privy to, Dong Wook is not really a member of the Lee family, but the son of the enemy.  

Dong Chul the gangster

It seems such a cruel twist of fate, that the elder son and shining promise of the Lee family, Dong Chul, for all intents and purposes, destroys his life for the son of his enemy. Furthermore, the whole issue of blood always being so strong that comes up in K-dramas time and time again, is powerfully presented in this drama over and over.  Every time Dong Wook does a stupid action, because of his hot temper and rashness, I found myself going, "That is because he is Shin Tae Hwan's son" or "He is so much life his father."  Dong Wook's default setting was always seemingly the "my way is right one", which mirrored Tae Hwan's own actions completely.  

The whole blood ties issues in K-dramaland is an element that I understand, but sometimes find ridiculous.  I think this has to do with culture differences.  In East of Eden in particular, the notion of blood ties really seems nonsensical.  Case in point, upon learning that he is Shin Tae Hwan's son, Dong Wook takes on this attitude that his father can do no wrong.  His father attempts to kill Chun Hee, by tampering with the brakes of the car that she was in, yet when Dong Chul informs Dong Wook of this crime, Dong Wook doesn't believe him.  He heads so deep into denial land it is illogical.  At first, when Dong Wook went over to Tae Hwan's camp, I thought it was him trying to get evidence against him, but he seemed to get sucked into Tae Hwan's crap, hook, line and sinker.  It was as if he suddenly became blind to everything Tae Hwan had done in the past, simply because he was now his father.  

Dong Wook arrests Dong Chul

It killed me, when Dong Wook had Dong Chul accused and arrested for corruption because he believes Tae Hwan word rather than his "HYUNG" who sacrificed EVERYTHING for him.  Dong Chul goes to meet him, still considering him, his brother no matter what, but Dong Wook betrays him.  That betrayl is such a crushing moment that I think it left me emotionally scarred.  In some ways, I understand that Dong Wook was trying to forge a new identity for himself, and was caught in a whole lot of turmoil because he feared that his family could no longer love him because of whose son he really was,plus the added guilt of being that man's son, but the betrayal of his brother to me was wrong and highly improbably given the premise that this drama had set up.  The fact that he viewed his brother in such a light was something that my brain could not come to terms with.  

Another major issue for me in East of Eden is the mother's treatment of Dong Chul.  It was always something that irritated me to the core, even though her personality had already been established as being harsh and cruel since the time the father was alive.  She basically disowns Dong Chul for living the life of a gangster, proclaiming him no better than the man who killed his father.  Every word out of her mouth to her son is harsh and insulting.  I can never understand it.  Yes, his actions were wrong but at the end of the day he was her child.  Her same nasty attitude shone through in her treatment of Myung Hun and Jin Hyun.  In fact, her treatment of almost everyone in the drama was annoying.  She had a self-righteous attitude about her, that made her character sickening to hear.  It was kind of poetic justice that the son she treasured so much turned out to be the son of her enemy that she hated so much.  But that really didn't do much to appease me.

My final issue, as I mentioned at the start of this review, was the Min Hye Rin story arc.  She was first introduced as being interested in Dong Wook, but at that time he was too smitten with Ji Hyun to notice.  But then, I am almost certain, that they were creating a Dong Chul/ Hye Rin love story line.  It was evident, in the chance meetings they had, the helping each other out inadvertently, and just the various ways that they crossed paths.  It was typical K-drama setup for fated couple.  However, it was never really developed.  I see it as a missed opportunity, and in my book, this would've been a much better love angle for Dong Chul than his relationship with Grace.  Grace and Dong Chul never fit well to me.  Even though they ended up a couple, it still felt wrong to me.  Even if they had done the first love thing with them, and then sent them on separate paths, I could have worked with that, but I just didn't like their pairing at all.

Despite all of that, the ending of East of Eden is something that I love.  I know many people hate the fact that Dong Chul died after living such a hard life, and they think that it was terrible way to end the drama, but I think it was not only necessary, but inevitable.   Dong Chul's death was layered in many ways.  Having watched quite a few K-dramas one thing I have realised is that generally the message is conveyed that people who get involved in the wrong side of the law have to suffer in some way.  It is not like Western dramas where a mob boss, who is good at heart can redeem himself and live a happy life.  If one does something wrong even if its for good reasons, there is still a price to pay.   Ok, fine he didn't have to pay the price with his life, but there was another and more powerful reason why Dong Chul died, and that reason is Dong Wook.

Dong Chul dying after saving his brother

From the start to end of East of Eden, the drama has been about Dong Chul loving his brother and the sacrifices that this hyung makes for his donsaeng.  It is only fitting that the drama ends with Dong Chul sacrificing his life in order to save his little brother.  It speaks volumes about Dong Chul, the man, that he still considers Dong Wook his brother in spite of everything that happened.  Dong Chul lived his life for Dong Wook, and it is fitting that he died for Dong Wook.  It was inevitable given the premise that the drama created.  Furthermore, Dong Chul's dying for Dong Wook achieves two very important things:

1. It forces Dong Wook to realise that he truly does have a place in the Lee family even if isn't connected by blood;
2. Forces Dong Wook to reflect on the path he takes in life.  He now has a responsibility, as he's always had, to look after the Lee family in the absence of Dong Chul.  Those roles were established from the first moment that Dong Chul confessed to arson committed by Dong Wook, and it could never be changed.

East of Eden is a complex and twisted angst fest that is not suitable for everyone.  It begins well, develops interestingly, but somehow begins to slowly lose its way.  Despite that, its a drama that pulls out deep emotional reactions and leaves you questioning, how much would you be willing to sacrifice for family.  Also, regardless of how much the drama lost its way, one element that stands out for me is the symbolic hand gesture to show "love bigger than the mountain".  It was a hand signal passed on to Dong Chul from his father, then from Dong Chul to Dong Wook, and eventually to Myung Hun, and then from Myung Hun to his son.  Every time I saw the hand signal, tears came to my eyes, because I knew the importance of what it meant.  It was a symbol of love, trust and a sign that I will always be there for you no matter what. That's why even though it has many flaws East of Eden gets 3.5 stars on the Bel Scale.

According to Bel: Brotherly love is an inspiration to us all.