THERE is a grown-up love story unfolding on "Lost," but it's often overshadowed by flashier hook-ups. Sure, Kate and Sawyer are hot. But for the teary-eyed pleasure of watching two characters in love falling apart and coming together again, it's hard to beat the South Korean husband-and-wife castaways, Sun and Jin Kwoon.
In the episodes "... in Translation" from last season and "... and Found" from the current season, the disintegration of their marriage is chronicled in flashback and real time, with all the dialogue rendered in Korean with English subtitles. Viewers accustomed to hearing only English in American prime time have been drawn more intimately into Sun and Jin's lives by focusing more intently on the faces of the actors Daniel Dae Kim (Jin) and Yunjin Kim (Sun), and on the tone of their voices. And Sun and Jin's delicate nonverbal interplay — her lovely, sad, wrinkle-nosed smile, his flashing, dark eyes — delivers an emotional wallop akin to watching silent-movie lovers in close-up.
Sun and Jin are alluring in part because their relationship is so unusual for network television, where younger, whiter, unmarried people seem to have all the romantic fun. But Sun and Jin also stand out on "Lost" because their storyline, despite the requisite flashbacks, seems to be pushing forward. Other castaways are slaves to the past. The island has freed Sun and Jin, though, to deal with their marital problems in a way they could not back in South Korea. It is their Eden.
In the first few episodes of the series, Sun and Jin sequester themselves behind a language and cultural barrier. Sun seems cowed; Jin seems hot-tempered and suspicious. But in subsequent episodes, their back story emerges to show that Sun is not meek and subservient and Jin is not sinister. She is a sophisticated, educated woman who married Jin, a poor fisherman's son, for love. And he adores her — "She is my dream," he told Sun's powerful father when asking for her hand.
On the island, their relationship — renewed after almost coming to an end at the Sydney airport — shatters. Sun reveals that she has secretly learned to speak English and Jin feels betrayed. In the big metaphorical picture, Sun and Jin are not lost souls like so many of the castaways, but, rather, lost soulmates. However, as Locke, the most mystical of the castaways, says, the island takes and gives. In their estrangement, Sun regains her confidence by making friends with the other survivors, while Jin tries to make amends with the castaway Michael (whom he had originally suspected of coveting Sun) by helping him build a raft.
"I am going to save you," a remorseful Jin finally tells Sun, before leaving on the raft. Their separate paths lead them back to each other after the "raft-aways" fail and must return. In the Jan. 25 episode, "The Hunting Party," the reunited couple's relationship enters new territory, with Sun asserting herself and Jin accepting her as his partner, not merely his responsibility.
An episode from earlier this season, "... and Found," shows the moment their relationship began. In this flashback, Sun and Jin have not yet met. Sun is reluctantly ensnared in an arranged courtship. Jin is too busy with his new job as a doorman at a Seoul hotel to go wife-hunting; he laughs when his roommate tells him that, according to Jin's chart in the "destiny book," his true love will look "orange." Almost simultaneously, Sun's potential husband dumps her and Jin quits his job rather than obey an order to deny entrance to villagers like himself. Jin goes for a pensive stroll, turns his head to look at a pretty woman in an orange dress and accidentally bumps into Sun. Their eyes lock. They smile. The destiny book was right.
Source :
Yunjin Kim
Accueil 
