Clenched Hands

I just finished watching “The King’s Affection”. It’s an historical drama set during the Joseon dynasty, a story about the cultural taboo of having twins. When the crown princess gives birth to twins, an order is sent to kill the female baby. She is rescued and sent to be raised by another family. Many years later she returns to the palace as a maid and is noticed by the crown prince. She is the mirror image of him, and he begs her to change places so he can visit a disgraced teacher. During that visit, he/she is murdered, and the hidden crown princess has to take his place as the prince. And that’s the easy part!

The most interesting aspect of this Kdrama is the lead actress, Park Eun-bin. She is utterly believable as the crown prince from her sword fighting to her low, modulated voice. Yes, she‘s tiny, but she packs a wallop. For you “Extraordinary Attorney Woo” fans, Park Eun-bin played the part of Woo Young Woo, and is the “prince“ in "The King"s Affection", and she’s amazing.

But I digress. This post was supposed to be about clenched hands. If you Google “clenched hands in Kdramas” the explanation is that fists are supposed to show the audience the actor has had it but can’t show his anger in public. Hence The Clenched Fist. The funny thing is these Kdramas are so filled with tension and angst, the viewer would have to be on another planet not to notice how the actor feels! “The King’s Affection” is fraught with clenched hands. I finally unclenched my own hands when I finished it.

My latest Kdrama viewed is "It's OK To Not Be OK", and it's upped my clenched fist score even more. In fact, I'm going to start using a Scoville type scale to measure the scope and intensity of clenched fists. (For the uninitiated, the Scoville scale measures the spiciness of chili peppers.) And what am I calling it, you may ask? Yep, The Clenched Fist Score 1-100. It's not too original, but, hey, it's all I've got today. I'm giving "The King's Affection a 25, and "It's Okay Not to be Okay" a 30 on my newly coined The Clenched Fist 1-100. Now you know I'm a wimp when it comes to tension. At least I don't read the last page of a book before I start a new one the way one of my friends does. Just saying... ~Pat