Brief Summary
![Picture](/uploads/2/9/0/5/2905287/8597133.png)
by Nicolas Lee
Sandglass is a drama that is about the life story of its main character, Park Tae-Soo. The story begins with his first encounters with who will become his lifelong friend, Kang Woo-Suk. As they go through high school, Tae-soo eventually gets recruited to join a gang at the protest of Woo-Suk. Woo-suk has dreams of becoming a prosecutor and Tae-soo says not to worry for him and just focus on his dreams.
As they grow, Woo-suk meets a woman in college, Yoon Hye-Rin. She is very active in the student demonstrations against the government and Woo-Suk does start to fall for her. However, she can’t like him since he wants to help the government by being a lawyer. Eventually, through Woo-Suk, Tae-soo meets Hye-Rin and they fall in love with each other. Their love slowly grows over the years that they know each other.
Eventually because of his friendship with Tae-Soo and Hye-Rin, Woo-Suk ends up missing his bar exam to become a lawyer and eventually joins the military as part of his mandatory service. This brings more strain on his relationship with Tae-Soo since Tae-Soo gets caught up with some student groups in Gwangju and both have to fight on opposite sides of a battle that neither cares for. Because of his involvement, with the student protests, Tae-Soo is forced to be enlisted in a criminal unit in the military as per his punishment.
During this time, Hye-Rin has to step back from her student activities because her father forces her to work for him in the family business. Unfortunately, the irony here is that the corruption that Hye-Rin wants to end has her father as the one of the forefront sources of corruption as a gang lord and a casino owner. As she slowly learns the ropes of the business, she also learns of Tae-Soo’s imprisonment. Her only hope of saving him is to turn to her old friend, Woo-Suk.
Eventually, Tae-Soo is freed and creates his own gang and becomes a prominent “businessman.” As Tae-Soo and Hye-Rin become prominent business owners, Woo-Suk finishes his time in the military and becomes a public prosecutor and goes back to Gwangju to help persecute those that were involved in the uprising in terms of political corruption. Eventually, one of Tae-Soo’s old gang members has Tae-Soo arrested by using his corrupted political pawns to take him down. Tae-Soo does escape arrest and tries to kill his gang member but fails and is arrested again and imprisoned.
Hye-Rin hears of this and seeks to also take down the gang member since the same person is trying to expose her business’ past illegal activites that happened under her father. She has cleaned up her business a bit but not completely so this could bring her whole empire down. So, by exposing part of her records, it exposes all of Lee Jong-Do’s (the gang member) and his political pawns’ activities and he is ruined and eventually gets his just desserts.
With all this said and done, Tae-Soo’s past catches up with him and he is sentenced to death. In a painful but never protested execution, Woo-Suk must watch his lifelong friend killed. The final scene is of Hye-Rin and Woo-Suk spreading tae-Soo’s ashes over the same valley with his mother and both angrily but understandably accepts their friends fate.
Sandglass is a great drama because it not only is entertaining but also incorporates important historical and cultural ideals that any person can relate and understand.
Title: 모래시계 / Mo-rae-shi-gae
Also known as: Hourglass/Sandglass (USA)
Genre: Epic, drama, romance, action, crime
Air time: Monday through Thursday 10:00pm
Episodes: 24
Broadcast network: SBS
Broadcast period: 1995-Jan-10 to 1995-Feb-16
Main Characters:
Park Sang-won by Choi Min-soo
Kang Woo-suk by Park Sang-won
Yoon Hye-rin by Go Hyun-jung
Sandglass is a drama that is about the life story of its main character, Park Tae-Soo. The story begins with his first encounters with who will become his lifelong friend, Kang Woo-Suk. As they go through high school, Tae-soo eventually gets recruited to join a gang at the protest of Woo-Suk. Woo-suk has dreams of becoming a prosecutor and Tae-soo says not to worry for him and just focus on his dreams.
As they grow, Woo-suk meets a woman in college, Yoon Hye-Rin. She is very active in the student demonstrations against the government and Woo-Suk does start to fall for her. However, she can’t like him since he wants to help the government by being a lawyer. Eventually, through Woo-Suk, Tae-soo meets Hye-Rin and they fall in love with each other. Their love slowly grows over the years that they know each other.
Eventually because of his friendship with Tae-Soo and Hye-Rin, Woo-Suk ends up missing his bar exam to become a lawyer and eventually joins the military as part of his mandatory service. This brings more strain on his relationship with Tae-Soo since Tae-Soo gets caught up with some student groups in Gwangju and both have to fight on opposite sides of a battle that neither cares for. Because of his involvement, with the student protests, Tae-Soo is forced to be enlisted in a criminal unit in the military as per his punishment.
During this time, Hye-Rin has to step back from her student activities because her father forces her to work for him in the family business. Unfortunately, the irony here is that the corruption that Hye-Rin wants to end has her father as the one of the forefront sources of corruption as a gang lord and a casino owner. As she slowly learns the ropes of the business, she also learns of Tae-Soo’s imprisonment. Her only hope of saving him is to turn to her old friend, Woo-Suk.
Eventually, Tae-Soo is freed and creates his own gang and becomes a prominent “businessman.” As Tae-Soo and Hye-Rin become prominent business owners, Woo-Suk finishes his time in the military and becomes a public prosecutor and goes back to Gwangju to help persecute those that were involved in the uprising in terms of political corruption. Eventually, one of Tae-Soo’s old gang members has Tae-Soo arrested by using his corrupted political pawns to take him down. Tae-Soo does escape arrest and tries to kill his gang member but fails and is arrested again and imprisoned.
Hye-Rin hears of this and seeks to also take down the gang member since the same person is trying to expose her business’ past illegal activites that happened under her father. She has cleaned up her business a bit but not completely so this could bring her whole empire down. So, by exposing part of her records, it exposes all of Lee Jong-Do’s (the gang member) and his political pawns’ activities and he is ruined and eventually gets his just desserts.
With all this said and done, Tae-Soo’s past catches up with him and he is sentenced to death. In a painful but never protested execution, Woo-Suk must watch his lifelong friend killed. The final scene is of Hye-Rin and Woo-Suk spreading tae-Soo’s ashes over the same valley with his mother and both angrily but understandably accepts their friends fate.
Sandglass is a great drama because it not only is entertaining but also incorporates important historical and cultural ideals that any person can relate and understand.
Title: 모래시계 / Mo-rae-shi-gae
Also known as: Hourglass/Sandglass (USA)
Genre: Epic, drama, romance, action, crime
Air time: Monday through Thursday 10:00pm
Episodes: 24
Broadcast network: SBS
Broadcast period: 1995-Jan-10 to 1995-Feb-16
Main Characters:
Park Sang-won by Choi Min-soo
Kang Woo-suk by Park Sang-won
Yoon Hye-rin by Go Hyun-jung
Learn More
Many small factors contributed to the success of Sandglass. |
Sandglass reminded Koreans of their past and triggered social responses. |
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