Third Preview Teaser for Heirs Drops Lots of Narrative Goodness

The release of the third preview teaser for Heirs or The Inheritors helps us take a break from the overload of character stills from the drama. This is the most substantive teaser to date and really showcases what to expect. The possibility that Heirs would be a hot mess was bandied about mostly because of how derivative the set up appeared to other popular dramas of yore like the Hana Yori Dango franchise, but I’ve seen every single Kim Eun Sook drama and she’s never made a hot mess. Ever. I may not like all her dramas but even her worst outing is significantly more coherent and watchable than a good chunk of the K-dramas out there. Not everyone will or need to like Heirs, but there is a low probability of a full on train wreck coming. Plus the leads with the most screen time Lee Min Ho and Park Shin Hye can act. Even if they end up not having sizzling chemistry, as long as it’s not two identical poles repelling each other then it will also be fine. So let’s get down to talking about this teaser, the most significant new development came in the form of the dangling item above in the screencap. That’s a dreamcatcher, an item originating with one particular Native American tribe culture and has since been adopted by other tribes over centuries and to this day has come to symbolize a very well-known cultural belief of Native American people.

The dreamcatcher is a handmade object based on a willow hoop with sacred details such of feathers and stones attached to it – the dreamcatcher is hung to ward off bad dreams and only allow the good ones in. Kim Eun Sook loves to use symbolism in her dramas, and her major failing is overusing it until it’s literally hammered home (think the freaking Little Mermaid in Secret Garden). The dreamcatcher motif looks to figure prominently in the interaction between Cha Eung Sang and Kim Tan. In the teaser, Eun Sang works multiple jobs in Korea and finds an excuse to come to US to see her older sister. In the US, she ducks to avoid the rain and notices a dreamcatcher. She has a falling out with her unni on the boardwalk by the beach and this scene is witnessed by Kim Tan. Looks like he takes pity on her and takes her under his wing, probably remembering what it felt like to be all alone in a foreign country. We see big brother Kim Won being a total ogre to Kim Tan, but luckily new friend Eun Sang is around as company. In the end Kim Tan asks himself if he’s falling for her while the dreamcatcher is hanging in his posh backyard awning. But what started this teaser off right is hearing Eun Sang ask Kim Tan if he’s okay and Lee Min Ho does a really heartfelt reply of “I’m not okay” that really captures the pain this boy is feeling. Nicely done. Check out the preview below, I’ve translated the dialogue.

Third preview teaser for Heirs: