Song of the Bandits – K-drama Episode 7 Recap & Review

Episode 7

Episode 7 of Song of the Bandits starts with Yoon and Hee-shin taking a horse ride to Myeongjeong. He tells Hee-shin to be careful about Superintendent Ōoka as she delivers the money to the insurgent. At the same time, we see Ōoka brutally beating up a Japanese soldier for threatening to use a gun in Myeongjeong.

Ōoka tells the rest of the soldiers that he has vowed to keep Myeongjeong free of war and that he will not have it any other way. That night, Hee-shin and Yoon make it back to Myeongjeong where they run into Ōoka, but make it to Seon-bok’s hotel without raising any suspicions. Ōoka notices Eon-nyeoni looking at Yoon and Hee-shin from a distance and grows curious.

Inside the hotel, Seon-bok puts Hee-shin in her room and tells her that she is trying to get in touch with the Independence Army. However, Seon-bok tells Yoon that the task is very dangerous for her.

Hee-shin overhears the conversation and tells Yoon that she is okay to go her way going forward. Hee-shin asks Yoon to go his way and states that she will undergo the task on her own.

Yoon tells her about Gwang-il and how he is very dangerous. He narrates the story of his past friendship with Gwang-il as well as the death of his parents. Yoon recalls how his father was killed by the people of Joseon. Eon-nyeoni, who was looking for a chance to kill him, overhears the conversation.

Eon-nyeoni is taken back to the death of her own parents and thinks about how she too had opted out of avenging her parents just like Yoon. She realises that Yoon is a lot like her and backs out of killing him. As she retreats, Eon-nyeoni comes back to her senses and decides to kill Yoon but is stopped by Ōoka and the cops. She is arrested and brutally beaten by them.

Ōoka interrogates her and learns that she is back in Myeongjeong to kill the insurgent. Eon-nyeoni tells Ōoka all about Gwang-il’s orders and asks him to call the Japanese soldier in order to clarify. Ōoka calls Gwang-il and tells him that he will be reported for ordering a shootout on Chinese territory.

Gwang-il speaks to Eon-nyeoni in Korean and asks her to keep their agreement a secret. Eon-nyeoni tells him that she has kept it all a secret and asks him to come to save her. However, Gwang-il lies to Ōoka and tells him that he does not know Eon-nyeoni and asks him to do as he pleases with her.

Ōoka decides to execute Eon-nyeoni the following day but Gwang-il orders his troops to get ready for a large attack in Myeongjeong. Gwang-il lectures his soldiers and orders them to kill every Joseon insurgent on sight, starting with Yoon. The next morning,  Seon-bok manages to talk to an insurgent and asks Yoon and Hee-shin to leave immediately in order to meet them in the next 6 hours.

Meanwhile, the bandits learn that Gwang-il is leading a huge group of soldiers to Myeongjeong. Chung-soo orders the bandits to leave for Myeongjeong as well while the police prepare to execute Eon-nyeoni. The soldiers show up at Seon-bok’s hotel and ask about Yoon and Hee-shin. When she is not able to stop the soldier from checking the hotel rooms, she brings out her gun and threatens the Japanese military.

Ōoka makes a scene out of Eon-nyeoni’s execution and she is taken back to her parents’ death. Just as the cop pulls his sword to behead Eon-nyeoni, a gunshot from Seon-bok’s hotel startles them all. Ōoka asks Eon-nyeoni to be put in prison and goes to inspect the gunshot.

Outside Seon-bok’s hotel, Gwang-il shows up and asks Seon-bok to get out of the way because he needs to see Yoon. He threatens to kill the entire village at Myeongjeong and asks Seon-bok to bring Yoon out. When she does not budge, Gwang-il knocks Seon-bok out and asks the soldiers to go inside to bring Yoon and the insurgent out.

Inside, Yoon refuses to let Hee-shin go out and asks her to betray him when it comes to saving her own life. When Hee-shin refuses to put Yoon on the line, he asks her to protect what is precious to her (i.e. the freedom of Joseon) and adds that he will protect what’s precious to him (i.e. Hee-shin).

Yoon goes out of the room with a single pistol faces the Japanese army in a one-man show and shoots the soldiers down one after the other. Eon-nyeoni manages to outwit the sole cop guarding her and knocks him out before freeing herself from prison. At the hotel, Ōoka shows up and threatens to kill Gwang-il.

The cop clashes with the military soldier as Ōoka calls Gwang-il a slave to the Japanese military since he was a Joseon by birth. Eon-nyeoni shows up with the intention of killing Gwang-il but misfires, causing chaos to break out. She manages to run past Gwang-il and joins Yoon inside the hotel as she kills the Japanese soldiers outside.

Both Yoon and Eon-nyeoni pair up and kill most of the Japanese military while Gwang-il notices Hee-shin looking outside from a window. Gwang-il asks the soldiers to use a ladder to open it up, which Yoon notices. He arrives just in time to save Hee-shin and jumps out the window, taking the remaining soldier with him.

Outside the hotel, Seon-bok wakes up to the sound of a grenade going off inside. Gwang-il notices Yoon and asks the soldiers to capture him but is interrupted by Chang-soo and the bandit army, who have arrived just in time to save Yoon. The bandits have a war with the Japanese soldiers while the soldiers take Gwang-il away.

One by one, the bandits kill the Japanese soldiers outside and Eon-nyeoni also teams up with the bandit crew by killing the soldiers outside. Hee-shin shows up and saves Yoon by killing off a soldier and Chung-soo asks him to take her away to meet the insurgent without wasting any more time.

The bandits allow Yoon to leave in the chariot while they kill the Japanese soldiers. Gwang-il notices this and chases after the chariot with a few soldiers.

Gwang-il’s soldiers start shooting at them and Yoon starts shooting back until they are able to flee from the soldiers. The duo take the rest of the trip on foot and Yoon finally leaves Hee-shin to get in the car that would take her to the insurgent.

The two bid each other farewell with a kiss and a promise to meet each other soon. Yoon finally tells Hee-shin his name and she remembers him as her first love. She breaks into a sob as Yoon departs from her and the episode ends.

The Episode Review

We finally see some depth in the relationship between Hee-shin and Yoon, only for the two to part ways instantly after that. It is clear that Hee-shin prioritises her freedom struggle while Yoon has to go back to the people who took him in when he had nothing.

I hope for the two to sort out their personal agendas and make their way back to each other but knowing how historically it would take Korea 25 or more years to gain freedom, there is no realistic hope for them to end up together.

Thinking of the struggle Hee-shin went through to transfer the 200,000 won ($150) in the 1920’s, when it takes seconds to transfer money in the present time, amplifies the struggles many other freedom fighters all over the world had to face during their time. I hope the show ends with the independence of Joseon aka South Korea to make all the struggle worth it.