"To love Joseon is to keep death a close companion."
"If my breath was able to retain your life... I hope you will love me with that life."
Whale Star: The Gyeongseong Mermaid (Gorae Byul: The Gyeongseong Mermaid, 고래별: 경성의 인어공주) is a Historical Fiction Korean Webtoon written and drawn by Na Yoonhee. It was initially released on Naver on June 19, 2019 and concluded on July 7, 2021 after 106 chapters. An English translation was made available on Webtoon in February 2022; it can be found here
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It is 1926. Imperial Japan has occupied Joseon (Korea) and is summarily exploiting its people and resources. Su-a is the illiterate 17-year-old handmaiden to Yunhwa, the daughter of a wealthy Japanese collaborator living in the seaside city of Gunsan. One day, she finds a young man named Uihyeon washed up on the beach and nurses him back to health. Uihyeon tells her the story of The Little Mermaid, a half-fish princess who risked it all for the man she loved.
But Uihyeon cannot hide forever — he's a member of a group of freedom fighters who want to relieve Joseon from the shackles of the Japanese, and his near-death experience had been the aftermath of a botched bombing. Su-a and Yunhwa help him escape, but this starts a chain of events that result in Su-a losing both her voice and the life she has known for the last decade. Su-a seeks revenge against those that have wronged her, but finds herself among Uihyeon's fellow rebels, who are willing to risk life and love for the causes they believe in.
Tropes:
- Arranged Marriage: To further ingratiate themselves with the Japanese, Geunhyeong Kang arranges a marriage between his son Uihyeon and Haruko Ijuin, the daughter of his close business associate. Haruko adores Uihyeon, who does not reciprocate her feelings.
- Baby as Payment: Su-a was sold to the Yeo family as a five-year-old because her father had debts to the Yeo patriarch that he could not pay.
- Bilingual Bonus: Sunim lampshades that the name of her tea shop, Whale Star, is something of a Word Salad Title, before explaining that in hanja, "Whale Star" reads Gyeongseong, the city.
- Break His Heart to Save Him: Hoping to give Su-a a clean break as he plans to assassinate his dad, Uihyeon tries to tell her that he does not love her. It doesn't work; she'd already seen through it and drugged him so she can do the deed instead.
- Chekhov's Gun: Early in the story Haesu gives Su-a a bottle of opium that she holds on to. Two-thirds of the story through, she uses some of the opium when she and Haesu are hiding in the mountains when he is delirious from pain from his gunshot wounds. Very late in the game she gets the idea to drug Uihyeon so she can assassinate his father instead.
- Les Collaborateurs: The Yeos have kept their family wealth because they're collaborating with the Japanese occupiers.
- Death by Falling Over: The man Uihyeon's father hired to stake out Uihyeon starts poking around Whale Star... and comes across Nokju. In the struggle she falls down the stairs and dies of a head wound.
- Driven to Suicide: After being forced to kill his own mother, Haesu's younger brother Haeyeong killed himself in the backstory.
- Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: Haeyeong's eyes are practically monochromatic after what he witnessed during the Yeonhaeju massacre.
- Dying Dream: Dying of multiple gunshot wounds and caught by enemy guards, Haesu dreams he is back in Yeonhaeju with Nokju and his family.
- Fallen Princess: Yeongyeong and Inseong are the children of a very old and rich family in Gunsan, but they lost most of their wealth supporting the Joseon provisional government in exile in Shanghai.
- Foil: Idealistic and friendly aristocrat Uihyeon and his older, more hardened and ruthless comrade-in-arms Haesu. Haesu even comments on the difference, saying he will allow Uihyeon to be the idealistic and kind patriot while Haesu is the venomous snake that gets his hands dirty in the name of the cause.
- Good Shepherd: Geon is a Korean Christian and knows a church in Seoul that is willing to harbor Yeongyeong and her son Jingyu after the rebel cell is discovered. Even when it becomes apparent it could put them in danger the priest does not even think of ratting them out to the Japanese, because the Lord preached sanctuary. Five years later, the church's orphanage has raised Jingyu happily and they are still in good terms with Geon.
- I Did What I Had to Do: Both Yeongyeong and Haesu assert that they don't regret poisoning Su-a (which robbed her of her speech instead of killing her like they intended), because they didn't want the risk of Su-a ratting them out. It is implied Haesu comes to regret it after they spend the winter in hiding together, however.
- Naturalized Name: Koreans who are in their occupier Japan's good graces have Japanese names. Yunhwa Yeo becomes Rinka Riyo, while Uihyeon Kang is referred to as Iken Kan.
- Old Maid: A significant concern for the father of Hanako Ijuin, who is starting to be considered on the older side of marriage material despite being around twenty. Hanako herself seems less concerned with spinsterhood, being mostly neutral towards marriage until she overhears her father and Uihyeon's father discussing the possibility of the two of them getting married.
- "Ray of Hope" Ending: The webcomic ends with all the other named rebels dying. Su-a manages to assassinate Uihyeon's father and many known Japanese associates and was likely killed doing the deed, but nobody knows what happened to Uihyeon. Geon thinks he's alive and still supports the rebels, but doesn't know anything beyond that. Korea remains under Japanese rule, and readers with knowledge of history know it will remain that way until Japan surrenders at the end of World War II. But the rebel cause lives on, and Geon gets to see Yeongyeong's son Jingyu as he grows up.
- Relatively Flimsy Excuse: Uihyeon passes Su-a off as his cousin to the shop employees not part of the resistance and to his landlady so it doesn't cause a scandal that she's staying with him.
- La Résistance: The main characters are part of the Korean independence movement against Japanese occupation and carry out missions at the behest of the Korean Provisional Government in Shanghai.
- Sibling Yin-Yang: The Han siblings. Older sister Yeongyeong is cold and pragmatic; younger brother Inseong is friendly and outwardly emotional. He laments that Yeongyeong used to be much warmer before the series of losses their family suffered caused her to shutter. In the end Inseong betrays the group in an attempt to ensure his sister's safety, not realizing that she killed herself in prison out of loyalty to the cause.
- Spiteful Suicide: Sunim and Yeongyeong kill themselves in prison rather than give up information about La Résistance to the Japanese.
- Tampering with Food and Drink: Su-a drugs Uihyeon with opium in his tea so she can assassinate his father in his stead.
- Time Skip: The final chapter takes place in 1933, six years later.
- Tragic Keepsake: Su-a keeps the scissors that her former mistress Yunhwa used to commit suicide as a reminder of her.
- Troubled Backstory Flashback: After the rebels' hideout is raided by cops and the rebels themselves scattered, Su-a finds herself nursing Haesu back to health in a Buddhist temple. As the latter recovers, we see several flashbacks of his life in Yeonhaeju growing up with his parents and brother... at least until the Japanese decided to massacre the village, leaving Haesu as the only survivor of his family.
- Undercover as Lovers: Freedom fighters Yeongyeong and Haesu pretend to be married (and Haesu the father of her baby) so they can travel together without arousing suspicion.
- Welcome to the Big City: Upon arriving in bustling Gyeongseong (Seoul) for the first time, country handmaiden Su-a is immediately pickpocketed. It's only thanks to the kindness of a stranger, Geon, that she is able to make her way to Whale Star at all.
- Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: The independence movement the story centers around sees their actions as for the good of Joseon. The pro-Japanese government in Joseon sees them as a bunch of bomb-throwing terrorists.
