vincenzo (2021) and self-forgiveness through love

vincenzo, the 2021 k-drama, describes itself as a series about conglomerate evil and serving justice, by use of its titular character vincenzo cassano, a korean-italian lawyer to an italian mafia family. the series does an excellent job of displaying how deeply rooted corruption can be within power systems and how innocent people suffer at the hands of conglomerates and corporate greed. however, the show succeeds even more through its layers of humanity that are sprinkled into all the characters that you end up rooting for, including our hero, despite his less than moral methods of problem solving. it would’ve been easy for the show to take a simple stance, to focus mainly on the action and business based portions of serving justice to the rotted systems of power, but instead the show also chose to take a path of love and forgiveness that is beautifully woven into the fabric of the series.

vincenzo, as a character, does not have a positive view of himself. he was raised by a prominent mafia family, he has sins that he’s committed that bring him an immense sense of guilt, manifested through nightmares. when the show begins, his plan is to leave the mafia business entirely—retrieving a hidden pile of gold in a building in korea to then take with him to an island in malta, where he can retire far away from everyone. throughout the series, there are several significant conversations that provide insight to how vincenzo views both himself and the sins he’s committed in the past.

in a (now deleted for product placement problems) scene from the eighth episode of the series, our main female character hong cha-young has an in-depth conversation with him about his views on love. he takes a certain stance that villains aren’t deserving of love. when cha-young asks if he himself is deserving of love, he gives no response. from what we already know of his character and how he views himself as a villain, we can interpret that the answer (at this moment in time) is “no”. this point gets echoed back around in the final episode of the series, when vincenzo and cha-young are reunited after a year of separation. vincenzo states that “villains never break up, because they’re tenacious even when they love”. something of note here is that despite the fact that he believes himself to be undeserving of love in episode 8, that doesn’t mean that people won’t love you. he makes attempts to keep people at arm’s lengths to keep with this idea that it would be better for everyone if he was all alone. in episode 9, he lies to cha-young about whether he’s killed anyone but follows up by asking if she would then cut him off if he had. her response about how he would feel like someone from a distant world prompts him to reveal that he wishes to live a life far from other people. she astutely assumes that he wants that kind of life because he’s afraid of being hurt. if he reveals who he truly is, if he becomes vulnerable, he gives people the power to hurt him, and he knows that there are things he’s done that some people would not be able to handle. his fear of abandonment is something that could be addressed in another post, but for now we can focus on the fact that he views his goal of living alone as being something that’s best for everyone. however, the cracks are already showing here because he asks if she would cut ties with him if he were a murderer. he is already afraid of that aspect, even though he ultimately thinks he would deserve it. he eventually reveals (not necessarily by choice) who he is entirely to cha-young (and the other tenants in the plaza) and all that comes with knowing him.

but the thing that he doesn’t account for is that he has no say in whether they love him or not. he can show them all his ugly parts, he can push them away, but he doesn’t get to decide if they love him or not, even if he thinks he’s unworthy of it. there’s a line of dialogue from once upon a time, the ABC show that ran from 2011-2018, that goes “all sins can be forgiven when someone loves you.” the thing about vincenzo, love, his perception of himself, and his sins is that even when he lays all of his sins out on the table, these people around him still love him. whether he thinks he deserves it or not, whether he wants it or not, he has still managed to amass this group of people who love him regardless of what he’s done. in fact, they seem to love him even more.

in episode 16, vincenzo has a conversation with mr. tak, geumga plaza’s tailor who also happens to be an ex-gang member, therefore sharing commonalities with vincenzo over past sins, who left his former life. in this conversation, he asks vincenzo to forget about starting over as a new person, telling him that he can help the world by doing what he does best. throughout the series, vincenzo slowly becomes closer to each tenant in geumga plaza, using his powers of strategy and his dirtier methods of obtaining justice to help them all against powers of corruption and evil, while empowering them to fight back themselves. when mr. tak asks him to just do what he does best because it’ll help the world, it lets the audience know again that the characters in this show view him as valuable, they view him as someone capable of helping them, someone who can change their lives. they don’t see him in the negative light that he’s long viewed himself in, as a villain undeserving of love. this is amplified by later moments in the series like the tenants showing up for him after his mother is murdered, like the tenants providing him with care packages when he’s supposed to return to italy for two weeks. when his mother passes, they tell him, “we want to help you, so please let us.” they ask to let them fight with him. they show vincenzo that despite everything, he means something to them. he has had a significant impact on their lives and they want to repay the favor. for all that he feels he is not a good person, that he should be far away from other people, that people will no longer love him if they truly know him, he’s proven wrong by the tenants and cha-young.

when vincenzo reappears in the finale after a year and tells cha-young about villains never breaking up because they’re tenacious in love, it’s clear that his stance has altered slightly. although he still considers himself a villain, although he hasn’t changed his ways, he accepts who he is and he accepts the love that he’s been given. even though he once said villains are undeserving of love, it’s clear that he’s holding on to this love he’s been given. he states in the finale that he is who he is, but now he’s accepted that it’s not a bad thing. he can’t change who he is, he can’t change what he’s done, but he can change how he views himself. he can lean on people who believe that he’s forgiven, who believe that he has changed their lives for the better. and that type of love lends to his own acceptance of self and forgiveness. it allows him to start a new life as the leader of the cassano family, by creating an environment that includes a safe haven for family and healing. he’s attempting to do what he does best: make the world safer for people that he cares about, because he believes he’s capable of it. and that never would’ve happened without the family that looked at all of his sins and said “so what? you protect us. we love you anyways.”