Escape From Reality

Instead of being a big fan of watching films, I’m more into listening to music. That’s why I have more than 1.200 songs on my playlist from many genres all over the world. One of my all-time favorite songs is Fall Again by Glenn Lewis, which is a soundtrack from Maid in Manhattan.

By the way, that’s not quite the story I want to share here. Just a little intermezzo, though. Here's the story: A month ago, I was killing time listening to a cover version of 'Fall Again' on YouTube. As I was scrolling through the list, I found a cover of the song I'd never seen it before. So I clicked on it and watched the video. It was a beautiful video, especially paired with that song. The way the actress and the actor in the video smiled and their gestures were full of vivre. In short, the acting was good and natural as if I could feel their emotions. Clearly, it was taken from a film, but I couldn’t identify the film or guess where the actors were from. I thought, the actress might be from Latin America or the Philippines because she looked a bit exotic. But I wasn’t sure because the actor looked Caucasian, with a hunky body and a man bun.

However, the actor reminded me of my favorite Disney Cartoon, 'Beauty and The Beast,' an everlasting story. I have been searching for a real-life figure to fit  the character of The Beast in my mind for a long time, perhaps since I first watched the film. Of course, I'm referring to The Beast after he's released from the curse and becomes a prince. I was intrigued to find out about the film. I left a comment in the chat box asking for the name of the film and read all the comments there.

Then I learned that the scenes were  taken from 'Erkenci Kus,' a Turkish drama. I'd never watched any Turkish dramas before, so I didn’t expect much. I googled the drama before watching it and found out its genre was romantic comedy. I found the drama on YouTube with English subtitles. I initially thought it must have finished a few months ago, but I was wrong. The drama was still being produced in Turkey and was around 45 episodes in when I first started watching it.

When I watched the first episode of 'Erkenci Kus,' I was surprised because it was very long - around 2 hours per episode. But I didn’t regret it; instead, I enjoyed it immensely. The film was full of laughs, thrills and silly romantic comedy parts. I couldn’t say the story was very good or bad at all. Honestly, the storyline was very common for me. But what kept me watching was the acting. Both the lead actor and actress seemed to have wonderful chemistry. 

A few weeks ago, Can Yaman won the lead actor award in an e-online voting poll, defeating American actors. It was the first time a non-American actor won the battle. He truly deserved it.

The story of 'Erkenci Kus' begins when Sanem (played by Demet Özdemir) is proposed to by Muzo, and her parents asked her to accept because she has no job and they are worried she won't find a man to marry her. Sanem refuses and decides to look for a job, eventually working at Fikri Harika with her sister, Leyla.

At Fikri Harika, Sanem's innocence lands her in a conspiracy with her boss, Emre, without her realizing it at first. Meanwhile, Emre’s brother, Jan, is asked by his father to lead Fikri Harika and find out who was involved in the conspiracy that led to Fikri Harika's ideas being stolen by competitors. When Sanem realizes her mistake, she's furious with Emre, feeling she was taken for granted. It becomes complicated when Jan, Emre’s brother, falls in love with her. Sanem wants to apologize and tell the truth but she can’t.

I'm still watching the drama. It touches my emotions deeply every time I watch it. My favorite scenes from the start are when the lead actor eats fruit in front of a shop mirror and blows a kiss to Sanem. How can a person be so attractive and manly while eating fruit? I don’t know. In earlier episodes, Jan was truly a go-getter. It was entertaining to see such a man. Another favorite scene is when Jan is amazed to see Sanem wearing a flower crown on her head. From that scene, I agreed with Jan that women are always more beautiful with accessories.

The last one is when Sanem confesses her feelings to Jan. I loved the way she spoke, her expressions, her gestures - it felt so real. When Jan told her he couldn’t figure her out and asked why she was the way she was --- Sanem told him, “Seni seviyorum.” It means 'I love you' in Turkish. Truly adorable! The relationship between a mature man and a wild girl created a quirky dynamic.

Jan still didn’t understand, so Sanem said once again, “Ban…. Seni cok seviyorum” which means “Because I love you so much.” I could understand why she said it. It was very joyous to see them as a couple, but painful knowing she was hurting because of the guilt inside her. Sanem wanted to tell the truth but she didn’t want to lose him or destroy the brotherhood between Emre and Jan.

On August 7^th 2019, the series ended with 51 episodes. I have not watched the finale yet. I'm still watching episode 39 on YouTube, a bit frustrated because it's not a light-hearted episode. Instead, it is a sad one. But  I was quite happy when I saw the trailer for episode 51, where both get married and have triplets.

I usually watch the drama before I sleep. Since watching this drama, I've learned some Turkish vocabularies. The words sound beautiful and quirky. That’s why I've downloaded some Turkish songs, especially the music score of Erkenci Kus. Eventhough I can’t remember all the scenes, some beautiful lines from this series are stuck in my head. One of them is, “I was an empty book before you. You filled the page.”

Above all the reasons I've mentioned, the biggest reason why I love this drama remains a personal secret.