Here’s the question: Did Manwol reincarnate?

The way I see it the naysayers have only two arguments while the champions have five. The naysaysers believe that Manwol couldn’t have reincarnated because:

one, the writers said that the story ended.

“Hong Jung Eun: Hotel del Luna is a place where dead people come. In other words, the goal is to “send them off well.” The most representative ghost in it is Jang Man Wol. Jang Man Wol was seen off by Goo Chan Sung, which was a prerequisite for the establishment of space. I’m sure the viewers expected it. Since Man Wol is a dead person, and Chan-sung is a living person, there is no way we can do it together in this life. It was impossible unless it was forcibly woven. It’s a pleasure, too, for hotel staff to wash away the pain of life and move on to their next life. Man Wol walked to the Judo Bridge in a good way, and Chan Sung thought it would be a two-person ending to send Man Wol in a nice way. Rather than a forced ending, I think this ending is much more in line with Hotel del Luna.”

“Hong Miran: If Jang Man Wol and Goo Chan Sung reincarnate according to the “Hotel del Luna” worldview, they hope to meet again and love each other comfortably and happily. We also have a wish. It’s not like “they met”. But in our story, I think it’s a happy ending. She was a person who should have gone, and as Jang Man Wol left, the story ended.”

This is an excerpt from a translated interview of the Hong sisters. Credit goes to @melloviciousiu.

But I can easily torpedo this argument.

You see, as far as the Hong sisters are concerned, THEIR story of Changsung and Manwol’s relationship ended at the bridge. Manwol was sent off to the afterlife by Changsung. Mission accomplished. The end.

However, in the finished product, the story didn’t end there. With or without their approval, the director appended an epilogue to the Hong sisters’ version. The kdrama we watched showed MORE than Manwol walking to the Judo Bridge in a “good way.” But it showed Manwol suddenly looking back, impishly smiling, then continue on walking while insouciantly swinging her flower. After that we learned that it’s Christmas and Chansung was packing for New York. He had a meeting later that day with the hotel intern. After their meeting, he visited the library to regard the Baekdu painting. MaGo 1 happened to drop by, too, but she avoided him with a grim face. Then, the last scene was of Chansung sitting in the middle of a park in Seoul reading a book “Being and Time.”

We didn’t imagine watching those scenes, did we? Yet the Hong sisters didn’t mention them in their interview. lol. Ultimately, the “boss” or decision-maker of any kdrama is the director, and he expressly added those scenes to give hope to the viewers that the ending of Manwol and Chansung was NOT at the bridge.

two, it didn’t make sense that Manwol would just show up in front of Chansung in the park like that.

CS: You came early. I though you would be late.
MW: I was worried you would be waiting so I came quickly.

Hello?? In case people didn’t notice we’ve been watching a supernatural show. You know…it’s called supernatural because the freaky-deaky things that happened in all 16 episodes didn’t make sense in the natural world.

As I pointed out, Chansung’s dreams had an odd way of becoming reality. For instance, he was dreaming of a scene that occurred 1000 years ago. In that dream, a leaf was drifting in space to land on his shoulder in the present time. He’d asked, “Did it come from a dream? That split second from Jang Manwol.”

To him, too, it didn’t make sense, too, that the leaf would show up on his sleeve while he was dreaming like that. But it did. Why?

Because in that split second when Manwol weakened and thought about sitting right next to him, there was a breakthrough in their continuity. In that split second when Manwol DESIRED to sit next to him, their existences and times from two different worlds meshed together.

Thus, a 1000-year leaf was conjured from his dream and reappeared in his reality.

So yeahhhh… the naysayers are going to be hindered by their obtuseness to the workings of the supernatural. If they’re going to look for scientific proofs or irrefutable logic, then they would definitely NOT understand how Manwol could simply show up in front of Chansung on one sunny day.

Do you see how easy it was to debunk the naysayers’ arguments. It’s important to remember that the ending the Hong sisters’ discussed in the interview wasn’t the ending as seen in the drama, and we aren’t watching a documentary here; you’re allowed to give free rein to your imaginative faculty.

So what are the arguments for Manwol’s reincarnation? I already posted two here:

Final Challenge

I still owe you three. Truth be told, I delayed posting this because I wanted a robust exchange of ideas, not a brain-picking session. Nobody’s entitled to pick my brains when my brains cells are already seriously depleted, anyway.  🙂

To recap the two arguments I already proposed:

1. The Magos made an error.

Manwol died in Chansung’s arm while dreaming. (Get over it, folks. She did.) They didn’t break the connection between them. Instead, in their dreams, they re-established their connection that began a long time ago when they met as children. In a voiceover, he said, “I’ve crossed the long passage of time and met you there, embracing the flower that is dreaming of the moon.” Instead of tying him to her with a red string, like that Wannabe Bride in Episode 5, she placed her brand on him. She wrote her name on his palm.

The Mago3 wanted that connection severed before Manwol went off to the afterworld. Hence, she offered.

MG3: Shall I sever the connection which is growing painfully worse?
CS: Are we still connected? Can you see it? Are there still ties left to cut?

Of course, he had no intentions of cutting their link. But he leveraged this information by requesting for MORE connection with Manwol. Little did MaGo3 know that she was adding more memories and building more connection by allowing the couple to spend a winter together. lol.

This unsevered connection made it easier for them to find each other after her reincarnation.

2. The dream

I wrote that dreams create a new reality. There was the leaf moment and the bride moment in Episode 5. Chansung was forced to become a groom and he psyched himself for the wedding. He thought to himself, “Let’s think of it as a dream. It’s just a meaningless dream. It’ll all disappear when I wake up.” Then he repeated it again, like a hypnotic “power word,” before opening the bridal chamber, “I’m just dreaming for a bit.”

When he opened the door, he was transported back in time, saw a vision of Manwol from 1000 years ago. This vision then again merged with the image of Manwol in the present time. He chalked this improbable experience to another dreamscape…or dream-escape. “I guess I just had a real dream.”

See that oxymoron? How can you have a “real dream”? Tsk tsk tsk. Only in a supernatural, fantasy world.

If you wish however, think of his dreams as some kind of portal. Their existences and times from different worlds are woven together and become continuous.

Not only can he can find her again in his dreams, but she can also return to him in his dreams when she reincarnates.

Now, here are the final three propositions.

3. The Baekdu painting and tiger

On Christmas Day, Chansung arranged to meet the young intern. She asked him if he could still see spirits and he let the intern believe that didn’t. Of course, he still saw the spirit as he gave the intern the only available potion. To me, it was a foregone conclusion that he wouldn’t take the potion when he refused to have his connection severed by MaGo3.

After his meeting with the intern, he proceeded to the library where he contemplated the Baekdu painting and the tiger. He remembered his conversation with Manwol.

CS: Did the tiger really go into the painting and see what he wanted to see?
MW: Because he went to see, like in a dream, the times he would never be able to return to, he is lucky.

The tiger and Baekdu painting hold a key to interpreting the final scene. In Episode 2, Chansung realized that two couldn’t be separated. Manwol had ordered him to request the painting from the rich CEO because the painting and the tiger belonged together as a set.

According to Manwol, the spirit of the tiger could no longer return to its homeland. The land no longer existed in time and space. It only remained in the memories as depicted in the painting of the old Baekdu. So once Manwol received the painting, she visited the tiger’s taxidermy mount in the museum. She summoned its spirit and told it that she was bringing it back to its home.

When the spirit of the tiger walked into the painting, the painting transformed into a real place and the tiger’s body, too, became real. It gave one loud roar as it finally returned home.

The painting now depicted a homecoming. In a secret world which no other people could see, the tiger had gone home.

Do you see the connection?

Similarly, for Manwol and Chansung, everything they cherished no longer existed in time and space. Hotel del Luna was gone; the colleagues were gone; even the tunnel going to the Samdocheon was gone. But for Chansung, Manwol lived on in his memories and visions of ghosts. She wasn’t gone.

CS: You are there, in the memory of the secret world which other people cannot see. And I remember my promise to you.

They come as a set, like the tiger and the Baekdu painting. He was waiting for her to return.

Don’t you see why Chansung was in that beautiful park in the middle of the Seoul? His surrounding was as picturesque as the Baekdu painting. His tigress, Manwol, was returning to him.

Why! You could almost hear Manwol’s voiceover saying that she was one of the lucky ones, too. She had left this world in a dream. But like the tiger, she was coming back to see, like in a dream, the time she could never be able to return to. Like the tiger, she went back into a “real painting” and found who she wanted to see, waiting for her.

The Baekdu painting and the tiger is an allegory of Manwol’s homecoming after her death and reincarnation.

4. Manwol

See this face? By no stretch of imagination could you call that a happy face.

MaGo looked displeased and unhappy with him. This is noteworthy because Chansung always considered himself favored by the MaGos. So what do you think made MaGo1 angry with him? She even ignored him.

Was it because he didn’t take the potion? No. What’s it to her if somebody else took the potion?

Was it because he didn’t send off Manwol properly? He did. He performed his job well.

Was it because he tricked MaGo3 to give him and Manwol a snowfall? If she has complaints, she should take it up with her romantic sister, MaGo3.

I think she’s upset with him because of this.

See that? Manwol was sashaying on that bridge and waving that white lily as if she’s untroubled by her death and separation from Chansung.

I thought she’d be sobbing all the way because MaGo described the crossover to death so poetically. She said:

MaGo: Where could you find no regret and no sadness in disappearing? Just as a tree dreams of blooming again after its flowers have withered, one lives again like that, meets again like that, and loves again like that. That is… the arrogant, immature and love stricken, I hope that is the beautiful road you have chosen.

MaGo sounded so solemn that everybody felt regret and sadness upon death because they were leaving a loved one behind. But Manwol was the exception. She’d been walking sadly, then she stopped and turned around with a thoughtful look on her face.

Then, she smiled.

She turned around like and walked on with that new look on her face. Contrary to what MaGo said, she didn’t look sad or regretful at all.

Why?

To me, Manwol looked like she had come up with a plan (like she always did) on how to get back quickly to Chansung. There was no mistaking that saucy smile and that jaunty walk. Although her eyes were luminous, she didn’t look like she was going to cry for having left Chansung.

She figured out a way to return.

Ha! MaGo had compared her to a tree that dreamt of blooming again after the flowers withered. But Manwol hated that tree that she couldn’t escape for 1000 years. It only bloomed for her twice: when Chansung’s dad picked the blue flowers from its branch (and Manwol resented that) and when Chansung came into her life. If ever she was going to bloom again, it would be with Chansung.

To me, then, MaGo was unhappy because Manwol was beyond her control. Like Chansung’s dad, and like the dead student in the museum who refused her white lily, there were people in the secret world who refused to accept her authority over life and death.

From the very beginning, before MaGo tied her to Hotel del Luna, Manwol was very much a strong-willed and determined person. She refused to die when she was a child, didn’t she? She single-handedly killed all of Captain Firefly’s men, didn’t she? And she survived 1000+ years, didn’t she?

So if there was a way to immediately return to Chansung’s side, she would find it. I’ve no doubts.

This was a “Oh yeah? You can’t get rid of me that easily. I’ll be back soon.” challenging look.

 

5. Heidegger’s book “Being and Time”

These were the final words in the drama.

CS: Did the tiger really go into the painting and see what he wanted to see?
MW: Because he went to see as in a dream, the times he would never be able to return to, he is lucky.
…
CS: In the memory about the secret world which other people cannot see, you are there. And I remember my promise to you.
…
CS: You came early. I though you would be late.
MW: I was worried you would be waiting so I came quickly.

CS: Someday
MW: Someday
CS: If we cross time in some lifetime together,
MW: I am looking forward to always being together in that lifetime. While the “we” of that time face each other and dream, and smile in each other’s arms, we will be happy with each other for a very long long time.

What was his promise?

He could have been referring to this one, when he promised to meet her again in the next life without fail.

Let’s not forget that he made an earlier promise, too, in Episode 12.

Back then, he told her to go in peace. Because he loved her that much, he’d shoulder all the pain and sorrow of her death. That was his promise so she could leave him when the time came.

MW: When I first saw you, the flowers in this neighborhood were blooming so prettily. Now they’re nowhere to be seen. At the time, you were so scared because you’d just seen a ghost. Today, I’m the same. The flowers are withering.
CS: I see.
MW: They won’t even remain as flower petals. They disappear even before they hit the ground. Nothing seems to remain.
CS: Perhaps the flowers that bloomed in your tree just like how the first leaf, they might be falling for me. They might pile up and become very heavy and painful. I will handle them as my share. So don’t be scared when you leave me. This, to the weak human that I am, who is now doing his best with all of his might, is love.
MW: Being left only as a petal which will vanish is too sad. (And she kisses him.)

This conversation reminds me of Heidegger.

Heidegger said that we exist in space or spatially because we have a body. For example, I’ll dig my bony elbow into your tummy, and it’ll hurt you because my elbow is in your space. 😈

And we also exist in time or temporally because we have thoughts, awareness, consciousness, memories, and hopes. For example, I wake up in the morning, I know I’m not a stone. I’ve a husband to hug, a full day’s work ahead, coffee to drink, people to defend, and a kdrama to watch that night. I remember all these details about me before I get out of bed because I exist as a person with a past, present and future. 🙂

In a way, Manwol was like a spring flower that was swirling around her and falling to the ground. She existed spatially.

However, she was also UNLIKE the flower petal because she was aware of the passage of time. She felt sadness at thought of vanishing, and she didn’t want to leave Chansung in the future. She existed temporally.

If she’d been a mere flower petal, she wouldn’t fear death. She’d have nobody to worry about leaving behind (can you imagine a petal feeling sorry for another?) and nobody she’d want to stay alive for. But since she was human, not a petal, she was scared to leave Chansung behind.

That’s Heidegger’s philosophy.

Since we exist in time, we’re very much conscious of our finite time, of our deaths. With this certainty of death in the unseen future, we begin to FEAR a lot of things, like missing people, saying goodbyes, being lonely, and squandering opportunities.

Manwol herself was discovering her FEAR of leaving Chansung behind. She didn’t want to go.

You see, hand-in-hand with this discovery of FEAR is learning how to CARE for someone. Fear and care are almost like two sides of the same coin. Manwol didn’t want to go and she began to fear her looming death because she didn’t want to hurt Chansung. She’d come to care that he would be hurt and lonely once she was gone. 

In like manner, Chansung was aware of Manwol’s limited time in this world and her anxiety about leaving him. She felt conflicted about leaving him because she didn’t want him to hurt. So he reassured her that, as frail a human that he was, he would deal with the pain when she left him behind. That’s love. Although it pained him to do so, he let her go because she must go.

And that’s another point of Heidegger.

When we become aware of our deaths and our limited time, we begin to understand who we really are and what we truly care for. Our AUTHENTIC selves come out. For Chansung, his whole existence became devoted to loving that one woman who eventually passed on. That’s his authentic self and all the subsequent choices he made, from refusing MaGo’s offer and giving away the potion, to visiting the library and reading the book “Being and Time” in the park, were all done in light of  the POSSIBILITY of her returning to him soon after her reincarnation. He was living his life as authentically as possible.

To me (mind you, I wasn’t a student of philosophy, but neither were the Hong sisters and the director, so I’m in good company) the scene in the park was Chansung’s transcendental moment or his “moment of Zen.”  Heidegger actually had a term for that experience, too. He called it “ecstasy” or that moment when we’re thinking about the past, present and future all at once and these three times meld together.

When that ecstasy happens, we cease to exist in time as we know it. We separate or remove ourselves from the normal flow of time with its division of seconds, minutes, hours and exist BEYOND these constructs or notions of time. We become one with time itself.

Thus for me, Chansung’s moment of ecstasy came when he was contemplating on the subject of the book “Being and Time.”  Being faithful to his promise to wait for Manwol, he became fully aware of having loved her so much in the past that he would still seek her out in the future “someday.”  See that? The present, past and future are one.

It’s this moment of Heideggerian ecstasy (or Zen if that’s make it easier to understand) which summoned Manwol to his side.

It’s a mirror image: just like the leaf that came out of his dream because of Manwol’s fleeting “weakness” (lol) and desire to sit with him, Manwol came back from the afterlife because of his meditative thinking and desire to be reunited with her.

So there you go.

My five reasons why I choose to believe that Manwol was reincarnated. I’ve always believed that it requires more brain exercise and better mental perspicacity to go against the mainstream. It’s always easier to accept the general view that this kdrama has a sad ending. The sad ending was always the path of least resistance.

But when the director made an extra effort to create an open-ending, I saw that as a challenge for us Bitches to ponder and consider different perspectives that non-bitches don’t. After all, it’s what makes us different from other recap/blog sites. We thrive on challenges and thinking outside the box.

Go ahead and try it too. If you come up with a different one, share it here. 🙂

UPDATED: 5/30/2021

Okay, folks! This was written back in November 2019. Why are you still reading this? Did you chance upon this drama recently? Or did you happen to pull this up from Google for a homework on Heidegger? Good luck with that. 🙂