I only watched the first few minutes of Ep 13. But @Growing_Beautifully asked this from another thread.
@pkml3 I’m trying to work out if there’s a plothole.
In the zany universes of opposites and mirror images, that there are 2 different ways to cross the worlds and they have different effects. There’s the short cut with half the flute where LL and LG pass through a portal, and get across within a split second. And there’s the long route of traveling for hours across No Man’s Land.
So in the play on time, there is time lost for the traveler (say LG) who goes through No Man’s Land, where 1 hour is 2.5 days in normal space and when he does not age, but conversely there is time gained for him and lost for the rest of the worlds, when time freezes, ie when his opposite (LL) goes through the portal.
I’m assuming (because it’s not shown), that entering and exiting the No Man’s Land does not cause a time freeze, whereas entering and exiting the portal (the shortcut) does.
If the very many times LG and presumably LL go through No Man’s Land is unknown (as seen from the many red balloons) and is NOT manifested in time freezes, this means that LL could be traveling back and forth between worlds and LG wouldn’t know if he is in KOC or ROK. This could be a mighty big plothole, if LG thinks he knows where LL is, just because time froze.
Wait, is my theory on No Man’s Land correct?
Source: wheres-this-no-mans-land/
Is it a different access route that doesn’t use the portal through the bamboo forest?
All I can add to my theory is that when LG couldn’t send her back home in Episode 6 because he had to fight the Japanese, he made TaeEul pass through No Man’s Land, too.
TaeEul didn’t cross over through the bamboo grove portal. If she did, she should have been back in Seoul in no time. “In a split second” as you say, @GB.
Instead, she passed through No Man’s Land (NML).
She got angry when her father didn’t realize she’d been gone for days.
An hour in NML is 2.5 days in real life. She left for the Kingdom of Corea on the 11th by crossing the Bamboo Grove Super Expressway on a horse with Lee Gon. She stayed there for day. During dinner, Yeong interrupted them with the report that Prime Minister Koo had assembled the National Security Council for an emergency meeting.
Even if she was fast walker and took her a minimum of an hour to cross NML, that would mean that she hadn’t slept at home for at least 4 nights. But her dad didn’t even miss her. lol.
It really should be more than an hour for TaeEul because it took Lee Gon at least 3 hours roundtrip ON A HORSE.
Oh well…I’m not going to worry about these details if the writer isn’t.
About the balloons though, I’m going to propose a different theory here.
No. They’re NOT indicators for the number of times LG pass through No Man’s Land. Why would he bother count the number of times he’d traversed the land? What would he use that kind of information for? Isn’t that useless data?
And why would he spread the balloons across the land if all he wanted to know was the number of times he crossed NML? Wouldn’t it make sense to just leave the balloon at the entrance? Like 5 balloons means 5 times he entered the land?
To me, the balloons are like path lights that are used in a garden walkway. The balloons would help her when she traveled back on her own so she wouldn’t feel lonely.
pic credit: AndrewBali
They could also serve as trail markers (or blazes) that you can find in a hiking trail to guide hikers. If I were Lee Gon, I would place the balloons at regular intervals (e.g., every 10 feet) because I could then calculate the time I spent inside and/or keep track of where I was and how far I was from my destination.
Just like in a highway, there’s a mile marker.
Also, if I wanted to explore new territory within this No Man’s Land, I could use the balloons like a detour. For instance, I turned right from the 50th balloon and explored that quadrant.
No Man’s Land has no markers. If this was in the middle of the Saharan desert or the Atlantic Ocean, Lee Gon would have had the stars in the sky to guide him. But he had no stars so he needed to create his own stars using the balloons.
Anyway, that’s my theory. 🙂
Very interesting..is that why the balloons are there on No Man’s Land? I guess that makes sense. Else it would be very easy to get lost on the way to the portal between the two universes. Also that no man’s land seems to have no gravity- so the balloons float just like that coin which Eunsup touched which didn’t fall down. It is like being in outer space. But there does seem to be air as human beings can obviously breathe. I think this is the way to the bamboo grove (the one LG uses). LL seems to use a portal in a different bamboo grove (the one that TE discovered accidentally).
3 posts of gold in a day. You’re the gift that keeps on giving. Keep safe and stay strong! 💪🏼
Thanks for addressing my question. 😚 You’re amazing @pkml3. You didn’t even have time to watch the episode but you’re posting on theories left and right. I’ll come back to read in earnest. Got work to do myself. 😣
On the other hand, this place is always shown with a unique path in the middle of the sea.
Why was Eun Seop carrying a red balloon when he crossed over into KoC?
The red balloon is hommage to the great children’s film classic The Red Balloon by Albert Lamorisse. Tons and tons of stuff has been written about the Red Balloon. It is film class 101, It is a story about the complications of being a child with an imagination in post WWII Paris. You recall LG places it in Screensaver land as a simple science experiment to determine the physical properties of gravity,time and space. It is a charming visual image of the significance of children’s literature. Alice in wonderland, King Arthur, and the Red Balloon are as benchmarks along the way of becoming an adult or a dull person. The sweetest image of the red balloon is when ES it toting one along on his way home to ROC. I assume the balloon is for his siblings but it might be for his own delight. He is bringing back a fantastic story. Who doesn’t like a red balloon and a good story?
@WEnchanteur Yes, that narrow path gives us the impression that there is only that one way to go, so what exploring could LG do? Unless the sea was not the sea and only a shallow film of what looks like water. Only if there there was hard ‘ground’ could LG have gone over those areas to leave balloons.
We don’t have enough information. All these continue to be our best guesses and alternative guesses.
@Staygold Eun Seop and his red balloon? LOL another guess. It’s just precisely in his playful, buoyant style, that seeing so many balloons, he grabs hold of one and brings it along with him. His nature is such that he cannot leave things well alone. In the same way that he could not come across the floating coin without flicking it, it was just a natural thing for him to bring a balloon with him, just because it was there.
Thanks for this piece of information, @Iamastonished. It brings an added insight to what else No Man’s Land might symbolise. I did not watch the short film yet, but I read the Wikipedia article on it.
I’m struck by the reference once again, to some spiritual (Christian) analogy in The Red Balloon. It was a sentient thing, attached to a boy, following him faithfully. When the balloon was destroyed, (on a hill, symbolic of Calvary) it transfers its ‘spirit’ to other balloons, and lives on in them to care for the boy. A possible resurrection theme again.
In addition the film is touted as a poetic ode to innocence and imagination, a “poignant symbolization of dreams”, in the midst of a cynical world. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Red_Balloon
One question that came to me before, was why the balloons were all red. If they were markers or meant to brighten a path, why not have them in more than one colour, to give some differentiation as to direction or to add variety. But now, if KES knows this film, then red is significant.
If KES really had this film in mind, the image of the red balloon is particularly apt, since we have been playing with the idea that much we are watching might just be a dream. Further, the look and atmosphere of No Man’s Land is reminiscent of a dreamscape or of an imaginary land. Something our down-to-earth ‘adult’ minds dismiss as impossible.
No Man’s Land was said by LG to be maybe the land of legend. And we have so many legends/tales to work with for analogies in this show. The clearest analogy is still the first Legend of the flute. We see the bar of light spans sky and ground at the end of the strip of land, the way lightning did when it struck the tree in the beginning credits. We said before that the straight, narrow strip of land was reminiscent of the path of the flute/in the flute. (It might also suggest that LG has to walk the straight and narrow way of a good King.) Now we might add to that, the legend of The Red Balloon.
Another question, does LG have to be present, for there to be NMLand? We see him leading others through it. They are not there without LG. Or might we say, it does not exist unless LG is there. As far as we know, no one speaks of it. No one else explores it. There is no indication that anyone in the palace even knows of it. I’ve always found that strange. Also, once LG is in it, no one can locate him.
Since his childhood, called by the flute which in the end he cut into two, and traumatised by the death of his father, what might LG’s imaginings as a child have been. Might it have taken shape and form, over the years, under the influence of a magic flute that he kept with him? We toyed before, I believe, with the idea that NMLand was something created in the mind of LG that became real in his world. He might literally be in his own imaginary world, that leads him to another world, where he hoped to find the owner of the ID Card, and perhaps his saviour. The story of The Red Balloon does not detract from this, but instead does the opposite. 🤔
@Growing Beautifully 😀 I can totally see him doing that! Thanks for responding!
KES alludes to classic film, literature and poetry often. They are love notes to writers, filmmakers and poets she admires. She can be very subtle and witty when she does it. I know it is only a piece of the tale she is telling and it in no way negates broader analysis of TKEM. I love it when she pays tribute to artists this way: she is the best. One analysis of the Red Balloon is that the balloon is a guardian angel of the boy and when all the balloons come together they are the guardian angels of all of the children in the story. I like that idea. There is YoYo girl she is a protecting angel, it would be nice to think that there are others all along the way. My sister says I know alot about what nobody gives a damn about. That’s why I’m so glad to be here @bitchesoverdrama. I’m with my peeps. If I could I would give everybody a red balloon.
For media geeks that don’t mind subtitles,ie bitchesoverdramas
The Red Balloon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?RidwLGucw
KES graduated from Seoul Institute of the Arts where she studied creative writing. I’m sure they dont let you out of the place without seeing this adorable little movie. It is kinda a big deal in film history. I saw it on a big screen and a small screen doesn’t do it justice. If you have the time I hope you enjoy it.
@Iamastonished I have heard of this film a couple of years back but didn’t manage to watch it. Timely reminder, thank you for sharing about KES weaving witty writing through her exposure in the classics and Korean literature. Definitely allow the viewer to grow his/her mindset, perspectives instead of just another drama for ratings.