What did you think of Episode 9? Did you like it? I haven’t the time to watch Episode 10 so I’m just posting my 2 cent worth of ramblings on Episode 9.
1. The Mendelsohn’s Wedding March: The first time I viewed this opening scene, I thought the pianist flubbed the first seventh chord. It didn’t sound right. I also wondered why it looked like the Princess Diana’s frou-frou wedding gown.
2. The words written behind the altar is the famous Corinthians passage on love (or charity). It’s from the King James version of the bible. “Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth.”
3. SunMi’s voiceover/monologue: This whole hype over whether OhGong is her soulmate or not irritates me. Yes, being soulmates is romantic but to me, it’s the wrong basis for marriage. This attraction men and women feel for each other at the “soul level” is not a very good indicator or gauge of a long, lasting, true love.
In real life, instead of wondering whether a couple are meant for each other or fated together or a perfect match, it’s better if the couple strive TO BE the perfect match and WORK out their destiny together.
That’s the whole point of the Corinthians verses. When we read it properly, we’ll notice that “fate” was never mentioned in its definition of love. It defined love as something patient and kind. It protects, trusts, hopes for the best and endures all.
This is the whole Corinthian passage from the Catholic bible.
If I speak in human and angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal
And if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing.
If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, it is not pompous, it is not inflated
it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury,
it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth.
It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never fails. If there are prophecies, they will be brought to nothing; if tongues, they will cease; if knowledge, it will be brought to nothing.
For we know partially and we prophesy partially,
but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.
When I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I put aside childish things.
At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. At present I know partially; then I shall know fully, as I am fully known.
So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
To me, these points from the passage are relative to Hwayugi:
>>If there are prophesies, they will be brought to nothing… for we know partially and we prophesy partially
Meaning, love renders prophesies useless. Whatever that silly “bell of doom” says, the ending is still unknown and to be determined. The prophesies are uncertain because love will find a way.
>>At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror… at present I know partially
Meaning, right now we can’t fully comprehend or predict our future because it’s murky. But in good time, we’ll understand everything.
>>Love never fails.
Meaning, if true love exists, it will find a way.
4. How I dislike the actress OYS’ flustered look!! When OhGong motioned her to come forward, SunMi caught her breath then looked down shyly. That was one of the phoniest shy look I’ve seen. It ranks up there with Meghan Markle pretending to be virginal…
I don’t understand her acting here. She looked fine in My Sassy Girl with Joo Won. But in this kdrama, her innocent girl look is so jarring and unconvincing that I’m wishing that this role was given to another actress.
Even the Zombie actress (or Bora!! lol) would have been better….
5. I laughed at OhGong losing his temper with MaWang’s piano playing. He did sound pretty exasperated when he shouted, “Mawang, micheosso??” (Mawang, have you gone crazy?).
I also liked that he scolded SunMi for wearing a poufy and uncomfortable wedding gown but extended his hand to help her up. He’s acting more a boyfriend who nags because he’s actually paying attention to her and he cares about her comfort.
Then when both Mawang and Secretary Ma began making fun of SunMi’s lack of fashion sense, he gave Mawang a pointed look.
He told them to cut it out, then paid SM a backhanded compliment by saying that she looked pretty even when she wore a garbage. He also got back at Mawang by suggesting they go and eat beef rib soup, beef stew, beef meat soup or beef head soup. I’d like to think that he was subtly paying Mawang back for insulting SunMi.
6. “You can marry me again. No matter how many times you come to be my bride, I’ll accept you.” Yes, this is swoon-worthy because this is the exact opposite of what being a “soulmate” is.
He was saying that HE is ACCEPTING her. Given a ten, a hundred, or a thousand lifetimes, worlds or reality, he would choose her each and every single time as his bride.
See? What has being soulmates got to do with it? She’s his LIFEmate.
7. lol. The GGG created a CONDITIONAL “unconditional” love.
Mawang is right that it’s unconditional love, in the sense, that whatever SunMi does, OhGong will continue to love her. There’s nothing that she needs to do to qualify or earn his love because love is there.
However, when you look at the big picture, it is conditional love because it’s dependent on OhGong wearing the bracelet and under her spell.
8. “The reduction of the whole universe to one person, and the expansion of the one person to God, this is love.” – per Victor Hugo.
And that’s why when you truly love someone, you also touch the face of God, according to Victor Hugo, too.
9. Excellent acting by Cha SeungWon. He could ham it up for sure, but he could express deep emotions (like his guilt for Na Chal Nyeo) without moving a limb. I like it that Mawang pointed out to OhGong that they were in the same boat. Because of their actions, they have caused injury to another woman. OhGong altered the course of SunMi’s life and consigned her to being SamJang as punishment for helping him.
Some people would call their encounter “ill-fated” but I chose to simply call it a life-altering event without casting blame on anyone. To me, if you blame that singular event for the “catastrophes” she had to live through, then you’re also negating the positive things that arose from their encounter, like her learning to be self-reliant and independent, and becoming a savvy business-woman.
10. SunMi had always wanted to be a normal person but because of her special gift of seeing supernatural things, she was tasked by Mawang to assist him in getting the fan from OhGong’s prison. She was going to trade her umbrella with Mawang’s cane so she’d have more power to get rid of the demons around her. But apparently, after releasing OhGong, she was punished too with the lotus-scented blood of Samjang, so now, not only were demons appearing before her, these demons also wanted to eat her up.
From this conversation with Mawang, OhGong was first informed of SunMi’s wish to be a “normal person” who could get married and have kids. And to OhGong, it suddenly made sense why SunMi didn’t leave the wedding chapel right away and lingered there for a moment, lost in thought. He thought that SM was daydreaming of a normal human life. What he didn’t know was that SM was actually daydreaming of a life with him.
11. Then, this whole subject of a “normal” human life for SM came up again the following day when the secretary Hanjoo was about to call Jonathan to eat out with SM at a toppoki place. OhGong was eavesdropping again and he showed up out of the blue as soon as he heard that SM wanted to go eat out with somebody. Hanjoo asked him if he was jealous of his normal family life and when OG strongly denied it, Hanjoo said that was exactly the reason he should let go of SM. SM wanted a normal life while OG didn’t, therefore OG couldn’t make her happy ever giving her what she wanted.
I must point that here, we can see that OG was internalizing what HanJoo said. Instead of being insulted and protesting why he shoulder the burden of making SM happy, he considered Hanjoo’s words carefully and connected it to what Mawang told him yesterday about SM’s desire for a normal life.
On their date, OG tried to show her “normal” starting with the spicy toppoki, and then strolling aimlessly while holding hands. He was fulfilling her heart’s desire. And the interesting thing here is that he was, for the first time, he was being kind to her NOT because he wanted to be released from the conditions of their relationship.
Instead, he wanted her to realize that if she wanted “normal,” then their abnormal, weird, supernatural relationship would disappear. He was actually arguing for the continuation of their relationship.
For me this moment of reflection was a breakthrough for OhGong because he was being mindful and taking into consideration SunMi’s feelings and welfare before his. 
12. “Meeting you was a calamity.” This is where the makjang happens. Sigh. I wish the Hong sisters didn’t create this melodramatic “Why me?????!!!” scene.
Again, if SM believed in all these fate and soulmate mumbo-jumbo, then why the heck was she blaming OG for the calamity? If everything was fated, then neither she nor OG had any choice BUT to have that “fatal” encounter with each other.
Why was she mad at OG for? She should be angry with the deity for her misfortune, and with Mawang for throwing her in OG’s path.
Blaming the wrong guy…
13. The zombie dying on the presidential candidate/bad guy again. hahahaha. I had to laugh because it was beginning to be a never-ending death experience for him. Like karma. Every time he encountered her, she’d die on him and he’d panic because he would be exposed as a murderer.
14. The children’s book the young SunMi disappeared into is Peter Pan. I recognized the top hat of Wendy’s brother, John.
This was an apt book for the young SM. Like Peter Pan, OhGong was mischievous and refused to grow up (or to act mature, at least). Young SunMi would see herself as the faithful follower, Wendy who harbored a secret crush on Peter Pan.
Okay, these are my comments. What did you think of Episode 9?
My comment? You need to watch ep 10. :joy:
There’s so much goodness between the OTP even if it’s written between the lines!
Are the subs up already? Wow! They’re getting faster and faster every week.
I don’t mind spoilers. You can tell me what you think. But I have to figure out the HTML code for spoilers here.
I liked it too when OG realized that something was terribly wrong. I wonder if he flew to SunMi’s side right away. Did he?
What do you think of this Winter Guy? I liked him here. Suddenly I saw him in a different light, like the Grim Reaper side kick of Goblin.
Okay…
I’m halfway through Episode 10 phikyl. Some scenes are still missing subs.
Their farewell scene 🤦♀️(Facepalm) lol. It sure escalated quickly. One second they appeared as if they were finally going to reconcile tearfully and the next second, they were both saying, “Fine! Have a good life” with open sarcasm and hostility.
But I like how OG kept on hinting that he’d gladly stay if she only said the magic word, “Kajima!”
Hahaha. Kajimaaaa!
Hahaha, phikyl.
I’m having so much with Episode 10. This is classic Hong Sisters.
He beat up the bookseller so she wouldn’t call on him? (Disclaimer here: I don’t condone assault and battery in real life.) That would teach her who was the real master and who was the willing slave in this GGG contract.
Anybody else watching Hwayugi? Lovebangwon?
The classic Hong Sisters stuff is why I was loving 10. That and the wording they used: “the owner of MY ggg” vs “the owner of THE ggg.”
Also, I’m not sure I’m on board with the accepted interpretation of ggg anymore. I don’t think it actually controls his feelings for her, I think it just literally squeezes his heart when she’s in trouble/in pain and SOG just thinks [at first] that it’s forcing him to love her. In reality, I think it’s just amplifying feelings for her that he already had by making him physically feel her pain.
Subs were still at 89% when I watched so I’ll be watching it again later today to see what all I might have missed.
I do like that they had both SM and SOG CHOOSE to continue their ‘fates’ though; with SM going to get the Sam Jang part of her soul back and SOG choosing to “reactivate” the bracelet by kissing SM.
As for spoiler html code…. testing
Nope… didn’t work. Oh well.
Rats!!!
“the owner of MY ggg” vs “the owner of THE ggg.”
yes, the sense of ownership and personalization is more defined when you say MY ggg instead of THE ggg. Plus, the ggg is not viewed anymore as something burdensome because it forced or imposed on OhGong.
Same here. I checked just now and it’s 89%
Yes, the “choosing” part is satisfying. They chose to enter the contract again with eyes opened, and the reactivation or kiss served as their “sealing the deal.” In weddings, the kiss is the symbolic way of consenting to the marriage contract.
Yes, I think in this episode 10 he’s shown that he loves her. It goes with the whole “Love is patient, love is kind…love doesn’t seek its own interests, love endures all things.” He was willing to endure separation/exile just so she could have a happy “normal” life eating dokbokki and having kids.
And I like that she said that it was her choice to return. “I came back because I wanted to.” Not because she was doing what “fate” told her too, or she was mindlessly following her “fated” life. It was her choice to return.
And I think the god representative also gave up, didn’t he? He said he couldn’t if SunMi didn’t want to be the monk, and OhGong didn’t want to be her guardian, then FINE! Let them do whatever. lol. To me, that signals that the two were messing up their “fate” and creating their own destiny instead.
Again, I’m speaking here with Western sensibilities and biases. 🙂 I just can’t abide with the passivity of the “fate-seekers.” I feel like smacking them on the head and saying, “Go get what you want, girls and boys!”
Last, I agree with you about the Hong sisters. The ending is also typical of the Hong sisters. Even when OG and SM were kissing happily, there’s a twist. We could hear the sounds of bells. Again, in weddings, the “wedding bells” are rung to announce the auspicious moment. Also, the bells are supposed to shoo away the lurking evil spirits from the newly married couples.
But here, the bells were intended to be ominous. There’s a dramatic irony. Although SM thinks she knows what the ringing of the bells means WE, the audience, know what it really portends — doom for the couple because they’re ill-fated. lol.
You know, I would laugh if there was a miscommunication along the way about which bell is which.
Who knows how long those bells have been around and how long the stories about them were passed down. Maybe the red one is the death omen one and black one really IS soul-mates!
“Ill-fated” or not, there’s nothing stopping them from changing their ‘fate’ at this point. They’ve already changed it once by exiting out of their respective contracts and then renewing them. If they did it once, they can do it again!
I also wonder how much of the pre-planned ‘fate’ hinged on them never developing true feelings for each other. Maybe the original thought was that SOG would be so pissed about GGG being put on him that no feelings would develop. In that case, GGG would be necessary in order for Sam Jang to utilize him to save the world… But in this case, he truly loves her so GGG isn’t needed anymore imo.
As SamJang (a monk and a male to boot) and Monkey King, SunMi and OhGong were NOT supposed to fall in love. 😂 I think that’s one loophole right there for the ill-fated lovers.
I think the only provision in the original heavenly mission of SamJang to rescue the world was the services of the Monkey King. She had to be accompanied by the powerful Monkey King for her own protection because she couldn’t defend herself from demonic attacks.
The GGG was a “surprise” add-on, and an improvement on the crown that OG was originally wearing, according to folklore, to make him obey the SamJang. So you’re probably right that the deities didn’t foresee nor anticipate the altered reality caused by the GGG. Love entered the equation when Mawang and SM decided to harness the power of the love bracelet to tame OG rather than headache-inducing crown. So, right there, from the beginning of the use of GGG, OG and SM changed the course of the divine plan. (This wasn’t divine intervention but rather human intervention.) SunMi and OG already deviated from their preordained endgames.
Also, who knows what tricks OG has up his sleeves? He seems to be able to outsmart the gods when he puts his mind to it.
As for the bells being switched, sure why not? That’s known to happen in kdrama — the red herring or the bait-and-switch trope.
But right now, it does seem like OhGong will take the fall for SM. It’s something he said to the bookseller. “Saving means protecting them so they can live.” He didn’t agree with the bookseller cutting short the children’s lives and keeping their souls in the books, no matter how altruistic and benevolent she may have sounded.
I’ll put down Episode 10 as the episode he learned about sacrificing. He needed to learn this because he could save the world for her.