To me, the coffin is a metaphor.

SunMi was scared of hurting OhGong and potentially killing him so she chose instead to die. I could see why people would consider her decision as a self-sacrifice and, in turn, this self-sacrifice as a noble expression of her love.

However, I will call bullshit again.

I’m proposing that ultimately what the Hong sisters want us viewers to understand is that love is a devilish affair. It’s scary like a horror show.

But what makes it scary isn’t the doomed prophesies or bad omen jars or death bells. No. On the contrary, these fate-based predictions of love actually make it easier for us. Why? Because we’ve been forewarned. If we’re given the endgame ahead of time, we have the option to either stay or walk away from our fatal love.

For me, what makes love scary and daunting in Hwayugi is that we see how love makes people become vulnerable. We expose ourselves to hurting AND getting hurt by our loved ones.

In a way, we all share the same indestructibility of OhGong… to varying degrees. As independent creatures, we make our own paths, live a hedonistic life if we want, shirk responsibilities when expedient, and indulge our whims like OG. We don’t have to answer to anyone.

However, falling in love changes this kind of selfish, or self-centered, lifestyle. When we love somebody, we become sensitive to his/her needs and welfare.

OhGong has already figured this out. His once “unfeeling” heart can be wrung.

To me, the image of OG’s heart being twisted and squeezed by rope is cheesy but effective in conveying the two-fold meaning of a heartache. Physically, he can sense great pain because the rope wrapped around his heart is squeezing it hard. But emotionally, his heart is being wrung with anguish and sorrow. He feels heartache whenever he goes against SunMi’s wishes.

Low-tech graphics but it works.

Because of his love, he exposes himself to uncertainties and risks. He is unsure whether he’ll be rejected, or left behind to suffer alone, or betrayed or even killed by SunMi. But whatever the future brings, he is determined to fight for his love for SunMi. That’s the good thing about OG! His early awareness of his emotions made him accept the consequences and bear the responsibility of his love whole-heartedly.

Them fighting words!

The problem however rests with SunMi.

ASN gave her the choice to either remain in the coffin in the dream world or return to reality where she’d kill OG. She chose the coffin.

It was kinda like the blue pill/red pill argument of Morpheus in that movie, Matrix.  

To some people, ASN’s argument makes sense. But to me, the coffin represents safety. To choose to entomb herself in the stone coffin is to choose to withdraw from the world out of FEAR. She feared that she’d inflict harm on OG so she locked herself up. She was choosing caution and safety, rather than confronting her greatest fear.

To me, SunMi was too gullible to believe in ASN’s FALSE dichotomy. She was incorrectly presented by ASN with two choices. Real world/Death or Dream World/Safety. But there was another choice actually. Her best choice was to call on OG and face the scary future as a united couple.

To me this explains, too, why SunMi wasn’t immediately transported back to her bedroom when she was awakened from the dream state. She was sitting by her coffin, right?

IMO, she needed to make that initial effort – and that conscious choice – to face her fear of killing OG.

While she was ordering him to stop approaching her, she saw that OG was determined to reach her. When she told him fearfully that he’d get killed because of her, he answered her fearlessly to go ahead and kill him right there and then. Although she was afraid of killing him in the future, he was more afraid of losing her at that very moment.

She needed to hear from OG that he, the Great Sage, Equal to the Heavens, Song OhGong, needed her to be by his side no matter what the scary future might be in store for them. ❤️

Lastly, I couldn’t help but notice that this scene had similarities to their second wedding.  Back then, SunMi stopped halfway to the altar, paralyzed, and OhGong was the one who approached her.

This time around, it was OhGong who couldn’t step any further because he was in pain, and SHE was the one to make her way towards him.

Also, at their second wedding, OhGong flung her to the side to get rid of the demon bride behind her. This time around, instead of throwing her down, OG grabbed her and embraced her tightly. He had almost lost her to a real evil being ASN forever. He was truly scared.

To me, these little similarities and contrasts demonstrate that there is a steady, albeit tortuous, progression in the romance of SunMi and OhGong.  They have changed for the better since they first encountered each other. Only if SunMi chose to be locked up in a coffin – safe, invulnerable and unchanging – would their romance have prematurely ended. Contrary to being a noble act, to me that coffin decision of SunMi was such a defeatist and fatalistic move.