Previously I said that the poetry book BoYoung searched for and MinHo found for her, A Season of Good Rain, was made into a movie in 2009 with the same title. I finished watching the movie just to see how it’s related to MinHo’s story. If you don’t mind spoilers, then go ahead and read this.
Good Rain: A Night in Spring
The good rain knows its season,
When spring arrives, it brings life.
It follows the wind secretly into the night,
And moistens all things softly, without sound.
On the country road, the clouds are all black,
On a riverboat, a single fire bright.
At dawn one sees this place now red and wet,
The flowers are heavy in the brocade city.
source: http://www.chinese-poems.com/due.html
1. It’s an open-ended romance but we know that it ends happily. We see the girl learning to ride the bike again. And the guy is waiting for her to finish work. The director said himself that he intended this to be a happy movie.
2. It’s a romance between a Korean guy and Chinese girl who used to date when they were students. They met again when the guy visited China on a one day business trip. He toured the house of the poet Du Fu where the girl worked as a tourist guide. It wasn’t an accidental meeting.
3. It was the girl who brought up the line from Du Fu’s poetry. “A good rain knows when to come.” She would also buy him the book of his poetry as a last minute send-away gift. She didn’t know, however, that the guy had bought the same book for himself even before meeting up with her.
4. The guy had once wanted to become a poet like Boyoung. And like Boyoung, he gave up poetry because he had to work for a living.
Girl: I thought you wanted to be a poet.
Guy: Yeah, I know. I don’t know what happened. I thought this job was going to be temporary. And that after I got my first pay check, I’d quit and start writing again. Then the next one came, and then I got a promotion. More responsibilities. It just got harder and harder to quit.
Girl: You know…I really loved your writing.
Guy: Thanks.
5. When the guy left after his studies, the girl wrote him a postcard. But he never replied. His excuse:
Guy: I must have written a thousand letters. I could never send them.
Girl: Honestly?
Guy: Yes, of course… I didn’t have the time. And then by the time I did I was in another relationship.
Girl: What was she like?
Guy: If I could prove to you that I loved you from the start, would it change anything?
Girl: Do you think the spring comes because the flowers blossom or the flowers blossom because the spring comes?
6. When they met again and reminisced about the past, the girl would pretend to have faulty memories of the past. Like denying knowing about a bike and knowing how to ride one. The guy had left her a yellow bike, and as it turned out, she sold it. The guy was miffed that she sold it. She gave an excuse that she forgot how to ride to bike.
7. Edited to add this: The girl also teased the guy about eating peacocks as a delicacy. Then, she said, “Just kidding!”hahahaha.
7. The guy was supposed to return to South Korea, but the girl asked to wait for her at the airport. They had coffee at a departure lounge and the guy decided to miss his flight home and stay another day with her.
8. They had a make-out session (the guy is a good kisser, by the way) but the girl stopped it because she was hungry. She was obviously NOT ready for it.
9. Big Spoiler: after dinner, she told him that she was married. My guess is she married her coworker after the guy never responded to her. She moved on with another man. She also sold the bike, AND FORGOT to ride a bike, because she married another man. (lol. You Who Forgot to Ride a Bike)
To me, that’s the connection between Boyoung and Ye.
9. However, she only told the guy HALF the truth. She WAS married. Her husband had passed away in an earthquake.
My guess is she told the guy that lie because she didn’t want to be emotionally attached to him again, and to wait again for letters from him. She was definitely tempted but she didn’t want to cross that path again.
10. After the guy left, she received a big package from him, a yellow bike. And a note, saying –
“Dear May, sorry for the late reply. It’s been raining here all day long. I think it came all the way from ChengDu. I hope to see you soon. And I miss you. Dongha”
This was the letter he should have written a long time ago but didn’t have time for.
11. She rode the bike wobbly at first till she remembered. Afterwards, we see the guy waiting for her to finish work at the house of the poet Du Fu.
Hence, the good rain knows when it’s the right time to fall.
lol. What do you think of the movie? Seems like a good foreshadowing, right?
Read these two:
i hope someday our Min Ho’s “good rain” will come over. definitely will check this movie.
It’s in English. Both Korean and Chinese actors spoke English with a good accent. I found in on Youtube.
It is kinda slow and cinematographic. I didn’t mind at all. But some people might want faster action.
I did feel like visiting Cheungdo (it’s in southern China) after watching it – for the food. lol.
I checked if the Korean title of the movie is the same as the one on the book MinHo has. It is: 호우시절
This movie seems promising for MinHo. The poem, that book could not have been chosen randomly.
But now I’m thinking that as BoYoung romance with Dr Ye seems like a silly fantasy and settling I’m not sure she had in the past anything intense with MinHo. And she surely didn’t show much feeling towards him now. She’s just familiar with him, that’s all. We’ve only seen him loving her while she’s been fantasizing about Dr. Ye.
Even if there was a good reason for his breakup, I’m still not sure how things will go in these last 4 episodes. There is hope though. Until now the drama has proved to have a plot with a lot of attention to these kinds of things. Nothing seemed random. It would be seriously weird for them to start now.
Wow im shocked really good foreshadowing. But that You who forgot to ride a bike lol 😂 we all know minho will leave that hospital later right. But about that passed away.. If minho really the end game I hope dr ye boyoung will have a normal break up lol what even a normal break up but no die pls. This is really interesting ! As always you’re amazing ! & dear writernim pls don’t disappoint us 🙏😂
There is hope for a MinHo-BoYoung endgame but I too am not sure if the writer will be able to CONVINCE me. That’s the problem when this stupid writer did the stupid “intervention/ plot twist/ nondisclosure.” I’ve become skeptical of the writer.
And even if she did a plot twist AGAIN for MinHo and BoYoung at the end (say, there was a stash of letters, instead of poetry, that BoYoung had been keeping for MinHo. lol), I would still view BoYoung’s fickleness with distaste.
She’s an idiot.
If I’m going with just my “feels,” yes, I want MinHo to shake the dust of that hospital off his feet. He couldn’t leave that place fast enough for me.
re. the movie, this is just MY interpretation. I don’t think other audience saw the connection so… (shrugs). The writer may or may not use this book, and movie as a foreshadowing. We shall see.
Still wishing for big surprise at the end. Although the next episodes unbearable to my broken heart 😭