In terms of cinematography, there were two significant scenes here for me.

The first one is the umbrella scene

and the second one is the shoe scene.

Which one did you like better?

Be truthful now. Remember Lee Ahn hates liars. hahaha.

Stop here and think before proceeding.

I’ll explain my take on them.

*****************

For me, the first scene hits the right spot for drama queens. It’s pitiful and moving. And the trope used here is called (hmm… I’m not a literature major so let’s me see if I get this correct) pathetic fallacy. Pathetic fallacy is when even the rainy weather commiserates with our boy’s heartache.

Lee Ahn walks through a crowd. Bumping people. Not caring at all. Kinda like Eeyore with his rain cloud.

This umbrella scene reminds me of the scene in Episode 2 when Lee Ahn turned himself into a human turnstile and touched all the students in his high school. Back then, he stood while everybody ran.

Although the school scene was comical and this umbrella scene isn’t, both moments in time allude to his struggles being the odd-man-out. He’s going against the flow of the crowd.

Also, in Episode 2, his classmates were wearing their school uniforms. This time, the crowd are holding uniform umbrellas: either red or yellow umbrella.

When one poster here asked what’s the meaning of colors, it was suggested that the colors were representative of the lead characters, that is, red = Lee Ahn and Jaein = yellow.

I don’t think it’s that simple.

On a side note: I’ve always disliked these color designations. I remember, in the Reply 1988 forum in soompi, there was much ado among the shippers about which color belonged to which character. I stayed out of that argument because frankly, I thought the idea ludicrous and their proponents silly too. (I still think it’s dumb to this day, lol.) No director would be that sophomoric to insist on color schemes for his actors.

Look: Jaein wore a feminine lavender coat in the rain confrontation scene, an ochre (mix of orange and yellow) hoodie under a grey coat during the second kiss, and a mannish heather gray jacket over white shirt during the first kiss on the rooftop.

She did NOT wear yellow often enough to win the Ms. Yellow beauty pageant. Maybe next episode? Next year? 

To me, the two-colored umbrellas in this scene simply indicate that Lee Ahn has been living life either under yellow light or red light, WITHOUT that all important green color.

At times, he lives cautiously as if there was yellow light in front of him. For instance, he refuses to touch elevator key pads to go up (metaphor alert!), and

he insists on using a magnetic key to open doors (another metaphor alert!).

And at times, his life is at a standstill as if there’s a red light stopping him from pursuing a career and

and from developing his psychometric skills.

There’s no green umbrella (or green light = go! go! go!) for him because his special ability has caused him to move against the flow of life. He’s going against traffic.

See that? lol.  The umbrella colors make better sense when seen in this light than the rather simplistic yellow = Jaein and red = Superman. Perhaps that logic will work in other blogs, but not with this bitch’s blog.

Gratuitous pic of Yang Yang. Just because.

To continue…

Lee Ahn stops in the middle of the street and touches a man (holding a red umbrella) who was involved in a hit-and-run, a woman (holding a red umbrella) who shoplifted a lipstick, and a man (holding a yellow umbrella) who hit his wife. These are people he’s been cautiously avoiding all his life. They are the reason he refuses to touch anything and wears only long sleeves. They’re his personification of his red and yellow lights.

And so he closes his eyes.

Remember what Sungmo wrote in his log book about Ahn? He wrote:

It seems he’s burdened by the truth he sees through his power.
In the world that Ahn sees with his power
love, joy, sadness are filled with lies.

When he closes his eyes, he’s blocking out other people’s lies. He doesn’t want to see them. Duh. It doesn’t take a genius to figure the meaning of his closed eyes, right?

So let’s go deeper.

For me, the important element that most viewers miss is that Lee Ahn’s catalyst for his psychometric skills has been Jaein.

In Episode 2, the reason he attempted to his first-ever, insane “crowd” reading of his school was because he and Jaein were about to be expelled from school if Jaein did find the real school intruder.

Ahn: There’s only 30 minutes left until math class starts. I don’t have time to read all the girls in the school.
Daebong: But this isn’t it. If you do this, you’ll die.
Ahn: Let’s survive and live.

BTW, See that? Red means for Stop! Do not touch this button. But he touched it anyway. He poked it anyway.

Jaein gave him courage to do that stupid (and hysterical) stunt.

Eight episodes later, the reason Lee Ahn refuses to “read” people is …guess who??

Jaein. He had a fall-out with her.

When he puts his hands in his pocket, he’s withdrawing from the world which he thinks is filled with liars. His discovery of the true identity of Jaein’s father made him revert to his cynical self. He’s back to his former self.

Remember, in Episode 6, the note Jaein wrote about Ahn from reading Sungmo’s journal:

Using psychometry results in a negative worldview

Lee Ahn has come full circle. He’s back to his original negative worldview which for a while Jaein managed to make him forget.

So, when he closes his eyes and opens them again, his back to his old habit of withdrawing from the world. In a blink of the eye, he’s erasing his progress with Jaein’s help.

When he open his eyes, he begins walking between yellow and red umbrellas. Going in the wrong direction.

Losing himself in the anonymity of the crowd. Hiding his psychometric powers again.

And that’s what this umbrella scene ultimately means to me: a regression. It’s pretty to look at, but in terms of emotional maturity, it’s a step back for him.

😀

Let’s move on to the shoes…

Personally, I prefer the shoe scene because this is the transformation that I wanted from Lee Ahn.

Let me fast-forward to the scene when he returns to his apartment after seeing Jaein safely back home. His doggy is joyously waiting for him. And he talks to it. “I’m sorry, you were alone yesterday. Did you eat? Did you sleep well? (sighing) Who am I even saying this too? (sighing)”

Of course, he isn’t just saying it to his pet. He’s also talking to Jaein. The literary device that he uses is called apostrophe. (I’m sure the literature graduates among my 12 followers will correct me if I’m wrong.) It’s when a character addresses a missing person like “O Romeo, O Romeo, Where are thou, Romeo?”  or an inanimate object like “Twinkle, twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are”.

That’s why Ahn sighs. Why will he sigh if he’s talking to White Snow? He’s expressing his worries for Jaein as if she’s standing in front of him. He’s sorry that he left her alone that day and didn’t visit the security center like he always did.He wonders whether she’s eaten and she slept well.

Ha!

I hope he’s sighing, too, because he remembers that, shortly before they had their Moment of Truth the previous night, he was wishing her a good night’s sleep. “Sleep with only good memories for today, Yoon Jaein.”  (Hey, that’s another apostrophe, right there!)

As Ahn hugs his Snow White (or is White Snow?), Daebong arrives bringing the music box Jaein made for him. Ahn then recalls Jaein telling him, “I worked really hard on it, but I’m not sure if you’ll like it.”

And then to Daebong, Lee Ahn admits that looking at the gift feels too cruel.

Honestly, the first time I watched this scene, I expected him to say that the toy was a cruel reminder of Jaein because he was still mad at her. I didn’t expect him to confess his shortcoming to Daebong.

He says, “I guess I just wanted to use my silly powers to act like a hero around her. Just to look cool. To impress her. Her wounds. Her memories. I talked like I’d take responsibility. But I hurt her the most. With these hands, I said I’d save her. And yet I used them to hurt her.”

The gift has become a painful reminder of how HE spurned her after she finally opened up and trust him.

As alfalfa has commented,

…I think the act of giving doesn’t necessarily have to be tangible. For Jaein, her trust and affection are the biggest gifts that someone who’s vulnerable, and has been building her wall up for 13 years, could give. Which is why we can see Ahn being so torn up about it after the reveal. He managed to get through her wall and earned the very thing that she’s been guarding only to toss it aside. But his emotions are justified too so both of them are not to be blamed for that moment of vulnerability and are hurting just as much.

With her gift, she’s thanking him for being someone she can trust with her deepest secret and saddest moment of loss. I think people often forget that, in many ways, except for the actual physical death, Jaein also lost her dad that night of the fire.

For me, Lee Ahn has the right to feel tormented and bitter. His feelings are legitimate but this episode is about him growing up, not wallowing in pity. He’s had 13 years to deal with his trauma and grief, and now’s the time for him to gain a new perspective.

Thank goodness his road to self-discovery doesn’t end with that umbrella scene. In fact, that’s only the beginning of his personal journey to maturity.

His self-discovery continues at the bridge where he vents at fate.

He remembers telling Jaein that it doesn’t matter that the world thinks her father is guilty as long as the people she likes think she’s innocent. And he remembers her hyperventilating after the students confronted her about her dad. “So this is what it’s like. The feeling of being unable to breathe.”

Now, he finally understands her panic attacks. He takes out an emergency paper bag that he’s decorated for her.

He’s angry at the world for playing a mean joke on him. “Why does this have to happen to me! Why? What do you want me to do?” And he crumples down with the weight of his emotions.

This whole scene is well-played by the actor and beautifully staged by the director. (lol. Did anybody notice that he’s at the same bridge where Sungmo stopped after discovering that his stalker attacked Lee Ahn?)

To me, the bridge represents Lee Ahn’s slowly crossing over to the other side. Literally and metaphorically. While he was on the street with the umbrella, his feelings were focused solely on HIM. Now, as he walks on the bridge, he’s seeing her side, too. He’s still angry but now he’s remembering her pain, too.

He’s supposed to be her “bridge over troubled waters” (like that 1970’s song from Simon and Garfunkels), or that person who’s going to be her source of comfort when she needs to be lifted up.

But he refuses. He can’t do it, not when he knows who her father is.

Also, to me, punching the rail is a visual (and witty) equivalent of railing at life because “to rail” in English means “to rant.”

The following day, Lee Ahn resumes his journey to self-discovery and maturity when he goes to his parents’ grave site.

He expresses bitterness and confusion to his parents. “I must really be dumb. No matter how I think about it I can’t figure out an answer. When I think of both of you, that person, even that girl, I can’t help but resent them. I can’t get the thought of her reaching for my hand out of my head. Even though I know she must have felt so vulnerable holding my hand. Even though she didn’t do anything wrong.”

I already commented about this on the post on  “The Little Prince”  so I’ll just add this:

This is a stressful situation for Lee Ahn because he has to RECONCILE two equally important but conflicting emotions and priorities. He faces a dilemma. On one hand, he’s filled with hatred for what he (erroneously) considers as Jaein’s dad’s lies. But on the other hand, he’s also filled with remorse that he’s rejected Jaein when he knows she’s innocent.

After the grave site, he goes to the apartment to try find answers. Notices the change in him? He touches the elevator keypad.

And he touches the wall. But obviously, he can’t read anything. It’s been painted over.

To me, his visit to the apartment shows a breakthrough.  It signifies his willingness to retrace his steps, touch things, and find answers to the past.

He cried on the street with the umbrellas, on the bridge overlooking the darkness, and then at the grave site with his parents. But now, he’s stopped crying as he walks down the old corridor. He’s almost stoic when he says, “The things that happened in the past, of course, there’s no way I can see them.”

But when Jaein suddenly turns up at the apartment, he quickly hides from her. He doesn’t let her see him.

And he follows her home.

I know that is a trope. I think there’s an unspoken rule somewhere, “The lover shall follow the beloved; she shall fear no evil to befall her.”

This trope may have been repeated a million times but it works perfectly for this specific couple. For me, this trope is useful in three ways.

First, it shows that Lee Ahn’s not a victim anymore. Look at the way he’s walking.  Do you see his hands? Are they in his pockets?

Here too. Look at his hands. Are they pounding on the glass door? Ha!

I think he’s done wallowing in self-pity. Thank goodness! Life isn’t fair and I don’t have time to deal with other people’s emotional shit…especially fictional ones. I’m dropping this show like a hot potato if Ahn mopes for another episode.

Second, this walk-in-her-shoes is the main theme of the episode.

To me, that’s the whole point of all the multiple shots of her shoes and her limping. I told you in analysis of “The Little Prince” right?

The director is soooooo NOT subtle with the famous adage, “Walk a mile in someone else’s shoes before judging the person.” The viewer would have to be some kind of nitwit not to wonder where the director was going with the shoes. (lol. For a millisecond, I considered whether he had a shoe fetish, but I’m perverted that way.)

So Ahn follows Jaein’s footsteps from afar. (Don’t worry. I’m convinced Park JinYoung is part Klingon, part Romulan. He has activated his cloaking device so he can’t be seen even if he’s like 3 feet away from her.)

She stops and starts to weep. Behind her, he sighs.

And do you know why he doesn’t approach her?

It isn’t because he’s still angry at her and her father.

It’s because he knows he’s hurt her. He’s the reason she’s weeping so he can hardly go tap her shoulder and say, “Hey, girlfriend! What’s up? Why are you crying? Stop crying now.”

I especially like how the camera first focuses on her so he’s blurry,

then the camera refocuses on him so SHE’s blurry.

At first glance, it seems as if this is just a frivolous camera trick.

But after you rewatch this episode (and understand the real reason for her tears) then you’ll have to agree with me that the shift of the camera lens is brilliant.

You see, in the first shot, she’s crying because she’s thinking of HIM and how his parents died in the fire. At this time, she already knows his parents died in the fire. Thus, she’s crying upfront because at the back of her mind there’s this sadness and guilt for Lee Ahn’s pain.

Meanwhile, in the second shot, Ahn also feels guilty for hurting her. He thinks that she’s crying because of his rejection. So, he’s lurking in the background, but she’s first and foremost in his mind.

See that? The change in focus of the camera lenses also shifts the viewers’ perspective on who’s sad and who caused the sadness.

Third and last, there’s the subversion of the earlier fairy tale tropes regarding shoes. Look at these scenes which are straight out of the romantic books:

Returning the YELLOW shoe he kept for her,

Giving her a pair of red light slippers,

Tying the shoelaces of her yellow shoe,

He behaves like Prince Charming except he’s missing the glass slipper. These are fine in typical kdramas. But these aren’t the romantic gestures I expect from Lee Ahn.

🙂

You see, if he’s indeed the representative of the Little Prince in this story, then these big romantic gestures are unnecessary.  It’s enough that he follows her as she walks in darkness.

Why?

Because the essential things, like empathy, responsibility and forgiveness, are invisible to the eye.