All the sassy and smart bitches here probably already discerned that all of the ghost that Chansung encountered so far are related to Manwol’s history and self-awareness. Let me round them all up.

The Mayor (from Episode 1):

He was a corrupt man who had other people killed. His soul was full of vengeance and he stabbed Manwol. Manwol said that she couldn’t ridicule the man for attempting to kill her when she’s immortal. She said, “I was also crazy like him and I carried a sword around.” She recalled the time she easily killed a troop of soldiers sent to hunt her down, and the time she dared slash the throat of the Old Woman. She lashed out because she was triggered by the Old Woman questioning her who else did she kill to avenge the deaths of her people.

Referring to the crazed Mayor, she asked, “How can living things not know their own sins?” On one level, she was talking about the Mayor who blamed her for his descent to hell. But on another deeper level, she could have been talking about herself. She didn’t want to admit to her sins: her arrogance and self-pity.

In Episode 3, she said, “Someone said that I was arrogant and foolish although I don’t acknowledge it.”

The tiger (from Episode 2):

She was like the tiger, the last of his kind. According to Chansung, “He came here without a pack, without a mate, living alone to the end.” Just like Manwol.

Then she observed, “He is dead. They made him look alive like this (in a taxodermied state).” Just like her. She’s made to look alive with couturier clothes, pretty jewelry, and luxury cars. But she’s dead inside like the stuffed tiger. Upon hearing her comment on the tiger, Chansung recalled her saying, “I’m not dead. I haven’t died yet. I’m just there.”

She also said, “You don’t need to put anything meaningful here. Because everything he cherished is somewhere he cannot return to.” Again, that’s like her. She only has to keep on existing; life need not be meaningful because all that she cherished were dead in the past. Like her friend (brother?) Yeon Wu.

 

The soldier ghost (from Episode 2):

Hmmm…I think this was a representative of the soldiers who hunted her down and killed her gang. This was an evil SPIRIT and unlike the ghosts he encountered.

I believe she knew it was coming. Hence, her warrior-like clothes and her appearance at the right moment.

The student (from Episode 3):

She and Manwol have poverty in common. The rich girl called the student a parasite in society because she was on public welfare. The rich girl said, “You live on public welfare but you want to buy this (the necklace)? Have a conscience. The money is given to you to eat. You’re a burden on the taxpayers’ money.”

Well, Manwol can be considered a parasite, too.

In the past, the rich people would consider a pest. She and her gang of bandits robbed the rich people on the highway. She attacked the market where the slaves from her hometown, Goguryeo, were being traded. More importantly, she also wanted the guy whom the “young lady at the Yeongju Castle” adored. lol. See that? She’s like the student who wanted to buy the necklace she couldn’t afford.

 

Then, in the present time, Manwol’s a parasite, too. She’s living high on the hog because she demands money from the people and ghosts for her services.

Here’s her conversation with Chansung after she’s dealt with the parents of the rich girl and told the student to go on living in a borrowed body.

MW: (cynically) She has become a real parasite. Even so she paid for a golden host. I’m sure the parents will suck it up not knowing she isn’t their daughter.
CS: The student will have a hard time looking at her body every day. It’s sad.

Like the kind-hearted soul that he is, Chansung worries for the student trapped in her killer’s body.

MW: It’s the law that you have to pay for everything you have done.

There are three levels of understanding this. One: the student had to pay price what she had done. She stole her classmate’s body because she wanted her necklace back pretty badly. But as consequence, she’s trapped in it and living like “parasite.”

Two: the PARENTS had to pay Manwol’s price, too, for covering up their daughter’s crime. They paid her silence with those gold bars and they will have to “suck it up” not knowing that their real daughter was already dead.

BTW, notice how witty the term “suck it up” is. The parents must “suck it up” (i.e., accept the price) when Manwol is the real parasite sucking (i.e., siphoning) money from them because she sucked up to them (i.e., flattered them). The parents thought she was doing them a good deed when she actually conned them.

Three: Manwol, too, has to pay the price. It amuses me that Manwol is singularly lacking in self-awareness. She’s laughing at other people’s plight when she herself is in the same situation. On the other hand, Chansung is very perceptive. He immediately remembered what the Bar Ghost told him about Manwol paying the price for something she’d done. He asked her flat-out about it.

CS: Are you also currently paying for some evil deed? I heard that you were being punished.

I love how the camera showed her hand almost touching the gold bars. To me, that was a reminder of her evil deed.

MW: That’s right. Someone said that I was arrogant and foolish although I don’t acknowledge it.
CS: Ahhh. (meaning, “Oh I see.”)
MW: What’s that. You just said, “ahh”. What does that mean? Are you laughing at me?
CS: No, that’s not it. It’s because you look pitiful too.

We come full circle. Chansung pitied the student because she’s trapped in that hateful body of her classmate because she had to pay the price. He also pitied Manwol because she’s trapped in this world in that dead, unfeeling body of hers because she had to pay the price too.

The old man and his dog (from Episode 4):

He didn’t want to leave because his dog would die of starvation. He wanted the dog to bark to alert people of its existence. The Old Woman told the Grim Reaper to open the door. She said, “In these cases, it’s alright to open the door slightly.”

Literally, the door opened for the dead man. Metaphorically, an open door means there’s hope for a way out to a new beginning.

Once the door opened, the dead man ordered its dog to go outside. The Old Woman said to the Grim Reaper, “Just leave him. He won’t get too lost. If he must, he can find the Full Moon House.”

She could have been referring to both the dead man and the dog. Either one of them can go to Hotel del Luna and seek healing (i.e., the man because he regretted leaving his pet alone) or assistance (i.e., the dog because it needed food to live since its owner died).

But as it turned out, the dog chose NOT to leave the side of its master. The door was ajar so it could have gone outside and look for food and water but it chose to lay down beside its owner and die with him. That’s why the neighbor wondered, “The door was open, too. Why didn’t the dog go out? It’s strange.”

When the dead dog and the dead man were reunited, the man kept on saying, “Here, this is not where you were supposed to go. (Meaning, it was supposed to go elsewhere like Hotel del Luna and live.) Gosh. Poor fellow. Aigoo. Alrighty then. Let’s go together. Let’s go together.”

Chansung witnessed this whole encounter.

To me, this scene is a foreshadowing of his and Manwol’s future. The Old Woman also left a door ajar for him. And I’m guessing Manwol will be like that faithful dog choosing to accompany his master till the very end. The old man wanted the dog to save himself but the dog wanted them to go together. The old man realized that, finally.

The blind woman (from Episode 4):

It was actually the blind woman’s story that made me rethink the ghosts and see that their vignettes weren’t randomly told to pass away the time. Each story revealed an aspect of Manwol’s past and how Chansung could help her heal.

The important element in the blind woman’s story is the touch.

Let me start with Chansung and Manwol’s conversation when she was drunk.

MW: A ghost can’t go around this world stirring up trouble. (Chansung covers his nose because of her alcoholic stink.) She hasn’t done anything major, so tell her to keep the reservation and go to the other world.
CS: I want to change that reservation so please sign here. There’s something she really wants to see.
MW: (throws the pen) There is no ghost who doesn’t have someone they want to see.

Chansung takes out another pen. I like it that he has a spare ready. It tells me that he’s in tune with her now and he can anticipate her reaction.

CS: She never saw the person when she was alive. That’s why she wants to see him. She was blind when she was alive.
MW: How can she want to see a person when she has never seen them? She doesn’t even know the name. Why is she looking for someone she doesn’t even know? Forget it and go. Stop annoying me.
CS: She says her hands remember. If she holds his hand, she can feel who it is.
MW: (snickering) That’s some nonsense the ghost is spewing. Go away! Go!

CS grabs her hand.

CS: Are you talking nonsense? You said you can tell by your feelings that I’m definitely not that man. Then, you don’t know either.

Manwol ridicules the idea that the blind ghost can recognize a person by touch. She claims it’s nonsense. But if that’s the case, then neither can Manwol recognize a person by touch.

Earlier, she laid her hand on Chansung’s chest and she pushed him away, saying, “It’s not you. I don’t feel anything. If you were that person, there’s no way I’d be like this. (implying she wouldn’t be calm and collected).” Based on touch, she determined that Chansung wasn’t the guy from her past. But now, she derides the ghost for saying that she too can also feel who it is.

MW: (insisting) You… definitely are not him.

CS: Then, because what I’m saying is correct then, you should sign this.

 

He tugs her by the hand. Her eyes are covered by the sleep mask. And he helps her sign her name…just like the guy in her past. See, I like that her eyes are blindfolded. Since she doesn’t have to rely on eyesight, she doesn’t have to remember the face of the Other Guy. Like the blind ghost, she only has to rely on touch to identify Chansung as the right guy.

CS: I’ll find the person she wants to see and send her off. She’s the first guest I brought her so I want to send her off nicely.

MW removes her eye mask and glares at him. He misinterprets this. To me, she’s eyeing him suspiciously because he reminded her of that other time when she learned to write her name. She reckons that he has an ulterior motive for reminding her of the past. However, he suspects that she’s devising of a way to extort money from the ghost.

CS: Don’t try to get money off her. She doesn’t have any.
MW: Why are you doing something that won’t get you money? You’re being used by that ghost. You’re so weakhearted. You’re an easy target for ghosts.
CS: You’re right. If I’d been tougher and held out (resisted longer), I wouldn’t have ended up here. I regret that I’m a frail human… that you like so much.

This whole conversation is rather interesting to analyze but let’s stop here for now.

To me, the reason why Manwol senses that Chansung wasn’t the guy from the past is because she’s sure that Chansung is weak-hearted, and the guy from her past wasn’t at all weak-hearted. She felt his heart and knew it then.

But she re-confirms it when he grabs her hand. The way she said, “you’re definitely not him,” and looked at him suspiciously after she removed her mask indicated that she did NOT recognize him as the guy from her past.

Not one bit.

If Chansung was truly the guy from the past, that handholding should have proved it. She’s already in the romantic “zone” and she’s remembering that moon-lit moment.

However, she doesn’t feel anything for the guy sitting beside her. Chansung isn’t the Other Guy.

To me, that’s the reason she looked oddly at Chansung after she removed her eye mask.

After her 1000-year wait, she should have jumped up ecstatically had that been the same guy. lol. Of course, she could have killed him, too, in vengeance. Remember, we still don’t know if her last memories of him were good or bad. We have to be open to the possibility that she was betrayed. If so, Changsung will be in danger if he turns out to be the reincarnation of the Other Guy.

Anyway, instead of recognition, she becomes exasperated that Chansung will help out the blind ghost without remuneration. She spars verbally with him then she flops down on the couch, exhausted.

To me, that’s the whole point of the blind woman’s touch.

She recognized the baker’s hand right away.

But Manwol didn’t. She didn’t recognize Chansung’s hand as familiar.

More importantly, the story of the blind woman reveals the importance of touch to a dying person. Manwol enlightens Chansung about this at the Italian restaurant.

MW: Speaking of bran cake, do you remember the bread you bought and gave to me last time? What happened at that bakery?
CS: It all went well. She found him through remembering the hand.
MW: Really?? But then, with ghosts’ memories, their memories can get mixed up. If the ghost wanders around a long time, it’ll forget important things. Sometimes they only remember what they want to remember.

And we see the blind ghost finally remembering why the hand’s important to her.

MW: You said that she only remembers his hands. What a beautiful story. Nevertheless, it lacks impact.

lol. By “impact,” she means that the blind ghost’s romantic story needed a dramatic effect. But she’s also saying that the hard truth behind that story involved a literal impact, that is, a collision.

MW: (continuing) She lived a decently long life, so why would she remember a pair of hands that picked up a few pieces of bread for her?
CS: What are you trying to say?
MW: Important memories are mostly similar for all ghosts. The memories of when they die.

In a split second, Chansung realizes what actually happened to the blind ghost: she was involved in a hit-and-run. Across town, the blind ghost remembers her moment of death. The baker’s hand was the last thing she touched. She had grasped before she died and begged the baker to help her. But he fled the scene.

Chansung leaves the restaurant and searches for the blind ghost. She’s riding the motorcycle with the baker. Chansung stands in the middle of the street to stop her from crashing the motorcycle and killing the baker.

Lovely shot. He looks like Manwol’s moon symbol with his arms outstretched over the pavement.

At the last second, the biker evades Chansung.

Later, the ghost admits, “The memory I had of his hand was a horrible one. But I was a fool to remember it as a warm and heart-fluttering memory.” Chansung responds, “That’s probably because of the kind of person you were. You were probably the kind of person who always tried to remember happy memories no matter how small they were, rather than the great tragedies.”

On the surface, Chansung’s words sound like a criticism of Manwol. Unlike the blind ghost, she’s bitter and her heart is full of grudges.

But if we take a second look at her memories, what remains vivid in her mind are her memories of the green tree (that’s why, in a perverse way, she can’t bear to see it looking green) and that moment when she learned to write her name. These are simple, happy memories, too, rather than the great tragedy.

Lastly, the important lesson that Chansung gleans from this adventure with the blind ghost is that Manwol will always save him.

Initially, Manwol wasn’t inclined to save him. In the restaurant, she bid him goodbye, “Gu Changsung. Come to my hotel once you die.” Then she took a bite of her spaghetti. This gesture implied her indifference.

But at a crucial split second, Manwol saves him and steers the motorcycle away from him. Changsung spots her at the intersection, watching him. Of course, she denies aiding him.

Here’s their conversation by the tree.

CS: If something happens to me, I’m sure you’ll protect me.

MW is speechless. I think she wasn’t expecting him to figure her out.

CS: (explaining) You said you were going to protect me since I’m a weak human. You were the one that stopped the motorcycle tonight.
MW: I didn’t. I couldn’t care less even if you died in that crash.
CS: I know that it was you. I jumped in front because I trusted you.
MW: It wasn’t me.

lol. She could have just said that she had nothing to do with it and that the biker swerved to avoid hitting him. If it wasn’t her magic that made the biker avoid Chansung, then it was the biker himself who made a split-second decision to avoid him.

CS: I trust that you will protect me. So please protect me if something happens. (he shows her the green leaf) I’ll stay right next to you.
MW: (threatening him) I’m going to kick you out.

He just stands up and fixes his jacket and walks away.

The ghost in the closet (From Episode 4): 

We don’t know yet what’s up with this ghost, but we already can know its significance. The ghost proves that Manwol will step in to protect Chansung. This is important milestone for her because after a thousand years, she’s no longer indifferent to another human being. She used to be filled with apathy but now she’s starting to care again.

Oooh.

So, that’s our ghost roundup.

Should I try to explain Chansung’s remark here next?  At 1:03:57. “Did it come from a dream, this split second from Jang Manwol?”  Maybe you all can take a stab here and tell me what you think he meant.  🙂  There won’t be wrong answers.