I’ve to watch my Go Go Squid after this.
1. His new hairstyle
Yes! I was waiting for this hairstyle trope. In Hong sisters’ drama, the new hairstyle signifies an emotional upheaval and a turning point in the OTP’s relationship. I wasn’t disappointed. He’s going to be uncool.
2. The phones
The nice thing here is that the phones weren’t just product placement. The props were used to show longing.
She watched him getting out his phone and looking at it.
And she instinctively raised her phone, too, and waited for him to contact her.
Later on, the phone again was used to show how words didn’t have to be said over the phone to show longing. Even silence, or the absence of words, is proof of longing.
As they walked down the hallway to go to the spirit of the well –
CS: There’s lot of mist here.
MW: If you’re just trying to look cool but you want me to stop you, I’ll you this one time: “Gu Changsung, don’t go inside the room and just go back.”
CS: Since you’re stopping me, it makes me look a little cool.
MW: That’s enough! You coward! why are you talking about looking cool. Just run away. I let you run away but why did you even come back?
lol. This whole word play on “cool” and “uncool.” I already discussed this in another post.
CS: You gave me something again. One, two, three. Three seconds.
I also liked this part. I don’t know what the punchline will eventually be, (i.e., she gives him a 1000, or infinity) but I like the direction. It’s a play on that Elizabeth Barrett’s Browning’s famous poem, “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.” This time, however, Chansung is saying, “How do you love me? Let me count the ways.”
First was that one second of hesitation with the leaf. The second one was the lost pair of earring she used as an excuse to eat out with him. And this time, it’s the three second of longing.
Then the flashback.
CS: If you forget about your pride and ask me to come back, I can come right now.
And Manwol paused.
And he counted time with his fingers.
CS: Even if it were for a short time, you wanted me to come. This time, you thought for three seconds. (he smiles) So how would I ignore you?
MW: Don’t smile. You’re making me angry.
CS: You’re not angry. You’re worried about me.
Laying a hand on her shoulder is a good touch. That’s the first time he tried comforting and reassuring her with touch, isn’t it? It’s a “cool” act.
CS: Don’t worry. Based on my experience, it seems gods like me. Maybe it’s because I’m weak. (smiles and walks away coolly to room 813 )
That’s why I like the use of the cellphones here. lol. This isn’t the first time that the Hong sisters built romance around cellphones so I was on the look out for them. 🙂
3. Nam Da Reum aka the Spirit of the Well
He’s a cutiepie and his face distracted me for a moment there.
Yes, the Spirit of the Well had abandonment issues, and abandonment is one of the themes in this episode. However, I think abandonment is NOT the only reason he connects with Chansung.
He relates to Chansung because they both have a fear of failure.
Spirit of the Well: I’m afraid of being abandoned. I’ve never dried up once and I’ve provided sweet and refreshing water. No matter how many times they scooped water out, I gave them water to make alcohol and helped them make money. (Please let me makgeolli business do well! hahaha) But I can’t fill up as much as they would like. I’m getting more dried up. Before drying up completely and being abandoned, I ran away. So that they have a little sadness from my departure, I abandoned them first.
The spirit feared that it couldn’t anymore supply as much water as it had in the past. Rather than disappointing the people, it then chose to run away before it completely dried up. It decided to leave first before it was abandoned by the people he had cared for over the centuries.
To the Spirit of the Well, the sadness of the people at its disappearance would be preferable to the anger, it expected to see from the people, when it failed to provide them with water. Sadness > anger
Similarly, Chansung’s greatest fear is his inability to stop Manwol from self-destruction. Realistically speaking, it only takes ONE attempt by Manwol to accomplish her task while he has a host of reasons to fail at his task. In a sense, he’s monitoring somebody who’s on suicide watch. He must block and prevent her from sabotaging her life. She’s so hell-bent on avenging her grudge that she’s willing to ruin her chances of going to the afterworld “beautifully.”
And that scares him. He’s not confident that he’s good enough to stop her. That’s why he has to think about it first.
“Nevertheless, I’ll think about whether I’m a good enough person to go back and hang onto her.”
Moreover, Chansung’s fear is the reason the Spirit of the Well called him instead of Manwol.
Manwol believed that an “angry god” was scary and that humans were necessary sacrifices to appease an angry god. She thought the Spirit of the Well wanted Chansung as a sacrifice.
But Chansung argued, “I’m sure that’s not what the gods wanted, but the people made the sacrifices because they were afraid.”
In the case of the Spirit of the Well, Chansung’s right. The Spirit did NOT want a human sacrifice. Because people feared gods, they assumed that gods wanted sacrifice. It didn’t occur to people that perhaps the gods, too, were afraid and they wanted help instead of sacrifice.
The Spirit chose Chansung because he was also weak and afraid like itself. You could say that they were “kindred spirits.” They both understood each other because both of them experienced fear. They felt the same fear of failure to perform their task.
4. The other ghosts
The tax lawyer who worked himself to death. hahaha.“Nothing is certain in t this world except death and taxes.” His grudge? Being overworked to death but there he is, being overworked by Manwol even in death.
The writer who can’t decide whether to go on the afterlife bus or stay in this world. His grudge? The Housekeeper said, “I think he can’t go. It’s not that he has to complete his novel. He must give up what he can’t do, in order to be able to go.”
lol. He’s a GHOSTWRITER so his grudge is he’s been anonymous. He wants to claim a certain body of work as his but, of course, as a GHOSTwriter, he must unidentified.
5. Gu Changsun’s attempts to locate Manwol
First through the real estate agent
I shouldn’t be saying this but I laughed at his attempt to harass Manwol by using inheritance and transfer taxes. Wasn’t he “inherited” too and “transferred,” too? It was his father who was supposed to pay the price for stealing the flower. But in the end, he inherited his father’s “crime” and the obligation to pay it was transferred onto him.
But I like that Manwol pretended that he was still working for her.
MW: Don’t try to scam me. We’ve a very smart and useful employee who has a Harvard MBA. (lol. The Harvard cachet.)
CS: You fired him.
MW: Gu Chansung?!
CS: When they talk about inheritance or transfer tax, you’ve no idea what they’re talking about, right? Then why did you fire this useful employee?
MW: Why are you there? Did you get hired at a real estate office?
CS: I came here because I was so blown away that I got fired so immediately. You’re sad because I’m not there, right?
Yes, of course she is. But she could hardly admit it on the phone.
CS: If you forget about your pride and ask me to come back, I can come right now.
MW: (pausing) Tell that real estate guy to kick out the guy who doesn’t matter (ouch!) and lock the doors tightly.
CS: Yes, I understand.
Second through the CEO of his former hotel
I like that the CEO was the one who led Chansung back to her. Aside from their Baekdu painting and tiger connections, the CEO was the one who mistook Manwol to be his wife.
Chansung lied and said that they both wanted to greet him. Meanwhile, Manwol appeared to be distractedly looking around the world. Then as Manwol moved around the apartment, Chansung ad-libbed to excuse her rude behavior.
“I think she needs to go to the washroom.”
“She’s lived abroad for a long time and she didn’t learn how to use honorific language.”
Then, he called her “Honey. Honey!”
And begged her to “Come and sit. Sit down, please. Please.”
5. The firefly
I don’t think it’s the Captain’s reincarnation. I explained here.
To recap, the ghosts that showed up behind Manwol hadn’t gone on to the afterlife so they couldn’t have been reincarnated as fireflies immediately. They still had to meet judgment in the afterlife before they could be reincarnated in various forms. They couldn’t all be fireflies.
The fireflies that appeared as MaGo 1 trekked off with the hearse, are spirits (or souls) of the Manwol’s dead comrades. The problem with Chansung is that his ghost-detecting skills aren’t that good yet. Remember? He couldn’t tell the delusional spirit Bok Hui from an actual ghost, and the Almost-Bridegroom’s spirit from a ghost.
That’s going to pose a problem later, if he doesn’t learn to differentiate his otherworldly guests soon.
My take: the firefly is Yeonwoo’s spirit since Yeonwoo made a promise to wait for her.
The red herring here is the Captain’s firefly. Just because the Captain caught that firefly doesn’t mean that all subsequent sightings of fireflies are his reincarnations.
6. Cool vs uncool Chansung
Explained here: Uncool Chansung
7. Yeonwoo
I like how he showed up in the forest. The present-day crime scene reminded me of the crime scene 1000 years ago.
I don’t know what his deal is but he probably isn’t a bad guy.
8. The Couple Ghosts
The bellhop is sweet here. But really now, how can he cover her eyes when he’s invisible himself? She can see through his hand. lol. But oh well. It’s the thought that counts.
9. Tears
I thought this was funny. He created a drink called “Tears.”
Of course, all the other other guests in that hotel liked it except for Manwol. I’m betting the cocktail tasted bitter. Get it?
“Bitter tears.”
So I read this comment
“There’s no doubt in my mind now that Chan-sung is Chung-myung, but now that we have the rest of Man-wol’s story, I can see why she wasn’t happy to see him. From her perspective, their love was extremely painful and the events leading up to the end of their original story painted Chung-myung in a really bad light.
However, I don’t think he betrayed her. At least, not in the way he let her believe. I’d wager that Princess Song-hwa found out about his feelings for Man-wol and used that against him to get what she’d always wanted… him. It’s infuriating that all this sorrow and bloodshed stemmed from petty jealousy over a man, but if her current incarnation is anything to go by, Song-hwa always got her way and the fact that Chung-myung loved a common thief would’ve been a major affront. I think the marriage and Man-wol’s undying hatred was the price he was willing to pay to spare her life. Alas, in trying to save her, Chung-myung hurt her more deeply and inadvertently had a hand in her thousand years of suffering.”
Is this even a plausible interpretation of the Captain’s actions? Or is this merely a delusional shipper desperately trying to find a way to justify his desertion? Hmm… 🙄
Heh! @nrllee I too saw that comment, but I don’t have anything to say at the moment.
@packmule3 I always thought that guy un-gelled hairstyles in any kdrama was a sign that they were in home/casual mode or sick. Him running to the hotel with gelled up hair would have been more strange or even ‘inappropriate’ to me.
Since I’ve never taken note of Hong Sisters writing habits or anything but watched their shows ‘blindly’, it’s news to me that they have this hairstyle trope.
To the phone image, I add that I thought it cute that the Payphone came into play as well. LOL that it was used by Bellhop in ghost mode which got Det Park on the scene puzzled by the invisible caller and and which gave pink knitting Ma Go the chance to trick Det Park into accepting her heart pen. I LOLed so hard when she accepted his small change (ostensibly for the Payphone) and then ‘answered’ a call on her mobile. I hope we see Det Park much more confused in the next episode, poor fellow.
I liked your analogy of poor CS’s state of mind being on suicide watch. What a lot of stress!!!
why from the earlier episode up till latest ep,the Baekdu mountain painting keeps circulating here and there everywhere in many dialogue..??even appear in many scene..
is it just candidly add to sweeten the scene metaphorically or it will play important role in the latter episode?lol🤣🤣..
I don’t think yeon woo is the firefly when he is literary reincarnated as the detective park. I mean can a soul get split? It only happend in harry potter when lord voldemort wanted to make horcruxes. 😅
🙂
It’s because the Baekdu lake is the critical (and overlooked) point in the conflict between between Manwol and the Captain. I’ll explain in a bit.
But good job, as usual, @papai! You spotted it.
@nrllee, I saw that comment too. It’s possible. I have, and never had, any ship for the captain and I tend to stay out of the convos on him because I’m still reserving judgement. Based on what he himself told Manwol, he betrayed her badly. But that all seemed too fast and easy so I’ve kept an explanation similar to this one on hold in my mind.
Same with Chang Sun being the reincarnated captain. I’d say categorically ‘no’ because CS seems his opposite, yet that same reason undermines my certainty. These reincarnations are returning as opposites. If the Captain was a player, CS is almost virginal. The captain had a noble father, CS’s father is a thief. The captain is a captain, or general; CS is actually a slave!
What’s your take?
@Barbrey
Not sure if you saw my reply to your question in another post about what sin MW did that was so egregious? Anyway I think she went on a major killing spree post Captain. Her vengeance was overdone. But instead of it assuaging her bitterness and hate, the killings only fed it.
I don’t have a logical take because I haven’t been watching. I just watched Ep 1 and 2 and have just been reading comments and watching a few clips here and there so my “logic” is purely based on what I have picked up from the first 2 Eps and the comments thereafter. And Hong Sisters for me tend to start things well and for the past few dramas, finishing in a lackluster way. Although this time with HDL they seem to be on a roll so I am hopeful for a satisfying conclusion.
Did anyone mention that the coffin she was dragging around with the trinkets were like her memories? She was dragging them around shackled to them but I gather in a coffin because her intention was to bury them? Yet she never could? MaGo released her of these memories in an attempt to have her change her nasty self (by “helping” ghosts at the Inn) yet instead she turned even more taciturn? I guess the 1000 years were also a type of penance for her for the people she’s killed. MaGo drags the coffin of memories away for safekeeping, seeming to promise to “return” them at a later time? And once CS appeared, MW was getting these memories back piece meal. Each time, CS stops her from self imploding and repeating the same mistake as she did so long ago.
Anyway, for someone to say that the Captain was somehow gallant/self sacrificing in sparing MW and her band of thieves were just collateral, it doesn’t sit well with me. One could argue that he did so purely from selfish motives, that he wanted her alive and nothing else mattered. So if he were to come back as a reincarnation, the Captain would have to do so with his own facial features and right his own wrong. Everyone else seems to have. Why not him? Then we would have major second lead syndrome but the fight for MW would be on even terms. Did the reincarnations returning have similar personalities in the beginning when they surfaced? And they redeemed themselves later on? If so then the Captain can’t be CS. CS was kind from the very beginning, he was no flirt or a player. No. The Captain needs to right this wrong himself. With his own face. Not taking advantage of some hapless other body (CS) whose good will with MW has already been established. He needs to pick up the pieces of the carnage he brought about and not somehow gain leverage off the good deeds someone else has already done. He needs to own it. In full.
On another hand *Spoiler Episode 10* Chang-Sung has done the Suicide Watch before. So he is the man for the job.
Probably he just need to be alert and listen carefully to Man-Wol. Sometimes people in dire straits just need someone to reach. So maybe Chang-Sung’s main work is to make himself available.
In DramaBeans, I am the proponent of the Tragic Captain theory. I do it mostly because I see him as a person who faced an ethical dilemma and even if at the end of the day he did what was best for his country, he did so in an unsatisfactory manner for him, and had a heavy heart after that.
My main question is: where did his ultimate loyalty had to belong?, to his people (who had families and loved ones just like him – was his love so precious as to put it above the complex lives of his own people)?, or to Man-Wol’s merryman band who he learned to love?.
Because at the end of the day, as a Silla commander he defeated a band of highwaymen who planned to join a rebellion with the lowest possible cost to his soldiers. So he completed his mission with the least resource cost on his side.
But to do so, he had to betray the trust of a person he (probably) loved and destroyed a group of people that welcomed him.
*possible blasphemy ahead*
There is a tale by Jorge Luis Borges, about how to save Humanity needed not only the sacrifice made by a perfect being like Jesus Christ, but also to represent even the lowest of Mankind that had to be redeemed God had to do the other part of the sacrifice: so He selected a human so low that had to sin in a way that had no virtue involved. For example a highwayman steals (a sin) but he has to put his life on the line (which is brave), therefore He selected a person abusing the trust of his friends (a cowardly act with no redeemable quality attached) and that was Judas the Iscariot.
So Judases’ betrayal was part of God’s plan to save Humanity, and as important as Jesus Christ.
*possible blasphemy end*
I still don’t know the whole story, but this take makes for a very compelling dilemma.
@FGB4877
“In DramaBeans, I am the proponent of the Tragic Captain theory. I do it mostly because I see him as a person who faced an ethical dilemma and even if at the end of the day he did what was best for his country, he did so in an unsatisfactory manner for him, and had a heavy heart after that.“
I have zero problems with him trying to make right his relationship with MW and justify his case before her. My gripe is him doing this as the reincarnated person of CS. If he wants to make right his relationship with her, he does it with his own face/body. He takes full responsibility for it. Not masquerading someone else.
Dear @nrllee , personally I would HATE if Chang-Sung was the reincarnation of the captain. It would be not only lazy writing on Hong Sister’s part but also would make the point of Man-Wol being a person frozen in the past moot, because then her past defines her and not her present decisions.
Man-Wol needs to confront her past (not only the ugly parts like Mi-Ra, also the good ones like Yeon-Woo and to put both in perspective) and let it go to be able to face the present (Chang-Sung, a totally different person with other things to offer).
But make no mistake, her ultimate goal is to look forward. To face her past is just a thing she needs to do to attain said goal.
And as of the Captain, I am more interested in the ethical dilemma he had to face… call it an irk after seeing so many women swooning over him in the comment section on past episodes in DramaBeans. All because the guy was “cute” and “swooning”. Personally (at an emotional level) I don’t like that character. And it was not even because of the characterization (I thought the actor was a little wooden though) but because he was the proverbial fox in the poultry house.
Also because I saw all these women switching “off” their brains as soon as they saw a handsome man.
And when he was not the cutie pie anymore then he was EVIL, the absolute worst. No middle ground, no dilemma: just a cartoon of a character. For me they wasted the opportunity to ponder in very relevant dilemmas like personal desires (letting them go or run with Man-Wol) vs. duty (to his country and to his subordinates). Because cutie pie happened to be “evil”.
Even if Hong Sisters decide to write him as evil, I am satisfied because he made me THINK.
An as far as the “betrayal”, I saw it coming from the very beginning. For me, he was a man of honor… but his ultimate loyalty lied with Silla, not with Man-Wol’s happy merrymen. But he had to surrender his personal desires and betray good people to fulfill his duty.
@FGB4877
I agree on all points. We’ll see if Hong Sisters paint him in a more sympathetic light in the next episodes. I get the feeling they might just do that.