Crash Landing on You: On Proust, Updated

I suspect that the primary reason many of you lurk in this blog is because you’re searching for somebody who sees kdramas through a different pair of spectacles

My custom-made glasses. One eyebrow perpetually raised.

Since there’s lots of new lurkers to this site, let me roll out my usual welcome mat,

Image result for welcome mat the witch is in

and a blunt warning that I express strong opinions, with the occasional salty language, because

i) I’m bitter as burnt toast.
ii) I was raised by wolves (Ergo, savage).
iii) I eat children.

So, if your feelings are easily upset over views contrary to your own, or your mind is opposed to thinking outside-the-box, then this blog may not be suitable reading content for you. To borrow a concept from Abraham Lincoln, this blog is of the bitches, for the bitches, and by the bitches.

So now about this Proust…

I don’t claim to be a lit major. But I dated a French guy about thirty-some years ago who sought to impress me with his knowledge of Proust. I’ll sum up Proust’s greatness in three words: he was triggered.

😈

He was triggered while dipping a morsel of cake, called petite madeleine, into his hot tea.

Related imagecredit: lettersandlunchesfromtheloire.net

The taste of the cake mixed with the aroma of tea unlocked his long-forgotten memories of his childhood in this quaint French town called Combray. And as he began remembering emotions he associated with that place, his past and present magically blended together. Thus, time conquers all, but with a little bite of cake and a cup of tea, an individual can conquer time himself.

Now, for the purposes of this kdrama, that’s all you really need to know about Proust. 😈 You don’t need to know about homoeroticism, his real cup of tea, and all that….

For many of us, however, we’ll only experience a simplified version of Proust’s awakened consciousness. What typically happens is an ordinary thing will trigger our memories. Once triggered, we’ll remember the past so vividly, so clearly, that we’ll feel as if we’ve JUST lived through that moment again. Time compresses. And a wave of nostalgia will wash over us.

But even when we yearn to re-live that moment, sanity will hold us back because we know it’s impossible to go back.

Do you get me? A big part of becoming an adult is learning to accept the past. AND that is what Jung Hyuk was exhibiting back in Episode 4.

Remember that epilogue?

After their clam bake at night, he made Seri coffee for breakfast. He looked for his old glass coffeemaker from the top of his cabinet.

He took a box down, blew off the dust (the dust was evidence that it hadn’t been touched in ages) and checked the apparatus inside. Then, he laid the box down, dusted off his hands, and opened the cabinet to look for camera.

He unwrapped the camera and looked at it.

It’s noteworthy that his action showed deliberation. He didn’t just accidentally stumble upon his camera. He purposefully went to the closet to retrieve it.

And then, there’s a flashback of that eventful day he and Seri were on the suspension bridge in Switzerland. He observed her through his camera lens. He wanted to take a picture of her against the backdrop of the Alpine mountains. But she could be heard pleading on her dictaphone, “…Don’t live too happily, though. Every now and then, do think of me.” Then, he saw her put down her bag, and he realized that she was planning to jump off the bridge.

He was witnessing a desperate act.

For me, the most intriguing part here was she chose to jump off right there. The Sigriswil bridge is about what? a quarter of a mile long, and she chose exactly that spot to jump off. Right beside him.

Before he could approach her, Dan appeared in between them.

Of course, this kdrama writer wasn’t Proust, so there was no madeleine biscuit nor tea to remind Jung Hyuk of his encounter with Seri.

But his camera was the trigger point.

To me, the fact that he went to his closet to look for his camera – out of the blue – was proof that he’d already remembered Seri by then. It wasn’t his sense of smell or taste that helped him remember her. Rather it was his sense of hearing and sense of sight that enabled him to recognize her.

Ha! Remember this is a guy who can distinguish guns and rifles by the sound of the weapon firing. He was a trained pianist. His ears would be more sensitive to pitch, rhythm, melody, tone.

Back in Switzerland, when he came to ask Seri to take a picture of them, she yelped, “What?!” and answered loudly, “Okay, give me your camera.” Then she screeched at him, “But it’s so scary here! Does it have to be here and now?”

It’s possible that he might not have fully recognized her when he first saw hanging from the tree in Episode 1. But by Episode 4, he definitely would have recognized her because of her speech cadence. She sounded the same whenever she whined and grumbled.

“Don’t do this to me. I’ve so much work.”

Hence, in Episode 6, when they were at the Passport Photo Office, I interpreted his request for an additional photo to have three different meaning.

The first one is pretty obvious. He wanted to have her photo as a memento of her. Plain and simple.

But he kept his request hidden from her because he didn’t want her to cling to him. He wanted her to have a clean break when she returned to Seoul. Note: this was the reason for the handshake. He didn’t the hug because he was being a “lofty” or noble man just like that  handsomest squad member. lol.

Seri: Excuse me. I think I closed my eyes. Should I ask for another shot?
JH: It’s okay. This photo is for verifying your identity so you shouldn’t look to pretty in it.
Seri: I should. How else would they know it’s me?

Ha! Part of me wanted to laugh at her vanity here. But part of me also wanted to reassure her that she didn’t have to worry. There was one person on earth who would recognize her anytime: Jung Hyuk. If he could recognize her as that suicidal girl at the Sigriswil bridge after all these years, then he’d recognize her anywhere, even when she looked dirty, haggard, or cross-eyed.

JH: Let’s go.
Seri: You know, why don’t we get our photo taken? I mean we won’t see each other again after I leave. It’ll be a memento.
JH: There’s no need for us to remember or keep a memento of each other.

Notice here that he glanced down, then looked back up and met her eyes. I thought he looked at her coat. I don’t think she realized that her outfit resembled her plaid blazer years ago.

Seri: You have a point. I was just saying.

Do you see what she was wearing? Back then:

And that brings me to my second interpretation of this scene.

He wanted to have an additional photo of her because he failed to get a photo of her ten years ago.  🙂 He was about to take her picture that time on that bridge.

It’s interesting, too, that both times, Jung Hyun wanted to get her picture without her knowledge. Back in Switzerland, he was about to take a photograph of her surreptitiously. She was going to be his focal point, and the landscape behind her was merely his backdrop. This time around, he was asking the passport photo man to give him another copy of Seri’s picture, behind her back.

We all know that the extra photo wasn’t for official business. It was for personal reason.

And here’s my final and third interpretation for wanting another picture of Seri. It’s because of his promise, “I made a promise to her that as long as she’s in my sight, I will protect her. No matter what.”

As I said in my other post on tropes, Jung Hyuk was going down the noble idiocy route here. He didn’t want Seri to know that her defection would cost him. His father clearly stated that he couldn’t save his skin should something go wrong with his scheme.

In a way, he was correct when he said that he didn’t need any reminder of her. It sounded cruel but, when you think about this seriously, what he meant was a reminder was redundant. The consequence of abetting her in her escape would already serve to remind him of her. He could be discharged from the military and his family punished. He could be sent to penal labor camp. Or he could be stuck in a loveless marriage to Dan.

Whatever form his punishment would be in the future, it was a sufficient reminder of Seri.

However, to me, asking for the extra passport photo was a moment of personal weakness (or strength, depending how you look at this). Literally, as long as he kept her in sight, in the form of a passport photo, he’d always remember his mission to protect her. No matter what.

That’s the primary purpose of a memento, isn’t it? Like Proust’s madeleine and tea, a keepsake is meant to bind the past and the present together.

Long after she’s gone, and when he’s already serving time for helping her, her photo would remind him to find strength in his suffering, because he did it all for her.

Link to the original post: Crash Landing on You: On Marcel Proust

22 Comments On “Crash Landing on You: On Proust, Updated”

  1. Pingback: Crash Landing on You: On Marcel Proust – Bitches Over Dramas

  2. Yes, I am guilty of lurking and thanks for the welcome. Wow, Proust & CLoY – amazed. Really amazed that after being a K-drama fan for so many years – there is still so much to know. Your insights are on point & hilarious, at times. Keep up the good work … I am now a fan.

  3. I somehow think that JH remembered Seri right from the start though, when she was hanging from the tree. He probably smiled because he recognized her, not because he was smitten by her throwing tantrums.
    And P.S. I was lurking too.

  4. Did you forget to post crash landing on you ep 6? Or??

  5. I’m working on a trope analysis for Ep 6. 🙂

    Don’t worry. You’ll know when I quit reviewing a kdrama. I’ll give you my “Dear Kdrama, Let’s break-up” letter just like I did with “Vagabond.”

  6. Second time to comment her as a newcomer to your forum. Thanks for the warm welcome!

    Ohhh! This is so good! You are an amazing writer and I’m now a fan of your analyses! I still think he remembers her right from the beginning (thus the smile before he returns to his stoic expression) but believe you are spot on with your three interpretations of the photo I believe.

    Can’t wait to read your analyses on the other episodes. Thank you and hope you are feeling better!

  7. Hi! Question about the sequence of events re: third interpretation. I rewatched all the episodes trying to find when he first verbalized that promise, and I didn’t see anything prior to the walk along the river the night after the picture is taken. Is this correct?

    I understand the promise is implicit the moment he leads her away from the bridge, but when we hear his thoughts say he made this promise, it distracted me that I couldn’t recall when he did so.

  8. He was “forced” to verbalize his vow while they were out walking because Seri asked him point-black why she should stay near him. He answered so she’d be safe.

    But my assumption is that even before then, like when he picked her up on his bicycle at night, the notion had already formed in his head that if he kept an eye on her, she’d be safe.

    Or if he couldn’t keep an eye on her, his squad/surrogates would keep her safe until he arrived. He had his men guarding her in his stead.

    I guess this whole “stay in sight/keep an eye” thing can be connected to their bridge encounter. He had her in sight, too, that time.

  9. Agreed! Thanks for the additional insight. That vow takes a life of its own with the last scene in episode 6, and since he mentioned the promise several times in the episode, I thought I’d missed something obvious in an earlier episode.

    I have a feeling (or maybe just hope?) the gist of that bridge scene will be repeated again in other Switzerland flashbacks, since we have not yet seen her make the decision to not off herself. That knowing smile in the epilogue of episode 1 makes me think their paths intersected more than once, and perhaps under similar circumstances – even if his senses are so fine-tuned that more than a single encounter is not necessary.

  10. Yes, he did smile, didn’t he? And as @agdr03 mentioned (or somebody else?), he was willing to trust her right away. Even when she left him.

    I thought it was cute that he was Seri’s type from the beginning. He looked nothing like her Exes #1, #2, and #3, so how could he be a “type”?? lol.

  11. I knew people were lurking because I happened to see the stats when I was deleting the spams.

    But what about Seri? Don’t you think Seri recognized him, too? If he recognized her, she should recognize him, too. Fair is fair. 🙂

  12. I just found your blog earlier this week via a link on Soompi (which, btw, the thread for this drama is mind-boggling – awful, and dramabeans, to your point, is more fawning than real insights for this drama – so, thank you!!)

    I read that thought by @agdr03 about him seeming to trust her by putting down his gun, and agree that’s also a good indicator that he remembers her. What is curious is that now twice he’s declined answering her questions about his time abroad or his piano playing. He’s really trying to keep his distance, and reminding her they’ve met is not going to help.

    I don’t think she remembers him, as there’s a scene in episode 2, before his house gets inspected, where she finds the program for his recital and she asks herself why is it that he seems so familiar, but doesn’t manage to put her finger on it. She was by herself so it’s not like she had to hide this from anyone.

    I don’t think there’s been other chances for her to demonstrate that she remembers, but maybe she’s being coy with him and with us!

    It may be plausible that she doesn’t remember just because of the trauma she was experiencing at the time – however! The fact that she notices him enough when taking a picture to say that he could do better than Seo Dan (or maybe she just notices her? But she also hasn’t indicated she remembers her after meeting her again in front of his house) and remarks again that he’s her type.. I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s hiding the fact that she does remember, just maybe not at first.

  13. Officially delurking. Thank you @packmule3 for all the interesting, insightful posts about my fave kdrama of the moment. I am methodically going over your blog as it keeps me sane (and entertained) while I wait for new episodes. I smiled when I read Proust and madeleines here as they appeared in an early Binnie drama, My Name is Kim Sam Soon. Love that!

  14. Oh, the madeleine appeared in that drama, too? Too funny.

    The kdrama writers go through a spate of themes. As far as I could tell, last year it was the “Little Prince” and Heidegger. I wonder what it will be this year.

    I’m glad you delurked now. I’ve been considering imposing a 4-week moratorium on new posters (or at least until this kdrama ends). 🙂 I prefer a small gathering of fans of the drama, than an amphitheater.

  15. Yes, it’s totally possible that she hasn’t remembered him at all BUT that will definitely bug me. 🙂

    There was this fusion sageuk we watched here two years ago…My Prince for 100 Days. IIRC, the whole focus of the show was the prince’s amnesia. I could understand him not recognizing the girl because of his amnesia, but what was the girl’s excuse? Why couldn’t SHE recognize him? If “true” love was predicated upon the hero’s ability to remember her, then why wasn’t the same standard applied to the heroine? When the prince apologized for not remembering her, I was wondering when would she apologize in turn. lol.

    But in the end, I had to make allowances for the screenwriter because it was apparently her/his *FIRST* (edited because I omitted this critical word, “first”) work. (shrug emoji)

    With this drama, I’m still trying to find out if there are any indications that she remembered him. I’m just going with my expectations of her as the astute businesswoman/future CEO of a conglomerate, she SHOULD remember him. She already thought he looked familiar when she saw the brochures.

    To me, that night when she was asking him about his days in Switzerland, she chattered nonstop but she was asking leading questions to encourage and prompt him to be more forthcoming. She was trying to find out where they could have crossed each other’s path while they were in Switzerland, without revealing that she’d been there at the same time. She was still jogging her memory.

    She must have been curious about him…I would have, if I were in her shoes.

    Then, during the breakfast coffee scene, I thought she feigned ignorance. If she could READ SungJoon’s motive for taking her out on a lunch date, then how come she couldn’t add one plus one, and deduce that Jung Hyuk was in Switzerland to study music? Why did ask him, “Did you study abroad? Where? Is it in Switzerland? What did you major in?” with that wide-eyed innocent look on her face?

    To me, she was lying then…but in a good way. She was trying to ferret information because she STILL knew next to nothing about this guy. He knew more about her than she did about him.

    That’s why I think she’s hiding the fact that she remembers him. Perhaps, when he appeared in the market with the scented candle, she finally remembered their meeting in Switzerland.

  16. I can get behind that theory. The questions to prompt, for sure, since she stated he seemed familiar, I just don’t know she knows he’s the guy from the bridge and is looking for confirmation or just more data points – at that point in time.

    But seeing how she read SeungJun like a book, too, and her interactions the ahjummas, it’d be disappointing for sure if she is in the dark about him still.

    Enjoy today’s episode! Just another hour and a half!

  17. Maybe Seri wanted to forget the bridge part… It’s not a very nice memory. So she thinks she saw him but can’t remember exaclty where?

  18. I think I love you.

  19. I guess Switzerland makes sense. With its longstanding military neutrality (since their Treaty of Paris in 1815). With the North/South Korean tensions. A love that transcends political ideologies with beginnings on neutral ground so maybe it will need to go full circle and end there too.

  20. But will you love me tomorrow?
    Is this a lasting treasure
    Or just a moment’s pleasure?
    -Carole King

    Re. your question on tropes, it would be funny if they have a writer assigned for tropes just as they do for product placement, wouldn’t it?

    But tropes must be like second nature to the directors, too, so I can imagine directors having the final say on what romantic gesture to use. I thought that shoulder-on-the-head was just right. I was going to cringe had the director used a “gypsies around the campfire” trope. There was already a roving band of musicians on hand — the buskers aboard the train. We could have easily gotten a scene where the musicians played folk music around the campfire, in the background, while our couple had their private time. The scene we had was more understated.

    Although, didn’t you think the sight of those countryside people running towards the train with their baskets of food for sale reminded you of a zombie attack? lol.

  21. Pingback: Crash Landing on You: Episode 6 – Bitches Over Dramas

  22. I’d like Seri to remember JH from before even if their first encounter was a time she’d rather forget.But maybe it’s being saved to when she hears him play that piece that he made for his brother.

    Thanks for this Proust info and who doesn’t love a madeleine? 🙂

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