Thanks, @nrllee, for taking screenshots of the opening credits. My comments are attached at the end. –pm3
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This is the sequence.
Starts off monochrome – note the beginning scene. Unpopulated “garden” (Eden?). Butterfly starts off here.
Moves to a picture wall
This must be DK and her family.
DK is all alone on the rooftop. Making her wish for Doom to descend on the world.
Which he does. He opens the door into her world. Butterfly keeps moving.
The birthday cake. They both eat of it. Does this sound familiar? 😂. Birth of their relationship. And color starts to appear in the scenes.
The beach scene. As they get to know each other, the sun rises on their relationship.
Train ride together – just the 2 of them on this journey together. Sun is rising higher across the horizon.
Then this scene. Light. A doorway. Walking towards the light…towards death’s door?
They make their pact and the red string of Fate ties them together.
They are bound.
The red string rises up…
And a flower blooms. I think this is the potted plant that Girl Deity has?
The sun keeps rising as the train moves through different landscapes (full color). This makes me think of holidays… like the ones MM showed her through the peephole. From cold blues and winter (?) scenes…
To warm dusky shades…as the sun sets.
The sun is setting and night is nigh…purples…
We see MM and DK now in the beginning scene. Back to “Eden”. In dazzling color. And flowers bloom.
The butterfly returns and lands on a flower.
A return to “Eden”? Adding color to the once unpopulated garden.
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Thanks, nrllee. These are my additional comments.
The images from the opening credit tell us how the garden went from grayscale to multicolored.
The images from the opening credit tell us how the garden went from grayscale to multicolored.
A butterfly that once lived in the garden saw the arrival of the baby DongKyuk in a loving family. The butterfly waited impatiently until she grew up and discovered that she had brain cancer. She conjured Doom up and he arrived that very night, offering his service, which she never knew she needed before. Her parents’ memorial day and her doomsday fell on his birthday.
Her terminal illness opened a new horizon for her. (image of the beach)
Doom offered to accompany her on her train wreck of a life…errr…on her journey towards death. (images of the train, and what I believe is the proverbial “light at the end of the tunnel”
They make a pact, and the red string of Fate bound them together. She wished for love to bloom in his heart for her. They traveled to Switzerland, and to Italy. They made enough memories so they wouldn’t regret the short 100 days.
When it was time, they returned home. The purple night scene reminds me of the epitaph on Robert Louis Stevenson’s tombstone. It was called “Requiem.” Note: “’grave” means “engraved.”
“Under the wide and starry sky
Dig the grave and let me lie:
Glad did I live and gladly die,
And I laid me down with a will.
This be the verse you ‘grave for me:
Here he lies where he long’d to be;
Home is the sailor, home from the sea,
And the hunter home from the hill.”
Then, they were back where it started, in the garden. But this time, he was alone no more. She was with him. And the butterfly finally found its resting place in a flower.
I agree with you, @nrllee. The garden looked more like Eden with the two of them there. I’m sure you remember what’s written in Genesis, “The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”
Thanks for doing this, @nrllee.
No problem @packmule3.
Thanks @pkml3 and again @nrllee. So poignant!
This was what I posted for Ep 2:
“The opening credits were non-existent where I watched Episode 1. Hence when Episode 2 had them, I sat up. They presumably give us the transition for the show.
It is an animation which begins with only black and white graphics and a butterfly that links all the scenes in it. We see cuts of many scenes from Episode 1, accompanied by ‘music that is suggestive of magic’. All of DK’s early life is in black and white, however this gives way to colour only when Doom comes to her door.
He brings colour to her dull life but it is only when they are together and joined by the red thread of Fate, and when we see a suggestion of love (an almost heart shape) and flowers (petals) in bloom that all following scenes are in full colour from day into evening. Colour everywhere and all the time, sounds like a nice transition for DK’s life, that MM had called a nightmare.
The way the show is meant to go looks obvious. I keep my fingers crossed for the happy ending in full colour.”
This was what I posted later:
“I felt that they were artistically rendered spoilers LOL. DK begins in gloom and grey tones, and colour enters her world only with Doom, or rather, only when they are together. Together the colours start to grow and colour their whole world, wherever they are, whatever they are doing and from morning to night. If the colours represent life, interest and vitality, that’s precisely what these two jaded, apathetic beings need.
The butterfly motif again (we had it in Goblin, representing the almighty), in this show it represents MM. He flits from scene to scene, but only finds rest with one flower, DK. If the sunset signals the end, then they end off their day(s) together hand-in-hand.
I noted that Episode 5 did not begin with this animation, but with a recap of some important plot points.”
Thanks for that @GB. Your notes are always so thorough 😍
You’re welcome @nrllee … call me OCD GB. LOL.
One of the first BoD kdrama analysis “toolkit” I learned is to look at the opening credits and see what are the themes and storyline and even possible ending that can be culled through the short “summary”. So thank you for this!!! I started watching episode 2 and I was pleasantly surprised to see it, I find it really cute and endearing. There’s a recap of ep1 events so I understand why they only started showing it in ep2. May their garden grow in color, beauty and bounty!!! It is spring season after all…
I checked on my computer, and these opening credits do appear before episodes 1 and 5. Having them missing when you are watching may be because of how the episode is cued up by the device on which you’re watching.
As described before, the opening credits begin with an image that may be a garden, suggested by the columns and the scattered plants. The center of the picture is mostly bare ground and stones. Because it is in greyscale (wintery tones), this garden doesn’t look cheerful. A drab (greyscale) butterfly emerges from the garden and flies past a wall with pictures, all in greyscale.
The picture wall goes by fast, but we see on display:
– Smiling baby DK with her two smiling parents
– Parents with child DK and her baby brother, Sun Kyung, both smiling (parents’ heads not visible)
– DK as a smiling child in an oval frame
– Children DK & SK seated between their parents, all holding a goofy pose with hands next to their faces and smiling widely
– Children DK and SK clutching one another, hands in tense positions, the corners of their mouths turned down (they look anguished)
– Older girl DK sitting still on a swing, alone in a park, her head tipped as if she’s looking at the ground
– Several small images that look to be parts of celestial drawings
The next image, in greyscale, is of DK standing on her rooftop terrace at night, overlooking the city lights. A shooting star streaks across the sky. Halfway into Episode 1, after DK has had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day, she gets drunk (on makgeolli), goes out onto her rooftop terrace, sees a large number of shooting stars (the implication being, from what we see the moment before, that a self-pitying MM sent them flying because he’s alone and drinking on his birthday). Frustrated with her day and how her life is going, DK shouts, “I hope the world goes to hell. I wish everything stopped existing. Bring doom upon the world!” DK’s world has become a dreary nightmare.
Next we hear a doorbell ring, then within blackness a door opens. Light streams in as the door opens, and we see MM. Behind him the view of the city and night sky is in color. This scene appears in Episode 1 after MM hears DK’s shouted wish for doom to fall on the world; MM’s entry into DK’s life will bring light and color back into her bleak world. There’s a very famous precedent for this imagery, from the 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz. In the beginning of the movie when orphaned Dorothy is living with her aunt and uncle on their farm in Kansas, the film is shot in sepia tones. A tornado carries Dorothy and her house to Oz. When Dorothy opens the door of her house, she and we see Munchkinland in Technicolor.
https://youtu.be/x6D8PAGelN8
In the cake image, the room is dark and much of the cake slice is in greyscale, but there’s color in the night-sky view out the window, the strawberry on top of the cake, and the light & shadow streaming in from the doorway in which Doom stands. In Episode 1 DK buys a cake to use for an ancestral memorial ceremony on the date of her parents’ accidental death; for MM it becomes his birthday cake, which he’s never before had (but wistfully looks at through a bakery window), and he receives from DK wishes for a happy birthday, his first time for that as well. MM’s world is brightened by his experiencing a bit of a very human ritual: a birthday celebration.
The beach image is greyscale on MM’S side, but in color with the sun rising on DK’S side, the color change happening between where they’re standing, as if DK is bringing color and light to MM’s world. The beach is where MM brings DK in dreams in Episode 1 and 4, and magically takes her there for real in Episode 5. The first two times he takes her there because her subconscious chose it. The third time he takes her to the beach to help lighten the load of duty she is carrying. He chose it for her, surprising her with his kind gesture. DK tells MM about how coming to that beach helped her when she was struggling emotionally. They have a meaningful discussion about crying versus not crying. Without her seeing, MM reaches out to touch DK’s head, but then withdraws his hand. DK asks, “But why are you suddenly so nice to me?” MM: “So I can seduce you. Just kidding.” DK holds her gaze on MM. The scene goes into slow motion. Is that just the director setting a mood, or has MM, who can control time, slowed it down so he and DK can look longer at each other? Time and the scene return to normal speed, and without breaking her gaze on MM, DK speaks, “Do you want to kiss?” MM bends over, takes her chin in his hand, and–again in slow motion–almost touches her lips with his when she turns her head away, looking perplexed. Time returns to normal speed and MM says, “I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that.” The way DK talks with MM, shows concern for him, accepts his presence and his touch, all are softening his stark existence.
In the next opening credits segment, MM and DK, traveling on a subway train, seem to come out of a dark tunnel and into the light as they cross a bridge over a river. They are the only two in the subway car, just as MM makes happen in Episode 1 after DK thinks to herself that she wishs the other commuters would disappear. MM’s side of the image has colorful scenery out the windows and light streaming in; the picture is greyscale from where DK is standing and all behind her. Between MM and DK is a window in the carriage door, light glowing in it. MM will travel with DK in her life, focused on her, pushing back the darkness that could overwhelm her.
The walls of the subway train carriage become indistinct, MM and DK disappear, the window in the carriage door glows with a fiery light toward which the butterfly flies.
MM and DK are floating in a starry sky emblazoned with a fiery light that envelops them. (Together they disassociate from the corporeal world. Death?) DK says to MM at the end of Episode 5, “Do you know what a supernova is? At the moment a star dies, it shines very brightly as it disappears. But that becomes energy for a new star to be born. And it becomes a star again.” MM and DK move toward each other with their hands outstretched. (They do not lose focus on each other, striving for a relationship that is not limited by the corporeal world.) A red thread comes from behind each of them and twines around their arms as their hands join in front of the brightest light. (In Episode 2 MM magically places a red thread bracelet on DK’s wrist as a sign of his promise to her. Although we may not see a red thread around his wrist, MM is equally connected to that promise.) The two threads merge as the hands clasp (DK enters the contract with MM by taking his hand, and must hold his hand every day to recharge the promise bracelet), rising between them to become three hearts (one inside the other like Russian nesting dolls, perhaps representing their past, present, and future love) that bursts to become a flower, the sun shining behind it. (Girl Deity is tending something in her flower pot; the love between MM and DK may be what she’s been waiting to sprout.)
The flower spins away and behind it an alpine scene unveils. A red train travels through landscape lush with green trees and grass, with snow-covered peaks in the distance. The bright sun is traveling through the sky. Then there’s a scene with Florence’s Tower of Palazzo Vecchio, Giotto Bell Tower, and Duomo. The sun is shining on the city, but the shadows are in hues of red, as if it is late afternoon. These images are like the live-action scenes DK sees through the peephole of her door in Episode 1. MM admits to showing DK Switzerland and Italy to trick her into opening her door to him in the middle of the night. These scenes may also reflect DK’s repressed desire to drop her responsibilities at home in South Korea and treat herself to exploring different, beautiful parts of the world perhaps on her bucket list.
The next image in the opening credits is of a lake and mountain scene. Stars and the moon are seen in the sky, but the sun is still above the horizon and all is bathed in the purple light of late afternoon / early evening. As of Episode 6, there is no scene in the drama that corresponds to this image, but it suggests a peaceful, beautiful ending.
The last image appears to be the same location as the first image in the opening credits, but in contrast is a riot of color with a tumble of bushes and many other plants. The impression is of a vigorous, healthy garden. Standing in the midst of the garden, holding hands, are MM and DK. The butterfly lands on a flower in the center of the picture, knocking off one petal. (If this is Eden, the falling petal suggests that such a paradise includes transient beauty.) MM and DK face the sun, which is halfway below the horizon. Their postures suggest familiarity and ease.
Nice!
I like your interpretation too @Welmaris!
@Packmule3, thank you. I knew I wasn’t blazing a new trail, but it was a good exercise for me.
Those who’ve watched Move to Heaven know about the yellow box. Holding items curated from the deceased’s possessions, the box encapsulates the deceased’s essence. I believe the opening credits of Doom at Your Service function the same way: a collection of what is the key to this story. (I just hope someone’s death isn’t a requisite part of this collection.)
Tension between grayscale and color plays a large role in conveying the message of the opening credits image sequence. What people feel when they see colors, black, grays, or white is subjective. Much of what we believe about response to color is based on anecdotal evidence or influenced by culture. Although we may not fully understand how it moves us or why, there is no doubt that color provokes in us instinctive and conditioned reactions. We are affected by color or its absence.
Grayscale artwork, lacking color, isn’t ugly by default: think of the gorgeous black and white photography of Ansel Adams (https://shop.anseladams.com/collections/original-photographs-by-ansel-adams). Because shape is emphasized when monochrome is used to delineate objects, there’s a rigidity in grayscale images. And then there are cultural associations: black often represents death, void, lack of consciousness, power, sophistication, elegance; greys bring to mind steel, granite, fog, monotony, gloom, but can represent a point between absolutes; whites can be icy, sterile, ghostly, but can also signal light or purity.
Introducing color provides another way to manipulate our emotions and steer our reactions to what we’re seeing. In the opening credits, we are signaled by the changing proportions of grayscale vs. color, color variety, and intensity of the hues. Except for people with color vision deficiency, we experience our lighted world in color; without light, color is sapped. For most of us, light and life and color are inextricably mixed. Darkness is the domain of obscurity and oblivion.
I noted that the connection with illumination and color bounces between MM and DK through the opening credits. As the story unfolds, both MM and DK have their moments of bringing warmth, understanding, vitality to the other who is in a state of disconnect/depression.
Bingo @Welmaris. Well said 👍
Lovely @Welmaris. I like your turn of phrase.