In this sort of drama, the characters will be fleshed out as the story progresses, so let me talk about the title again. I’m sure you all guessed that the title alludes to that 2009 American film called “(500) Days of Summer.”
Although I didn’t watch the show, I did my research so I can better understand the significance of the title. I read the plot summary on wiki and watched a few highlight on Youtube, like this one, the Opening Scene of the movie.
I had to laugh at the disclaimer, “Author’s Note: The following is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental. Especially you Jenny Beckman. Bitch.” But the ominous feeling settled in quickly when the omniscient narrator insisted on telling the viewers this fact: “This is a story of boy meets girl. But you should know upfront, this is not a love story.”
Here are six similarities I found between “(500) Days of Summer” (500DoS) and this Episode 2 entitled, “1752 Days of Summer” (1752DoS).
1. Like architecture, like graphic illustration
In 500DoS the hero Tom Hansen is an architect by training, but he works as a writer for a greeting card company. When I think of a writer for Hallmark greeting card, I immediately envision a creative person who’s also romantic…and a bit sappy. He has to be, right? If his words on the cards are to capture just the right emotion for the meaningful occasions in life, from birthdays, graduations, weddings, retirements, to bereavements, then he must believe in those sentiments. He can’t be an unemotional person.
And that’s how I view Tom Hansen. He’s a sentimental, emotional, romantic, nice guy. (Like Ung.) He lives in a pretty bubble. His job in the greeting card company is a sinecure.
After Summer breaks up with Tom, he falls into a depression. He quits his day job and plunges back into his world of architecture with vengeance. He’s inspired to draw on the wall, like a crazed graffiti artist, of his vision of a city.
In 1752DoS, our hero Choi Ung isn’t an architect. He’s a graphic illustrator of buildings and trees.
From the start, Ung strikes me as romantic, like Tom the greeting card writer. When Yeonsoo asks him “What if” hypotheticals, he answers in an extravagant, almost hyperbolic, display of devotion.
When asked in a magazine interview why he didn’t include people in his sketches, Ung replied, “I love things that don’t change but people change or disappear over time. That’s why there’s no people nor time in my works.” Meaning, he loves the eternal and the immutable. Yes, he’s a romantic alright.
After YeonSoo breaks up with him, he falls into a depression…like Tom. He begins working on his art with manic energy…like Tom. He locks himself up in his room and sketches nonstop. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if all his newfound drive and fervor to draw is because of Yeonseo. He would have mixed emotions, though.
A part of him would want to bury himself in his work to forget about her.
Another part of him would pursue meteoric success to make her regret throwing him away.
And yet another part of him would secretly hope that, in due time, his success would induce her to take him back.
Like Tom who renewed his interest in architecture, Ung found a new purpose in his graphic illustrations of trees and buildings.
Note: if you want to know the real artist behind Choi Ung’s works, he’s Thibaud Herem.
Itsnicethat.com thibaud-herem.2. The timeline
When we look closely though at the timeline of 500DoS on wiki, it becomes evident that the movie isn’t a love story but more of a “DIY (do-it-yourself) Recovery Plan from a Bad Breakup.” The movie only tricks us to believe that a happy ending is still in the cards for Tom and Summer when it shows them on Day 488 happily sitting together on a bench. This is just an illusion because Summer breaks up with Tom on Day 290.
The film hides this fact by starting in the middle of the story (or media res) and unfolding the events in a nonlinear, non-chronological order.
The viewers have to watch the whole movie and rearrange the timeline to discover that when Tom and Summer meet up on Day 488, they have NOT been dating each other for 198 days.
For the math-lovers on this blog, according to unitconverter.io,
290 Days = 9 Months, 2 Weeks, 2 Days and 1 Hour
For the generalists on this blog: Tom and Summer were a couple for 9½ months.
It’s widely understood that the title is “(500) Days of Summer” because on the 500th day, Tom finally gets over Summer. He meets a new girl who’s ironically called…wait for the joke… Autumn. Like the changing of the seasons, Autumn has replaced Summer.
As for our kdrama, Episode 2 begins on September 9, 2011, the 50th day of their dating. It skips, in sequential order, to their:
340th day (which is a little short of a year),
750th day (2 years, 2 weeks and 6 days),
1565th day (4 years, 3 months, 1 week, 6 days)
1670th day (4 years, 6 months, 3 weeks, 6 days)
Interestingly enough, the significance of the days in “1792 Days of Summer” is different from 500DoS. Like I said, in the film 500DoS, the 500th day marks the end of Tom and Summer’s relationship.
But in the kdrama, 1792nd day marks the day Ung and YeonSoo reunite after five years of separation. The 1792nd day is a reboot — or restart — of their relationship.
Also, in 500DoS, Tom and Summer meet at the bench (Tom’s favorite place).
Summer gives him news of her marriage. He’s confused (and feeling a little betrayed, no doubt) because she claimed she never wanted to be anybody’s girlfriend and then she suddenly changed her mind to be somebody’s wife.
Summer defends herself by saying that it just happened.
Summer: I just woke up one day and I knew.
Tom: Knew what?
Summer: What I was never sure of when I was with you.
Ouch! Can this girl be any more tactless and unfeeling?
Tom: You know it sucks. Realizing that everything you believed in is complete and utter bullshit. It sucks.
Summer: What do you mean?
Tom: Ah. You know, destiny, and soul mates. True love. And all that childhood fairy tale. Nonsense. You were right. I should have listened to you.
Summer: No….
Then, Summer retells how she met her husband-to-be. She admits that Tom had been right all along; he was just wrong about her being the right woman for him.
Now, let’s turn our attention to Episode 2 of 1792DoS. Yeonsu and Ung also have their heart-to-heart conversation, post-breakup. They have it on the couch in Ung’s comfy home.
Yeonsu: “Jal…”
They both start out saying “Jal” which means “well.” He knows she’s about to ask him if he’s doing WELL, or more colloquially, “How are you doing?” Rudely, he preempts her.
Ung: I’m sure you didn’t come here to ask me how I’ve been doing.
So, Yeonsoo tries to break the ice in another way.
Yeonsu: “Joh”
They both start to say “Joh” which means “good.” Again, he knows she’s going to spout the usual social compliment, “You look GOOD” so he interrupts her.
Ung: I doubt you’re here to tell me that I seem to be doing good.
Yeonsu: (not saying a word)
Ung: Yaaaaah! Seeing how you’re not getting upset, this must be something very important.
He means that the Yeonsoo he knows wouldn’t hold herself back. The old Yeonsoo would have fired back at him with an insult or reprimand.
Yeonsu: (thinking to herself) How has he become even more unlikeable? (she puts on a happy face) You see…
She turns to rummage her bag, and he sits up straight; his body suddenly tensing up.
Ung: Hold on a sec. Are you getting married?
He thinks she’s going to take out a wedding invitation from her bag. I’m sure he doesn’t like the idea that she’s marrying somebody else.
See the difference? Tom never expected Summer to get married, but Ung believed that Yeonsu could move on without him.
Yeonsu: No.
Ung: (relaxing) Fine. Keep talking then.
YeonSu pulls out her project proposal. She begins her sales pitch to convince him to collaborate. He refuses and they begin to squabble. Internally, she realizes that she shouldn’t have visited him since all he did was humiliate her. Sensing that he has the upper-hand, Ung circles back to an earlier question.
Ung: Why are you here, Yeonsu?
Yeonsu: What?
Ung: I told you I won’t ever see you again.
Yeonsu: I wouldn’t have come to see you if it wasn’t for this.
Ung: So you’re here for work?
Yeonsu: This is very important to me.
Ung: Well, it doesn’t seem important enough to come find me after five years.
Yeonsu: (sighing) How are you still so upset after five years?
Ung: How are you so indifferent only after five years?
Mind you, 5 years = 1825 days. This is longer than the 1792 days mentioned in the episode title.
Yeonsu argues that 1825 days is long enough to get over their breakup. She’s pointing out that it’s unreasonable of Ung to remain upset of their breakup after so much time has elapsed. They should let bygones be bygones.
But time is relative, according to Einstein.
For Ung, 1825 days is still a short period of time. He can’t believe that she’s dismissing and forgetting everything that happened between them after merely 1825 days.
And Yeonsu can’t answer that.
Here, it’s easy to see the similarities between Ung and Tom. They don’t understand how the exes can throw away their precious moment together. The women have broken up with them easily and treated their breakup casually, it’s as if their time together meant nothing.
However, as we discovered out, Yeonsu’s indifference is just sheer bravado. When she was drunk, she told her client, the Soen Team Leader, that she didn’t really want to meet Ung again. “It’s been five years since we broke up….Of all people, how could I face Ung again?”
She isn’t at all unaffected by their breakup as she seems.
3. Ikea store = Soen
In the movie, Tom and Summer have a date in IKEA on Day 34. They pretend to be a married couple, and the different sections in IKEA make up different rooms in their imaginary house. While lying in bed, Summer suddenly tells him that she “isn’t looking for anything serious.”
(Ha! Personally, I think IKEA is a metaphor for this sort of confession. The furniture and accessories in IKEA aren’t built to last a lifetime. They’re mostly temporary fixtures for college kids, transient people, or young couples starting a household of their own.)
In our kdrama, Yeonsu accompanies her client, the Soen marketing team leader, to the soft launch of the store. As she walks through the store, I’m amused that the Seon store resembles an Ikea store.
The Team Leader instructs Yeonsu to put the store’s furniture and lighting at the top of the PPL to be promoted in dramas, variety stores or documentaries. He also wants to open all areas of store for publicity. As they discuss these marketing strategies, Ung and his manager, EunHo, approach them. Yeonsu wants them to get lost. Because of their previous meeting, she mistakenly assumes that he’s going to reject her project proposal in front of her client.
Later on, EunHo observes that YeonSu and her boss look like a couple shopping around, instead of work partners. Ung silences him with a well-planted karate-chop. It’s a no-brainer why he did that. Although he expresses anger that EunHo almost blurted out his real identity to the team manager, he’s clearly upset by EunHo’s comment about Yeonsu and the Soen guy.
It’s too bad that he didn’t hear the conversation between Yeonsu and the Team Leader. If he had, he would have known that the Team Leader wasn’t dating her. On the contrary, the Team Leader was being upfront with her that he wasn’t interested in working with somebody who allowed personal matters cloud their judgment.
4. Expectation vs Reality
In the film, Tom accidentally meets Summer again months after they broke. She invites him to a party at her place. He misinterprets this invitation as her attempt to reconcile, so he attends the party with high expectations. Reality however begs to differ. He learns that she’s engaged at the party.
To me, this expectation vs reality dichotomy is duplicated in the meeting of Ung and Yeonsoo. She rings his doorbell; he opens the door. He gets totally flustered that he runs around the room like a madman looking for his water bottle (which he uses for his plants, I’m guessing).
He forgets the salt.
And he lets her in. Didn’t he vow to he kick her out? I thought he meant he was going to give her a swift kick-in-the-pants as soon as she came a-knocking.
Ji-Ung says that Ung rehearsed for this specific moment countless times. But when the most anticipated occasion happened, the reality still fell short of the expectation.
5. Penis Game
This is a juvenile game that Summer wants them to play in the park. Tom obliges her but is embarrassed.
In the drama, YeonSu constantly wants them to play the “What If” Game.
만약에 말야 = manyage marya = If by chance
a. 50th day
Ung: (narrating) Yeonsu asks strange questions from time to time.
Yeonsu: What if…
Ung: What?
Yeonsu: What if you get into college, but you don’t?
Ung: I will.
Yeonsu: At this rate, I doubt it.
Ung: Do you want me to fail?
Yeonsu: No, it’s just a what-if question. What if I get in but you have to resit the exam? What will happen to us?
Ung: Ummm…First, that won’t be the case. But if that happens, I’ll stay somewhere near your school. And I’ll pack lunch and study by your side.
This was a good boyfriend answer. But if you notice, his answers are romantic but rather lacking in substance and practicality. He needs to do more than pack her lunch; he needs to study and succeed.
Yeonsu: (smiling) Do you like me that much?
Ung: (looks at her but says nothing)
Yeonsu: Hey. Why aren’t you answering me? Hey!
Ung: Just focus on sweeping, will you? You’re slacking off.
Yeonsu: (getting mad) I said do you like me that much?
Ung: What’s the matter with you?
But here, once she asks him to declare that he likes her, he backs out.
b. 340th day (which is a little short of a year),
Yeonsu: What if…
Ung: (narrating) She’d ask out of nowhere. (asking her) What is it this time?
Yeonsu: What if you secretly go on a blind date?
Ung: Don’t be ridiculous. Why would I do that?
Yeonsu: Then, what if I do?
Normally, what-if questions are a great way to spark the imagination, contemplate serious topics, explore the mindset of another person, or look at an issue from another perspective. But in the case of Yeonsu, she asks these what-if questions because she needs reassurance and/or validation.
Ung: You’re going on a blind date?
Yeonsu: No. It’s just a what-if question.
Ung: Ji-Ung will spy on you.
Yeonsu: Ji-Ung? As if.
Ung: I’ll stay by your side at all times to make sure you don’t. What? I’m serious. I know you finish class at 5 pm today. I’ll see you soon.
This is a good boyfriend answer.
Yeonsu: But we met yesterday. Ung, you must really like me.
Ung: Class is starting. Bye!
Yeonsu: Hey.
Again, once she broaches the topic of his affection for her, he starts avoiding.
c. 750th day (2 years, 2 weeks and 6 days),
Yeongsu: What if I never get better?
Ung: What? Don’t exaggerate. Your fever went down a lot.
Yeonsu: No. It’s just a what-if question. What if I never get better and—
Ung: What? Don’t be ridiculous. (touching her brow)
Ung: (narrating) I think Yeonsu enjoys watching me suffer. (smacking her forehead) You’re all better. Get up and have some porridge.
Yeonsu: (sits up and narrates) There was a specific answer that I wanted to hear from him.
Here, he didn’t give a good boyfriend answer. But he didn’t need to because he performed a good boyfriend service by taking care of her while she was sick. And she didn’t get to ask him about her feelings
d. 1565th day (4 years, 3 months, 1 week, 6 days)
Yeonsu: (narrating) Ung was strange. (grabbing his attention) What if…
Ung: Again?
Yeonsu: Yes. What if…
Ung: I don’t care. Enough with this already.
Yeonsu: What if I go abroad as an exchange student?
Ung: Did you sign up for that?
Yeonsu: No, it’s just a what-if question.
Ung: That would be horrible. All my friends broke up after going abroad.
Yeonsu: (narrating) I could feel that he liked me a lot. (asking him again) What if I get a job and have to move to someplace far away?
Ung: Then, I’ll follow you and find a job there. Or I’ll just follow you.
Good boyfriend answers again. But this time, you can detect a slight change in Ung’s answers. He’s considering practical solutions, too, not just romantic scenarios. He didn’t give her a glib answer.
With Yeonsu, on the other hand, the purpose of her “what-if” questions remain the same. They serve as her openings to ask him the real question in her mind.
Yeonsu: Why? Why do you want to be by my side at all times? Aren’t you tired of our long relationship? Aren’t you? Do you like me that much or not?
There! That’s her real question. She wants a profession of love. A love confession.
Ung: (doesn’t answer)
Yeonsu: (narrating) How should I put it? He never said the most important thing. (dumps book on his head) You’re annoying.
Ung: How could you hit me?
Yeonsu: Whatever. I’m going home.
Ung: No, wait. Hey. Why are you suddenly so upset? Hey. Hey. Don’t.
Yeonsu: Don’t follow me.
Ung: (narrating) I don’t get why she keeps asking me that.
Yeonsu: (narrating) He can’t be that dense, can he?
e. 1670th day (4 years, 6 months, 3 weeks, 6 days)
Yeonsu: (narrating) And it was when I asked him that question for the last time… (he was drawing beside her. Lol! I guess this right, didn’t I? He would be the type to draw on their date.)
Yeonsu: What if…
Ung: I told you you have to stop.
Yeonsu: This is the last time. I promise.
Ung: I don’t get why you ask that.
Yeonsu: What if we break up?
Ung: We won’t.
Yeonsu: It’s possible though.
Ung: Not for me.
Yeonsu: Are you sure?
Ung: Yes.
Yeonsu: I could leave you. What if I abandon you?
Ung: (sighing)
Yeonsu: It’s just a what-if question. Then what will you do?
Ung: I won’t see you.
Yeonsu: What?
Ung: I won’t see you ever again?
Yeonsu: Ung. You’re pretty heartless. You’ll never see me again?
Ung: Never.
Yeonsu: What if I go see you again?
Ung: I’ll spray water, throw salt, and kick you out.
Yeonsu: I’m not some demon you need to drive out, you know?
Ung: So… you better not leave me.
Yeonsu: (narrating)… He had never looked at me that way.
Ung: (narrating) But maybe that wasn’t a what-if question for her.
Now, his answers have become personal. Not only that, his response is just hypothetical, but doable responses. He can implement these.
To me, these what-if games only seem juvenile on the surface. But they’re indicative of their insecurities and self-awareness.
6. The Elevator Scene
The elevator scene in 500DoS is a highlight because it’s the couple’s first encounter. It happens on Day 4. He gets on the elevator first and she hops in. He ignores her because he’s heard that she’s a snob. But she persists in striking up a conversation with him. He’s amazed that they like the same band. She sings a line from the song in that cute, little girl voice. “To die by your side is such a heavenly way to die.” Then, she walks out, completely unaware that she left him completely under her spell.
An elevator scene is also filmed in Episode 2. Like Tom, Ung is first on the elevator. Yeongsu can hardly refuse to join him. It’ll look as if she’s avoiding him if she does.
They start bickering.
Yeonsu: How are you still so immature? I heard you rehearsed spraying water and salt.
Ung: Did Kim JiUng tell you that?
Yeonsu: Grow up, will you? Was that all you could think up?
Ung: What about you? Was work the only excuse for you to come see me?
This indicates that he was waiting for her to drop by. He resents that she only came to see him because her work obligations left her with no choice.
Yeonsu: Then what excuse did you expect to hear when you saw me?
Excuse. She was saying that she had absolutely no reason to see him. She would have to invent a pretext to drop by and she couldn’t think of any. To my ears, she sounds sarcastic. She’s daring him to come up with a good excuse because she knows there’s no acceptable reason for her to see him.
Ung: (speechless)
Yeonsu: I didn’t plan on acting immature like you did. It’s been five years after all.
She says that throwing water and salt at her was the childish trick she expected of him. But she’s going to take the high road; she won’t stoop to his level. For her, the past doesn’t bother her anymore.
Ung: What if I was serious and didn’t act childish? Would you have managed?
Note how the tables are reversed here. Ung poses the what-if question, instead of Yeonsu.
There may other ways to interpret this, but for me, Ung is telling her that she should be grateful that he acted childish. If he had shown her his serious side and told her all that he was bottling up inside of him ever since she left him, she wouldn’t be able to handle it. He spared her.
Ung’s reply gets Yeonsu wondering.
Yeonsu: If you were sincere, what would you have done?
Ung: (no answer)
He would have probably hugged her? Broken down and cried? Begged her? Whatever it is, Yeonsu would have been put on the spot, and made to feel awkward.
The elevator technician arrives, and Ung exits the elevator. Outside the building, Ung reproaches himself for being childish and running away from her.
To me, though, there’s a good reason he wanted to be first out of the elevator. He doesn’t want to be left behind again, watching her back disappear.
🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸
I have to run. Will watch Episode 3 tonight.
Thanks @pkml3. You’ve taken a lot of trouble doing the comparison between Shows and giving us the length of time in months instead of just days.
BoDers were discussing our own interpretations of the part of the lift conversation where he asked how she’d managed if he wasn’t childish. Your take on it sounds probable.
The dynamics of these 2 insecure kids (even as adults I can’t help calling them kids!) are so absorbing. When they are together, even not looking at each other, even when Choi Ung is being boring, I find they electrify the screen. They are so frustrating in their inability to converse in such a way that they communicate, that any time they do manage a smidgeon of communication, I get excited. Most of their true communication, I feel, is non-verbal. And this is captured by the camera.
I was playing around with the being in front of and behind the camera idea. By the end of Episode 12, it’s evident without words, but just from what the camera captured in the last interview, the status of the OTP’s relationship.
Although as a short cut, I’m still calling them the OTP (one-true-pairing), I’m aware that they may not end up as a couple. They still have 4 episodes to work through their immature reactionary behaviour(s), to get on the road to a long-lasting committed relationship.
While in the original film, Summer refers to the girl, mainly, in this Show, summer refers to moments of the OTP. It could refer more narrowly to:
1) the time they were in school as captured by the documentary, as in ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’ because it was broadcast on social media and available to the public since 2011, so everyone could watch it and know.
2) it could include the hidden times after the documentary when CU and YS dated.
3) summer could refer to only the good times that they had together (ie, whenever they fought it was winter)
4) or it could refer to all the days they knew each other, both in good and bad times
I was thinking that YS wanted to believe that her ‘beloved summer’ was maybe 1), but definitely 2) and 3). She did not want to admit that their relationship meant more to her than that. She wanted to believe that she had moved on. She especially wanted CU to think that she did not need him. She says ‘How are you still so upset after five years?’ because her summer was in the past.
CU however considered all the days since he knew YS his ‘beloved summer’. As you noted, he was constantly waiting for her to return. Later you’ll see that in the past, he was the one to always return to her, but the last breakup, he kept his word and didn’t go to see her, however he expected her to relent and return. He’d prepared water and salt to mark her return.
After 5 years, he’d about given up, hence his utter disarray when he sees her at his door. By the time he sprays her with water, his summer was in full swing again. He asks ‘How are you so indifferent only after five years?’ because his summer continues, unabated.
@packmule3 and @(GB), I can see some comparison tom500 Days of Summer as a possible jumping off place for this drama. BUT, ond very major difference is that the movie essentially belonged to Tom. We saw his inner life, his perception of Summer. However, we did not see Summer in reality. She was essentially his point of view.
In our drama, not only do we get both of our couple’s inner life, but insights into side characters like NJ, our documentarian. His assistant, and her best friend. We get lots of insights into their behaviors and insecurities. And we get what appears to be three love triangles.
Call it wishful thinking, but I hope our main couple gets together in the end. I see emotional growth and some recognition on the part of both if them. So I sincerely hope we don’t get an ending like the moview, My Best Friend’s Wedding and On Your Wedding Day. I am rooting for these two to be the OTP. Fingers crossed…
@pm3, Love reading your breakdown of the parallels and contrasts between the movie and the episode.
Re-reading the dialogues from Episode 2, I am hooked on the last what if. “What if I go abroad as an exchange student?” I have wondered if this was the reason they broke up because YS heard CU and his teacher talking and CU gave up his stint to study overseas because he would be away from the people he knows for too long. And I understand now, he probably also didn’t want to go because in a way he can’t live without YS. He believed that “That would be horrible. All my friends broke up after going abroad.” Ironically they broke up even before he could go abroad.
Toying with the idea of YS following him probably made him think about going abroad. And if he told YS that he would follow her if she goes abroad, did YS think she would be obliged to do so? I would also think that she would not want him to give up such an opportunity but she won’t be able follow him as she needs to be earning money instead of spending money abroad.
I think that is likely the reason for their breakup. Noble idiocy?
And I agree, these what if questions help her to draw out what CU thinks and get answers she might not dare to ask so directly.
Like @GB, I love the non-verbals cues those hanging in the air silence isn’t boring, i hang with lots of anticipation and lap up every bit of dialogue. I love how @GB says that they electrify the screen even with boring Ung 😛
Thanks, @GB.
Yes, like you, I’ll call them OTP even though it’s unclear whether they’ll end up together.
Yes, summer could allude to many things. You said,
So, let me think about “summer” here.
Re. 1st point. The documentary was made in May 2011. The filming lasted only a month. In Ep 1, Jeonsu’s homeroom teacher said, “It’s a documentary where they observe the best and worst students for a month as they spend time together.”
In this Episode 2, the dates are given. If we calculate the 50 days before Sept 9, 2011, then they started dating on July 20, 2011. That’s what they did in the summer.
The title of the Episode 1, “I Know What You Did Last Summer” points to their dating. They dated in the summer of 2011. And it’s become like that horror story where the teens involved in the car accident were visited by the killer a year later. In the case of our OTP, the ghost of their relationship continues to haunt them 10 years later.
That’s why the Head producer of the show didn’t know until the Ung’s Buddy Producer told him that they dated.
Re. 2nd point. Yes, the summer can refer to their whole dating life. Interestingly, at timestamp (6:40), we see the Day Counter: it’s 1792nd day. It’s the “1792nd day of Summer”. I interpreted this as the reboot or restart of their dating life.
Re. 3rd point. Yes, summer may refer only to the good days. But what kind of relationship is that (not to mention, what kind of message is that) when we count only the happy days? 🙂 A couple is supposed to weather the good and the bad times together. If summer refers only to the good times, then maybe the 1792 should be decreased by…? half? a third? a quarter? 1792 days can’t all be happy days.
Re. 4th point. Yes. I prefer this one. 1792 days refers to good and bad times of their dating life. But note: the Day Counter stopped after 5th year breakup. Otherwise, when they met again, it should have been their 3650th day. (365 days x 10 years).
The key here is the counter only restarted when they met again.
To me, “summer” is their state of mind when they’re dating or in a relationship with each other. They’re loving, bickering, sweet, childish, insecure, daring, sparkling…and so on. They’re *youthful” which is the common metaphor of summer.
Spring is a baby.
Summer is a youth.
Autumn is a mature person.
Winter is old age.
Whenever Ung and Jeonsu are with each other, they’re brimming with life. They’re passionate, they energize each other. They’re never bored with each other like she was when she had dinner with the Team Leader, and like he is with his adoring fan NJ.
Jeonsu wants to believe that she’s outgrown all that youthful silliness. But then, she’s always tried to act older than her actual age, even back in 10th grade, when she marched up to Ung and asked for his class rank. Hence, she tells Ung nonstop to quit acting immature.
But to someone grown-up like the Team Leader, she’s really a kid herself.
I don’t know why they broke up @Grace. You have better knowledge of what’ll happen in the future episodes since I’m behind you all. I just finished Ep 3.
But for some reason, I’m really not that invested in guessing the reason because I’m sure the writer will tell us in due time.
I’m taking it slow because I’m enjoying making predictions, i.e., when I said that she KNEW the real identity of the reclusive artist even before she knocked on the door because of:
a. she recognized the places in the artist’s portfolio
b. when she read the magazine, she recognized the artist’s perspective about the permanence of architecture
c. he must have doodled similar drawings in her company, while they were dating. lol.
d. she knew his interests in graphic arts even back in high school
But to me, the unexpected bonus was that she recognized Ung’s profile even when it was blurred out in the instagram account of NJ’s MANAGER. hahaha.
For now, I’m more invested in finding out how the writer and director think, learning what their worldviews are, and getting accustomed to their visual cues are more fun than the guessing the characters’ endgame. They might or might not end together…but as of this moment, I don’t care either way.
@pkml3 You said:
I find it highly amusing that the haunting aspect of the horror film, ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’ can be applied to this Show. I think it terribly, horribly appropriate. You’ll find as you watch Episodes 3-6, that this OTP are just haunted by misery. I’d actually include Ji Ung as well and say the 3 leads are miserable, and seemingly trapped, stagnated in their emotional development.
I went back to look at it and yes I see the ‘1792’ popping up on the screen when YS stands outside CU’s house after having been sprayed with water. I interpret the Day 1792 (like you) to mean that they are continuing exactly where they left off, as if only a day had passed instead of 5 years. It’s as if their summer was placed in limbo 5 years ago, when they separated and now that they’ve met, the clock starts ticking again, counting the days of the same summer. They continue quite as expected just after the point where they broke up, with them at the same level of maturity, and in about the same emotional state, as 5 years previously. This is reinforced by CU’s doing exactly what he planned to do should she return after dumping him: he’d sprayed her with water.
This also agrees with your 4th point. The counter starts again from the day their paths cross.
About the youthfulness of summer, that’s true. It was the comment made by viewers of their old documentary. *SPOILER* In episode 3 we get this scene.
Both YS and CU watch the same video clip and smile over their young antics.
Comments:
“It’s been ten years already, I wonder what they’re up to.”
“This is what being young is all about.”
“They are so young and innocent like summer.”
These words seem to strike both of them although they are watching the video separately.
Apart, they were jaded, dull people, like old foggies waiting to die. This might have been the difference that JU saw when he watched the old documentary, and which galvanised him to agree to do a new documentary. I was also guessing that seeing a youthful YS was an added incentive. He might have thought that after it all had ended between the OTP, he (JU) might now have a chance with YS. He, too was dull, behaving older than his age (his boss was so much more childish than JU). Seeing the youthfulness of CU and YS (with him (JU), in the background) may have awakened his desire to also relive some of his youth again.
Yes, she suffered an arrested youth. She couldn’t be a kid. The responsibility of paying bills and paying back debt took her youthfulness away. Even being with CU (as you’ll learn later), she felt was an aberration for her. She felt that she had to be serious and ‘real’ all the time, and that her time with CU was merely a break from ‘reality’ which she could ill afford.
So the continuation of the ‘same’ summer, is the chance for all the leads, but I feel especially for YS to live out the days of their/her youth which they’d/she’d lost.
Just thinking about how her poverty prevents her from even thinking about studying abroad with Ung. There probably was an underlying assumption that YS, the very best student, had the wherewithal to go to academies and ultimately to study abroad. Apparently that was one of the missing parts of the equation that Ung did not know back in their day. He had his own secret but was lucky enough to land with adoring parents who as stated earlier on in the drama had money.
One trope in K Dramas has been the rich boy/poor girl relationship with all its travails. Here YS masks her poverty in temper and smarts. Unlike Ung, who is financially secure, we see how YS scrambles. Her grandmother provides shelter and nourishment-think Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, but cannot fulfill all of the others leading YS to be self-reliant by default, but nevertheless remains an insecure kid.
I find that that very difference in physical security levels plays an important part in the dynamic of their relationship. Ung can afford to be lazy, to contemplate his navel. YS has to work and make a good living. She supports her grandmother and still lives with her. As a professional worker in South Korea, she is still subject to the whims of her bosses and must swallow unfair orders of her superiors. A telling event was when she was ambushed by her boss at the launch and embarrassed in front of Ung. Ung never has to go through that level of existential humiliation.
YS must consciously have to ask her status with Ung because of their very unequal economic and personal security level. YS knows that the rug can be pulled out from under her at any time.And, when she learns about Ung’s personal history of abandonment, she can respond with a level of empathy that her experience knows too well. To me, this is the pivot in their relationship that could not have happened when they were kids.
Also, our documentarian has a similar problem with the absence of parental affection. Will this count in a potential triangle-I hope not and would like to see him 2ith his assistant(ah, the one-sided love trope).But I guess we’ll see complications, as well as with NJ, along the way.
Again, I’m invested in the OTP but I do appreciate @packmule3’s observations/speculations. They make this drama all the more meaty to watch.
@OAL Good, salient points as usual.
With YS, so must rested on the fact that she was poor and that she didn’t want anyone to know it. It determined her big decisions, regarding her own happiness. I’ve come to figure out that she preferred to break off cruelly with CU time and again, without explanation, rather than to tell him her true situation. Essentially, she ultimately broke up with him because of poverty.
(This reminds me how in Just Between Lovers, Halmeom, I think it was, said that it was poverty that killed, since it led to overwork, lack of self-help and myriad related ills.)
I do believe, that CU never had an idea of just how dire her straits had been. He’d blithely assumed that she could have gone abroad with him. He never expected that his suggestion for them to study together abroad would have led to her dumping him sharply, without an apparent reason.
YS’ Grandma was right to feel responsible for YS unhappiness and the travails of the OTP failed relationship. She did indeed contribute to YS’s insecurities. She gave YS a tough love and insisted that YS offered a tough exterior, demonstrating nothing that looked like weakness. YS must have had to force herself to embrace much self-denial in order to maintain this façade. It made for an outwardly brilliant, cold and successful YS, but not a happy YS.
It is upsetting that despite apparent success and the respect of her colleagues, YS will have to still compromise to please her clients. She would need to accept humiliation after all the years she’d avoided being looked down upon. I, too, was especially disgusted with the Soen boss, Jang, who put her on the spot in front of CU, forcing her to agree to go for the opening day party, and how he disrespected her so that he took on artist Nu-A without even informing her, when she was planning the promotion of his store. She could not risk the loss of her job. I like how you term it ‘existential humiliation’.
Ko-O, by comparison, could reject work if he wished. He didn’t need to please anyone but himself. We see him repeatedly disregard his only staff, Eun Ho, and repeatedly not turn up to do what was wanted of him, such as help at his parents’ restaurants.
I do hope that YS’s ability to empathise, after years of struggle, stands the OTP relationship in good stead. She too had feared abandonment, choosing to do the abandoning first, rather than to face the humiliation of being the one abandoned. However her youthful habit of running away earlier, rather than trying to work things out, may still kick in whenever she feels threatened, even now as an adult. She did after all choose to tell (lie to) Jang that she could not find Ko-O, rather than humiliate herself by going back to find a way to get CU to cooperate, even after she mets CU and Eun Ho at the Soen soft launch.
I like all our second leads who are wonderfully placed to add more bumps to our already fraught OTP relationship. I do wonder why Chae Ran thought Ji Ung looked happier after he recovered and came back to work. She only knew it had nothing to do with her. It will be sad to have both Chae Ran and NJ left on the shelf, but of the 2, I’d prefer Chae Ran to get her man. 🙂
Yes, always, a note of thanks to @pkml3 for giving us substantial ideas to chew upon. 😋
@PM3, I just want to say that you’re on your element with all the OBS posts on comparisons to the title movie references! I love it! It’s like a throwback to reminisce about those movies and what struck you about them. I only watched up to ep2 but I’m reading all your posts. And thanks for the link on the drawings and the actual artist!
Wow! I’m reading your post after every episode so here I am. I just finished this one and I was laughing at the spraying of water, throwing of salt and shutting the door. 😂 CU practiced it 50 times. 😬 He must have been devastated/frustrated? when they broke up up. It’s like he didn’t get a closure.
But I have to agree with @GB, whenever this OTP is talking/bickering they light up the screen. ☺️
I would have been frustrated with all the what if’s especially from YS, couldn’t she just ask CU straight? 😁 I’d love to see how they decided to become girlfriend and boyfriend. 😊
Good pick up on YS knowing who might Go Oh really be. ☺️ Maybe your right about Ji Ung too. I’ve seen how he looked at CU’s parents when they were worried about him and then he went to see CU after noticing YS from afar. He’s trying to suss him.
😂 To me, the fact that he practiced it more than 10 times indicates that he really was expecting her to show up one day. Isn’t that something? He never gave up hope that she’d return.
He knew his art and his success would eventually bring them together again. He wasn’t going to look for her and he didn’t “actively” tell her where he was.
But all along, he was sending out signals where he could be found. Those drawings of their neighborhood were familiar haunts to them; they used to walk down those streets together.
I liked the way he threw the salt, not totally at her which was good. 😂
He waited for her, poor guy. 🙁 Yes, the drawings of the neighbourhood store, the walkways and buildings. She remembered them.
I’ve seen episode 3, I’ll comment there. ☺️