I agree with Welmaris when she commented in a previous thread,

Although the storyline of Our Beloved Summer is discernable without knowing about the movies referenced in the episode titles, it becomes richer, more layered, when the inspiration is brought into our consciousness.

It’s good to recognize the themes, motifs, and scenes that the writer had appropriated from another work and created into new story. To me, this cultural appropriation is NOT the anathema that some misguided fools and social justice warriors think it is. It’s a natural process of curiosity, creativity, and assimilation. I’m glad that the writer was able to expand her perspective, and enrich ours, too, from these old, and otherwise forgotten, films. In a sense, these films were given a chance to “begin again.”

🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸

The American movie “Begin Again” (2013) is about a record producer named Dan encountering a songwriter Gretta on their worst day of their lives. Dan is separated from his wife, estranged from his daughter, and fired by his business partner from the music company he co-founded. He’s a has-been in the music industry and an alcoholic to boot. He goes to a bar to kill time.

As for Gretta, she’s leaving NYC and returning to Britain after learning that her long-time boyfriend cheated. She’d composed a song for him, “Lost Stars,” which became a hit. He found fame and was signed by a record label in NYC. She came along on the trip because her boyfriend considered her his muse and inspiration. It wasn’t long however that he founded another muse, an executive from the recording company, to replace her.

On the eve of her departure, she sings in a bar. Dan hears her and falls instantly in love with her music. He begs to become her producer. She refuses because she wants “authenticity” in her music.

Dan: No, your song is good. It’s you. Standing up there like a tomboy. I don’t mean to be offensive, but don’t you think that look is a little passe?
Gretta: Really?
Dan: Seriously. We get you a look and a killer video, and you’ll go straight to the top. I’m thinking Norah Jones, singer-songwriter thing at a piano….

He goes on and on about changing her image. But Gretta already knows firsthand how all this works because her ex had gone down this same route. His record label gave him a rock star image, complete with a “killer video,” and he rocketed to stardom. However despite his meteoric rise to fame, Gretta considers him a lost cause because he sold himself out and their relationship.

She naturally bristles at the idea of repackaging.

Dan: Babe, who the fuck do you think you are? What? You’re gonna stand up on a stage with a beat-up guitar and you think you’re the new Carole fucking King?

Lol. Remember what I told you about “gae”? There! Just replace all the EFF words with “gae.” “Who the gae do you think you are? The new Carole gae King”?

Gretta: No, I just think that an A&R man telling an artist how they should dress or come across is total bullshit. People don’t want that. They want authenticity.

Dan explains the irony in the music industry. To hook people into her “authentic” music, a bit of artifice is required to promote it.

Dan: Listen to me. I am not saying that you can’t be a real bona fide motherfucker in this business. But you got to do whatever it takes to get people in to see your show where the music can start to do its real work.

Eventually, she comes round to his point, and they bond while recording songs for her first album. This bonding over music allows them to begin life again. Hence, the title.

So, how does this relate to our episode? 🤔 I think our screenwriter focused on the big themes of the movie.

1. Can music save a life?

The catchphrase of the film is “Can music save a life?” As I said, both Dan and Gretta had bottomed out in their personal and professional relationships. But the moment Dan heard Gretta, his genius was rekindled. In turn, he was able to guide Gretta to make music without compromising her values.

So, yes, music saved their lives.

There’s this impressive scene when Dan rearranged her raw music in his head and added the instrumental music from the cymbals, piano, drums, and strings.

In our drama, music was exchanged for art, and the question altered to “Can art save a life?”

With Ung as example, the answer is a resounding yes. At the lowest point in his life — when he thought Yeonsu was lost to him forever – his art enabled him to live in an imaginary world where she remained by his side. He survived all these years because art gave him refuge from his unbearable reality.

Ung: I’m thinking of holding a nighttime exhibition.
Yeonsu: Late at night?
Ung: Yes. It’ll last throughout the night.
Yeonsu: I doubt many people will come if it’s too late. Promoting your exhibition won’t be easy either.
Ung: That’s why my idea keeps getting rejected.
Yeonsu: Artists really do think differently than us regular people. But why at this hour?

Ha. In the movie, the people in the music industry are depicted in the same fashion. They think differently.

Ung: Because it’s when I drew them. Plus, it’s when I’m always awake.

He closes his eyes. Like Dan in the movie, he envisions the scene in his head. He opens his eyes and imagines his paintings hanging on the wall.

Yeonsu: Just now, I imagined the time you spent awake alone at this hour. It must have been lonely. What goes through your mind when you’re drawing? What do you think about during that long period of time?
Ung: I’m not sure. I never really thought about it. But I couldn’t have imagined anything as perfect as this.

To me, he’s doing two things simultaneously.

One, he’s prevaricating. He gives her the impression that his mind had been blank when he was at work. He also tells her that whatever he was thinking of back then, it can’t compare to this very moment. Having her standing in front of him is simply beyond his wildest imagination in those bleak times.

Two, he keeps the truth to himself. He was thinking of her all that time. She was never gone because she was always there with him. In his mind.

That’s how art saved him.

Ung’s voiceover: Every thin line that I drew, every second that went by, every year, every moment, Yeonsu was always there.

Yeonsu: What did you imagine?

Two things are happening here, too.

One, he prevaricates her again. He doesn’t answer her question. Instead, he invites her to go home with him.

Second, he gets carried away by the moment. His mind’s blown that she’s truly there with him. In the flesh. In his arms. His imagination can never compare with this reality. So he vows to love her forever.

Ung’s voiceover: And in the future, I will spend all my time loving Kook Yeonsu.
Ung: Let’s go home.
Yeonsu: Okay.

What are my main takeaways here? Well, for one, the Interviewer in Episode 11 was wrong.

Interviewer: You said you don’t draw people in your works. It feels like you’ve purposely left people out of them. Like you’ve intentionally left those spaces empty. We can feel loneliness and emptiness in your drawings. I think that comes from the exclusion of people. Is that intentional or is this something that you did subconsciously?

She presumed incorrectly that he “subconsciously” left out people. In truth, he had one person in all his illustrations: Yeonsu. He “intentionally” did NOT leave her out. She was there. Just because she couldn’t be seen in his art didn’t mean she wasn’t there. She was the literal and symbolic “space” in his work.

Do you “see” it? 🙂

For another, Ung’s art showed his authentic self. Without needing the services of somebody like Dan to package his work, Ung was able to get people to see (and buy) his illustration while staying true to himself.

2. Change is constant.

In the movie, Dave’s life changed when his wife cheated on him.

Dave: She goes a year up to work on a junket, and um, she ends up meeting and falling in love with a singer. Bang, boom. Thunder, lightning. Fireworks. The whole bit. And the arrangement was they were going to come back and tell their partners that they’d fallen in love, and they were gonna spend the of their lives together. And so, I go to the airport to pick her up, and she just comes out with it first off. The whole story. The next day, the bags were all packed and we were telling Violet (their daughter) what’s gonna happen.
Gretta: So what did happen?
Dave: He choked. He got on the airplane, went back to his life, turned his phone off, and she never heard from him again. I move into another bedroom. She’s waiting around for a phone call that never comes, and I turn into a…I lose my shit a little bit.

But after all that, Dave still wanted to reconcile with his wife and get his family back.

As for Gretta, she realized that her ex had changed too much for her to accept him back. In attempt to win her over, he asked her to listen to his recorded songs.

Gretta: I think that you’ve lost the songs in the production. You know? I mean, okay, take “Lost Stars.” I wrote it as a…as a ballad, and…I don’t know, it sounds like a piece of stadium pop.
Ex: Oof! Yeah, but I wanted to turn it into a hit.

This was Dan’s point earlier. There was a conflict of interest. The artist wants to produce authentic music but the executives from recording label want to retrofit the music for mass consumption and massive success.

Gretta: Why?
Ex: “Why?” What kind of question is that? You’re the writer. You get sole writing credit on it, Gretta. This is huge for you.
Gretta: Yeah. But I mean you weren’t supposed to lose the song in it, you know? I mean, it’s…it’s delicate.

She wanted the song remixed to its original ballad form. He argued that everybody who heard the new arrangement loved it.

Ex: It’s amazing. You have to come see it live. I mean, the reaction to it, the energy in the room just changes.
Gretta: Why are you so worried about what other people think? It’s…it’s our song.
Ex: It is, but you know, isn’t that what music is about? It’s about sharing it with people.
Gretta: No, not that song, Dave.

Inevitably, their conversation steered to his infidelity. He offered to jettison his album to get her back.

Ex: The funny thing about all this is that I would throw that fucking record into the ocean if we could just continue this conversation right now. This is what I want to talk about. Okay? And if I could somehow say something or do anything that would undo what I did to us, then…(groans) just tell me what it is. Help me.
Gretta: Would you? Would you throw it in the ocean?

Of course, she knew he was all hot air. He looked nervous so he tossed the question back to her. Would she want him to throw it in the ocean? She replied no.

Gretta: I think everything’s changed. And I’m…um…I’m just finding it a bit hard to adjust.
Ex: I know. It makes sense. But we’re just gonna have to find a way to…get through this, get through this together.
Gretta: (doubting him) When did you like, when did you realize that?
Ex: When you sang to me on my voice mail. I realized that nobody on earth in their right mind would ever do anything remotely like that. And that killed me. That crushed me. You completely won me over.
Gretta: You know, I wasn’t actually trying to win you over. I was trying to tell you to fuck off. And I had. And…and now, you know, you’ve…you’ve come back and…and you’ve opened the whole thing up again, and I think, actually, I think…I think I have to go.

She handed him back his recorder and stood up to leave. He invited her to watch him live at concert. He wanted her to see how everybody was in love with her composition. She only had one thing to say to him.

Gretta: Please don’t play it like that.

She went to his performance. At first, he sang their song on the guitar in the style that she requested, and she was happy. But then, halfway through the song, he changed the tempo back to pop. As the audience went wild, she began tearing up. She knew then that she had lost him forever to his stardom. So she left. The lyrics of the song, “Lost Stars,” was prophetic.

There.

As you can see, the characters in the movie experienced life-shattering changes. The changes were too drastic to be missed.

In comparison, in this kdrama, the changes in our couples were subtle. On the surface, their old habits seemed to die hard. He still waited at her gate; she still nagged him. They still bicker.

Ung: Are you done?
Yeonsu: I’m just saying you should’ve stayed home and tried to sleep.
Ung: I’d rather be here right now.
Yeonsu: (smiling)
Ung: What’s that face? Are you happy or not?
Yeonsu: I’m ecstatic.
Ung: Then you should’ve just said so from the get-go. Let’s go. I’ll drive you.
Yeonsu: To work? I can take the bus.
Ung: It’s quicker by car.
Yeonsu: You can’t drive when you haven’t slept a wink. That’s –
Ung: There you go again. Fine, but at least let me drive you to the bus stop. Okay?
Yeonsu: Okay. That’s fine.
Ung: How can you nag me every time I say something?

Yeonsu: It’s only because you keep worrying me.
Ung: I’m not a kid.
Yeonsu: Exactly. So when will you grow up, Ung?

He then pulled her (twirled her?) against a wall.

Nice move. For a second, I thought he was swing her like Fred Astaire did.

Ung: (seriously) Then when will you grow up, Yeonsu?
Yeonsu: (crickets)

I don’t know about you, but I sense an innuendo there. He wasn’t a making a pun. He was hinting at intimacy. 😎 I doubt he was merely exasperated about her immaturity in the sense of “When will grow up and stop nagging me?” or “When will you start acting your age?”

To me, he was talking about LEVELING UP their relationship. He was sounding out whether she was ready to progress in their dating. Remember. According to YeonSu, Ung was a “prudent” guy. He wouldn’t leap into bed with her without asking her.

To me, this explained her silence. She too understood that his question was alluding to something else, i.e., skinship, but she wasn’t prepared to think about it.

Ung: Can you skip work today?
Yeonsu: (pushing him) No way.

Pffft. I’m sure they were just going to play video games all day.

Ung: Come on. Just one day will be fine.
Yeonsu: Work isn’t like school. I can’t do that. You don’t need to drop me off. Just go home and sleep.
Ung: But you said I could.
Yeonsu: I’ve changed my mind, so don’t follow me.
Ung: (pouting)
Yeonsu: (turning around) Choi Ung. I have a question. Are we dating again?
Ung: Did you think we weren’t all this time?

For Ung, it was ludicrous that she’d asked this question. In his mind, they were obviously dating. Otherwise, why would he asked her “When will you grow up, Yeonsu?”

Yeonsu: I mean, I just wanted to be sure.
Ung: I thought it was obvious enough.

Yeonsu: Ung-ah! I hope we get along.

Then, she walked away, mumbling.

Yeonsu: He’s so straightforward.
Ung: Wow. She’s so adorable.

Do you see the subtle changes?

While it might appear as if they were still at loggerheads with each other like they in high school, their banter had changed tone.

Back in high school, Ung said his ideal type was “Someone who’s very kind. A petite and adorable girl with a round face. Someone who’ll shower me with love.” Although Yeonsu mocked him back then about adopting a dog, she ended up fussing over Ung.

As for Yeonsu, she was certain that the man she’d like would be someone “really incredible” to make at dig at Ung’s lack of ambition. But Ung ended up being an artist that she admired.

Back then, they constantly outdid each other in trying to show the other person in a bad light. This time, however, when she scolded him or he complained, it was out of concern for the other one. They changed.

Of the two, however, it was YeonSu who noticed the almost impalpable changes.

For instance, when she asked what his plans were for the weekend, he didn’t jump at the chance to see her like he would’ve typically done. Her intuition sensed something different.

Yeonsu: Well, what are you doing this weekend?
Ung: This weekend?
Yeonsu: Yes. This weekend. Do you want to hang out if you’re free?
Ung: Let’s see. This weekend?
Yeonsu: If you’re too busy, then it’s okay.
Ung: No. I’m free this weekend. Let’s meet.

She felt awkward after their phone conversation, so she confided in her bestie.

Yeonsu: I did ask him out first, but he didn’t seem that elated. It didn’t seem like he was too excited to get back together.
Bestie: So did he refuse to see you?
Yeonsu: No, it’s not that. But it keeps bothering me. It’s as if I forced him to hang out with me.
Bestie: But you are seeing him. Did you expect him to jump for joy? You’re not teenagers anymore, you know?
Yeonsu: Still. It’s not like him to react that way. He’s definitely changed. It’s weird.

Then, her bestie, the voice of reason, pointed out that she was weirder than Ung. Yeonsu didn’t normally call her up first but there she was rambling on the phone about Ung during work hours. Who was she to judge when she changed, too?

Bestie: Okay. Who do you think has changed? Who’s the weirdest one here? Anyway, stop worrying over things like that. Just follow your heart. It took you long enough to get back together. So can you please stop hesitating and step up already?

Ung did change but not in the way that Yeonsu feared. She thought he changed for the worse, that is, he became lukewarm about showing his affection but nothing could be further from the truth.

In fact, he became more demonstrative.

He showed up at Yeonsu’s worksite to wait for her. He wasn’t worried about looking like her shadow (or stalker).

He wasn’t embarrassed to be seen dogging her steps. Remember in Episode 9, he was running after her in his house, but pretended not to? Well, now he was doing it in public.

It was fine to be a “gae” playing fetch for her. He was spending quality time with her.

He was like this:

He only found being a dog inconvenient when he couldn’t return her kiss. His hands were holding two corn dogs.

Ung: Darn these corn dogs.
Yeonsu: (laughing)
Ung: Can you hold this for me?
Yeonsu: No.
Ung: Okay, then.

Deftly, he held both in one hand then tugged her with the other hand.

Smooth like Fred Astaire.

My point here is he changed alright.

When Yeonsu playfully left him behind the gate, he protested. He didn’t shy away from voicing his displeasure.

Yeonsu: We’re here.
Ung: If you go now, things will be awkward. (she went in) Ya!
Yeonsu: (peaking out) Oh! Look at you standing in front of a woman’s house again.
Ung: Ya!

Lol. Her move reminded me of Gretta in the movie. She shamed her ex about his affair (and rightly so!). But the difference between Gretta and YeonSu was YeonSu only pretended to be upset over Ung’s scandal with NJ. She knew that nothing happened between those two.

Yeonsu: Is this a new habit you picked up? You’ve changed.

Yeonsu was teasing him. She wasn’t angry with him like the other time she’d accused him of acquiring a douchebag’s habit of kissing-and-leaving-girls like her.

Ung: (showing irritation) That’s enough.
Yeonsu: (stopping)

This was new. Ung wasn’t so emphatic before.

Ung: Do you know what I hate right now?
Yeonsu: What?
Ung: We’re not students anymore. You don’t have to go home so early.

I told you he wanted to “level up.” This was new, too, for Ung. He wasn’t this demanding before.

Yeonsu: (smiling)
Ung: (ordering her) Come back outside.
Yeonsu: (obeying him)
Ung: Come here. (hugging her) It’s too early to go home. No, you can’t go. (hugging her tighter)

Her grandmother called out, “Who’s there?!” so they hid behind the wall.

And just like that, they found themselves in that same pose, with that same body awareness, as that time he asked her, “When will you grow up, YeonSu?”

He learned from then, and changed his question.

Ung: Would you like to come over to my house…(pausing)…to drink some daechu cha?

She laughed. He was making a word play with that standard pickup line, “Would you like to come in for some ramyeon?” In kdramas, this question means that the invitee has canoodling in his/her mind rather than noodles.

Yeonsu: What?
Ung: I’m serious. I want to get rid of…I mean…Let’s have some together.

Getting YeonSu to laugh was a good step in the right direction. Last time, she shied away when he asked her, “When will you grow up?” She rushed off — like a scared rabbit — when he asked her to skip work that day because she was shy at the thought of being in his company alone.

This time, however, SHE changed. Instead of protesting, like a virginal damsel, that it was too late for her to go to his house, she giggled.

It’s in this context, then, that we should understand his words in the museum.

Ung: Let’s go home.
Yeonsu: Mmm.

He progressed “When will you grow up, Yeonsu?” to “Would you like to have jujube tea with me?” to “Let’s go home.” He wasn’t asking her a question.

Right in front of her eyes, he was changing. He was no longer the callow youth he once was in high school, struggling with his shirt buttons so he could lend her his shirt. He acquired new habits. He became “smoother” in his moves. He learned to ask her home. They were beginning again but definitely not as teenagers.

Similarly, she was changing. She went from shoving him to laughing at him to finally smiling about “skinship.” Not once, in this entire process, did she think that he was a bumbling idiot.

3. To begin again 

The film showed two different ways a couple can proceed from a breakup. The couple could accept the past and move on separate lives…like Gretta and her ex.

Or the couple could accept the past, reunite with a new dynamics in their relationship, and love better and stronger than the last time around…like Dan and his estranged wife. Dan let bygones be bygones.

Yeonsu and Ung decided to go with the later.

Yeonsu’s voiceover: I had forgotten… who I was in love with.

Yeonsu: What are you doing here? Are you here to see me?
Ung: Why did you want to meet on the weekend?
Yeonsu: What?
Ung: I can’t wait that long.

Yeonsu’s voiceover: Whether he changed or not doesn’t matter.

Ung: Get back to work. I won’t get in your way. I didn’t know about this place. I could hold my exhibition here someday.
Yeonsu: (smiles then gives him a back-hug)

Yeonsu’s voiceover: It was Ung. I just loved him for who he was.

I don’t think that was such a profound concept but the occasional reminder is good for the soul.

4. Additional point: the eyes

I think those were the three major themes from the movie. But there’s one scene from the movie that I want to highlight. It’s the moment when Gretta discovered her boyfriend was cheating on her.

The guy didn’t have to say anything. Gretta knew that he cheated by the way he avoided her eyes, and by the lyrics of the new music he supposedly created for her.

Now, how does this relate to our episode?

In three scenes involving JiUng, the eyes revealed the truth.

a. When he watched the tape and saw Ung and Yeonsu exchanging looks and smiling, he knew they were dating.

It was different from back then.

b. When JiUng saw Ung’s eyes, he knew the news that Ung came to tell him.

JU: You must have something you want to tell me.
Ung: Mmm. But I’m not sure if I hosuld since you’re sick right now. (stare at each other)
JU: Can I not hear it if I don’t want to?
Ung: Yeonsu and I are dating again.
JU: (snort) I guess I had no choice. So? Why are you telling me this?
Ung: Because just like when we were young, I wanted you to be the first to know.
JU: And just like then, I have nothing to say to you. Should I congratulate you?
Ung: No, that’s okay.

c. When NJ saw the look on Jiung, she knew that JiUng was carrying a secret.

NJ: Is Mr. Choi very busy these days? Is he still busy even after the shoot, or is he just pretending to be? I just can’t seem to reach him.

And JiUng looked like this.

So she invited him to dinner with her. She told him to explain the look on his face earlier.

JU: What look?
NJ: When I said I couldn’t reach Mr. Choi, this was how you looked at me.
JU: That’s just I normally look.
NJ: That’s not true. I definitely saw it.

I laughed at her mimicking JiUng’s constipated…errr…pained face.

5. Last but not the least, the daechu

As I said, it wasn’t the daechu cha that would treat his insomnia. It was dating her.