The thread is open.
I know I’m behind with my “First Impressions” for this drama that I may as well just write a “Highlights.”
gifs from bubblegeon’s tumblr
Let’s enjoy the show.
37 Comments On “Kokdu: Season of Deity: Eps 5 to 8 Open Thread”
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🌹🌱🌼🌿🌷🍀🌺🌴 Many thanks @pkml3! 🌹🌱🌼🌿🌷🍀🌺🌴
My pleasure, @GB. 🙂
While waiting for the subs, here’s a 2-week old Soompi article on the interview with our Kokdu couple. They are sedate, down-to-earth persons who seem pretty serious about their acting craft, which is good.
https://www.soompi.com/article/1564450wpp/exclusive-interview-kim-jung-hyun-and-im-soo-hyang-share-their-favorite-kokdu-season-of-deity-scenes-personal-goals-and-more
The thing that hit me as I looked at the gifs is the lighthouse. Lighthouses make their onscreen appearance often enough in this show that I decided to look them up, in case they have more than the usual significance.
The expected symbolism:
“Lighthouses have traditionally been viewed as symbols of hope and security. As beacons of light, they provide guidance for safe passage to sailors and protect not only their lives but the land nearby.”
But:
“Besides the obvious purpose of providing navigational lights to guide ships in the night keeping them safe and sound, lighthouses have long been used—conceptually, symbolically, and metaphorically—in other meaningful ways. In this regard, they have been used frequently both in literature and in cinema to symbolize strength, safety, individuality, existentialism, mystery, and even death.”
“A key function of lighthouses is to increase the sailors’ level of awareness about themselves and their surroundings to ensure that they proceed safely through potentially unknown and rough waters.”
(https://www.psychologytoday.com/sg/blog/the-meaningful-life/202106/guiding-yourself-and-others-meaning#:~:text=Lighthouses%20have%20traditionally%20been%20viewed,lives%20but%20the%20land%20nearby.)
Kokdu by dint of the Creator god’s punishment/job assignment, is stuck with the task of bringing the dead to the underworld, and of meting out punishment on earth as well – killing bad guys. He likely considers himself dark and dangerous, and someone to be feared and respected, but at the same time he seems to gravitate towards the light. For one thing, he does not want to keep killing if he can help it, and he often teleports to pop up near a lighthouse, instead of to his own house.
Some thoughts:
– He might be suggesting, with his nearness to a lighthouse, that others need to be warned away from him, who is like the dangerous rocks or shallow waters to boats, since he brings harm.
– Although his job as Kokdu is to be the guide to the underworld/realm of the dead. Perhaps, he’d rather be a lighthouse, a guide for safe passage to life.
– I like the idea that a lighthouse symbolises existentialism, that one of its key functions is to increase the sailors’ awareness of themselves and their surroundings. His loss of memory, in a sense, has impacted his sense of self. All he was left with was the sense of having to wait but he did not know for whom. He is given a role as Kokdu, but he seems to have lost his name. He too, is a lost soul in search of a guiding light, searching for self and for his one love and saviour. Or rather, waiting for the saviour to find him and come to him. The lighthouse is his hope that she will be led by it to locate him.
In Episode 4 he believes he’s found his light in Gye Jeol, and I’m sure there’ll be complications and shenanigans to bring her on board with this. LOL. On with the show with Episode 5!!
@HK_Lady,
Did you see the similarities in this show with Goblin too? After a while they became somewhat too obvious. LOL. It’s like they are making a spoof of Goblin but in a semi-serious way.
I just realised from reading a Soompi article, that even the reason for the punishment was similar to Goblin’s. IE, Goblin was punished for killing wantonly when the weight of every life was valued by god, and it was likely that both Seol Hui and Ah Hyun were punished, because they put their self-interests first, hence resulting in the loss of many lives, and their own. It was also a kind of suicide ‘mission’ on their part, and a very irresponsible decision, when they knew the consequences of their eloping would mean the death of their families, war between states, etc.
Their executions/deaths were quite assured. From our knowledge gleaned from our trusty ‘Goblin’ book on gods, grim reapers and reincarnations, it seems that suicides are considered a particularly grave sin, and condemns one to becoming a grim reaper.
So, it feels like with Kokdu, we are in the same drama-verse as Goblin and Reaper, more or less following the same rules.
The lack of memory of Kokdu is also similar, in that Reaper could not remember the past-life persons whom he met in the present, hence missing all the opportunities to right the wrongs and end his punishment. That, I find, is particularly unfair of these ‘gods’.
Seol Hui’s punishment: It seems (unlike with Eun Tak who did not deserve punishment), Seol Hui is doomed in each reincarnation, to die early/badly or in the same way as in her first death, without meeting Ah Hyun.
By virtue of the fact that the Creator god has relented and allowed GJ to meet Kokdu, it looks like we are watching the end of the punishment play out in the current day. Creator god is giving them a chance to show that they are less selfish than they’d been in the past.
The problem of these mythological reincarnation rules (as brought up by @pkml3) is that they do not retain their memories of what they did wrong, and so, they are unable to learn from their mistakes. However we are hopeful, because GJ is much more others-centred than Seol Hui might have been.
@HK_Lady
I’d like to see more of Han Cheol, the brother. His, would be a nice character to develop. He’s the protective doensaeng who’ll probably not be happy with the ‘mysteriously vanishing’ Kokdu hanging around GJ. It would be interesting if they might form a bromance in their efforts to keep GJ safe. It’s about time Han Cheol met Kokdu face-to-face.
It occurred to me that the friend of Dr Oh Jin Woo, Dr Tae Jung Won, would be a good match for Han Cheol. Han Cheol knows Jung Won as the doctor who was present during the death of the patient whom he’d just interrogated. Let’s see how that plays out. The other odd coupling will of course be Gak Shin and Ok Shin. Rumours and Greed together sound like a very troublesome mix!
Forgetfulness
As expected, it’s only under some conditions of stress, when GJ is not fully herself, that her past self memory emerges and she sees in Kokdu, the past Ah Hyun. To keep the story spinning… her remembering him for that instant is not going to lead to a happy reunion yet.
As usual, when things like that happen, I want to know if there’s a certain logic this drama-verse is following. Why do people keep forgetting? (Is there forgetfulness tea that they drink as well?)
My first query was why Kokdu saved GJ on the steps the first time, but does not recall her at all thereafter. I take into consideration that the white dog (I’m sure we all can guess that white doggy is white-haired god LOL reverse ‘dog’ and we get ‘god’!) was on hand to intervene.
What seemed to happen at that time was that the dog surprised her enough to make her start to fall, she called out to her mother in supplication/out of fear, and this activated the presence of Kokdu who ‘owed’ her mum a favour. He drops the Azalea ring, disappears, and promptly forgets GJ.
GJ seems to have Seol Hui’s memories, only for a while … will she retain them or how will she get them back?
The Power of the (Spoken) Word
Words and rumours (and we remember that Gak Shin is the demi-god of rumours) make and break a person throughout this Show.
K’s careless words got people thinking that GJ was a liar and an informant. Her attempt to speak the truth also got her into trouble because false rumours drowned the truth.
The prayers/demands of people were words that filled K’s ears and drove him to kill. While the solution to this lay every night in GJ’s saying to K to listen only to her words.
GJ’s own careless words now makes her look like she’s breaking her promise to Jung Won in not stealing her boyfriend.
Han Cheol has problems in knowing/speaking the right words, from time to time, hence he is sometimes taken for a fool, when he’s not.
It was a worthy cliff-hanger to have K ‘collapse’ because of GJ’s words. GJ’s not knowing the power of her words over Kokdu, puts him in a vulnerable position, since she might command him to do anything when she’s drunk or angry. K himself should be careful how he provokes GJ into speaking words that can harm them both.
It’s most appropriate that the most powerful words: “I love you” would be the ones to free K from his eternal punishment. I expect that these words should not just be spoken lightly, but be meant, in order to activate the god’s command.
A theme of this show then, is likely that we should consider the weight of what we say, take responsibility for it and speak with greater care.
I started on this post before I watched Ep 5, and it seems more relevant post-watch. I thought maybe I should hang back on this until after Ep 6, but decided to add on more later if more thoughts come along.
The Side Characters and Complications Galore
The Side characters are pretty essential in this story. Without them, it will be a short tale.
About the so-called bad guys… in the past it’s not evident that they really are evil-bad…. just that they thwarted the couple’s plans to elope. But then, like I said above, Seol Hui and Ah Hyun were judged by the god to be irresponsible and wrong to rebel in the way that they did.
At this stage, we don’t have enough backstory on the characters whom Seol Hui and Ah Hyun rebelled against. SH’s adoptive parents wanted to ‘sell’ her off as a concubine for family/political reasons. The guy who wanted to marry her (whom we later see as the current day Kim Pil Soo who is obviously crooked and evil in the present time) was merely a high-ranking official. The guy who shot arrows at Ah Hyun (the current day killer) was carrying out his orders to bring the lady to his boss, so it’s hard to say that he was evil too.
That was in the past life. In the present, these 2 guys are very obviously evil, and more insidious. To the current tale, GJ and K must be able to add the bringing of these 2 evil-doers to justice, even while the bad guys remain intent on getting GJ killed, and keeping Kokdu/Do Jin Woo dead.
The good guys will need to protect and bring Park Choong Seong and Dr Ji Soo Hyun forward as witnesses against Chairman Kim. However with the unhappy social dynamics between all parties, this is going to be a tough effort.
The addition of complications with the presence and persistence of Dr Tae Jung Won adds more plot to this otherwise simple tale. I’m happy to see her come in just at the right time. Once again Kokdu/Ah Hyun’s self-centred plans to get GJ to confess her love to him are thwarted. The time is not yet right for a confession.
(to be continued…)
Complications Galore continued…
The current state of affairs makes it clear that K is not deserving of receiving a love confession and having his punishment end. He admits (or thinks) that he does not have any feelings for GJ, although he guesses that he must have loved her in the past. However I expect him to be a dog in a manger over GJ. He might not love her, but he won’t allow anyone else, especially the two-timing Golfer Jung, to have her.
K’s objectives are mostly self-serving. Although he may do nice or good things, the impetus for these acts are compulsion by a promise he made or to serve his own interests. He has yet to consider GJ’s feelings. It matters not to him at the moment, that if she confesses she loves him and he disappears, that she’d be devastated.
At the start of the Episode, Seol Hui/Gye Jeol’s kiss enables K to remember his past life. He discovers that she really is Seol Hui whom he had once loved and promised to protect. We get the answer to why he waited for her (like a faithful dog) and refused to obey the Creator god (who really took on the form of a dog!).
“In the end, you indeed were Seol Hui. Is that why I waited for you? Was it because of the oath that I swore to protect you that I waited for you, though you never looked for me for all those years? There must have been a reason why I loved you, but I no longer have any feelings for you, having been burnt dry by the heat of the road to the afterlife. Love is quite vain (futile).” (It’s likely then, that not only was it because of his promise to her mother, but because of the oath he had sworn to Seol Hui, that Kokdu had turned up to keep GJ from falling down the stairs. He had saved her without any emotional investment in that action, and forgot all about her when he left.)
It was interesting that K insisted on carrying GJ down the pier and away from the lighthouse, thinking to himself about the path laid out for him by Creator god.
K to GJ : “If you could control whether you get involved with me or not, it wouldn’t be fate. …It was pathetic how I was being pulled to and fro by you, and I was angry with myself that I had screwed up my own fate. But it turns out even that was part of the Creator’s plan.” (He might be referring to how he had refused to obey the Creator in doing the job as Kokdu, because he was compelled by the promise to protect her, and had compounded god’s anger.)
“Let’s try going together. The paths made by the Creator can’t all be crappy. There’s got to be some with flowers and butterflies.”
He held on to her, possibly to avoid walking a separate path from GJ and losing her again. His carrying her only seemed romantic on the outside, but his words tell us that romance was not what was uppermost in his mind. Rather it was to go along with or try out what Creator had planned. this is another case for misinterpretation.
GJ had misinterpreted Jin Woo’s intentions from the beginning, thinking that he’d hired her because he wanted to keep her close. It was a great slap in the face for her now to find out that Jin Woo had had Jung Won as his girlfriend since before the interview.
(to be continued…)
Complications Galore continued…
A point that just occurred to me on why K could not remember GJ… if Jin Woo was not yet dead when Kokdu first saved GJ on the stairs, then how did K appear as Jin Woo? He had been summoned to help her due to the oath, but he came from the realm of the dead in his own body, and not in Jin Woo’s body. That’s why he was distant and could not remember GJ when he next met her in Jin Woo’s body. At least, that could be the logic here. Or maybe, he just did not want to admit that he’d saved a human.
Kokdu’s Heartbeat
When GJ touched K’s face, his heart beat faster.
K thinks : “Why am I like this? Do I still have some remnants of my feelings?”
He’s somewhat upset at feeling his heart race, and keeps himself cold or distant from GJ.
However he surprises her by carrying her in a princess carry. When she asked if he had been the one to save her, he does not answer, deflecting the question to complain at her refusal to admit that she knew the ring.
Later to again deflect GJ from asking him to put her down : “With a hand upon the heart, think about what you might have consumed, like water.” (Swear and tell truthfully what you’ve been eating to be so heavy LOL)
But she puts her hand on his chest instead of her own. His heart beats louder and faster. It was the same when she had touched his face.
K : “Wrong person.” (You should be putting your hand on your own chest!)
GJ : “Kokdu, your heart is beating way too fast.”
He stops with her in his arms and thinks : “The time to end my curse is here. So, of course it would race. My heart would beat like that, excited to see Seol Hui.” (He’s in denial that it’s not that the vestiges of Ah Hyun likes Seol Hui, but that as Kokdu he’s attracted to GJ.)
(to be continued)
Complications Galore continued…
Guesses/Predictions
What’s funny now is that Kokdu keeps saying he’s not Do Jin Woo but no one believes him. GJ still thinks he’s suffering PTSD after the fall from the roof and Jung Won will keep hunting him down as her boyfriend and the successful doctor who should return to his post.
The point that emerged from Episode 5 which got me realising how far I’d fallen into blindly accepting the past lives/grim reaper trope, was that I forgot to question how GJ, as a doctor, did not enforce treatment upon K who’d fallen off a building, and was (in her words) ‘suffering dissociative fugue’. So GJ had been too happy to have K as her attentive ssum friend, and had failed to act as a doctor. The natural ‘selfishness’ of a person still remained.
GJ who self-righteously proclaimed that she’d never be a party in two-timing a person, especially her friend Jung Won, finds that she’s run her mouth too much in the effort to defend her self esteem, and now the main inhabitants of the little town will think that she’s in a serious romantic relationship with K. Jung Won is going to be so pissed LOL. And on her part, GJ is not only feeling guilty, but also unhappy that she cannot be with the man she likes. This sounds like the curse/punishment taking action in her current life.
It also sounds familiar. Do Jin Woo had wanted GJ to testify that she’d heard how his mother’s charts had been switched, so her death wass not due to him deliberately killing his mother out of revenge for abandoning him. Now it will appear that GJ is taking revenge on Jung Won by taking away K/Jin Woo because in the past Jung Won had stolen Golfer Jung from GJ. The appearances give the wrong impression, but no one will believe the truth.
Golfer Jung Yi Deun is going to keep turning up in GJ’s life and will get K jealous, but K is not going to admit it for some time. At the same time, Jung is hiding an injured Park Choong Seong from evil Kim Pil Soo. So Golfer Jung, GJ and K will probably have to work together, like it or not. They should bring Han Cheol on board with what they want to do to bring Chairman Kim down.
Now that we hear how Jung Won had been such an faithless friend towards GJ, I no longer wish her upon any man, least of all sweet Han Cheol. However, she may improve. I’d like to see her quite put out by the fact that both K and Golfer Jung are paying GJ, instead of her more attention.
The best end that I hope the writers have striven for is that our flawed characters become much better versions of themselves, that they get to love and be loved (preferably that they’ll be more deserving of it) and that the rather tragic issue of Kokdu disappearing when GJ confesses that she loves him, gets resolved. (This too reminds me of ‘Goblin’!)
Kalo mesimeri!
I just managed to watch Episode 5. It is getting better and better…
Seriously the actor who plays Kokdu is amazing in his role.
Also, someone who steals her friend’s boyfriend is not a friend.
The plot thickens and I want to watch tonight’s episode. I am guessing from the preview that Kokdu will access the Professor’s memories?
@GB Unnie, I will write some more when I will have time!
Hi there @Cleo! Yes, do come back when you have the time. I know you’re watching several shows and that it will be hard to find time to comment on more than just a couple.
Yes, it’s getting better. At first I thought the ML was a little wooden or cold, but I believe he has a reason for the way he behaves. In the interview [link is in my first post] he mentions trying to differentiate the two characters by making Kokdu’s expressions and gestures bigger, but I felt that as Kokdu, he was naturally more jaded and less enthusiastic. So his more deadpan looks were okay.
He only smiled once and it was in this episode, when he thought that GJ was eager to date him in 2 days’ time. Actually she had made an MRI appointment for him, so his face fell.
I’m looking forward to a time when he can remember a little better how it felt to be alive and in love. He still seems to think his racing heart is just a leftover emotion from Ah Hyun’s time, and does not interpret his desire to keep GJ away from Golfer Jung as jealousy. I look forward to his growing up … he has so much of it to do!
Oooh Episode 6 has turned out more interesting than expected. The repartee between characters is good and strong. The script writers whom MDL mentions have done one other drama before (and who do not yet seem to have any write-ups under their names) are not bad at all.
The story goes along at a good pace. Plot points fall into place making sense, and more information is given to us. There are enough side characters adding their varied aims and points of view to enrich the plot.
The power of words crops up again, and the danger of rumours. Separately, there are a couple of the dialogues that I’d like to transcribe. More later…
I think the Creator in that dramaverse is laughing with the fact that the FL can also summon from the dead the soul of the Professor and she unaware of her power.
So, we have a body. We have the soul of the deceased and we have Kodku.
The FL hasn’t realized yet that Kodku is a god and she thinks he is having illusions because of amnesia.
That also means the Professor will stay with the FL not because he really likes her, but because she brought him back in Life…
I am curious to see when the FL will realize that she was indeed talking to Kokdu, that they were connected in a previous lifetime some 1000 years ago and she kinda missed him…
@Cleo, I had something on GJ summoning the dead in my notes. I noted that she’s like god herself… able to kill at a word and then bring back Kokdu, and finally … to resurrect the dead.
I am reminded that in the Holy Bible, God only had to say the words “Let there be…” and so it came to be created.
I transcribed a couple of scenes where again the power of the spoken word was mentioned. I was too tired to continue… but I’ll do so later. 🙂
It’s funny that all along GJ accepts the ‘body’ of Do Jin Woo as Kokdu, because she thinks he’s suffering from dissociative fugue.
(“People with dissociative fugue temporarily lose their sense of personal identity and impulsively wander or travel away from their homes or places of work. They often become confused about who they are and might even create new identities.” https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/dissociative-fugue#:~:text=The%20word%20fugue%20comes%20from,might%20even%20create%20new%20identities.)
I can totally understand her. And yet she behaves as if he’s really Kokdu.
We need DJW back in order to take down the bad guys. Then we need Kokdu back so that his story with Seol Hui can have a resolution with Gye Jeol. Quite interesting!! I’ve never come across a past lives show where the original person and the inhabiting ‘soul’ comes and goes from the same body more than once.
With GJ’s belief in the dissociative fugue, it will be hard for her to accept the different personalities of K and DJW as there being 2 different souls. I guess K has to actually perform ‘magic’ in front of her so that she will believe that he’s not ‘human’ but a god. 🙄 😜
The ending will need to resolve:
How GJ finds out and believes that she’s SH.
How GJ will accept that K is a god and that essentially, they cannot be together.
Whether we’ll get a Goblin-like ending or a better than Goblin-like ending where Kokdu’s punishment can end and he can still return to earth to be with GJ. Who will get the amnesia? Kokdu or GJ?
This show’s difference from Goblin is that unlike Eun Tak who always was sure that she was the Goblin’s bride, GJ has no clue that she had a past life as Seol Hui. She has no sense that Ah Hyun or Kokdu is her ‘destiny’, but the similar thing with Eun Tak is that she’s looking for her destined true love. GJ’s amnesia takes place now, (and I hope there’ll be no more of it for her, but there might!!!) since she cannot recognise K as Ah Hyun. While Eun Tak’s amnesia was imposed by god later when Goblin ‘died’.
I expect all the baddies to get their just deserts and I hope Han Cheol gets recognition for all the investigation he’s doing.
Kalimera Unnie!
I think I am one of those persons that don’t want to see the similarities with Goblin so far. Mostly because technically a story can use several tropes and say what it wants to say.
So far, GJ has this power because Kodku promised to her mother that he will be there for her.
I feel more for Kodku than the Professor. Kokdu might be petty and his temper is bad, but he has suffered a lot, while he is taking the souls to the Underworld. At least, he was consistent, he promised to protect her and still was holding to that promise after all those thousand years.
Also, Kokdu is not a killer per se. As a God, Kodku has to take down the baddies and the reason he will be caught is because the FL made her magic and told him his bones to break in 100 ways.
The Professor will come from the dead and he won’t be able to evade his killers.
He doesn’t have those powers to do so. So, Kodku is needed even by him as well.
Is the FL going to miss Kodku? From the preview she doesn’t even care that he is missing. The Professor will do everything to stay alive, so I don’t think that his feelings towards her will be genuine…
Anyway, it is getting better I want to find out what else we are going to see.
From Episode 6 …
Kokdu and GJ are back at the base of the red lighthouse. Once again they are in heated conversation and GJ thinking that K has Dissociative Personality Disorder says: “Then I guess everything will be fixed if you were to disappear, Kokdu! …I’m tell you to disappear, Kokdu. Please just disappear!”
She unknowingly activates the curse-promise that sends K back to the afterlife. Finding to her horror that K has no pulse or heartbeat she does CPR and pleads for him to just come back, so he does. She’s like god – able to kill and resurrect K just by speaking words.
When K returns to DJW’s body, he witnesses how emotionally distraught she is at the thought he’d died and comforts her.
But K thinks : “That day will come eventually. When you will let me live through death. Lady, you’re like poison to me.” (Regardless of how upset she’d be, he was still determined to get her to set him free from his punishment.)
In Episode 5 he’d carried her along the pier after saving her from drowning. This time she walks with arms around him, not willing to let go, after she brings him back to life. They’re actually evenly balanced in the give-and-take of life. LOL.
Since GJ won’t let him go, and they are walking pretty awkwardly with her arms around him, K says quite seriously… but maybe he’s teasing her….it’s hard to tell.
K : “Be honest. Is your motive to care for me or to be touching me?”
GJ : “Shall I teach you where your first cervical vertebrae are while I’m stuck to you? It would be quite the experience.”
K smiles : “Hey, kill me only once a day. What’s so good about dying?”
GJ : “You said you were the king of the road to the afterlife. Whether it’s this life or the afterlife, wasn’t death pretty much your life?” (LOL that’s an interesting take on his life… his life is death!)
He gets her to let go.
K : “It was, but now that I see you again like this, it’s nice to be in this life for once.” (This means he deplored his days on earth before. Also that he’s grateful to be alive with her.)
She tells him to be careful. His heart stopped twice already.
K : “The root cause of my heart problem is you, so you should be careful.”
Of course she misunderstands and he does not correct her.
GJ : “My beauty makes your heart stop?”
K : “My heart might stop from how delusional you are…”
She says she was just joking but he says she was being ludicrous and delusional.
K : “A slip of the tongue is a mistake, but ludicrous words are being delusional. You didn’t make a mistake. You were being delusional, which can lead to someone’s death!”
(Once again we are reminded that WORDS should be used carefully because they can be powerful.)
K tells her to be careful with her words.
K : “Since I go back and forth between this and the afterlife with your words.”
This sets the stage for what will happen at the end of the episode. I feel that with someone as honest and responsible as GJ, K should convince her once and for all that he really is who he says he is, even if he has to work ‘magic/miracles’ for her to see. Only when she knows that it’s true that her words are possibly lethal, will she be more careful about what she says.
K points out the kinds of phrases that are abusive towards him and GJ apologises.
GJ : “I’ll be a bit more patient and try harder in the future.”
K : “Being a bit more patient won’t do. There is the power to save or kill someone in one’s words. So never say that Kokdu should disappear. If you do then Kokdu that you know will disappear like bubbles.”
This is another foreshadowing. It might be the case that he disappears not only twice but more often. From the preview, I’m wondering if DJW knows Kokdu, and if he does, whether he can resist being dead, so that K cannot return.
K had cursed his own self with a double edged sword of a promise: to not be able to resist the orders of a clueless GJ, and to possibly lose the host body if DJW refuses to let him return.
I’ve just realised something odd, because I’d usually be the one to point this out, but once again, the fantasy-reincarnation plot parts have me so absorbed in them that I forgot a big plot hole … why is GJ not reporting her attacker to the police at all? It was such a serious crime. However, she seems to have decided to rely on Kokdu and a security system (which has been compromised by no other than the same guy who tried to kill her!)
And all along she has a policeman brother, whom she’s keeping in the dark about her attacker. We’ve sadly not seen any interactions between her and her brother in the last 2 episodes.
Yes, this is a ridiculous show, but quite entertaining when I’m in it for how the supernatural punishment plays out.
I’m perversely pleased that this show has raked in the lowest ratings of MBC’s Friday-Saturday aired shows. Kbizoom.com claims it has the worst 1% (actual figure is 1.9 so close to 2%) rating for a Friday-Saturday drama.
Since ratings have never yet encouraged me to take up or carry on with a show, nor convinced me to drop one, the news is irrelevant to me, but it amuses me that I’m enjoying something so many despise.
Reading the article raised the question of whether the writer even knows what the show is about, or perhaps I’m reading a flawed translation of the original?
I’m looking forward to tonight’s episode, and presumably the return of the ‘dead’ Dr Do Jin Woo.
Does he know Kokdu? Will he leave and return to the Underworld/Afterlife voluntarily?
I’d like to see the white dog/god again…. and Han Cheol with his malapropisms.
My dear @pkml3, if you happen to see this… please open the next thread for the MOTA Rewatch. We’ll be rewatching Episode 7 today/tonight!
😁 🍪 🥛 🍧 🍵 🍨 ☕ 🍤 🍻 🥑 😁 🍪 🥛 🍧 🍵 🍨 ☕ 🍤 🍻 🥑 😁
Sorry, @GB. I just got home. Let me open the thread. Please remind …better yet, NAG me to open the threads for the rest of the rewatches tomorrow after your rewatch. I’ll be in and out of the country for the next 7 weeks. My doctor gave me the green light.
@pkml3, I’m glad to know that you’re well enough to travel, but it sounds pretty hectic that you’ll be in and out of the country, presumably repeatedly, over 7 weeks!! I hope you can get lots of rest in between and more ‘Meet Yourself’ peace. 😃 😴 🙂 😇
Hi @pkml3, as is my wont, I follow the letter of the ‘not-law-but-post’ and will start to remind-nag you about opening the required threads in advance.
There are 3 shows that you’re opening threads for: Our Blooming Youth, Kokdu and Memories of the Alhambra. That means an awful lot of threads! (I counted 15!!!)
I’m not sure how you want to do this… get them all up at the same time or intersperse them during the next 7 weeks?
For what it’s worth, here’s the list as far as I can tell.
Our Blooming Youth threads
1)Ep 7 & 8
2)Ep 9 & 10
3)Ep 11 & 12
4)Ep 13 & 14
5)Ep 15 & 16
6)Ep 17 & 18
7)Ep 19 & 20
Kokdu Threads
8)Ep 9-12
9)Ep 13-16
MOTA Threads
10)Episode 8 – Feb 25
11)Episode 9 – Mar 4
12)Episode 10 – Mar 18
13)Episode 11 – Mar 25
14)Episode 12 – Apr 1
15)Episode 13 – Apr 15
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Thanks, @GB. This helps. I’ll do Open Threads to cover the next two weeks.
I planned to relax and watch dramas all day today, but I ended up doing advance spring cleaning/decorating. Not only did I put away my heavy winter coats and boots, but I also ordered new rugs, chose paint color for a couple of rooms, replaced lamps, changed curtains in the dining room and family room, dusted books, picked out the trees to replace trees my hubby cut down (sniff. sniff.) a couple of months ago, AND rotated artwork. Lol. This was my revenge since my husband always thinks this is a waste of time. But it’s necessary because some things can’t be exposed to light all the time, especially full sunlight.
I’m so tired that I’m ready to hibernate. I don’t get how those Korean housewives on youtubers can make housecleaning looks so therapeutic. It’s anything but!
Like this YT show by someone called bejube.
https://youtu.be/7WggwmAx01E
And this one by gal named sisletter.
https://youtu.be/0OtCcq5QP2k
lol.
@packmule3 hey…those are the YouTubers I follow…and gain inspiration from. I think I waste more time ogling over their idyllic lives than I do actual work 😂. I try to ascribe their domestic goddess to myself by sheer will and osmosis. Hasn’t quite worked for me as of yet. I tell myself that I am a “work in progress”.
Thanks @GB for housekeeping here at the blog whilst our QueenBee is undertaking the real housekeeping.
My dear @pkml3,k you were not doing therapeutic housecleaning, which (to my mind) usually lies in the gentle re-arrangement of small articles and mild removal of practically invisible dirt, but massive “I’ll show you!” housecleaning. Of course you’d be exhausted, what with recovering your health. I presume there were no sons or husband around to help with the heavy curtain work?
I do hope that knowing the house has started its transformation for Spring still gave you a good feeling of accomplishment (many pats on your back!)
I take it that at the end of every two weeks, I’m to get busy about remind-nagging you again? Nagging, after all, means saying the same thing more than once or twice to the same people LOL.
As I’m the forgetful type, let me just nag myself that on the following weekends, it will be time to be a Nag (3-5 Mar, 17-19 Mar,31 Mar to 2 Apr).
I trust that at Easter you’ll be home to roost for a while! Take care of yourself and I’ll keep you in thought and prayer as you move about this globe.
@pkml3 – my last comment is awaiting moderation.
Hi there @nrllee!! LOL, don’t mention it. Well, this beats doing the real housekeeping! There’s so much I’m supposed to do …. procrastinate, procrastinate…. watch those videos and feel bad or inspired? Hmmmm…
@Pm3, that is a LOT of work done, home-loving work. All in a day? You deserve a good rest and many pats on your back. I have been procrastinating the cleaning of the pipes in the bathrooms…I can’t see how that will be therapeutic…so I need to talk myself into being motivated to do it..
I follow this lady on YT & IG, mostly for her cooking and her 5AM routines.
https://www.youtube.com/@Honeyjubu
Back to this show, I am deciding between this and Our Blooming Youth. I heard the ratings were low, but when I read your comments, it seems like a lot of interesting things are going on. Anyone can shed light on it?
Kalispera Ladies,
Good to read you here. It’s been a while since we have talked…@Packmule3 good to know you are feeling better! Take it easy ok?
@GB Unnie, tomorrow I will write over here about the latest two episodes.
For now, here it is a beautiful edit Ella did for our chaotic duo…
https://youtu.be/eB6IQlhselE
Enjoy!
Hi @Cleo, thanks for the link. Ella sure was fast in making the video to include episode 8. I guess she waited for ‘the KISS’ before making the video LOL. Every scene she chose made it look so much more romantic than I feel it actually was, although I’m still amused by the couple’s ever-changing interactions.
Yes, ‘chaotic couple’ is a good name for these two. There’s so much turning back and forth, to and fro in their complicated three-person relationship that I was trying to list the movements. If we could add in Seol Hui, there’d be a four-person relationship with these 2!!! LOL.
I’m wondering when Seol Hui will properly show up, or when Gye Jeol will recall that she had a past life with Ah Hyun/Kokdu.
While the modern day shenanigans don’t always 100% make sense, I understand that the writers had to put in some scenes or situations. With practise they can improve their craft.
I thought it sad that despite trying so hard, Park Choong Seong failed. I was hoping that with Do Jin Woo’s ‘return’, there’d have been a solution, or at least the start of the taking down of the evil guy.
The evil guy side story is coming into the fore now. It seems he knows a lot more about Kokdu than even GJ has caught on. Evil Pil Seong is trying to neutralise all threats/enemies by forcing them under the Pil Seong Biotech umbrella, so that he can control them. He’s smart. As long as he has GJ, he can keep Kokdu under control too. Kokdu has only some 57 or fewer days left in his season on earth.
It seems Show might really be pushing Han Cheol and not-a-friend Jung Won together after all. I sort of guessed it from the beginning and then changed my mind about approving of her, since she was a bad friend.
The supernatural ‘god’ logic still holds up. A question I have is why Kokdu was afraid that when DJW’s spirit left on Day 49, the body would start to decay, when in actual fact, we see that Kokdu always took over the body immediately. I wondered if it would have made a difference if DJW’s spirit had left involuntarily because it had to when time’s up, as compared to because DJW was killed ‘again’. Maybe his death before the end of 49 days enabled Kokdu to return immediately.
I kind of pity Gye Jeol. As long as she’s not convinced that Kokdu is really who he’s been saying he is, she’ll not be comfortable in a relationship with him, thinking him a sick man with multiple-personalities. She will need to be convinced soon however, or Kokdu has to allow her to be devastated by his leaving her at the end of 99 days. She had wanted a relationship that would last a long, long time because her mother died when she was young. So I want to see how Show avoids such a tragic end for GJ.
The love confession almost fully made, was fortunately cut off with a kiss. It’s so complicated when the chaotic couple need to be in love but she can never confess her feelings in words.
Ah Hyun had taken on an additional burden by promising Seol Hui that he’d always wait for her… as Kokdu he had also taken on additional problems by promising GJ’s mother that he’d do whatever GJ told him. So Kokdu had accidentally messed up his afterlife, but it was out of good intentions.
I’m guessing that GJ has to also ‘return’ as Seol Hui, to complete the curse and end the punishment. At least Kokdu as Ah Hyun, who had been waiting for Seol Hui, will have a proper resolution when she appears.
What I always like or hope for in the bringing about of a happy conclusion is that the disparate characters like Golfer Jung, Han Cheol, and Jung Won can join up with the main couple to bring down the baddie. The so-called gods too could maybe have a bit more power to help in the fight… and what happened to white dog/god?
Kalimera Unnie,
I have to say that before this past weekend’s episodes I was not sure about the direction the jakkanim had in mind.
I am glad that Do Jin Woo came into our screens for us to see his character and realize the differences they have with Kodku. The audience but our FL as well.
Kodku may be more blunt, but he says Universal Truths that are so needed. On the other hand, the fact that Do Jin Woo lied to Park Choong Seong which led to his deadh made me don’t like him that much.
It is weird but I have to say so, that they mentioned 49 days that the spirits are wandering since their death. Well, I can say that for us here that number is 40 days and we held a memorial service for the soul who departed.
I think that the show wanted to show us that how Gye Jeol reacted with the reappearance of Professor who was totally different from Kodku / Oh Hyun.
At some point, she will realize that he is the god he says he is. He told her that her words have power and she realized herself that she was responsible for making Kodku disappear.
The bad guy is pretty awful, since he is getting away with everything so far. We shall see how that it will go. They must find that paper with the list first in order to connect the dots and punish Kim Pil Soo.
We shall see!
Hi there my dear Doensaeng @Cleo,
Actor Kim Jung Hyun had to find ways to differentiate Kokdu from DJW. DJW is milder, less effusive, and more able to put on the appearance of being nice, while actually using people for his own ends. He was quick to make use of Ok Shin to get out of jail. Gye Jeol took issue with him for judging Gak Shin and suggesting that they change staff, so he also is lacking in being more considerate, patient and people-oriented. The way he threw out Kokdu’s desk without consulting anyone also shows he is too high-handed
Yes, it took the comparison with DJW for GJ to realise whom she really liked. She’d been thinking that Kokdu was DJW but only without his memory. Now she realises that they are 2 very different individuals or personalities.
Ah that list of names. A piece of information that is so important should have had several copies of it made! It fell to the floor, under a chair, in either DJW’s home or Kokdu’s home (I cannot remember). Maybe that shaggy white dog will find it for them? 😜 😊
Unnie!
Kim Jung Hyun is doing a great job with those two characters, should we say three since he was also Oh Hyun?
I think that he steals the show and I am glad to watch him perform because he has a caliber that extends both in drama and comedy.
GJ needs to realize that Kokdu is who he says he is. Afterall in their first life when the reincarnation story started, she was the one as Seol Hui that killed the Lord.
So, it will be interesting to see how she will react towards Kim Pil Soo.
Hi there @pkml3, this is the first of the reminder-nagging (yes, as they say, you asked for it!!)
Please open threads for Kokdu, MOTA and Our Blooming Youth before you head off anywhere for 2 weeks!!!
Kokdu – 1 thread
Ep 9-12 – Feb 24
MOTA – 2 threads
Episode 8 and Episode 9 – Feb 25
Our Blooming Youth – 2 threads
Ep 7 & 8 and Ep 9 & 10 – Feb 27
Much thanks!!!
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