The thread is open.
I had my eye on this last April. I heard it was a travelogue/healing drama.
Here’s the synopsis from mydramalist:
Set in the 1990’s, Park Ha Kyung teaches Korean literature at a high school. To escape her ordinary days, Park Ha Kyung decides to take one day trips on Saturdays. During her one day trip, she walks around, eats different foods, and meets various people. She realizes she receives comfort and empathy through her travels.
All 8 episodes are out on Viki. Each episode is about half an hour. If you can carve out four hours this weekend to watch the whole drama, you can join the discussion.
I’ll write my commentaries in separate posts to avoid influencing your perception of the drama.
Let’s enjoy the show.
Thanks for the thread!
I don’t think this drama is set in the 1990s though–she keeps getting texts and voice messages on her cell phone in the sixth episode. She also helped her dad with his Internet service in an earlier episode. However, except for these few exceptions, this show could have easily be set in the near- or distant-past because most of her activities are “low tech” (e.g., eating, walking, meditating, talking to strangers, etc.). That’s one reason I like it so much!
Ah thanks @pkml3, I was posting little reviews of this here and there. I don’t even know if I’ll be able to say much but I wanted a space just to gather thoughts.
We might call this a travelogue, where the journey is both exterior and interior and gives me pause for thought.
I’ve watched all 8 episodes but I know I need to rewatch slowly with the pause button in play.
@BethB
The year it is set in is likely 2022… The Busan Film Festival banner mentions the year loud and big and clear LOL. I was wondering where the reviewer pulled up the 1990’s from.
Yes, I like the back to nature, back to being in sync with truth and reality without the hi-tech feel tone of this drama. It’s really a nice ‘vacation’ from the usual kdramas. A good cleansing of the palate before re-entering the fray of drama watching.
EPISODE 1 – UNSHACKLING THE MIND
So many thoughts. I admit I watched it first to just clear my mind and not bother, and so I felt I had nothing to say. But then I happened upon comments about the show, and felt that I was not doing it justice by just watching and putting it aside.
Believe it or not the first 2 long posts below are the recap of just the first 2 minutes 10 seconds of Episode 1. This illustrates how densely packed with thought the short 25 odd minutes of the episode is. I find after all that I could not write just a little.
Our lead is Park Ha Kyung, who is introduced to us, sleeping on a moving train, as she embarks on her day-trip. She is oblivious of the tunnel the train passes through or of the scenery outside. This suggests that although she is able to vocalise her ‘reason’ for her day-trips, and while she has her stable teaching job to return to, she may have become oblivious of the places or people or issues she has passed in her life’s journey, which might have warranted more attention.
Perhaps the theme of the first episode or of the entire series can be ‘HK discovering her motivations for taking one day off’.
We hear HK’s voiceover. She speaks of how in 19th-century France there was a fad where many people abandoned their normal lives to travel, to just wander. The wanderlust spread like an epidemic and the people who gave in to it were called ‘mad wanderers.’ The scene of her sleeping in the train looked very similar to the subject in 19th century painting of a sleeping lady: an inference to how even one century later, HK might be no different from the mad wanderers.
There is a Screen Blackout from time to time. Each deliberate screen blackout signals a change in the direction of her thoughts or journey. We get one such blackout as she asks herself: “Was it indeed madness that fueled these trips?” (My thoughts and possibly HK’s justification: it was not madness but rather an escape from the madness of daily living where there was endless doing/demands/stress? Instead of being madness, it might have been the healthy thing to do, to unshackle the mind.)
So this is 1 possible reason for her day-trips.
THE METAPHOR OF THE BAG
On her way to work HK notices, in a busy hallway of a train station, a plastic bag that floats high near the ceiling. HK alone is stationary in a sea of moving people, watching the bag drifting, as it is caught in unseen air currents.
Two possible thoughts she might have had:
1) She feels like the bag, that she’s haplessly pushed along by the winds of the daily grind.
2) She longs to be free to just float at will according to where air currents other than work, take it. In a later episode she uses the word ‘contingency’ which I believe is supposed to mean to go with the flow or with what needs to be done for the moment, without being able to predict or plan in advance.
There’s a second Screen Blackout
It is significant that the blackout takes place before we hear Ha Kyung’s Voiceover. Her mind has snapped back to or continues her thought about the 19th-century wanderers’ reason for leaving everything to travel: “Or was it the dread of losing their minds in life that made them leave?” I imagine the question is posed to herself as well.
To be Continued…
Continuing …
Ha Kyung goes to work at a high school, crossing the school field with the students. She sits at her table in the staff room and holds her hands up, palm forwards as if in surrender before heading to class. Her students are bored and sleepy.
HK says in her Korean Literature class : “Today we unravel Kim Ki Rim’s ‘The Butterfly and the Sea.’ The deep sea and what lurks beneath illustrate a harsh and callous reality. What does the first stanza imply? It represents the longing for a new world. This butterfly is yet to fathom the menacing sea. The author is disheartened by reality.”
A student has drawn in her text book a line drawing of PHK with words as part of her head and more words coming from her mouth but we don’t get the translation. Maybe there are just too many words?
The BAG again …
As HK turns to look at her students, she pauses on the words ‘disheartened by reality’ because she ought to be disheartened by the fact that all eyes are looking out the window instead of at her. HK walks towards the window and sees what looks like the same white plastic bag that had been gently floating in the train station, now doing the same outside her class. Perhaps it reminds her of the butterfly in the poem she had just been expounding on.
The bag seems to be a message to her, or at least it brings to her mind the words that we start every episode with: “When longing to disappear, I take one-day-trips. I walk, eat, and let my mind wander.” The opening credits play and always ends with the written note to self/words in her journal:
“It’s been a fun trip
– Park Ha Kyung -”
By the end of the series, we know that she’s speaking not only about her Saturday-trips.
My Thoughts
“When longing to disappear, I take one-day-trips. I walk, eat, and let my mind wander.” – I wonder why she uses the word ‘disappear’. Does she want to hide? To cease to exist? To not be noticed? To just not be where she is, doing what she’s doing? All 4?
I noted that unlike what she said about the French 19th-century wanderers, who might have dreaded losing their minds, she did not use the phrases, ‘when longing to regain sanity or find myself’…
Actually, I feel that she didn’t need to find herself as much as to come to terms with parts of herself. She knew herself pretty well. I don’t feel that the trips were to escape madness or find herself as much as they were/are to confront herself (reason 2?). But at the beginning, she likely did not fully know her own reasons for her day-trips. To begin with, to unshackle the mind from the distractions and stresses of daily living was a good reason (reason 3).
These might be possible reasons 2 and 3.
This brings us to Screen Blackout number 3.
To be Continued…
Continuing brief bits from 2 minutes 10 seconds …
HK is again sleeping but now in a bus and she’s arrived in Haenam which is 3 hours 40 minutes by train or 5 hours 14 minutes by bus (I assume she took the bus from where she alighted at the train station). She gets off at the wrong stop. The bus moves on without her. She’s panting as she walks/climbs to the temple where she’d registered to stay for the day. She goes through open country, past tourists and many cairns that she wants to knock down LOL. It becomes obvious from her mindset that her attempt to unshackle/empty her mind would not be all smooth sailing.
It’s propitious that the first person she meets as she arrives at the temple is Jung Ah, a woman who is practising noble silence and won’t speak. Her tag says ‘I’m facing my inner self.’ This suggests that HK can have a similar reason for her day-trip.
Besides silent Jung Ah, HK encounters talkative Jin Young who cannot laugh naturally although it was a way to ‘dissolve’ her worries, a solemn Yoga Master lady who gives advice on posture, a novelist who wants to hit the town with HK after staying at the temple for free for 2 months and the Head Monk who makes tea for the novelist and HK.
After lunch HK walks outside, minding her own business but the Yoga Master, coming in the opposite direction, says out loud as if for HK to hear: ” ‘Resolve’. ‘Acknowledge.’ ‘Forgive.’ ” They meet exactly where the huge temple bell hangs.
The Yoga Master instructs HK to repeat after her in a light, happy tone: “I’m sorry, and I thank you.” It takes a second try for her to get the right tone. HK looks at the bell. (The words and the presence of the big temple bell become significant later.)
The novelist is eager to spend time with HK but she intends to leave that day and won’t join him in hitting the town, so they go for tea. The joke is that while drinking tea, the novelist farts. Perhaps he’s full of hot air LOL. The monk smiles and HK hides her smile, trying not to laugh. Likely to diffuse embarrassment over the fart, they talk seriously about how good the tea is only to find out that it’s nothing special. The monk admits that it’s available in tea houses everywhere and that he ordered it online. The sound of another fart fills the room and HK cannot contain herself. LOL.
Regardless of being a day-tripper or a long-staying guest, both HK and the novelist had brought their distracted minds with them to the temple. Jin Young had said that she had arrived carrying a huge backpack of things but had realised that she had needed none of them. The novelist still had not let go of the city life. As for HK, she had packed very little as she had not planned to stay, almost like the 19th-century French wanderers who had abandoned everything to travel, but her burden was in her mind and heart.
To be Continued…
Continuing …
HK’s body and her mind are not in sync with the temple ‘aura’ as she practises the gestures and postures of respect and prayer, only to lose her balance. She finds herself either endlessly distracted or falling asleep when she attempts to meditate.
They reason for HK’s day-trip as opposed to a longer stay remains in the air. Jin Young asks and the novelist wonders. HK can only say that just a day-trip is what she wants. HK herself fails to unshackle/empty her mind or find inner peace in the temple itself. She takes the first steps in settling down in her walk alone.
She found herself a bit lost, walking in a circle, and without her mobile phone to point her in the right direction. But once she was able to meet Jung Ah and was allowed to accompany her, HK began her journey in earnest. They walked paths together, tasting berries, smelling pine cones. They sat on rocks to meditate or walked swinging their arms. They used all their senses to appreciate what they had there and then. Finally they walked to a rocky high place where they could overlook peaceful hills and enjoy the sunset.
With the setting sun, Jung Ah breaks her silence with a smile and huge sigh of relief: “I can finally breathe.” She turns to smile at HK who smiles back. We zoom out to see them bathed in the yellow sunset, becoming tiny specks on a huge collection of rocks of many sizes, studded in the land, against a backdrop of trees on the massive mountain.
Screen Blackout no. 4
My thoughts
We end off with the perspective the Show wants to give us: our proper place in the scheme of things. Whatever high flown or ridiculous motivations we have for our decisions, however important we think we are, our tremendous concerns are likely small in the grand scheme of life.
I like that analogy of life’s journey. We may make our journey on our own, without really knowing why and only vaguely with the idea of where we want to go. We get off at the wrong stops and are left behind, have to walk on our own feet, sometimes get lost and walk around in circles, and then we may find that it’s when we decide to join with others who know the way and what they want to do, that we can find our way better.
Each episode will bring to HK an encounter and more self discovery with different people or a different companion on her trips.
@packmule3 and @GB, thank you for this. I saw an interview Lee Na Young gave. She said her interpretation was that, although you would expect a travel drama to be about food, healing and nature, she herself thinks it’s about people; interactions with strangers. She said she kept crying because the different people and different subjects were moving to her. The director got concerned.
I’ve seen the first episode only. @GB, you have explained it well. She longs to disappear, yet only goes for a day trip, not even staying overnight. Is it more inspiration that she is seeking — or something else?
The interview was Suchwita ep. 11.
Hi @Fern, thanks for the interview info.
Yes good point, she says she longs to disappear, but I don’t really think that’s it. She’s not really clear about what she wants to achieve or let go of. She goes about hit or miss on her various days off, but she gains more insight each time.
More Ad Hoc Thoughts about Episode 1
Skeleton of the temple main hall: It’s interesting that in order to get into the main temple grounds, visitors have to pass through a big hall in which lie many wooden beams/pillars. They look like the skeletal ‘ribs’ of what would be a temple hall if it were rebuilt. They remind me of bones that need to be enfleshed. Is this a suggestion that as they enter the temple they are going back to bare bones, leaving the rest behind?
The novelist – he remains un-named but as a writer one might assume that he’s an observer of people in order to flesh out his characters. He only knows bare bones about HK and proceeds to try to spend time with her to get to know her more.
Hearing that HK is a teacher in high school, the novelist and Jin Young speak of teens being tough to teach or “more difficult nowadays”. Jin Young addresses the novelist : “Aren’t they a lot more work than they were back in our day?” (We keep this in mind as we go into the next episodes).
Jin Young feels the novelist is just hanging about getting free board and lodging because the Head Monk likes his novel. She claims that in the 2 months he’s been at the temple, he’s not written. He seems to be more interested in going out on the town and interacting with people than in emptying his mind with quiet meditation, or writing his next novel.
However it’s thanks to the novelist that HK gets to have at least one photo of her taken. The novelist had put aside her reluctance to be in a photo: “Still take a photo. Stashing up on them keeps your memories stocked.” (Again, a throwaway line that would have some significance later.)
The novelist has been observing HK and writes: “The day tripper. What’s her purpose for travel? Maybe it’s some worry or concern.” We see HK walking through the hall where the ‘skeleton’ of the temple hall was.
Novelist’s voiceover : “The question brewing deep within must have brought her this far.”…”Yet the reason for why she came remains a mystery. One thing, however, is certain. She also seems to wonder why I’m here.” (Well so do I. However he raises the question: what might HK’s worry or concern be that she traveled over 3 – 5 hours from Seoul to Haenam only to spend the day there and then leave.)
More Ad Hoc Thoughts about Episode 1 continued…
I like the thoughtful writing and directing and how the scenes parallel, match or continue from each other.
HK’s Walk – She had to pass through the hall with the ‘bare bones skeleton’ of the original temple hall in order to get to the forest outside. She forgot that she, too, was ‘bare’ without her phone.
HK’s voiceover as she returns to her thoughts on the 19th-century French wanderers : “The mad wanderers seemed to just get up and vanish with the dawn of the 20th century. Did they find some miracle cure? Or was there nothing wrong to begin with?” She wonders about people a century ago, but again, the questions apply to herself. Was she wandering to find a cure for her wandering? Was there anything wrong with her or nothing? So not only was the novelist asking questions, so too was HK. Was this the question brewing deep within her that the novelist asks?
She comes through some undergrowth to an open pathway but there’s no one around and she does not know which direction to take. She realises that she has no mobile phone to rely on… now she is more like the drifting plastic bag that had likely inspired her day-trip.
HK’s voiceover : “The start of mankind came with a set of wanderers. The problem is that we always want some place new. And once that place is reached, there is a relentless pursuit for another. With such constant wandering, we’re bound to get lost.” And that’s when she finds that she’s the one who’s lost.LOL.
She realises that she had walked around in a circle and returned to the first cairn that she’d passed. She stops to place a stone on top of it and prays shortly. The silent Jung Ah comes out from the undergrowth, giving her a scare, but she’s like an answer to her prayer. While accompanying Jung Ah HK finally puts aside her own ruminations to be present to the here and now.
Just like the nomads/wanderers of ancient history, HK would be going to some place new each Saturday. However instead of getting her lost, her constant wandering would hopefully bring her home.
Yes, we are made to wonder why HK has come to the temple for a day. It wasn’t by accident; clearly she had made a reservation.
I was struck by how she wasn’t interested in interaction with the other visitors or the ‘guide’ Jin Young. Her curiosity was more aroused by an unidentified ingredient in her lunch. HK seemed unsuccessful at the set/required activities. The yoga instruction made her unable to enjoy her lunch. The meditation exercise made her mind wander, then made her fall asleep. This echoed her pupils who were bored, tired, distracted. To me, she felt alienated from the others in the group, particularly when Jin Young began to weep. She escaped quietly. It was only when she herself requested to accompany the silent woman that she found things of interest to her.
I wonder if, more than the trips being an escape, the trips become a search for wisdom? I am keen to see more.
@Fern,
That’s a great parallel of her boredom and that of her students. She too fell asleep at meditation and was distracted like her students had been.
I did have the impression that she went to the temple to be quiet by herself. She was not exactly desirous of company but was too polite to reject the requests and the conversations thrust upon her. On the whole she is self-contained and has little interest in reaching out unnecessarily. She did not even want to do the normal touristy things like have her photo taken with strangers or by the novelist.
The silent Jung Ah was a godsend. She did not feel imposed upon and instead had to worry that she was not imposing on Jung Ah. I felt that Jung Ah was very gracious. She probably had planned and wanted to be by herself to enjoy the silence, but she became the real guide that chattering Jin Young could not be.
Jin Young herself was obviously wounded and needy, covering her pain with many words. At least she had acknowledged that she was unable to laugh naturally while she suffered worry. HK had herself not yet acknowledged what it was that might trouble her.
The words of the Yoga Master “Resolve. Acknowledge. Forgive.” Needed to be put into practice.
Yes, you have a point. In each trip, HK probably gained more wisdom and understanding. Also although she’s someone who’s unwilling to interact, she has to leave her comfort zone from time to time, and in her interactions she gives and gains.
There is a sense of teacher burn-out to me. She knows her subject, but has forgotten how to convey the topic in a joyful and compelling way. She has become an automaton spouting information the way her student draws her in episode 1. She sees the disinterest in her students, but can’t combat it. In episode 1, she gets the most out of her interaction with the silent Jung Ah, who only shows her things.
I’m only beginning the second episode. I think that she believes she has become the sort of teacher who gives trite or clichéd responses.
EPISODE 2 – DREAMS AND HAND-DRIPPED SORROW
@Fern, the second episode was a mixture of weird, silly, pathetic, funny… I call it the Arty-Farty episode.
Once again you’ve given me the insight that makes me go ‘Aha!’ Yes she does not seem to have joy in her work. Instead of enthusiasm and spontaneity, she exhibits careful prudence. She holds herself back out of fear that she’s giving the wrong advice and in the area of art or the arts, she lacks confidence.
Starting from the eavesdropping Arts Teacher (AT for want of a name) who is unable to even stick the nose back onto the bust, we see that teachers have a tough role to fulfill, but are fallible humans too. Not only are they to encourage the dreams of their students, but they are to give sound advice which would generally be the cliched advice. These roles may seem contradictory when the artistic ability of their students do not warrant them making art their dream.
It occurred to me, that in the beginning of the episode, HK was asked to give advice but without sufficient information. Hence she had to take the careful course of warning against failure and pointing out that art does not guarantee a steady income.
Please let me know when you’ve finished the Episode and what you think of it. 🙂
EPISODE 3 – META-ROMANCE
@Fern
That was an intriguing episode, wasn’t it?
What might a meta-romance mean? Might it mean that a) it’s not that the love is real, but that one loves the idea of being in love, or the romance of being in a romance? Or b) in the case of a producer/writer/director that he wants to make a romantic movie about someone making a romantic movie?
I’m thinking that 2 ‘forces of imagination’ were in play and happened to come to some kind of fruition in the meeting of Ha Kyung and Lee Chang Jin. One was the force of Lee Chang Jin’s imagination with meta-romance b) as he ruminated on making his sci-fi-romance movie, and the other of Ha Kyung’s who was wondering when and if she’d meet her destined love, with meta-romance a).
The Force of LCJ’s Imagination
At the end of Episode 2, we move from art to film. Lee Chang Jin enters an empty movie theatre. He sits alone in one of the seats. The music that played while he walked into the theatre is abruptly silenced when he throws himself into a seat.
First in the theatre by himself, Lee talks to himself as if considering objectively the subject of ‘love’: “Love is a problem.” He seems to reconsider: “Love isn’t at fault.”
He leans forward to think: “I want to love someone.” It’s spoken at first not so much as if he is the subject who wants to be in love but as if he’s mouthing lines he’d like to put into a script. But in the next couple of seconds he seems to maybe wish to be in love himself.
Something similar happens with the music when he tries to enter the Wheat Noodle restaurant but inadvertently blocks HK who tries to exit. They side step a few times until LCJ stands sideways to let HK out. The music plays but when he sits at the table the music stops abruptly.
I’m thinking the music indicates that when he was acting the part of entering the theatre, or the part of the male lead who met the female lead while entering the restaurant… he imagined background music accompanying him. When he sat, the music stopped because he was back in reality. He was puzzling over what the next scene should be or what he should order.
To be continued…
The Force of Imagination continued…
By some chance HK and LCJ notice each other, and their paths continue to overlap so much that they are almost inadvertently stalking each other.
My wild conjectures: We have the force of LCJ’s imagination and his desire to produce a science-fiction-romance for the big screen. Perhaps even trying out the role of one ‘who wants to be loved’ for size. We also have HK with her own great imagination, who has been primed by the Tarot card, to expect to meet very soon, her destined love. I felt that both of them had felt a frisson of interest from the other, and very quickly had let their imaginations take over so that in their minds, they were the protagonists of a possible romance with the other person.
The Disappearing
I believe that they really did watch the film by Georges Melies: ‘A Trip to the Moon’ (‘Le Voyage dans la Lune’) and that they started walking back together. But in the gap of silence, LCJ walked back to the underground imagining HK was still with him, while HK continued to walk past many posters saying ‘A Trip to the Moon’.
HK too was making a trip to the moon ie to where they could look out to see the moon (after all they’d just watched a movie about it), thinking that LCJ was walking with her, since after all he’d shown her quite a lot of interest. She might have been in romantic mood and thought that their minds were of one accord. They had after all done and said similar things that day.
Both of them suddenly found that they were alone. He was in the underground station and thought he’d lost her there. She looked for him above ground, but I noticed very strangely, that the moon she had been looking at, was no longer in the sky. Perhaps the camera angle had changed?
To be continued…
The Force of Imagination continued…
The Force of HK’s Imagination
On HK’s end, she had noticed LCJ’s interest when he looked long and hard at her in the theatre. She kept looking at him in the bookstore and even bought the same book he was reading.
On her own, she was in romantic mood so she wondered about why her students had stopped writing love stories. She created her own romance in her mind as she thought of how LCJ had looked standing on the top of the stairs in the book store, reading. In reality, he had read without looking up, but HK imagines that he’d looked up and stared at her.
When she sees him again waiting around in the underground station and that he started walking alongside her, she naturally took for granted that he was interested in her. But not only that, since they had had multiple overlaps in interest and location, she probably started to think he might really be the one destined for her. She might have let her imagination run a bit wild, thinking that he’d follow her to look at the moon after the film. She didn’t even notice when he hadn’t.
@Fern, I too was wondering if HK had dreamed LCJ up. But after I went through their interactions, I don’t think so.
Ad Hoc Thoughts – The overlaps of HK and LCJ (at one time these made me wonder if they were a figment of each other’s imagination LOL.):
– They kept blocking each other as if in synchronised movement when trying to enter/exit the restaurant.
– They had the same thoughts about not finding wheat noodle restaurants in Seoul.
– They watched the same movies.
– They went to the same book store.
– She saw what book he was reading and bought the same book to read. Or they had the same taste in books.
– They both disappeared on the other.
– They both had similar thoughts about the dearth of new love stories.
LCJ in a Movie of His Own and Weird Things About Him
He was just waiting in the underground station on his way to see the movie but he didn’t walk until HK passed him. He then sort of walked beside her and kept looking at her so that they could interact. Was he waiting for his cue to enter the scene? He’s obviously the protagonist in his own movie. However he is also the director. When he noticed HK before, did he want to cast her in his movie?
Was he joking? It was crazy for him to say that his name might appear in the credits of the French film: ‘At Trip to the Moon’ or ‘Le Voyage dans la Lune’. It was produced in 1902 and he wouldn’t have been born yet. But he looked serious when he said: “If you stick around for the credits, I’m embarrassed to say this, but you might catch my name. I’ll also make a movie of my own one of these days.”
In their walk before parting LCJ says : “Folks these days are terrified of not being liked back. And due to the fear of messing up romantic relationships, many keep doubting themselves. But when you think about it, life is about messing up.” LCJ suddenly stops to go buy mandarin oranges. He cut himself like a director would cut a scene,… but this did lead to a mess up. He broke the momentum of their conversation and started the process of ending the interaction.
He’s the one who likes mandarin oranges but he gives them all to HK. In the end, this is the only proof she has that he was not a figment of her imagination.
He runs off literally, in a mighty hurry. I don’t know why he runs like hounds are chasing him.
Although he wanted to cross paths with HK again the next day, he left the location to chance. They did not even exchange telephone numbers or get each other’s SNS.
He seems to rehash or rehearse how he’d first met HK at the doorway of the Busan wheat noodle restaurant. In Seoul he unnecessarily does some deliberate side-steps before entering.
He really believes that he’s in a movie in which he is both the director and the actor. Perhaps this is how he ends his sci-fi-romance movie, where meeting someone like HK again, is entirely left to chance.
LCJ’s Voiceover: “We could meet again someday in this unending movie.” (I presume LCJ’s ‘unending movie’ refers to life.)
As he swallows his mouthful of food he looks at the camera, breaking the fourth wall, and says: “Cut!” Screen Blackout
What we are watching in Episode 3 seems to be the meta of LCJ making a science-fiction romance movie in his mind, while HK was also in an imaginary romance of her own. LOL.
The Hesitation of Ha Kyung
After breaking off their conversation to buy oranges, LCJ asks HK : “Where are you headed to now? Are you going back to Seoul?”
She seems to hesitate before answering. She becomes evasive and says that she is leaving the next day after staying somewhere near that night (she points vaguely). Was she telling the truth? Her eye movements looked shifty LOL. This is unlike with Ep 1’s novelist where she’d insisted that she was leaving that day and would not hit the town with him.
I’ve a funny feeling that HK might not have planned to spend the night in Busan. For one thing, she did day-trips and not overnight ones. For another, she had not brought a change of clothes. However she did not want to admit that she was going back, instead with much hesitation, she said she wanted to catch a morning film screening, but she didn’t name the movie.
Possible reasons for not saying that she was leaving that very night:
1) She thought he meant to go back to Seoul too and did not want to spend a long journey with him chatting on the train or bus.
OR more likely…
2) She was hoping to spend more time with him and did not want to leave Busan that night.
LCJ : “In that case, how about we hang out?”
HK : “Now?”
LCJ notices her hesitation : “No, I thought you could leave later tomorrow. Aren’t you catching a movie tomorrow”
HK : “Yes, well there is one I plan to catch in the morning.”
LCJ : “At Busan Theatre in Nampo-dong?”
HK : “Yes.”
LCJ : “I’m going there as well. How about I meet you there at ten?”
HK : “Sure, sounds good.”
He strangely chooses not to decide on where exactly to meet. He suddenly says good night and gives her the bag of oranges. It’s peculiar because he likes oranges and we thought that he had bought them for himself.
He then takes his leave in a hurry, literally running off. He turns back only to say : “Let’s cross paths tomorrow!” HK scratches her head in perplexity.
She has a room in a nice hotel, but that night she tosses a lot and can’t sleep out of embarrassment. Is it because she was not meant to spend the night and had only done so on the spur of the moment? Or was it because she felt embarrassed that she was excited about meeting again, a man she’d just met? Or because she was feeling silly over thinking that LCJ might be the destined love she was to meet?
Screen Blackout
The next day, HK is wearing the same clothes but dries her socks with the hairdryer. She tries to tie her sweater around her shoulders to make it look different. However she waits in vain to meet LCJ and finally watches the movie and leaves Busan without crossing paths with him. If not for the oranges (which she does not seem to have eaten) there would have been no proof of LCJ’s presence on her one day off.
If LCJ was actually present up until the mandarin purchase and planned a meeting for the next day, I think that HK hadn’t planned to stay over because she clearly didn’t bring a change of clothing. She had a decent room, but would be sleeping in the double bed alone. I think she thought he was quirky but interesting, but was embarrassed that she had mentally cast him as the destined lover when he already ran away. Then she must have felt foolish later when he didn’t show up.
It made me reflect that dating a screenwriter or author would quite possibly make one the subject of a work. Songwriter, too. I wouldn’t like that.
I think the meta-lover idea could go as far as them seeing each other in the movie theatre and not again in reality after that. The idea may have been too tempting to give up, so she stayed over.
Meta reminds me of the metaverses in “Everything Everywhere …” The sci-fi aspect would be like a parallel universe where they come in and out of each other’s worlds. I looked at the fellow diners at the wheat noodle restaurant back in Seoul. They were in the same places, except for one woman to the far right who wasn’t there when LCJ sat down – that may be a clue that it was at a slightly different time rather than a parallel universe.
Such an interesting episode.
@Fern, you put it so succinctly. Yes, HK too had been a Director in her own play/romance, and had cast LCJ as the love interest. But he had be a runaway lover LOL. I did wonder why the Show made him run more than once and so fast. He was an easy-come/easy-go sort of person? In just the same way that he’d been there and then disappeared, so too in real life.
So true about having friends in the creative line, where they are looking for subjects or models. One gets included in their work whether we wish it or not. LCJ had likely cast HK as the female protagonist in his sci-fi-romance. I wonder if his non-appearance at the theatre the next day was part of his ‘script’.
Perhaps he wanted to end his ‘movie’ on an open note of ‘they might meet again if they were really destined’.
Yes, this episode was possibly my favourite one. So much ambiguity, so many ways to interpret scenes. Seemingly always more to discover.
The ‘Cute’ Conversation
HK : “Yes. Where do you suppose I went when you lost me?”
LCJ speaking like a writer or director : “That’s how the story begins.”
HK : “Right. What genre would it be?”
LCJ : “Science fiction romance.”
HK laughs : “I hadn’t pictured it that way.”
LCJ : “It was romance from the start.”
LCJ continues to stare seriously at HK.
HK : “You’re cute.”
LCJ : “What? I am? … Is that a good thing?”
HK : “Of course it’s a good thing.”
LCJ : “The meaning of ‘cute’ seems to have changed.”
HK : “It does get overused these days.”
LCJ : “That part is also interesting.”
HK : “The cute part?”
LCJ : “What exactly does it mean when people use the word ‘cute’? There can be different takes on what is perceived as cute.”
She speaks of her desk buddy whom she thought was round and cranky but cute when sitting at her desk. LCJ finds it cute that she finds the desk buddy cute LOL Yes it’s META-CUTENESS.
They walk along the streets and wonder what the opposite of cute is, but cannot think of the right word.
HK speaks of the word ‘cute’ : “I think you casually throw it out to express your affection. When people want to talk about something they enjoy, they don’t simply say, ‘I like it.’ They rather say, ‘I’m into something.’
LCJ : “Yes, perhaps saying it’s cute could be a momentary feeling.”
HK : “Like an exclamation.”
LCJ : “Right. The word ‘like’ could feel a bit overwhelming as if you were held responsible to keep liking it.
HK : “In the past, people felt that way about the word ‘love’ and used the word ‘like’ instead. But now, even expressing ‘like’ seems overwhelming.”
LCJ : “That’s why we don’t have many love stories these days.”
HK : “What?” (She had that very afternoon been wondering why her students no longer wrote love stories. LCJ had inadvertently given one possible reason.) “That could be why.”
LCJ : “Folks these days are terrified of not being liked back. And due to the fear of messing up romantic relationships, many keep doubting themselves. But when you think about it, life is about messing up.”
It occurred to me:
– HK had herself used the word ‘cute’ for LCJ. Hence based on their interpretation, she was probably saying it as an exclamation, with only a momentary feeling and without being held responsible to keep liking him.
– At times this conversation with LCJ sounds more like it might have be the continuation of HK’s conversation with herself about her students no longer writing love stories.
– HK is maybe also terrified of not being liked back. Later we will see that she had had a close friend before, but there was a mess up, and that may have coloured how she deals with relationships.
– LCJ used the phrase messing up more than once. When he lost her, he said he thought he had messed up. Again now he speaks of the fear of messing up, and that life is about messing up. Well to be more complete, the plot in all the movies of our life is that we have our ups and downs in relationships. We make mistakes and corrections, then carry on living … and so we have conflict and interest in our storylines.
– The meta-romance was well book-ended. We had begun with HK watching a movie alone and then going for a wheat noodle meal. That’s how we end her meta-romance as well. But unknown to her … we get the Director’s Cut. Heh!
Haha. Do you know, I got distracted myself and tried to imagine what would be the opposite of cute.
Yes, there is a theme of tentativeness, unwillingness to take a risk on love or to seem to commit for both of them.
COMMENTS ON EPISODE 5 – DANCE EVEN IF YOU TRIP
This is the dance episode. It is also the loosened up HK episode and as mentioned by @BethB … it’s another episode with the meta of looping back in time. I just love that concept.
Dance
We saw in Episode 2 that Ha Kyung cannot carry a tune, but she had finally dropped her self-consciousness to sing (badly). She’d given up (at least for that time) her need to be the ‘proper’ teacher who gave staid, cliched advice. She’d finally figured out that she ought to at least listen to Yeon Seo’s music before pronouncing that she should not drop the idea of college.
This episode we find that it’s not easy for her to pick up dance moves, and that she’s still self-conscious but not as bad as before. Generally she appears to be ‘performance-artistically challenged’ LOL, but she has changed in that she is willing to try.
By the end of her weekend ie at the beginning of the episode which was a Monday, she’d loosened up so much that she could let herself go. She was able to follow most of the suave moves of the student dance club members, and wowed her audience of students who’d been surreptitiously watching her dance from the roof. Overcome with embarrassment, now she really wishes she can really disappear LOL. The staid, stoic teacher has finally become spontaneous in school.
How appropriate that just that weekend she’d been gifted with the one manhwa book she’d been looking for since Episode 3, ‘The Dancing Kangaroo’. When we see her dancing awkwardly but joyfully in her own home, she really looked a bit like a kangaroo trying out dance moves.
‘Dance even if you trip’ – what a weekend trip that was for HK. She’d tried many new things without making a plan, had been rewarded with the friendship of her ‘idol’ cartoonist and ‘danced her socks off’. What a trip (figurative/slang) it had been for her. She’d been so high when she got home.
I’d like to think that dance was for HK, the symbol of breaking free from just sticking to the safe, staid, and comfortable, not just on her day-trips, but also to being able to enjoy herself at work.
EPISODE 5 continued…
A Looser Ha Kyung
On her Saturday trip, she’d missed her train but that had not put a damper on her day. She was able to just go with the flow, hop onto the next train to anywhere, and to decide to hop off at Daejeon because of a random cat.
In Episode 1 she’d met the Novelist but had not wanted to hit the town with him or to share much about herself. In Episode 5 she meets another writer, Writer Koo, and spends the afternoon and evening accompanying her, while sharing quite candidly about herself. HK has changed.
Unlike with the Novelist who had to persuade her to have her photo taken, HK willingly poses behind a space helmet to be photographed at the Planetarium.
Having listened to how Writer Koo was determined to keep trying new things because health was fragile and age had caught up so that all would be downhill from the present, HK decides to also seize the day. She accompanies Writer Koo to the Planetarium, not caring where it might be.
Writer Koo had shared that she’d tried to learn maths to know the secrets of the universe… it turned out an irrelevant exercise since she could not understand maths.
HK :”I think that’s nice. The search for new knowledge will always continue.”
Writer : “What about you, Ms Ha Kyung? Is there something in your life that you previously thought was irrelevant?”
HK is left thinking about this as the Writer takes her turn at the telescope.
HK to herself : “Not really.” (She finds that she has not done anything that is irrelevant. She’d mostly done what she’d planned, not what was spontaneous.) She looks through the telescope. The constellation she sees looks like an eye or an oval swirl that grows bigger. We hear the Writer’s voiceover from the book ‘The Dancing Kangaroo’: “The kangaroo spoke. ‘Dance. I want you to keep dancing.’ ”
Cut to Writer and HK walking past video screens showing the stars.
HK suddenly answers the question : “It’s dancing.”…”I’ve never danced my socks off. It does not even have to be that. I’ve never had control over how my body moves. I can’t dance to save my life.”
Writer : “You have to start somewhere. … They say practice makes perfect.”
HK demurs : “Well, I’m not that passionate about it.”
Writer : “Then nevermind.” (She says this each time HK hesitates over anything she offers. She does not force HK, but keeps offering different things.)
Outside they come across line dancers. Writer suggests they join in. When HK hesitates, the Writer says ‘Nevermind’, and joins them herself. HK takes a while but finally shyly joins the line dancers to do the ‘irrelevant’ thing that she’d never tried.
Which brings her to happy dancing in her own home on Saturday night, and then to trying modern girl-group style dance, like her students on Monday. LOL.
EPISODE 5 continued…
Looping Back in Time – the Meta
This episode chose a staggered, loop back (with explanatory back story) non-linear progression that reflected beautifully Writer Koo’s as yet unpublished time loop story of saving the world.
Writer : “I’ve been mulling over a little story. It is about the last act of kindness that humanity has to offer. Lately, I’ve been pondering about how Earth is our constant companion. It’s a story about an apocalypse with a time loop. One day the human race gets wiped out on a certain date. But the same thing happens the following day, like a doomsday on repeat.”
HK : “Is the protagonist the only one aware of it? Or does everyone know?”
Writer : “The protagonist would be narrating it. The character yearns to control and plan things ahead. That’s how she feels at ease.” (This might describe HK herself. She would normally plan her trips. She imagines herself as a manhwa character in the story, against a backdrop of stars and drips on what might be glass panes. There is a sound of the ticking of a clock.)
Writer : “But in this new loop, the world always comes to an end.”
HK sees herself like the second hand on the dial of a clock, enclosed in a circle in space, and moving second by second around the circle. (That might reflect her work life on Mondays to Fridays).
Writer : “So she surrenders herself to contingency for the first time. In the end she struggles desperately to prevent doomsday, with a cat that transcends time. And when time and space get distorted again, the clock starts winding backward as if it is on rewind for every second.”
HK imagines her manhwa HK and the cat able to survive under water.
Writer : “Then it leads back to the Big Bang.” (In other words, we have looped all the way back to the beginning of time).
EPISODE 5 Looping back in time continued…
The meta: each time a ‘time loop’ happens, time and space gets distorted, and we get that on our screens when the current scene becomes a still picture that gets distorted. We find ourselves going back to a previous time hours earlier.
Part of that meta would be Writer Koo’s cat. When asked why she came to Daejeon for a trip, HK recalled how that morning she’d seen the same cat from the train, which had inspired her to alight. The cat vanished. She does not find the cat at the train station but she does end up meeting Writer Koo.
She only meets the cat named Loo/Roo (named after The Dancing Kangaroo?) when she’s at Writer Koo’s home for tea. That cat would be the Cat that Transcends time, who had gone into the past to bring HK out of the train to inadvertently meet Writer Koo.
We get another ‘time loop’ as HK comes back to the present where Writer Koo is saying: “She surrenders herself to contingency for the first time.” (At this time, HK had not done anything irrelevant before, like dance.)
Writer Koo speaks of her health. She says it’s not only her eyes but her body will break down starting from the present.
Writer :”It’s like having parts wearing out and not working properly, right?”
HK agrees “Well, the body does feel different each day.”
Writer :”And so these days, I’m trying out new stuff.” (Is this contingency?) “I’ve been eager to step out of my comfort zone, such as lining up for a treat and talking to a total stranger. (This is exactly what she’d done that day with HK).
“I was too busy working when younger and lived a hectic life. I worked nights, skipped meals, and stressed out a lot. but the work didn’t pay much. I don’t know why I was obsessed about it so much when it had been compromising my health.”
HK : “Do you regret it?”
Writer :”It’s not exactly regret. Now that I think about it, I was a bit foolish. it wasn’t worth all that trouble. That comes to mind.”
HK : “But it was all worth it. I did find your work remarkable. And it has played a great part in making me who I am today.”
Writer :”Is that good or bad?”
HK : “When I was younger, there were times when I felt alone. The world didn’t seem to understand me, and I felt so lonesome. That drove me crazy at times. But you were there for me.”
Flashback to teen HK running into her room in her school uniform. She lays out her books and reads them on her bed.
HK : “Your work gave me such comfort.”
Writer :”I’m honoured.”
HK : “And so, I’ll wait for your next book.”
I like how tea was served in 2 different but pretty tea cups with saucers. It spoke of how Writer Koo lived quite alone, since she did not bother to get a matching pair or set, and also of how different and yet similar she and HK might be. HK too lived alone and was pretty serious about work, keeping up the staid image of a teacher in front of her students.
HK seems to have taken a leaf from Writer Koo’s book, (hah! figuratively) so to speak, to avoid the same kind of foolishness that Writer Koo had acknowledged. She agrees to go to the Planetarium with her. On Monday in school, she’d decides to try something new [by dancing in the corridor] and not be obsessed about work. Might HK have seen in Writer Koo, herself in a couple more decades?
After HK rejoices over getting ‘The Dancing Kangaroo’ to complete her series of books, we get another ‘time loop’ and end up back outside the Planetarium where HK finally joins the line dancing and starts having fun.
What a rewarding trip that began spontaneously with a missed train. Embarking on that trip showed that HK already had it in her to be spontaneous, if she could put her self-consciousness aside. She was open to new experiences, which was why she chose to follow a random cat. In time she would even encounter her own Big Bang.
I’m sorry, @GB. I didn’t read this before writing my short commentary.
How did you understand “…So she surrenders herself to contingency for the first time”? Huh? What contingency? Did the subber mean HK resigned herself to the inevitability of doom and death?
I wish the Korean subtitles are out already so I can double check on Google or Naver.
Anyway, as I was listening to the writer’s overview, I was reminded of that drama we watched, “Sisyphus.” 😂
@pkml3
I’m out but as I move about I’m ruminating.
I had the same question. I looked up ‘contingency’. Decided that Show was using either the wrong term or using this term in a different way. More thoughts later.
CONTINGENCY
I had to re-read a bit of the posts on Sisyphus to recall it better. Yes, the repeated looping. The Sisyphean task in Writer Koo’s tale of saving the world. The girl as Sisyphus and the cat as time-machine? LOL.
‘Contingency’ is used in Episode 5 but I’m not sure if the subs are right or if the word is used with a different meaning attached to it. I did note it and remembered it when I commented above, on Episode 1 about the Plastic Bag that drifted in the breeze, unable to determine its direction. I said this about what may have gone on in Ha Kyung’s head as she stopped her ‘lecture’ to watch the bag outside her classroom window, together with the students.
Two possible thoughts she might have had:
1) She feels like the bag, that she’s haplessly pushed along by the winds of the daily grind.
2) She longs to be free to just float at will according to where air currents other than work, take it. In a later episode she uses the word ‘contingency’ which I believe is supposed to mean to go with the flow or with what needs to be done for the moment, without being able to predict or plan in advance.
If we take a couple of dictionary meanings for ‘contingency’:
1) It is a future event or circumstance which is possible but cannot be predicted with certainty. (I was trying to fit the idea of contingency with this definition.)
@pkml3 your concept takes the future event as likely to be a negative thing (doom and death), something that may make further arrangements necessary (to put it mildly). A possible something that can spoil one’s plans is a plausible way to understand it.
2) It can be a provision for a possible event or circumstance. (But this is not the meaning that fits so I throw it out.)
Excerpts of Writer Koo’s brief summary narration of her story:
“It’s a story about an apocalypse with a time loop. One day the human race gets wiped out on a certain date. But the same thing happens the following day, like a doomsday on repeat. The protagonist would be narrating it. The character yearns to control and plan things ahead. That’s how she feels at ease. But in this new loop, the world always comes to an end. So she surrenders herself to contingency for the first time.”
The fact that it was the first time indicates that she had refused to surrender in previous time loops and had failed to stop doomsday each time. She decides to do something different.
I feel that if contingency is something that cannot be predicted and which may throw out all one’s plans, then the protagonist was finally surrendering to whatever would come. The fictional protagonist that HK imagines herself to be, had decided to be like the plastic bag, to give up on planning and control of the future. She just time traveled with the cat to start from the beginning – the Big Bang!!
One thought that occurs to me is that it’s a wonder how the narrator can narrate the destruction of the human race or experience the Big Bang unless she is outside the doomsday scenario altogether… like god or something. LOL. I guess anything is possible with manhwa, even cats that act like time machines! Anyway… that’s as far as I got. 🤔 😜 🥸 🤩 😏 😂
@GB, It makes me wonder if ‘contingency’ is not the best word for the translation. There may not be an exact fit and perhaps it was the nearest? I wonder what was the term used in Korean. The apocalypse loop seemed inflexible, so I would have thought that she surrenders herself to the inevitable, rather than to contingency, which would imply possible different outcomes.
I wonder if this drama is as interesting to the home audience as it is to us? I find it very thought-provoking and original.
Hi @Fern, ‘Inevitable’ works for me! We may wait for the Japanese subtitles, but I’m not generally able to get them translated unless they are in text.
LOL, we need some Korean friends to give us their opinions. I imagine that indie films and dramas may venture into the more interesting, diverse and original. 🙂
I tried watching episode 5 on a different website, but the word contingency was still there – the dialogue was as you wrote, so it was the same subs.
EPISODE 6 – RAINY SATURDAY
The Art Teacher
What is Show’s attitude towards the Art Teacher that he is never even given a name? Dismissive? I refer to him as AT. Not only does he have no name but the first time we see him in Ep 2, he is mostly ineffectually trying to stick back a nose onto a plaster bust. When we next see him at the prologue to Ep 6 at the end of Ep 5, he’s being played with by the weather LOL. The sky would repeatedly pour only when he closed his umbrella. In Episode 6, we finally get an episode in which he features more, and while he may not always hold the attention, he does have some points to make.
I feel that Show should not have been so dismissive of him (at least he should have been given a name) because he is the only character, besides HK herself, who makes multiple appearances. We see him even in Ep 4 as he pulls a white hair from HK’s head, and again in Ep 7. He’s not an important character but he has a part to play both at school where HK works, and on one of her days off. It’s because of him that HK gets to think about earthworms, LOL and we get to know a bit more about her.
(To be continued…)
(Episode 6… continued)
I like that this episode brings together HK’s experiences from Episodes 1 and 2, so that there’s continuity and we see her gentle growth arc.
It’s such a rainy Saturday and likely to rain until the next day, that HK does not get out of bed. She’s still in bed at 10.30 in the morning ahen she starts getting a rain of calls and messages from the Head Teacher about a gaming tournament organised by her students. Later the rain of calls/messages includes those from the parents’ chat, and from the Parent President of the Parent Teachers’ Association.
She ignores the Head Teacher and tells herself : “They say that acts of kindness reach far and wide without traveling.” She looks at her one-day trip bags on her shelf, which will literally be left on the shelf that day.
She sits up in bed, remembering how she’d been taught to empty her mind in the Haenam Temple (in Episode 1). She starts entering a peaceful place of meditation as she does the count to 10, but the message from Head Teacher interrupts her.
Still ignoring the Head Teacher she tells herself : “Let’s go along a path I’ve never tried. There are plenty of adventures outside my doorstep.” Instead of leaving Seoul for her day trip, she goes on a bus trip to a tourist site (Gyeongbokgung Palace(?) which is a walking distance from the National Meterological Museum) in the rain. She has decided to travel light. We find out later that she only has her phone, her yellow umbrella and a credit card in her pocket.
Along the way to the bus stop, She has an earthworm on her boot that freaks her out. She manages to shake it off where it lies on the road.
The Gaming Tournament
I believe that HK was in two minds about it. Personally she probably didn’t mind it. The students had been denied the Autumn Festival and wanted to have some fun before their final year. They wanted their time off too.
However as a teacher in charge of the Student Council, and because the Head Boy was from her class, she was supposed to set the kids right about breaking the rules. We find that in the end, there was nothing much she could do both about the disapproval of the parents and the stubbornness of the students.
She felt rained on and put upon by water from the sky and demands from parents. She realised that she had lost her credit card and could not buy food. She was hungry. In the end she took refuge in the National Meterological Museum where admission was free, to wait out the rain. Ironically she sat in a room with a video showing a window looking out on rain falling outside it LOL.
To make matters more uncomfortable, she is discovered by the AT and his students on an excursion to the Museum, and so finds that she cannot have a solitary day-off but must still retain her teacher role in front of the students, and enter into conversation with her colleague who’s pleased to meet her outside school. The day off got stressful.
(To be continued…)
(Episode 6… continued)
Getting to Know Her Colleague
HK : “You must have brought the kids here.”
AT : “Yes, you know what they’re like.”
HK thinks : “No I don’t.” (That’s interesting. She should probably know what they are like but says she does not. She knows how strong-willed and demanding they can be.)
AT : “They begged me to take them.”
HK : “That’s a lot of work.” (It’s work that she’d never do on her day off.)
AT : “Don’t worry about it.” …”I’m glad to see you here outside school.”
HK observes the AT with his students.
HK’s thoughts : “With a great passion for teaching the art teacher runs his class like a school project. To enable students to express themselves as artists, he provides a space at school for their exhibitions. On weekends, he takes students to explore such places. I’m surprised that Mondays don’t bring him down. It seems that such people do exist.”
(She probably feels that unlike the AT she’d never be able to give up her day off. She preferred to be by herself, away from students and work.)
The AT is amused by the students who are in the gaming tournament. He tells her that her class is winning. She’s not sure what to think but she notes that he finds it fun that the kids dare to be defiant.
HK : “I don’t know what to think.”
AT : “Why are grown-ups like that? Is this such a big deal?”
HK : “I don’t think the grown-ups are invested in making kids happy. Not even sometimes.” (She has noticed the stress the kids are under.)
AT : “Do you think so? What about you?”
Before she can answer she has to deal with another call from the rude PTA President/Parent.
(To be continued…)
(Episode 6… continued)
The rain has stopped. HK and AT sit outside as the kids organise themselves to take photos.
AT : “How do you spend your weekends?”
She tells him to keep it a secret that she takes one-day trips on Saturdays. She chooses only one day and not two.
AT : “Why?”
HK : “I can’t stand not going anywhere, but I also want to do nothing.” (We find out in a later episode that this was not the case when HK was younger.)
AT : “I guess that’s how you kill two birds with one stone. … What about today?”
HK : “Today it was raining and all that.”
AT : “And you are worried about the kids?”
(Until he said this, I had not thought that she’d remained in Seoul also because she felt that she needed to be on the spot in case something blew up over the gaming tournament. Possibly, she, unlike the parents, cared more about the students’ happiness.)
@Fern noted that HK might be facing teacher burnout. The AT also displays waning confidence in being able to understand his students.
AT : “… The kids are harder to understand with every passing year. Before, I was fully confident about knowing them well. But with everything changing so quickly these days, I’m not sure if my advice even makes sense to them anymore. That comes to mind.”
HK nods a bit at that : “I know it can be deceitful.” (Meaning that they are teachers of kids whom they don’t understand and for whom the advice they give may not be relevant?)
AT : “I wanted to become a teacher to avoid that.” He looks down when HK looks at him.
HK consoles him : “You’re doing a great job.”
AT laughs but does not believe her : “I’m not buying what you said.”
HK : “You’re a good teacher.”
AT : “Thank you.”
HK : “I couldn’t pull it off like you.”
AT : “Come on, you’re doing a terrific job.”
HK : “I’m not sure, but I take things as they come.”
AT : “It’s like that thing. The old man that chisels clubs.”
HK : “You mean chisel bats?” (Is this a Korean idiom using an artistic image? Strange that an art teacher would get it wrong.)
AT : “That’s right.”
The students start making too much noise and both teachers put fingers to their lips to shush them LOL. It has instant effect on the youngsters. A sign that although they had just expressed their lack of confidence as teachers, they still had authority over the kids. It also shows that HK and AT are more alike than they realise.
AT : “They are still adorable.”
HK : “What’s adorable about them at this age?”
AT : “It’s cute how the kids believe they are all grown up.”
HK does not wish to join them for lunch but she has to borrow money from the AT as she has no credit card or cash. However he also has no cash. Against her wishes, he gets $10 from Student Yoon Cheol which embarrasses HK. LOL.
(To be continued…)
Episode 6… continued)
The Earthworm
On the way home, HK encounters the earthworm (the same one?) that had been on her boot. It’s trying to find a hole in the road to bury itself underground again, but without success.
Recalling that the AT had said : “Doesn’t nature work such wonders? We are nothing compared to it. That’s how life is. On rainy days like this, worms crawl out to breathe so they won’t drown in the water. But when it’s sunny the next day, they can shrivel up on the surface. That makes me debate whether I should save them or leave them on the sidewalk without getting involved. But these worms have no idea. My good deed could be dreaded
She decides to save the earthworm, and is more concerned about it than about herself when a car approaches. She uses a stick to move the earthworm off the road so that it has a better chance to get back into the soil.
Who are the Worms?
Might the worms represent the students who wanted a chance to get out to breathe, when in a deluge of homework and study? HK noted that the adults (the parents) did not seem at all invested in letting the kids have fun. Both the parents and the students wanted her to get involved to be on their side and stand up for them, but HK remained on the fence, until we see that she decided to save the earthworm.
She was at the same time on the phone with Ye Jun again. Ye Jun tells her that the tournament would be finished by the next week. There was only the final match left.
Ye Jun : “Everyone is too hyped to quit now. Can’t you convince our parents?”
HK : “I really don’t know about that. There is nothing that I can do.”
Ye Jun : “We’ll be seniors next year. So all we will do then is study.”
HK makes way for an approaching car. She’s concerned about the earthworm on the road. Fortunately the car has not squashed it.
Ye Jun : “Ms Park, will you back us up?”
HK concedes : “I heard that our class is winning. What’s the prize for winning?”
Ye Jun : “There isn’t one. We’re having pizza when it’s over. Would you like to join us?”
Before she can answer her phone battery dies. She saves the worm that has ‘won’ ie it survived the rain, being flicked off her boot and the threat of cars.
It’s likely that she’d have told Ye Jun to just go ahead with the tournament. He’d been scolded by his mum already in any case. It was harmless fun that would be over the next week and she was neither convinced that it was such a big deal, or that stopping the kids was the right thing, nor that she had any real power to do so anyway. In that sense, she was actually more of the same mind as the AT.
(To be continued…)
(Episode 6… continued)
Who is the Adult?
The teachers noted that the students were cute for believing that they were adults already. However when we consider that HK had been scared of the earthworm, that she’d lost her credit card, needed to borrow money from a student in order to pay for her bus ride home, that she left her umbrella on the bus and had to run home in the rain,…it seems that HK is more like a careless kid than an adult.
The Learning Journey
When she began her trip, HK had consoled herself that just going out would feel like a trip and that there were things to discover near home. At the end of the trip, she found that she was right.
She had discovered more about earthworms that might cross her path home. She had thought she did not know what the kids were like, but she had found them just as happy having fun, as she had been on her day-trips and that they too needed a break from work/study. She had learned more about the AT whom she’d not bothered to get to know before, and that going beyond the 9-5 job could be rewarding. She’d discovered that she was not as cliched in giving advice and as much of a stickler for the rules as other ‘adults’ expected her to be. She likely cared more for the kids’ happiness than their own parents.
She found that she was not alone in feeling a lack of confidence in advising the students and that she had a comrade in the Art Teacher. 🙂 This made it a pretty good day-trip, in my opinion.
@GB, in episode 6, did you notice the trope-y yellow umbrella?
I thought HK possibly went to the palace in Seoul to get some of the feeling of distance, history and atmosphere she had at the temple, but in a nearby setting. I laughed at the parent chat cartoon voices that seemed to be issuing from the various statues.
I liked your idea of who was the child and who was the adult? She certainly acted like a child losing her things. She walked around in the rain in a long, flowing outfit that would certainly not stay dry, even with an umbrella. (I kept thinking it looked like an old fashioned night gown.) When the Head Boy Ye Jun called her, he ended up consoling her losses as though he were the adult and she the child. Yet, as you mentioned about the teacher-power when HK and the art teacher succeeded in making the children be quiet just by a gesture – Ye Jun called HK because she was an adult he trusted. He admitted that he had a disagreement with his mother.
As much as the worm could represent the pupils who went out of their safe zones that weekend to have some rule-breaking fun but needed an adult on their side for the aftermath, so also could the worm represent HK. She was forced out of her comfortable plans by the rain and sense of stress represented by the phone calls from the HT and the PTA. She ended up in trouble with no money and no umbrella and had to borrow from a pupil. The pupil gave her all of his available cash, but he was resourceful and asked the art teacher to cover his lunch.
There was an expansion on the theme of generational disassociation. The ‘difficult’ young people was something brought up by the nameless old man in episode 4. Simultaneously, HK was trying to sort out her parents’ internet problems over the phone. The art teacher says to her that she is in the difficult position of being in the middle in the context of the games competition, but it’s true of her position in life as well. She’s neither young nor old. She’s young compared to the old man, to her parents and to the author. But she’s old compared to her students and getting more distant from them each year. It is indeed a curse of being in the teaching profession for an entire career. One goes from being near in age, ideals, and experiences to one’s students to being less able to relate to and communicate with them.
What do you think of the framed duck print in HK’s home? It was in her parents’ home as well and she has it as her wall paper on her phone, so she must be fond of it. I couldn’t find any symbolism attached to that sort of duck, although duck statues in a pair are a Korean wedding symbol of fidelity and fertility.
In some western countries there’s a saying about ducks and appearances: Duck syndrome comes from the idea that a duck can look calm gliding on the water’s surface while paddling frantically just below the surface to stay afloat. If this was a western film, I would say this had something to do with HK’s statement that she ‘takes things as they come’ and yet maintains her calm exterior. It could also have to do with nature.
I’m wondering if the duck print–like the yellow umbrella–show that HK is traveling solo through life, at least for the time being.
Usually the yellow umbrella is held by an “oppa” (tilting it away from himself, if he’s truly in love). She is holding it for herself. (But then she loses it! Not sure how that plays into this particular symbolism. I think loss of the umbrella in the midst of a rainstorm could also symbolize her being open to the elements/the world. Or that she is still childlike/irresponsible in some ways. To me it has to mean something since they chose a YELLOW umbrella!)
If (a pair) of ducks represent fertility in SK, her solo duck, hanging prominently in her apartment, represents her solitude and yearning for a partnership. (Ultimately we see that one of her companions in life was her school friend, who is no longer there physically but still accompanying her in her mind.)
Before she began to take these day trips, I wonder what her daily life had been like–especially on the weekends. Does the show ever give us a clue about how long she had been doing this?
Thank you, @Beth B. It hadn’t occurred to me that the solitary duck print had that meaning. It makes sense. The background of the yellow umbrella trope makes sense, too. I had imagined that the duck may have been a gift to her from her friend or someone else close to her, but we have no evidence for that.
The Yellow Umbrella and the Lone Duck
@Fern about the Duck print…
And
@BethB
This is the urban and drama take on the yellow umbrella:
“The yellow umbrella is an iconic prop in Korean romance dramas. Compared to its more traditional meaning, the yellow umbrella has its own meaning in the K-drama universe. It actually manifests itself in a legend: those who are under a yellow umbrella will fall in love with each other and share a love and bond so deep that it cannot be simply broken.”
https://metro.style/living/tips/5-colors-that-are-meaningful-in-k-dramas/33413#:~:text=Compared%20to%20its%20more%20traditional,it%20cannot%20be%20simply%20broken.
On yellow as a colour: https://artsandculture.google.com/story/the-colors-in-korean-life-and-culture-national-folk-museum-of-korea/vgXBoDKJVZn0LA?hl=en
” Yellow, as the main color used by the Emperor is associated with nobility, dignity and holiness. As the main color of the Yin-Yang&Ohaeng(Five Elements of the Universe), precious and shining brightly, it signifies the earth soil and fertility. In modern times, it is often used for children due to its bright and convivial image, but also as a warning color alluding to danger because it attracts people’s attention.”
The suggestion that yellow is used for children ties in to an extent, to my feeling that HK was quite childlike in her outing that day. She might have dressed like a child, lost her stuff like a child and needed to be cared for by an adult (the AT) and other kids (the students). That she carries the umbrella alone and does not share it might also mean she’s able to take care of herself, that she has no one dependent on her, and that being solitary is usual for her. From Episode 5, we know that she’s not opposed to having romance in her life, but perhaps she might prefer a meta-romance to having a real person she has to deal with.
During my rewatch of Episode 5, I looked up ducks. @Fern, Yes the picture of the lone duck was the one in her parent’s home above her bed, and she brought it to the hall in her apartment. She identifies with it enough that it’s on her phone wall paper.
I read that ducks are social animals and do not do well as solitary creatures. They want a friend and usual bond with someone or some large moving thing that they first see when they hatch. Ducks do get lonely. So our HK is a solitary duck, but the question is whether she’s a lonely duck. Does she want to be a half of a pair or is she fulfilled enough on her own?
If a lonely duck, how does she go about getting companionship? Or is she so self-possessed that she only needs the companionship of her imagined friend?
Or, (as @BethB suggests), was she quite happy to be friends with Jin Sol, but now remains a lone duck without her. We know that each time an episode ends with a person, that we’ll see that person in a future episode. The lone duck is perhaps a precursor to the revelation in a future episode of one reason why HK is alone now.
@BethB you asked if show ever gave us an idea of how long HK had been making day-trips. The answer as far as I can recall, is ‘no’.
@Fern, Yes to that long dress. It bothered me a lot actually. It was just so inappropriate for walking around in the pouring rain. It looked kind of too loose, too flow-y, almost wrong for her. On the one hand it reminded me of a child in over-sized clothes. In it, HK looked like a child playing dress-up.
On the other, it did look like a big old-style nightgown, even with the shirt over it. Now I’m beginning to wonder if there was a subconscious (even a real) desire in HK to have remained in bed that entire Saturday.
I agree that she’s the other one to whom the worm metaphor could apply. I’m imagining that if not for being inundated with calls and messages of dismay over the kids having fun at a gaming tournament (rather than studying, I guess), HK might have stayed home in bed, quite happily. She gave justifications for getting out of the house into the rain. She even told AT: “I can’t stand not going anywhere…” When she said it, I thought it was in context of her weekend trips that she just had to leave her home once a week … but later we will see that she actually did not like traveling. I’m not sure if she felt that way still, however perhaps her words were more applicable for that one day when it rained stress from parents and she just had to get out to breathe.
This is so true. I felt that this episode should have had more links to the previous ones and this point is definitely a point of connection. From her interactions with the grumpy grandpa and Writer Koo, she can relate to the attitudes of the seniors and know what the future holds. At the same time, she has to remain relevant, up-to-date and able to communicate with the very young.
So her sitting on the fence over the parent-student battle, was also her being right in the middle in terms of seeing both sides’ point-of-view. She was asked to take sides and was torn. She basically just let it all go any which way it would until her class was winning LOL. Perhaps then she’d have told Ye Jun (if the phone battery had not died) that she might have gone for pizza as long as the kids paid. 😜 😂
(Continued below…)
(Continued…)
About the Art Teacher – for all that he seems to be the mild, unassuming and dismissed character, he offers HK food for thought. His attitude towards the gaming, how he thought it was fun, especially the fact that the kids dared to defy authority (even childishly), gave HK an added perspective that she might not have had, had she remained alone at home. He had challenged her with the question that she’d started with… the thought that adults were not invested in children’s happiness. He had asked “What about you?”
Ha Kyung, he noted, wanted to kill two birds with one stone by spending just 1 day out and the other day home, to be doing something and nothing on her weekend. IE to use another proverb, she wanted to have her cake and eat it LOL.
It was he who pointed out that the other reason besides the rain, that made her decided to remain in Seoul, was that she was worried about the kids. She kind of slightly nodded at that. She was not trying to kill two birds with one stone, but to decide which bird she should support. The AT made it clearer to HK, the decision she had chosen by remaining on the fence, and the winning side that she would choose in the ‘stop-the-gaming’ debacle.
Traveling Light/Letting Go
I was wondering about her traveling so light. She chose not to be burdened with her usual bag for the day. Another subconscious desire to just leave the burdens behind? Not only that, she inadvertently kept losing/letting go of more, until just before she reached home, she phone battery went dead. In effect, without card, umbrella and phone, she was left with nothing except the clothes on her back. And yet, she could still find a stick to help the earthworm. Even with nothing, there was something good that she could do. Perhaps we are challenged to let go of a lot more than we do
She ran home in the rain which perhaps washed away any remaining stress she might have had. She was finally free to really spend the time alone, uninterrupted by messages or calls. Instead of having to entertain company that had been thrust upon her, she spent time with the one she chose, her friend of her imagination, Jin Sol.
Just as she had done in the morning and in the Museum, she sat looking out at the rain, but this time with far different sentiments and somehow, not entirely alone.
The other thing about being a lone duck and having lost our stuff/being alone. In Episode 1, HK had wandered alone in Haenam Temple grounds, gotten a bit lost, and had really got nowhere by herself. All she needed was to meet with someone who would help. In the Museum, she was kind of miserable: wet, hungry and alone, but she was ‘rescued’ by the AT and his students. Going it alone is not always the best alternative, it might be better to meet a friend.
EPISODE 7
Recap of Sorts
This episode is infused with life, movement, tenderness and underscored with both pathos and the joy of bread.
What is bread a frequent symbol of? Bread for life, to feed hunger, a staple food in some places… a food that can generally go with anything, be eaten anywhere and anytime, by anyone… and even a way one might be paid one’s wages? Our daily bread is both food for the body and food for the soul, food to nourish and food for the journey, both physical and spiritual.
This episode, I’m glad to have a cold open to a scene where finally HK is not alone, but is instead having a companionable time eating chestnuts. She’s sitting on some steps with the Art Teacher, who’s also digging into the chestnuts that HK had brought to school. I fancy that if not for their encounter at the Museum on the weekend, this scene would not have happened. They seem to have become better friends.
This hearkens back to the end of Episode 6 and how she’d ended the day alone at home, but yet accompanied by her imagined friend sitting beside her to share her food. While that previous episode’s meal had been silent (possibly with retrospection), here the TA is asking personality test questions (he was interested in a student’s MBTI last episode too).
He figures that HK is not the obsessive type but when she sees students passing by munching on buns she says : “I do have an obsession. … It’s about bread.” She starts to wax lyrical about bread for almost a minute. She shows AT a ‘bread brochure/map’ of Jeju Island.
(To be continued…)
(Continuation…)
We next see HK on her journey pursuing/visiting 12 bakeries in Jeju-do, according to the bread map. She thinks : “Visiting all twelve of them would make today’s trip perfect.”
She gets to speak with the bakers and buy all kinds of bread to bring home. We are given a semi-documentary, semi-reality TV show in this episode, where real bakers are interviewed. We hear some of the history, passion and experiences of several bakers.
HK manages to visit 8 bakeries before she starts retracing her steps to return the way she had traveled thus far, covering the bakeries on (I think) the Eastern side of Jeju. The reason for her detour is her curiosity to follow a grandma, who is stealthily following a little girl from bakery to bakery, in search of a particular ‘snail bread’ that her mother and grandmother like. The girl, Yoo Ra, is so serious in her quest that even her friend’s call to join in their play is turned down.
The cutest part of the trip is how grandma and HK hide whenever Yoo Ra, pauses. HK even uses a baguette as a means to cover her face and hide when Yoo Ra turns around LOL. I suppose the adults want Yoo Ra to feel that she’s trusted to be independent. Yoo Ra seems to know that HK has been watching over her, but she did not seem to notice that her own grandmother had been stalking her all the way.
With the advice of one of the bakeries, the girl, Yoo Ra, locates the rollcake she has been searching for in a bakery, that I believe, did not feature on HK’s bread map. If it had been on the map, HK would have visited it already. YR triumphantly carries it home, almost forgetting it when she fraternises with Mimi, the dog.
(To be continued…)
(Continuation…)
It’s all good when Yoo Ra gets home and proudly announces that she found the snail bread all by herself. It’s a moment filled with both joy and pathos when YR is able to present her bread at her mother’s memorial with great pride.
When interviewed, the Bakers say that people do offer bread for ancestral rites and memorial services. Yoo Ra believes that on her mum’s memorial day, mum would return to eat the offerings. We hear her say : “Mum comes home today. I got her snail bread.” (So moving.)
We see the back of someone walking towards YR’s home, who is likely meant to be the spirit of her mother, So Jeong, but the family outside welcome So Jeong’s friends, who used to dive for oysters with her. They enjoy the long-sought rollcake together.
It was bread in memorial and celebration of a life.
= = =
HK finds that the rollcake is sold out by the time she returns to the bakery, but she tries other buns from the store, and brings home a suitcase full of bread. She says in voiceover : “The trip didn’t turn out as planned but I discovered an excellent bakery.”
She found that when she did not obsessively stick to the bread route but allowed herself to give in to her curiosity, she had been rewarded with an interesting day-trip, and bread that she would not have found, if not for Yoo Ra.
It was bread in celebration of a bread-ful day off. LOL.
I loved the music at the end of episode 6, when the many, many types of bread were being shown. It’s from Mozart’s Magic Fluten opera, when the bird catcher Papageno gets happily reunited with his love interest, Papagena. They talk about how many, many (many!) children they will have. The word for bread in Korean sounds similar to Pa-. (This may well have been used as an advertisement by a bakery?) Sweet!
*Magic Flute* or Die Zauberflöte.
The first version I saw was Ingmar Bergman’s 1975 film.