Just to be contrarian, I’ll begin my reviews on the last episode.
Episode 8 began with a camera shot of a mound of spinach being blanched, no, boiled!! (horrors!) in a pot of water.
It was drained, rinsed, squeezed, and seasoned before being rolled up with other veggies, omelet, and rice into several rolls of mouthwatering gimbap. For a moment I thought I was watching a cooking show, but I like how the hectic activity in the kitchen is pitted against the inertia in the bedroom of the teenaged HaKyung. While her mother busily prepared her food, she lolled in bed. She had to be threatened to get up.
The gimbap was meant to be eaten on the school trip to Gyeongju. But the ungrateful teen pointed out that the food was unnecessary since she and her friend JinSol planned to grab snacks at the rest stop.
On the surface, the whole scene seemed like an ordinary parent-teenager interaction. But the banal details would become meaningful as the story progressed.
I’ll limit myself to discussing a few details. (If you don’t want spoilers, please stop reading now.)
1. JinSol
JinSol, if you remember, was first seen in Episode 6. I suspected back then that she was either dead or imaginary because she materialized out of nowhere. One second, HaKyung was sitting on the couch all alone, then in the next, JinSol was partaking of the kimchee pancake on her plate. Since HaKyung wasn’t startled by her appearance, I assumed that she was a figment of her imagination.
But I did note JinSol’s outfit. She was wearing a drab green cardigan.
Jinsol was next seen in the epilogue of Episode 7. She opened a lunch box full of gimbap.
Mind you, this would be the same gimbap lunch box that HaKyung’s mom was packing in Episode 8 for the girls on their class trip to Gyeongju.
I noted two things in this scene. First, her outfit. She had on the same olive cardigan layered on top of shirts that she wore in Ep 6, but she added leather cross-body purse. Second, and more important, there’s the burial mound behind her. I thought it was ominous.
Then, throughout this Episode 8, I had to keep track of which JinSol I was watching because there were three:
• The high school kid JinSol, who wore the school uniform and went to Gyeongju with HaKyung on a field trip
• The twentysomething JinSol, who wore the cardigan and returned to Gyeongju with HaKyung on a day excursion
• Then the deceased JinSol, who would be memorialized in that cardigan and remained forever in HaKyung’s mind, even on her one day off
In my view, I finally found the origin and source of her wanderlust. It was her friend JinSol. HaKyung didn’t like traveling; she thought it was a bother. But her friend JinSol enjoyed it with exuberance. There were plenty of scenes to show their differences.
I hope viewers won’t miss these:
a. in high school, JS looked eager to join the activities on the bus but HK preferred to listen solo to her music.
Obviously, JS was an extrovert while HK was an introvert. But by traveling solo, HK was able to find a compromise. She could see the world and meet strangers, but she wasn’t pressured to make long-term relationships or connections with the places and people she met.
b. in high school, HK complained about the hassle of traveling but JS believed it did them good.
JinSol: This trip is nice, right? Aren’t the autumn leaves beautiful?
HaKyung: School trips aren’t real trips. (sliding over on the bench so JS could sit beside her)
JinSol: They’re still trips, though.
HaKyung: (sitting closer to JS) Why do you think people travel? It’s such a hassle?
JinSol: So they won’t be glued to work?
HaKyung: But you constantly have to move on trips. You either ride or walk. You catch a ride, arrive somewhere and take off again.
JinSol: Right. That’s so true. (bumping her) I’m sure there’s an upside to it. (smiling)
HaKyung: Are you sure?
JinSol: Yes.
JS was energetic while HK was sedentary. Of course, JS would enjoy the hustle and bustle of an outing more than HK would. But it should be noted here that even back in high school, HaKyung wondered why people traveled.
c. The high schooler JS wanted to be photographed while HK avoided it.
HK didn’t change much. In Episode 1, HK reluctantly posed in front of the Buddha for the writer. And in Episode 1, she felt awkward interrupting a group of hikers taking pictures.
To me, it was a sign of transformation when, at the end of her one day trip in Gyeonju, HaKyung photobombed a group of tourists.
I’ve no doubt that after spending a day wandering with just her memories of JinSol, she learned the importance of capturing in photographs the moments spent with friends before they vanish.
d. The twentysomething JS began skipping/marching as soon as they exited the Bulguksa station. HK copied her.
The grown-up HK remembered JS’ silly way of walking and imagined her doing the same. She was literally taking a trip down memory lane.
e. The gimbap. JS liked it; HK didn’t.
More on this in a little while.
2. GyeongJu
I know that before Seoul became the capital of South Korea, Gyeongju was the capital of the Silla Kingdom from the 7th to the 9th century. It’s so steep in Korean history that it’s been nicknamed the “Museum Without Walls.”
For me, however, GyeongJu became synonymous with death and new beginnings in this episode.
Let me show you how.
a. First, there was the Royal Burial Grounds or the Daereung-won Tumuli Park.
We saw this earlier in Episode 7. As JinSol was eating the gimbap, she was sitting on a park bench with a mound behind her.
That mound is called a barrow or tumulus (plural: tumuli). In Korea, just like in many ancient civilizations, the dead were buried under a large pile of earth. As a matter of practicality, a tumulus protected the dead body from wildlife scavenging for food.
But a tumulus also served like a public cemetery. Several dead bodies could be interred under the same mound and when more dead had to be buried, people simply piled more layers of dirt to the preexisting mound.
Note: this was why HaKyung began wondering out loud about public cemeteries after staring at the burial mount. 🙂 It sounded like she went off-tangent here but her thought process actually made sense.
HaKyung: Where do you think people go if they die in Seoul?
JinSol: Maybe Gyeonggi-do?
HaKyung: Why doesn’t a mega city like Seoul have a public cemetery? You see them in other places. In Berlin, Paris, and Tokyo.
JinSol: Maybe because the land is pricey?
Do you get it? This conversation wasn’t as random as it appeared to be.
In Gyeongju, the tumuli mark the spot where the kings and queens of Korea were buried.
For me, the title of the episode, “Back to Gyeongyu,” has both literal and symbolic interpretations. Sure, HaKyung was revisiting the city where the royal tombs are, but she was also returning to the city to put to rest memories of her deceased friend.
I don’t think it’s coincidental at all that JinSol was pictured sitting in front of a burial mound while eating the gimbap. I thought it alluded to her death. Like the Korean royalties, she had long passed away. Her body had decomposed, and become one with the earth. But she was eating the gimbap because HaKyung had brought her some for her memorial service.
b. Next was the Divine Bell of King Seongdeok or Emile bell.
I checked this. Emile is neither an American nor French name. lol. According to Wikipedia, Emile is the Silla word for “mommy.” Legend has it that the bell wouldn’t make a sound until a child was sacrificed and “cast into the metal” of the bell. I’m taking a wild guess that “casting” meant to throw the child into a vat of hot metal and melt her (or him) as she cried out “Emile! Emile!”
I believe that HaKyung connected the bell to JinSol’s death.
In her memories of their high school trip and the day trip in their 20s, the bell always tolled twice whenever JinSol joined her on “their” bench.
If you rewatch this episode, you’ll hear it here,
here,
and here.
But as her tour guide had explained to them, they stopped ringing the bell in 2003 for preservation. There was no way HaKyung could have heard the bell tolling as she sat on the bench to eat her gimbap lunch.
To me, the sound of the bell was something she associated with JinSol’s arrival. It had to ring again because she was imagining herself in Jinsol’s company.
Moreover, the bell represented some unfinished business between the two of them. They had an argument about that same bell on their last trip.
JinSol wanted to visit the Emile Bell but HaKyung ditched her.
JinSol: (pleading) Why aren’t you coming?
HaKyung: (yelling) Where are you going anyway? Let’s take a break!
JinSol: No. Emile Bell will soon start ringing.
HaKyung: How much longer? I’m tired.
JinSol: Thirty minutes. Twenty minutes. Twenty! Then it’s only Anapji Pond after. Hurry up.
HaKyung: You know I hate hopping around to all the tourist spots!
JinSol: But this is our last chance to hear the bell! Let’s hurry, okay?
HaKyung: No I won’t! (turning around)
JinSol: Where are you going?
HaKyung: Somewhere without you.
Ouch.
I can imagine this whole conversation replaying in HaKyung’s head as she listened to her tour guide say that the bell had stopped ringing. And I can imagine her regrets. If only she pushed herself harder… If only she had given in to JinSol’s request…. If only she heard the Emile bell with JinSol…. If only she wasn’t so mean-tempered…. If only she could take back what she said about wanting to go without her….
HaKyung had to live with the regret of knowing that she abandoned her friend and that moment to atone was gone forever. I highly suspect that she never got to meet JinSol again, and this trip to Gyeongju was their final encounter. That’s the only explanation I can come up with for JinSol always wearing the same clothes in HaKyung’s memories, and the bell always tolling when she thought of Gyeongju.
It’s not surprising to me that she also heard the bell toll twice while she and JinSol were saying goodbye at the Woljeonggyo Bridge. It signaled the closure she was searching for in this trip.
c. Lastly, the Woljeonggyo Bridge.
HaKyung said she never got to say goodbye to JinSol.
JinSol: I have a question.
HaKyung: About what?
JinSol: When you heard that I died, how did you feel?
HaKyungl: I cried. Then I laughed.
JinSol: What?
HaKyung: First came a flood of tears. I was crouched over and weeping when memories of our first trip occurred to me.
She meant their first driving trip when they got lost. She recalled the horror of being in the middle of nowhere, and in the dark no less, and the comedy of scaring each other silly.
HaKyung: When I heard that you had died, our trip came to mind. All those memories came rushing back…(chuckling) and I found myself laughing. Maybe I wanted to bid a good farewell. “You brightened up my life.” I wanted to thank you like that.
I believe she finally got her wish when she went to the Woljeonggyo bridge with the imaginary/deceased JinSol. Bridges have always been viewed as a metaphor for crossing over from life to death. And here she was walking on the bridge to bid farewell to her friend.
They were walking side by side in comfortable silence when she stopped. She knew it was time to end her imaginary conversation with her deceased friend, that it was time to let go.
HaKyung: (with a sad face) See you again.
JinSol: (turning back to smile at her) Whenever we say our goodbyes, I like how you say, “See you again!”
HaKyung: See you again.
JinSol: Mmm. See you again.
As HaKyung watched her walk away, the Emile bell tolled. She was momentarily distracted by a group of children passing by with their lit lanterns.
The bell tolled for the second time. When she looked back, she saw that JinSol was gone.
The bridge was a fitting place for goodbyes. But I thought the procession of children with their lanterns added a nice touch. You see, there’s a tradition of floating lanterns on rivers to honor those who have died. The sight of the children gliding by with their lanterns reminded me of those floating lanterns. They appeared to be sending off JinSol’s spirit to the afterworld.
To sum up, that’s how I linked the famous sites of GyeongJu to death of JinSol and new beginnings. I like that the city wasn’t merely used as a backdrop. It also informed the audience (e.g., foreshadowing JinSol’s death), shaped consciousness of the characters (e.g., the Emile Bell), and drove the plot (e.g., return to GyeongJu to say goodbye and begin again). I wish I had more time to dwell into the sites featured not only in this episode but in the other seven episodes as well.
3. Next, the gimbap.
I like how an inconsequential thing such as a gimbap emerged as a focal point in this episode.
In the beginning, the mother was seen making the wholesome gimbap for HaKyung’s school trip to Gyeongju. HaKyung didn’t like the gimbap, preferring to eat snacks on the way. The gimbap was next brought up when she and JinSol returned to Gyeongju. This time they were no longer teenagers; they were in their 20s. Yet JinSol had a craving for her mom’s gimbap.
JinSol: (out of the blue) Aahh. I want a taste.
HaKyung: (confused)
JinSol: That gimbap your mom made for the school trip.
HaKyung: Ah….
JinSol: She used spinach, not cucumber.
HaKyung: Alright.
JinSol: Spinach!
HaKyung: Yes, I remember.
JinSol: (with aegyo) Make me some!
HaKyung: Me?!
JinSol: Yes.
HaKyung: I don’t want to!
JinSol: Why not? Learn to make it for me.
HaKyung: I don’t want to bother.
On her solo return to Gyeongju, she took the trouble to pack this gimbap. With spinach, not cucumber, just the way JinSol liked it. She imagined JinSol happily munching on it.
JinSol: Did you make this yourself?
HaKyung: Yes, I made it. It’s gimbap with spinach, not cucumber.
JinSol: (bleating like a goat)
HanKyung: (offering her a drink from her thermos)
JinSol: Thank you. It tastes good.
I think she had a real purpose for bringing gimbap on this trip. It was her offering for her private memorial service for JinSol.
She was inspired by the little girl she met in Jejudo in the previous episode. The child searched high and low for the rolls to offer her deceased mother because she remembered her mom liked it. Similarly, HaKyung made the gimbap because she knew JinSol liked it.
She never got to say goodbye to JinSol, and this was her low-key memorial service to say goodbye and thank you. Hence, she left the gimbap on “their” bench in front of the burial mount.
So, from being a food that no teenager thought was cool to eat, the lowly gimbap became soul food for the dead and lonely.
4. Her reason for traveling
In Episode 1, we were teased with HaKyung’s reason for traveling. She proposed two reasons, “Was it indeed madness that fueled these trips? Or was it the dread of losing their minds in life that made them leave?” She then clarified it, stating her personal reason, “When longing to disappear, I take one-day trips. I walk, eat, and let my mind wander.”
But after following her travelogue for these episodes, I’m left with the impression that she traveled for positive affirmation.
In her own words, at the end of Episode 8:
I still believe that traveling is a fool’s paradise. It’s not all that fun or meaningful. After wandering without a purpose, there are only fleeting moments of clarity. But that’s what makes it fun. So if you feel like disappearing, take yourself out. If you’re all alone, in a strange place, and don’t feel brave enough, then make it last just one day. If you can walk, eat, and let your mind wander, you’d be fine anywhere.
In other words, she was looking for that “New York” state of mind: if you can make it out there, you can make it anywhere.
She traveled to give herself confidence and reassurance that she didn’t need to disappear in the first place when life got tough. She could deal with anything just fine. The irony is not lost upon me that she was traveling to prove that she could stay put.
Okay. That’s it for me. This has been too long already.
Thanks @pkml3! Lovely! The series sounds so well wrapped the way you put it. Yes, it becomes apparent as we go into more episodes, that there is a set up in earlier episodes to explain Ha Kyung’s decisions later.
I felt also that in getting the closure with Jin Sol, Ha Kyung needed to do what the Yoga Master lady had advised in Episode 1. “Resolve. Acknowledge. Forgive.” She also needed to say “I’m sorry, and I thank you” to Jin Sol.
When in Ep 1 she visited the temple in Haenam, the Yoga Master accosted her just where the big temple bell there hung. She obediently repeated what the Yoga Master told her to say and then looked at the bell. We are not privy to why her first trip brought her to the temple in Haenam. It was such a long trip from Seoul (I looked it up as 3 hours 40 minutes by train, 5 hours 14 minutes by bus).
After watching Episode 8, I wondered if that first trip was because she recalled her last, ‘almost’ trip to see the Emile bell at the other temple, with Jin Sol. She was not yet ready to visit Gyeongju, but she told the novelist that she just came to see the temple in Haenam. It might have been her first tentative step in the direction of the other bell that she never got to visit with Jin Sol.
She needed to resolve to bring closure to how she and Jin Sol had left off at that last trip. She needed to acknowledge that she’d messed up with the only friend she seems to have bothered to have in high school. Her adult life seems so solitary. She needed to forgive herself for being so self-centred and mean. Those words where she wanted to go where Jin Sol was not, were very hurtful words indeed, and if they really were her last words to her friend, her regret would have been profound. She definitely needed to forgive herself, to apologise to Jin Sol, and to thank her for being friends with the grouchy HK.
It did occur to me too that the abandonment of Jin Sol was their last meeting, because each time she imagined her, Jin Sol was dressed the same. It was probably her last memory of Jin Sol.
I am of the opinion that HK started her trips without being entirely sure what she wanted out of them. She disliked leaving home but she also knew that the way she was 5 days a week at work was not exactly fulfilling, although that had been what she was comfortable with. However without acknowledging it, she had at the back of her mind the memory of Jin Sol and how she had loved traveling. I agree that it was probably Jin Sol’s love for traveling that got HK to force herself out of her comfort zone, to try it for herself.
She couldn’t muster the energy that Jin Sol had to move from one place to another to complete an itinerary, so she compromised and chose just one place a day. In the end she gained much more than expected, for eg. The Dancing Kangaroo book and a chance to meet with its author whom she fan-girled over, plus more insight into being a better teacher, a better daughter, etc. It was very low-key and yet profound, that the normally stoic, stay-at-home HK could say of every trip, that it had been fun.
@GB, this Episode 8 reminded me of the premise of that Cdrama “Meet Yourself.” The female lead quit her job and began traveling to heed her BF’s dying wish for her to eat, love, and enjoy life. I liked the gentleness of that drama. It was comforting to watch while I was busy traveling (for work!) that month.
Yes, her adult life is rather solitary. I guess some people can live like that but I want to be surrounded by FAMILY when I die.
Interesting that you should mention Meet Yourself, because thoughts of that show went through my mind when I considered that it might have been Jin Sol who inspired the traveling. The difference was that in Meet Yourself the FL went to and stayed in just the one place that her friend had wanted to go to but couldn’t, whereas in this show, HK retains her job and keeps her home base, while she makes forays to different parts of SKorea.
I was actually glad that this series had no real romance… just a meta of a romance LOL.
Thank you, @packmule3 and @Growing Beautifully. With the meta romance, with the abrupt disappearance and multiple meetings, do you think it was all in HK’s mind, sparked by the tarot card?
nb, I haven’t watched beyond episode 3 as yet, but I’m guessing we don’t see him again.
@Fern, I’ll respond to your Episode 3 comments on the Open Thread. 🙂
Dear @GB, @PkMl3 and @Fern, it was a beautiful Drama.
I guessed that Jin Sol was dear in the episode that she was introduced. It was the cozyness and lack of surprise by Ha Kyung on one hand, but her character was whimsical and was not introduced nor talked. Also Jin Sol had a very peculiar luminiscense.
Loved small details like how when they are speaking in the forest the camera focus one or other, giving an effect that is called “bokeh” in photography. Also Jin Sol is almost white in the present day.
Loved also the Emile Bell analogy. What was common back then (hearing the bell) became an impossibility in the present, time does not turn back. Nor does her dear friend.
A thing that is hard to accept in adult life is that we start piling up the passings of our loved ones. We simply outlive them as we grow older and become living mortuory tablets.
I don’t know if I am articulating my ideas properly. This is a song about this feeling by Kate Bush in her album “The Red Shoes”. It is called “Moments of Pleasure”. Please be aware that she took an Operatic concept with the whole album, which tells a story:
I will have to pause my other tasks and finish this drama. Episode 8 sounds intriguing. Having episode 7 end with a memorial would seem to set it up.
EPISODE 8 – BACK TO GYEONGJU
Hi @FGB, thanks for the link to the Kate Bush video. I had to look it up a bit more to catch the lyrics. Here’s a site that gives us a link both to the lyrics and to the artist. It mentions what she says about the song as well. So poignant to know that she sang to and of her friends who had passed away.
https://www.songfacts.com/facts/kate-bush/moments-of-pleasure
‘(Kate Bush) explained in a fan club letter: “I feel my dearest memories have been spent with people I love, those things that still make me laugh, the people that have touched me. The song is saying thanks to those friends of mine who were fun to be with, some of whom aren’t alive any more – though they are still alive in my memories.” ‘
Yes, there’s something of the same sentiment in Episode 8. HK cried and laughed when she heard that Jin Sol had died. There were happy memories that came along even with the sad news. Jin Sol remains alive in her memories. She says to her friend that she’d see her again, and I don’t think she meant that to be only when she herself died, but whenever she remembered her.
Yes, the bell ringing that was once a common occurrence, rang twice each time Jin Sol was to appear or disappear. But it could not have rung in Gyeongju since it had been retired to be preserved. In the same way Jin Sol was not really present, except preserved in memory. HK could not bring her friend back but she could resolve her possibly unhappy last farewell with the Jin Sol living in her memories.
HK thinks back to their scary road trip: “We left to escape our harsh reality, but it seemed like a dead end.” A comment that making trips do not really help us escape reality. Perhaps in the first Episode, Unshackling the Mind, that was what drove HK to the Haenam Temple. She wanted to escape from her tedious reality and sought peace at the temple. It also reminded her of Gyeongju temple where she’d abandoned her friend without listening to the Emile Bell.
I looked back at Episode 1 and thought that because of the words the Yoga master said, she would apologise to Jin Sol, but she didn’t in words. At or by the time she went to Gyeongju, she had done what the Yoga Master had advised in Episode 1 when they had been standing next to the Haenam temple bell: ‘Resolve’. ‘Acknowledge.’ ‘Forgive.’
The yoga master had also told her to repeat in a happy tone: “I’m sorry, and I thank you.” She had indeed thanked Jin Sol and said she appreciated her, however perhaps her apology was given in the gimbap she made (with spinach, not cucumber which was ‘such a bother’ to HK) and left for her friend, and in the trouble that she took to make the trip to Gyeongju to do all the things that Jin Sol had wanted to do with her. All those things had been a hassle to her when Jin Sol was alive but she did them willingly now to resolve, acknowledge and forgive herself and how their friendship had stalled.
I guess it was the memory of Jin Sol and how HK had failed her in Gyeongju that may have first started her off on a compromise of a 1-day trip to just 1 place. It’s likely HK didn’t like moving from place to place still. For us, it seemed that the first 1-day trip with a still troubled HK, began at Haenam.
I liked how in this Gyeongju trip, she didn’t say goodbye but ‘See you again,’ the way JS liked to hear her say it … what a total contrast to how she’d left in the past when she peddled off to go somewhere without Jin Sol. Making up for this, HK would be bringing her friend with her in memory, wherever she chose to go.
Dear @GB, thanks for this recommendation. It has been a beautiful ride.
A thing I loved the most about this show is that it was a celebration of all the relationships and encounters in our lives. The people that made us think (sometimes even rethink) what do we know, who we are and were are we going to. A series full of lessons available to people that – like the lady going through a vow of silence in episode 1 – develop enough sensitivity and sense to see them.
What I loved was that the script was SO good that the end revelation in episode 8 about how Ha Kyung got into her one day trips enhances the enjoyment and deepens the journey that we have experienced with our high school teacher.
Personally I did the 10 days of Vipassana meditation and believe me, I am grateful that I did it when I did it, but it was a Hellish experience: silence vow for 10 days and meditating around 12 hours a day was a marathon. It took a big toll on me. I wouldn’t change anything in hindsight – as I said I am grateful for it and would recommend it – but I don’t know if I would survive a second round.
From my experience, she starts her journey in Hell in episode 1, confronting herself despite the peaceful appearance.
So for me, even if Ha Kyung’s journey starts in a Buddhist Temple, her monkey mind (always wanting to trump the stone pagodas) makes everything more difficult than it should. She knows it and goes through the toughest step first. Her internal inquiries mirrored by the curiosity of the writer, the chatty lady mirrors her mental roadblocks (monkey mind), the Yoga teacher her resolution of making all her efforts worthwhile, the silent lady mirrors the sensitivity she should develop and showing her a glimpse of the beauty after all that painful process she was about to embark herself into.
@GB, you have been a wonderful companion and advisor in this series. Do you have another recommendation?, of course other Friends can chime in as they please.
HA KYUNG’S JOURNEY OF GROWTH
On the school field trip, HK asked JS : “Why do you think people travel? Is is such a hassle.”
JS : “So they won’t be glued to work?” (It was possible that in Episode 1, this was the situation HK found herself in. She had been glued to work. She was not excited about anything. Nothing was new. She taught (as @Fern mentions) like an automaton.
HK refuses to join the group photo. Jin Sol calls her to come back and the other classmates join in calling her too. In the present adult HK turns around as if she heard them behind her. She’s at the same site at Gyeongju, and her style of dressing in socks and shoes, with a checkered skirt is reminiscent of her school uniform way back some 20 odd years in the past. She really was making a trip down memory lane, not like the last trip that she made with Jin Sol in 2003, but like the school trip when she had gimbap.
In 2003 JS and HK note that it’s exactly like their school field trip except that they are older. JS can’t believe that time has gone so fast, feeling that it goes faster with age.
HK : “Do you think it actually speeds up?”…”When taking off somewhere, it seems like forever. But it feels a lot shorter on our way home. Is that just in our heads? Or do time and space really change?”
JS tells of a movie she re-watched but a scene she remembers was missing from it. She didn’t think that she’d mixed up the movies.
JS : “No, I remember the setting and the actors clearly.” They decide that it’s fascinating how memory works.
We are aware that in 2023, these memories are playing out only in HK’s mind, so that JS’s thoughts are HK’s thoughts. HK too was probably remembering more than was there in past reality.
In 2023, imagined JS comes to the bench and takes the gimbap from HK’s hand to eat while the imagine bell rings. HK reports to JS that she made the gimbap herself with spinach, not cucumber. Unlike in the past when she couldn’t simply say that she was fine, she can now frankly say that she’s doing good.
HK speaks of her past self : “We set the bar quite high for ‘doing well.’ ”
JS : “Yes, I know. But with nothing much going on, you’re sure to be doing well.”
HK : “So I say it frankly nowadays.”
HK of the past was quite a negative person. She griped at her mother, griped at JS, wouldn’t join in photos, wouldn’t cooperate with others, and could not say something positive easily.
In parallel with her Haenam trip where HK had followed the silent Jung Ah, enjoyed the smells, textures and sights of nature, on this Gyeongju trip HK leads the way with JS, picking up twigs, sitting at different spots to enjoy the scenery, to listen to her new trendy music and the sunset. In effect imagined JS is silent because it’s HK who puts the words into her mouth.
(To be continued …)
(Continuing …)
Remembering how HK had shouted that she was tired on their last trip, JS asks HK if she’s tired. HK says no as they make their way through some undergrowth.
JS : “When I look back to our days, you weren’t that excited to wander about. But you have changed a lot.” JS disappears briefly. This is possibly a sign that HK has temporarily put aside her thought of JS as she considers how she has changed.
We next see JS sitting with HK on a big rock.
JS : “Did you think about me?”
HK : “Yes, I’ve missed you. Well, not exactly miss you, but I got bored without you. There wasn’t anyone to hang out with.”
JS is staring at her : “You only think about yourself.”
HK : “Is that right?”…”As kids, friends were just there. We didn’t have to search for them.”
JS : “Right, they were always at school. So you considered them as your friends.”
HK : “Trying to make new friends feels like a challenge now. I can’t just shoot the breeze or laugh my head off anymore.” (At least she has the Art Teacher to hang out with from time to time.)
JS : “Tell me about it. It’s harder to make friends as you get older.”
HK : “Can’t someone make an effort to create AI friends?”
JS : ‘But there could be one already. Then you could select a character you’d like as a friend.”
HK : “Sounds good. How will you set up yours? What kind of character?”
JS : “Someone like me.”
HK : “Yourself? That answer does not sound like you.”
JS : “Why? It would be fun talking to myself.” (The irony is not lost on us that HK is doing precisely that now, with her imagined JS.)
HK notes : “It seems you really love yourself.” Everything that HK says and puts in JS’s mouth, she is saying about herself as well. They both laugh at that. HK admits that she only thinks about herself and loves herself. HK finds that she is disposed to be happy even on her own, without new friends.
(To be continued …)
(Continuing …)
At the end of the day HK tells JS : “‘You brightened up my life.’ I wanted to thank you like that. I can’t believe you made me feel that way. ‘Look, Lee Jin Sol, you’ve lived well.’ That’s what I wanted to say.”
JS : “Why was life so hard back then?”
HK : “Tell me about it.” “I wish to go back and tell us this. ‘Come on, it’s all right.’ ” (The wisdom of age if we could only advise our younger selves.)
JS : “I don’t think so. What does alright mean?”
HK : “I mean, it’s not about getting better. The next stage just comes. Then comes another stage. …” There were many stages that would follow and keep coming. (In her growing wisdom she has grasped that there is no actual fixed standard whose conditions would have to be met before one could say that they are doing good. There can always be progress.)
JS : “Park Ha Kyung, you’re all grown-up.” (This comment brings to my mind that HK made her trips looking for growth as well as closure.)
HK : “It’s too hard to be a grown-up.”
JS : “Then are you a kid?”
HK : “I’m neither.”
JS : “Then when will you grow up?”
HK : “I’m not growing up, but aging.” “You want to know something? When younger, I didn’t want to bother with anything. But now life is more interesting. I’m amazed by everything.” JS approves.
HK : “Even when my hair goes gray, I’ll groove to the once trendy songs and keep going.”
When HK thinks how she’d have liked to have met Jin Sol as a grandma, JS disappears again, because HK returns to the present and thinks how she misses her. However JS is with her again on the Wolgeonggyo bridge where they part.
HK stops and lets JS walk away. This time she did not abandon her friend but lets her leave.
HK : “See you again.”
JS turns : “Whenever we say our goodbyes, I like how you say that.”
HK repeats : “See you again.”
JS : “Ya, see you.” The bell sounds twice as she disappears.
HK returns to the bench where she’d left the gimbap. She eats and thinks : “My time with Jin Sol made no difference. It’s wasn’t all that fun or meaningful. All we did was shoot the breeze and loaf around. But that’s what made it fun.” She eats her gimbap both tearfully, then with a smile (just like how she’d cried and laughed to hear that JS had died).
The negative HK had grown into a positive thinking adult, but she had remained quite true to herself of old. Although she photo-bombs some tourists with a smile instead of trying to avoid them, she still retains the same thoughts.
HK’s voiceover : “I still believe that traveling is a fool’s paradise. It’s not all that fun or meaningful. After wandering without a purpose, there are only fleeting moments of clarity. But that’s what makes it fun.”
HK had come to accept that she did not need to measure how well she was doing by any one fixed standard, but that taking life’s stages as they came while enjoying the new trendy music, even with just herself for company, was good in itself. Perhaps she no longer even felt like disappearing, but could still take herself out to walk, eat, let her mind wander and be fine anywhere.
My dear @FGB, thank you for your kind words. You, too, make a lovely companion on our drama travels. I feel that your words are like this show and like Jin Sol, they add a quality of the whimsical and the luminescent to our down-to-earth thoughts and analyses. As you say, ‘It’s always a pleasure reading you’.
As for recommendations… I return to the jdorama which aired last year, ‘Silent (2022)’. A thoughtful, poignant piece, full of emotion, about communication regardless of whether one can hear or speak.
I’m still trying to finish up what I started to comment on for that show. 🙂
Thank you, everyone for the comments and analyses.
I felt that when Ha Kyung said that she was neither a grown-up nor a kid, that reflected back on her stance as a teacher. She avoided taking the ‘adult’ side when her students wanted her support in the e-gaming dispute.
HK takes the side of youth when episode 4’s old man, in attack mode said, “The likes of you don’t even marry or have kids.” (Ouch. Hitting below the belt.)
HK replied, “That seems irrelevant to this.”
The man said, “You know I’m right. Are you married or do you have any kids?”
HK: “No.” (I wonder why she didn’t say she was a teacher and was responsible for quantities of children?)
Old man: “How could you be that selfish? Aren’t you worried about this country?” And he went on to mention the aging population in Japan and that Korea would be in the same state. He asked her if she thinks she won’t get old. HK’s face when he says that shows that she is well aware that she is getting older. (The grey hair!) His parting shot, that she is too tall, is reflected in episode 8, when young adult Jin Sol keeps leaping up as the shutter clicks to be photographed at the same height as HK.
Jin Sol in episode 8 also said that HK only thinks about herself. HK’s friendship with Jin Sol was self-centred. She is an introvert and Jin Sol just seemed to ‘be there’ and was amusing. But she was grateful to Jin Sol and told Jin Sol that she had lived a good life, that she both cried and laughed when hearing that she died.
In a way, not being married or having children could be seen as self-centred, but it might allow HK to waver between childhood and adulthood and to not lose sight of both sides of the story. Jin Sol seems confident that she will see HK as a cool, grey-haired grandmother. HK is admittedly more interested and amazed by life now, so nothing is impossible. Of course, being a ‘grandmother’ may simply mean being an old lady – not necessarily marriage, children and grandchildren.
Some commenters on this drama said that they wouldn’t mind a second series or a similarly thoughtful series with a different main character. I am also curious about what comes next for lone duck Ha Kyung, but the story formed a circle, or perhaps a spiral because of her growth and change over time.
There were many points that resounded with me; I liked to travel alone when I was single and I was single for a LONG time. Travel forces an introvert to interact with strangers. HK states, it’s harder to make friends when you are older and the situation of being a student in a classroom of peers is no longer there to force friendly interactions. I am pleased with the art teacher character. He invades HK’s space, but not with the energy and drama of Jin Sol. As a friend, he seems just about right…
Such a good series.
Thanks for the recommendation @GB!!!, will check it out 😉 .
One of the most beautiful pieces of literature I have ever put my eyes upon was “The Tale of Genji” by Lady Murasaki Shikibu, written back at at the first decade of the 11th century in Heian Japan. The book has two protagonist, being the first one a luminous prince that regrettably can’t become Emperor due to his birth to a lower (but much beloved) concubine.
The chapter were Prince Genji dies is called “Lost in Clouds”, and is a simple, luminously blank sheet of paper. The infinite possibilities present in a piece of paper, yet chosen to express silence in the most eloquent manner.
Emptiness.
That speaks volumes.
Just like this Drama that has that Buddhist quality. I haven’t been as smitten with a Drama since I finished “Okaeri, Mone” at the beginning of this year.
Dear @Fern, for me Ha Kyung telling Jin Sol that she lived well was in fact telling her that he loved her and appreciated her even if she didn’t say it outloud.
Or even acted that way 🙂
When Jin Sol died she cried not only because her best friend was gone, but also because all the things she did not share with her. A lovely person suddenly became an echo only available in photographs and recordings, not unlike the Emile Bell that we hear as a recording given that the actual one became silent long ago.
An impossibility begetting more impossibilities.
A Matrioshka of times that belong to the imaginary.
BTW @GB: the “Silent” series you recommend is from 2022, has 11 episodes and the Female Lead is Kawaguchi Haruna?, this is the “MyDramaList” page:
https://mydramalist.com/736575-silent
If it is so, will start tonight.
@FGB4877,
The Emile bell is a perfect metaphor of HaKyung’s deceased friend. Both have long been silenced; their sounds disappeared.
But HaKyung can still hear their echoes and imagine their presence.
She alone heard the bell. The other tourist didn’t. She alone strolled the park with Jin Sol. Jin Sol is dead.
A sense of guilt and regret also taint her memories of the Emile bell and Jin Sol. She didn’t want to visit the site with Jin Sol who said, almost prophetically, that it would be their “last chance” to hear it ring.
I’m reminded of that John Donne poem.
No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thine own
Or of thine friend’s were.
Each man’s death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.
I thought this episode was brilliant in its exposition of death. It wasn’t mawkish and sentimental. It was a memorial.
The destination was a “museum without walls” — and what is a museum but a repository of dead things.
The train station was indefinitely closed. It was no longer in service. Walking through it just resurrected dead memories.
The tumuli park she was touring was a burial ground of dead royalties. Again, walking around it, she resurrected her memories of their high school field trip.
The bell was dead.
The food she brought, the gimbap, was her food offering for her friend’s memorial — just like the roll cake in the previous episode.
Her goodbye at the bridge was the farewell and closure she didn’t have with her friend.
@FGB4877 and @packmule3, yes the last episode was about that long delayed expression of love and appreciation, and closure. I’m so glad it wasn’t mawkish as you say, @pm3.
I am grateful for the posts on this drama. I can understand why Lee Na-young said in an interview that she was very moved by the people and the stories in this drama. She did a great job.
Dear @PkMl3, I have been writing little by little a tale about how life is here. All these metaphors help me.
This series has been a discovery. The writing has been so on point that every detail we learn through our journey in Ha Kyung’s shoes only enhances and makes more whole the experience. The little things that randomly appear becomes a prelude for what is to come, for example Jin Sol’s whimsical appearance in Episode 6. Works of Art like these are the reasons why I watch Dramas, but works regrettably they are rare.
About a month ago my eldest sister came to visit with my niece. The little one didn’t believe that my sister had been a child like she is now and was really curious, so my sister pulled out an album about vacations we spent in Maracaibo City where my late father was from. My niece is a carbon copy of my sister at that age, so imagine her surprise when she saw a photo of her being carried by the great-grandmother that died eight years before she was born!, she just say “Hey that’s me!!!”. It made me chuckle but also made me think about what memory is, not unlike the conversation that both the real and imaginary friends had about the missing scene in the movie. I think I will include these in my tale (hope all of you don’t mind).
And yes, when you watch the end of the series you get that not unlike Dante Alighieri, Ha Kyung has been going through a journey from the pits of Hell (Episode 1 – Meditation is HARD and tolling) to the Heaven of Forgiveness. She had to make the travel through Hell an Purgatory alone with no Virgil, but at the end she got the comforting presence of a good old friend.
In the meantime she has encountered people that has constructed her (her cartoonist and the lady with a silence vow), people that tried to distract her (the pseudo-lover in episode 3), people that seemingly serves no purpose (the chatty lady in episode 1… that is until you watch her cry and get that she is dealing with her own unspoken burden) and even faced some demons like the elder man (at the end we discover he just is a noble person that cannot help but worry). Her sense of mortality has been piqued by the dead of her friend – we all have that friend that is the first one to die and shows us that death is also a tangible possibility for us – in a date unknown, so she had to look for her own answers. Hence she travels.
This is a celebration of all the encounters, both deep, long-lasting, casual and sometimes superficial, that makes us human. No man is an Island as you said, because we make each other through our interactions 😀 .
@FGB4877, a voyage through trials (pits of hell) — I hadn’t quite looked at it that way, but it suits the story very well. The heroine has to experience each encounter in order to learn and grow into enlightenment, as it were.
It’s odd; I read several reviews of this drama and even reviewers I admire haven’t found its depth as the commentators here have. They make it seem cute and quirky, which it is at first glance, but it’s so much more.
@Fern, that is why I love this community 😉
And yes, Ha Kyung has been very brave to hold such a harsh mirror to herself. I am aware about how she goes from Hell in an ascending spiral in every travel… but that is only because I did 10 days of Vipassana and I am very aware of how incredibly hard and tolling it can be. Someone that haven’t endured the same experience would think it was a soft experience, almost akin to a day in a Spa.
That said, even if I would tremble about doing a rematch with myself I still it was an incredibly positive experience and one I can recommend.
Here you have lots and lots of life experience in everyone of the Forumites. By avoiding being in the shallow island and focusing in the core themes we co-construct a different experience.