I’ll step in and answer @HK_Lady’s questions for @nrlllee here. – pm3
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HK_Lady asks:
@NRLLEE – Yes, I finished it and the ending was questionable. Not sure if NJ and HS met again after she finished her reincarnation in her deathbed in the hospital. It seemed like they did. IDK. Maybe i need to rewatch that part haha.
but yes, this show made me cry so match, too, @PM3. It just gave me a whole picture of how their lives are so intertwined (past and present and future lives). so crazy. The mystery was finally cleared, but why did NJ decide not to reincarnate with HS?
My answer:
The story is resolved with a happy reunion of our couple after she was reborn, lived to a ripe old age, and died surrounded by her family. At her death, Nakjoon instantly appeared by her side to welcome her home. He looked like an angel in white because Haesook had once claimed that she was frightened by the appearance of the grim reaper. This tells us that she’s destined for heaven again.
I must say that this is the quickest time-jump that I’ve seen in kdramas. She seemed to have just walked through the gates of reincarnation, then, before we knew it, she was lying on a hospital bed. Her doctor walked in, announced that “it’s time” to her family, and led them out of the room.
I can’t help comparing her death this time around to her death in the beginning of the kdrama. Back in Episode 1, she died in a park while tutoring her foster child YeongAe how to dodge dirty water from hostile debtors. Nobody went to her wake, right?
This time, she died peacefully in a well-appointed room that looked like one of those executive medical suites in “Hospital Playlist.” (lol! I knew that kdrama was good for something!) More importantly, her family was gathered at her deathbed. She had children, grandchildren and even a great-grandchild by her side. She was loved by many and I’m sure she’d be missed.
I must note, however, that an elderly husband was missing by her side. How convenient, right? The absence allowed us to imagine that her husband in this lifetime was insignificant and no rival to her true love, Nakjoon.
As for Nakjoon’s reason for not reincarnating, @HK_Lady, he opted to stay behind – or as the President of Heaven called it – to live in a state of “spiritual maturation” for Haesook’s sake. It was the President who proposed this alternative to reincarnation to give Haesook a break from her hard lives.
If you remember, when the President showed Nakjoon that iPad with the file record of his past lives, he discovered that he had lived through 23 reincarnations with HaeSook as his wife, and ALL of them had been a struggle for HaeSook BECAUSE OF HIM.
Sure…perhaps NOT ALL 22 of their past lives were as burdensome as their last life together (when he was confined in bed for most of their married years). But he learned that HIS ATTACHMENT to Haesook had bound her to a never-ending cycle of misery. She couldn’t escape a life of hardship because with each new rebirth, he saddled her with his regrets and guilty feelings left over from the previous lifetime.
In other words, she kept getting reborn with him, crossing paths on earth, falling in love all over again, marrying each other, struggling in marriage, dying, meeting in heaven, then vowing to be reincarnated together.
Thus, in a saving act of nobility, Nakjoon decided to let her go so she could finally get a taste of earthly happiness. Of course, that meant living without each other for a lifetime.
That’s why Nakjoon disappeared in the garden. Later, he would appear, waiting in front of their home by the lake, sitting on a rocking chair. He was self-reflecting for “spiritual maturation.”
And his self-reflection taught him some home truths.
NJ: Heaven without you means nothing to me. I finally get it now. All those days we spent together weren’t spent in Hell, but in happiness. If it’s possible to return to those times, I’d be more than willing. I’d go straight back to that life with you. It was more beautiful than heaven.
So, it’s a heavenly reunion when Haesook wakes up after her 24th death. She recognizes him instantly. And she asks if she did well on her own, even without him by her side.
HS: How…how did I do, honey?
NJ: You did really good. My love, you were great. In this life, too.
Meaning, that in all their past lives, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, Haesook has been a loving, heaven-sent wife.
In reply, Haesook says that she doesn’t think she can do it over again without him.
HS: I don’t think that I know how I could ever continue going on without you.
NJ: I feel the same way.
🙂 That’s the central message of this kdrama, @HK_Lady. Like Nakjoon and Haesook, we can endure lifetimes of hellish suffering as long as we’re together with our loved ones.
After all, heaven is where our beloved is.
Endnotes:
1. As for the young couple who seem to recognize each other and run to meet at the intersection, I don’t think they’re another reincarnation of Nakjoon and Haesook. To me, they’re just another couple who are fated to meet and love again like Nakjoon and Haesook.
2. Don’t forget to watch until the very end of this episode. The epilogue shows a televised interview of Haesook. She’s asked what she wants to do after her reincarnation and she answers – with that mischievous glint in her eyes — that she wants to be an actress. Meta!
3. This kdrama is tearjerkingly good but it exposes the problems of reincarnation and some reasons I reject it.
Overall, I thought the kdrama wrapped up fine.
@PM3 ~
Thank you so much for answering all my questions and more. Wow. You are amazing. You hit the answers right on. I appreciate the clarification and in depth analysis. I do need to see that part again so I can notice everything that you mentioned. I get it now. That even though NJ let HS let go for one lifetime, it just doesn’t compare to doing life together. Isn’t it weird though (with reincarnation) that NJ was a husband but also a father to her. who knows what else, right? they didn’t show but he could have been his brother, uncle or friend, cousin even? with all that reincarnation.
It also made sense to me now why Somi was always wearing the same clothes even though everyone else had change of clothes and fashion like for YA and actually, i really like how they dressed HS in heaven. and yes, i did watch to that end whens HS answered she wanted to be an actress haha. Meta indeed.
Again, *gumawo* PM3
@HK_Lady,
No, they were always husband-and-wife in their previous reincarnations. They were married 23 times already and each time, it had been a rough life for Haesook.
Once when they were alive, Nakjoon speculated that he must have been her father in a previous life, because he loved her unconditionally (like parents do).
Then, on their way to reincarnation, while getting a piggyback ride, Haesook wondered if it would finally happen in their next life — that they’d be reborn as father and daughter.
And that broke Nakjoon’s heart — because he knew that they would be reincarnated as husband and wife again for the 24th time. There was no escaping marriage. Remember what the President said when he spoke to him about considering spiritual maturation instead of reincarnation?
Nakjoon: I owe Haesook absolutely everything, soooo I wish I could repay her in some way, but…tsk…but I’m not quite sure how to do that.
President: Since Ms. Lee has also earned the right of rebirth, I’m sure you’ll meet again in this new life.
Nakjoon: (becoming serious) Sorry, um…”meet again”?
President: (looking down) Some say that married couples are like prisoners tied down by the same shackles. And what that means is you both always end up walking in the same direction.
And Nakjoon silently processed the whole thing. I think he got the implication. If he and Haesook were “tied down by the same shackles” then it meant that neither of them could escape the CONTINUOUS, never-ending cycle of suffering (I believe this cycle is called “samsara” in Buddhism and Hinduism).
And that’s when he was given the ipad. He exhaled, drooped his shoulder, and looked devastated. He must have drunk a lot after that to drown his sorrows.
But he hid his feelings from Haesook because a) Haesook was excitedly preparing for the reincarnation together, and b) he didn’t want to let go of her.
It was Haesook’s joke that they could be reincarnated as father and wife in their 24th life that finally pushed him to do the “right thing.” He just couldn’t consign her to another miserable life on earth. It would be selfish of him.
Remember? He told the President he wanted to repay Haesook but he didn’t know how. Welllllll…this is how he could repay Haesook: cut ties with her and let her go so she could have a happy life for once.
The other sad part here is, when she reincarnated, she had absolutely no memories of him. He on other hand, retained everything while waiting for her return to the afterlife.
@Packmule3, when I saw Ko Nak Jun dressed in white when he met Lee Hae Suk at her deathbed, I interpreted that as his having achieved promotion(s) at the Heavenly Help Center. After his 23rd life’s death and resulting sojourn in Heaven, he loved his job as a mailman. He was more conflicted later working as a past-life-memory eraser, but committed to doing it with empathy. I believe he used the separation with Lee Hae Suk during her 24th life to work his way up the Heavenly Help Center corporate ladder.
As I infer you did, I cringed at some of the theological world building of this show. I do not believe judgement is made on a sliding scale, because ultimately that means there is no basis for right and wrong. When King Yeomra said refusal of some form of kindness (I can’t remember which) used to be a sin, but isn’t any longer, that suggests that right and wrong are changeable. Right and wrong being determined by majority opinion is a hellish thought.
Why are you still up, @Welmaris? I’m enjoying my second cup of morning coffee here.
Good points there! HaeSook did mistake the President for god because he had that bright light aura when she first saw him coming down the elevator at the Help Center. Nakjoon had to explain that all “senior government employees” have that light. (That’s how it was translated. I thought “government” was a funny word to use, instead of “management” but I guess, in the screenwriter’s world, heaven is run like political system rather than a corporate one.) HaeSook then voiced disappointment that since Nakjoon wasn’t shiny like the President, it meant that he wasn’t high-level. He laughed awkwardly and promised to work harder. Lol.
So, he did work harder in her absence.
I guess, “spiritual maturation” is part of moving up the ladder at the Heavenly Help Center.
Yes, the theological world building — as you called it — in this story isn’t very sound. I’ve tuned it out early on, and accepted heaven and hell as the screenwriter’s version of modern Korean society on steroids, that is, heaven/hell was not just efficient, but SUPER-efficient; not just organized, but HYPER-organized; not just technological-advanced, but OMNI-techy, and so on. If I hadn’t done that, I’d be pulling my hair out in frustration with the script.
And I agree. Right-and-wrong is an objective truth. It isn’t subjective so it can’t be determined by the majority. The notion of “your truth,” “my truth” and “truthiness” (isn’t that how the “wokes” say it?) is irrelevant. That said, since right-and-wrong is objectively true, then it’s to be expected that majority of those awaiting eternal judgment (if not, 100% of them) should have already apperceived right from wrong.
@Packmule3, I was awake because I’m sick. Today I’ll head to urgent care. It started last Monday with tightness in my chest and a tickle in my throat; I figured allergies were causing a flare-up of my mild asthma. No sore throat. No head congestion. No fever. Friday evening (as I was in the audience at a performance of Verdi’s Requiem) I started coughing up foul-tasting phlegm. (I kept myself masked in the concert hall, and did my best to cough only when the music was loud.) Since then, I can hear, and feel, squeaks and bubbles in my chest, which are annoying when I lay down to sleep. Despite that, my lung capacity seems normal, so I’m suspecting a bronchial infection, although some of these symptoms remind me of when I had walking pneumonia a few years back.
@PM3 –
I guess, I thought HS’s dad looked like NJ?? Because HS is connected with YA (being the mom in her pastlife). Yea, that would be weird that YA is connected to NJ as the husband. Eeeks. Did i just want to see NJ’s face in HS’s dad? 🙄 hmm.
I do like that they were always husband and wife in their reincarnations. But the continuous suffering- HS needs a break 🙂 and Welmaris- NJ needs to promoted 🙂
Are you okay, @Welmaris?
Hope you feel better soon.
@Packmule3, thanks for your concern. Whatever this is, the symptoms are slow moving. Since my schedule is flexible, I’ve been trying to wait it out, hoping it’ll run its course, but for a few days I’ve been stuck: not feeling better, but not much worse.
@HK_Lady, HEA does have a huge cast of guest performers, and those who maintain MDL seem to have given up on keeping track of them all.