Oops, I posted anywhere yesterday.

Here, I rewatched this episode, and there is an amazing structure about how it jumps between scenes, with first: a regular childhood flashback, chaining at appropriate times but mostly the last one, creating a “WOO” effect with a reveal. It’s not too confusing as we understand after a while this will be the motus operandi of the episode. Then, it’s like to have two timelines.

However, it gets more complicated at some point, with a scene in a gymnasium, cut in several parts, and going to many other scenes between, including a scene in the prosecutor office that is itself cut with a jump for the gossip in the building, while the scene isn’t even finished. It’s a brainy episode about structure for the writer.

@GB, yes, here we watch Ep 3 & 4 of the original broadcast. But then, any website just reversed to the previous and standard format, joining episodes for an hour one.

About all the cuts/flashbacks, I always ask to myself why the writer did that, it’s certainly because she judged it was the most powerful way to tell the story. So it’s interesting to study, see exactly what scene cuts for what other, what suspens, what emotion, and think about how flat it was maybe, if told in a linear way.

I bet the screenplay of this episode is pretty unreadable, like are some of episodes of W. I scratched my hair when reading, and thinking “Woo! the guys reading this the first, before the drama was made, had a hard time”. It’s not pleasant on the page, but the effect is stunning when it’s on screen. I guess the directors, who are familiar, can get a little thing when reading first, and understand easely the pace and meaning and feeling it wants, when re-reading.

@GB, sounds a nice interview to watch.
Also, good scripts often direct from the page without directing. I mean, there is no need to technical terms like “camera is here or there”, but the way the words flow is important. Maybe I had speak about that. What I call visual order.
As an example:
“Jae Chan answers the phone.”
is not the same than:
“A phone is answered by Jae Chan.”
Even for you as a reader, and not director, it creates a different experience in your mind-screen. First sentence, you see Jae Chan, and he goes to a phone. Second sentence, you have the idea to see a phone in close-up, then a hand taking it, the one of Jae Chan.

Any line of description in a scene manages your perception, and the way you already see it on TV. To see more how it tricks you, read a short scene you don’t know from my BWYRMH kdrama. Do it first without reading my comment after.
https://w4worlds.fr/drama/BookstoreHeart/html/Ep01_US.html#3

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First we guess something close enough, because our vision is obstructed by passants. The impression is to be right in front, people walking from right to left of the screen, close to us.
Only after, we get an idea the store is empty, so we get the idea the camera is pulling back because we see more of the scene, then the sign “for rent”. Can be pulling back more, but could also be a shot on it or the camera moving to it.
Then we see the scene from opposite angle with the heroine of drama.
When she photographs we, go back to previous angle, looking at the store.
We go back to the heroine to get the idea her gaze is fixed on the store, we change angle again and see the store.
Then we see something that was hidden from the start, and to see it, we guess the camera move slowly on the side to show it, from one store to another.
Without saying a technical word about how to direct that, I still created the experience of being directed, and most importantly, create the illusion of watching a drama for the reader, and not only read something like a novel.

Hello all. Here but reading we post for a bit.

Hi @ib, welcome to the party … we’ll start in 2 minutes’ time!!

Hi IF, GB, MM.

Starts under the snow, with Lee angry for his car.

I’m noticing how they all look at each other so meaningfully.

Hong Joo in particular looks grateful that she’s finally met someone who shares a similar ‘plight’ ie the prophetic dreams, as herself.

Hi @WE, Lee is I feel more angry that the girl (his girlfriend!!!) went off towards JC and now is going away with him in the same ambulance LOL.

As if the drama wasn’t good enough, we have for an arc: KIM SO HYUN. Truly gorgeous, at top of her beauty, for one of her best role, aka a girl with anger, not easy to seduce and a bit harsh.
YYAAAHHHHHHH!!!

@MM I like the ‘magical’ music as they recover from the shock of the accident.

Straight off the bat JC and HJ talk about those dreams that come true… but JC is troubled.

@WE, that’s because the car he drove belonged to HJ’s mum. It wasn’t his car that got hit.

She asks the question I wondered about last time. Why did you save me-it was just a dream to you?

JC and HJ dialogs cuts with pianist situation, with voice-over on this about “fate change after the dream”. A way to say their repetitive situation (wife beaten) could change now, but we didn’t get yet the dream making that, it teases us there should be one.

oh yeah yeah not his car, I see I see.

Hey, did you notice? There’s always a lovely cat before her house, and it’s always not the same one.

Another proud conceited heroine!

@We cut with seung won/pianist, I wish there were a way out..

She stumps the lawyer with her logic!

Now we have some light moments beginning with lots of light streaming into JC’s room as HJ smiles to herself, knowing that she can prove that she has those dreams although JC refuses to believe her.

Little movie joke I did not catch the first time, “The Good, the Bad, and the Wierd” (instead of the old ‘western, ‘The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly). Writer Park adds jokes in this one as well (indeed the entire, waiting room scene with HJ and JC is humorous.

@GB, the salewoman at the coffee shop.
Will be used later in a full situation. 😉

@WE, yes, I noticed that… one of the reasons I mentioned that this writer’s shows re-use the characters to add more to the story.

Now we have the fun journey to work with JC and HJ in split screen going forwards and backwards. And JC getting the weird feeling that he’s been stalked or that too many strangers seem to know him.

At 21:00, her problem is she can’t change fate, and she says to JC leaving “there only you”, because only him could change a dream from her.
SO LOGICALLY… we jump into a flashback to see a traumatazing situation when she couldn’t change a dream, maybe her first one?
BUT… it’s tricky, we don’t see the full situation, only the beginning, so we come back to present.

I do love the split screen sequence. It is light-hearted, fun, and such a backwards but useful way of showing she knew his future. And beautifully filmed.

He saYs he will not believe in a new dream/situation. So the stakes need to be high–his brother!

@IB yes that’s the beauty of editing. In the split screen she’s going along first but we are confused about who is following whom. A good ploy!

Now he rejects taking responsibility for the happenings in the dreams… he wants to take the easy way out.

@MM, he now regrets that he refused to take the umbrella, as he will regret not wanting to believe.

Yes, the stakes will have to be raised so that he has no choice but to take action based on the dream. Next it will be that he has to save his brother.

After break scene HJ – Lee, we have a hard cut.
No clear reason here, or I missed it. We continue the trauma situation with the bus. I don’t remember if we already know the bus explode (I think we know it already from Ep1, but not sure).

JC brother really in love with KSH girl. But who couldn’t?? A girl like that in your years school is nearly a deathmatch.

@WE, there appears to be no reason for the hard break to the past scene… but we left with HJ angry with YB and come to this scene where she’s worried because her father will not take precautions although she dreamed he would die. I guess the frustration in HJ is the linking emotion in these 2 scenes.

The irony of HJ getting onto her father’s bus… did it delay him long enough so that the soldier with the grenade could also run up and board the bus? What a difficult question!!!

@WE, pretty actresses are placed to in the show to distract you from the plot LOL.

@MM poor JC gets rude treatment from Hyang Mi and is ignored by Hee Min. He has a really rough start in his prosecutor job.

What an office of scumbags — that pre-meal blessing!

Transitions and voice-overs from Gymnase scene are a blast.

@IB the prayer that they prayed was such a non-prayer. It was aimed only at telling off JC LOL.

The female assistant is typing ultra fast on keyboard, giving the gossip to everyone in the building, comedy montage.

Lee has a disgusting habit to roll pieces of paper everywhere, like if it was shit drops of a fly. Ewrk!!!

@SD, Show deliberately leaves us confused because we are supposed to even think of the young person with her dad as a boy!!! We are meant to be totally deceived at first before we find out the twist.

Hi SD.
HJ as a child looks like a boy. On purpose, so JC can’t recognize her later. Or rather, can’t remember he met a girl, and only a boy. omething tricky from writer to make sure there is no plot-hole and give JC an innacurate memory.

@SD, I watched “Gogh’s Starry Night” but I cannot recall the Seong Won actor at all.

The baseball is even in her dad’s columbarium niche!

Her happy life? afterwards in photos…her attempt to change her dad’s life did not change her life outwardly?

So in the main — JC needs to stand up to office bullying, for justice, but reason why he will do it now is given as the cliffhanger…

@WE, “I Miss You” was a frustrating drama because of it’s non-ending. I did not like it.

We get another hard cut from JC treating his work as something to plough through quickly without giving the cases much thought to the wake of HJ’s father. We needed a break so that next time we can see JC sleeping and having a bad dream.

@WE, but by the time the baseball is exchanged we know (or at least I understood), that the boy was HJ. And that the boy who gave the baseball back must be JC (because that’s the way Korean dramas work…).

JC regretted not taking the umbrella now he wonders if he’ll regret not believing HJ. He calls his brother but has not peace.

Another cut to before the bus exploded. HJ’s father likens leaving his bus to a baseball game. HJ as a teenager is grieving, but as an adult now she’s uneasy about what will happen to Seung Won whom she does not know.

Why did her father confront the soldier? He no knew that there was a rogue soldier on the loose from the news report?

@SD, fortunately I forgot about that lascivious character in Gogh’s Starry Night!!!

Now JC goes to HJ, the only other person who has dreams like his and tries to reason his way out of believing that his brother will get into trouble. HJ now uses a baseball analogy on him somehow similar to what her dad had used with her.

He actually comes to ask why they have the dreams and wants her help. But just like her apology to YB, it sounds more like he’s angry and desperate than in need of help.

Bye @WE! See you next week!!

The actress playing Soo Young’s mom is very good. We see her subtle facial expressions as her husband strokes her hair as she tells Prosecutor JC that she doesn’t “want” to press charges. We know she is both afraid and revolted by her husband’s seemingly gentle touch

@IB, the photos in the columbarium niche showed that he kept her promise to her dad to grow out her hair, and that she was getting on in life.

The cliff hanger is whether because of his brother and the fact that HJ had dreamt of him as well, JC will now take action to save his brother. Finding out that HJ had the same dream with more details or with a different slant where he was to blame for his brother being arrested for murder would definitely galvanise him into action.

We have th scene of her and her dad throwing the baseball earlier. Then in the bus they have an exchange about the “catcher” I did not pay enough attention to this exchange but it is probably part of the metaphor of the baseball which JC picks up(catches)in the funeral home. We see it at the columbarium as well alomg with the pictures of her as a girl.

@MM, yes the baseball game analogy works well in the dialogue together with the image of HJ as a ‘boy’ in a baseball cap. Both HJ’s dad and then HJ herself makes use of the baseball analogy to explain the current situation. The ball ‘caught’ by JC is also the sign of the link between JC and HJ. They shared a common ‘past’ without knowing it because both of them were in the funeral home due to the same soldier.

The only thing we never get any explanation for is why HJ from young, has those dreams.

Bye @MM!

@IB, are you in an orchestra? Good analogy!!

I’d like to think i’m a sax but I am probably a woodwind😀

oh, you always make me so happy. You definitely play the sax, alto I think. But never put down the other woodwinds. Nothing like the clarinet in a jazz band. I adore the oboe. Flutes in an improvisatory ensemble are the wild cards because they can just go wild, especially in rock bands, maybe that’s your inner woodwind.

Lets be indie, how about electric guitar? (I just started Glass Heart. Japanese rock music is so broadly defined isnt it?)

@GB I so was thinking of you as a violin when I wrote that because it cuts through other sounds!!!