Re. Episode 5
Mwahahaha. Just as I thought: GangUk is alive.
Many viewers are complaining however that his recovery strains credulity. Seems like they haven’t been paying attention to the show.
Earlier, I said in my reply to @GB that both the script and the direction play fast and loose with reality. One example I gave was the case of Park SeungJae’s dead girlfriend. GangUk deduced that Park SeungJae crossed balconies with an empty suitcase, then stashed his GF’s corpse in the suitcase, then somehow managed to toss/swing/carry that heavy suitcase over to his balcony.
Nope. It’s impossible unless Park SeungJae was a trained bodybuilder or firefighter.
Perhaps I should have added another scene to stress my point: the opening scene in Episode 3. GangUk and Yeori had been rescued by the paramedics after falling off the cliff and plunging into the sea. Their clothes – if people were paying attention – were dry!
I told @GB that, in usual circumstances, this dubious feat and inattention to details would have exasperated me. However, I was giving this show a pass because I get that the series is a fantasy rom-com…with emphasis on fantasy. The fact that the show deals with ghosts, shamans, weird coincidences, and a girl who “magically” came back to life because she wears an amulet should have clued viewers that this kdrama isn’t meant to be taken literally.
Anyway, moving on….
These are the highlights of Episode 3 for me.
1. It’s still a mystery how GangUk knew where to find YeoRi. All the ghost wrote on the mirror was “Find me” so how did GangUk know her exact whereabouts?
This reminds me of the time in Episode 1 when he was able to follow her all the way to her office despite Reina Hotel being massive. Even in the Yeeom Museum of Arts, he found her, too.
Is this his superpower or something? Does he have a GPS tracker on her? Or are their paths fated to cross over and over again?
2. GangUk’s grandmother is delightfully clueless about her grandson’s near-death experience.
It’s hard to believe that all that “excitement” happened just overnight, and that he was back in his room by morning, sleeping like a innocent boy.
3. I must say that Kang MinHwan taking control of the media was impressive.
I like that he uses “manner hands” with her. Manner hands = when his hand just hovers on her back as he guides her, but it never really touches her body.
I also like how he instinctively stood in front of YeoRi to protect her when the glass case shattered.
Nevertheless, I know he’s the weed…err… villain in this story.
4. YeoRi studied Archaeology and Art History in college.
The Yeeon Museum of Arts was opening an exhibit on the 300-year-old love letter written by Joseon-era courtesan-turned-poet Hwagyeongdang. Supposedly, this was her letter written to Prince Gangpyeong, an ancestor of the museum founder.
It was discovered when the tomb of the prince was being relocated. According to the museum director, the letter was a testament to the power of love to transcend class and social status. She also said that, as there was so much violence carried out in the name of love, she wanted to exhibit the letter to remind people of what was most important and to console them.
I think it would be the height of irony if this 3oo-year-old letter carried with it a tragic secret and a story of bloodshed. I suspect that the original recipient of the letter wasn’t the prince. My theory is that Hwagyeongdang intended the letter for someone else — most likely the artist named Dowon who painted the portraits of the Hwagyeongdang and the prince. The prince discovered the letter and killed her and Dowon. He kept the letter with him and ordered it buried with him in his coffin out of spite.
5. No doubt the blooming camellia tree is significant.
According to the museum director, the prince took Hwagyeongdang on a trip to some mountain where she vanished without a trace. Another version of the story claimed that she disappeared because she became an “immortal” hermit.
But given that the Yeeon Museum of Arts stood on Prince Gangpyeong’s former residence, it’s possible that the prince buried the body of Hwagyeongdang somewhere in the grounds and the tree grew in its spot.
Note: Camellias bloom in the winter so the tree might be blooming in springtime because:
a) it wants to be noticed, and
b) it’s eagerly waiting for the day when the truth about Hwagyeongdang’s disappearance will finally come to light.
6. I think it’s cute that GangUk didn’t want YeoRi to get any false idea that he and his female colleague was dating.
He didn’t want her linking arms with him. He behaves like he’s already “taken,” i.e., in a committed relationship.
I also think it’s cute that YeoRi wanted to get GangUk’s attention by working on a ghost case. After seeing him with his coworkers and misinterpreting his relationship a female prosecutor, she went home in a fit of pique and was determined to resolve a ghost crime. IMO, she anticipated that GangUk would receive a call from the police once she phoned in the tip. She was going to make him leave the office party (which he didn’t join anyway) and come running to her side.
Note: I also don’t think she left her glove in the water by accident. I think she did it deliberately to let him know that she was still around, seeking justice for her ghostly victims.
7. GangUk lies about continuing to see ghosts just so he can continue contact with YeoRi.
But she isn’t fooled.
Re. the Cold Case Unit that GangUk’s on.
He tells YeoRi that they should be working together.
GU: It might be better to cooperate than to work on your own. You can handle the dead, and I can handle the living. This is my thing. I’m on the Cold Case Unit.
I wouldn’t be surprised should the drowning death of Kang JiHyun be ruled as suspicious, and he’s in the position to investigate it for foul play.
8. It was hilarious when GangUk’s flying kick missed his target, and YeoRi body-slammed him out of the way so she could kick the killer herself.
I think it’s the running joke in this kdrama that GangUk always end up hurting his back whenever they’re on a case together.
That’s it for now.
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Hi @pkm3! Thanks, for this thread. However… I think you mean Episodes 5 and 6 rather than 3 and 4.
🍓🍇🍌🍉🍋🟩🍊🍐 💌🔪🔧🛌📃👻🫐 🍓🍇🍌🍉🍋🟩🍊🍐
@pkml3 oh! I see that the website has the correct episode numbering. I saw that the numbering was different in the email.
Yes, I knew that a lot of stuff in this short drama series would be impossible. I would have kicked a fuss if it was 16 episodes long, but I felt that in the rush to keep it short, what was quick and easy was expedient.
About being able to find Yeo Ri without being told exactly where she was. That was the case too when he walked up to her outside the hospital. She seems to have a location signal emitting from her to him.
At first I thought the ghost had given him the address and said save her or something more definite… but “Find me” is so vague! Clearly the director and writer are not bothering, so neither am I.
About the dry clothes after being in the sea… the opposite is true in Ep 5… YR is still dripping so much water when she gets home which is highly unlikely, because she would have dripped it off before getting into her car and even in her car and would have been damp but not dripping wet by the time she got home. Again the director does not care about logic.
I was guessing that Min Hwan was too good to be true. It’s hard to pin anything on him for now but it’s suspicious that he wanted to enter YR’s orbit at this specific time and that he had the locket that she had worn when she almost drowned.
I agree that the 300-year old letter was meant for the artist and not for the prince. The girl’s disappearance and the blooming camellias all point to blood and death. Her body might be under that tree feeding it so that it blooms out of season! (I saw this in a sageuk before).
I’d been waiting for them to start on the investigation partnership. It took5 episodes to get here. To be accurate, they don’t actually investigate anything, YR just retrieves the body and tells GU who is guilty and why.
The rest of my watch time will be spent trying to avoid the annoyances caused by Ha Ri, her shady mother and equally shady Yee On Gallery owner, and bear with the inevitable being forced into an engagement plot by granny who had promised not to do that!!!
@pkml3
I’m impressed by how quickly tables are turned in Ep 6.
If that wasn’t an awkward meeting of lips, I don’t know what is.
What’s that going on about GU’s heart? A heart transplant 12 years earlier? So he’s living on a donated heart.
And so it rained as the camellia tree was to be dug up, signaling that the same circumstances (of the wrong guy to be engaged to the girl) was about to be played out, as it had been done 300 years earlier. However that went south.
I liked how we get a camera view of the ‘family’ through the open wall that made them look like a framed photo: a snapshot of time. Time stood still when YR made her announcement.
Yes @pkml3 you were right about the 300-year old true love. The tale told by the ghost gave us a brief sageuk romance and was more terrible than we imagined.
We wait to find out if we are right about the tree.
@GB,
I have yet to start watching Ep 6 but the heart transplant makes sense.
Here’s my theory:
The heart belonged to Kang JiHwan. Of course!! 😆😆😆 This is kdrama after all; nothing is random.
That’s the missing link between the ghost and GangUk.
Remember? I said I didn’t get why JIHwan’s ghost scared off her would-be fiancé when he appeared to tolerate the presence of GangUk around YeoRi, and even asked him to find and rescue YeoRi from her kidnappers.
And that’s the connection between GangUk’s grandma and JiHwan’s mother (and MinHwan’s adoptive mother). That’s the reason:
— Granny visited the Jeju resort but lied about it, and
— the mom prevaricated when MH asked about her visitor.
And I’m guessing that’s one of the hurdles the couple must face later on. Can YeoRi accept GangUk in her life knowing that he’s part JiHwan? I mean, that’s the reason MinHwan felt awkward about meeting her, right? And her cousin Hari mentioned how awkward it would be if YeoRi was to get engaged to JH’s brother. 😂😂
@pkml3, when you put it that way, it makes total sense.
While it did occur to me that the heart might have been Ji Hwan’s, I dismissed it (on logical grounds) because I thought he died away from the hospital and it would not have been timely to have rushed him to where Gang Uk was waiting for a heart. However, yea… there’s not too much logic in this series and there was a quick shot of a boy/man being wheeled past GU when he was in hospital waiting for a heart.
I didn’t know for sure if Ji Hwan loved Yeo Ri, only that he dived in to try to save her. But it seems he is attached to her in death, hence he must have been attached to her in life.
With Ji Hwan’s heart, GU was able to always find YR wherever she was.
I watched an oldie long ago, “Summer Scent” and it had the heart of a dead lover in a new guy who of course could not help himself but fall for the same girl, without quite understanding why. When they were in the same vicinity we could hear the heart beats LOL… the guy’s heart calling out to the other heart or some kdrama romantic mush.
Ah that connection between the GU’s granny being in Jeju but denying it… I missed that. When I think about it, …. I wonder why an organ donation should be a cause for secrecy. It would have been something to be proud of and something to be grateful for, but it’s treated like a crime.
That also explains why GU’s granny is practically psychic. What she knows is that the heart of the guy now in GU was crazy about a girl born in the year of the black monkey and got drowned trying to save her. So she tells him to stay away from any such woman and large bodies of water. She also uses divination to know when it’s safe or not for GU.
I get it that the mother and granny know about the heart, but don’t know that the youngsters like Ha Ri would know. She would have been younger and from the in-law’s side. Her only card to play against YR is that YR claims she can see ghosts therefore she’s not fit to be the CEO of Reina. She is also saying that YR should not get engaged to Min Hwan because it was his brother who saved her and died in the process. Seeing Min Hwan would be a constant reminder of Ji Hwan.
I didn’t notice that Min Hwan was awkward about meeting YR, only that he was seeking her out through her granny. However the silly concept that the heart is not just an organ that pumps blood but has a brain of it’s own to recognise other hearts, egged on by the ghost of the dead heart donor might be in full play.
With all the usual unjustified guilt that YR will be feeling, yes, this will be a hurdle. Also the same concept of seeing GU and always remembering and feeling bad about Ji Hwan might also crop up.
However, how much better a way to repay Ji Hwan than by accepting GU as her boyfriend. No matter what, the sticky ghost of Ji Hwan was going to hang around her. Their pairing would solve the situation and keep the ghost happy. Then it could just move on!!!
Ha!
Ghost Boyfriend AND trick-almost-dead ML!
I am happy.
I made a separate thread for Episode 6. 🙂
@GB, I’ll respond to you on the other thread.