A heart rending critique of the human condition and society.
I can reassure that too many tears were shed, and my surrounding was flooded with piles of tissue.Short stories:
The show interweaved different stories into one to touch upon different issues in a human, a family, and society. From a neglected mother with dementia and an aggressive, money hungry son, to the story of a father that priorities his reputation over his gay son, the director positions us to look at different issues embedded in society.
Central story/Autism:
Following an autistic 20-year-old, geu ro, we learn about how autistic people look at the world. (Though we must be aware that this is not how ALL autistic people behave, and perceive the world, the disorder is a spectrum, so traits are variable). We also learn about how mistreated and misunderstood autistic people are in society. Geu roo was bullied, called stupid, and false assumptions were made about him, like he can't cook, work, and look after himself. But we can see that these assumptions were all contradicted, geu roo is very capable and even more emotionally understanding than an average person, not to mention, he is extremely smart, and hard working.
I have a challenged bother, who has seizures, my heart broken into a trillion pieces over and over again at the thought of him not having anyone with him in the future. When I was young, I used to get very, very mad at how mistreated he was. So, seeing geu roo struggle made me very emotional. The relationship he had with his father and mother was SO, extremely beautiful, and healing, I really want to emphasis that this how every parent should be with their challenged child: patient, sincere, loving, and never limiting them from doing what they are good at.
Characters/Sang gu:
At first, I grinded my teeth at sang gu's impatience and short-tempor when he was with geu ro, but eventually, I became anxious at the thought of him not being near geu ro.
- A bit of spoilers, skip if you want to be fully shocked when watching -
Through sang gu we really see that good and bad people do not exist. It is more human to say that some choose to do more bad than good, vice versa (evil people like hitler and joseph stalin are a different story). But we are also reminded through his character that 'there is a side to every story', we also see this through geu roo's father. The surface level sang gu we knew was impatient, and aggressive, but at core, he was struggling with unresolved trauma, shame, and self-hatred, once we get to learn about his past we see how he was done wrong. People like na mu, who only knew about the illegal gambling, became scared, and untrusting of sang gu, she even attempted to get rid of him as a guardian. I felt like people call sang gu a murderer and exclude him from everything and push him aside, which shows how unwilling people, who don't listen, are foolish, and ignorant as they don't know anything about what actually happened, and who really is sang gu.
Death:
A very big part of the show boiled down to death. The show illustrates how the deceased are shown little respect, from gossiping to bad mouthing, whining over how it is freaking out other residents, lowering the price of the apartment, as if it was the dead person's fault that they ended up like that, it shows how ignorant, and unemphatic humans can be towards others. It makes us question will they react the same if it was one of their loved ones who passed away. I loved the work geu roo and his father did, their company was respectful, and honoring of the deceased.
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