pollobi brototi

Maybe you've already figured it out, the theme runs in parallel with the characters. The tiger is the fear Geung yu denies to face, he'd rather live in this comforting but humiliating non-existence than to really deal with life. And the tiger's disapperance from the zoo also coincides with his own displacement. Yoo jung is suffering from a soul crushing creative inertia, is a possible alcoholic and though seems less inert than Geung, she actually is repressing more and god! if Go Hyun jung is not perfect for the role...Geung yu is faced with the pit bottom of another person and it reflects his own too. He finally almost meets the tiger one night and that fear is tangible, unlike his consistent defiance to live the way he wants to, his fear of expectations and being blown to smithereens when they are not met, so he flees. Then he sees someone really dying and all he can think about is meeting the tiger, his hidden fears of course, but also a real look inward. The whole movie is filled with scattered demonstrations of the dregs of the Korean gig economy, the death of literature, struggles of the artists. Our leads are part of that, it's supposed to be depressing but the visual is in contrast with the narrative tone, it's a really bright winter. So finally the story falls onto that when Geong yu meets his tiger (read fear) in broad daylight, which in reality turns out not so terrifying, rather innocent, a direct link and opposition to the growling tiger he met at night. He finally faces his fear, slowly takes back the things he quit, unlike his ex. I think the flip in the character study was really something, because at the end of the story they're quite not what they seemed at the beginning. The Hemingway reference overlaps with Yoo jungs Soju addiction, but the one thing I still can't figure out is what it means that Geong yu had a copy of that in his bag...I was kind of anticipating that he carries his own novel in it...
Anyway, so there you go, my interpretation. The long shots are fun but I felt like I can't see their faces most of the time, because it's either shot from the sides or their faces are hidden by cascades of hair, was that on purpose? Can't think of why that would be...the movie has some evident flaws, but I think it's very watchable and definitely thematically rich.

I fell in love with the drama after watching the first episode...it had that genre-bending feeling. 2nd, 3rd episode retained that horror, mystery element. And though things changed afterward, I still enjoyed it till the 8th episode. Then it faltered. I admire that they tried to stretch the story to the end but so not effectively that it hurts! Unlike many, I was waiting for the romance and Lee jinuk and Kown Nara have nice chemistry in my opinion and that is despite the vague writing that they got. The idea of reincarnation is tricky and if not dealt with tact feels stupid. Without their memories, none of the characters are what they were in their past lives. The 1000 year timeline is so long that it minimizes the connections in between- the relationship between Dan Hawl and Sol could have been explored more. The romance of Hawl and Sangun could have been more mature and direct, after all, they are grownups and the fatalistic outlook towards their relationship felt weird to me. I don't know if Lee Joon worked too hard for a character that is written in such a lackluster fashion, he created a buzz that the story couldn't justify, so all his eccentricity gets reduced to a certain sort of nuttiness! No motive just wishful thinking and unbelievably adamant belief in his victimhood. The monsters had no underlying plot, they just exist and Hawl just kills them...for episodes of running from them, this is disappointingly underwhelming. By episode 12 I sort of lost hope about how they'd wrap it in only 4 episodes, but they did provide some nice moments- especially Hawl's revisiting of Ms. Lee's life and Sangun's following comforting scene is a highlight of mine from the later episodes. What I don't like in many k dramas is how the story ends long before its runtime (maybe I haven't watched many) so, I liked how they were keeping the plot tight but who knew that would be a double-edged sword? The only redeeming quality is the performance of the cast which I thoroughly enjoyed. Even in the most childish scenes Nara and Jinuk had a gravity, their 1000 year past selves weren't even given any time, they just stand and stare at each other and it still worked! It started off with such a promise and went on with this gusto that I hoped they have something decent for us in the end but that was a misplaced hope. 50 years from now is stretching it so far that it literally doesn't make any impact. The ideal ending would have been in the present. Everything turned so flimsy in the end, I feel like if 1000 years ago Sangun told Hawl that she's leaving him for 20 something years and would come back later- none of this would have happened...or if Hawl tasted a drop of blood somewhere he could have remembered everything much easier and early. And now that I'm thinking I don't know why Ok Eul Tae couldn't kill this version of Sangun, what was the catch? I guess the victory of the show is in the fact that after this myriad of complaints, I'm still going to say that I mostly liked it. I liked the initial suspense, the pretty visuals, the amazing OST and mostly, the acting. I wish they had done justice to all these great elements by writing a decent plot that in the end wouldn't just fall flat like this.

Maybe he needs to die as a Bulgasal...who tf knows...they could have done it so much more neatly that it's frustrating.