The Umbrella - A Visual Metaphor
I love the umbrella scene as a visual metaphor for safety and protection; a shield. The umbrella is the physical buffer protecting Gunn and Tinn from the rain, but it is also keeping them in a protected space where they donât have to acknowledge the very real, very big feelings they have.
Throughout episode 6, Gun and Tinn act like there is no undercurrent of meaning behind their interactions. This is intentional thoughâ because one of the first things Gun admits in episode 6 is, in a moment of absentminded anxiety and self-awareness, âIâm not ready.â And Tinn, PhD candidate in Gun Studies, knows this too.
We begin the game of pretend with âGun as the Matchmakerâ, where Gun essentially elicits a confession from Tinn, and an admission that Tinn has been acting out of love/commitment to a person, without acknowledging that person is Gun himself.
Then âThe Questionnaireâ, where Gun and Tinn speak deeply and earnestly to each other, under the guise of preparation for their acting roles. They can ask how the other feels; stick a toe into the water of reciprocated feelings.
And last, âThe Music Videoâ, where Gun gets to flirt with and touch Tinn, eventually kissing himâ but in front of cameras and as actors where it isnât real.
The safety of artifice is necessary for Gun because he starts the episode in an extremely vulnerable headspace. After working up the motivation and excitement to begin training to be a professional singerâ he ultimately fails the big audition. The last thing Gun wants to do is set himself up for another round of hope and disappointment. This reluctance is also echoed and reinforced through his story of an aced singing-test score, just to find out his father had been killed. It makes sense that he would protect himself as the the possibility of disappointment and rejection (even abandonment) creeps closer.
This umbrella sequence is actually the second time in My School President where the imagery of an umbrella is invoked. The first time is in a conversation between Tiwson and Tinn, where Tiw mimes holding up an umbrella and says, âhigh school love is like a candle lit in the rain. If [your love] is like a lit candle in the rain, then I, Tiwson, will hold an umbrella for you.â I love how these characters- and the show itself- acknowledge how delicate these feelings of young love are and how the boys want to treat each othersâ feelings with care, and protect each other! And itâs accomplished that with the visual motif of the umbrella- a shield from the rain. Weâre used to seeing the umbrella as a trope of forced romantic closeness or âus vs the worldâ- but never quite so gentle as this, as a mask for yearning and a tool of emotional protection.
Ep 6 gives us many visual âthresholdâ motifs- the most obvious is the dotted vertical line, drawn between couples to show them literally crossing the âthreshold between friends and moreâ. But, my favorite is the umbrella in the rain. The shots are pushed in intimately; you feel like youâre huddled under the umbrella with them; you can perceive that they could feel each otherâs breath on their faces. They can touch each other, with the excuse of the small space to share. They pass the umbrella back and forth, pretending like it isnât an exercise in caring for each other like they would in a relationship. There is so much going unsaid, that they are shielding themselves from.
When Tinn decides to ask the question, broach the topic theyâve been dancing around for days, and Gun answers with an apology and an excuse, Tinn steps out from under the umbrella, removes himself from the safety of the indirect and unspoken. His intention is now out in the open, as is he. To be vulnerable is to be rained on.
Tinn knows he is the lit candle in the rain. He knows he might have just been extinguished. But he goes into the rain anyway, because he is ready. And he leaves Gun behind with the umbrella. Because Gun isnât ready yet, to be rained on, to leave the safety behind, to step into the reality of their feelings.
