Random Post #4: Rose Garden - An Inspiration from Prison Playbook
N.B.: Shin PD: “I wanted to be able to show the strength that [the viewers can get] through the small and precious stories from the hospital. The setting and background is the only thing different about this drama compared to that of the ‘Reply’ series or ‘Prison Playbook.’ Similar to those dramas, Hospital Playlist follows the everyday lives of ordinary people, telling those small but previous and warm stories. The funny moments, the interesting moments, and the sad moments of life are all part of that story that I wanted to show when making this drama.” (Cr. Soompi)
Housekeeping: I have a reason to include the N.B. in every post that pays homage to the Reply series and Prison Playbook. This is FGrs’ guiding principle in our analysis of Shin-Lee’s works on Hospital Playlist. In fact, FGrs will always follow the directions hinted by Shin PD in his interviews. Shin PD and Writer Lee are the creators. Their words are the sole key to understanding the direction of their story and how it will unfold. The N.B. is added for the benefit of our readers. It is good to remember that Shin-Lee have been dubbed as a genius PD-Writer duo in Korea. They do a thorough research in their works. Recently, Shin admitted to having a database of actors’ and actresses’ works from which they will have their pick. This could only mean they have their eyes on what is happening in the industry and they are very clear on what they want in their work. With this in mind, happy reading!
From watching the Reply series and Prison Playbook, we are made to understand that Shin-Lee have created a set of formula that they keep recycling into their next project. Therefore, as per the N.B., it is safe to say that Shin-Lee will continue to reuse these formulas in their latest creation i.e. Hospital Playlist. Prison Playbook’s setting and the stories of its inmates are used as a template for Hospital Playlist’s setting (Yulje Medical Hospital) and the stories of its medical staff and patients. On the contrary, the mechanics of the Reply series are used as the template for the stories of the lacking five. However, another theory has come to mind following recent findings on Prison Playbook. This will be the possible variation.
The followings could possibly be Shin-Lee’s reasons for referencing their previous projects:
To pay homage to their previous projects.
To be used as a source of inspiration to the foundation of the setting, characters and story.
To reiterate that their worldview on love, friendship, marriage and family relationship remain constant (Packmule3@BoD) i.e. trust, shared values, companionship, acceptance, shared interests, understanding, someone you can rely on, supportive etc.
For love in 40s, Shin has recently stated that “At their age they don’t live with passion and desperation for those days that have past and won’t fall passionately in love at first sight and get hurt by it”. Indeed for these 40 years old friends, love will be one that has grown over time (Packmule3@BoD).
This post will review a specific inspiration / formula that have been taken from Prison Playbook to create the foundation for the main setting and a certain driving characters in Hospital Playlist.
The possible variation: The background of Hospital Playlist’s main driving force (i.e. co-owners) as well as the future co-owner (i.e. Song Hwa **) have been referred from Prison Playbook.
** Daddy’s Long Leg Program is the first indication that Jeong Won trusted Song Hwa enough to hand over the management of his inheritance.
The Rose Garden & Wild Rose
I shall begin by looking at the special edition soundtrack of Prison Playbook. Among many OSTs for Prison Playbook, there is an instrumental song titled ‘Rose Garden’ by To Da Soo (Cr. To Da Soo - Topic).
https://youtu.be/Ys4UdkvKptI
Our fellow FGrs, @thisiskitsune has kindly re-watched and analysed Prison Playbook for us. Subsequently, she shared her findings on Rose Garden being the OST and the relevant scenes in Episode 11 where wild roses were first described by the prisoners, Kim Je Hyuk (Male Lead) and Ki Soo, during their conversation at the greenhouse.
Je Hyuk: It’s wild rose (찔레꽃). This flower means “I miss the cottage on a hill in my home country down south, where wild roses bloom.”
Lifer: Isn’t that a song?
Je Hyuk: How did you know? Okay, then.
Je Hyuk: What is this flower?
Ki Soo: Wild rose means “solitude, cautious love and longing for family”
Ki Soo: Do you want to take it?
Je Hyuk: No, thank you. I’ll look at it here. It’s pretty, the wild rose.
In this scene, the context of the wild rose referred to by Je Hyuk to Lifer is solitude and longing for family. This is because Lifer lost both his wife and daughter, he was spending a life sentence and he has given up on living.
Musk Rose (Rosa Moschata), one of the Shakespeare Roses
The possible variation: Another type of wild rose is used i.e. pink/ fuchsia moss rose. Solitude and/or cautious love will be the main theme for our wild rose i.e. moss rose.
How does this ‘Rose Garden’ relate to Hospital Playlist? The answer lies within the names i.e. Rosa, Ahn Jeong Won and Chae Song Hwa. Rosa means Rose in Latin, Jeong Won means Garden in Korean while Chae Song Hwa (채송화) means Moss Rose (Portulaca). Rosa and Jeong Won are the two main people behind the setting that is Yulje i.e. the co-owners aka the driving force of the main setting/ background. Hence, the reference of Rose Garden. As stated above, Song Hwa is the possible future co-owners.
It is interesting to note that only these two main roles (Song Hwa and Jeong Won) have separate meanings to their names aside from having other nicknames given to them which are also relevant when paired i.e. Mother Theresa and Buddha (their kindness and good deeds) as well as Psychic and Ghost (how well they read people).
Firstly, let’s talk about our first rose, Rosa. She is a strong woman of will. She loves all of her children but Jeong Won is the apple of her eyes. She married her husband, a renowned philanthropist. She has sustained through a marriage not based on love (initially) but I do believe that love comes later in different form and for them their marriage was built based on companionship, understanding, shared values and interests, trust, and relying on each other. Why I said shared values? Despite having all the money, she and her late husband lived humbly. She supported all her husband charity causes. Never once did we hear she complained about money and/or her husband’s assets, as well as his decision to donate them for charity causes.
I trust that over that long period of time, Rosa has come to love her late husband in her own way.
I also believe the relationship between Rosa and her late husband with regard to shared values and interests that they have accumulated across their marriage life will be the template for Song Hwa’s and Jeong Won’s future journey together.
The possible variation: When will love come knocking at the door for Song Hwa and Jeong Won and/or theirs will be a love marriage.
Let’s make a quick revisit to Rosa-Jeong Won’s conversation in Episode 8:
Rosa: Song Hwa is beautiful, smart and has sense like this. Then why…
Jeong Won: Why isn’t she married?
Rosa: No. Why doesn’t she like my son? If you marry a girl like Song Hwa, I could join the Lord even tomorrow and have nothing to wish for.
Rosa: My son is sensitive and delicate. You are beautiful like flowers. And you also easily get hurt like flowers. It’d be nice if you have a reliable life partner like Song Hwa.
Rosa shall be the pillar and bridge for Song Hwa and Jeong Won i.e. Song Hwa is Rosa’s first choice for Jeong Won, when she was not troubled by desperation (e.g. Rosa directly contacted Song Hwa to arrange for Jong Soo to attend the band’s practice instead of asking her own son). She also knows Song Hwa is a very reliable person and that is the most important criteria for her son’s life partner because simply, Rosa has been there, done that. She knows firsthand what is important in a marriage that last for a long time.
Next is our wild Moss Rose, Song Hwa. I personally feel that Writer Lee has done a very detailed research on Moss Rose whereby even the setting of Song Hwa’s kakao talk profile picture resembles an image of that flower. It was given focus twice in Episode 2 (Seok Min texting Song Hwa) and Episode 3 (Ik Jun replying Song Hwa’s text on lunch). This is her profile picture:
I am just making a ‘wild’ guess here though I do believe it is a moss rose. This is what I found:
Sundial Fuchsia Moss Rose (Portulaca). (Photo Cr. to Peter Krumhardt)
Portulaca ‘Sundial Fuchsia’ offers bold magenta-pink on compact, heat-resistant plants.
Pink Moss Rose Plant. (Photo Cr. to flowerphoto.org)
This is another variation of the pink moss rose. (Photo Cr. to Wilawan Suntrakorn)
I am happy to be proven wrong but for now, I will take Song Hwa’s profile picture as a moss rose.
Let’s now revisited the scene in Episode 4 to provide insight and proof on our wild rose Chae Song Hwa.
Seok Hyeong’s Mom: Call Song Hwa. Ask her to come for dinner. I really like Song Hwa. She’s calm and kind.
Seok Hyeong: Why would Song Hwa come? I told you she is just a friend. Besides, she is not calm at all. She is a wild one. (lol, I just love Seok Hyeong and his calm bluntness.)
In relation to this remark and theory of our Moss Rose, I have come across an interesting and relevant flower story that includes a story of the Moss Rose. The book was written by Lenore E. Mulets and published in November 1903.
“Once a little pink wild rose bloomed by the wayside. To all who passed her way she threw out a delicate perfume and nodded in kindly welcome. The larks and the humming-birds all loved the pink wild rose. The baby grasses and the violets snuggled up at her feet in safety. To all she was kind and sweet and helpful. One day Mother Nature passed that way. She saw the gentle wild rose sending out her helpful cheer to all. Mother Nature was pleased. She stopped a moment on her way to speak to the simple flower. She praised the wild rose for her sweetness and her beauty and her kindness. At last she promised her, her choice of all the beautiful things that were in the store of Nature. The pink wild rose blushed quite scarlet at the praise. For a moment she stopped to think. “I should like,” said the wild rose, blushing more and more, “I should like to have a cloak from the most beautiful thing you can think of.” Mother Nature looked down at her feet. She stooped. She arose and threw about the blushing pink rose a mantle of the softest, greenest, most beautiful moss. Mother Nature passed on her way. The sweet rose by the roadside drew her mantle of moss closely about her and allowed it to trail down the stem. She was very happy. She was never again to be called the simple wild rose, but in her heart she knew that her beautiful mossy mantle would only help her in spreading sweetness and kindness and beauty and the perfume of happiness through Mother Nature’s world.”
I fall in love with this heart-warming story. It really suits our moss rose character, Song Hwa. Furthermore, I am of the view that the green mantle moss represents our Garden, Jeong Won. From episode 1 till the end, he has been, time and time again, shown to care for her, supported her every decisions, understood her concerns, sensitive to her needs and to whom she relied on for advice and support. In fact, throughout Season 1, the only person she ever relied on for advice is Jeong Won. He was the only one who treated her as a girl. Throughout the earlier episodes, their shared values and similar interests have been told using the parallelism techniques. Yes, he grumbled to her during the Kalguksu scene but it was not similar to Jwan’s case. With Song Hwa it was more on her not considering that he hasn’t eaten yet, it’s personal. A key question that will decide the ending for Song Hwa’s love story will be who does Song Hwa like/ love? This is yet another reused formula in the Reply series.
Coming back to Rosa’s script, the following points are very relevant to the highlighted notes on the mossy mantle in the Moss Rose story:
Sensitive and delicate (i.e. soft).
Easily get hurt like flowers.
Softest, greenest and most beautiful moss.
Will help Moss Rose in spreading sweetness, kindness, beauty and the perfume of happiness.
Final Note: Is Mother Nature being represented by Rosa? We knew she took care of her little flower garden at home. We also knew the Flower Garden OST from Reply 1988 has been rearranged and played as the closing background music in every episode of Hospital Playlist. The rearranged music is titled Beyond the Rainbow Forest and included as another OST for Hospital Playlist. Could all of these Flower Garden, Rose Garden and Moss Rose theories be just a mere coincidence or it is a likely case of a thorough work of research? I will let you decide, my dear readers.
Quote written by Claire Ansberry, designed by Emily Schiff-Slater and published by Rebekah Lowin
Click here to read more on moss rose.
Mulets, L.E. (1903), Flower Stories: Phyllis’ Field Friends, L. C. PAGE & COMPANY.
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