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hooned

be with you.

doyouevenfilm

Chungking Express (1994) dir. Wong Kar-wai

riseswind

Chungking Express (1994) dir. Wong Kar-wai

90sagony

hajungwoos

Takeshi Kaneshiro in Chungking Express (1994) dir. Wong Kar-Wai

cinemaspam

“We broke up April Fool’s day, so I took it as a joke. I’m willing to humor her for a month. Every day I buy a can of pineapple with an expiration date of May 1st, because May loves pineapple, and May 1st is my birthday. I tell myself that if May hasn’t come back by the time I’ve bought 30 cans, then our love will expire too.”

– Takeshi Kaneshiro in Chungking Express (1994) dir. Wong Kar-wai

writingicing

I love how Moon Young treats Kang Tae when he’s telling her something serious about his past. Like, she takes it seriously and reacts how she would to a child, validating him. You can see from his reactions that he’s not used to that.

Like, it first happened when they both are in Kang Tae’s house. When he tells her about how he puts up a fake smile, she listens to him very intently. The same way, when he tells her about how he needs to suppress his emotions to protect Sang Tae, she listens carefully. She always responds with something to make him laugh too.

And then, when he gives her the nightmare doll, she validates him like she would a child:

and this too:

And then when they’re eating at the Chinese restaurant, she asks why they’re eating at such a shabby place. When he says that their mom used to take them there, she immediately validates him again. And the smile on his face just shows how much he appreciates that:

I just love that she does this for him. In her own little way, she takes care of him like no one else.

life-rewritten

Psycho but it’s okay analysis: Fairy tales and their foreshadowing Part 2/2 (The cheerful dog and Beauty and the Beast)

Futility and Acceptance of Captivity

Episode 7 and 8 of Psycho but it’s okay focuses on the themes of being tied up and caged for so long that you begin to accept it, trust it and forget what freedom is. This is shadowed in the two fairy tales mentioned. The cheerful dog (Episode 7) and Beauty and the Beast (Episode 8).

The audience is told the story of the cheerful dog written by Moon Young and narrated to us by Gang Tae and Sang Tae.

‘The story is about a dog tied up to a tree that looks really happy on the outside but in the middle of the night he cries and weeps in pain, depressed about his lack of freedom. The dog wants to be happy and run around in the green fields but runs around happily around the tree for the people to come watch and feel also happy. The dog is asked why he hasn’t broken the leash that ties him to the tree. And he woefully admits that he had gotten used to being this way he forgot how to break away from the leash.’

The cheerful dog’s leash

The cheerful dog despite desperately wanting to be from his leash, refuses to break it because he has forgotten how to do so. He has accepted to keep crying in the night for his loss of freedom and he has been forced to become accustomed to being tied to the tree. The focus at first would be on the dog’s dream of freedom and him realising the truth. Which connects to Gang Tae and others who all dream of freedom and can’t break away from their ties to freedom. I want to focus on the other characters mentioned in the tale. This is important because we forget that other people rely on the dog being tied to the tree; the kids who look forward to playing with him every day they go to school, the adults who like his playful energy and get happy at the sight of him and the fact the dog becomes a good symbol for the neighbourhood for happiness. This is paralleled in episode 7 with how other characters perceive the relationship with Moon Young as a barrier to what they want from Gang Tae.

Jae Su narrates being like the dog because he feels tied to Gang Tae but in reality he wants to tie Gang Tae to him because he likes being near him each time he has to move because he likes feeling like the only one who protects Gang Tae. Sang Tae is dependent on Gang Tae for survival and easy living. The hospital wants Gang Tae to continue holding it in and helping the patients with no disturbance.

That’s why Moon Young appearing in his life is turning these wants for Gang Tae to become ruined, he’s moved out and no longer near Jae Su, Sang Tae well he’s being left behind Gang Tae is being forced and has been all his life forced to stay the way he is because it’s what’s good for everyone and for the hospital, Moon Young keeps causing disruptions with all the patients. For these people It’s good for Gang Tae to keep running away and avoiding the truth because it makes it easier for others as well who depend on him to be like this.

Beauty and the Stockholm Syndrome

In episode 8, Moon Young uses the romantic tale of beauty and the beast to describe a relationship made on the basis of Stockholm syndrome. This fairy tale is normally told as a romantic tale about loving someone beneath the looks. And one of her students stand up to her because they stick with this meaning instead. The patient also had suffered from something similar to this syndrome with her alcoholic ex. So it was a powerful scene to see her stand up to Moon Young about the meaning.

This fairy-tale also again shows an imagery of someone in this case Belle the beauty in the story becoming accustomed to being trapped and captured because the beast depends on her for his humanity and for his curse to break. Because Belle is groomed to accept this and she forms feeling of trust and affection for her kidnapper (the very meaning of Stockholm syndrome) she also sees it as love and decides to stay with the beast forever. Thus this story instead of being romantic to Moon Young is also about deluding your self to deal with the circumstance of having no control.

Just like Moon Young who had a complicated connection with her mother who locked her up in her castle and who also was forced to be used to her mum grooming her into a witch that’s destined to be alone and forcing her to choose to let go of Gang Tae because it was best for everyone. Before we get to episode 8, she also forgot how to be free until she cut her hair (the symbol of her mother in her life) and chose to walk away from her burden.

True Love or Captivity?

Our show however is a love story as well and so Gang Tae is the reason for why Moon Young walks away from her leash and Moon Young is also the reason for why Gang Tae wants to walk away from his and in a way it’s romantic. This is what love does, it makes you feel like you can breath again, be free and find what you’ve been desperately looking for.

It’s all romantic and all but in a world where their freedom and relationship means others are compromised and hurt, can it really last? Probably not, in a way the cruel truth is that there will be a reveal that these 2 are also connected to the other past traumas and leashes and this realisation will force them apart even more. If Moon Young’s mum is the cause of Gang Tae’s mums murder, if it was to punish Moon Young, then both of them will be severely pulled apart because of that truth. The butterflies that Gang Tae is being haunted by will end up being tied to the person he doesn’t want to run away from the most but he must run away from those butterflies for peace of his brother and himself.

And Moon Young, the news about her mother will lead her to pushing Gang Tae away because it will confirm to her what she’s been trying to run away from, and that is the truth that she and her mother are monsters destined to be alone. This will be proven if her mother and her were involved with the scars caused on person she loves and death of his mother. We shall see how it turns out. But as Moon Young says in order to be okay you need to not be okay, in order to heal you need to embrace the pain and trauma. So even though it may look like they need to separate for the good of each other, they will still need to embrace the truth and choose each other to heal and be happy and free. Another evidence for why it will end in a happy ending even if the odds seem against them.

mgsapphire

Age of Innocence

The wonder years of life are those spent during our youth. Those in which we get to form relationships with those around us. Those which shape the mold into which we will grow into.

For the main characters, Kang Tae, Sang Tae, and Moon Young, this age of innocence was taken away. As much as everyone infantilizes Sang Tae let’s not forget he also went through trauma of his own.

Anyways, Ju Ri also had a story that marked her. Ju Ri was a fearful little girl, Moon Young was girl who was feared by everyone. Kang Tae was forced to grow up too fast, and Sang Tae’s growth was stunted.

One can’t go back to that age of innocence, and yet, twice in this tv show, we’ve seen the image of Moon Young and Kang Tae consoling the childhood version of themselves.

Their relationship in their youth marked them both, and meeting again was a step for them to heal the wounds they have, even if their meeting as children seems nothing compared to the rest of their baggage, those interactions marked them.

Kang Tae marked it as the beginning of his cowardice and Moon Young as the beginning of her solitude. Soothing the wounds left open to fester and rot is something that they’re attempting to do.

Why am I like a kid? Because I can see you want to be loved.

Where were you? Well… to get what I couldn’t give you last time.

They bring each other back to that age of innocence. Even the kiss they shared was the epitome of innocence.

Even though they’re adults, they remain with a childlike innocence when they’re around each other, and by doing so, they’re healing the wounds that were in the past.

kdramatelier

Smile. Don‘t cry.

kdramaddictallday

I just saw this on twitter

Turns out her last text said "Today is an important day. Come and give me seaweed food and go."

미역국만 - this says "Just the seaweed soup" which I found out implied that she just wanted that and nothing else.

Moon Young just wanted to have a proper meal with him and have a proper parting.

She knows he's gonna go back anyway so she just wanted to see him one last time.

And do you hear that?

That's the sound of my heart breaking to pieces.

Props to 'dramasushi' for pointing this out

they tweet real cool analysis about the show and ngl some of em have made me tear up harder

mgsapphire

Learning individuality

What am I when I’m taken away from my environment? We rarely question that. What am I when I’m not a friend, a sibling, a worker, a parent, a student? What am I when I’m stripped of everything else?

It’s a tough question to answer for any person, but for Kang Tae, it was the hardest question of all. What was he when he was not his brother’s caregiver? When he wasn’t a hospital worker? When he didn’t try to please people or act to fit other’s people’s mood?

This sequence (abbreviated for length purposes) really resonated with me, we once again hear the phrase Kang Tae belongs to Kang Tae, but I think that Kang Tae didn’t know for years who he was when he was detached from the role of care giver. His mother put him in this earth with the sole purpose of him eventually becoming a care giver.

Kang Tae belongs to himself, but the brothers are never really given an opportunity to explore their identities beyond the one they hold together. And even then, they struggle to grasp what their role is within their own relationship.

Then start acting like one! Kang Tae finally stops going by what his brother needs or wants, but actually starts expressing his own wishes and retaliating what his brother does or says.

This is a major shifts in dynamics and something that was long needed for both of them. To stand on the same level, as brothers. Because in actually acting like brothers, they can start breaking away from the ties that bound them in this problematic dynamic they have.

Kang Tae finally realizes that by maintaining themselves in their little bubble, they have neglected other parts of life.

This episode feels to me as a coming of age story. A study of character. We get to see who Kang Tae truly is when he is detached from his brother, from the hospital and, especially, from his role as care giver, which had hindered his relationship with everyone around him, including Moon Young.

He is someone who has fun and likes to tease people, he’s someone with simple dreams and realistic goals. But that doesn’t mean he isn’t a dreamer. By the contrary, Kang Tae had long put aside his own dreams.

Kang Tae belongs to Kang Tae.

A phrase spoken by a tired child, a child who, himself, did not comprehend the meaning of until adulthood. He does not belong to the tags and labels he feels dutiful, instead, he belongs to himself when he is stripped away from all those.