I feel sick from crying and from trying not to cry.

[dangermousie]

This is a letter that's written both to you and to me at the same time. I might forget that I had ever written this letter...Or even this letter itself might disappear. For me or for you, this letter is written for whoever may live holding on to the memories. When I first happened to come into possession of this talisman, I was very curious about its cause and effect. At first, I thought that the realization of my dream was the effect. Shortly after, I thought meeting you was its effect. Then afterwards, I thought that beginning a new life in another world was the effect. But it's only now that I came to realize its effects. If the cause was me surviving, then me losing everything was the effect. My future. My honor. My values. My people. And you, too. In order to preserve my life, I had to give up an equivalent price. This only made sense. That I thought I could keep even one of those things was my own foolishness. How much more will I lose in order to repay the price? Not being able to see you anymore, I have now realized that even that was a luxury. Memories. Our memories. Memories. Losing them is the final price I must pay. I do not know what will happen now. Will we forget each other, or will we live unable to forget, forever in agony? If I have a final wish...it is to remember you. In a life without aims, to not even have those memories would be hell. And you...As for you...Even if you should happen to read this letter someday far in the future, I pray that you will not be able to realize whom it is for.



My. Heart. Is. Broken. I am not sure how I can survive time-travelling romantic angst. Seriously. Cannot cope. Eyes puffy. Throat hurts. Nose red. Traumatized.

Also, sorry, SUFBB, but you are going to have to share N1 drama of 2012 spot.

Comments

[ladysaotome.livejournal.com]

Exactly.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Ahhh, my heart.

[algelic.livejournal.com]

I knew the last couple of episodes would bump this drama up in your list.

I went through a whole box of Cleenex with this episode. So beautifully tragic.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I went from being in love to being obsessed.

[hollyxu.livejournal.com]

Episode 15 was perfect, yes.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Angst junkie like me ate it up.

[hamster428.livejournal.com]

I know, I know! The moment he dropped to his knees in anguished realization, I literally died a little inside. And I kept dying a little more as the situation becomes less and less salvageable.
I'm of the group that doesn't think the phone makes sense. It could, if you make up reasons for it, but that's why it's so clunky. He coulda felt her seeking him the way she telepathically senses his danger, from the core of his being. If they were angling for the true love bit, there was no need for the phone being a connection btw their souls. Not at this point in the game. And as a portal, if that is what it was meant to be, I still would rather there be some logic behind the "opening of the portal". Love connects through time and space, but it shouldn't wield mystical power. They hadnt loved each other any less when they got separated so why now? Why does Love work now, at this hour? Only the talisman was specifically casted with a spell. YW's feelings would've meant crap if it wasn't casted with the monk's magic. Therefore it should still be the only thing that works following the original setup, unless that phone was drenched in some voodoo too. I'd rather the logic behind his escape be the same that it has always been: free yourself from something and it will naturally come to you. Not hanging onto life and u shall live. Leave the new world (burn the talisman) and you'll be led back. so I'd rather his act of burning the talisman be what makes existing in 2012 again possible at all. When he's willing to let go of that world, he's allowed to enter it. And his suicidal hanging/near death is what caused him to transport back true to the original parameter. And I prefer it this way because after making the return seem impossible, they shouldn't have thrown such an easy solution at us. The talisman worked the 1st time so we accept its power for consequent occasions. She tried calling before, it didnt work, so I can't accept it working now. They can bend rules, but they can't come up with new ones completely like this.
With that said, still my fav of the year.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

See, it made sense to me.

The talisman was always a piece of paper - it was merely a conduit for YW's feelings. And the phone (whose importance was shown over and over) was conduit for HJ. Her earlier call didn't go through but this one did because he was dying at that moment (plus, the fact that she remembered him despite the Universe's rule counts for something, I think). I think it's the fact that he was willing and ready to die combined with her love and possibly any after effects of the original talisman that did it.

[hamster428.livejournal.com]

See, which is why I say it could make sense, except you'd have to come up with the assumptions yourself.. Which ends up making it clunky. There was nothing that says the talisman was still at work, it's just a possibility we toss out there to give sense to the phone. Had the author shown the link btw the new magic and the old spell, all of this couldve been put to rest. But as it is, talisman and phone are still two unrelated items in terms of magical power.

[sanaenam.livejournal.com]

Why not consider the possibility that the drama makers may be asking us to question the way we've come to take phones for granted? Are they not magical? I still find the technology behind telegrams - let alone telephones, cell phones, or smart phones - unbelievable. (And thereby, I feel as if they're asking us to think further on the magic that allows us to live and breathe at all. We know a lot of the science behind the mechanics of human biology, but we still do not know what spark of life imbued physical matter with spirit.)

You want magic, spell casting, some explicit thing that audiences in 2012 would readily read as supernatural. But to 169x Joseon folks, the phone would be magic beyond all magic. And perhaps we in 2012 ought to do so as well.

The drama makers' treatment of the cell phone reminds me a bit of the ethos of a lot of avant garde European filmmakers, who treat the mundane as perhaps not so. (Yes, French New Wave filmmakers like Jean-Luc Godard drove me up the wall and may still, but they did make me question things I'd come to take for granted.) The philosophical underpinnings of the show - whether intentional or not - harken back to Hegel, perhaps even as far as classical Greek philosophers, in its treatment of the relationship between the spirit and the body. Clearly, the show treats spirit as embodied (I've written about this elsewhere already, on Joonnie and Dramabeans), and though no spiritual authority explicitly imbued the smart phone with the spirit of the devotee, the show clearly positions the phone as the embodiment of Heejin's spirit.

I don't think this is my making unfounded assumptions. I couldn't have arrived at these conclusions without the show providing the grounds for such analysis. However, I had to contemplate, reflect, and ponder and then dwell some more on the drama's treatment of the connection between Heejin and Bungdo in order to realize this. That is - rather than failure - the ultimate sign of an artwork's power.

This show gave us the breadcrumbs with the talisman. It then challenged us to extrapolate. It's intentionally refusing to give its viewers some pat shorthand. At least that's how it seems to me.

[hamster428.livejournal.com]

I think every technology (photographs, videorecording) is unbelievable but that's because I'm not smart enough or too ignorant to specific topic to comprehend, like the 1600's folks are. It's still science and there's a basis for the way it works. There are theories, formulas, numeric solutions that follow a set of faithful physical rules. Voodoo on the other hand, is supposed to be incomprehensible to begin with. If Show's message was "magic is all around us," then Show didn't decide on that until the 11th hr. Show worked on a rigid concept all along and decided to throw a loop ball. Not that I'm exceptionally against the ending, I just don't believe it to be as thought out as some do.

[village.livejournal.com]

OMG. OMG. Yes. Yes. This drama, this drama. Why am I repeating everything I'm saying? lol. It's just -- the last few episodes broke my heart into little pieces and after each episode I was done. The part that hurt the most was when he came back briefly for that second time and he looked down at the talisman and knew he was going to disappear again, and just the look on his face, the way he reached out to her -- Gah. I can't. Damn them. I think episode fifteen is better than the finale but still, they were all nearly perfect final episodes.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yes, the bit when he reached out towards her but they couldn't even touch. But I think it was the letter that killed me, intercut with her crying in the rain. Or the scene in 16 when he was surrounded and just...you see him give up. Or maybe when he landed in Joseon for good in ep 15 and the look on their faces. 16 was wonderful (though the scene with the tie pretty much ended me - only in this drama would something so mundane become so romantic and then so horrifying and be sweet again by the end) and that ending in the theater was beyond incredible, but ep 15 was sheer perfection, the best ep of the incredible drama.

[village.livejournal.com]

When he reached for the tie I actually whispered, "no." LOL. I was all, don't do it. Don't do it. We can figure it out. It was absolutely heartbreaking to see him give up like that after watching him be so determined throughout the entire drama. And then that realization that a tie could be used to take a life -- that moment just killed me. I'm getting all emotional again.

And that's exactly how I feel about episode 15. It just had that perfect mix of emotion that's engulfing. It was pretty much a perfect episode. Top to bottom, this drama is really solid. Like there wasn't one episode in the bunch that I felt was weak. That's pretty impressive.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

The tie thing killed me. And then he tells her "I missed the purpose of a tie so much I could die" or similar. Ahhhhh...

[joonni.livejournal.com]

I actually to laugh at this post because knowing your love of angst, I figured this episode might do you in.

His letter...is just beautiful. What kills me the most is when he lists what he lost. He lost everything. Everything! But yet, there was still more to lose. Oh gosh, I'm tearing up again.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yup, this was the ep that switched me from 'really really good drama' to 'omg obsession top 10 all-time dramas!!!'

Yes, the letter is brutal - and I love how he desperately tries to remain stoic and keep going despite how hurt he is by it all. It also gets me in ep 16, when you see him just decide to give up - look at the guards and just be done. But the tie -eeek. As I mentioned upthread, it's something that was so romantic and special and then it becomes so horrifying. (But then is made good again by the end).

[lyrayoo (from livejournal.com)]

and thank God Ji Hyun Woo did not over act this part. he's still the calm kim boong do that we've met at episode 1. he unload his anguish yes but still, he was not bawling LOL.

[mookiehyun.livejournal.com]

Of ALL the dramaz I'm so behind (and still kinda interested) and I havent got time to watch a wink of anything, I rewatched 15 just now.

If I can c w/ puffy pingpongd eyes, my tears r used up and should be pure blood now. While I totally can see how amazingly magically and well planned/thought out/brilliant the phone motif is, I'd rather it go down a notch and have a talisman...tie. And let that magically phone works in 2013. The tie is still a token of love, which they made a sweet lovely connection and it's not as demanding a suspension of disbelief. It gave me a good pause when it rang in Joseon and while I CAN process it later on and didnt hate it, my kneejerk is a long screech of WTF! It's asking too much fr little viewer me to take that leap of faith and process all of it while I'm beyond wrung out in feelings, drowning in tears and SO MUCH PAINNN to get all of it instantaneously, and I'm not patient enough to pause and process and I carried on watching the happy ending, and all of it took away the perfectness of the exp, of drama. It's too well thought out, too demanding and my emotions r too heightend to keep calm and think it through and through to appreciate. BUT now I can totally see it, but the magic of experiencing it unspoiled is gone, forever.

I still <3333 QIHM very much. The best I've seen since forever.

[joyce fung (from livejournal.com)]

maybe i'll have to go back and rewatch it all too.... gonna wait till my mom's ready to watch it with me =P

but yeah... i think a talisman necktie may have been an easier to digest alternative... (i've said what i could about the necktie on DB so i'll stop here haha) I'm really happy though that mookie and many others still lurv this drama! =D

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I was excited for it, but I had no idea how wonderful it was going to be. I went into the finale utterly spoiled and still loved it.

[sanaenam.livejournal.com]

In total agreement. #1 of 2012 = SUFBB & QIHM. Both from TvN. I love TvN.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's my n1 and 2 too! tVN forever!

[christysg.livejournal.com]

This was the perfect episode. PERFECT. It's my #1 episode of any drama of all time. The angst was so good.

I lost it mid-way in his letter, when he started listing what he has lost and what he will lose, because I didn't think the consequences of dabbling in voodoo would be this huge. Or should I say I might have some inkling that the consequences would be huge, but hearing him say it out loud just means it will come true. And I didn't think the show would dare to go that far.

It was so cruel when he disappeared a second time, in front of Hee Jin. And when he finally went down on his knees you know there's no hope left. *sobs*

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I know, when you see the unflappable BD lose it, it makes you realize how horrifying the situation truly is. I cried and cried and cried.