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Time has passed since Gyeom and Moo-bi last interacted but they still haven’t forgotten about each other. Even though their future is ambiguous, shaky, and uncertain, there’s a sense of relief and hope that maybe they can return back to how things were back then. Maybe there’s a chance they can continue where they last left off.

Melo Movie Episode 2: Why So Serious?

Moo-bi’s dad always said that Moo-bi was soft-hearted and got easily attached, especially to pitiful little things. Whether it was taking care of a little stray dog, trying to save the life of a little worm, or standing up for a little Jeong-hoo who was repeatedly bullied, little Moo-bi was kind. But after meeting Gyeom, there’s just something about him that she was drawn to and it confused her even more because he wasn’t pitiful nor little. She became attached to him. She was curious about him; she was curious about his relationship with his brother. Then once Gyeom disappeared, Moo-bi was bothered by his absence. She was at first worried then angry. But she knew that she couldn’t continue this behavior for long. She had to move on and forget about Gyeom. And so she did. After a brief conversation with successful female director, Director Chu, Moo-bi decided to let go of Gyeom. She vowed to work hard to move on up and make her own movie later. To do that, she had to forget about Gyeom first.

The reason Gyeom abruptly disappeared was to take care of Joon who got into a car accident. He stays next to his brother’s side in the hospital all day and all night and supports him every single step of the way. He doesn’t take a break for too long and when he does, it’s to meet up with Sang-sik who hands him some new clothes to change into. It may be hard for Gyeom but he doesn’t show it. While Joon gets some rest sleeping on his bed, Gyeom reconsiders starting up his movie reviews again. It’s been a while since he’s posted on his blog and many people still look forward to his reviews to this day (this sort of reminded me and my blog so I just want to say, even if I don’t reply back to your comment or even if you’re a silent lurker, I still appreciate each and every single one of you. I’m grateful for you all!). A phone call that Gyeom received earlier that day from a magazine company gets him thinking. Maybe he can get paid for writing movie reviews. 

Joon is discharged from the hospital and the two brothers head back home. The road to recovery is a tiring and grueling one for Joon but he gets through it with the help and support of Gyeom. Gyeom continues to take care of his brother and they continue their tradition of having movie nights. Just like that, time flies by and five years pass.

Moo-bi’s accomplished her dream of directing her own movie and during one of the movie screenings, she answers a question from an audience member. This audience member is none other than Gyeom and she’s in total shock upon seeing him again. Five years have passed but he was still curious about the type of movie that she would make and he wanted to be there to check it out. After watching the movie in the theater, he stays behind to ask her if her movie was really a melo movie, a romance movie. Was it about love? And just like how Moo-bi five years ago when Gyeom asked her why she eats alone, all Moo-bi responded to for his question was the word “yes.” She doesn’t fully answer his question and the host moves on. After the event ends, Moo-bi catches Gyeom outside of the movie theater staring at a mini-poster of her movie. She’s so bothered seeing him again she asks her junior staff for a recording of the screening event. Gyeom is just as bothered by what he did and he beats himself up over it while hanging out at Si-joon’s studio.

Si-joon is still working at Vide Bar with Sang-sik and even though he says that he’s going to quit, he just can’t seem to do it. Vide Bar is now a big hit and it’s thanks to Joo-Ah’s genius suggestion five years ago to upgrade the pub to a retro vibe. Si-joon is upset hearing Joo-Ah’s name. He’s still hurt over their break-up. He can’t seem to concentrate on making any music and he confronts Gyeom over a copy of a magazine that Gyeom left at his studio. The magazine features a story on Joo-Ah who’s now a scriptwriter and Si-joon doesn’t feel so great learning this update. Si-joon gets that Joo-Ah and Gyeom have been friends for a decade but how could Gyeom watch her movie and still support her? She didn’t even come to visit once when Joon was in the hospital. But Gyeom can’t help it. He just loves movies too much. He loves movies so much he even went to watch Moo-bi’s movie and he recounts the story about his movie theater experience earlier that day to Si-joon. Moo-bi herself watches the recording from the movie screening and focuses on Gyeom’s question for her. She’s so bothered that she goes out to a bar and meets up with her colleague, PD Ha Hyun-sil. Moo-bi’s movie is doing pretty well at the box office but that’s not what Moo-bi cares about. She’s curious about how Gyeom was able to enter the movie screening. And apparently she requests for PD Ha to help her with a favor but Moo-bi can’t quite remember what exactly she said to PD Ha because she was too intoxicated. That damn hangover!

Meanwhile, Director Ma’s latest movie isn’t doing so well. He’s concerned about the movie reviews and the deterioration of his directing career. But Director Ma has nothing to fear because Gyeom is here! Director Ma and Gyeom finally catch up after five years and it’s just like the good old times. It feels good to be reunited once again. Moo-bi meets with a director of her own and it’s none other than Director Chu who was the one who encouraged Moo-bi to work hard and create a movie of her own. They chat for a bit about Director Chu’s retrospective that she has coming up as well as Moo-bi’s thoughts on finally having her own movie. Does it feel good? Does she feel at peace? But Moo-bi isn’t so sure how she feels.

Gyeom reunites with staff members from Director Ma’s studio. They’re all excited to see him again after so many years. It’s there that Gyeom learns about Director Chu’s retrospective and how Moo-bi is now under Director Chu’s team. Director Ma remembers how Gyeom and Moo-bi used to be close to each other. Gyeom skips out on dinner with Director Ma and the team to attend his tradition of movie night with Joon. But it’s clear things have changed and are different. Gyeom is no longer as chatty and excited during the movie nights. So Joon takes the chance to check in with Gyeom to see what he’s been up to and how he’s been feeling. It seems as if Gyeom hasn’t been enjoying his life. But Gyeom reasons that he hasn’t changed. It’s just that he’s grown up now into a decent and mature man.

Moo-bi is still bothered by the thought of having reunited with Gyeom. She can’t get him out of her mind. So she’s back to square one and asking herself the same question she did five years ago: why did he disappear? To try to make sense of it all, Moo-bi asks her mom how she’d feel if Dad was to return. What if Dad actually wasn’t dead? What if he just went on a very long trip and returned? Mom doesn’t quite comprehend Moo-bi’s strange questions but she still answers it anyways: Mom would like it if such a thing happened. But she quickly changes the subject and notices that the house across the street has finally been sold after many years.

Gyeom and Director Ma go on a drive in Gyeom’s cool red car to attend Director Chu’s retrospective. Moo-bi is also there at the event and she watches her mentor answer a few questions from the press. Moo-bi then turns her attention to the entrance of the building and lands her eyes on none other than Gyeom. Though she feels as if she should be upset and frustrated at seeing him again, she isn’t. There’s a sense of relief inside of her. She doesn’t take her eyes off of him, even as Gyeom finally catches her eye and approaches her slowly (omg I’m going to cryyyy! I get so emotional and sad watching this drama). Moo-bi notes,

“I know I sound crazy. But that day, Ko Gyeom looked like someone who was returning home from his trip.

I thought I saw a sense of relief and inexplicable exhaustion in him.”

In a crowded room full of strangers and colleagues alike, Gyeom and Moo-bi only see each other. It’s as if they’re the only two people who exist in this moment. But that moment is interrupted by PD Ha who has an update for Moo-bi. She knows the identity of the person at the movie screening who Moo-bi described as a fraud who asked a rude question. Moo-bi attempts to stop PD Ha from speaking any further given that this so-called fraud is standing right next to her listening in on their entire conversation. It doesn’t take long for PD Ha to notice Gyeom and point him out as the man who Moo-bi was referring to. LOL. When Moo-bi finally manages to pull PD Ha away, PD Ha assumes that Gyeom who’s now a movie critic must have said something bad about Moo-bi’s movie. That’s all movie critics do anyways, right? Plus, it’s well-known that movie critics and directors don’t get along. Eventually, the duo move along and head inside the theater to watch one of Director Chu’s movies. They sit in the row in front of Director Ma and Gyeom and Director Ma congratulates Moo-bi on her movie debut. But Gyeom has nothing to say to Moo-bi and she too has nothing to say to him.

Moo-bi dips out early to head back home. Upon arriving at her car, she realizes that she doesn’t have her car keys with her. Thankfully, Gyeom catches up to her and has her car keys that she had dropped on the ground. When he hands her the car keys, she’s suddenly reminded of the memory from five years ago when he handed her the keys to his bike. She still hasn’t forgotten about him or that memory. Moo-bi desperately wants to get away from Gyeom, but she has burning questions for him that she wants answered. Is he a movie critic? Has he reviewed her movie? But most importantly of all, why did he suddenly disappear? Was he ill? Did someone die? Did he commit some kind of crime and get locked up? When Gyeom doesn’t answer her question as to why he disappeared, Moo-bi assumes she must have been easy for him. She wishes that he’ll never show up in front of her again.

But that wish doesn’t last for long because well.. it turns out Gyeom and Joon were the ones who moved into the house across the street from Moo-bi. Upon learning the shocking news, Moo-bi’s in disbelief. She’s now neighbors with Gyeom?! There’s no way. Gyeom is just as shocked as Moo-bi when he sees her standing in his front yard. This is purely a coincidence. Joon was the one who picked the house and wanted to live in it. Gyeom accepts the reality of their situation a lot faster than Moo-bi does and he extends his arms towards her for a handshake. The night before, Moo-bi claimed that movie critics and directors were supposed to be enemies. So he and Moo-bi should try to get along like the enemies that they are.

Epilogue

We go back to 3 years ago. Gyeom is devoted to taking care of Joon as his caregiver. Moo-bi is reminded of Gyeom whenever she sees corn so she refuses to eat any even though it’s her favorite. At one point, Gyeom even catches Moo-bi walking out and about and he gets off of his bus in hopes of meeting her. But he’s reminded of his situation as his brother’s caretaker and also receives a phone call from the hospital right at that moment. So his hopes of talking to Moo-bi never come into fruition. Though it wasn’t an easy decision for Moo-bi, she ends up blocking Gyeom’s number. When Gyeom finally musters the courage to call Moo-bi, it’s too late and he’s unable to reach her.

My Thoughts:

Rewatching these episodes makes me so emotional and I definitely pick up little clues and hints along the way. I didn’t cry initially watching this episode but then found myself choked up during certain scenes this second time around. I remembered not enjoying this episode as much initially but I came to appreciate it a little bit more upon a re-watch.

For one, I enjoyed this episode’s dive into Moo-bi’s story and her complicated relationship with movies. As we saw in the first episode, Moo-bi wanted to become a director because she viewed it as competition and wanted to win and wanted to prove to her father that he was pathetic for devoting his entire life to the movie that he created. So when Moo-bi was finally able to do just that, she realized that it wasn’t as fulfilling as she thought it would be. This was what she initially thought she wanted all along but when she finally got to make her own movie, she didn’t really feel anything. She didn’t feel good or happy. Tickets were selling for her movie and yet there was still this void and emptiness inside of her. Perhaps there was another reason as to why she wanted to become a director and got involved in the movie industry. Where would she go from here?

The other part about this episode that I really enjoyed was hearing Mom’s perspective of Moo-bi’s dad. Moo-bi resented her dad for neglecting her and choosing movies over her and these experiences clouded her judgment of her dad. But for Mom, it was different for her. Mom’s comments may get lost in the moment and it may seem like she doesn’t really express much because of her cold and aloof personality. But I loved hearing Mom’s small but impactful comments about her husband. She would love it if her husband actually was just on a trip all along and returned back home. When Moo-bi complained about how tiring Gyeom was because he reminded her of her dad, Mom added that things were tiring with Dad but that it was still a decent life. Moo-bi’s perception of her dad is based on her own experiences and she’s still learning more about her mom’s side of the story. It’s bittersweet to see the ways that Mom recounted her memories with her husband. Though she doesn’t express it much, she misses him in her own ways and it’s just those little one or two comments that illustrates how much she loved him and missed him.

I liked how the drama drew parallels between Gyeom and Moo-bi from five years ago to the present day. Five years ago, Gyeom was curious about Moo-bi and what type of movie she would make. Five years later, he was still curious about her movie and went to go watch it in the movie theater. Five years ago, he handed her his keys to his bike. Five years later, he handed her the keys to her car. Five years ago, the two kissed each other on a snowy night under a bright lamp out on an alleyway. Five years later, the two reunited on not-so-good terms and argued with each other under a light pole that brightened up the street that they were standing on. Five years ago, Moo-bi answered “yes” to one of Gyeom’s many questions for her. Five years later, she answered one of his questions in the same exact way. Though five years have passed, nothing much has changed. Gyeom and Moo-bi still haven’t forgotten about each other. They still missed each other.

The scene at the retrospective event where it was as if Moo-bi was frozen in time while staring at Gyeom was so impactful, emotional, and well-done. To Moo-bi, Gyeom always reminded her of her late father so it made sense that she compared Gyeom’s disappearance to her father’s disappearance. It made sense that she asked her mother how she would have felt in this hypothetical situation because she takes after her mom. Moo-bi had to convince herself that she and Gyeom weren’t compatible. That they weren’t on good terms, that she had forgotten about him, that she should be upset with him. But deep down inside, she was angry. Angry because she still missed him and thought about him and kept up the hope of seeing him again one day. And when that day finally came and she did see him again, any progress she made was undone. Moo-bi waited so long for Gyeom and tried so hard to forget about him only for it to come down to this. She forced herself to believe that she and Gyeom were supposed to be enemies. He was a movie critic and she was a director. They’re not supposed to get along. Moo-bi could tell herself that all she wants but she knew deep down inside that that wasn’t true. Because she and Gyeom did get along. They were compatible. They weren’t enemies. They had history.

During this five year span, Moo-bi pretended as if Gyeom was dead to her. She viewed him like how she used to view her father. Someone who was as good as dead because he was absent in her life. But unlike her father who actually passed away, Gyeom didn’t. Unlike her father who disappeared forever, Gyeom returned this time. Unlike her father who didn’t go on a trip, Gyeom did and he finally came back home. He came back home to her.