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Now that Moo-bi and Gyeom live next to each other, they navigate their new identity as neighbors. How should they approach the awkward situation? Should they avoid each other? Should they talk and work things out? Although it takes a few tries, Gyeom and Moo-bi come to learn that maybe it’s not all as bad as they thought it would be.

Melo Movie Episode 3: Keep Your Friends Close, But Your Enemies Closer

Moo-bi compares her experience of being Gyeom’s neighbor to an Alfred Hitchcock movie. You watch in suspense as the bomb that’s placed under the table is about to go off any minute and that’s how Moo-bi feels about being Gyeom’s neighbor. Living across from Gyeom is like a bomb and she doesn’t know when it’s going to explode. But not only that, she’s also annoyed at how much he’s trying not to bother her. Whether it’s skipping her house for introductions to getting off the bus that she’s on to avoiding her at the field that they both exercise at to pretending like he doesn’t see her working at her mother’s meat market to rushing Joon inside their front yard while out on a walk, Gyeom does his best to avoid Moo-bi. Gyeom takes Moo-bi’s comment about never showing up in front of her literally and it annoys Moo-bi. 

But there’s also another side to Moo-bi that Gyeom learns about after moving in next to her. She enjoys having some fun with the neighborhood kids at the playground and she also helps the elderly by carrying their belongings. Moo-bi’s new habit is opening the window curtains to look at Gyeom across the street. On one particular day, she notices him walking out towards her and assumes that he wants to see her again. But when she opens her front door, she finds that it’s not Gyeom standing in front of her. In fact, it’s childhood friend, Jeong-hoo! He’s returned from the U.S. after his surgery and is in much better health and condition. The two childhood friends are happy to be reunited at last. So what exactly was the reason as to why Gyeom was seen approaching Moo-bi’s house? Well, Gyeom actually witnessed Jeong-hoo entering Moo-bi’s house and inched closer to the house to conduct his own little investigation. Gyeom grows jealous at the thought of Moo-bi hugging Jeong-hoo and he wishes to move out of the house. But Joon reminds him that they have a housewarming party that night and Gyeom should get in contact with Si-joon to invite him. LOL.

Si-joon’s at the movie theater debating if he should watch the new movie that Joo-Ah’s written but he decides to change his mind. Just when he’s given up, he receives a special invitation from Joo-Ah herself to watch the movie with her. They finally meet again after five years. Back at Gyeom’s house, it’s his turn to meet Jeong-hoo. As the former resident, Jeong-hoo knows Gyeom’s house pretty well and gives him a few pointers. He thought he’d swing by his old house after visiting Moo-bi from across the street. He’s also curious if the steel box with some of his favorite belongings is still in the house somewhere and Gyeom jokes around with Jeong-hoo by misleading him around different spots in the front yard, lol. But the steel box isn’t actually anywhere where Gyeom said it was and Jeong-hoo returns back to Moo-bi’s house in a bad mood. The neighbor across the street is a nutcase. But wait, Jeong-hoo already met Gyeom?! Jeong-hoo senses that there’s something strange going on between Moo-bi and Gyeom. They seem curious about each other.

Si-joon and Joo-ah sit down at a cafe to talk. Si-joon is still not over their break-up and he’s not happy to see his ex-girlfriend. He’s jealous that she achieved her dreams of becoming a successful screenwriter while he can barely produce any music. He’s upset that she didn’t use him or their relationship as inspiration for her scripts while he did for his music. Showing back unexpectedly in his life must have been fun for Joo-Ah, but Si-joon doesn’t like it. He makes it clear to her that he and Gyeom aren’t her friends and to no longer be involved with them.

It’s finally time for the housewarming party and Si-joon and Sang-sik arrive at Gyeom and Joon’s house. Before Si-joon can even do anything else, Gyeom pulls him aside and starts updating him about his relationship with Moo-bi. Whether it’s washing the veggies to cooking the meat on the grill to eating, Gyeom just can’t stop talking to Si-joon about his jealousy towards Jeong-hoo and his feelings for Moo-bi. Si-joon is a great friend by listening to Gyeom but even he has his limits. He advises Gyeom to decide on what he wants to do. He’s acting weird and should either apologize and make up with Moo-bi or just forget about it and move on. Plus, Joon’s recovered from his accident and the accident wasn’t Gyeom’s fault. Or perhaps is there something else that Gyeom is keeping from Si-joon? Gyeom denies he’s harboring any secrets. While Gyeom and Joon clean up the housewarming party, Moo-bi checks Gyeom’s blog to find that he still hasn’t reviewed her movie. She wants to know what he thought of it. Speaking of movies, Joon admits that one of the reasons as to why he liked the house was for the big white wall in the front yard. They could project movies onto the wall and watch them there. It was always one of Gyeom’s dreams as a little kid. Gyeom doesn’t feel so great knowing that Joon did something for his sake again. He wishes that his brother would do something that he wants to do. To make up, the two brothers agree to watch a movie together. It’s a trick that Joon pulled on Gyeom whenever they fought and it worked every time. Though Gyeom has grown up, he’s still Joon’s little brother after all.

Si-joon makes some progress on a new song that he’s producing. Meanwhile, Director Ma nervously waits for the arrival of the movie critic who’s interviewing him on his new movie. When Gyeom shows up to the interview, Director Ma assumes he must be mistaken. But nope, Gyeom is the movie critic who’s interviewing him which Director Ma eventually feels relieved about. He’s a fan of Gyeom’s movie reviews, thinks he’s a good writer, and is positive he can rely on Gyeom to write a good review about his movie. Speaking of Gyeom’s movie reviews, Moo-bi continually checks his blog to see if he’s written a review on her movie. She’s disappointed to find out that he hasn’t and she assumes he must only write reviews for people who he likes given that he’s written something for every single one of Director Ma’s movies. Moo-bi also has eyes on her next project called “Melody” and requests to set up a meeting with the scriptwriter.

Joo-Ah goes out to have a drink at a bar alone. She doesn’t have anyone who she can go to to talk about her problems. And it seems as if she’s not the only person who’s experiencing the same struggle because the person sitting near her is also alone and can relate to her. It’s none other than our Moo-bi. So the two find some comfort in each other’s presence and enjoy some alcohol while venting to each other about their relationship issues as well as sharing their occupations (Moo-bi’s apparently a civil servant now and Joo-Ah is a pilates instructor). Before bidding farewell, Moo-bi and Joo-Ah exchange phone numbers before going their own ways but they delete the contact information right after. LOL.

While walking home from the convenience store, Gyeom catches Moo-bi stumbling out and about since she’s had a little too much to drink. He doesn’t want to bother her so he silently follows after her to make sure she gets home okay. The only thing is.. he’s stopped by two police officers who assume that Gyeom is a dangerous man following after an intoxicated woman. Gyeom is more concerned with getting caught by Moo-bi so he volunteers to leave with the police officers to the police station. LOL. Moo-bi notices the small commotion from behind her but she can’t quite pin exactly who it is or what’s happening. When Gyeom arrives at the police station, he defends himself and argues that he’s innocent. He was following Moo-bi out of concern for her and he lives right across the street from her. The police officers aren’t buying his story and it seems like all hope is lost for Gyeom. But thankfully, the sound of the water jug in the police station catches Gyeom’s attention and he’s relieved to find Moo-bi standing there to get some water to drink. She’s there to bail him out (I remember being sooo in love with this scene! For some reason, it’s so darn heart-fluttering and cute!! I loved the way Moo-bi came back for Gyeom <3).

While walking back home together, Moo-bi and Gyeom finally address the elephant in the room. Why did Gyeom just disappear like that? Shouldn’t he have apologized for doing such a thing? So with a guilty and apologetic look on his face, Gyeom sincerely apologizes to Moo-bi. She has a soft spot for him and is internally moved by his apology. But wait, what about his career as a movie critic? Does he still write movie reviews for every single movie he watches? It’s clear Moo-bi wants Gyeom’s attention but she can’t help but still feel a bit frustrated at him. She’ll be busy with her upcoming film so she comments that he can have the neighborhood to himself. They won’t see each other much anyways.

Moo-bi and Joo-Ah met at a bar and then they meet again – this time for work. Turns out Joo-Ah’s the scriptwriter for the movie “Melody” that Moo-bi is a big fan of and wants to work on. Haha. So this is eventually how they learn each other’s real occupations. Though Moo-bi wants to choose “Melody” as her next project, Joo-Ah’s a bit hesitant. She has another script she’s working on and there’s other options they can go with. But Moo-bi is adamant on sticking with “Melody” and Joo-Ah agrees that she is indeed reluctant to go with that script because it was inspired by her relationship with Si-joon.

Gyeom continues his investigation on Jeong-hoo and his connection to Moo-bi. What exactly are they? Are they just friends? Why does Jeong-hoo keep on referring to Moo-bi as his girl? So to get to know Jeong-hoo better, Gyeom hands Jeong-hoo the steel box with his childhood toys and belongings that he had been searching for. He even invites Jeong-hoo inside his house to check out his toy collection, haha. 

Moo-bi heads out for an interview at her office. She comes across Gyeom who’s also heading out at the same time. They end up walking to the same bus stop and getting on the same bus. Moo-bi continually glances at Gyeom and Gyeom awkwardly sneaks glances at her as well. Eventually, the two separate when Moo-bi gets off at a bus stop and Gyeom doesn’t follow her. Where could he be going? But just when they go their own ways, they eventually find their way back to each other. Because it turns out both Moo-bi and Gyeom were going to the same place. He’s interviewing her at her office and arrived earlier by getting off at the closer bus stop. Haha. So Gyeom conducts his interview with Moo-bi about her movie but there’s still a few more questions he has for her. Why is her name Moo-bi? Moo-bi admits that she hates movies because people make such a big deal and fuss about it. She indirectly refers to her father who always placed movies over her. As a director, she wants to prove that you can still make movies without having it take over every single aspect of your life. Moo-bi might not like movies but it is her job and she tolerates it. So with that, Gyeom invites her to watch a movie with him as a form of apology to her for what he did to her five years ago but Moo-bi declines.

Joo-Ah struggles to focus on work so she takes a break by listening to one of Si-joon’s songs on his Soundcloud account and she finds it oddly comforting. Meanwhile, Si-joon catches up on some sleep back at his studio. As for Moo-bi and Gyeom, the two do end up watching a movie together. Gyeom sets up a movie outside in his front yard which catches Moo-bi’s attention when she gets home. She recalls his invitation from earlier that day at her office to watch a movie together and though she had initially declined, she gives in. Moo-bi pulls up with a chair on her balcony and munches on some popcorn while watching the movie with Gyeom. This is her way of saying yes, she has forgiven him. Apology accepted.

Epilogue

Just like how Gyeom did with Moo-bi, Moo-bi continues to see new sides to Gyeom. She notices that he repeats the same type of actions that she did. He plays at the playground with the neighborhood kids, he helps with the elderly by carrying their stuff for them, and he makes small talk with the neighbors on the bus. Moo-bi can’t help but have a soft spot for Gyeom.

My Thoughts:

I remembered really enjoying this episode the first time around and I think the reason for that was because we finally slowed down and dove into the details that the drama very much needed and that writer Lee Na-eun excels at. With this episode, I didn’t feel like we were rushing or like we were jumping around too much. Things finally settled down. It was for this reason that I enjoyed the drama a lot more starting from episode 3 and onwards.

After watching this episode, I finally understood that the drama’s primary focus was the post-time jump era after the five years had passed. That then made sense as to why the drama really only dedicated one episode to showing everything that occurred before the time jump. That also then made sense as to why I wasn’t as satisfied with the first two episodes as much as I wanted it to be. If episode three was going to slow down and dive into details to focus on the daily lives of our characters, I wished there had been one more episode to give us more time with the characters before the time jump. It could have used an extra episode to dive deeper into Moo-bi and Gyeom’s relationship. It could have used an extra episode to build up their romance a little bit more so that we could then better understand why they were still so hung up on each other five years later in the present. After seeing how much slowed down in this episode, it was as if the first two episodes speed walked through everything which I was a little bit sad about. The drama could have given us more Moo-bi and Gyeom interactions to explain the build-up in their relationship. I felt like we sort of got a surface level introduction to their relationship and even though Moo-bi and Gyeom’s relationship before the time jump still ultimately worked (or at least I think it did.. or maybe it’s just me being biased again LOL), I would have liked just maybe one more episode to hash out all the details in the beginning. Using only one episode to show the development of their connection and bond just wasn’t enough and it would have been good to see more.

Ultimately, I still think it worked because of how much chemistry Park Bo-young and Choi Woo-shik had with each other that then sold me on Moo-bi and Gyeom’s relationship. But one more episode before the time jump that showed more interactions between them to showcase the development and progression of their romance would have been effective. Five years later, we watched the two go back and forth with each other and engage in this push and pull dynamic. Why did they still miss each other? Why did they still remember the memories and interactions from five years ago? The drama did give us the answers to these questions in the first two episodes but in a way that felt a little rushed and surface level. Simply put, I think we just needed a little bit more time with Moo-bi and Gyeom before the time jump.

With that being said, the first two episodes were still fun and entertaining to watch but it’s really once things slowed down in this episode that everything got so much better. It was so much fun to watch Gyeom and Moo-bi awkwardly navigate their new situation as neighbors. From Gyeom trying to avoid Moo-bi because she literally told him to never appear in front of him again to Moo-bi picking up a new habit of staring out her window to see what Gyeom was up to, it’s obvious that they’re on each other’s minds. She constantly thought about him and how he felt about her movie or what he was doing at his house. Gyeom was bothered by Jeong-hoo who kept on showing up to Moo-bi’s house and who he couldn’t help but be jealous of. The idea of being neighbors and coincidentally living across from each other may be cliche but I liked how “Melo Movie” utilized this trope to its advantage. It forced Moo-bi and Gyeom to address their situation from five years ago and to see how they felt about each other five years later and where things went wrong. It also gave them opportunities to see new sides to each other that they previously didn’t know about.

It also allowed other characters to get involved such as the introduction of grown-up Jeong-hoo as well as Joon’s confession that he ultimately liked the house because of Gyeom. The actual house itself allowed the drama to dig deeper into the relationships and stories. We sort of got a hint in this episode of Joon and Gyeom’s clash with each other and Gyeom feeling like he was a burden to his older brother. He wished that Joon would do something for himself for once whereas Joon never really thought anything much of what he did or how he felt. Though it was sad to see them be honest with each other during this small fight, it was also heartwarming to see the way that they made up. The two brothers watched movies when they were on good terms with each other and when things seemed good in life. They also watched movies when things were down and they needed to make up with each other. Movies are a constant in their lives and is the middle ground that holds their relationship together. That’s why Gyeom ultimately used the same tactic that Joon used on him and tried it on Moo-bi. Joon’s way of apologizing to Gyeom was to make it up to him by watching a movie that Gyeom wanted to watch. Gyeom apologized to Moo-bi by trying his brother’s idea of projecting a movie on the white wall outside and proposing that he and Moo-bi watch a movie together. Just like how it worked on Gyeom, it also worked on Moo-bi.

In this episode, we finally got some updates on our second lead couple with Si-joon and Joo-Ah. They reunited after five years and it’s clear that both still had a hard time moving on after their break-up. Though Joo-Ah didn’t show it or express it to Si-joon, she still wasn’t completely over him. She did indeed use their relationship as inspiration for her script “Melody” and even checked his music account to listen to his songs. Si-joon was a lot more honest and expressive in terms of how he felt about their break-up and where they stood in the present. He didn’t pretend to act like he was fine or as if he had recovered. He made his resentment for Joo-Ah clear and he didn’t hold back. It was interesting to see the contrast in the reactions to their break-up. They both were still hurt but had different ways in expressing those emotions. Joo-Ah held it in and pretended to act like everything was okay. Maybe a part of that had to do with the fact that she was the one who initiated the break-up so she felt as if she shouldn’t be guilty or regretful for doing such a thing. Meanwhile, Si-joon was angry and wasn’t afraid to unleash that anger out on Joo-Ah and he also wasn’t shy to admit that their break-up had an impact on his career as a songwriter.

I know the ending scene to this episode is going to be the popular one but for some reason, I just keep on going back to the scene at the police station where Moo-bi came to bail Gyeom out. There was just something that was so cool and heart-fluttering about an intoxicated Moo-bi sobering up and rescuing Gyeom from trouble. She didn’t have to come back for him. Plus, at the time that Gyeom got driven away to the police station, we didn’t even know just yet if Moo-bi was fully conscious and aware enough of what was going on. So when she arrived at the police station to come get Gyeom, it just made me smile and gave me butterflies in my stomach. I didn’t expect her to come back for him so when she did, it made me feel so fuzzy and warm and happy. I loved this scene so so so much. Moo-bi rescued not only Gyeom but also rescued me too.