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What is love? How does one show their love? How does one accept and receive that love? All of our characters engage in a bittersweet journey for the answers to these questions but one thing remains true through it all: love comes in all shapes and sizes.

Melo Movie Episode 8: All You Need is Love

Moo-bi’s goal as a director was to create a melo movie. So why this genre? What exactly influenced her? When Moo-bi was young, she thought she would never have the time for love. She thought it was cheesy. She didn’t understand her dad’s favorite romantic movies as a young kid. Slowly but surely, she opened up to melo movies and started to enjoy them. Then once Gyeom came into her life, it all started to make sense. Though Moo-bi still doesn’t understand what love is, what she does know is that you need it in life. Especially for those who lose a loved one. This especially applies to Gyeom who just lost his brother. Moo-bi watches Gyeom as he stands outside of his house alone. He’s afraid to enter the front yard now that his brother is no longer alive. Things just aren’t the same.

Time passes by and Gyeom carries on with his life. He expected that Joon’s death would change everything but it didn’t really. Director Ma and Joo-Ah reach out to him to offer some support. Si-joon wants to be there for his friend but he’s unsure as to how to approach Gyeom. Meanwhile, Moo-bi is there for Gyeom every step of the way. The couple goes on daily walks, eat together, and go on dates where they talk about the most trivial things all night. But there’s the rare moments in between where it seems as if Gyeom’s lost in his own thoughts and there’s this anxiety that slowly creeps in. One night while walking home together, Moo-bi notices that Gyeom is in one of those moments again so she disrupts him this time. Facing each other, Moo-bi and Gyeom stare into each other’s eyes in silence for a few seconds. Moo-bi attempts to “transmit” a message to Gyeom without saying or doing anything. Hopefully, he was able to receive her special message. The two lovers give each other a warm hug and bid farewell for the night. When Moo-bi enters her house, she quickly peeks out of the window to watch Gyeom enter his house.

Si-joon receives a surprise visit from his older brother. He wanted to stop by to drop off some money for Gyeom after hearing about Joon’s death. Si-joon’s appalled at his brother’s actions. All he can offer is just some cash? How about any words of sympathy or support? But Si-joon’s brother isn’t as sympathetic. Joon had already been feeling ill for a while so this death doesn’t come as a surprise. He also hands Si-joon some cash before walking out of the studio. It’s obvious that Si-joon’s older brother is a drastic difference compared to Joon. Joo-Ah and Moo-bi meet with each other to go over the movie script and they use the movie as a way to indirectly reference Joo-Ah’s feelings. The female protagonist in the movie seems to have moved on quite quickly with her life after her break-up but Joo-Ah argues that some people have the ability to pretend as if they’re okay when really they’re dying inside. Joo-Ah then expresses her wishes for Moo-bi to be there for Gyeom during this difficult time in his life. He’s never been the type to depend on someone before.

Speaking of Gyeom, he hangs out at Director Ma’s office and chats with him. Director Ma’s still stressed out about his directing career but there’s something else he’s worried about. He offers words of support for Gyeom and can understand what he’s going through. He brings up the subject of grief and mourning the loss of a loved one, saying,

“You know.. that’s the thing about the pain of a loss. At first, there’s so much going on that it doesn’t hit you. When you need that person so desperately and you realize that they can’t be there with you, that’s when the pain really sets in.

It’s painful beyond words. When that pain hits, you can’t do anything about it. You have to face it. When that happens, just don’t be alone okay?”

Gyeom pretends to be his usual cheerful self and he doesn’t think too much about Director Ma’s comments. But no matter how much time has passed, the grief and pain from missing his brother is still very much there for Gyeom.

Back at Vide Bar, Sang-sik checks in with Si-joon about Gyeom. Maybe they can close the bar early and go spend some time with Gyeom at his house? But Si-joon uses work as an excuse to reject the idea. Still, Sang-sik reminds Si-joon to be there for his friend and to check up on how he’s doing. Meanwhile, Moo-bi stands outside of her house and stares across the street at Gyeom’s house. Jeong-hoo joins her shortly afterwards and they chat for a bit about Gyeom. Moo-bi’s worried about her boyfriend but she doesn’t want to overstep just in case Gyeom still needs some more time alone to process things. So how was it for Moo-bi when she lost her father? Moo-bi is doing fine now but she admits that she didn’t have anyone to talk to or rely on back then. Jeong-hoo feels sorry for not being able to be there for Moo-bi and gives his best friend a hug. Eventually, he leaves to go back home and Moo-bi stays outside out of concern for Gyeom.

Joo-Ah stops by Vide Bar to spend time with Si-joon. Joo-Ah learns that Si-joon still hasn’t contacted Gyeom and she encourages him to reach out. Even if he’s not good with words, he can still stay by Gyeom’s side. Gyeom will understand. But Si-joon’s worried that his words will come off as harsh and he’s unsure as to how to comfort Gyeom. Joo-Ah disagrees with Si-joon’s sentiment and notes that it’s not all like that. Sure, he can come off a bit rude at times but he’s sincere. They spend the rest of the time drinking some alcohol out of a bottle that belonged to a couple. It’s been a year since the couple has returned to the bar so Si-joon assumes they won’t come back for it. There’s plenty of other couples with their own bottles of liquor at the bar that never returned. So Joo-Ah makes a bet with Si-joon that one of those couples will return to the bar soon. They then go on to chat a bit about Joon and reminisce their memories with him (this scene was soooo beautiful and heartfelt and sincere. I loved it so much).

Moo-bi wakes up from her nap to find text messages from Gyeom. He checks in on her to see how she’s doing with her movie so she quickly peeks out her bedroom window to find that the lights in his house are turned off. She assumes he’s asleep inside and resumes editing her movie. But unlike what Moo-bi thought, Moo-bi finds Gyeom sitting in his red car the next morning. It then clicks for Moo-bi and she assumes he must have been sleeping in his car everyday since Joon’s death. It’s hard for Gyeom to be inside the house because there’s no one in there now. There’s no one to come home to. Joon is no longer here with him. But Gyeom reassures Moo-bi that he’ll be fine. His car is uncomfortable anyways and he should clean up his house. So Moo-bi gives Gyeom the space that he needs to be alone and she heads to work. Day by day, Gyeom and Moo-bi go about their lives and occupy themselves with work.

On one particular night, Moo-bi joins Gyeom inside of his car and sits in the driver’s seat. Gyeom explains that he tried to enter the house but he just couldn’t bring himself to do it. He feels as if there’s something wrong with him. Moo-bi is understanding of Gyeom’s situation and she tells him that it’s okay. The two stare at each other inside of the car and Moo-bi does her little “transmitting” tactic on Gyeom again. They softly hold each other’s hands and with tears in her eyes, Moo-bi expresses her love and support for Gyeom. She’ll be there with him every single step of the way through this long process and journey. It won’t be easy, but he doesn’t have to do it alone. Because he has her. With tears in her eyes, Moo-bi softly whispers to Gyeom,

“When tomorrow comes.. let’s go home together.”

Gyeom’s eyes also fill up with tears and he agrees to Moo-bi’s idea. He’ll muster the courage to go back inside the house tomorrow with Moo-bi. But on this night, he’ll stay with her inside of his car (I had to pause 3 times during this scene alone from all the bawling. This is hands down my absolute favorite scene out of the entire drama. It made me cry sooo much the first time around and I still cried just as hard my second time. I love this scene soooo much <3).

The next morning, Moo-bi gathers some of her belongings from her house and excitedly enters Gyeom’s house with him. Hmm, this doesn’t seem like such a bad idea at all. Leaving Gyeom’s house to go to work and then coming back home to him and his delicious food seems fun. Moo-bi encourages Gyeom to think of it as a preview for their married life. Hehe.

Si-joon loses his bet with Joo-Ah because it turns out that one of the couples who had a bottle of liquor in the bar actually returned for their bottle. Haha. They broke up and then got back together, hence, the long wait. Thankfully, Sang-sik steps in to save Si-joon from getting embarrassed and pulls up with the couple’s bottle. Si-joon texts Joo-Ah afterwards and uses his new song as an excuse to meet with her.

When Moo-bi returns home from work that night, it’s late and she fails to find Gyeom in his car. The lights in his house are also turned off and she panics. She repeatedly calls out his name and searches his house for any traces of him. Thankfully, Gyeom is fine. The lights in his house were turned off since he was overdue on the bills so he had no choice but to carry a lit candle around with him for visibility. Moo-bi bursts into tears of relief upon seeing Gyeom safe in the house. She was afraid that something had happened to him. She blows out the candle in Gyeom’s hand and makes a grand confession to him,

“Gyeom, you’re not alone. I am in love with you. So.. we will never be.. alone from now on.”

All it takes to eliminate the anxiety that creeps up is to reassure the person who’s worried by providing them with a few simple words. Or to be with that person for just one moment. So Moo-bi extends her hand towards Gyeom and he accepts it. Tears fill up their eyes as they stare at each other in silence. The two little nine year olds who were lonely growing up now have each other. They’ve found each other. Gyeom and Moo-bi share a kiss and then embrace each other with a warm hug. They cry on each other’s shoulders. They’re safe at last.

When Si-joon returns to his studio, he discovers Joo-Ah is already outside waiting for him. She got his text message and is excited to hear his new song. Her excitement reminds Si-joon of the old times when Joo-Ah would be the first one to listen to his songs. She was always excited and supportive of him and he felt confident thanks to her. She was always the first one to comment on his songs as well. So Si-joon can’t help but grow confused. In a calm voice, Si-joon asks Joo-Ah,

“Are we over? Or are we.. on our way back to each other?”

Joo-Ah stares at Si-joon and is unsure as to how to respond. The two stare at each other in silence right outside of his studio, pondering over the question and whether there’s a definite and concrete answer to the complex question.

Epilogue

Si-joon stops by Gyeom’s house to find the lights turned off again. He assumes Gyeom isn’t home but he quickly discovers Gyeom sleeping inside of his red car. This prompts Si-joon to show his support for Gyeom in his own precious way. He packs a bunch of practical and useful items for Gyeom and sneaks them inside of the car when Gyeom isn’t around. It slowly becomes a habit for Si-joon but on one particular day, Si-joon is caught by Gyeom in the midst of the act. Gyeom already knew all along that it was Si-joon who was leaving stuff for him in his car. And since the two are best friends, Gyeom knows Si-joon well and knows that Si-joon has a hard time expressing himself using words. So instead of being comforted by words, Gyeom proposes that they go hang out instead. Together, the two best friends head out to a sauna.

My Thoughts:

Every episode has been fun to re-watch because of all the little hints and clues that I picked up along the way. And just like Gyeom mentioned previously, watching the same movie repeatedly is fun because it feels different every time. I felt that way with this episode since I had already seen it before. I actually think I enjoyed it so much more the second time around which sounds crazy because I already knew episode 8 was my favorite episode the first time I saw it. I think a lot of people enjoyed episode 7 (rightfully so) but I don’t know – I think there was just this different level of depth, intricacy, and intimacy that the drama portrayed in this episode when it came to grief, mourning, and the loss of a loved one that I really enjoyed. There were a variety of perspectives covered from each of our characters. We got to see how all our characters were impacted and affected by Joon’s death. This episode also hit close to home for me as someone who lost a loved one a few years ago. 

The title of this episode was “all you need is love.” When one thinks of love, they might just think of romantic love between couples. But as we saw in this episode, there were different types of love whether that was the love between a couple (Gyeom and Moo-bi) or between friends (Gyeom, Si-joon, and Joo-Ah) or between colleagues (Gyeom and Director Ma). And we saw that there were also different ways to show your love. For Moo-bi, that was spending time with Gyeom and being there for him every single step of the way. She not only spent time with him on their dates but she also was there to help him overcome the daunting and devastating challenge that was returning to his house. She also told him how much she loved him and she let him know that they weren’t alone. She knew what he was going through because she too was in that spot when her father died. Moo-bi could empathize with Gyeom. For Si-joon, he knew he wasn’t good with words and he was the type to get embarrassed easily. So instead of forcing himself to do something that he wasn’t comfortable with or good at, he showed his love for Gyeom in his own way. Every person is different so the way that they show their love and support will be different.

Through this episode, we also saw that love can be transmitted in various ways. There’s the person who received love (Gyeom), there’s the people giving that love (Moo-bi and friends), and then there’s the ones giving love that also received love (Moo-bi with Jeong-hoo). Maybe you didn’t know that you needed love until someone finally showed it and gave it to you. Maybe you didn’t really know what type of love you needed until you finally received it. Maybe you didn’t know what love was but you still wanted to give it anyways in your own ways. At the end of the day, love comes in all shapes and forms.

There were a couple of themes and topics that this episode discussed including the courage to talk to someone about your feelings and emotions. I liked how the drama brought it back full circle by showing Moo-bi being the person who Gyeom could go to for help. When she lost her father, she was lonely. She didn’t have anyone to go to. She didn’t have someone who she could talk to about her feelings and her grief. So she wanted to be there for Gyeom to prove that he didn’t have to go through what she went through alone. She was there for him as his girlfriend but also as a friend. And when Director Ma told Gyeom to not be alone once the sudden surge of pain hits him, Gyeom let Moo-bi in and was honest with her on how he was feeling. Gyeom wasn’t alone because he had Moo-bi.

The drama continued the same sentiment by showing Joo-Ah and Si-joon talking to each other about Joon. Of course, Gyeom was the one hurt the most by his brother’s death but Joo-Ah and Si-joon too were sad because they knew Joon. Though the two have had their up’s and down’s in their relationship and it’s been a roller coaster ride since their reunion, one thing they comfortably talked to each other about were their fond memories of Joon. The scene of Joo-Ah and Si-joon talking at Vide Bar about Si-joon consoling Gyeom was well done and probably my favorite scene of them so far in the drama. But it was really when Joo-Ah brought up wanting to talk to Si-joon about Joon so that she could process Joon’s death that things really hit me. Losing a friend and loved one is never easy and you shouldn’t go through it alone. It’s nice to have someone to talk to about these emotions and feelings that can sometimes be so complex, confusing, layered, intense, and overwhelming.

The other theme that the episode covered was the topic of providing comfort and showing us how those around Gyeom struggled with how to approach him. Sometimes, we often think about the person who’s hurting and mourning which is completely valid. It wasn’t easy for Gyeom to lose his brother who he loved and missed dearly. But we also saw it from the perspective of the other characters who were in Gyeom’s life and wanted to support him. They wanted to console him and be there for him but we saw that they each struggled with doing that in their own ways. They weren’t so sure how to go about it. How soon is too soon to talk to him? What should I say? How do I comfort him? How do I check in with him? Does he still need time alone to process everything? If I do help him and reach out to him, how do I know I’m not overstepping boundaries and making him uncomfortable?

The episode also touched on the grieving process and how it’s never easy nor is it linear. It doesn’t really make any sense either. Time passes by and you have to carry on with your life but it’s a confusing process. You’re so used to that person being there with you everyday and then the next thing you know, they’re gone and you have to learn how to move forward in your life without them. Director Ma’s comments at Gyeom about the grieving process was so raw and honest and relatable. You can go about your daily life and occupy yourself with a ton of busy work and activities. You want to get things off of your mind so you have a busy schedule which leads you to believe that you’re okay. Or perhaps you engage in a really busy schedule because you know you’re not okay and it’s your coping mechanism. But regardless, you could be super busy one moment and then find that you’re still very sad the next. No matter how much you “prepare” for someone’s death, you’re never truly prepared. You’ll never be the same ever again. The pain from the loss of that person will always be there. It will always sting.

I might be the only one who thought of this as I watched Gyeom’s grieving process but his story actually reminded me of Park Bo-young’s character, Da-eun, in “Daily Dose of Sunshine” when she lost one of her patients who she was close to. In “Daily Dose of Sunshine”, Da-eun pretended as if she was okay and that she wasn’t hurting when her patient died. In one particular scene, she hung out with Yu-chan and they went out to play at a school and then to a karaoke place after. And while singing her heart out and having some fun, Da-eun abruptly stopped and she burst into tears. All of the pain, sorrow, and hurt that she had been suppressing the entire time caught up to her and she let it all out. She had pretended that she was fine when really she wasn’t. She was suffering and going through a hard time. Da-eun’s story reminded me of Gyeom in this episode where he also pretended as if he was okay and as if he would one day be able to enter his house despite knowing that he couldn’t. Similarly, Da-eun received support from her mom and Yu-chan in her journey to recovery and Gyeom had Moo-bi to help him process his emotions and feelings. Da-eun and Gyeom were able to survive and thrive thanks to the people around them.

And when you’re in a rut and you need some way to get pulled out of the dark hole that you’re in, it’s helpful to have someone who can be there to support you. When I watched “Melo Movie” the first time around, I already knew that the car scene between Gyeom and Moo-bi in this episode was going to be my favorite scene out of the entire show. I didn’t even need to watch episodes 9 and 10 to know this. This scene of them impacted me in a way that rarely any other show has impacted me. It’s definitely on my list of scenes in a drama that I will remember for a very long time and one that will stick with me for a very long time, possibly forever.

There’s so much courage that comes from letting down your walls and being vulnerable with someone. Gyeom came clean to Moo-bi and told her that he wasn’t okay. He thought there was something wrong with him. Moo-bi was so supportive of Gyeom and listened to him. She never judged him. She didn’t scold him for sleeping in his car again. She was understanding of his situation and his struggles in processing his brother’s death. And instead of forcing him to enter his house, Moo-bi simply stayed by Gyeom’s side and met him at his pace and where he was at. She didn’t try to rush him through things. She respected his boundaries and his feelings. And she showed him her love through her words and her actions. The silence as they sat next to each other in the car was so loud. It showed that you don’t always have to use words to express your love for someone. And then Moo-bi “transmitted” her love for Gyeom and let him know that he wouldn’t have to go through this difficult period in his life alone. She would be there with him and would help him overcome the barrier that was entering his house.

During this scene, Moo-bi used the word “we” and referenced that they enter the house together the following morning. This meant that Gyeom wouldn’t be alone and that she would be there with him. This signified that Gyeom and Moo-bi were a team, a couple, a duo, a pairing. And even though Gyeom had a physical location that he called home, he also found his home in a person. For Gyeom, Moo-bi is that home. He physically returned to his house with Moo-bi but he was also at home whenever he was with her. Home was wherever Moo-bi was.