Let’s finish today Episode 38.

Episode 38 Commentary

First few frames, we see KC and Mira trapped in the imagination. It’s a total break from all the action that took place in Episode 37.

I expect the bickering would lead to some unintended comedy.

Frame no 4:

KC remarks that space is expanding. Now we’re incorporating some cosmology and Big Bang stuff here now.

C#9: ‘he lost his rationality’

Amazing scene. KC is king of being rational. It’s a dramatic moment for both of these characters.

Frame no 5:

So it seems that the Imagination here is a place where you are confronted with your worst fears.

The previous episode was all about action. This episode seems to be more on horror and psychological terror.

As I continue reading on Frame no 7, there has to be a way to control the Imagination. For now, the Narrator controls it. But I reckon that the Imagination is a place of creativity. Surely, I expect KC to act as creator here.

Anyway, it looks like this episode is all about these two, and I don’t think KC will be able to retrieve the stylus.

Frame no 9: KC materialized a smartphone. I’ve anticipated that KC can do such thing in this place. What will he do now?

Frame no 10:

Days pass in the Imagination. I don’t know if time passes in the real world, but I suppose it doesn’t. So in actual time, time doesn’t pass in the Imagination.

Funny that there will be some programming jokes here.

Also, if this is some Groundhog Day stuff, they better make use of it well, like learning some skills.

C#14

This is more of fanservice for KC-Mira shippers.

Many frames onwards seem like filler but it’s a fun read. They learn several skills such as painting, sculpting, etc.

Starting at Frame no 18, we get a new development. Everyone saw KC and Mira kissing.

Conclusion 

Sorry for OYJ. Mira and Kang-chul got out of the imagination when they got married there, but this will be a real love triangle.

I don’t know if this is still part of his seduction. There were instances in previous episodes that KC’s feelings for Mira are genuine, then at some point, felt that it was part of his plan.

Then here, I’m back to this feeling that they have a genuine connection together and YJ lost.

• • Enchanteur

    Tuesday 23rd January at 13:26
    

    #4. The place adapts physics to narrative. And two arguing individuals are separated morally, so... have to be in space too. How to give this idea. It can't be the wind or anything like that. The idea that space is distorting is scarier. Mi-Ra doesn't move, nor does Kang Chul, but the space between them expands.

     

    C#9. He manages to wonder at first, but faced with the unknown, the separation, the phenomenon of inflation, the impossibility of creating a portal (although it worked in episode 28), Kang Chul has a moment of real fright. An ordinary person would probably have gone completely mad.

     

    #10. The previous draft was 25 minutes long. I wasn't sure how long it would be here. I thought maybe they'd get out of the Imagination about 2/3 of the way through the episode. Losing the cliffhanger with Yeon-Joo. But I had another one ready as a replacement. Only when I reread the first draft, which was clumsy as usual, I realized that it didn't have enough depth. I had a lot of ideas for the time lapse scenes. The possibilities are endless, and I discarded some ideas, just as I could have had more. In the end, it was the length of an entire episode. Which I find more interesting, to get that submarine-like feeling of immersion in Imagination. Making that a rare episode.

     

    I was split in two about all these little scenes.

    Fillers: I don't like fillers or anything that feels like one. Although I could create some against my will because I'm still amateurish. But no scene here can advance much the plot. Mostly the characters, their relationship, evolution, personnality, or themes. So the scenes had to be short and sufficiently amusing, or interesting.

    Fascination: I was fascinated by the idea. What if a loving couple could live forever, magically creating whatever they wanted? What would happen? It's a situation the audience can easily project themselves into, and ask themselves the same question if they lived that too. 

    Apart from the fact that they have time to make love, being able to stay in bed for a whole month (without suffering from fatigue) ... The answer is that in this very long time, they don't magically create using Imagination. Would this be creation? It's more like consumption. So they create by themselves, painting, sculpting and so on.

    This is undoubtedly the drama's most present theme: artistic obsession. I could list all the characters affected by this, but one who wasn't: Kang Chul. That's why, when he creates the Turtle sculpture for the first time, Mi-Ra is proud of him. But he too feels the magic of creating art for the first time. Hence his last line, "I love you... more than ever".

    I was also fascinated by the sets. To prevent them from creating an alternate reality, Kang Chul first established a rule: they must never lose sight of nothingness. I had fun with photo-montages (not too complicated to do) like the bedroom or the living room without walls, surrounded by nothingness. Such a strange place to live.

     

    #14 - 15. You didn't notice it, but here there's a process used by Song Jae-Jung. I was just lucky enough to get the idea. When a high-concept phenomenon implies an additional meaning. (e.g. W ep7, scene in the police station when Yeon-Joo disappears, having the added meaning that Kang Chul is moved by her confession of love)

    This is the explanation why her wedding ring disappears. Previous episode makes it look like it's because they've been annihilated. In reality, Imagination cancels Kang Chul and Yeon-Joo's marriage, when he goes to marry Mi-Ra.

     

    Conclusion.

    I remember one of your comments in episode 36. You were waiting for Kang Chul to tell Yeon-Joo the truth. But they don't have the time. Frustration! That's because the time she learns the truth is now. And that's a much crueler way! Now all the odds are against Yeon-Joo. The love triangle is fiercely brutal.