Our inaugural post! In which we sat down with a pint of mint chocolate chip and wrote down everything that occurred to us while watching the fan-subbed version of TotNT EP01.
azeria | eulie※Contains spoilers
Prologue
- We open with an excerpt from the Hyeon Joong Gi (현중기・玄中記), which the internet informs me originated in China sometime between 266-316 CE. In Korea in particular, gumiho are typically thought of as being female, but this is an example of a classical text that says they can be either.
- From what director Kang Shin Hyo said at the TotNT press conference, the premise of TotNT began with the idea of challenging this base assumption by making the gumiho male and placing him in modern-day Seoul.
- I would translate the passage as follows:
“When a fox becomes 100, it can become a beautiful woman, or become a man who has relations with women. A fox that lives for 1000 years communes with the heavens and becomes a cheonho (heavenly fox). Its gifts are like that of a powerful shamaness; it can perceive things more than 1000 leagues distant.”
- To my sense, the passage was introduced to show precedent for the existence of male gumiho in traditional folklore, as well as to illustrate that foxes over 1000 (cheonho) can be closer to deities than monsters.
- On to the show. The year is 1999. I’m surprised the subs left ‘Fox Ridge’ untranslated as Yeou Gogae since it seems like it would be relevant information that the place where the accident takes place is somehow tied to foxes.
- For anyone wondering, Fox Ridge really does exist, though its proper name is Nam Tae Ryeong. It’s located near Mt. Gwanak, not far from the Seoul National University campus. You can read more about the lore surrounding Fox Ridge here.
- When the imposter parents (who I believe are also foxes) chase little Ji Ah up into her room and her not-dad says, “You little brat!” (or at least, that’s what the subs we’re watching say), this is an example of what’s called ‘code switching.’ His phrasing is somewhat old-fashioned, which in this case helps to give the impression that he’s not human since it’s the cant of creatures in traditional fairytales. For anyone studying Korean, the line is, “요 년 봐라,” where ‘nyeon’ might mean anywhere from ‘girl’ to ‘wench’ or even ‘bitch.’
- Yeon: “Ah Eum. Are you Ah Eum?” Director Kang Shin Hyo also mentioned this, but even LDW’s voice works great in this role.
- Okay, I have to ask. Does no one else in Seoul drive on Fox Ridge? How did Ji Ah have time to go home, get attacked, and then be returned to the scene of the accident (I’m assuming by Yeon) before anyone came across it?
- I’m actually not clear on the timing or sequence of events here, at all. Whose blood did Yeon smell, and at what point? Ji Ah’s parents’ at the scene of the accident? Or Ji Ah’s not-mom’s when little Ji Ah stabbed her? Ji Ah was miraculously uninjured in the crash, so if Yeon tracked her from the accident site, he’d have been following the scent of that tiny drop of blood on her music box. Which would be pretty darn impressive, given that Ji Ah’s house is allegedly located in Seodaemun-gu, which is nowhere near Fox Ridge (north of the Han River instead of south).
- Also, how did Yeon know where to take her? He tells grown Ji Ah that he just happened upon her after catching the scent of blood, but I get the sense there’s more to the story than that. I feel like this is part of a larger pattern wherein Yeon goes out of his way to rescue someone and then pretends as if he didn’t.
Episode 01 Title Card: What Happened on Fox Ridge
- According to Yeon’s alarm, our current timeline begins on Saturday, August 29, 2020, and he has a wedding to attend. 2020 yet no COVID19? I guess this really is a fantasy drama. ;p
- The BGM playing while Yeon gets ready is called ‘The Fox’s Wedding Day,’ or, more literally, ‘day when a fox goes to be married’ (Yeou ga shijip ganeun nal) and it’s actually Yeon’s theme. I was expecting his theme to be the track entitled ‘Gumiho,’ but I guess not lol
- The cinematography and scoring of Yeon’s approach to the wedding hall is A++ Atmospheric and iconic.
- The sun-shower. In both Japan and Korea, a sun-shower is known as ‘a fox’s wedding’ (kitsune no yome-iri/yeou ga shijip ganeun nal), so this is already cluing us in to the fact that the bride is a fox (I say ‘bride’ because both these phrasings typically apply to a bride marrying into her husband’s household. The phrasing is different for grooms, who ‘receive’ the bride). This is what Yeon means when he arrives at the wedding hall and says, “That’s because a fox is getting married today.”
- It’s strange to me that the bride’s identity has completely dropped out of the subs. She’s Yeou Nui (literally ‘fox sister’), a folklore character of the Brothers Grim-style horror school of fairytales. Her MO is preying on families with only sons who desperately want a daughter. She insinuates herself into their lives, brings calamity down upon them, and finally, eats their livers. Like most folktales, there are many permutations of her story, but many of them feature her saying she’s consumed 999 livers. I understand where – absent this context – some people might have seen Yeon as the bad guy here (spoiler: he’s not).
- The subtitle here for Yeon’s line says: “But you need to know that changing your identity isn’t as simple as you think.” What he literally says is:
Yeon: How did you go to ground so completely? You think that if you change your face and your identity, your blood-stained past will change too, right? But changing lives isn’t as simple* as changing subway lines.
[*n.b. ‘simple’ is in English]
- This is the first real dialogue we get from Yeon, and one thing it’s doing very intentionally is showcasing just how much he’s adapted to modern life. It does this both with the content of what he says (talking about changing subway lines), as well as with the amount of English loan words he tosses around. So I personally would have kept the bit about the subway in if I had been translating.
- Yeou Nui’s line was translated as, “Please forgive me,” but it should more properly be, “Spare me,” or “Let me live.” Yeon is an enforcer, not a judge. (Also, ‘forgive’ is another word entirely).
- Yeon’s line that’s subbed, “Listen, you fox. How could you dare dream of having a happy ending after eating so many livers?” is the result of what’s sometimes called diagonal translation. What he literally says is:
Yeon: Yeou Nui-ya, after eating the livers of countless adoptive parents and older brothers* how can you dream of a happy ending?
[*n.b. The word he uses for ‘brothers’ here is 오라비들, which is again the sort of language used in folktales]
- Yeon’s line, “Here’s a piece of advice” is more literally, “Here’s a bit of advice stemming from experience,” which is the first hint we get in-drama that he’s been in a similar position.
Nam Ji Ah
- We get our first introduction to adult Ji Ah as she narrates the script she’s editing for her TV program on her way to the wedding hall. When Jae Hwan worries about her changing the script without the writer’s permission (again lol), Ji Ah’s response, translated literally, would be:
Ji Ah: Then let’s go with this. PDs’ livers have to be swollen or coming out of their bodies.
- That’s a pretty disgusting image in English, so I don’t blame the subs for changing it to something more sensical and less graphic. But on a cultural note, in Korea and Japan, having a large liver means to be gutsy or brave. Ji Ah’s character profile similarly describes her as, ‘a woman whose liver is [so large it’s] coming out of her body,’ meaning she’s about as gutsy as it gets.
- Okay, call me a cynic, but I loved Ji Ah’s line about not being able to digest wedding food due to the choking atmosphere of forced happiness pfft
- Jae Hwan saying, “Who knows? You may meet your destined partner at a place like this,” as Yeon walks by in the background = Jae Hwan unwittingly hitting the nail of the head #1
- Lol Yeon acting like a bored kid held captive at a dinner party while the wedding takes place. Bless Lee Dong Wook because I’m sure it’s all ad libbed. I feel like this could be a game: spot the LDW ad lib.
The Wedding Hall Incident
- When Yeon returns to her dressing room after the wedding, Yeou Nui changes tactics from begging to putting her hackles up and challenging Yeon. Linguistically, that’s marked by her code switching to an archaic cant. Yeon, however, remains unfazed and responds with the most modern thing possible, completely undermining her bravado:
Yeou Nui: Oh former master of Baekdudaegan, what right have you to condemn us?
Yeon: Get a load of how she’s talking (rhetorical). Hey, if it wasn’t for you I would’ve been watching American TV shows while eating ice cream today!
- Okay, I love the way Yeon materializes his sword. I thought he was (un-)transforming his umbrella at first, but he later does it with a plank of wood so I assume he can do this with pretty much anything?
- On the topic of Yeon’s sword, azeria posted a gif set not long ago referring to it as a saingeom (사인검), literally ‘Four Tigers Sword’ (referring to the year, month, day, and hour of the tiger when such swords were supposedly forged). You’ll notice it doesn’t have a cross-guard since they’re traditionally ceremonial swords rather than actual weapons. The first saingeom were made during the reign of King Taejo (1398-1408), but I assume they gave him one despite it being somewhat anachronistic because they’re also said to cut down evil spirits and ward against calamity. Mostly, though, it looks really cool and is very traditionally Korean.
- Not for anything, but I love this BGM track that’s playing during the wedding hall fight (‘The Uninvited’). This short action sequence was so great. I wish we could have seen more of Yeon hunting down supernatural baddies. Also more of those gumiho eyes. More gumiho everything in general.
- Yeon tells Yeou Nui here that she should have run away when she had the chance, which gives me the impression he’d have been inclined to lenience if it didn’t involve disobeying the Ten Kings’ orders. We find out later it’s because the fate of Ah Eum’s soul hinges upon Yeon upholding his end of their bargain.
- As he stabs her, Yeon’s line to Yeou Nui in the subs was rendered as, “Don’t do something stupid like falling in love in your next time.” I would have translated this as, “If you’re reborn, don’t do something so [useless] as falling in love.” Again, for anyone studying Korean, the phrase is ‘사랑 따위” (sarang ddaui). ‘Ddaui’ means ‘such a thing as,’ and it’s used to disparage whatever proceeds it. There’s no good way to communicate that disparagement in English grammatically, so I opted for ‘useless’ in an approximation.
- The BGM that plays the first time Ji Ah spots Yeon leaving the wedding hall is called ‘White Pupils’ (or literally ‘white eyes’). The imagery typically associated with that is death, so I’m curious what inspired the track title. Maybe they mean ‘white eyes’ like the fortune teller since it’s used at fateful moments?
- “Who knows? That may be the story you were destined to cover.” = Jae Hwan unwittingly hitting the nail on the head #2
- “Were they mass hypnotized or something?” = Jae Hwan unwittingly hitting the nail of the head #3. Thank you, exposition fairy. ;)
- Okay, when Ji Ah and Jae Hwan examine the scene, Ji Ah’s line is subbed, “I need to see what that woman of this love story looks like,” which is grammatically awkward in addition to being wrong. What she actually says is:
Ji Ah: I need to see the face of that protagonist of the Romance of the Age.
[And I believe the ‘protagonist’ she was referring to is actually Yeon ;) This is bordering on meta, seeing as he’s actually the protagonist of the epic romance that is TotNT]
Kim Soo Oh
- The BGM playing while Yeon sits in the park people-watching and then looks pensively at his hand is called, ‘Thread Rings.’ Between that, what LDW alluded to in his VLIVE, and some still cuts I saw of deleted scenes from EP16, I’m convinced there was something more to those rings that got cut due to time constraints. ㅠㅠ
- Fun fact: This scene between Yeon and Soo Oh was the first scene of the drama that they filmed.
- The park they’re at is Ilsan Lake Park (일산호수공원) in Gyeonggi-do, and they’re actually seated on a small island in the middle of the lake called Dalmaji Island (달맞이섬). Incidentally, this is the same as the Korean name for evening primrose (달맞이꽃). The park appears several more times within the drama.
- When Soo Oh asks Yeon what he’s doing there, the sub for Yeon’s response was, “Nothing other than waiting for someone.” That strikes me as off in tone as well as pacing. I would have translated it as, “Just...waiting for someone.” (which is literally what he says).
- When Soo Oh asks Yeon why he’s waiting, the sub says, “Because a fox can only love one person till death.” I don’t really have a problem with that translation, but what he literally says is, “Once a fox takes a mate they never forsake them. Until death.”
- Sub: “How are you coping with that?” / “Not well.” > Literally: “Are you okay?” / “I’m not okay.” I actually like the sub here since it better conveys how precocious Soo Oh appears in this scene. He seems to alternate between precocious and adorably dim throughout the drama depending on who he’s with, though when he’s with Rang, it’s mostly the latter pfft
- When Yeon turns down Soo Oh’s offer of friendship he says, “Your nose. I’m not big on men with runny noses. And human lifespans are too short to be friends with me.” Yeon’s use of ‘men’ struck me as funny since I guess to someone over 1600 years old, an 8 year old and an 80 year old aren’t all that different. Also, Yeon giving serious life advice to an 8 year old is adorable. He talks to him like he’s an adult.
- Adorable. On a linguistic note, when Yeon says, “So, try your best in life, but don’t force yourself to try and bear the unbearable,” his phrasing is somewhat old-fashioned, making him sound even more like an old man handing out solid life advice.
The Afterlife Immigration Office
- Between the BGM and the way the camera pans up the endless levels of shelving, did anyone else feel like Yeon entered Hogwarts for a sec? (not complaining) ;) Love it.
- Aww Yeon’s “How’ve you been, Halmeom?” is so cute. A+ line delivery from Lee Dong Wook.
- For the record, Yeon uses banmal with Taluipa and calls her halmeom (granny). In contrast, Hyeonuiong is pretty much the only character Yeon speaks to in jondaetmal and addresses respectfully as eoreushin (elder). He speaks to Ji Ah’s parents politely as well, but it’s mainly because they’re her parents.
- The text introducing Taluipa’s character wasn’t translated in the version we’re watching but it reads: ‘Taluipa (奪衣婆) The god who rules over the River of Three Crossings (Samdocheon), the boundary between this world and the next.’
- The hanja for her name (‘take away-clothing-old woman’) refer to her traditional role, namely, removing the clothing of the dead for her husband to hang on the Uiryeong-su (su = tree) to measure the weight of their sins. This is the same tree that the Uiryeong-geom (the wooden sword that appears in EP13) is allegedly carved from.
- Lol Taluipa saying she has to keep up with the times but also using a computer that’s positively ancient (come to think of it, it’s probably from the 80s since that’s her favorite decade)
- Again, I’m surprised that Yeou Nui’s character name dropped from the subs completely. The subs here just say, ‘the female fox.’
- Aww So Yeon had texted Halmeom about Yeou Nui, I’m guessing because her pleas actually did strike a chord with him and he wanted to lighten her sentence, in spite of her past. Which is why Halmeom tells him she hasn’t got time to listen to sinners’ sob stories. The fact that she knew what Yeon was texting about despite not having read his text is telling. Yeon is a huge softie, and Halmeom knows it.
- For Taluipa’s line, the subs say, “You’re to obey the order and capture who you’re sent after,” but that’s a loose approximation. More literally, it should be: “If the higher ups say to bring someone in, then you just have to bring them in.” I’m only mentioning it because the line implies that both Taluipa and Yeon report to someone higher up the chain of command. Otherwise, they may be misconstrued as Taluipa’s orders.
- Yeon’s line, “My compulsory military service has gone on for over 600 years. How could I endure without going crazy?” is mildly hilarious when you consider that Korean men are required to complete 2 years of military service, and even that often feels like an eternity, so I think for any Korean, the idea of 600 years of it is just exceptionally cruel. The line is iconic enough to have been included in Yeon’s character profile.
- I noticed this a while back, but ‘mountain god’ is being consistently translated as ‘mountain spirit.’ Technically, Yeon is (was?) a god, if a low ranking one in the grand scheme of things (the Korean word is ‘sanshin’ where ‘san’ = mountain and ‘shin’ = god). I understand the use of ‘spirit’ though, since he’s not a god as gods are typically thought of in western mythologies.
- Lol Yeon sticking his fingers in his ears (I would bet money this was also an ad lib)
- Taluipa has a line that’s subbed, “Foxes never stay in debt.” More literally, it should be, “They say foxes repay eunhye no matter what.” You can find my explanation of eunhye here.
- Wow, the subs really dropped the humour ball on Taluipa’s line here. First off, she says, ‘Right now’ in English. And while the sub says “Do you want your freedom back?” what she literally says is.“Do you want to be discharged?” (since Yeon had just likened his duties to military service).
- On his way out, Yeon actually tells Taluipa, “Halmeom, you’re going to go to hell” (which is not the same as the Underworld/Afterlife as it said in the subs. Taluipa’s job takes her to the Afterlife all the time anyway). Also, when he says “I’ll pray for it everyday,” his phrasing is once again that of an elderly person pfft
- I find it adorable the way Yeon nags her about taking too much glucosamine. In Korea, nagging is seen as a sign of affection, so it belies Yeon’s previous statement. He’s obviously fond of her.
- We get Hyeonuiong’s chyron here: Hyeonuiong (縣衣翁) Gatekeeper of the Samdocheon; he measures the weight of the deceased’s sins. As with Taluipa, the hanja for his name refer to his traditional role (‘hang-clothing-old man’), as he’s the one who takes the clothes and drapes them on the Uiryeong-su.
- As I mentioned, Yeon speaks formally to Hyeonuiong, who in return affectionately calls him Yeon-ie or Yeon-ah, which I find adorable.
- Lol I’m not used to Ahn Gil Kang playing such a friendly character. Seeing him wheedle Taluipa with aegyo is hilarious.
Code Red
- Somewhat of a side note, I can’t help but wonder, is Shin Joo’s last name ‘Gu’ because he’s a gumiho, a la My Girlfriend is a Gumiho (2010)’s Gu Mi Ho-ssi?
- I wish the subs had just left ‘Lee Yeon-nim’ as-is, instead of changing it to ‘Mr. Lee.’ As a general rule, I’m in favor of preserving character forms of address when translating. Agreed. (Though these are unfortunately some of the first things that drop out when subtitling due to space and timing constraints.)
- Personally, I would have translated the name of Ji Ah’s TV program as: ‘In Search of Urban Legends’ rather than ‘Unveiling Urban Legends’ since the verb here is 찾아서, an inflexion of ‘to search/find.’
- I really like the dynamic between Ji Ah and writer Kim Sae Rom. “Should we fight?” / “Yeah, let’s fight~” How great is it that this drama doesn’t have a single catty, bitchy, stuck-up or otherwise obnoxious female character? I can’t say enough about how much I appreciated this.
- Lol Sae Rom: “A red umbrella, and it’s even embroidered? Check out that overbold taste.” The word she uses for ‘overbold’ (잔망스럽다) can mean anything from flashy, to unbelievable, to impudent, to silly. Basically, she’s got him pegged.
- The BGM is probably called something like ‘The Snail Bride’ (우렁각시). but we don’t know because they never released it ㅠㅠ
- For anyone keeping track, Shin Joo speaks to Yeon in jondaetmal while Yeon speaks to Shin Joo in banmal, underlining their master/retainer dynamic.
- Side note: There are actually multiple ‘types’ of jondaetmal: what I think of as ‘neutral polite’ (i.e. simply adding ‘yo’ to the end of all your sentences), the more formal polite (i.e. ending with ~[seu]mnida), that which elevates the subject, and that which lowers the speaker. The interplay of the four allows for varying degrees of politeness. The way Shin Joo speaks to Yeon is pretty much the highest degree. That doesn’t mean they aren’t close. Polite language can indicate distance but also level of regard irrespective of distance. This applies to Rang and Yoo Ri as well.
- Again, Shin Joo calls Ji Ah ‘PD-nim’ but that became ‘that female director’ in the subs. PD-nim is a respectful (and non-gendered) form of address, well suited to Shin Joo’s genial and deferential personality–and also way fewer characters–so I wish the subs had kept it.
- I read an episode recap where the recapper mentioned she wasn’t sure what Shin Joo’s deal was. At the time I was confused, but now I think I get it. In the subs, Shin Joo says, “When I’m a seasoned veteran? I’m now up to the point where I’m wondering if I’ve turned into an actual person.” What he actually says is:
Shin Joo: No way. How long have I been living in this (the human) world? Recently, I sometimes even have an existential crisis wondering, ‘Am I a person or a fox?’
[So he flat out says he’s a fox here, but that wasn’t reflected in the subs.]
- Fun fact: this was Hwang Hee’s first scene that he filmed with Lee Dong Wook, and the BGM as they exit is Shin Joo’s theme.
- I love the way Lee Dong Wook played this scene where they pay their tab. His “Tell that human to catch me if she can” complete with jaunty umbrella swing is Yeon to a tee.
- It’s only as Yeon and Shin Joo exit the restaurant that we see that the sign out front reads ‘The Snail Bride’ (Ureong Gakshi). This is another folktale in-joke, since the snail bride’s whole thing is that she cooks delicious meals for her human husband every day.
- In real life, the is the Insadong Hanok Teahouse (인사동 한옥찻집) near Angook Station, which you could theoretically visit if it weren’t for COVID ㅠㅠ
- For the record, the Snail Bride (Bok Hye Ja) also uses honorific language towards Yeon and calls him ‘Lee Yeon-nim.’ I just assumed it was in deference to his ex-mountain god status, but it turns out she has a personal reason for holding him in high regard as well that we discover in the final episode.
- As Yeon and Shin Joo walk away, Shin Joo’s line is subbed, “That show’s actually quite famous.” Since Korean doesn’t require a subject, the sentence is somewhat ambiguous, but I understood him to be referring to Ji Ah herself rather than the show since he says: “[Something is] really famous around the broadcast station.”
Lee Rang
- Lol Kim Beom. How are you 32 years old?
- I love how sharp and no-nonsense Ji Ah is. It’s refreshing to not have to wait for the characters to catch up to what the audience already knows.
- Rang’s theme that plays as he transforms back into his suave self is so iconic. The music director (Hong Dae Sung) really is a genius. It’s funny when you think about how different Rang’s theme is from Yeon’s.
- Fun fact: Kim Beom shared in his Instagram LIVE that Rang ‘picking the wrong shoes’ was actually intentional. He was testing Ji Ah to see if she’d notice.
- Okay, Rang says here that he likes, “everything about her (Ji Ah) from head to toe,” (not in a romantic way but in a grudging respect/she’s fun to toy with kind of way) but what happened to that? Are we supposed to assume that he would have liked her if she hadn’t been the object of his brother’s affection? But he approached her knowing that’s who she was...? I don’t know. I do know I wish they’d had more scenes together. Their verbal sparring is great.
- Side note: One Korean fan nickname for Rang and Yoo Ri that Kim Beom liked was ‘Hoket-dan,’ playing off the Korean for pokemon’s ‘Team Rocket’ (Roket-dan) and mashing it together with the ‘ho’ from ‘gumiho’ haha
- Yeon’s obsession with mint chocolate chip ice cream is a hilarious counterpoint to his status as a cheonho and his ex-mountain god title. Point to the writer. In Japanese, this would probably be called ‘gap-moe’.
- When Yeon tells the man behind the counter, “When I’m indebted to someone, I’m obligated to return the favor,” he’s once again talking about eunhye. As a fox, he’s supernaturally bound to repay good deeds done for him. As far as I’m aware, this is unique to the drama and not part of the traditional gumiho lore.
- Yeon eating ice cream like a happy kid XD Lol Lee Dong Wook, how are you 39?
- Fun fact: Yeon’s line when he answers Rang’s call, “The number you have reached doesn’t exist, you punk” was an ad lib by Lee Dong Wook. The combination of the formal phrasing found in a typical voicemail recording followed by ‘you punk’ is particularly funny. It’s so witty I actually wouldn’t have known this was an ad lib if LDW hadn’t confessed as much himself. Loved this.
- “Let’s meet.” / “I refuse.” / “I’ll set your house on fire.” Hahaha What is with these brothers? Are they 1600+ and 600, or 16 and 6? Are the zeros silent??
Bus 1002
- Ji Ah: “If possible, pick a different dream. I’ve been on the clock for 22 hours straight now.” I like Ji Ah so much. She’s unpretentious, intelligent, honest, driven, resourceful and witty.
- Lol As Ji Ah struggles with the old man, you can hear Yeon offscreen urging the driver to get moving. Only he calls him, ‘driver-yangban.’ Yangban is originally a word for a nobleman, but much like the word ‘lady’ in English, what was once a term of respect is now often...not. lol Also, I’m pretty sure this was another ad lib by Lee Dong Wook since it happens entirely in the background.
- This scene with Ji Ah piggybacking the old man is so classic spooky-folktale. I love it.
- “You’re the only person I saw.” *Close up of the totem pole* They managed to make that whole sequence creepy despite nothing actually happening. Cool cool cool.
- So our old drunkard is revealed to be a Mokjangseung (‘mok’ = wood). Jangseung, in general, are totems that stand at crossroads and the entrances to villages. tvN published some backstory info explaining Ji Ah’s past with this particular Jangseung and why he elected to save her.
- Aaaand we’re back at Fox Ridge. I can’t believe I only just noticed this, but the episode title could refer to both the accident in Ji Ah’s past and this bus accident in the present.
- Of course Rang staged the accident at the site of Ji Ah’s greatest trauma. Also, the fact that he knows that about her is telling.
- Appropriately, the BGM playing as Ji Ah arrives at the scene of the accident is ‘Fox Ridge’ (Yeou Gogae). Iconic.
- Back over to Yeon. The first time I watched this I wondered where on earth he was heading in that downpour but it turns out he was in pursuit of Rang, who had given him the slip.
- Seeing Yeon limping injured through the rain ㅠㅠ Also, while Yeon later tells Ji Ah he carries his umbrella everywhere because he hates his fur getting wet, he clearly isn’t bothered here, choosing to keep it sheathed on his back instead. I guess all bets are off when he’s in Gumiho Mode.
- I’m pretty sure the truth is that he carries it everywhere because it’s something Ah Eum gave him ㅠㅠ Fun fact: Lee Dong Wook shared in his 2020.12.23 VLIVE that he had actually been the one to propose and design the sheath Yeon carries his umbrella in. There was a brown one, too, that they never ended up using onscreen.
- Detective Baek and Ji Ah speak in banmal and he calls her ‘Nam Ji Ah,’ which I assume means they’ve been friends for a while, possibly since their school days.
- Wow, good for Ji Ah for having made note of the exact number of passengers in the midst of all that chaos. I certainly wouldn’t have.
Hospital Encounter
- So after Rang gave his brother the slip, Yeon realizes the next day that he’s at the hospital thanks to the news article Shin Joo reads out to him. Idk but I like that shot of the two of them heading out. There’s something vaguely Avengers about it. Which is maybe not surprising given that was another early influence for the show.
- I liked this conversation between Ji Ah and ‘Soo Young.’ We get to see Ji Ah’s own resolve and drive in the advice she offers: “Even so, I hope you’ll become strong. It’s way more fun to be a PD than a victim.”
- As with when he arrived at the wedding hall, the cinematography + BGM as Yeon approaches the hospital with his red umbrella is just A++
- The BGM playing when Ji Ah spots Yeon approaching the hospital information desk isn’t on spotify or anywhere else that I’ve seen. It reminds me a bit of the ‘Tubular Bells’ theme from the Exorcist (a movie I actually haven’t even seen). If anyone knows what it is, I’d love to know.
- Ji Ah: “Found him.” I like that though Yeon has been waiting and searching for Ah Eum’s reincarnation for centuries, ultimately, it’s Ji Ah who finds him.
- “My only talent is my face~” pffft Also, decidedly untrue.
- And now the subs say ‘Fox Ridge.’ Okay, then.
- When Yeon says, “From the sound of it, it won’t be well made,” ‘well made’ is in English. Again, the peppering of English through Yeon’s speech makes him sound more modern.
- When Ji Ah says here “Whether it’s coincidence or fate, I’ve met you [as many as] three times,” the word she uses for ‘fate’ isn’t the more broadly used ‘unmyeong’ (運命), but ‘in’yeon‘ (因緣), which is inherently relational and refers to the fated connections between people who cross paths in life. It’s sometimes said that if you cross paths with someone three times, you were meant to have met, though it can also refer to a single fateful encounter, or even the tie between a person and a place/object/etc. ‘Coincidence’ (우연) could also be translated as ‘chance.’
- When Yeon says, “Plus, I’m very devoted” his line is more literally, “Plus, contrary to how I look, I’m the devoted type.” Are you saying you look like a player? pfft ( even more literally: the pure-hearted type)
- Yeon is such a big softie, so why does he keep threatening to kill people? Does he not realize they might take him seriously?
- For this entire conversation (interrogation?), both Yeon and Ji Ah are switching back and forth between jondaetmal (polite speech) and banmal (casual speech), almost on a sentence-by-sentence basis. On the whole, it gives the impression of a verbal sparring match.
- “It’s not as if this was a blind date. No thanks on a second one.” lol I do enjoy cheeky Yeon.
- Haha same. Also, you are going to eat those words, sir.
- Oh, I love that Ji Ah thinks on her feet. Using her leather bag to lift Yeon’s fingerprints was a smart move. Although, I’m not entirely sure how well that would work in real life.
- In the car with Yeon, Shin Joo says, “If you look at it a certain way, this is also fate. The little kid whose life you saved over twenty years ago has appeared before you.” Again, he’s speaking of in’yeon, i.e. fated connections/encounters.
- The ‘grim reaper’s outfit’ exchange was a coordinated ad lib between Lee Dong Wook and Hwang Hee. I mean, of course it was lol Casting Lee Dong Wook is the gift that keeps on giving.
- Was that supposed to be Yoo Ri entering ‘Soo Young’s’ hospital room in those boots? I’m not sure what this brief scene contributed.
- Minor detail, but ‘Soo Young’ calls Ji Ah ‘eonni’ meaning ‘older sister [of a girl].’ It’s common convention in Korean to refer to people by familial ‘roles’ that fit their general age range even when you’re not actually related. I could digress, but I guess I just find it jarring when they have her addressing Ji Ah by name in the subs since Ji Ah is older and virtually a stranger.
- Okay, when ‘Soo Young’ hears that Ji Ah lives alone, the smile she gives is effectively creepy.
- The contrast between ‘Soo Young’s’ narration and the events of what actually happened on the bus that we see as viewers is great. Point to the director.
- Wow, Rang really just slaughtered a whole bus worth of innocent people without a thought. I feel like we all managed to forget that about him as the show progressed. Hats off to the writer and to Kim Beom’s compelling performance. I actually worried initially that Rang would remain a one-note character because that would have been such a waste of Kim Beom, who is a fantastic actor. I’m so glad that wasn’t the case.
- I love the subversion of viewer expectations when it turns out that Ji Ah knew all along that ‘Soo Young’ wasn’t who she claimed. This is something TotNT does repeatedly and well. We get both the dramatic tension of her being in danger and the satisfaction of her having had the upper hand all along. Point to the writer.
- I’m pretty sure Ji Ah knocked that pitcher over with the express intent of using a shard from it as a weapon. Point for character consistency. Past or present, Ji Ah is apparently a ‘stab first, ask questions later’ kind of girl.
The Brothers
- “Hey you! I clearly told you I didn’t want a second date?!” Haha Oh, Yeon.
- I saw comments from Korean fans about how Yeon burst into her house with his shoes on here, and now I can’t not think of them when I watch this scene: ‘Entering the house with your shoes on...in the Republic of Korea...Ha...’, ‘Even if you bust the whole house apart, you have to take your shoes off before entering...’ lol
- I love Yeon’s line delivery that’s subbed, “As if, brother.” In Korean, it’s, “Wanna die, little bro?” The word he uses for ‘little brother’ (아우야) is still used today, but it’s something Yeon might just as easily have called Rang 600 years ago. In contrast to the first half of his sentence, which sounds cold, it’s quite a familiar term of address.
- Rang’s line subbed as, “It’s a long story, but the family has a dirty past,” should more properly be: “It’s a long story, but you might say we come from a broken home.” Saying they have a dirty past makes it sound like they’re the mafia or something. Also, as a fun language note, the expression is literally ‘a bean-powder household.’
- “Are you worried I’ll be sucked into the Underworld?” should be: “Are you worried I’ll go to hell?” Not sure where they got ‘sucked into.’ Rang just means when he dies. Also, I wish the subs would do a better job distinguishing between hell, the underworld, and the afterlife. They’re three different words.
- “It’s because you embarrass me, that’s why.” Lol at the way Yeon covers his eyes. That’s definitely another ad lib from Lee Dong Wook.
- When Rang calls time here, he actually calls Yeon ‘hyung.’ I’ve actually reverse-engineered about 80-85% of the script, so I can say with reasonable confidence that this is the only time Rang calls him this until the video message in EP16, I suspect this was a subconscious thing on Kim Beom’s part, and not actually scripted. The writer was very clearly reserving that word for when it would hit hardest — and did it ever. ㅠㅠ
- Agreed. Kim Beom said in his interview with Elle Korea that he never called Yeon ‘hyung’ within the drama, which is actually not true, but it makes me think that it might have been true of the script at least.
- Yeon’s line is subbed, “Old habits really do die hard,” but it should properly be: “You still haven’t fixed that habit?” Rang’s fondness for wagers and deals gets established early.
- “If you don’t find it until the end of the next month, this woman will die.” This should actually be: “If you can’t find [that] by the next end of the month, your woman will die.” The subject is actually omitted so it’s unclear to what exactly Rang is referring, which is intentional. I also understand hearing ‘your woman’ (ni yeoja) as ‘this woman’ (i yeoja), but when they later flashback to this conversation they use a different take in which the line delivery is clearer and I’m confident it’s ‘your woman.’ This also explains Yeon’s confusion, since at this point he didn’t even know Ah Eum had been reborn.
- Yeon: “Forget everything about me.” Um, not entirely clear on this, but did Yeon just attempt to wipe her memory only to leave the house a complete shambles? I know Ji Ah laid the trap herself, and all, but who fixed things up and paid for all the damages?
I Waited for You
- For anyone wondering how Ji Ah got into Yeon’s apartment, apparently his house code is 0000 lol
- Judging by his expression as he discovers and then watches the video she secretly took of him, I feel like Yeon is impressed with Ji Ah in spite of himself and I’m 100% here for it.
- For the record, from this point forward, Yeon and Ji Ah use banmal with each other. Ji Ah has a tendency to speak to many of the supernaturals in banmal, which is honestly the opposite of what I would have opted for in her shoes. Ditto.
- Yeon’s question of, “How did you come here?” could mean either, ‘What brings you here?’ or ‘How did you get [in] here?’ in Korean, and honestly they’re both valid haha
- Minor note, but she actually says his Korean age is 36, which would be 35 by the typical reckoning...except he’s actually ~1636 so it’s a moot point, really.
- Ji Ah’s line, “Now I can proudly say that it’s fate,” translated more literally would be: “At this point, it really is fate and not chance.” Once again, ‘fate’ here is ‘in’yeon,’ as in ‘fated connection.’
- I feel like Ji Ah’s strategy of throwing herself off the balcony here is possibly the only thing she does in this entire show that strikes me as dumb. Like, I’m pretty sure if Yeon hadn’t been both benevolent and able to fly (and she had no guarantee that he was either), letting her just fall here would have been the easiest way for him to resolve the matter/the only thing he could have done.
- I can only figure they really wanted that shot of the two of them before the moon because no matter how I think about it, this play makes no sense.
- Yeon’s line, “Did you just test me?” is one of the rare instances in which he code switches to archaic speech. I guess using his gumiho powers put him in a Gumiho frame of mind. ;)
- On the whole, I prefer the instrumental OST tracks to the lyrical ones, but ‘Blue Moon’ is just sooooo catchy. I wish they had continued using it more. YES.
And that concludes Episode 1. Probably more than you bargained for, but feel free to let us know in the comments what you enjoyed or found interesting, or if there’s anything else you’d like to know/would like clarification on. :) ~ Tweelings
Originally posted to tumblr here.
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