ling-buyi

[ling-buyi]

the final week of wtpr ruining what would've been one of my favorite dramas of all time

[ling-buyi]

“Even if I’m not the Baek Saeon that you knew, does it matter?” “It didn't matter to you either. Whether I was the Hong Heejoo who couldn't speak or could speak, and even when I was 406, you knew, but it didn't matter.”

WHEN THE PHONE RINGS (2024 – 2025)

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WHEN THE PHONE RINGS 「 지금 거신 전화는 」 Dir. Park Sang Woo – Episode 6

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There's a couple here now.

They don't hide their true feelings and are honest with each other.

The promised to make an effort to be happy together.

[ling-buyi]

next day now & still mad about the finale but we did get hee joo feasting on sa eon's upper lip 👌👌👌👌👌

[ling-buyi]

okay u know what I just thought about it and yeah still hate the ending like even if we kept all the batshit things going on I would've went with it cause I can take nonsensical if I'm up for it but with current events, sa eon could've fucked off to anywhere or any setting it didn't have to be "war-torn" for dramatic sakes yes its a drama but let's not be insensitive about it and make it some kind of high stakes environment just for a pair of heteros to reunite and consummate like broooooooo. the final news reading that gyuri did is the nail in the coffin and reinforces this tone deaf shit that's happening cause they just had to sprinkle in some zionism in there like some kind of sick treat and I'm seething. fight with the wall and truly fuck these dumb ass writers fr. "it was in the novel this, it was in the novel that" there's something called artistic liberties???? it's called an adaptation????? if there's something problematic in the source material it doesn't mean you need to keep it????? hello??????

[ling-buyi]

Our male lead intentionally renouncing his very powerful 'adopted' identity and giving no name for himself—except that of Hong Heejoo's husband—has HUGE implications in Korean culture.

Due to their deep-seated Confucian beliefs throughout their history, women were rarely known by their actual names both in public and in private. They were know only by names of the men in their lives (this man's daughter, this man's wife, this man's mother) or by the title of their status or occupation. That still exists today to a certain extent. Also, women were very restricted on when and where they could go places publicly and had to hide their faces when they went out. The individual identity of women was therefore hidden from the world since they were not allowed to be truly seen or spoken about in a way where their unique defining personal attributes could be known.

So when our male lead denies his adopted name and powerful family status and then proceeds to publicly proclaim all his wife's personal attributes that uniquely define her—including a large picture of her face—while only defining himself as her husband, he flipped the traditional Confucian gender roles on their head.

[ling-buyi]

Thank you... for all your hard work, 406.

WHEN THE PHONE RINGS 지금 거신 전화는 dir. Park Sang Woo, 2024.

[ling-buyi]

WHEN THE PHONE RINGS 지금 거신 전화는 dir. Park Sang Woo, 2024.

[ling-buyi]

ep 10 when the phone rings

[ling-buyi]

Decision to Leave (2022) 헤어질 결심 Directed by Park Chan-wook

“The moment you said you loved me, your love ended. And the moment your love ended, my love began.”

[ling-buyi]

When The Phone Rings (2024)

[ling-buyi]

what i loved best about this episode were the quiet moments of intimacy strewn throughout the scenes despite the obvious tension of the plot. heejoo and sa-eon are finally communicating — bridging the borders between their bodies and minds that three years of misunderstandings had erstwhile created.

film-director céline sciamma famously had one of her characters ask her partner: "do all lovers feel as though they're inventing something?" and the truth is they do — they all do. the gentle touches, the lingering looks — the scene in which sa-eon signs the words he wants to say most to heejoo in a crowded elevator (yet as a viewer all we seem to see is the two of them) are all evidence of a private language which only two people in love can speak. lovers invent their own language — their own particular promises of comfort — of care. of "it's you and i against the world."

i saw this whole episode as a metaphor on identity and invention: sa-eon's ability to accept heejoo in all the murky depths of her secrecy as 406 enabled her to offer him that same absolution — that same blind loyalty to whomsoever he is at heart. paik sa-eon's entire life has always been a veneer — he has always been surrounded by pretense on all sides. he's created so many personas — the powerful son, the polished spokesperson, the media-savvy mogul. but it's the identity that heejoo was able to bring to life in him — an ordinary man who loves his wife: that he cherishes most.

this is what it means to love someone to the point of invention: where only the person they can create in you matters. where only the identity formed from your devotion to them remains after everything else is stripped away.

"the only sa-eon that i want to keep is the paik sa-eon that belongs to you, heejoo." 🤍

[ling-buyi]

How could you not know?

WHEN THE PHONE RINGS 지금 거신 전화는 dir. Park Sang Woo, 2024.

[ling-buyi]

WHAT IF WE 🧍‍♂️🧍‍♀️ WERE FATED CHILDHOOD ENEMIES 😡🤺 FROM 👹RIVAL FAMILIES👹BOTH ALIKE IN PETTINESS😒 BUT❗️ WE 💞 FELL IN LOVE IN HIGH SCHOOL 📚💞 BUT ❗️❗️WE COULD NOT COMMUNICATE 🙅🚫😶 FOR SHIT AND WE BROKE UP FOREVER😭😨⚰️ UNLESSSSS ONE OF US🧍‍♂️ GOT SICK 🛏️ AND FEVERISH🌡️🤒💀AND WE WERE STILL IN LOVE AND ONE OF US SAID, TEARFULLY😭, IT’S REALLY YOU JIWON🥺🥹AND WE KISSED💋

[ling-buyi]

Episode 8 | LOVE YOUR ENEMY (2024) dir. Park Joon-hwa

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Some things never change

LOVE YOUR ENEMY (2024)