Light Shop: Episodes 5-6

2 December 13, 2024December 13, 2024

by lovepark

The story continues with a reunion between the past and present, the dead and alive. The trapped souls and wandering spirits are given names and histories as the show explains how and why they stay, unable to move on from this place where strange things exist. However, even in death, not everyone is alone, and sometimes the will to live can be found through others.

EPISODES 5-6

At the end of the dark tunnel, a bright light greets its weary travelers, both in life and in death. As the story progresses, the nameless are given names, and we learn why these characters linger between planes, neither embracing the present nor letting go of the past. Regrets, wishes, sorrow, their reasons for staying are complex and varied, but their ultimate desires are the same. This is their story, a glimpse at the unknown yet human experience of being known, understood, and loved.

The man on the bus is KIM HYUN-MIN, and he texts his girlfriend affectionate messages while smiling at the ring he got her. Her name is LEE JI-YOUNG, the woman waiting at the bus stop, the one with fingernails on the inside of her hand. She wishes to tell him to come tomorrow, that she misses him, too, but those messages are left unsent — a decision that will soon haunt her.

Meanwhile, the woman trapped in the house is YOON SUN-HAE, and she checks out a potential apartment with PARK HYE-WON (Kim Sun-hwa), the drenched woman at the light shop, the one screaming in the bathroom, the figure stretching in the street, and the shadow lurking in the corners. Sun-hae asks Hye-won what she thinks of the place — brightly lit, centrally located, and in their budget — but Hye-won smiles weakly, her answer noncommittal. The real estate agent asks if they are mother and daughter, and Sun-hae’s souring mood turns rancid.

In the rain, Yoo-hee picks up Hyun-ju from school, and they walk home together arms linked, tenderness emanating from every word in their conversation. Elsewhere, the boy trapped in the alley HEO JI-WOONG jokes around with his friends, making sure to avoid their attempts to dirty his shoes. One by one, our characters are reintroduced like pieces in a tapestry woven together, connected by a singular moment that will change their lives forever.

The final figure in this tale is bus driver OH SEUNG-WON, the crying man from the elevator. Before his last route, he notices something strange about the tire, but when he notifies headquarters, they tell him to take it into a company garage tomorrow or pay for it out of pocket. With a line of bus-goers waiting for their ride, Seung-won decides to drive, but as the night continues, his instincts tell him that something is very wrong.

While walking to the bus stop, Sun-hae confronts Hye-won for clinging to her only when no one else is around. She knows why her lover disliked the place because everything that made it perfect to Sun-hae turned Hye-won away — too close to people, too out in the open. Though Hye-won tries to defend herself, her explanation sounds like excuses to Sun-hae who is tired of hiding. She tells Hye-won to get out of her sight and leaves behind their matching red heels to get on the bus.

Despite Seung-won’s attempts to head towards a garage and stop people from boarding, our unsuspecting passengers hop on and off until only a handful of them remain. Then, as they cross a bridge, the tire blows out. In a matter of seconds, an average night turns into a nightmare as everyone gets tossed in the ensuing crash. This brief moment feels like eternity as Yoo-hee hugs her daughter and Hye-won shields her lover before the bus falls into the inky abyss of the waters below.

From across the river, Ji-young witnesses the accident, and though she calls for help, she cannot speak. She arrives at the hospital where a line of reporters crowds the front, but the mess of sounds and panic are silent for the deaf, highlighting Ji-young’s alienation and utter sense of loss. She waits in the rain as the other guardians sit with bated breath every time someone is wheeled out of the operating room, grief and relief oscillating in the stark white hall.

One of the first to pass is Seung-won who is mourned for by his wife, and the last to come out is Hyun-min. While waiting for the news of their son, Hyun-min’s mother receives his recovered phone and sees Ji-young calling him. Disapproving their relationship because of her disability, she texts back that Hyun-min died because of her, but in reality, he comes out of the OR in critical condition but still alive.

By the time Hyun-min’s father suggests that they notify Ji-young, they receive an ominous text saying that she will follow him. They frantically text back, letting her know that Hyun-min is still alive, and Ji-young reads the incoming messages as she hangs from the ceiling. She claws at her ropes until her fingernails fall off, but it is too late.

As Ji-young’s body is prepared for her three-day funeral, her spirit waits for Hyun-min, remembering his warmth and longing to say what she always suppressed. Alas, her courage disappears when he walks past her without saying a word, but as she watches him leave, he crumples in half — a reflection of his real body sustaining a life-threatening spinal injury. Thus, a new purpose sustains Ji-young’s lingering as she stitches Hyun-min back together, each day at a new location that holds a special place in both their hearts even if he cannot remember.

As for our other wandering spirits, Hyun-ju returns home, oblivious to her current state and frightened by all the otherworldly encounters as of late. When Yoo-hee does not answer her questions and only pressures her to buy a light bulb, Hyun-ju finally explodes. Her friends are ignoring her, her mom won’t speak, and everything feels scary and lonely. Hyun-ju refuses to leave the apartment, crying uncontrollably, and Yoo-hee can only watch, unable to explain the truth.

In the locked house, Sun-hae huddles in a corner, wary of the light flashing in the forbidden room. As she peeks through her clothes, she notices that they are hospital gowns, and the fear that once gripped her turns into confusion. Facing the unknown with a newfound desire to understand, she opens the door and looks into the light. Under the blinking bulb, her last memories of Hye-won return, and she falls to the ground sobbing, realizing that the love she spurned saved her life. Sun-hae calls out to her, begging to know where she went, but this entire time, Hye-won never left her side, even in death.

In the midst of this tragedy, not all was lost since one boy’s compassion created a miracle. A little boy, who was also on the bus, managed to survive thanks to the basketball Ji-woong gave him in the water. Now as Ji-woong lays in the ICU, his fate undetermined, the little boy waits, hoping to return the ball to his savior. Thankfully, he won’t have to do it alone since Young-ji comes along and promises to pass it to him because the will to live isn’t something we have to find on our own.

At the light shop, the detective stays for a cup of coffee and a quick chat with its proprietor. Both men once had daughters, and the detective shares that they even had a name before the miscarriage. He leaves to continue his search, but the empty streets only remind him of his failings as a husband. He ends up at a school where the lockers are named after the list his wife made, and as he returns to the street where the light shop resides, the detective stares at the flame emitting from his broken lighter.

The detective sits once more across the light shop owner and asks for another cup of coffee. Gulping it down, he comments on how it has no temperature or taste like last time, and after confirming his hunch, he asks the owner where he is. The detective asks if he is the odd one or if it’s this place where night never ends. The owner tells him that he asked that same question, too, and takes off his glasses, revealing his yellow, cat-like eyes.

As the world deepens, so does my love for the Light Shop and its many patrons. Even the detective who is more tangential to the overall plot, adds an interesting lore to the universe and tells a tragic story of a man who notices everything except for the most important truth in his life until it’s too late. He obsesses over cases as a form of punishment and atonement because he cannot forgive himself, and without this failing coping mechanism to keep him grounded, he would fall into despair. Then there’s Ji-young and her senseless death at the cruel words of a bigot. Even after finding her voice, it is too late to say the things she wished she told Hyun-min because he forgot her. She desperately clings to life, not for herself but for him, and no matter the consequences, she forces him to live to see another day in hopes that he remembers.

The wonderful relationship between Hyun-ju and Yoo-hee also broke my heart because even though she died, all Yoo-hee can think about is Hyun-ju’s well-being. She is unable to move on, to forget this world and the pain, because Hyun-ju is not safe yet. Though her voice is taken, she stays, but her silence is misunderstood by her daughter. It’s heart-wrenching because so many of these characters think they are abandoned and alone when, in reality, their loved ones are trying so desperately to keep them alive.

The same can be said for Sun-hae and Hye-won who made me cry because even in death, they cannot be together. Hye-won remains in the dark, out of Sun-hae’s sight, possibly because of Sun-hae’s last words or because of physical limitations. Either way, it leaves them both longing for the other without being able to communicate, making their separation feel extra bitter because their last conversation was an argument. While Sun-hae believed Hye-won didn’t love her enough to fight for her, she learns at the end that Hye-won loved her so much she would die for her sake. It’s tragic because despite what she said when she was alive, all Sun-hae wants in this trapped room is Hye-won who has always been by her side, never once leaving her alone.

Kangfull has said before about his comic creating process that he starts stories with the end already established. Thus, his worlds feel fleshed out with deliberate omissions and detailed foreshadowing because he knows where he wants the characters to go from the beginning. While the Light Shop starts off slow, introducing characters in this limbo where some are neither dead nor alive, it quickly picks up pace as it reveals the truth about their reality. The show, though terrifying, is not so much a horror as it is a tragic love story. The love of a mother who wishes her daughter to live, a love of a partner who doesn’t want her girlfriend to feel alone, a love of a person who’s been forgotten yet still holds on, a love between strangers solely motivated to keep the other alive in those fleeting moments of consciousness, it’s all these stories wrapped up into one that creates something tragically beautiful and utterly heartbreaking.

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1 Kafiyah Bello

December 13, 2024 at 11:48 AM

Yes, a love story. I was trying to figure out where we were going with the story, but in reading this recap, it is a story of grief. What did Vision say, grief is love persevering.

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2 Kurama

December 13, 2024 at 2:43 PM

I found interesting this way to discover what is it to be between death and life, what makes you surviving or not.

In these cases, Hyun-Min has Ji-Young who seems to use her job as leather craftwoman to save him everytime. I hope his mother will be punished for what she did.

Hyun-Ju has her mother, Sun-Hae has Hye-Won, is the dog protecting somesone too?

Who is Won-Young's daughter? Young-Ji?