A quick note to say I love the title cards on the prologue of Episode 5 where for the first time we got a rare glimpse into the psyche and motivations of Je-Ha who has been like an enigma and cipher thus far.

His fear of turning into his father - a man he hated for the perceived betrayal and abandonment of his mother - and his adamant refusal to go down that path is now revealed to be what's driving that rejection of all the lead actresses who made romantic overtures at him.

p.s. Je-ha isn't a predator or a jerk; he simply isn't emotionally available because of the historical baggage he inherited from his parents.

Hum... I wonder if I watch the same drama than Dramaddictally. It was clear from the start that Je-ha didn't want to be like his father and it's why he was rejecting Da-eum and I think he's aware of his feelings. He can't help to search for her when she's in his surroundings. And they showed the scene when they call the name of Da-eum for the audition but she's crying in the bus because of her sickness. So we already knew it was her second chance with him.

During the funeral scene, I wondered when we will see the flaschbacks with Gong Min-Jung because it was cleary her face on the funeral picture. It was nice to see the mother convinced the father that their love for the child makes them feeling trapped. Je-ha reassured him about the fact he wants to take care of Da-eum and at the opposite he said to her, he's not playing with it.

Poor Da-eum, Je-ha acting cold and hot must be destabilizing. But once, the misunderstanding of the past will be resolved, Je-ha could love her freely, I hope!

I have only seen ep.5... but my impression from Jeha so far is that he is way more into Daum than he wants to admit to himself. All his actions speaks differently than his words. And his heart also seems to be of a different opinion than he is forcing his mind. He is definitely drawn to Daum (also given his love for his mom) and I interpreted his kiss differently - that the emotions got over him... and then he got back to his cynical self and played it cruel on purpose. Because... that's not how you kiss when it is just a scene rehearsal, Jeha. 😁

And I see a huge difference between Jeha's relationship with Seoyoung and with Daum - he was actively avoiding any advances of Seoyoung (I doubt they ever kissed or were intimate) and honestly, I personally was sometimes uncomfortable with how Seoyoung approached him in the past. Jeha now claims he was leading her on, but I don't know, he was clearly uncomfortable and still is around her. What's complete opposite with Daum. He wants to be with her, he even offered her staying in his old house. And he is jealous, he is worried, he is full of emotions.

I may of course be completely wrong and Jeha is just a jerk of a highest order... and I'm completely under the spell of Namkoong Min with soft seducing looks through Harry Potter glasses. 😊😊

Seo young is annoying me. It is 150% none of her business what Da Eum is going through. the fact that she had the audacity to go to her doctor and ask is insane. Her jealousy, particularly because she is in a relationship is unhealthy and bordering on unhinged. Let's be better.

Je Ha is also bother me, sir you KISSED her. The young and naive woman will of course have a crush on you, now you are just being mean to her. You are an adult, communicate like one. Annoying man.

Da Eum, just wants to be in a movie and live her best life. Everyone except her bestie seems to not understand that.

Thanks for the recap @dramaddictally

Just wanted to ask if it’s just me but my view would be that the manager is not supposed to be drinking on duty and after the first massive mistake there should not be an opportunity for a second incident to occur. Now that Daeum’s picture is out there she should not be out in public without her manager. I also don’t get why they didn't hire a driver to drive the manager and Daeum back to Seoul.

I am confused how Hyeyoung can justify her behaviour to herself let alone anyone else because shouldn’t she as the agency lead be focused on protecting her client’s interests especially in these situations were the female actress is at a disadvantage. She was adamant that Seoyoung would never work for Jeha after the way he treated and yet she is actively forcing her to work with Director Park who is so slimy and despicable. This is especially difficult to make sense of when she knows that Seoyoung is still suffering the after effects of the last time she worked with him. I also don’t understand how she expects anyone to supply her with information about Daeum when she is not even pretending to be interested in them in their own right.

I really like this drama and the complications around Jeha being very interested in Daeum as a potential love interest, and wanting to protect her as an actress especially because she is sick. He is not able to wait until the show is over to start a relationship because she is unlikely to be well enough if she is still alive at that point.

Daeum has consistently been the one leading on wanting to move from platonic to romance and was determined he would be her first kiss. They both tried to style it out after that kiss but then she wanted him to know the feelings were real. He is being very cold in his rejection to avoid any ambiguity but he keeps being pulled back because being in close proximity makes it too hard to maintain his emotional distance.

I do believe Je ha is not being a jerk. Because of his hate to his father and the trauma of the death of his mother, he believes that love is a torture to anyone who foolishly falls in love. It maybe has something to do about his father actions of leaving his mother while she was sick. Therefore, I get it that he can brutally honest.
Anyway, the kiss in the rain makes me think he is being swayed from his feelings (????) The scenes when Seo young tried to kiss him many times, he had avoided all the Seo young advances, but not with Deum. Oh, well can’t wait for more episodes.

To paraphrase Hamlet's existential dilemma for 'Our Movie':
"To decathect or not to decathect - that is the question."

Decathect: verb (used with object)
Psychoanalysis
to withdraw one's feelings of attachment from (a person, idea, or object), as in anticipation of a future loss.
Sentence example: He decathected from her in order to cope with her impending death.

That was the taunting gauntlet Seo-young threw down at Je-ha over team dinner: "Can you ever love a person whom you know is dying already?"

His quietly telling answer: that to be able to do so, is perhaps the definition of love.

Narrative wish-list: I kind of wish in this ever-tightening turn of the screw in the tension between a looming production deadline & her own expiration Je-ha and Da-eum would boldly abandon art/film to actually embrace real life and spend their last few months *in* love, and not wasting time making a damn movie *about* love.

Tbh, they both only turn to movies (one to star in, one to create) precisely because they never had that authentic real-life experience of truly falling in love - movies as a medium is their escape & vicarious fulfilment in lieu of life itself.

The lasting legacy of "our movie" may well be the home-made vignettes captured on her lil camcorder of their happiest moments together

The takeaway I got from these last 2 episodes is that the SK film industry is quite small. What are the odds that two former classmates of Da eum's end up working on the movie? Also, everybody knows the dirt on other sets. Poor Da eum, after five years away she immediately has two women that are determined to "expose" her because of jealousy. I wonder what role her first love will play in the future. Perhaps his jealousy might lead him to try and "expose" Je ha? Things are about to get messy!

Dear Beanies, please don't come after me with pitchforks, 😱but might I suggest a combined reading of events?

First off- let's be clear that NGM's insanely handsome, and beautifully styled. I could probably just stare at him appreciatively for an hour like Michelangelo's David! 👀💖I am also drawn into this drama about storytelling vs reality, and whether tragedy is more realistic than hope, all set in a world I know and (mostly) love. 

But the central question here seems to be how we feel about Je-ha's character. Is he being cold to protect himself or is he being a jerk? And I think it's probably a bit of both.

In other words, it's definitely heavily implied that he DOES feel things for De-eum in a way that he seemingly hasn't for any? woman before (again, his past 'relationship' with seo-young seems to be her kissing him once, but I guess we may not know everything there).

But there are also (IMO) red flags there that suggest he wouldn't necessarily be the best choice of partner even if she weren't dying. 

Everyone has noted the jealousy of the two female characters, but Je-ha's jealousy and possessiveness is also very clear. He is basically using the excuse of people finding out about her condition if she spends any time with them to isolate her from everyone else.

She's already been told she can't hang out with her co-stars, and this week we saw him inventing excuses to interrupt her talking to her old friend (ex) as well. The recap mentions how callous he was to Seo-young when he went to her apartment, but his dictatorial controlling behaviour to De-eum where he just tells her to go and sit in the car like she is a child is not about just protecting his own feelings.

That is just not great behaviour. (There are a number of aspects of his behaviour that from a psych perspective would lean into coercive control). 

There are aspects of his behaviour that I think can be read almost entirely through the prism of wanting to stop her (but maybe even more, himself) from crossing the line (like how he pivoted after the kiss) because of a number of reasons - her impending death, his fear of doing anything to ruin his film (which she also wants as her legacy) and his fear of being like his father and having a relationship with his leading lady, but there are other elements of his behaviour that I don't think can be fully explained away or justified by that. 

So when it comes to the question of self-preservation or jerkiness - I say 'por que no los dos?' (why not both?!!!) 

(To add to the other positives:
The cinematography is appropriately fabulous for a story about filmmaking, and I love the philosophical ideas it's raising about whether quality of life is more important than quantity (I'm on team Da-eum with that one. Better to have squeezed every drop out of your life and end it sooner, than get another year sitting in a hospital bed....)

See, I watched these episodes and got the sense that Je-ha was was somewhat admirable (in a very relative, the-bar-is-in-hell kind of way), because he explicitly never crosses that line. His traumatic backstory makes him hyper-vigilant about the appropriate distance from his FLs. I got the sense he never dated Seo-young at all, even if he didn't outright reject her feelings until after movie (which *was* messed up). With this second movie, I feel like he's trying his very best to draw away from Da-eum, but he's falling for her too - which is why his words are so cold but his body language is flirty.

Something about this show keeps me glued to the screen. There was a lot of jealousy this week that I'm surprised I haven't wanted to fast forward scenes or quit watching. Ugh Seo Young, the other actress, and now I'm wary of Da Eum's first love. It's been many?? years since they last saw each other. She didn't ghost him before rejecting him. But right after meeting her again, he wants to know the reason why she didn't want to date him? He should have moved on already.

A major, magnetic reason is Namgoong Min's acting and his layered character. A male lead with trauma that has believably affected his personality and influenced his actions.

So many people are noticing Je Ha and Da Eum. I was like when did Seung Won notice? Must have been during the table read. XD He's more perceptive than I thought.

Loved that the makeup artist called out the camera guy when he offered his jacket because he thought she was cold. She didn't look cold at all! And she was wearing her own long sleeve jacket. Glad the drama made a point about this type of situation.

Yes, my third times watching the episodes 1 to 6. My first impression when I saw the first episode... okay, I am hooked.
The acting is excellent! The eyeglasses are phenomenon! Lol. Hey, admit it, you are planning to get those kind of glasses!
Anyway, I am watching it so many times to find some flaws... so, far none. It is executed perfectly, I hope till the end, whatever the ending is. The only beef I have when Deaum screamed at the neighborhood. It should be short, my opinion.
The sounds track it is perfect. I never stayed for the intro, but this one I do. Just the sound track is mesmerizing, including those scenes. Just use you imagination. It gives me the goosebumps.
Episode 7 is coming too slow. But I am waiting patiently.
Am I being too ambitious to compare it to Parasite, by Bong Joon-Ho's film??? Especially, I haven't seen the entire work of Lee Jung-heum... well, give me the beating if I spoke too soon.
See you then when it's over.

I have just finished ep.6 and oh, Jeha, you, cruelly drawing the line, were more talking to yourself and mainly hurting yourself than Daum. Because even if you are theoretically right, you could have chosen better words. But you didn’t. And again, your acts speak more than your words... your reading the articles, your searching for the hospital... you are so worried... and constantly keeping an eye on Daum (and ensuring she eats... and drinks her grape juice)... what unfortunately starts making others being suspicious.

I still have hopes for Seoyoung, her last question and Daum's tears somehow made me believe that she will protect Daum. (I don't want to be wrong!! 🙏)
What I don't think about Jaein and hate this selfish jealous former college definitely-not-a-friend. 🤨 Stay away!!

There is one thing I still want to mention - that the cameraman, who knows Jeha well, mentions Jeha's hidden soft caring side.

Although the premise of the series is a sad one, I'm kinda hoping for an unexpected twist that will give me a happy end. Further to that, did anyone notice that faint glimmer of hope when her dad mentioned something about a "clinical trial"?