Our Movie: Episodes 7-8

by Dramaddictally

How do we know when it’s really love? Our drama grapples with this question this week, as our leads scooch ever closer together. While our heroine’s dream role continues to overlap with her life, the secret she’s been holding in finally comes tumbling out.

 
EPISODES 7-8

We ended last time with Seo-young asking Da-eum to her face if she’s dying. This week, we see Da-eum say yes, only to play it off like a line from the movie. That confrontation will have to wait until later because, in the meanwhile, we have Da-eum’s first love on set to contend with.

JEONG EUN-HO (Jeong Whee) is a new and temporary part of the camera crew, and he happens to still have feelings for Da-eum after they got to know and like each other in college. At that time, Da-eum was newly sick but not telling anyone about it, and so, she sort of disappeared on him.

Eun-ho seems like a nice enough guy, but Da-eum doesn’t have the same feelings for him anymore. Instead, his appearance has more of an effect on Je-ha, whose heart starts to buck up when he sees someone else take an interest in Da-eum.

At the same time, our heroine has her sights on Je-ha and she’s making her feelings very known. She invites him to go see a movie together, where they forget their troubles for a while, and both end up smiling. In fact, in these episodes we see Je-ha’s pearly whites come out quite a few times. She’s happy whenever she’s with him, and he’s decided to smile when she smiles.

But Je-ha is still conflicted for more than one reason. For one, rumors are spreading amongst the crew that he and Da-eum are dating — and that’s how this unknown actress won the leading role. But also, the theme of Love in White is about falling in love with someone who’s dying. Can you fall in love when you know how it’s going to end? This question — along with what the heck love even feels like — begins to plague our hero, who’s never let himself fall in love before.

And the fact that he’s never been in love is a painful part of Seo-young’s past, since she still hasn’t gotten over her feelings for him. Walking around hurt and angry, Seo-young is just looking for a way to hurt Je-ha back. Finally, she confronts Da-eum and Je-ha by presenting the evidence she has that Da-eum is sick with something. In that instant, Da-eum can’t take it anymore, and she tells Seo-young that she’s terminally ill with about four months to live.

Seo-young looks shocked and then angry, and she and Je-ha take their conversation outside in the rain. Je-ha lets out his jerky side, making it seem like he’s just using Da-eum to get his flailing career off the ground. He’s seen Seo-young and everyone else from his debut film move up and succeed, while he’s been stuck in place. So, he “grabbed a dying girl to remake this movie.”

Seo-young wants him to come clean about it and tells him that if Da-eum dies during filming then he’s done for. Je-ha says he wants to finish the movie with Da-eum, even if he never does anything else. Seo-young realizes he’s protecting Da-eum, not the movie, and says she has no intention of keeping quiet about what she knows.

Filming resumes and we continue to get overlap between the movie script and our drama. With themes of love all around, Je-ha talks to two of his trusty crew members about how you can tell if it’s love you’re feeling or something else. The two professionals have differing opinions, with the cameraman asking how Je-ha is unsure: “Are you the type that’s scared to admit it?”

The makeup artist chimes in that maybe Je-ha is just confused — real love is rare these days and you can’t just go around pouring your heart out about anything that feels like love. You have to use good judgment. Je-ha wants to know how to do that, and the cameraman says, “If you have to wonder, chances are it’s already begun.” And so, our defensive hero is moving away from questioning how he feels to opening up his heart a little.

But the bigger overlap between movie and drama comes when Da-eum and Seo-young have to spit angry lines at each other, and these two women are no longer acting. In the script, Seo-young has to ask how Da-eum’s character can fall in love while she’s dying — which has a lot more impact now that Seo-young knows she’s talking to someone who’s actually dying.

Then come the adlibs as Da-eum responds that she can do everything more authentically precisely because she’s dying, “Whether it’s love or a proper goodbye.” And Seo-young retorts, “That’s selfish. Something only someone who’s leaving would say.” Yikes. The tension is real and our opportunistic director says he’s keeping the dialogue.

They call it a wrap for the night, and Da-eum continues to put the subtle moves on Je-ha as they walk off to the waterfront together. She just wants to hear the waves, look up at the stars, and see his face, she tells him. I mean, for someone who’s facing death, it might go without saying, but this girl is brave.

The next day, Da-eum has a doctor’s appointment and it’s also the anniversary of Je-ha’s mom’s death, so he’ll be buying flowers and paying a visit. Our leads decide to stick together and go about their plans for the day, almost like it’s a date. The more Da-eum insists on being by Je-ha’s side, the more he seems to brighten up.

We come to learn that it’s also Da-eum’s birthday. While she’s at the hospital for her exam, she eats cake with her father in his office. She’s 25, and it might be her last birthday. She cries while eating the cake, but smiles and says she’s crying because it’s so good. Her dad agrees that it’s good, and this is a really moving scene as they smile through their pain.

After bringing flowers for his mom and asking Da-eum to accompany him, Je-ha drops Da-eum at home and surprises her with flowers for her birthday as well. He confides in her that his mom is actually the one that wrote the original movie script. And he says that Da-eum is helping him (unintentionally) to figure out what his mom was really trying to say by writing it.

After that, Da-eum still believes that her feelings are unrequited, but she doesn’t let it deter her. Later on, she’s sitting on a pier where the sun is about to set and she calls Je-ha and tells him to come watch it with her. And then, after all that talk about what love is, we see Je-ha running full speed to the pier in order to make it before the sun sets.

When he arrives, he confesses that he likes her too, but he feels that he shouldn’t. He thought he was mistaken, but he knows it’s the real thing. They touch each other’s faces, and then kiss in front of the setting sun.

What I like about these episodes is that I feel like I finally understand exactly how this bond began to develop between Je-ha and Da-eum so early. And it has to do with their secret. They signed a contract to keep Da-eum’s illness hidden, meaning they shared something between them that no one else knew and it made them feel closer.. After Seo-young learns the secret, Da-eum tells Je-ha that because of the contract, “We’re in this together. There is no your mess or my mess, but our mess.” So, Seo-young finding out is a way to reaffirm the exclusivity they were accidentally creating.

We don’t get much development this week on the theme of directors dating their lead actresses, but we do learn that the woman who was the original lead in Love in White was neither Je-ha’s father’s mistress nor his muse. However, we know that she was judged harshly due to the rumors and her career seems to have stalled after the movie. I’ll be interested to see where this thread takes us, and will be back around next time to monitor our hero’s newly tender heart.

 
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