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Changhee has one of the oddest character arcs I have ever seen, because you would never have expected him to be relieved to have accidently walked into a course for funeral directing, realizing this is what he’s been called to. While I personally didn’t find him annoying at the beginning of the show, I know many viewers were not a fan of his complaining and rambling. I wouldn’t have expected him to be so genuine and introspective, but he is a new favorite character of mine. I think I understand a lot of his behavior as a middle child myself. I don’t think I’ve often seen stories with people in their 30s still figuring out their dream, because a lot of media portrays adults in their 30s either still chasing a seemingly impossible dream or giving up on a dream and learning to work a mundane job. Liberation from a mundane life is something I’ve seen before, but I’ve never seen it be tackled the way My Liberation Notes does. 

When we’re introduced to Changhee, the obsession we find is the car. The car that will reduce his commute time, end his dependence on public transportation, and give him more independence to date and travel. But a car isn’t really a dream. It’s more so something that would make his life more convenient and would allow him to use his time more intentionally. When Changhee starts realizing he doesn’t have a dream, I truly began to feel a certain kinship with his character, because a lot, if not all, of my motivation is driven solely by others, especially my family. I don’t have the desire to achieve something big. I want a peaceful and fulfilling life, doing something worthwhile, but I don’t know what that looks like for me. That’s not to say that I have never dreamed of a specific career or of how I want my adult life to play out, but now that I’m reaching the beginning of adulthood (and awkwardly shying away from it as best I can, honestly) I’m realizing that most of my dreams were facilitated inherently by others prompting me to find what I want to do. But I don’t yearn for a career. okay, not true, I so deeply want to be a good writer and have people find my writing interesting, but easier said than done. I want to exist and to exist joyfully. 

I really love this idea of Changhee saying his soul knows where he should be before his body does and so his body moves without him fully understanding it at first. I’m guessing Changhee is in his mid- to late-30s, and he’s already been present for four deaths. Like his employee was telling him, why was he studying art so intently? That wouldn’t make him a Seoul man, necessarily, although it is good to study and familiarize yourself with your new home. I had the sense that Changhee would eventually return to living outside of Seoul. Though, that’s not what really matters right now. What matters is that he was at the right place at the right time, and he realized, oh yeah, this is the place I’m supposed to be. This is what I’m supposed to do. I’m able to comfort people, to help people pass peacefully. I know how to be with someone when they need it most. To just be present. In the moment. In those last moments when all you want is to not be alone. Changhee is filled with the realization that he does not run from or fear death. He’s willing to risk it all, risk his chance at financial success, to help Hyeoksu rest in assurance that he is there with him and will be with him till the end, to help him go peacefully, gently. It is so interesting, and as I said, so odd to think of looking back on his character, because it felt like he was too frustrated and unhealthily obsessed with things he didn’t have, but I think it’s fair to say that a lot of that was him going through the motions of having to adult and not feeling fulfilled with his life. It was hard for me to pinpoint what Changhee was seeking liberation from after he quit his job. Once we see him using Gu’s car, Changhee begins showing a gentleness to him, so I thought, well, he wants to be freed of that frustration and annoyance from his job, because it isn’t in his nature to be irritated. And there is definitely some truth to that. He did want to be liberated from that, and he was in the end. However, it’s more than that. It’s about ambition. I don’t think Changhee was actually ambitious, although he appeared to be. I think he forced himself to have ambitions because that’s what one does when you attempt to become independent. He’s just someone who inherently understands people well, which is very powerful, and he didn’t know before what to do with that. What he lacked was purpose. And as he’s said before, his legs led him to where he needed to be. Changhee is an incredibly interesting character, and I know I’ll continue pondering many of his lines from throughout the series as well as his unexpected arc. 

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Don't die. For God's sake don't die.

I open my lips and mutter the words you heard on opening your black eyes, you who were ignorant of language. I press down with all my strength onto the white paper. I believe that no better words of parting can be found. Don't die. Live.

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Please go watch all of these bits from the LITBC press conference, because this show was obviously made with so much love and care, but I just need you all to see this part:

Nam Yoon Su has been consistently incredible in how he's addressed homophobic responses to his role in the show and the show itself, shutting down any nonsense with a gorgeous "I don't care, that hate sounds like a you problem" smile and I don't think I could love him more.

His addition of "our country is better than this nonsense" is so excellent, what a gem of a man.

King shit.

(seriously, go check out that Twitter thread for more interview bits, I am so excited for this show, y'all)

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Oh boy do I wish the conservative ahjussholes who are protesting against the airing of love in the big city will discover let free the curse of taekwondo because THIS level of queerness will make them clutch their pearls so hard they’ll finally choke on them

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franz kafka quotes that make me go absolutely feral

““There are times when my longing for you overwhelms me, so often I can only think of you with teeth clenched.”

“I cannot make you understand. I cannot make anyone understand what is happening inside me. I can only explain it to myself.”

“I am forever chained to myself; that’s what I am and that’s what I must live with.”

“I am constantly trying to communicate something incommunicable, to explain something inexplicable, to tell about something I only feel in my bones and which can only be experienced in those bones.”

“I have spent my entire life resisting the desire to end it.”

“Dear Milena, I wish the world were ending tomorrow. Then I could take the next train, arrive at your doorstep in Vienna, and say: ‘Come with me, Milena. We are going to love each other without scruples or fear or restraint. Because the world is ending tomorrow.’ Perhaps we don’t love unreasonably because we think we have time, or have to reckon with time. But what if we don’t have time? Or what if time, as we know it, is irrelevant? Ah, if only the world were ending tomorrow. We could help each other very much.”

“I mustn’t look at you too much or I won’t be able to take my eyes off you at all.”

“So we’ve drifted apart entirely, Milena, and the only thing we seem to share is the intense wish that you were here, and your face as close to me as possible. And of course we also share this death wish—this wish to die ‘comfortably’ but in reality, that is wish small children have anyway, like myself, for instance, during arithmetic. I would see the teacher leafing through his notebook, probably looking for my name, and would compare my inconceivable lack of knowledge to this spectacle of power, terror, and reality. Half dreaming with fear, I wished I could rise like a ghost and run down the aisle between the desks, fly by my teacher as light as my knowledge of mathematics, somehow pass through the door, then, once outside, I would pull myself together and be free in the wonderful air which, in all the world know to me, did not contain any greater tensions than those found in that classroom. That would have been ‘comfortable’ indeed. But that’s not the way it happened.”

“I’m tired, can’t think of anything and want only to lay my face in your lap, feel your hand on my hand, and remain like that through eternity.” 

“I am dirty, Milena. Infinitely dirty. This is why I scream so much about purity. No one sings as purely as those who inhabit the deepest hell—what we take to be the song of angels is their song.”

“Written kisses don’t reach their destination, rather they are drunk on the way by the ghosts.”

“It’s so wonderful to have received your letter, to have to answer it with my sleepless brain. I can’t think of anything to write. I’m just walking around here between the lines, underneath the light of your eyes, in the breath of your mouth like in some beautiful happy day which stays beautiful and happy even if my hed is sick, tired.”

“I have the true feeling of myself only when I am unbearably unhappy.”

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the death that will haunt me forever

Jujutsu Kaisen S2EP18 - Nanami Kento (HQ)

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his pout 🥺

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everything is too much all the time

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230507 ❀ WOOSAN

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WY 🌙 [230710] Twitter Update "Happy birthday. Let's walk together like this forever"

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this last scene, god, it broke me. my man standing out there with those sad ass eyes as if he is saying "we can't be together in this life, so let's be together in our next life. by then we will have enough 8000 layers of in-yun. see you there then."

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woosan 🥹 they are each other’s halves

Soulmates mirror each other’s lives.

So often, people forget what the word soulmate really means. Romantic lingo aside, your soulmate is not “the one” for you, because both of you are needed to make “a one”. Your soulmate is your other half, and you are theirs. That is why your lives echo each other’s.

When one is fighting a battle, so is the other. His battle could be literal, if he is a soldier. Her battle could be something else. About her health or finances.

When one is enjoying a triumph, so is the other. Perhaps the lawyer just won a case. While his soulmate is celebrating having lost a ton of weight.

When one is grieving, so is the other. She could be mourning her dead mother. And her soulmate could be mourning her nation’s political disaster.

The stage may be different, but the play is the same. Such is the destiny of soulmates.

Being half of another does not diminish your individual worth. In fact, the powers that be will not let you two unite, until you are strong enough by yourselves, to become each other’s weapon, instead of burden.

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First Half of 2023: 8 indie films worth checking out

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“I know it’s foolish but I just want things to be nice for him.” - Big Eden

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waiting for s3

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woosan - repeat until death