[Drama 2019] The Light In Your Eyes, 눈이 부시게

[angelbeast90]

The lady who took out the giant saw was a giant red flag that this was kind of an altered reality! In earlier episodes I was wondering where does she store all these stuff in her slender body! She must be a citizen of the wizarding world!!!

[SonShinAe]

@angelbeast90 I'd like to call her Grandma Doraemon. 

[nidcha202]

28 minutes ago, angelbeast90 said:

The lady who took out the giant saw was a giant red flag that this was kind of an altered reality! In earlier episodes I was wondering where does she store all these stuff in her slender body! She must be a citizen of the wizarding world!!!

 

LOL !!!! Some I think she may have a Doraemon bag. I sat reading, laughing and smiling in the opinion of you. You are the person who observes the small, little details.

 

@SonShinAe  I answer slowly. I think like you.

[angelbeast90]

When timed stopped for Hyeja I got goosebumps. I loved the imagery of her standing infront of her younger self!

 

 

[nrllee]

It was just a brilliant way to highlight Alzheimer's.  The gradual slow loss of memories that you hold dear.  The sad plight when you don't even recognise the ones nearest and dearest to you (mistaking her Son for her Father).  The fact that the disease basically punches holes in your memories so it's a mish mash of what you actually experienced and what you had dreamt life to be.  Some days you are good and remember more and other days you struggle to know what day it is or who it is you are talking to.  And it's petrifying knowing that slowly but surely you lose all your memories (and who you are) and you rely on others to do the remembering for you.    That last scene at the beach of her at the beach on her own?  Dementia and Alzheimer's patients do that a lot.  They wander off on their own.  My friend's Mother did that. He took his eye off her for a few minutes whilst shopping and next thing they knew they were frantically searching for her in the department store.  She had left, got on a bus and rode somewhere and didn't know how to get home.   They had to call the Police to finally locate her.

 

The finale will probably attempt to try to tie it all together for us somehow.  The following is pure conjecture on my part 

 

I think JoonHa died young leaving her with her Son to raise on her own - that's why HJM was in mourning clothes and holding a box (presumably with his ashes) at the beach.  Her frantic attempts to save her 'Father' could be her way of frantically trying to replay that fateful day and save JoonHa?  The old man in the wheelchair with the watch could very well be the driver who killed JoonHa.  Time stopped for her then.  Her dreams of a life together with JoonHa shattered by his premature death.  The old man returned the watch to her because he was the man who "robbed" her of the time she would've spent with JoonHa and potentially the life she would've had as a news announcer - it can't be easy being a single Mom.  It may be that she bumps into the man who killed JoonHa again in the Senior Facility.  There was that scene in the Preview where he looks to be lying in bed (?) - was he dying?  Perhaps she will finally extend her hand of forgiveness to him for his act so long ago.  NJH was the lookalike doctor treating her at the Senior Facility so he would've triggered her memories of her past life with JoonHa and it gets all mixed up with her current situation in the Senior Facility.  The insurance policies and vitamin pills could be real or they could just be her mind working overtime and being suspicious of well meaning helpers in the Facility.  Alzheimer's does that to you.  My Friend's Mother was convinced all the Nurses at her Facility were out to poison her food and they had a hard time convincing her to eat her meals .  Which leaves me wondering how YoungSoo fits into the whole picture.  I think he's her real grandson.  He played along with her (like her Son and Daughter in Law did).  

 

EDIT - just saw @snowbird12's analysis and looks like he/she is on the money.  The old man with the watch is the big question mark.  I am happy to be wrong.. Bring on next week.

[unknown12]

1 hour ago, SonShinAe said:

@angelbeast90 I'd like to call her Grandma Doraemon. 

same here!  when she took out that saw i was like "what the??? she must be relative to doraemon somehow "

 

and then i think, it must be because of their power, this avengers of elders didn't need those sign up for that insurance thing. what an elite group  

[SonShinAe]

@unknown12 haha! That could be. But what's great about the concept of that scene is that it shows that indeed, even with their limited abilities, the elderly still has something to contribute for the benefit of others.

 

I especially laugh my head off at the slow-mo grandma part with the cool background song that went "if I could put my time in a bottle" (or something like that). 

[SonShinAe]

I can't seem to get Kim Yeong Soo out of my mind. Sending him to Africa is not without significance if this drama is a tribute to Kim Hye Ja. So... I did some research and found out that Kim Hye Ja did charity work in "war-torn and disaster-stricken areas in Ethiopia, India and Sierra Leone" (Ethiopia and Sierra Leone are in Africa) and that "She now sponsors a total of 103 children from underdeveloped countries who suffer from hunger and disease and visits these children whenever she has time." (Source: 2011-10-29 - http://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/article/article.aspx?aid=2943407)

 

 

Now I can have peace of mind. Yeong Soo will learn about life in Africa and go back a wiser man.

 

 

[ilmare]

have been following this drama, never tot that there would be such a big twist at ep 10. all the while thinking that it is a rom-com.

 

after reading the comments, i gained a better understanding of what the cast and crew are trying to put across. it is not easy dealing with elderly suffering from dementia / /alzheimer and many a times when Grandma KHJ talked to her "friends" abt putting themselves in the elderly shoes, it just shows how sometimes one can view youth as being immortal etc.

 

kudos to the cast and crew. 

 

 

[nidcha202]

Even though the time has changed for a long time, at least I know that JH has a true identity in HJ's life and both give love to each other. Both of them are true.

 

 

[unknown12]

never ending praises keep coming up. especially from columnists from various media. they praise the cast, director, and more importantly the writers. Congrats!

 

http://entermedia.co.kr/news/news_view.html?idx=9370

http://entermedia.co.kr/news/news_view.html?idx=9371

http://www.biztribune.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=204116

http://www.topstarnews.net/news/articleView.html?idxno=600247

and many more articles that too many to share

[Yana Mujay]

Out of the heartbroken story of ol lady Heja live story, would someone who's good at make gif. Give us the amazing capabilities our elders heroes

They adapt the avengers super power well.

But yupp the Marvel team could beaten by the hillarious a pocket lady thou

Just imagine out of nowhere she pick out the 'nuke' from her pocket to flatten the evils 

Still can composed my thoughts because the funniest and the heartwrenching plot this drama.

 

[unknown12]

really appreciate the cinematography 

 

did the production already gave us a clue from the poster? it seems the outfit han ji min's wearing from different era, i barely notice this, her shoes quite old school (i don't know which year, 50s?60s? not 80s of course cos the son will be younger than ahn nae sang's look). or perhaps it's just me got confused, cos can not wait for monday huff.

 

[tok-soompi]

Nation Mother

Credit to author

 

Old school wedding photos

Credit to author

[nrllee]

I really love how gently and carefully this drama has approached the whole topic of ageing.  Slow with lovely mellow tones.  And that pic of the old folks watching the sunset...they have reached the sunset of their lives.  Actually I always thought HJM's fashion sense was kinda old school but I just put it down to her liking retro stuff...how fashion comes full circle and the old becomes new again (wait...I just wrote something profound...sometimes I surprise even myself ).

 

And yes I am dying to know if YoungSoo really ended up in Africa or not .

[SonShinAe]

One of the K viewers of The Light In Your Eyes shared her thoughts on Kim Hye Ja's condition:

 

https://www.82cook.com/entiz/read.php?bn=15&num=2735607

 

It's in Korean but I used a web translator. The translation isn't that bad I think, because one part (Hye Ja's friends were only in her imagination) feels like a knife striking my chest. I hope this isn't what's going to happen next week.

[chickfactor]

https://www.82cook.com/entiz/read.php?bn=15&num=2735607

 

Translated:

 

Kim Hye-Ja, dementia patient, lives with her son, his wife, and her grandson. When she was young, her father was a taxi driver and her mother was a beautician. Not wealthy, but a happy family. She wanted to be an announcer, but could not realize her dream. Fell in love with Joon-Ha, who wanted to be a reporter. After marrying, they had one son and lived happily. Joon-Ha, as a reporter, was taken, tortured and died. She lives with the guilt of not having saved her husband, and her son loses his leg in a car accident.

 

Her husband's death and her son's accident are buried deep in her subconscious, and Hye-Ja keeps trying to save them, even while suffering dementia.

 

If only she could turn back time, she could save her son and her husband. She becomes obsessed with turning back time due to deep regret in her past, and that caused her to fantasize about a wristwatch that could turn back time. So in her imagination, she returns to age 25 when she first met Joon-Ha. However, her face remains that of an old woman, so she thinks that it is because of this strange wristwatch.

 

In Hye-Ja's world, her son becomes her father, her daughter-in-law becomes her mother and her grandson becomes her older brother. And the doctor who cares for her at the nursing home becomes her husband before they married.

 

She lives every day in a delusion. She wants to work, so she imagines selling eggs and working part-time at a supermarket using her nice voice. She has fun with her friends, but her 25-year-old friends are only 25 in her imagination. They have all become old, or died. Her husband who became a reporter and died does not become a reporter in Hye-Ja's imagination. He works at a Senior Center and she sees him every day. But this Joon-Ha is her doctor who just looks like Joon-Ha. Her young friends and Joon-Ha no longer exist in this world.

 

When her father looks at her with sad eyes, Hye-Ja imagines that he is not used to her old appearance, but the truth is that it saddens him to see her call him "Dad." Her daughter-in-law feels the same. Her delusions become worse as time passes. The daughter-in-law is exhausted caring for a mother-in-law with dementia and considers divorce, but when Hye-Ja tells her that she is on her side, she cries as she eats noodles.

 

Hye-Ja thinks that her cooking skills have suddenly improved, but the truth is that she's been cooking her whole life, which is why she is good at it. She is good at kitchen work and packing lunches. This is why her father hates eating anchovies, because she fed them to him so many times, because it was good for his bones. When he is insulted at his security job, Hye-Ja says that she is his mother and stands up for him, but her father looks sad, seeing his mother's dementia getting worse.

 

In this imaginary world, Joon-Ha becomes ruined by his tough reality, and Hye-Ja continues to try and rescue Joon-Ha. Hye-Ja will save you, Hye-Ja will save you. Joon-Ha goes to see the Aurora to find himself thanks to Hye-Ja's help. But as he prepares to leave her world, she can't let him go yet. Hye-Ja had to save Joon-Ha herself, and bring the bloodied Joon-Ha to see the ocean. Only after she saved him herself could he leave her world.

 

In her imaginary world, Hye-Ja saves Joon-Ha from the room where he was tortured. When she rescues him from death and takes him to the ocean, that is when she comes to her senses and becomes aware of reality.

 

Hye-Ja now knows that she is not 25, but an old woman with dementia. She sees her son and daughter-in-law, and she sees the young doctor, instead of Joon-Ha. Hye-Ja is now ready to go on a long trip. The truth is that she had been planning this long trip with her friends (i.e., death) but it was delayed because she had to rescue Joon-Ha.

 

She couldn't leave Joon-Ha collapsed in a cold basement room, so she had to save him no matter what and take him to the ocean. She is now free from his unfair death, and she will leave soon to go to where he is. But the watch was returned to her by the detective who caused Joon-Ha's death, could she forgive him? The perpetrator and victim have both become old people suffering dementia. Could she forgive the person who caused her grief before she leaves?

 

--

 

Thank you, @SonShinAe !!!

 

 

[SonShinAe]

Thank YOU, @chickfactor. 

 

This is an explanation closest to reality that I've read so far. But knowing how the storyline of this drama is so unpredictable, we can never really be certain.

[Ayame]

OST Part 5 (English Hardsubbed) | Full OST Playlist

 

[tok-soompi]

Next week preview with eng sub

Credit to author