The Light in Your Eyes (2019) 눈이 부시게
Directed by Kim Sok-yun, starring Han Ji-min, Kim Hye-ja and Nam Joo-hyuk.
Watched 12 - 16 April 2023 — 12 episodes (DRAMACOOL)
*Finished the show today.
*(SPOILER AHEAD!) I loved the big twist at the end of episode 10. It went from a fantasy-tinged time-travel comedy/drama to a show depicting the big reality of Alzheimer’s disease (this hit close to home as my dad also suffers from Alzheimer’s). Normally I would be pretty pissed off with such a cop-out twist (the first ten episodes basically being the imagination and illusions of the lead female character) but here I didn’t mind and I tried to make sense of all the happenings in the previous episodes.
*I loved the friendship between Han Ji-min/Kim Hye-ja and her two girlfriends (Song Sang-eun and Kim Ga-eun) before the twist. How the young girls accepted their girlfriend as an older woman of 70+ and wanted to be part of her life, even helped at the elderly daycare. I also love the family relationships and how well loved Han Ji-min/Kim Hye-ja is.
*The sequence where the oldies free the kidnapped Nam Joo-hyuk! Such a feel-good moment! At first I thought it was pretty unbelievable how the oldies outsmarted so many thugs but after the Alzheimer revelation and finding out it wasn’t real at all, it made me realise this was an unfulfilled dream of Kim Hye-ja and she imagined how she’d saved her husband Nam Joo-hyuk. The fact that she couldn’t save him in the real past is so sad.
*The brother Son Ho-jun is so dumb and annoying with his broadcasts and weird challenges. Yet now and then he managed to get a chuckle out of me. In the last episodes in the real present timeline he was a bit more serious as the grandson of Kim Hye-ja.
*The father! Well played by Ahn Nae-sang. So heartbreaking. I felt so sorry for him as a little boy when his mother turned cold after her husband died, neglected her son and didn’t treat him well. At least it’s a comfort that she cared for him secretly. I cried so much for Ahn Nae-sang during episode 12.
*I love Lee Jung-eun and her character! She’s such a good actress. I’ve seen her before with Han Ji-min in Familiar Wife (as Han Ji-min’s mother suffering from Alzheimer’s disease) and Our Blues.
*The ugly old dude! He was funny at times, though, and ultimately a hero in Kim Hye-ja’s imagination.
*Lady Chanel is a beautiful and classy old lady and reminded me a bit of Jessica Tandy in The Birds. I wonder what her part was in the real past because it wasn’t shown. It made me realise that the writers probably didn’t intend to be clear about what’s real in the first 10 episodes. It’s Kim Hye-ja’s POV and in her state of mind she cannot tell fiction/imagination from truth. We as viewers have to figure this out for ourselves. At least it’s clear there was no magic watch at all.
*I was a bit disappointed that the police officer who killed Nam Joo-hyuk didn’t pay for his crime. His older version in the present repented with a crying outburst at Kim Hye-ja’s bedside. It makes sense Kim Hye-ja didn’t want the watch back because it wouldn’t bring back her husband but I would have wanted some comeuppance for the old man.
*Show ends with Kim Hye-ja’s final message:
My life was filled by misfortune but there were happy moments too.
They say that life is nothing but a mere dream but I was still grateful for mine. The cold, brisk air at dawn, the sweet breeze right before flowers start to bloom, and the scent of sunset that fills the air at sundown. Every single day was dazzlingly beautiful.
Even if you’re struggling right now, everyone alive has the right to enjoy all this. Even if one ordinary day is followed by another ordinary day, life is still worth living. Don’t waste the present regretting the past and worrying about the future. Live this day beautifully with light in your eyes. You deserve it.
To all of you who were a mom, a sister, a daughter, and yourself.