raw thoughts.

Themes i noticed from off the bat:

The concept of “in-yun” or 인연.

Growth.

Finding yourself.

Pursuing your passions and what that looks like as you age.

Cultural differences and immigration.

I think a lot of people would ask why Nayeong (Nora) cried after seeing Haesung leave, and I personally believe it’s because watching her and Haesung choose (discreetly/ with implication) to live separate lives almost is her goodbye to her past, or her sending off who she was in the past. In the bar, she tells Haesung that the Nora he knew when she was 12-years-old is not the one that is sitting in front of him, 36, and married to a husband from the states; that even though she’s not the 12-year-old Nayeong, she still exists somewhere. I believe her send-off of Haesung was her send-off of her 12-year-old self, the person she used to be before she grew into herself. And that can be tough and filled with nostalgia, but because she has grown into who she knows she is, she is able to do this with her disconnect from Haesung in the next future.

When she says goodbye to Haesung for the final time, she is not only saying goodbye to her childhood love, but her childhood itself, the life she used to live before immigrating, the person she thought she was before growing older, and who she no longer is. In this way, her life before she became herself was a “past life” in of itself, and her current life is the one she chooses to live.