A Failure in Distress

ikaw galing mansyon ako galing kalye

that's the question notes from the last row leaves you lingering with. mun oh has a boring, mundane, regular life. he's a failed-author-turned-college professor, has a wife, no kids. the love of his life left him for another man, and with it she took his only source of inspiration away. mun oh helplessly goes around looking for inspiration in other people's lives, but no one else's story is ever good enough for him.

kang is another boring, mundane character. parents died in a tragic accident, raised in an orphanage, does multiple part-time gigs to make ends meet. his first source of inspiration is mun oh, who opens him up to the beautiful world of storytelling. but like mun oh, kang also gets rejected when he tries to reach out to his only source of inspiration. the wound cuts deep, and haunts him for the rest of his life.

mun oh feels alive for the first time in a long time when kang re-enters his life. and what brings back the spark in his worn-out heart is when kang asks to steal something for him. is it because mun oh had been yearning to steal something else his entire life? or maybe it's because he finally pushed himself out of his comfort zone for the first time? either way, the the thrill of the rush is addicting. and mun oh can't let go.

the thing about both mun oh and kang is that they're both really good storytellers. and they complement each other really well - mun oh has such vivid imagination while kang has the incredible wit and perception to weave seemingly unrelated puzzle pieces into a coherent, engaging story. and i wonder what would have happened if mun oh realised that potential earlier in his life. just how different would mun oh's life turn out, if he appreciated those puzzle pieces in his own life. his wife's beauty, talent, kindness, and intelligence, and most of all, her unwavering love for him. how much kang looked up to and admired mun oh, how he could have been their perfect son should they have adopted him, how he could have grown up to be mun oh's protégé.

because the truth is soo hun wasn't an extraordinary man with an extraordinary life. what made him special was mun oh's belief in that fantasy. it's why the last words mun oh's wife says to him is that he doesn't know what to focus on, when to ask the right questions. if only he paid attention to his own life a bit more, he would have found the inspiration he'd been seeking his whole life lying all around himself.