Significance of props in LFCT
I have been obsessed with lfct and its ruining my life. I need ep 7 and 8 now, today, NO YESTERDAY !! The best part is how well directed it is, rather, the direction in this show feels more intentional than other bls i have watched in a long time. The layers in the show, and the fact that the show trusts the audience to pick up on things is what makes me like it more. So I get frustrated when people complain it is too "unnecessarily confusing", isn't that the whole fun, to discover the story ourselves rather than have everything spelled out to us like we are just horny teenagers waiting for the two main characters to make out? (although that's exactly what I'm waiting for, but you get my point) Anyway, I'm sure there are valid criticisms, but I gotta defend this show because of my brainrot rn. :)
I wanted to compile a list of props that might have symbolism, can someone please help me organise and make sense of it. :)
1... Cigarettes: I found it odd that the show used a tracking short at the beginning and the first main character we see on our screen is Hyunwoo. The first conversation is also about cigarettes. The two students are punished by their teachers for smoking, and HW himself is hiding a pack behind a book. This immediately pointed to me that cigarettes must be a symbolism for something. Cigs or cigar, typically in many queer films or films with queer subtexts, have been a metaphor for homosexuality, due to the *ahem* phallic *ahem* shape, indicating to us that when two characters smoke together, they're probably fucking. Its definitely untrue in the context of show because we have seen that DH does not smoke but his dad does. So my next interpretation is that it represents abuse or trauma. Im going to interpret as whenever there is a presence of cigs = presence of abuse/trauma. We have not seen HW smoke but he holds the packet behind a book, aka hides his trauma from others, and put it in his left coat pocket, aka his heart. The two students are getting dragged by the teacher in the first shot, probably to get abused, hence the smoking talk. Whenever the dad beats up other kids besides JY and DH inside the taekwondo studio, he always says that it is because they were smoking. One of the friend and JY quit smoking because they were teaching children (they say that before DH comes to the funeral) because they do not want to transfer their trauma to kids, so quitting cigarettes represents stopping the cycle of abuse. They smoke together because despite us not seeing the two other friends being beaten by DH's dad, because they came from same, school, neighbourhood and time when corporal punishment was legal, they probably share the abuse. JY just came back from crying at his abuser's funeral so it feels fitting for him to smoke and reminisce his trauma. The dad is smoking indoors when DH confronts him for hitting JY. The dad and his friends are always smoking when they call DH and JY for their late night errands, the director could easily have them just be drunk, not smoke. But because they are all complicit in DH's abuse, they smoke along with the dad. I hope they bring up cigs in final two eps so we can see if its consistent. Its also fucked up that they used such a prominent queer symbolism with an abuse metaphor. Genius.
2... Vehicle: This one is also very consistent throughout the show. I am thinking the car represents their lives. JY uses the taekwondo van from his work. The key features of this vehicle is that it is bright, it is used to service others (picking up kids, dropping them off), it is rented, and it is big. Despite being apart from DH, JY is a positive person and his personality stands out brightly. If we look at JY's story so far, we can see that he is mostly a selfless person because he stood up for his friend who was getting hit, and for DH, and he probably has not changed much since that time as shown by the van. It is pretty sad to say but JY also probably does not have a life of his own, he is constantly influenced by people he loves and people around him. He works for his friend so he is using his friend's car (he returns the keys back to her in ep 6 before going to DH). It also means that the way he lives is similar to DH's dad (minus the abuse obv) as both JY and DH's dad drive a taekwondo van. Probably why DH does not want to ride in the van aka live a life that is so close to the image of his father. The taekwondo van had to go, and I'm glad it did. Side note but their first few kisses often happened on the back seat of DH dad's taekwondo van. Pretty symbolic that it was not on the front seat as both of their lives are being driven DH's absent father. JY also has never owned a car. The second car which he rented before going to see DH is heavily influenced by DH. Despite still being big and bright, it is a new and expensive car. It is white, just like DH's car. The fact that is rented also may imply that the life that JY and DH share may be temporary. I am scared. Hopefully he buys a cheap, bright car soon after everything is resolved and takes DH out. Make it more permanent JY, please. DH's car is expensive. Probably the only stand-out feature. His life right now is for show. He also has a lot of money. DH's car also has to go, start walking, get it towed away, crash it idc. DH and HW currently share a life together (despite the ambiguousness of their relationship) therefore they share a car multiple times, DH wants JY to drive his car aka, come to life. All DH desperately wants is to live his life with JY so this man keeps asking about whether JY can drive well, aka "whisk me away safely, thank you".
3... Food: Love. Thats what I think it represents. DH initiates the act of giving love first. He prepares food for JY. Always. And JY does not get a chance to return it, which is why he keeps saying that he wants to cook sometimes. He finally gets a chance to make food for DH and they eat together. JY also wants to eat with DH's dad, he says 'it would nice to eat together often' during ep 1. DH is uncomfortable because he does not have love for his dad. JY's parents pay for his meals but never eat with him in the show, they pay for his love aka they love him but never directly (idk what kind of twisted love it is). We never see them share the love between them last time because JY never gets around to making the lunchbox before the final test. We are also never shown the food they eat at the restaurant that JY chooses after they are reunited, their love is a shrodinger's cat at this point, we will never know if they shared a meal there together or not. We also see a conflict when HW wants to have a nice meal with DH after he books a restaurant. DH does not want to eat with him aka share his love with him. We never see them eat together despite going to a restaurant with their friends. We see a menu but never food. A twisted love once again when we connect money with food, representing what is going on with DH and his current friends.
4... Chapstick: No idea. Please let me knowww :(
Then there is the glaring ones like telephone, snow, taekwondo and alcohol. Is there any other, I want to talk about this show forever...
