one thing so interesting to me is the contrast in color and tone in sangwoo and gihun’s deaths, and the polar opposites, despite being fundamentally the same.
i’ve said this before, but to me sangihun color symbolism is so important.
gihun is red and warm—emotional, impulsive, fiery.
sangwoo is blue and cool—intellectual, calculating, withdrawn.
that matches their personalities too: sangwoo being the colder, standoffish one, whereas gihun is charming and friendly. and like ive said before, sangwoo envies that warmth gihun possesses. he knows he can never be warm like gihun, the same way blue physically cannot become red due to them both being primary colors (the only possible solution, really, would be to become purple).
comparing the scenes of their deaths.
sangwoo died in the rain, cold and dripping wet, drowning in tears and the shame of his deeds. in his death, we see blues—pale and navy, murky greens, even cool grays. his death is cold. reflective. he is dissolving into the environment, a death that begs for forgiveness yet never asks to be heard. his final words are an apology, and a plea.
gihun died in fire, a fire he'd lost, burning with the regret he never got to let go of. the entire color scheme of the frame is warm. reds, oranges, browns, even the blood beneath him is a deep swollen red, like a fizzling out star. and when the entire island eventually goes up in flames, that warm palette is reignited. he stands out against the vips (and inho), and his final words aren’t an apology, nor a request—but rather, a declaration. a condemnation.
and yet, despite everything, being polar opposites, holding opposing values and clashing desires, contrasting in all the intricate ways, they have one thing in common here—death. they both went out on their own terms, in ways that can be looked at as ‘sacrifice’ or ‘suicide’, or maybe even both, for people they cared about (mother/gihun + baby)
they both died messy, unshaved, unclean, bleeding out on the floor, but only one of them was cradled. they both died webbed in their own regrets, wrecked by the burdens they carried until their dying gasps.
it's like i stated earlier—blue and red cannot become one another, it's impossible. but they can meet in the middle and create something new.
and in the end, both of their wishes to their final living family members were eventually carried out behind their knowledge—sangwoo and his mother; gihun and gayeong. sangwoo’s mother was cared for. gihun’s daughter was finally given closure.
gummygunk
origamiaround
titsay
germansingergirl
prguitarman
jacobvanloon
