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Mystic Pop-up Bar: Begrudging Dreams
I just finished watching Mystic Pop-up Bar on Netflix and I have mixed feelings. Firstly, the backstory is too similar to Hotel Del Luna's, a parallel that never quite goes awayeven as more and more of the protagonists' pasts get explored. The lover's betrayal, the centuries of punishment, the human key to changing fortunes, and even the hidden identity- it's a likeness that gets uncomfortable for me to watch, at times. That aside, I liked the premise of the show on the get-go: solving past grudges by manipulating things in the Dream World. I also enjoyed the easy camaraderie between the leads in the lighter moments.
Dreams are the crux of the show, the plot device that keeps the story moving and the part of me that isn't ready to consume any and all content around this theme wishes they would've built the Dream World better. Not only was there immense scope for such development- the locked door representing the amnesiac man's old memories in episode two, the endless slipper staircase inside the dream world at the pit of which lies a darkness hinting at the possibility of limbo, the connection between the living and the dead through the dream world, and so on and so forth- but even the final resolution of the plot itself depends to a large extent on how the universe- the dreams, the afterlife world, the after-afterlife world, all of it- work, what is possible and what isn't. The ambiguity allows them to get away with a happy, all-loose-ends-tied resolution that doesn't stick precisely because we have no idea how it was possible.
One could also argue that the setting of the show is tangential to what the show is trying to say about life, grief, happiness, morality- and the show is actively trying to say something: Weolju breaks the fourth wall at least two times, looking straight at the viewers as she imparts a lifer lesson or two. (I will admit that to be one of my least favourite bits of the show, more so as a result of personal taste, rather than anything else; didacticism grates on my nerves.) What the show gets perfect is the mini-stories of each person whose grudge Weolju has to resolve and within those episodes, grief.
I am not an easy crier. I remember all pieces of media that have moved me to tears (except fic, of course, impossible keeping tabs on that). I didn't exactly cry while watching this either but it was a palpable thing- grief- portrayed heartbreakingly well by the guest actors in every episode. I was particularly struck by the daughter in episode two and the man who loses his wife in episode five. The latter made me pause the show and sit with my thoughts for a while. It was a personally haunting episode, playing on themes of death and memory loss, examining the many sides of grief in separation closely. What is a little unfortunate, however, is that the story of the protagonists' relationship did not manage to deliver the same feeling. Maybe it was because I wasn't sold on the backstory, maybe it's because we simply weren't invested enough in the romance in Weolju's past- or at least, I wasn't. A pity, considering how effectively sadness and separation were written and depicted in the rest of the show.
To conclude, despite its issues, I still liked the show and would recommend it. It's warm and good and fun, for the most part and undeniably interesting. There are some other things I wanted to talk about, mostly the 'car accident' as plot device and how annoying it is but I couldn't really formulate those thoughts, so maybe I'll let that go for now.
Dreams are the crux of the show, the plot device that keeps the story moving and the part of me that isn't ready to consume any and all content around this theme wishes they would've built the Dream World better. Not only was there immense scope for such development- the locked door representing the amnesiac man's old memories in episode two, the endless slipper staircase inside the dream world at the pit of which lies a darkness hinting at the possibility of limbo, the connection between the living and the dead through the dream world, and so on and so forth- but even the final resolution of the plot itself depends to a large extent on how the universe- the dreams, the afterlife world, the after-afterlife world, all of it- work, what is possible and what isn't. The ambiguity allows them to get away with a happy, all-loose-ends-tied resolution that doesn't stick precisely because we have no idea how it was possible.
One could also argue that the setting of the show is tangential to what the show is trying to say about life, grief, happiness, morality- and the show is actively trying to say something: Weolju breaks the fourth wall at least two times, looking straight at the viewers as she imparts a lifer lesson or two. (I will admit that to be one of my least favourite bits of the show, more so as a result of personal taste, rather than anything else; didacticism grates on my nerves.) What the show gets perfect is the mini-stories of each person whose grudge Weolju has to resolve and within those episodes, grief.
I am not an easy crier. I remember all pieces of media that have moved me to tears (except fic, of course, impossible keeping tabs on that). I didn't exactly cry while watching this either but it was a palpable thing- grief- portrayed heartbreakingly well by the guest actors in every episode. I was particularly struck by the daughter in episode two and the man who loses his wife in episode five. The latter made me pause the show and sit with my thoughts for a while. It was a personally haunting episode, playing on themes of death and memory loss, examining the many sides of grief in separation closely. What is a little unfortunate, however, is that the story of the protagonists' relationship did not manage to deliver the same feeling. Maybe it was because I wasn't sold on the backstory, maybe it's because we simply weren't invested enough in the romance in Weolju's past- or at least, I wasn't. A pity, considering how effectively sadness and separation were written and depicted in the rest of the show.
To conclude, despite its issues, I still liked the show and would recommend it. It's warm and good and fun, for the most part and undeniably interesting. There are some other things I wanted to talk about, mostly the 'car accident' as plot device and how annoying it is but I couldn't really formulate those thoughts, so maybe I'll let that go for now.