Latest Posts by lotusclouding - Page 3

Romantic love is cool but have you ever watched your best friend order drinks in a foreign language?

his ass is not listening btw

what makes the eighth sense so soooo good storytelling-wise is that it clearly has direction. so many korean web dramas are short and scattered with little to no plot or barely any/minimum character growth because a) they are either made to be the baseline for product placement or b) engineered to be these snippets that in the end will get slapped together like a compilation and called a film. in contrast, the eighth sense reads so much like a film because it is one, it was made to be one *one that screams CINEMA* it has already premiered (and is on its second week of release in megabox theatres) so the series is more like the extended version, the directors cut so to say, of that carefully constructed story. the creators are, quite honestly, absolutely insane for crafting and putting out a work of such quality. they are so bold with the editing choices bc they trust the audience. t8s is a show that doesn’t underestimate its viewers by thinking they require everything to be spoon-fed to them. the opening scene of ep3? (one can argue that it is in medias res but is it if we regard it as a whole with ep2 already out? would it be necessary to start from when they talk on the beach and ease into the feelings and vibes of the scene?) the point is the uncertainty, the surprise, the double take that makes, both the characters and us, freeze up and hold our breath the ending scene of ep3? the tonal change compared to the rest of the episode, the visual representation, the skip that isn’t shown... these are not drawbacks nor the results of missing something. these are the signs of faith poured into the audience over a piece of media that puts a whole world into existence. even if we don’t see all that’s happening, the sincerity and details that are constantly given, the delicacy and meticulousness of the parts that are shown of these characters living in front of us is compelling enough to get a full picture, to understand the unsaid just as much as what is stated. it is, once again, all about showing and seeing and I’m enraptured by it

Baby, don't you know you read my lips? You're coming to my dreams now Night or day / mon amour by GEMINI (제미나이)

This is it, the shot that took me out, the freedom that they've found in each other, the birds flying free, the soft light and the tenderness as they laugh and joke and avoid everything serious... but the consequences that are coming cannot be avoided and the life that they are flying from is waiting for them when they land, no matter where they land, no matter how far they fly...

aeri befriends jihyun and the first thing she thinks is i need to take this gay loser to a thrift store STAT

jihyun popping the trot mixtape in and the trot music playing was actually so funny i genuinely giggled 🤭

i also just love that so many scenes between them and their dialogue just feels so... real??? like nothing seems contrived or abstract. their conversations can range from light-hearted banter to something more deep but it always feels real to who they are and their position in the world (jihyun coming-of-age and jaewon going through transition into the real world). and idk i just love that the most about this show, i think. it's real

The only good thing about THE TRAUMA THAT ENDING GAVE ME LIKE ARE MY FEELINGS A JOKE TO YOU- *ahem* the only good thing is the fact that at least now I'm personally sure this story won't end in tragedy. Yes, something did happen to Jihyun, but this won't be a repetition of Jaewon's trauma, of Jaewon's powerlessness, because this is a story about healing and I believe it with my whole heart.

Jihyun is not here to make Jaewon sink deeper into the darkness, he's here to bring him light. He's here to help him forgive himself for failing to protect his brother, the one person that meant the world to him, by succeeding in protecting Jihyun, the one person that means the world to him now. Jihyun is here to close the wound in Jaewon's heart that is still bleeding after all this time, after all these years, and help him let go of all that grief, all that sorrow. Jihyun is here to set him free, and that's why he's gonna live. Jihyun is gonna live, and Jaewon will also finally start to.

anywaaaaays, the eighth sense, eh? just a show about surfing and love. totally not about trauma and being in pain everyday to the point where you feel numbed and then suddenly being seen and pulled in like the tide that comes and goes every night and you sorta let it fall naturally at your feet in whatever way it wants to because the ocean is both life and violence. containing things that man has not even begun to perceive but also having the ability to carve away at stone and rock swallowing the earth into itself

aeri and jihyun joining forces to humble (more like end) jaewon's "friend" the moment he went too far was too good

In the last two episodes Ae Ri:

Clocked that Ji Hyun is gay and something is going down between him and Jae Won

Slyly gave Ji Hyun a bunch of couple photos by casually uploading them in a group photo dump

Loudly pretended to pursue him in front of others to give him cover

Kindly warned him that he is being really obvious about Jae Won and others will pick up on it

Declared her loyalty and friendship and gave him a safe place to talk about Jae Won and be himself

And honestly she seems ready to throw hands if anyone bothers him. What more could you ask from your token straight bestie ally?

ENOUGH PHOTOS LET HIM EAT HIS FOOD AE RI 😭😭

Bonus: Do you want to go to the beach with me?

also EXTREMELY key point the director keeps explicitly using words like 'queer contents' and 'queer works' (even when the koreans are referring to things like skam or cmbyn as 외국 BL작품 'foreign bl works' which is itself interesting...) AND he says he told them not to watch korean bl shows as reference

Can I just say that I love, LOVE that Jihyun told Jaewon he couldn’t kiss him while drunk?

Not only does he not want their second kiss to be a drunk one. He doesn’t want their second kiss to be ANOTHER drunk one. In his mind he still thinks Jaewon kissed him the first time cause he was drunk. Even though he accepted that Jaewon was attracted to him, he wanted their second kiss to be a present thing for both of them.

there's something so inherently queer in the way The Eighth Sense is being acted and ESPECIALLY in the way it's being filmed, and the cinematography and editing choices that keep taking my goddamn breath away.

the almost pain in the longing of short, broken glances to avoid being caught staring, the eyes darting over his whole face instead of lingering too long on his eyes or lips, the tentative broaching of conversation and testing of boundaries that only happens with that level of anxiety in a queer relationship

the constant fear of "what if he's not?" "what if i'm mistaken?" "what if i step too far?" which straight people rarely have to worry about, because at worst if you ask another straight person out you'll get meanly turned down, but if you're queer and you ask a straight person out the reaction could be SO bad, so you're scared and you're withholding but you're just WANTING

there are whole scenes where their friendship is clearly blooming and they both forget their sexualities and they're just having fun like they do with other people

and then there's always a moment where it THUDS back home again. the wetsuits. the showers. outside the bar. on the beach. where they're both so clearly HYPERAWARE of themselves and each other and feeling so exposed and so so scared but still desperate to be near each other

jaewon and jihyun are in parallel states of just YEARNING so badly that it makes my heart ache and my breath catch every time one of those scenes appears

the eighth sense ∞ —

interoception, or the eighth “hidden sense”, is your brain’s perception of sensations from inside your body, allowing it to understand how you are feeling. this physiological reaction occurs before you are even aware of the emotion, and it is only when the brain detects the alteration to the body’s internal state, through interoception, that we actually experience the feeling and allow it to shape our behaviour. without the back-and-forth between the brain and the body, feelings of happiness, sadness or excitement wouldn’t exist. it is central to everything from thought, to emotion, to decision making, and our sense of self. (x)

Hyung, you are not acting like yourself. Hey, what’s acting like myself? That’s up to you.

THE EIGHTH SENSE (2023) dir. Inu Baek & Werner du Plessis

there was a post in the tags saying that jaewon meant guy friend rather than boyfriend at the store and i just wanted to clarify:

i went back and re-listened and jaewon did in fact say 남자친구 (namja chingu; boyfriend). the thing is, korean does have a word for someone who is just a friend. 남자친구 (namja chingu) exclusively means romantic boyfriend because no one would ever call their friend "my boy friend" (also this is a gender thing!! like in english we would call our female friends our girl friend but guys typically would not call their guy friends their boy friends). you would just call them a friend as gender doesn't matter when speaking; korean is contextual. and like in english, if you would need to give more context, you would explain yourself like "yeah my friend's a guy" "친구는 남자예요” etc. i understand this can be confusing since 남자 namja literally means man and 친구 chingu means friend, but when you put namja and chingu together, it becomes boyfriend (romantic)

this nuance is built into the standard language, but if he were to have said a word for "my friend that is a guy" there is a well-known slang term in korean: 남사친 (namsachin). 남사친 is short for "남자 사람 친구” (namja saram chingu). 사람 or saram means person so the translation becomes my friend that is a boy. it's the same for girlfriend/friend that is a girl you would just put 여 at the beginning (여자, yeoja = girl/woman; 여사친 etc.)

however, namsachin is informal so like explained above, jaewon meant boyfriend (as in romantic) because that's the nuance of the word in korean (unlike english where you could say "guy friend"). he wouldn't have used slang with an elder

i get that translations don't often catch the nuance, but in this case, i would say that the translation was 100% correct :')

Okay I'm going mad so here's my fucking theory.

Theory: They made the biggest fucking thing out of showing us the scene at the therapist and him asking about 4 weeks meds. She gave him 3 weeks. I'm pretty sure episode 6 is pulling a top ten anime betrayals on us and man's just been overdosing on his meds, in psychosis , took himself to the beach alone. None of this happened.

Very dreamy sequences

The dialogue about giving him trauma feels unnatural compared to the rest of the show plus we don't actually see it come from their mouths it's just dubbed over the scene

Gas station man just giving out shit for free for no reason?

NC scene suddenly has a bed?

They're kissing outside in broad daylight (I mean it's possible but hmmm)

No scene before the opening

The music video that came out yesterday or whenever also was kind of trippy

Again the way all this was cut?

And he sat alone at the beach at the end, in what version of happenings would he end up sitting there alone?

I'm just spitballing but there's still full 2 episodes coming and there can't just be....the consequences for two episodes.

Please discuss.

aeri and jihyun and yoonwon gathering receipts and throwing hands to take down taehyung public enemy #1

let's make this official. reblog to spread the word (yes this a v important matter thanks xo)

The Eighth Sense x Ji Hyun's drawings

“What else is pressuring you?” THE EIGHTH SENSE (2023) - Episode 4.

something something our leads almost always meeting at odd hours of the night, shared intimate gestures, from soft whispers to intertwined fingers, masked by the depths of shadow and darkness. something something a sense of breathability and freedom permeating these meetings and undoubtedly absent from those attended during the day. something something there is a safety and familiarity in darkness for those of us who are queer, as for most, and for most of our history, nightfall was, and in many ways stills remains, the sole sphere of daily life where we are able to exist freely and intimately.

half formed thoughts about jaewon after kissing jihyun: he’s retreating.

when his friend(?) asks if he remembers he kissed someone last night. when jaewon pauses, asks with who? and it’s taehyung not jihyun and he breathes out in relief? in exasperation? in disappointment? i’m not sure

i think a typical response to almost being caught kissing someone anyone you’re not supposed to would be panic or giving excuses or plausible deniability.

but jaewon’s reactions always seem so minimal to me. so causal. so nonchalant. so oppressed.

depression is numbing. i wonder if a lot of how jaewon acts is the depression talking and guiding him. all this numbness and then the masking, the walls pulled up tight and around himself.

he’s also so so so tired. when he confronts taehyung in the washroom after being paired with eunji, he’s annoyed. so very annoyed. but he doesn’t fight. is it politeness? is it just him wanting to avoid conflict? when eunji says no they should work together on the presentation jaewon is so annoyed. but he doesn’t fight again.

there’s only so much one person can take before they break

I’m sick of wearing a mask when I’m dealing with others.