Kdrama Deep-Dive Review: Between chasing and keeping a dream alive
Most of us, if not all, have dreams—things we long for, things we strive to achieve, believing they will bring us meaning and fulfilment. Melo Movie takes this universal pursuit and gives it a sobering twist: the reality of unfulfilled dreams.
We see it in Mubee’s father, chasing the perfect film he longed to create. We see it in Sijun, yearning to write songs that would make him famous. We see it in Jua, hesitating on the edge of screenwriting, wondering if it’s where she truly excels. And so, we ask ourselves—what are our dreams?
The word “dreams” itself is a paradox. When we sleep, we dream of floating in space, but reality reminds us we’ll never drift among the stars—unless, of course, we pay an astronomical sum to board a rocket into space. For the longest time, I saw my own “dreams” the same way: fantasies—and they are meant to stay just that.
But what if we chase them? What if we pour ourselves in to make them real?
And that is what Mubee’s father did. He poured everything into his dream of making a great film. So much so that he named his daughter after it—Mubee. But in doing so, he pulled her into his relentless pursuit, an obsession that consumed him. Ironically, it was she who ultimately fulfilled that dream, not him.
How far would you go for yours? How much would you sacrifice? For Mubee’s father, his dream was everything. It cost him time with his family, a connection with his daughter, and in the end, left her resenting him for it.
Was it worth it? If he had truly weighed the cost, would he have done it differently? We’ll never know. His life was cut short, and tragically, his death is still referenced whenever the industry speaks of overworked staff
Sijun, too, was stuck—frozen in his dream world for five long years. It was Jua who nudged him forward, encouraging him, telling him he was the best. He wanted to believe her, to believe that his dream could be realized. But reality struck hard when his songs and music were rejected.
Still, he refused to give up. He kept trying—one more submission, and another, and another. But each time, only rejections. The deeper he sank into it, the deeper he sank into despair.
Should he have given up? Or should he have kept chasing? An impossible decision. If he let go, he risked losing that one final chance—the one that might have been the breakthrough. But if he held on, he risked drowning in the weight of failure.
And yet, his story found a happy ending. At Jua’s insistence, Mubee used his music for her movie. And it became a success. Not only that—his music became even more popular than the movie itself.
But from a dramatic standpoint, wasn’t this almost too convenient? A neat, happy ending—a free pass to success?
What are the chances that our dreams—especially the biggest, most ambitious ones—will ever become reality? And more importantly, what does it truly take?
In contrast, Jua’s story feels more grounded—more real. She found something that resonated with her and held onto it. She may have compromised in other areas—giving in to Sijun on rice bowl over udon, Star Wars over Il Postino—but this, she refused to let go. And it was good that she didn’t, because she did well in it.
She may not be a world-famous screenwriter. She may not have written a Grammy-winning film. But she stayed true to her dream, and in her measure, she succeeded.
But how do we define success? At what point can we say we’ve realized our dream? Or will it always grow—bigger and bigger—until it becomes impossible to reach?
This is where Jua’s dream differs from Mubee’s father’s and Sijun’s. Though we don’t see her failures, we can imagine that, knowing her character, she would have kept moving forward—step by step—through setbacks and small victories, pressing on until she succeeded on her own terms.
And in that sense, perhaps we can still hold on to the very paradox of dreams. We can let them remain big, even unattainable, yet pursue them bit by bit—realising them piece by piece—while still keeping them as they are: dreams.
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