In Your Radiant Season is completing writer Jo Seong-hee's distinctive emotional narrative by using symbolic objects and spaces as devices of memory.
MBC's Friday-Saturday drama In Your Radiant Season (planned by Namgoong Seong-woo, written by Jo Seong-hee, directed by Jeong Sang-hee and Kim Young-jae) is raising the density of its narrative by expanding objects and places beyond simple props into "devices of memory" that design characters' emotions. By meaningfully placing the lines of connected characters, it allows viewers to naturally interpret the significance of the objects and spaces that appear. Here, we revisit the interpersonal narratives contained in the objects within In Your Radiant Season.
◆ the meaning contained in a single geranium and "memento mori"
First, the single geranium that Sunwoo Chan brings to the cafe "Rest" appears as a metaphorical device reflecting Song Ha-ran's (Lee Sung-kyoung) emotions frozen in winter. The flower, found by Sunwoo Chan (Chae Jong Hyeop) broken off at the Han River Police, took root in a cup of water. The process in which the geranium moved to soil, suffered transplant shock and bloomed again mirrors Song Ha-ran's state of having kept herself trapped in winter and endured. In particular, the geranium's flower meanings of "memory," "determination," and "I am happy because you are" intersect Ha-ran's stopped time with Chan's resolve, revealing that the two people's love is expanding into a "mutual salvation" narrative.
On the other hand, the tattoo reading "Memento mori" etched among the scars left by the explosion on Sunwoo Chan's body represents the life choice completed by the existence of Song Ha-ran and his vow to live without regret. After the explosion seven years ago, Sunwoo Chan, who opened his eyes to Song Ha-ran's voice, began a second life with the resolve "when they close the coffin lid, let's live without regret." The geranium and memento mori lead two people who bear different wounds to the same point and usher in the prelude to the radiant romance.
◆ Song Ha-ran and Sunwoo Chan standing over stopped time
The submerged bridge is a narrative space that fully contains the pain of Sunwoo Chan and Song Ha-ran. On Christmas Eve seven years ago, Sunwoo Chan found Song Ha-ran here, and at that moment a forgotten memory was revived. At the same time, upon hearing the aria from the Goldberg variations echoing on the submerged bridge, Song Ha-ran also stopped there, remembering Kang Hyuk-chan (Kwon Do Hyoung), who had died.
Reunited after seven years, the two became neighborhood friends with a three-month deadline and began to build new time together. But the closer Ha-ran gets to him, the more trigger responses such as tinnitus and vision abnormalities repeatedly occur for Sunwoo Chan, and another blank in his memory slowly reveals itself. The unfamiliar scenes that pass with a tinkling sound hint at the existence of another truth that he does not yet know.
◆ the key held by Kim Na-na, suspected of dementia, and the hours of silence
The key of Kim Na-na (Lee Mi-Sook) is also meaningful. Feeling persistent forgetfulness and health abnormalities, Kim Na-na began to suspect she had dementia and quietly started to sort things out around her while hiding it from her three granddaughters. In episode 4, the look in her eyes as she stared at the key to her office safe foreshadowed a silent decision. That key recalls the fierce years of Kim Na-na, who had lived as a first-generation designer and had been the grandmother who watched over her three granddaughters alone. And it indicates that the moment to put all that in order is approaching. Within the reunion narrative of Kim Na-na and Park Man-jae (Kang Sukwoo), the key is used as a device connecting past and present and amplifies expectations about Kim Na-na's choice and future developments.
In this way, In Your Radiant Season uses objects and spaces as emotional mediators to more firmly build relationships and narratives between characters. Writer Jo Seong-hee's delicate prose that stimulates viewers' emotions, director Jeong Sang-hee's sensuous direction that supports it with visuals and music, and the OST that intensifies the lingering feeling of scenes work organically together to deepen the unique sentiment of In Your Radiant Season. The story structure that follows how the clues of accumulated emotions in objects and spaces ultimately complete an ending makes one expect more than just the drama's entertainment value.
[photo] MBC In Your Radiant Season broadcast capture
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