I can states with certainty that this title hides one of the most
nerve-wracking dramas of recent years, even though it shows nothing more than
a deep psychological immersion into the dangerous whirlpools of romantic
relationships.
"A tükörképed" (Your
Reflection)—says the official Hungarian title translated from English, and the
Korean original means nearly the same, though interpreted slightly
differently:
"Someone Who Looks Like You."
Our reflection (especially if it shows our inner self alongside our exterior)
can take many forms, depending on whether our mirror is perhaps cloudy or if
we are looking into a distorted one. It is not even certain that we must look
into a physical mirror to see ourselves, for as the Hungarian poet Attila
József wrote: "In vain you bathe your own face in your self, it can be cleansed only in
that of others." [1]—which also means that we recognize ourselves, our virtues, and our faults in
the reflection of another person, and perhaps it is from one another that we
can hope for redemption.
(Author’s screenshot from Reflection of You.)
(Author’s screenshot from Reflection of You.)
Two women stand at the center of the drama. To help us see whether they mirror
each other or recognize themselves reflected in the other, we receive further
visual assistance. Since the drama is set in the world of fine arts, the
director boldly utilizes color symbolism: one of them is almost never seen
without a green coat, while the red color dominates the other’s wardrobe. In
the color wheel, colors opposite each other are called complementary colors;
red and green are such a pair, representing a particularly high-tension,
dramatic, and provocative duo—a perfect visual representation of the
relationship between the two protagonists. Throughout the drama, we will
encounter numerous other instances where the characters' states of mind are
expressed through colors, paintings, or sculptures—consider the mention of the
shifting shades of yellow or its blending with black at a certain point in the
story.
Free AI picture from template.net
Screenwriter
Yoo Bo-ra worked based on
the novella by writer
Jeong So-hyeon, and since
both are women, perhaps the drama became intentionally female-centered,
showcasing women of various personalities and ages alongside interesting male
characters.
(Author’s screenshot from Reflection of You.)
The plot could be summarized very briefly: two friends become enemies
when it is revealed that the older one stole the younger one’s boyfriend, who
then launches a campaign of revenge against her. One might think that this
oft-told situation couldn't contain much novelty, but that is not the case.
Reflection of You is a
masterpiece in its category—in terms of its psychological portraiture, its
storytelling method, the gradual unfolding of the conflict, and the calculated
dosing of how different characters influence the story. As a result, we become
part of a consistently tense story full of unpredictable turns, whose pacing,
imagery, and every backdrop are the result of high-quality work by the entire
crew under director
Lim Hyeon-wook. We will
speak more on the artistic elements later, but we must highlight the dramatic,
expressionistic use of landscapes and majestic natural phenomena, or the
similar lighting of interior spaces.
(Author’s screenshot from Reflection of You.)
(Author’s screenshot from Reflection of You.)
(Author’s screenshot from Reflection of You.)
(Author’s screenshot from Reflection of You.)
Actress
Go Hyun-jung brings to
life the older female figure,
Jeong Heejoo, who
is a strange mixture of affected humility and pride in her achieved status.
Despite her modest family background, she managed to marry into a
chaebol family. Her
husband would be the heir, but his mother considers him unfit for the position
precisely because of his marriage to her. Although the husband stands by
Heejoo, neither
can stem the tide of the domineering mother-in-law’s family-destroying
activities, through which she almost appropriates their children to raise them
according to her own ideas. It is difficult to decide whether
Heejoo is a good
mother; she worries constantly, yet notices nothing of her children’s
troubles. She is mostly occupied with maintaining her "dream position" as a
Cinderella-turned-princess, for which she endures being treated as a servant
by her mother-in-law, even if she gets a little bored in her spare time.
(Author’s screenshot from Reflection of You.)
(Author’s screenshot from Reflection of You.)
While she begins to think about self-actualization on her husband's advice,
the brilliantly young and vibrant
Goo Haewon (Shin Hyun-been) enters her life, bringing new colors to her world. The girl is a promising
art student under whose influence
Heejoo begins to
learn to draw, proving to be surprisingly talented.
Haewon dreams of
becoming a successful painter and living happily with her love,
Seo Woojae (Kim Jae-young), who soon also becomes involved in
Heejoo’s art
lessons. But it is at this point that the idyllic relationship between the two
women breaks.
(Author’s screenshot from Reflection of You.)
(Author’s screenshot from Reflection of You.)
(Author’s screenshot from Reflection of You.)
Woojae is a true,
unconventional artist. Immensely talented, he refuses to compromise in his
creative work, yet he still struggles with the shadow of his even more
legendary father. He seems content as
Haewon’s partner,
who urges him to tie their lives together, at least on paper. However, the
naive girl’s attention is eclipsed by a much larger "prey": the significantly
older, seemingly unreachable
Heejoo, whose
delicate features the man discovers while sketching her. Interestingly, there
is a 17-year age gap between the two actors in real life, which, though
perceptible, dissolved entirely in the chemistry between them. The young man
is as beautiful as a statue and knows no inhibitions; consequently, the "model
wife"—who, despite her wealth, remains open to adventure—cannot, or perhaps
truly does not want to, resist his advances. Soon, an unexpected turn occurs:
Heejoo leaves for
abroad to assist her child studying there, and
Woojae disappears
from Haewon’s life
without a trace, leaving her to search for him in desperation.
We pick up the thread of the story many years later, following a long temporal
gap. Heejoo, now
living back home, sees
Haewon reappear in
her life, though she hardly recognizes her. The younger woman becomes like a
nightmare to her, stalking her family members one by one and conducting what
seems to be a punitive campaign against
Heejoo for reasons
not yet entirely clear to us. Soon,
Woojae reappears
on the scene as well, completely vulnerable to
Haewon, as he
cannot remember anything from his past due to an accident.
(Author’s screenshot from Reflection of You.)
(Author’s screenshot from Reflection of You.)
During this cat-and-mouse game, both women manipulate the young man lost
in uncertainty. Like
Woojae, we, the
viewers, must piece together what happened during the lost years through
fragmentary flashbacks. In the present, the three of them are connected by a
new location: the gallery, where they are forced to collaborate.
Woojae seeks to
rebuild his professional career,
Heejoo has become
a successful painter and author, while
Haewon has
abandoned her artistic ambitions. Numerous supporting characters enter the
story, each reflecting the two female protagonists' fates through their own
lives. However, they are all independent characters in their own right, and
listing them all is nearly impossible. Each represents some form of
problematic situation: the narrative touches upon school and domestic abuse,
unfit parents and spouses, adolescent and adult friendships, voluntarily
undertaken guardianship, guilt and the tyranny of accusation, corruption,
vulnerability, and the endurance of arbitrary power. Questions of faith arise
as we visit churches, yet a strange little pub serves as a kind of earthly
Purgatory, where the owner is capable of easing the burdens of the souls who
wander in. Alongside all this, we closely follow
Lisa’s (Kim Su-an)
adolescent loneliness, her realization of her situation, and her defiant
struggle to find explanations—which serves as a coming-of-age story wrapped
within the drama.
In their own way, the monster emerges from both women:
Haewon becomes lost
in her own pain, feeling entitled to anything by giving it free rein, while
Heejoo arrogantly
believes she can step over anyone, as her status protects her from the
necessity of facing her actions. Anguish and madness mingle in both of them,
and the performances of the two actresses bringing these characters to life
cannot be praised enough. In the force field between them, the drama’s two
main male figures—who also have their own scores to settle with each
other—attempt to hold their ground.
(Author’s screenshot from Reflection of You.)
Although
Heejoo’s husband (Choi Won-young) appears to be a likable, caring husband and father, he is in fact playing a
part, just like his wife. The interesting thing about his character is that we
spend the entire time waiting for him to finally play his ace; however, he
starts off as spineless toward his mother, and then—whether out of genuine
love or cowardice against upsetting the status quo—he clings to appearances so
stubbornly that by the very end, he is no longer even dealt a hand.
(Author’s screenshot from Reflection of You.)
(Author’s screenshot from Reflection of You.)
Yet
Woojae’s situation
is the more difficult one, and
Kim Jae-young
demonstrates incredible sensitivity in showing every shade of the stages the
man endures. Throughout the drama, we see him in three fundamentally different
states. In the flashbacks, we find a different young man than the slightly
arrogant one we first met, who was fully aware of his charm and lived by his
own rules: here, he is a kind and deeply feeling lover capable of sacrificing
everything for personal happiness, even accepting a child whose paternity he
cannot be certain of. In the second stage, all of this vanishes into thin air,
and it is almost painful to watch his hesitation drowning in the helplessness
of his vulnerability. Even so, he recognizes that both women are trying to use
him for their own whims, and even if his consciousness is clouded, his
feelings still act as a compass. In the third stage, when he realizes what has
happened to him, he loses his sanity; despite seeing the irreality of it, he
stubbornly tries to reclaim everything he was cheated out of. Even with this
layered psychological portrait, compared to the female protagonists,
Woojae’s figure
is much more sketched out, and at times one feels that his transformations and
the events surrounding him are—not entirely justifiably—subordinated to the
women's story.
(Author’s screenshot from Reflection of You.)
However, we can observe an extraordinary directorial ingenuity: the elements
of
Woojae’s
personality that remain in the shadows are expressed through his art. Upon his
return, before they even meet in person,
Heejoo sees his
sculptures first without knowing the identity of the creator.
"The Meaning of Silence, from Drawings to Sculpture,"
says the title on the upcoming exhibition’s brochure, and through the
sculptures, we meet an infinitely lonely, sorrowful, introverted
Woojae with a
blurred face, giving us the impression of someone thinking deeply about the
matters of life.
(Author’s screenshot from Reflection of You.)
(Author’s screenshot from Reflection of You.)
(Author’s screenshot from Reflection of You.)
(Author’s screenshot from Reflection of You.)
The sculptures seen in the drama possess such elemental power that I became
curious about their actual creator. After some investigation, I found an
article listing the artists who contributed the drawings, paintings,
sculptures, ceramics, and even the clothing worn by the characters:
Bae Hyung-kyung, Park Dae-sung, Go Young-hoon, Oh Soo-hwan, Kim Deok-yong,
Ethan Cook, Lee Kyung, Shin Soo-jin,
and Go Hyun-jung.
[Source]
The appearance of the various works within their environment was handled with
extraordinary care, whether in home or office interiors, studios, or gallery
exhibitions. The same thorough consideration went into the costumes and even
the animated graphics of the title credits, which transformed the words of the
title into a visual poem.
(Author’s screenshot from Reflection of You.)
Among the works, we can see authentic pieces as well as those created to evoke
a specific artist's style.
Woojae’s
sculptures are clearly the works of
Bae Hyung-kyung
(including originals and replicas); in fact, the evocation was so detailed
that toward the end of the series,
Woojae experiments
with reddish-toned sculptures similar to those seen in
Bae’s exhibitions (who
is also a female artist).
(Author’s screenshot from Reflection of You.)
[예감시] 예술감상의 시작 – [갤러리 Tour]배형경/ “ Color Weight ,
彩色荷重”展_갤러리시몬.2019.11.07~2020.01.11
Looking into the mirror and the urge for self-reflection applies not only to
the characters but to the viewers as well. As the story races toward a finale
that brings redemption for some and tragedy for others, there is no element of
the drama that isn't heart-wrenching to experience. In the labyrinth of human
relationships, we sometimes lose our own way, or see those around us similarly
led astray. Meanwhile, we sustain wounds, inflict wounds, survive, or perish.
Most painfully, victims remain on the field who are not necessarily innocent,
yet did not deserve their fate. I feel somewhat the same about the drama's
conclusion—my heart aches most for the one who was ultimately eliminated from
the game.
The lead actors are so excellent that every facial expression and gaze fills
the massive force field, the tension of which makes us lose track of time. The
child and nearly-adult actors (Kim Su-an, Shin Hye-ji, Kim Dong-ha) are great, as are the
chaebol matriarch (Kim Bo-yeon), the psychiatrist wife who finally takes her revenge (Jang Hye-jin), her wretched husband (Hong Seo-jun), the various mothers, fathers, and grandfathers (Lee Ho-jae, Seo Jung-hyeon, Seo Jin-won), the vibrant friend (Park Sung-yeon), the repentant brother (Shin Dong-wook), the mother turned parasite by grief (Kang Ae-shim), the wonderful bar owner (Kim Sang-ho), and the gallery director (Kim Ho-jung).
Finally, mention must be made of the series' music, which underscores the
images with great sensitivity and delicacy—and occasionally with the necessary
drama—and the same applies to the soundtrack songs.
[1] József Attila: No Shriek of Mine (Nem én kiáltok) Translated
by Frederick Turner & Zsuzsanna Ozsváth Magyarul Bábelben website
Disclaimer: All images used in this article from Reflection of You are owned
by JTBC and are used here under Fair Use for the purpose of criticism and
scholarly review.
. . .
This article was originally written in Hungarian for
Ricemegatron Expert Film Blog
and subsequently translated into English for Ricemegatron Expert: Korean
Screen Insights. The English version was created with the assistance of
Gemini AI, focusing on preserving the original tone, structure, and critical
style of the author.
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