NOVEL WEB Chapter 266
Chapter 266
“Schizophrenia. You’ve heard of it, right? The symptoms of schizophrenia include delusions, hallucinations, and auditory hallucinations. They are trapped in fantasies that someone is trying to kill them or that they are being watched. The problem is that most schizophrenic patients do not recognize their own illness.”
-Who would have thought that was the beginning of the mirror.
-I was mind-blown while reading it.
“Let’s talk about the novel first. The novel Mirror consists of four parts: three stories and the last story that connects them. The protagonist is Jeong Chae-won. I thought Kim Jin-woo, the character played by Lee Seo-jun, was the protagonist, but he wasn’t.”
-That’s why I was surprised.
“The three stories are told from Jeong Chae-won’s perspective, and the last story is told from the author’s perspective.”
-Jeong Chae-won…!
-How could you betray me like this;;
“I didn’t expect this kind of twist either. I trusted Jeong Chae-won too much because she was the protagonist.”
-Me too. Why didn’t I think something was wrong with her?
-Maybe because the background of the second story was a mental hospital.
“The three stories from Jeong Chae-won’s perspective are ordinary. They are very ordinary stories of a psychiatrist, Jeong Chae-won, meeting three patients. The first patient has an eating disorder, the second patient, played by Lee Seo-jun, has dissociative identity disorder, and the third patient has antisocial personality disorder, a sociopath.”
-I thought psychiatrists must have a hard time while reading the book.
-Me too. But it wasn’t true.
-Who would have guessed that the real patient was Jeong Chae-won!
-It hurt so much when she stabbed me in the back!
Moviegoer nodded his head sympathetically with the viewers’ feelings.
“Yes. The last episode. The three stories from the author’s perspective were completely different.”
-It turned out that the patient was the doctor and the doctor was the patient.
“Yes. That’s right. The three stories were actually Jeong Chae-won’s stories of going to the first mental hospital, the second mental hospital, and the third mental hospital. In the end, she was hospitalized because of her violence, and Jeong Chae-won’s identity was revealed.”
-Delusions are scary.
-So are hallucinations and auditory hallucinations.
-If you read the novel again from the beginning, you can see how solid Jeong Chae-won’s world is.
-Because that’s her ‘daily life’.
“The first patient with an eating disorder, that is, the doctor who treated Jeong Chae-won for the first time, collapsed after drinking the tea that Jeong Chae-won gave him.”
-I was really shocked.
-And in Jeong Chae-won’s world, he became a vomiting patient with an eating disorder.
“Let’s talk about the second doctor, that is, Dr. Kim Jin-woo played by Lee Seo-jun later. The third doctor, the patient with antisocial personality disorder.”
-Jeong Chae-won made him a patient with personality disorder because he didn’t listen to her.
-Well, the first doctor got into trouble after drinking what Jeong Chae-won gave him, and the second doctor got hot water poured on his face. I would be cold too.
-Extreme job!
Moviegoer smiled bitterly at the viewers who analyzed on their own.
“Yes. She finally got hospitalized in the third hospital thanks to the cold judgment of the doctor. The novel ends with a scene of Jeong Chae-won walking to the ward and the third doctor looking at her. It was a book with a chilling twist.”
-True.
-It was really creepy to read!
-Now for the play!! The play foreshadowing!!
“Yes. Let’s talk about the play ‘Mirror’. As I explained before, it is a play adapted and directed by Lee Seo-jun himself. It is based on the second story of Mirror. I will review both Mirror’s second story and the play together.”
-Who was the nurse at first?
-I don’t know. I couldn’t hear her voice.
-Was this something Seo-jun added?
“Yes. Maybe he added it because if he only put in the second story, Mirror’s twist would end without any connection. He wanted to give ‘dissonance’ to the audience.”
-True. If you only see the second story, it’s just an ordinary story of a patient with dissociative identity disorder.
-The twist made both the novel and play more interesting.
-What do you think, Moviegoer?
“I think I know after watching both novel and play repeatedly. This might be either Jeong Chae-won’s first mental hospital or her family telling her about her visit.”
-Oh. They are explaining about Jeong Chae-won.
-So they adjusted to Jeong Chae-won who thinks she is a ‘psychiatrist’!
“Yes. That’s right. I didn’t notice at first, but there were many strange things in the book. First of all, a patient who enters the consultation room without a doctor.”
-I didn’t even think it was weird.
-I just thought he was already in there because it was a play.
-Who would have thought that was part of the direction.
“It turned out that this patient Kim Jin-woo was the real ‘doctor’. It’s not strange for a doctor to wait alone in the consultation room when a patient comes.”
-The pure white sweater too. It must have been a doctor’s gown.
-I thought he was pure Jin-woo at first. He looked like an angel, so I thought he wore white.
-That’s also a correct interpretation in ‘Jeong Chae-won’s world’.
-But the problem is that it was all hallucination.
“Jeong Chae-won, the patient, greets the nurse familiarly and enters the consultation room and puts on a doctor’s gown. Here, the sky-blue striped shirt. Doesn’t it look like a patient’s gown?”
Moviegoer showed Jeong Chae-won’s picture and a patient gown image on the monitor screen. There was a slight difference, but they were similar.
-It looks like that when you know it, but it just looks like a pretty outfit when you don’t.
-I can’t wear sky-blue striped shirts anymore.
“And Jeong Chae-won and Kim Jin-woo talk. The ‘truth’ is probably Jeong Chae-won’s nonsense that Dr. Kim Jin-woo observes. There is another noticeable prop here.”
-[Do psychiatrists use stethoscopes in Korea?]
-When I saw this comment, I got goosebumps. When I looked again, she really had a stethoscope all along.
-It was really scary. It wasn’t even a horror movie…!
“Yes. Let’s unravel the stethoscope story, or rather, the stethoscope foreshadowing.”
He smiled lightly and continued.
“Why would a psychiatrist wear a stethoscope? It’s not strange to have a stethoscope with a pure white doctor’s gown, but if the doctor is a psychiatrist, it becomes strange.”
-I didn’t feel anything strange at all.
-But after reading the book and the comments, I kept looking at it while watching the play.
“This is also an element that Lee Seo-jun added. It’s not in the novel, but it’s a foreshadowing that can only be used in a play that can be seen visually. The stethoscope. This is the most clear device that tells you that the world of the play is not real. When you realize the stethoscope, you start to doubt the doctor, the patient, and even the play itself.”
-But why didn’t anyone notice?
“Because they were used to it. A pure white doctor’s gown with a stethoscope. From children to adults. Isn’t that the first image that comes to mind when you think of a doctor? Maybe if the background of the play wasn’t psychiatry, it would have been the most ordinary outfit.”
-Now I only see stethoscopes.
-I can’t believe I didn’t notice even though it was hanging around her neck.
“Then let’s leave the stethoscope story here and move on to the next one. What you need to know here is that Kim Jin-woo is actually a doctor and Jeong Chae-won is a patient.”
[Kim Jin-woo=psychiatrist]
[Jeong Chae-won=patient]
The descriptions of the two people appeared on the monitor.
“Dr. Kim Jin-woo leaves and the nurse turns off the light. Jeong Chae-won stays in the hospital. I think this means hospitalization. Maybe she was hospitalized for a day or two to check her condition.”
-Wow…!
-I didn’t know that;;;
“Lee Seo-jun did a great job directing the stage. I can’t praise him enough. Since it was a school event, Mirror probably didn’t have the environment to build such a set. He used a fixed set as much as possible and sprinkled various foreshadowings.”
-Seo-jun…!
-Our Seo-jun!!
“Next, let’s look at the color of Dr. Kim Jin-woo’s clothes. In Jeong Chae-won’s world, it was the erosion of Kim Fake, but it actually meant something else. From white to gray, from gray to black. It could mean either Dr. Kim Jin-woo’s condition or Jeong Chae-won’s condition.”
-Wow. It’s getting worse!
-The worst situation!
-Jeong Chae-won’s symptoms must have been too severe for Dr. Kim Jin-woo to handle!
“Yes. That’s why Dr. Kim Jin-woo, the nurse, and two more people appeared. In Jeong Chae-won’s world, they were another psychiatrist and a detective, but their real identities were different in the novel. They were the people who came to transfer Jeong Chae-won to the third hospital.”
-Delusions are so scary!
-Shocking;;;
“It was a frightening situation for Jeong Chae-won. Dr. Kim Jin-woo told her about the transfer and introduced the two men. The two men moved to take Jeong Chae-won away. Jeong Chae-won panicked and struggled. Then Dr. Kim Jin-woo got hit by Jeong Chae-won’s hand and Jeong Chae-won made the two men his enemies as if she was a doctor again.”
-Wow…
-??? : Jin-woo! Are you okay?! Jin-woo! What are you doing!
-Holy.
“And Dr. Kim Jin-woo tried to make Jeong Chae-won understand despite his injury, but in Jeong Chae-won’s world, Dr. Kim Jin-woo had already become a traitor. The betrayal manifested as Kim Fake, the second personality.”
-That’s why she splashed water!
“Yes. Jeong Chae-won, who was seized by fear, poured tea water on Dr. Kim Jin-woo’s face. Dr. Kim Jin-woo screamed in pain.”
-The scream gave me goosebumps.
-Seo-jun acted so well;;
“Another ‘strangeness’ appeared here. There was one place where the nurse’s dialogue stood out, right?”
-Yes, teacher!
-She called her ‘Dr. Jeong Chae-won!’ but there was a subtle gap.
-The round speech bubble seemed to change into a square one.
-222 It was out of place.
“That was probably the nurse calling ‘Dr. Kim Jin-woo’. It was a ‘dissonance’ that could only be heard in a play, not read in a novel. The acting of Park Si-young, who played the nurse, was very good.”
-That’s why the nurse’s voice stood out!
-She wasn’t calling Jeong Chae-won, but the real doctor!
-Oh my god!
Moviegoer showed a picture of the play captured on the monitor screen. It was a scene of the nurse and two men heading towards Kim Jin-woo, who fell after getting tea water on his face.
“If you look closely here, they are not protecting ‘Jeong Chae-won’ but ‘Dr. Kim Jin-woo’. The man who turned into a detective is still wary of Jeong Chae-won. This is also an expression that can only be used in a play that is hard to express in a novel.”
-It’s really subtle. When I first saw the play, I thought they were protecting Jeong Chae-won, but it looks like they are guarding him.
-22 To think that he made this with such consideration… Amazing!
“And in the end, the two men tried to take Dr. Kim Jin-woo to the emergency room as soon as possible, while the patient who lost her mind and the nurse who informed the third hospital of the patient’s aggressiveness appeared and ended the play.”
-??? : Yes. Yes. He is so aggressive that he needs to be hospitalized.
-…The nurse was talking about Jeong Chae-won’s aggressiveness, not Kim Fake’s.
-I thought she was talking about Kim Fake;;;
-She just poured tea water on his face… I didn’t even think it was Jeong Chae-won.
“There were foreshadowings in the play that led to the novel. If you watch the play and don’t read the novel, you will miss these wonderful foreshadowings.”
-I have to watch it again.
-I have to watch the play again after reading the review!
-Moviegoer! Was it also a foreshadowing that Dr. Kim Jin-woo never drank tea?
-222 Jeong Chae-won kept offering tea but Kim Fake didn’t drink it.
-I thought of Persephone’s myth when I saw that.
-Oh! The goddess who had to stay in the underworld for three months a year after eating the food of the underworld?
-Wow. Does it mean that he would be fixed in Jeong Chae-won’s world if he drank it?
-Or did he really die?
-That’s in the book!
“Yes. If you read the novel, you will know that the first mental hospital doctor collapsed after drinking the tea that Jeong Chae-won gave him.”
-Did he die?
“He didn’t die. Dr. Kim Jin-woo knew that and didn’t drink it.”
-It was so scary to see Jeong Chae-won keep offering tea after reading that.
-Was Dr. Kim Jin-woo trembling because of that?
-! That seems right!
“It was a fun and creepy play with twists until the end. It was even better with the novel. The actors’ performances were also good. It was an acting skill that I couldn’t believe they were middle schoolers.”
Moviegoer calmly finished his speech.
“Yang Ju-hee, who played Jeong Chae-won, Lee Seo-jun, who played Kim Jin-woo, Park Si-young, who played the nurse, Kang Jae-han, who played Dr. Oh Jung-hwan, Jeon Seong-min, who played the detective. And the students of Mirror team who prepared the music, background, and props. Thank you so much for showing me a wonderful play.”