Jump to content
OneHallyu Will Be Closing End Of 2023 ×
OneHallyu

tvN Drama "Memories of the Alhambra" Hyun Bin, Park Shin-Hye & Chanyeol. *Finale Episodes!!!*


Bella D'Amour

Recommended Posts

Ok, so I've been thinking much too long about the ending of episode 2, and reading everyone's theories on here. This is what I've got thus far, but I too am quite twisted around with this. 

 

 

 

The biggest catalyst of this entire scene are those clouds rolling in, they're so abrupt, sinister, and wholly unnatural in their portrayal. It looks like a shift in game events where you pass into the end of a level, or are about to face a boss. Se Joo is in a sleeper cabin when we see him disappear in episode one after shots are fired, but his cabin mate sees and hears no trace of those shots or of him leaving; just his physical possessions not related to the game remain behind (whereas Hyun Bin is in a regular passenger seating car for the similar clouds/shots fired). Again those clouds roll in when Hyun Bin is on the train, and seeing them he knows that events are going to escalate and prepares himself, which is indicative to video games, but not real life scenarios per say. 

 

The shots of Hyun Bin getting the gun out/ready in the train lavatory are very video game stylized. Especially the shot where the audience is shown the surroundings as if we're his character, and we look down to see the gun in our hand. The same with a lot of the shots incorporated into the shooting showdown on the train where it cuts to similar views where the events taking place are almost entirely focused on the action and weaponry. The glint on the enemy's blue eyes is otherworldly, and unnatural as well; just that hint of rendered graphics not quite meeting real life. Cues that something of this scenario is not embedded in the real world as we would know it. 

 

When Hyun Bin's character says he predicted two things, but one came true, I think the one which came true is magic is in Alhambra. At some point they stop playing the game as characters logging in and out, and get pulled into some kind of reality where the game is real, and it isn't real at the same time. This is from the same writer as W, and if you've seen that drama I think it harks back to their previous play on two worlds; the reality of the everyday, and a created world that is beginning to take on a life of its own. Possibly something that can't be controlled anymore, because it's morphed beyond what it was created as. In W the creator of the secondary realm was also the first person to be pulled into it, and I think it's very similar with Se Joo being the first to see something going wrong with the elements he's created, which could also explain his hunted and nervous demeanor when he places the call in episode one. 

 

I'm super interested to see where this drama goes from here, and how right or wrong all of our guesstimates are lol. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

i enjoyed read all your thoughts there, and about W drama i didnt watched that

 

but somehow, i had wild thoughts that sejoo might possibility get shot from yoojin lol, i could be wrong kkkk. imstupid.png

 

 

Edited by FranCella
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Memories of the Alhambra: Episode 2

Alhambra02-00075.jpg

 

This drama is already delivering in terms of plot, characterization, and excitement — I’m all in, guys. Our hero has a lot on his plate, between trying to find a missing teenager and sweet-talking his justifiably angry sister into liking him, all the while fighting his mortal enemy for the rights to a program that could change the world as we know it. I don’t know how he stays so calm, but I suppose having a boatload of confidence, and the money to back it up, can buy a guy a whole lot of peace of mind. I hope he enjoys it, because I don’t think it will last long.

 

 
EPISODE 2 RECAP

Alhambra02-00032.jpg Alhambra02-00045.jpg

 

Exhausted from fighting a video game boss all night and frustrated at the screeching fire alarm, Jin-woo yells at Hee-joo that if he loses out on his very lucrative business deal, it will be all her fault. Still standing on the kitchen island, she sinks sinks to her heels and sobs.

Jin-woo continues his call with A, who tells him that since Se-joo, the inventor of the game, is a minor, that his older sister is his guardian and thus holds all legal rights. Jin-woo’s eyes grow wide as A says that her name is Jung Hee-joo, and that she runs the Hostel Bonita.

He turns to stare at Hee-joo, belatedly realizing that he’s just insulted and humiliated the one person he most needs to like him if he’s going to get the rights to this game. He leans in the doorway, staring at her intently, smiling like he has a very delicious secret.

 

Alhambra02-00059.jpg

 

 

 

The guest who asked Jin-woo to watch his food returns, and Jin-woo is suddenly all sweetness and light. He pretends to suffer from short-term memory loss and claims to have no idea what just happened, insisting that he’s much too nice a guy to ever yell at anyone and make them cry. LOL, is he serious?? He gives up the ruse when he realizes that neither of them are buying it, and just leaves the room. PWHAHAHA.

Some time in the recent past, Se-joo packed a bag in a filthy room at the hostel, as he watched a news feed from the Mobile World Congress IT exposition in Barcelona. Jin-woo’s company’s new smart contact lens, which is being developed for use with augmented reality programs, is the talk of the exposition.

 

Alhambra02-00078.jpg Alhambra02-00079.jpg

 

As Se-joo leaves his room, we learn that he’s unemployed after graduating from a vocational school, and that he’ll turn eighteen in two months. He’s told his family that he’s going to Barcelona to see a friend, and he tells Hee-joo that he’s not sure when he’ll be back. He’s been gone a week by the time Jin-woo comes to Granada searching for him, but his family seems more frustrated than worried by his disappearance.

Jin-woo asks A about Hee-joo, but there’s not much information on her other than that she has a lot of jobs, being the only person in the family who can work. She’s been running the hostel since her parents died, plus she’s a tour guide, a translator, and she even works at a shop that makes guitars.

 

read more: http://www.dramabeans.com/2018/12/memories-of-the-alhambra-episode-2/

 

 

 

 

COMMENTS

WHAT. WAS. THAT. ~takes a moment to collect wits~

Okay, I’m okay. I think I forgot to breath throughout the entire last ten minutes of this episode. My guess is that something has gone horribly wrong in Se-joo’s game, and that this explains why Se-joo disappeared on the same train under similar circumstances. He had blood on his stomach before he even boarded the train to Granada, so my theory is that he told Hyung-seok about the game, offered to show it to him, and Hyung-seok somehow, for some reason, figured out how to hurt him for real. So Se-joo ran, calling Jin-woo on the way, but something or someone caught up to him on the train.

 

I was hooked by this show right away, even before we got to the exciting part. I find the entire thing… well the first word that comes to mind is “familiar,†oddly enough. So this show is like a trip down an emotional memory lane for me… everything and everyone feels so familiar, yet the plot of Alhambrais innovative enough that it still feels fresh and exciting.

 

Alhambra02-00391.jpg

 

My very favorite thing about Song Jae-jung’s dramas is her characters, who are always unique in a believable way. They do and say the last thing you’d expect, yet they have such defined and believable personalities. Jin-woo and Hee-joo are no exception, and Jin-woo in particular is quite the character. When he realized that Hee-joo was the person he needed to suck up to and that he’d just gravely insulted her, instead of being horrified as I expected, he just grinned wolfishly like he was thinking, “Well, this is gonna be interesting.†And then to just lie to her face, then just as quickly give up the lie… I fell for him right there. He’s just hilariously shameless, and I love it. I can’t wait to see what else he gets up to as he tries to convince this woman who hates his very guts to sign over what amount to trillions of dollars to him.

Hee-joo is more reserved right now, since all we’ve seen is her temper. But in the hands of this writer, I’m confident that she’s going to be just as quirky and off-beat as Jin-woo, once she stops being angry and starts showing her true colors. She’s not going to make this easy in Jin-woo, judging by the way she let loose on him when she finally got the chance, and honestly, I want to see her really make him work for it. So far nothing she’s done has ruffled him, but I have a feeling that she’ll find a way… and when she does, I want to see him squirm.

I am so excited about this show, you have no idea. I went into it with absolutely zero idea what it would be about, so imagine my delight, as an avid gamer myself, to learn that it’s about video games! I really felt Jin-woo’s pain in Episode 1 when he kept getting killed by the warrior — how many times have I thrown myself at the same boss for hours on end? I love the whole premise that Jin-woo will be fighting his nemesis in an augmented reality game, because it feels safe, nobody will actually get hurt in a game, right? But I’m sure (having seen this writer’s previous dramas, and especially after that final scene) that before long, the line between game and reality will quickly become blurred, and what seemed safe will turn deadly serious.

 

Alhambra02-00454.jpg

 

Edited by FranCella
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to comment
Share on other sites

no, she's not an idol. She was the runner-up on The Voice of Korea back in 2012. She was also in the drama Perservere Goo Hae Ra as Lee Woo Ri, if you've ever seen that drama. 

 

arite thanks for the info, and nope, i didnt watch that drama, lol laugh.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

  • Memories of the Alhambra: Episode 4

Alhambra04-00358.jpg

 

The more our gaming investor gets immersed into the “augmented reality†game, the more he begins to notice that all in the game is not as it seems. The program was created to merge game and reality, and at first, Jin-woo is excited by the possibilities. But what happens if the lines between game and reality become so blurred that it’s difficult to discern which is which?

 

  

EPISODE 4 RECAP

In her hotel room in Granada, Hyung-seok’s wife (also Jin-woo’s ex-wife) Soo-jin wakes and finds herself still alone in bed. She grows worried when she sees that Hyung-seok hasn’t checked his messages, and he’s not answering her calls, either. His secretary tells Soo-jin that he’ll look for Hyung-seok.

She can’t stop thinking about Hyung-seok asking her about running into Jin-woo, which also reminds her of an argument she once witnessed between Hyung-seok and his father. Hyung-seok had yelled that he’d never come back, adding, “Who would think you’re actually my father? Only when Jin-woo dies…â€

 

Alhambra04-00060.jpg Alhambra04-00057.jpg

 

In another memory, Soo-jin and Jin-woo stand in the rain, Soo-jin crying as Jin-woo asks her in a voice devoid of emotion, “Shouldn’t I be the one crying?†Yet another scene shows Hyung-seok smashing a glass of wine against the wall, scaring Soo-jin, then telling her that she’s the only person in the world who understands him.

Last night, Hyung-seok had called Soo-jin after leaving their room to tell her he was meeting someone, but he wouldn’t say who. She guesses that he went to see Jin-woo, so she gets his phone number from her sister.

In the early hours of the morning, Hyung-seok is found sitting on the same bench where Jin-woo left him, dead.

 

Alhambra04-00094.jpg

 

Hee-joo’s grandmother has a nightmare that their new windfall was stolen, so she wakes Hee-joo and frantically tells her to check the bank account. Hee-joo groans that Jin-woo is too famous to be a con man, until Grandma yells that all con men seem trustworthy. Thankfully the money is all still there. Grandma grows tearful, telling Hee-joo that she knows how hard things have been for her, and they hug and sob with happiness.

In a great mood, Hee-joo invites the hostel guests to help themselves to the sirloin and alcohol in the fridge, on the house. She drives Min-joo to school, cheerfully turning away reservation inquiries about the hostel, which she says will be shutting down soon. She even decides to splurge on a new van once Se-joo returns from his trip.

 

Alhambra04-00116.jpg Alhambra04-00112.jpg

 

She heads to work at the guitar shop, stopping to buy a huge armful of flowers on the way, just because she can. She thinks about Jin-woo’s advice to start playing guitar again and wonders how he knew she played. When someone walks into the shop, the last person Hee-joo expects to see is Jin-woo himself, and she drops her phone in surprise. He picks it up to see that she’s been watching videos of him online, ha.

He’s vague about his reasons for being back in Granada so soon, and he tells Hee-joo that he needs her help with something. He leads to to his taxi waiting on the curb, and Hee-joo’s friend Sang-bum, who was on his way to visit her, sees them leave together.

 

read more: http://www.dramabeans.com/2018/12/memories-of-the-alhambra-episode-4/

 

 

 

COMMENTS

I know I ask this a lot, what, WHAT the heck is happening?? How did Jin-woo manage to kill Hyung-seok in the game when he himself suffered no ill effects from their duel? How is the game reviving Hyung-seok and sending him after Jin-woo over and over again, even when Jin-woo isn’t logged in? Was it Jin-woo that fell (it looked like Jin-woo in his white shirt, in which case, oh noooo)? And most importantly, why is all this happening?! I suspect that Soo-jin was onto something when she accused Jin-woo of wishing Hyung-seok dead, and although Jin-woo would deny it, I’m guessing that part of him did wish Hyung-seok dead for stealing the woman he loved. So are Jin-woo’s secret desires affecting the game? If they are, how did the game manifest his in-game desires into reality? I’m incredibly confused, but it’s fantastic, and I’m so excited for next weeks’ episodes so that we can learn even more.

 

I love the theme of magic that runs throughout this show — it’s been mentioned by Jin-woo in every episode so far, but referring to different things. He’s called the game magic, but he also called it “magic†when Hee-joo received the life-changing sum of money for selling the hostel. He’s not talking about magic as in potions and spells, but the kind of “magic†that happens when someone’s life is irrevocably changed. The money is magic to Hee-joo because it will allow her and her family to vastly improve their circumstances, and even go home if they want, after being stuck in Granada for over a decade. The game is magic to Jin-woo because it’s a technological breakthrough that will bring him and his company fame and fortune. And the game (if it functioned safely) would be magic to the world, because the kind of things that can be done with augmented reality, including but also in addition to gaming, could change the world in ways we can only imagine.

I rewatched the first two episodes and I noticed a few things that escaped me on first watch, particularly in the scene where Jin-woo fights on the train a year from now. The most important thing I realized was that when the storm kicked up, Jin-woo was surprised because he wasn’t logged into the game — just as Se-joo didn’t appear to be logged in when he disappeared. Combined with Hyung-seok’s death after dying in-game, I’m forming a theory that somehow, the game is actually pulling people into itself, and that future-Jin-woo is the game’s latest victim, but how and why this might be happening are still unclear. And it still doesn’t explain a lot, like why Se-joo’s body wasn’t found when Hyung-seok’s was. So many questions!

So far, I’m still enthralled with this drama and the incredible story it’s telling. It’s unique and exciting, and I love how, every time we get some answers, something happens that just leads to a lot more questions. The deeper we go, the more excited I get. The writer’s storytelling style is confident and detailed, and I feel assured that she knows exactly where she’s taking us and how she wants to get there. I’m along for the ride, wherever this train is going!

 

Alhambra04-00335.jpg

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • love changed the title to tvN Drama "Memories of the Alhambra" Hyun Bin, Park Shin-Hye & Chanyeol. *Finale Episodes!!!*

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.

Back to Top