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Have you ever wished that time would go by fast because you are tired of doing the same thing every day? Vacation or the weekend is around the corner, so its easy just to hang on. In the musical, Myeong-dong Romance, a person named Kim Seon-ho works at the Community Service Center as a civil servant. He spends his time without any emotion day by day. He is always waiting for the moment to get off and for weekends. His life is more boring than anyone’s life. One day, he visits an old coffee shop in Myeong-dong to persuade the owner to demolish the shop as the government wants to redevelop the area. When he went to the shop, he goes back to 1956 through some unknown power.
The place, about 55 years ago, was a coffee house named <Myeong-dong Romance>, where a lot of artists living very interactively gathered around together. Lee Jung-seop, Jeon Hye-lin and Park In-hwan who were the real artists went to the place often. After Kim Seon-ho meets them, his life starts to change. What advice would they give to Kim Seon-ho? What would the youth of the past like to say to the youth of the present?
Park In-hwan
He is a poor poet who likes drinking, so he always runs a tab. However, he loves his job and he is so proud of it. Seon-ho, meanwhile, has no passion in his life. He says to everyone so casually that he has done the things he did not want to do. Therefore, the poet speaks a word of calmness but dignity to Seon-ho. “Look, you should recognize what you are doing and what you are saying at least. Please pull yourself together.”
At first, he thinks the poet ignores him after listening to his saying because Seon-ho has studied hard and lived in his own way. However, in the future, he realizes the real meaning of his heartful advice to live with sincerity in what you really wish to do.
Jeon Hye-lin
Hye-lin is a young writer who has a free spirit. She wants to express her enthusiastic zest so freely, but it is not as easy for her. She says to Seon-ho who says “next time” all the time, “how do you know if next time will come or not?” She advises him to do it right now when he has something he wants to do. Then he asks her what she wants to do. She tells him that she really hopes to write about her emotions and herself. Also, she wants to roam free and to feel that she’s alive.
Seon-ho recalls that she died at an early age in real world, so he suggests her to go to the future with him. However, she refuses it telling him that it will not be real her in the future world. Then, she promises him to leave a message for him. Time passed, and he is back to the real world in 2021 and he finds the message that she left for him in her book.
“I bless him that he lives in this world. For me, for him.”
Lee Jung-seop
The artist Lee Jung-seop, who was not pretty famous at that time, suffers from guilt because he thought that his family lives in poverty in a remote place because of him. Seon-ho finds his drawing <Bull> in his room. Then, Seon-ho tells him that people would be enthusiastic about his art. But Lee Jung-seop is not glad, and blames himself for drawing a painting without even realizing when he got an inspiration when he was supposed to stop drawing for his family. He makes Seon-ho look back over his life. He thinks, ‘When did I feel being myself? By the way, was there any moment like that ever?’
This, too, shall pass away. This sentence is the motto of this musical and it is a very famous saying as you know. Generally, it is well known that if you endure and just hang on a bit, even when you are in trouble, the hard time will pass some time. However, it has a different meaning in Myeong-dong Romance, “If you do not grab this every moment, it will vanish without a trace.
Between the ruins of the war
In a coffee-flavored coffee shop
Devoting a weed-like passion
A fragrant dream blooms like a flower.
- Number 17. Myeong-dong Romance 中-
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