Breaking Down the Emotional Ending of Melo Movie, Netflix’s Romantic K-Drama

Warning: This article contains spoilers for all episodes of Melo Movie.

Netflix's latest Korean drama, Melo Movie, out just in time for Valentine’s Day, is a romantic story about a film critic who loves movies and a film director who hates them, and how the medium brings them together. Choi Woo-sik (Parasite, Our Beloved Summer, A Killer Paradox) stars as Ko Gyeom, a boy who grew up watching films as a way to escape the pain of the real world. Gyeom was raised by his big brother, Ko Jun (Her Private Life’s Kim Jae-wook), following the deaths of their parents. Struggling to make ends meet, the two rent an apartment above a video store, and thus, an obsession is born. When Gyeom grows up, he doesn’t know exactly what he wants to do, but he knows it will have to do with the movies.

Park Bo-young (Light Shop, Daily Dose of Sunshine, Strong Girl Do Bong-soon) plays Kim Mu-bee—whose first name is the Korean pronunciation of the word “movie”—who grows up hating movies. Her dad works in the industry, and is largely absent from her life because of it. When he dies while away on a job, she sees it as proof that he loved movies more than he loved her. When Mu-bee has to decide on a career path, she chooses the film industry with a clear aim in mind: She wants to make the movie her father never had the chance to make, and show that movie-making is not all that it’s cracked up to be.

The two are seemingly polar opposites, but when Gyeom is cast as an extra on a film set where Mu-bee works, he falls in love at first sight. He spends the coming weeks convincing her to give him a shot. But when she finally does, kissing him in a snowlit alley, he almost immediately ghosts her. It won’t be until five years later that the two meet up again. This time, Mu-bee is promoting her first feature film as a director, and Ko Gyeom is a film critic. Will they be able to find their way back to one another? Melo Movie explores this question and much more in 10 episodes that show how personal growth and human connection are integral to enduring romance.

Why does Ko Gyeom abandon Kim Mu-bee after they kiss?

Much of the context for Ko Gyeom’s motivations are held for later episodes, which is emblematic of screenwriter Lee Na-eun’s (Our Beloved Summer) signature slow-pace structure. However, we do almost immediately learn that Gyeom ghosts Mu-bee because his brother, Jun, gets into a serious accident and almost dies. By the time Gyeom has the wherewithal to call Mu-bee, she has already blocked his number, angry that he has seemingly abandoned her after she let him in.

Of course, if Gyeom really wanted to get in touch with Mu-bee, there are other ways. Because the two worked together, they have many mutual contacts. Gyeom’s decision not to stay in touch with Mu-bee goes much deeper than his understandable distraction in the days and weeks following Jun’s frightening accident. Gyeom feels an immense commitment to Jun, who not only sacrificed so much to raise his little brother but also is his only living blood relation. Gyeom almost immediately suspects that Jun’s car accident was not an accident at all, but an attempt at self-harm. For Gyeom, letting in Mu-bee would also mean letting in all of the other feelings he has been repressing for so long. In many ways, he is still in survival mode, from the deaths of his parents and from the near-death of his brother. He chooses his commitment to his brother, and his affable walls, over facing his fears and confiding in Mu-bee.

Read More: The 15 Best Romantic K-Dramas on Netflix

Five years later, when Ko Gyeom and Kim Mu-bee meet again, Mu-bee is understandably reluctant to let Gyeom back into her life. However, the charming and determined Gyeom slowly erodes her walls. It helps that Gyeom and Jun move into the house across the street from Mu-bee and her mother, providing ample opportunity for the two to run into one another—and for Mu-bee to get to know Jun.

The two get together in Episode 6, “Happy Ending is Mine!,” following weeks of running into each other “accidentally.” By then, Mu-bee has guessed that Gyeom’s disappearing act had something to do with Jun’s accident. She decides to take another chance on Gyeom, and the two kiss next to a field of wildflowers. They stay together through the rest of the series, becoming a source of comfort and support to one another.

Given that Melo Movie gives its main couple a “happy ending” in Episode 6 of a 10-episode season, you may have guessed that Melo Movie’s thematic concerns are broader than its romance. “Sometimes, even a single word can be a source of encouragement during tough times,” Choi said of the series’ themes during a press conference for the series, “and we wanted to extend that kind of support through various aspects of the series — love, personal growth and pursuit of dreams.”

We learn at the end of Episode 6 that Jun will die, and the following episode, “Thanks For the Adventure, Now Go Have a New One,” uses that terrible dramatic irony to explore just how much Jun has meant to Gyeom. The subsequent episodes are defined by that loss, as Gyeom struggles to move on after losing the most important person in his life. It isn’t easy, but the grief is made more manageable, perhaps, by the loved ones in Gyeom’s life. Gyeom, who can’t bring himself to go back into the home he shared with Jun, has been sleeping in his car. His best friend Hong Si-jun (Badland Hunters’ Lee Jun-young) leaves supplies in the backseat of the convertible, and Mu-bee spends one night in the seat across from Gyeom, holding his hand. 

The depiction of Gyeom’s grief after losing Jun is the consistently strongest plot in the slow-burn series. Melo Movie is often too ambitious in its scope, a flaw highlighted by the story’s slow pace. However, the development of Gyeom from a pathologically genial young man afraid to let anyone in to a 30-something adult learning how to face his feelings is incredibly rewarding. Lee’s focused writing here is elevated further by a strong and subtle performance from Choi.

While Gyeom and Mu-bee are the main couple in Melo Movie, the series also features a secondary love story. Hong Si-jun is Gyeom’s childhood friend, and Son Ju-a (Parasyte: The Grey’s Jeon So-nee) is his first love. The two dated for years, often coming to Gyeom’s movie nights together. When Ju-a unexpectedly breaks up with Si-jun on their seventh anniversary, the event sends him into a years-long depression, also driven by his floundering self-esteem as a musician.

Five years later, the two are brought back together again when Mu-bee decides to make Ju-a’s script, Melody, into her sophomore feature. Ju-a’s script is inspired by her romance with Si-jun, and she wants him to compose the music for the film. The project allows them to reconnect, and finally hash out what happened all those years ago to lead to their relationship’s end.

The complex romance between Si-jun and Ju-a makes for a frustrating watch, especially in the first half of the series, as Si-jun struggles to take any accountability for the failure of their relationship. Unable to see past his own pain, he also unfairly blames Ju-a for the rockiness of his career as a musician. This aspect of Lee’s script, however, is eventually made satisfying by its self-aware conclusion. Ju-a calls Si-jun out for his selfishness—both during the years of their romantic relationship, and now. She explains that she broke up with Si-jun because she was losing herself in the relationship, prioritizing his creative ambitions over her own. She takes accountability for those actions, inspiring Si-jun to eventually follow suit. With the help of some sage advice from his longtime boss, bar owner Park Sang-sik (Kim Young-woong), Si-jun no longer sees his relationship with Ju-a as a failure, just because it ended.

Although Ju-a and Si-jun go on a few dates to see if they can rekindle what they once had, they ultimately decide against it. They acknowledge that they truly loved one another, but that their time together is over. They both cry as they say goodbye, and Ju-a gives one last kiss. It is a realistic, tear-jerking depiction of a healthy breakup. At a press conference, actor Lee Jun-young said of the series: “What the characters are trying to convey through their struggles while pursuing their dreams and love may not be necessarily the answer for everyone, but I hope people can take it as a reference and find their own way to achieve what they desire.”

In the final episode of the series, “Life is a Beautiful, Magnificent Thing, Even to a Jellyfish,” Mu-bee and Gyeom share their deepest, darkest secrets with one another. Now sitting in the same convertible they stood next to while sharing their second first kiss, Mu-bee tells Gyeom that she often pretended her absent father was dead, even before he died—but that she never actually wanted him to die. Gyeom tells Mu-bee that he knew Jun’s accident was intentional, but that he was too afraid to explicitly bring it up to his big brother. The scene is a quiet one, and does not lead to any grand romantic declarations. Melo Movie is much more subtle and realistic than that in its depiction of life and love. The two admit that they want to stay together, and that being together makes them feel better in a scary world.

The final scenes of Melo Movie flash forward 18 months. Mu-bee has successfully completed and released Melody, her new film based on Ju-a’s script. The film is a box office flop, but connects with those who do see it. The film’s music is a big hit, elevating Si-jun’s profile as a star musician and composer. He is happy with his success, and Ju-a—his first fan—is happy for him. Si-jun sees her smiling at the Melody vinyl in a music shop. The two don’t meet, but they both seem content with the end of their relationship, and how their respective lives are going.

Gyeom has quit his job as a film critic. He no longer has a desire to watch movies obsessively. He wants, instead, to focus on the real world. This includes his relationship with Mu-bee, which is still going strong. We see Gyeom host a barbecue at his house, which he now shares with Mu-bee’s childhood best friend Woo Jeong-hu (Study Group’s Cha Woo-min). The final scene of the series takes place on the set of Mu-bee’s next movie. An unemployed Gyeom is there, causing the kind of trouble that makes Mu-bee smile. The two chase each other across the set, and find a secluded corner to embrace in. They smile as they kiss, and neither of them is alone. 

While romance is, surprisingly, not the most important outcome in Melo Movie, human connection is treated as an unavoidable ingredient in personal growth by the series. The romantic relationship between Gyeom and Mu-bee happens to be how the two characters learn how to trust themselves and the world again, but their support system goes past one another. Lee’s script may hold too much of its context for later in Melo Movie’s run, but the self-aware complexity of its soothing conclusion makes the journey worth it.