"Longing Heart" Episode 8 recap

Ha, the younger Sin-woo is getting more likable all the time. Instead of just waiting for the older Sin-woo to give him relevant advice, the younger Sin-woo proactively comes up with his own goofy plans to get together with Ji-soo upon his return to the past. Like the older Sin-woo, the younger Sin-woo is simply assuming that he can easily do time travel again. Which is admittedly not that unreasonable, since his continued presence in the future is an obvious time paradox.
But both Sin-woos are assuming that the death of their mother and Ji-soo's abrupt departure to go to school overseas were unrelated events. This surprises me. I had thought from the beginning that these events were related and was confused as to why the older Sin-woo didn't bother to address the whole issue of his mother dying up until the very last minute. Maybe that's just because I watch too many dramas? Then again Sin-woo has watched plenty of time slip stories, so that's no excuse.
This all creates a fairly mild continuity error. Apparently even though Sin-woo's modern day friends were hassling Sin-woo about not getting over Ji-soo, it never occured to Na-hee to tell Sin-woo that Ji-soo had claimed to not actually be interested in studying overseas. Of course an even better source of information had very good reasons for not being able to tell Sin-woo about what Ji-soo really thought. Hence how we get to the big tragedy.
I like the enigmatic way Ji-soo is portrayed, because the more we learn about her the less she seems like an enigma. Ji-soo is just a very difficult person to read, because she doesn't like being direct. At the same time, Ji-soo likes it when other people are direct with her, but tends to take what they say at face value. The jewelry store flashback is more instructive than it initially appears- while Ji-soo seems happy at the time, I doubt she would take kindly to the deceit, however well-intentioned.
But again, it's very easy to understand Ji-soo incorrectly. Consider how her big confession to Sin-woo plays off of an irrational yet reasonable assumption on Ji-soo's part as to how Sin-woo would react. One of the better elements at play in "Longing Heart" concerns the importance of reassurance in a healthy relationship. That's always when Sin-woo is able to make the most progress, is when he helps Ji-soo to feel less guilty over things she should not feel ashamed about.
Review by William Schwartz
"Longing Heart" is directed by   Min Yeon-hong, written by  Park Ga-yun and features Lee Jung-shin,  Seo Ji-hoon, Lee Yul-eum,  and Kim Sun-young-III.

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