The Ending of “Love Letter”
wulijohyunjae | November 5, 2009 | 7:00 am
The following two views on the ending of “Love Letter” are from the Forum Discussion of Dramawiki:
(1) TheBombastic1 (1/27/05)
I like the general idea of characters questioning and struggling with their own faith. Faith in God, faith in love. To a lesser extent, faith in family. To an even lesser extent, faith in medicine. Oh yeah, and faith in friendship. I like how faith in all these things kinda play an invisible character. I thought it was a nice change of pace how faith, and at times lack thereof, was the trigger for everything that happened…………But then I felt it started to take on more than it could resolve, and as a result left more questions than any real sense of closure………
…….. it woulda been better to simply let Eun Ha die, and show how the other characters deal with their respective faith after that. After all, Eun Ha seemed to have come to terms with everything prior to the surgery. If she dies, that woulda opened up some fascinating takes on faith. For Andrea, who gave up everything to become a priest with the idea that if he forsakes his love for Eun Ha for love for God then God would have no reason to take Eun Ha, it would make him question God’s will. For Woo Jin, it would make him question his faith in his medical skills.
The underlying problem is that the events in the drama span a long period of time, jumping to a different time too often, and creating situations in which some events that shoulda been shown aren’t and only hinted at, which is like whetting the appetite even though there’s nothing to eat. In dealing with such a broad subject as faith, they try to touch upon everything and end up touching very little. Too many characters are introduced, poised to play an important part somehow, that end up being undeveloped and forgotten. If they intended to focus only on the Andrea, Woo jin, Eun Ha, and the mother, it may have been better if they just left [the others] out of the story.
A love letter is sweet. Despite the namesake, the drama just wasn’t that sweet. It had a good premise, but somewhere along the way its ego got the best of it, and the drama got too good for its own good. The result was kinda sloppy.
(2) FimFim (6/25/07)
I see a lesson or a philosophical way of thinking (based on faith) that is taught. There’s a huge lesson that is mentioned by Andrea as he talks to God in the church in the last episode. Andrea realizes something after making peace with his mom. He had such a frustrating and sad life. In the last episode, after he got drunk and Woo-Jin took him back to his house, his mom gives him a hug and they talk. His mom wants nothing from him but just to love him, and he in turn says his feelings towards his mom wasn’t resentment and that he loves her. Andrea’s feelings towards his mom and towards God are very similar in many ways. Andrea was abandoned by his mom early on in life and he felt abandoned by God as the story progressed. At one point there was resentment and anger towards God as well. All this frustration was resolved when Andrea decided to not want anything but rather to just love God and accept God’s will…..in the same way that Andrea’s mom wants nothing more than to just love Andrea. The confusing emotions all of a sudden cleared up with the realization to love and accept the things which have happened — God’s will.
Another thing that is pointed out is that loving someone is not a sin. Though, in my own point of view, I find that it would be wrong for a man to become a priest if that man loves a particular woman more than he does God. Ideally, I think that a man should become a priest only when his emotional bond with God is greater than it would be for a woman. A man becomes a priest (joins the holy order) for the strong love he has for God similar to in holy matrimony, where a woman and a man marry for love of one another. Back to the topic. When Eun-ha wakes up, they can still love each other….is what Andrea said. I can see that loving someone is not a sin when it is a pure love from heart to heart (no immorality involved).
There are certainly some things that are left unanswered, but watching through to the end, it is clear that the theme of “Love Letter” is the importance of love.
The views expressed here are those of the writers. They are published here as a starting point for discussion. Many viewers, particularly non-Catholics, are puzzled and vexed by the ending of “Love Letter”.
(Credit: Second photo from CarpeDiemJAPAN. Thanks!)
Maybe non-Catholics don’t understand this, but Catholics know that Andrea’s love for God is greater than his love for any human being. As a priest, his love for Eun-Ha has transcended corporeal desires to a higher, spiritual plane.
What is actually confusing about the ending is the kiss on the lips. That ending kiss is not supported by what went on before it. We all know that Andrea has already surrendered himself to God’s will, he has already accepted that his path is with his Lord (whether we agree or not with the device used by the writer to bring this about). What confused people is the kiss on the lips. We all know that a kiss on the lips is a romantic kiss not a platonic one. If the writer/director were aiming for a platonic relationship (based on Andrea’s surrender to God), then the kiss should have been a platonic one. A warm hug then a kiss on the forehead would have shown Andrea’s platonic love for Eun Ha, and EH’s acceptance of that kind of kiss would signify her own acceptance of God’s will in her life. But, alas, the director/writer, in their infinite wisdom decided to confuse viewers by ending it with a romantic kiss.
A friend of mine was so put off by the priest sleeping with a woman in the same bed, although supposed to be all chaste and innocent, that she stopped watching the drama. The producers of “Love Letter” seemed unable to make up their minds, and only succeeded in confusing the viewers.
HYM, I agree with you, the producers of LL seemed unable to make up their minds and ended up confusing the viewers. The producers/director/writer couldn’t make up their minds whether to present LL as a romantic drama or a drama about religion/faith. I think starting out, it was supposed to be a story about a young man’s (Andrea) journey towards his path in life (the priesthood), the romance part was just supposed to be one of the contrivances that the writer used to make that journey more dramatic. But somewhere along the line, the romance part overtook Andrea’s journey towards the priesthood, hence the scenes of the priest sleeping with a woman and the romantic kiss at the end instead of a platonic one. I have a feeling that LL, like most kdramas, is a live shoot drama. They shoot episodes while the drama is airing. They do this so they can change the flow of the story to meet the demands of the viewers. Sometimes this set up works out, sometimes it does not. In the case of LL, the viewers most probably were clamoring for more romance between Andrea and EH. The production gave in, hence the confusion. Note: this is just speculation on my part.
Why do I say that LL is actually a story about a young man’s journey to priesthood more than a story about romantic love? There are many indications to support this early in the drama, but the most telling indicator is Andrea’s name. Did you know that Andrea is the Italian form of Andrew? Andrew is a direct reference to St. Andrew, the first disciple of Jesus Christ. As early as ep. 1 (when the young Lee Woo Jin took on the name Andrea), the writer was already telling us that Andrea will end up as God’s disciple and that this drama is his journey towards that path.