I stumbled upon Satellite on YouTube a couple of months ago and discovered what a glorious OST it was (and still is). Lyrically, it invokes a certain kind of yearning that is reserved for the person you love but can’t be with. The melody grips and adds layers of melancholy to the already heart wrenching words.
I usually discover good OSTs as I watch. It’s the first time an OST compelled me to watch a Kdrama. This song is really special. 💚
I always used to think that kdramas had that trope because of Confucianism and its emphasis on fate. So the way to show a couple was fated was to either give them a shared childhood trauma or experience, a shared past life, or a break up with a long time skip where they get reunited a month, a few months, a year (or 5) later and are still as in love as they were before the time skip.
But I recently read an interesting thesis written by a grad student from South Korea who theorized that the reason kdramas do this separation and reunification trope is because Korea as a society is experiencing separation anxiety. The war that divided the country (and families) arbitrarily is still recent history, and the South Korean requirements for military service rips young men out of their family homes (further compounding the feeling of separation). So she wrote that Koreans love seeing stories of separation and reunions because it gives them hope and acts as a cultural salve.
As much as I dislike this trope when it’s handled poorly, I now feel a greater appreciation for it even when it feels shoehorned into the plot because I at least understand its narrative significance now in a way that I didn’t before.
