Ending 2023 with Twinkling Watermelon
Year endings and beginnings are known to be times of deep introspection. One may just want to leave behind 2023 for good or want to reminisce all the times the stars aligned perfectly for things to work out the way you wanted it to. Twinkling Watermelon is for the ones whose 2023 falls in the former category, for the ones for whom the rug was pulled away right under their feet.
Twinkling watermelon is a celebration of life. To live for the sake of living — Viva la Vida or “long live life” is the theme of this Korean drama. Inspired by Frida Kahlo’s last painting, that Cheong-a (a character in this show) loves, it is a celebration of adversities experienced by all and its expression through art in various forms. It is a show that embraces the roller-coaster that life offers for us all and for those who are still holding the railings tightly — eyes shut or wide open.
“Sufferings of different persons cannot be compared and that surviving and living life is itself a great achievement”
The show is also intriguing involving time travelling to the past.
What would it be like if we could meet our parents in their youthful days? One such possibility is shown in this coming-of-age, time-travel drama Twinkling Watermelon.
Ha Eun Gyeol (Ryeoun), an eighteen year old highschooler is the only connection between his family and the world. As a child of deaf adults (CODA) with a deaf brother, he has always had a huge burden to carry on his shoulders. He discovers and learns yet another language in the form of music when he is taught to play the guitar by a former guitar legend at a music shop called “Viva Music Shop”. Guitar and music was his only outlet, and while he was a sincere student topping his school, he performs on the street at night as a way of rebelling. Eun Gyeol keeps a great disguise until his father discovers him at a local gig following which they have an argument.
Just when he is close to giving up the music dream, he time travels all the way back to 1995 where he meets his father Ha Yi Chan (Choi Hyun Wook) who was able to hear perfectly and who is at that time attempting to form a band to please his high school sweetheart. The shocked Eun Gyeol has one mission — to ensure that his father does not meet with the fateful accident that caused his hearing loss.
The drama keeps you hooked to the storyline as Eun Gyeol discovers and meets the friends, family and people who make up the youthful days of his parents who are eighteen in 1995. It is heartful, youthful and energetic and nostalgic, bringing back our own high school days. The father-son duo bring many cheerful and comical moments as the son tries to guide and reason with the headstrong Yi Chan. On the other hand, his interaction with his younger mother Yoon Cheong Ah (Shin Eun Soo) are heart-warming, as he tries to create a bridge for her to communicate with the world and express herself.
Actress Shin Eun Soo, who plays the young Yoon Cheong Ah, (Eun Gyeol’s mother) really stands out for the role she plays as a deaf child unable to express herself through her voice, using her eyes, sign language and drawing and mediums of expression. Choi Woon Hyeok does a tremendous job in playing the headstrong, determined, yet empathetic Yi Chan. The acting of the lead couple elevates the drama as it keeps the viewers swooning at their interactions and anticipating their next interaction. Even Seol In Ha shows her versatility by playing the obedient and the rebel mother-child duo.
The deeper meaning hidden behind a youthful, high school show is what makes this show entertaining for all age groups and for all people, even for the ones whose 2023 was relatively better. It constantly keeps us on the edge and has an ending where things go perfectly well and perfectly not-well.
“Life doesn’t have to be perfect for it to shine. It’s the little moments that make your life twinkle, and happiness is what you experience when those moments come together”.
This is what makes Twinkling Watermelon a show to watch before this year ends, to enter 2024 refreshed for another ride that this roller-coaster has to offer.
