[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Mimi" Episode 4 Final

This drama ends the same way it began- with all the events bizarrely jumbled out of sequence and a constant lack of clarity as to Min-woo's sanity. But if you've been watching "Mimi" this far none of this is really new. The drama's strange innovative technique is by far its strongest suit, so it's all too fitting that the last episode spends most of its runtime depicting events that happened before the first episode. Also time travel might be involved. Maybe?

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I can't keep track of all the fantastic elements in "Mimi", but the drama's so mind-bending to begin with that trying to figure out how the internal supernatural logic works is a fool's errand from the get-go. Here's the important stuff- in order to regain something that you love, a sacrifice must be made. What's the important thing worth loving? What's the sacrifice? Well, you'll pretty much have to decide for yourself. But there's not really a good answer when death has to be involved at one of those points somehow.

There's a rather comic moment here where Min-woo actually goes to see a therapist, who recommends drugs. Probably the best solution to the situation objectively speaking. But this drama has always been about the abstract, and in this case, that abstract point is having to make that decision. Note that in some ways even framing the situation as involving a decision at all is a rather misleading narrative device. The ending makes it quite clear that there is, in fact, a way to keep Mimi in Min-woo's life that does not involve extensive traveling in the dream world that is maybe also the afterlife the metaphor's kind of vague.

...That all may have been a bit disorienting to read, but as a disorienting drama "Mimi" deserves a disorienting review. And that's not even an insult. I've been constantly perplexed by this drama but watching the final bright nostalgic dreamscapes I have to just admire the deliberate craftsmanship of it all, the sensitivity amid all the senselessness. Is Min-woo flashing back to other people's memories? That seems impossible but on the other hand that's some nice instrumental music the soundtrack's pulling off right now

If nothing else, "Mimi" has a lot of style and confidence, and I have to admire it for that. This episode gives us the clearest glimpses of Min-woo's webtoon to date, and I have to admit I found myself wanting to read it. It would be nice to have some images that are just sitting still for a bit, that they can be more easily admired. Still, with its deliberate pace, lingering camera, and general disconcern for connecting with reality, "Mimi" as a drama works pretty well in its own right.

Review by William Schwartz

"Mimi" is directed by Song Chang-soo, written by Seo Yoo-seon and features Changmin and Mun Ka-young

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