One Day Off (2023) Episode 5

Jun 2, 2023

Episode 5 of One Day Off is a brief trip through time. It begins with Ha-kyung at the school, walking past a group of students doing synchronized dancing. Interested, she watches and copies their movements out of their view. But some other students on a nearby rooftop see her and cheer for her when she finishes, to her immense embarrassment.

Two days before, Ha-kyung dances in her home and remembers asking for a comic called “The Dancing Kangaroo” in a bookstore.

Earlier that same day, Ha-kyung visits a planetarium in Daejeon with an older woman and listens to an employee talk about how the mind wanders as far as the stars. The woman she is with mentions her interest in astronomy and says she is teaching herself math so that she can understand it better. Ha-kyung shares that her interest is dancing, specifically having control of her body’s movements.

As the two leave the planetarium, they see a dancing instructor teaching a group of brightly dressed dancers. The woman asks Ha-kyung if they should join them, and Ha-kyung looks at her with surprise. The woman leaves Ha-kyung and joins the dancers.

The scene switches to three and a half hours earlier. Ha-kyung stands in line at a restaurant and gives her order. The waitress says that the minimum order for that dish is for two people, and the woman from the planetarium appears and offers to eat it with her.

They share a quiet meal, and when Ha-kyung’s gaze settles on the woman for a moment, she gasps in surprise. She asks the woman if she is the cartoonist, Koo Yeong-sook. She says that she is, and Ha-kyung says that she is a big fan and grew up reading her comics.

Ha-kyung asks if she still draws comics. The woman states no one bothers with comics drawn by an old-timer these days, but she mentions she has been thinking about making a story about Doomsday on repeat. In her mind’s eye, Ha-kyung sees a cartoon version of herself acting out the story as Yeong-sook describes it. Cartoon Ha-kyung time travels with a cat by her side, then time goes backward.

Yeong-sook invites her to her nearby studio to have tea, and Ha-kyung enthusiastically accepts.

Time reverses again to show 7 hours earlier. Ha-kyung misses her train and hops on the next one to Daejeon. As she arrives, she sees a cat through the train window. She quickly gets off the train to look for it, but it disappears.

Jumping back to the visit with Yeong-sook, Ha-kyung excitedly pulls a comic, “The Dancing Kangaroo,” from a shelf at Yong-sook’s studio. Yeong-sook says she can have it and picks up a cat, the same one that Ha-kyung saw earlier.

Over tea, Yeong-sook shares that her eyes and body are wearing down, so she is trying lots of new things before she loses more mobility. She expresses that she overstressed and overworked herself in her younger days and that it probably wasn’t worth it, but Ha-kyung tells her that it was worth it and how much the comics meant to her. She explains how, as a youth, she found Yeong-sook’s work remarkable and uplifting, and Yeong-sook suggests they visit the planetarium.

Time-jumping to later that night, Ha-kyung happily places the comic book on her shelf and dances.

Back at the time when Yeong-sook leaves Ha-kyung to join the dancers, Ha-kyung jumps in, moving unconfidently but enjoying herself.

Somewhere, the art teacher opens an umbrella to protect himself from the rain, but the drops suddenly keep coming and going.

The Episode Review

This episode is a great example of how much diversity is in this series. And this part especially is something really unique and very artistic.

This episode confirms Ha-kyung’s own feelings about aging and how, like Yeong-sook, she wants to see and do many things, like dancing, before she gets older. The presence of the cat seems to symbolize that everything is connected, like her chance meeting with her favorite comic artist. Every time Ha-kyung makes a new friend, it helps dissipate the aura of loneliness that seems to hover around her character.

The time travel pieces in combination with the comic-book artist’s story weave together in a pleasant way, and the cartoon Ha-kyung scenes, brief as they are, are also really beautiful and creative additions.