My Lovely Momo

Any fan of the korean drama My Lovely Samsoon (내 이름은 김삼순) would recognize this famous pig. In one scene of the tv series, this pig appeared at the aquarium as "Professor Time" in Meizhou's dream, along side with a turtle. In the dream, Meizhou thinks of herself as "Momo". Likewise, this Samsoon often refers to Momo such as wanting to name her cake shop as Momo.com much to the objection of her sister.

If you are familiar with the book Momo by Michael Ende, perhaps you would already have jumped at the mention of the book very much earlier in the show. If not, like me, the book did not occur to me until much later when Meizhou, the niece, insisted on them buying the book Momo by Michael Ende at the bookshop.

Written by the same author who wrote The Neverending Story, Momo is about a little girl named Momo who "has the extraordinary ability to listen — really listen. By simply being with people and listening to them, she can help them find answers to their problems, make up with each other, and think of fun games". In the story, they had to fight with losing time and materialism along with Professor Time and the turtle, Cassiopeia. It is about how we no longer enjoy time and do carefree things that we enjoy. We no longer play games but work to utmost efficiency to "save time" but really we are losing it the more we 'save'.

Putting this into perspective, this gives the tv series a whole new depth. Considering that both Samsoon and Meizhou compares themselves to Momo. Meizhou who refuses to talk ever since an accident has the ability to listen which is very similar to Momo. At the dream sequence mentioned above, Professor Time asked her to return to reality.

Interestingly, I am also a fan of Michael Ende's other book, without myself even knowing it. Likewise, it was because of an adaptation to screen, the Neverending story became a big favourite. At the time, it was mostly because of Jonathon Brandis, who starred in the movie. I guess if I had not do a search for him online, I would not have known that the actor I had posters plastered all over my room over 10 years ago committed suicide 3 years ago.

Some people may think that watching tv may be a counterproductive exercise but I beg to differ. Of course if the only thing you do after watching is to go out and buy the first Samsoon pig you see, then I have nothing to say. That might just be the total opposite of what Michael Ende is trying to say in Momo. I'm glad I got to know a lot of "something new" from the show. A new book found. In fact, I believe I might just pick up some of Michael Ende's book the next time I hit the bookstore.