The Twelfth Lantern – Episode 1: The Dark One

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Episode summary

Haneul returns to her grandmother's tea house in Cheongsan. Eleven lanterns glow beneath the eaves. The last one is waiting for something a match cannot give.

Transcript

P01 - A small yellow bus has stopped beside a village path at dusk. Haneul stands on the gravel after stepping down, carrying her olive suitcase in her right hand.
Caption: Cheongsan. Early November.

P02 - Haneul stands below the stone steps of her grandmother's tea house. Eleven paper lanterns glow beneath the eaves. The last lantern at the right is dark.

P03 - Halmeoni's handwritten letter lies on a low table beside a lamp, teapot and cup. The Korean ink follows the paper's perspective. Two tailless reading bubbles give the complete English meaning and signature. Haneul's hand rests at its edge. An empty wooden chair stands by the window; her suitcase is by the entrance.
Physical Korean letter: 겨울의 그믐이 오기 전에 열두 번째 등불을 밝히렴. 그 어두운 존재를 두려워하지 마렴. 그저 네가 필요할 뿐이란다. 할머니
Halmeoni letter, English document-reading bubbles: Light the twelfth before winter's dark moon. Do not be frightened of the dark one. It only needs you. Halmeoni

P04 - Outside beneath the dark lantern, Haneul frowns at a spent match held in her right hand.
Haneul: Come on...

P05 - A small cream fox sits on the veranda ledge and speaks. Haneul stands just to the right.
Bit: You took your time.

P06 - Haneul looks towards the little fox in surprise. She still holds the spent match.
Haneul: Did the cat just talk?
Bit: Fox. Obviously. I'm Bit.

P07 - The fox sits on the low ledge. Haneul has sat on a stone step and looks up at the dark lantern. The spent match lies on the ledge; her hand rests empty on her knee.
Bit: Each lantern holds a wish. The twelfth was your grandmother's.
Haneul: Then why is it dark?

P08 - In a rain-grey city memory, Haneul sits at a desk in a cream top. Her hand hesitates beside an unanswered phone. A closed suitcase waits beneath the desk. Her admission is spoken in the present over this memory.
Time caption: Three months earlier.
Haneul: I didn't even come to her funeral.

P09 - The fox's expression softens. Haneul's empty hand rests on her knee beside him; the spent match remains on the wood.
Bit: A match won't do it. This one needs what you've been holding back.

P10 - Haneul holds her open hand beneath the dark last lantern. Her gaze lowers as she speaks.
Haneul: I'm sorry, Halmeoni. I should have come.

P11 - The last lantern now glows with the other eleven. Warm light falls across Haneul's open palm.

P12 - Two faint ember points watch from between distant pines in the blue mist.