r e w i n d n o t e ♥︎

it’s 5am and i should be asleep, but my brain decided to stage a surprise concert and the only song on the setlist is twelve letters, this chinese drama i’ve been hooked on. honestly? personal favorite of the year so far. the plot is sad, yeah, but the concept? chef’s kiss. i still haven’t finished the last episode, but i will today. kinda scared for the ending but also too invested to stop.

for the uninitiated: the show is about a magical letter box that connects people across time. in their case, it’s 1991 ↔ 2026. and wow… they did such a good job setting up both eras. 90s mainland china feels so lived-in... cassette tapes, cluttered apartments, that warm but slightly faded color tone(?) then it flips to 2026 with clean lines, blue hues and muted lighting, futuristic tech. never once was i confused which year i was in, which is a miracle cuz most time-switch dramas blur it all together. big props to the set designers and directors.

anyway, as i was lying here half-conscious, i thought… what if i had one of these letter boxes? mine would be 2025 ↔ 2060. that’s 35 years. me in my fifties. i can’t even picture that version of me. will i still be writing rambly diary entries at ungodly hours? will i be some eccentric adult with shelves of trinkets from my youth? or will i just be chilling with a cat, watching tv like an old couch potato, telling anyone who’ll listen about how exo once ruled the earth? jk jk.

first questions i’d throw in the box...

how is life..? any life-changing events?

what’s your hobby these days? still drawing goofy characters?

do you have a job, and if so, do you actually like it? (scary question...oooh)

pet roll call: do we have one? yes/no?

do you still listen to music, and if so… what kinda songs are looping on your playlists?

how’s the tech world looking? did robots take over yet or is that still sci-fi talk?

do u have a collection of some sorts?

it's unfair tho, cuz future-me knows literally everything about me. meanwhile i’m over here like ???. feels like i’d just spam them with questions. future-me def has the upper hand in this correspondence, no contest.

there’s this scene in the show where the future son doesn’t believe in the whole letter box thing, so he drops his phone inside as proof. my first instinct was: please let the phone time travel too. imagine the 90s family pulling it out and staring at it like it’s a magic rectangle from the heavens. but then again… messing with the timeline like that? disaster waiting to happen. i’m glad the show resisted the temptation.

but here’s a little fun thought experiment for anyone reading :D

imagine you could send a single message through time; a pulse that reaches either your past self or your future self. it can be anything. what would you say?

for me? i’d probably just ask future-me: are you happy? simple. direct. easy to answer. nothing crazy, no timeline disasters, just… a check-in across the years.

and also… imagine this: what if we actually started writing letters to the future right now? like little notes, thoughts, doodles, questions. then, years later, when we look back at them, it’s not just a letter... it’s a snapshot of who we were. maybe future-us will laugh, maybe roll their eyes, maybe find tiny hints. it could be a weird, sweet, slightly creepy time capsule of our own brain.

just… thinking about it makes me want to scribble all sorts of random things. like “hey future me!! :D it's 2025, do you still eat instant noodles?” or “did you finally learn how to fix the printer?” it’s silly, but also… kind of perfect.

anyway, this is my first cdrama of 2025 and wow… strong start. it’s got heart, it’s got nostalgia, it’s got me spiraling at 5am. i’ll prob write more once i finish it (and maybe check out other shows too).

ps. i’m not crying. my eyes are just allergic to good cdramas right now.

koi logging off~~ >:]

Labels: blogs, rambling, television