can this love be translated ending explained

The ending of Can This Love Be Translated? is a bittersweet “open happy” ending where Mu-hee and Ho-jin choose each other, but without pretending that love magically erases their baggage.

Quick Scoop: What Actually Happens

• Mu-hee and Hiro approve the full Romantic Trip edit, including Hiro’s love confession and her warm reaction, then part on honest, friendly terms.

• Mu-hee realizes Ho-jin has always cared for her more deeply than he showed and finally stops hiding behind her Do Ra-mi persona.

• A family twist reveals her father is alive in China and her mother is missing; Mu-hee decides to confront her past by tracking her mother down in Los Angeles.

• Before leaving, she temporarily breaks up with Ho-jin, asking him to wait until she’s ready to commit “for real” after facing her trauma.

• She returns around Christmas; they meet at an observatory, use a translation app and a joking “universal language” gesture, and end the show kissing under the stars.

Do Mu-hee and Ho-jin End Up Together?

Yes, emotionally they end up together, but not in a neatly tied, “everything fixed forever” way.

• They choose to try again after time apart, agreeing to reunite once Mu-hee confronts her past and feels able to commit long-term.

• The observatory scene shows them as partners who now prioritize honesty over masks, not a perfect couple with all problems solved.

An example: instead of a dramatic proposal, they share awkward pauses, jokes, and then a kiss—small, realistic steps that signal a new beginning rather than a final fairy-tale ending.

What About Hiro?

Hiro’s ending is about growth and self-respect, not “getting the girl.”

• His confession forces both him and Mu-hee to confront the truth: she was never truly in love with him, and he was partly an escape for her.

• He handles rejection with understanding instead of bitterness, showing he has stopped hiding from rejection and from his own feelings.

• As a character, he becomes a mirror: his journey of dropping the “nice, safe” mask parallels Mu-hee learning to drop Do Ra-mi.

Themes Behind the Ending

1. Love vs. Translation

The title pays off in the finale: they can speak the same language but still fail to “translate” their feelings.

• Ho-jin admits that even he could not fully understand Mu-hee, despite being a professional interpreter.

• The last scene uses a translation app and gestures (including the joking middle-finger “universal language”) to show that real connection is messy, imperfect, and sometimes wordless.

2. Trauma and Self-Image

Mu-hee’s past and her constructed personas are central to the ending.

• She has lived split between “Mu-hee” and “Do Ra-mi,” performing a version of herself that felt safer than her real, vulnerable self.

• The final episodes push her to stop hiding: she confronts her family lies, accepts that trauma is still there, and chooses to face it instead of burying it under work and romance.

Ho-jin doesn’t “cure” her; the ending insists love can accompany healing, not replace it.

Is It a Happy Ending or Sad?

Most viewers and critics see it as a quietly hopeful happy ending with deliberate ambiguity.

• Happy because:
  • Mu-hee and Ho-jin reunite, kiss, and openly acknowledge their love.
  • Mu-hee is no longer lying—to Hiro, to the public, or to herself.

• Bittersweet because:
  • Her family issues and trauma remain unresolved, just no longer hidden.

* There’s no guarantee of “forever,” only a mutual decision to try honestly.

One recap even describes it as “intentionally unresolved” to highlight that the real victory is emotional honesty, not a picture-perfect couple shot.

Forums and Fan Discussion Highlights

Online discussions point out a few key takeaways from the ending and from earlier confusing moments that feed into it.

• Mu-hee often misreads Ho-jin’s behavior as indifference or mere caretaking, which drives many of her worst choices and breakdowns.

• Her airport meltdown (discussed a lot in episode threads) is framed by fans as her realizing she misinterpreted his feelings and cut things off too quickly.

• Many viewers like that the finale refuses an overly neat “everything’s fine” resolution and instead leaves room for a possible season 2 or just for the imagination.

Bottom note: Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.