I Have Moved

To all those who have been following this blog... thank you so much for your support. It's always heartening to see the view numbers go up and to see the occasional comment pop up.

After a time of soul-searching I have decided to migrate to a new and more importantly, independent platform for a number of reasons but also because this platform allows for immediate podcasting which is an area that I'd like to go into more.

If you're still interested in following me, please head to 40somethingahjumma.substack.com

I will leave this blog open for a time. 

All the best to you and yours during these uncertain times.

Taxi Driver (2021) Early Impressions

Even though I made some kind of resolution to watch fewer K and C dramas this year, I've consistently manage to find something that hooks me in since the end of last year. I've seen comments around the web about crime show fatigue but I never seem to suffer from that. There's always some kind of crime show up for grabs and if I can survive the first couple of episodes, I'm always hopeful for better things ahead. This one seems to have made the cut. ;)

Prior to this drama the only one that I've seen with Lee Je-hoon was the widely acclaimed Signal. While he did well in that, it was Cho Jin-woong's drama. He was the man of the hour in that show. However, here Lee Je-hoon is the hero of the piece in a dark vigilante justice story. Apart from the fact that he's an attractive figure, he's versatile enough to be a kind of protagonist in the Mission Impossible, Batman milieu. 

I hear it's based on a webtoon and that's patently obvious from the way the storytelling unfolds. Aspects of it are reminiscent of panels from a modern day graphic novel. The main character is something of brooding superhero who has a military background who has been recruited by the director of a charity for victims of crime to drive a luxury taxi that is utilized for wreaking vengeance on criminals who escape the full force of the law's purview. 

We are introduced to the band of unorthodox crime fighting vigilantes with the kidnapping of a notorious sex offender who has been given early release much to the chagrin and indignation of the public. His release is given full publicity. As he makes his way to the entrance he is greeted by a rowdy mob. A mysterious taxi pulls up in front of him and he jumps in readily to avoid the media and angry protestors. When he notices that the cab isn't going the right way and persists, the sex offender attacks the driver only to be subdued quickly. The driver makes his way to a tunnel does a swap with a similar looking vehicle and goes on his merry way.

While the word "revenge" gets thrown around for the team's modus operandi, it is fascinating that the criminal is not killed but kept in a dungeon minded by a ruthless loan shark who is paid for her troubles. The director insists on reforming the inmates of his prison but we have no idea what that entails. On their tail is prosecutor Kang Ha-na who feels obligated to find the sex offender. 

It isn't surprising that these sorts of vigilante justice shows have a lot of traction especially when we're only too aware the criminal justice system falls short. Also many genuine cases fall through the cracks and many of us have been regaled with stories of some form of injustice that falls outside the jurisdiction of the law. All of that of course is predicated on the fact that there is universal, common justice that transcends religion, culture and ideology. 

It also isn't hard to be persuaded to go along with the vigilantism on some level when the set-up includes a horrifying case of abuse and exploitation of people with disability. The visceral nature of how these individuals are treated by their employers and the fact that a representative of the law turns a blind eye to all this wrongdoing for self-interest. Anyone with any conscience looking at that would be angry.

Of course that usually leads to the rule of law is disregarded because when individuals take the law into their own hands, they put themselves above it. They become the authority that determines how the law should be executed. There are serious moral ramifications to that because the normal restraints aren't in place.

Leverage is one of those shows that come to mind as a comparison although it's a lighter show with plenty of laughs. It's a modern day Robin Hood and compensating the victims is the goal. The cops (unless they were dirty themselves) were called in at the end to clean up the mess. Here, victims are taken care of but there's the added element of "reforming" the perpetrator whatever that looks like. In Leverage too, the problem wasn't systemic infringements of the law or direct attacks on the system. It was about individuals that were getting away with  murder because of their wealth and power.

The Long Ballad (2021) Early Impressions

Sometime last year I caught the trailer for this and at the time I had a vague sense that this was something that I might take a peek at time permitting. However, with the bucketloads of C dramas dumped endlessly at the latter part of 2020, all thought of it had fallen into the ether. But thanks (or no thanks) to the algorithms of You Tube, it popped up on my recommended feed recently and curiosity about Wu Lei's transition into adult roles got the better of me. I mentioned it to the other half (who is a huge fan the first Nirvana of Fire) and we were soon intrigued. The plot also has the advantage of being set in one of my favourite periods in Chinese history -- the Tang dynasty -- roughly during the reign of Emperor Taizong. We knew almost nothing about the plot and I was pleasantly surprised at how enjoyable the watch was in spite of the occasional eye roll.

Wu Lei aka Leo Wu who is best known for his role as the adorable Fei Liu in the first Nirvana in Fire co-stars in this action adventure adaptation of a popular manhua about a sassy princess on the run after the entire massacre of her family. The titular princess, Li Changge is played by the exotically beautiful Dilraba Dilmurat. Wu Lei is Ashile Sun, the adopted son of the Eastern Turkic Khan and is sent as a scout into Tang to find out the political happenings. The two with the usual missteps are destined for romance whatever obstacles are thrown their way.

On a personal note the biggest surprise is how well the pairing works despite the much talked about age gap between the leads. The brewing chemistry is palpable despite the brief encounters that they have in these early days. It’s not exactly love at first sight from either side but it doesn’t take long before Sun becomes intrigued by this free spirit when their paths cross.

Changge is out for the blood of Li Shimin, her uncle and usurper of her father’s position as Crown Prince. His ascension is a result of the rough and tumble of palace politics and to put it brutally, the best man won. It's certainly a case of politics as usual. Changge, however, doesn’t quite see it that way especially when her mother is seemingly an innocent casualty of the fray. However it’s not clear to me at least that the late consort was murdered because Li Shimin seem to have more than a brotherly interest in her.  Suicide is a real possibility because the woman certainly had an inking of what was coming and she was eager to send her daughter out of the eastern palace. 

Few shows are perfect and I’m sure there’s plenty that one can complain about but the one that niggles is Changge’s revenge agenda. It feels more like a plot device than anything based on substance. I’m hardly one to speak against revenge schemes but this one feels so obviously like a plot device to get Changge out of the capital and thrust her into adventures. There’s something inherently challenging about assassinating a member of the royal family… suicidal even but you’d think as someone who is supposedly intelligent and trained in strategic arts, she’d be more circumspect and play the long game. Moreover, there's very little of this ongoing revenge trajectory that makes pragmatic sense to me.

When I brought this up elsewhere someone said that it's all part and parcel of her growth arc. I don’t dispute that and it didn't escape me but I got a bit nonplussed hearing her praised for her intelligence one minute and then doing something else to cause more problems not just for herself but for others around her. What’s the hurry? But there's little doubt that she’s written precisely to be the protagonist embarking on a hero's journey.

Luckily for Li Changge, she cross paths with the mysterious Ashile Sun who helps her out of various scrapes. Wu Lei's performance is impressive here. Only 21 and he’s pulling out all the stops as the elegant, masculine male lead carrying the gravitas of a young man who has had to grow up a lot faster than most. Right now he and his character are the main reason why I’m absorbed with the drama. While Changge is supposed to be the lead character, Sun has my heart. To be fair, Dilraba is good here too. Probably the best I’ve ever seen from her since her Pretty Huizhen days.

It probably goes against the tide to say this but I’m honestly less enthusiastic about the secondary romance. Nonetheless I can see why it excites many because it’s very much your everyday rom com trope at play. A tsundere scumbag of a male thawing out for the love of candy girl who happens to be a princess. Yeah I get it but neither character does anything for me right now. This is not any criticism of the actor. As far as Hao Du is concerned, it makes sense for his character to be in this story. From a storytelling side of things, however, the Leyan character doesn't really need to be there. At least that's the feeling I'm getting from these first 8 episodes.

Despite all that I appreciate the attempts at keeping things at a high degree of historical accuracy: Tang’s tenuous relationship with the Eastern Turkic Khaganate. The precariousness of border towns and potential for them to turn into instant battlegrounds. The parallel internal political struggles within both countries. Li Shimin, Changge’s doting uncle who later ascends the throne as the highly respected Emperor Taizong is also given full and fair treatment here. He's really not the "bad guy" and certainly a man of his time. There are villains in the piece but Li Shimin isn't depicted as one of them.

The other important element that is in the show's favour is the pacing. It moves along very nicely and it doesn't take long before Changge is dodging soldiers and out of the capital Chang'an. 

At this point this drama is unlikely to unseat You are My Hero for this year's C drama top spot but despite its flaws, I'm more invested in the romance here already than The Sword and the Brocade. For some reason the Tan Songyun and Wallace Chung combo didn't light any fires for me. Despite being competently made, there was something about the writing/directing that made the female lead a very bland and occasionally unlikeable individual.

Sisyphus: The Myth (2021) Finale

*Spoilers ahead*

I am someone who has never taken an extreme position on this show. I never thought it was awful (in fact I found the early episodes fun) nor do I think it is any kind of masterpiece. For me the show... unfortunately and sadly... manages to be safely mediocre. The fault as I've said repeatedly lies in the execution because the ideas are good even if derivative. There's nothing new under the sun of course but it's possible to recycle old ideas if the storytelling is compelling enough. The show was never so terrible to turn me completely off and despite all my rants, I really enjoyed Cho Seung-woo's outing as Han Tae-sul... who never took much seriously and seemed to have a rip-roaring good time with the nuttiness of it all.

In light of the show's structural problems, I don't think the ending was terrible. What happened with Alice last year helped me recalibrate my thoughts on this one. It's fair to say that time travel (or the sci-fi genre as a whole) K dramas have an element of the supernatural to it. Whether it's God, fate, spiritual beings or some mysterious intelligence at play behind the scenes, that seems to be explanation behind everything despite all the initial scientific mumbo jumbo that's thrown out in the first and second acts. I have no personal objections to melding science with metaphysics as there's nothing inherently contradictory about that but it would be nice to give audiences something of a head's up on that. 

To some degree Sisyphus does that. Sisyphus succeeds in ways where Alice fails. There are hints of supernatural forces at work before the big reset at the end. The church is symbolic of that. Sigma himself clues us in that there is something special about the church. That's why he built the uploader close by. The church where everything always ends in the time loop is the one surviving structure when war comes to Korea. Sigma touts the word "miracle" when he refers to the church. The final confrontation has always been at the church (the memories, the photographs of the leads at the altar point to that) in which Tae-sul is offered the zero-sum choice of "the girl or the world". A sacrifice has to be made at the church and at the heart of Christianity is the sacrifice of the Son of God, Jesus Christ who gave himself for his Bride... his church.

Although I don't think Han Tae-sul is any kind of son of God, his choice to sacrifice himself on "sacred" ground sees him resurrected with his bride to be. He's back on the plane given a second chance to live as a reward for finally twigging and giving himself up to save the "world". The power behind the universe has looked upon his choice and approved by giving Tae-sul's heart's desire. To live and be with the woman he loves.

To understand this, I take my cue from the old time loop classic Groundhog Day. Phil relives the same day over and over again until he learns the lesson that he needs to. He has to learn that he cannot manipulate circumstances to go his way with prior knowledge but instead to use foreknowledge for good. He also has to learn that authenticity and self-sacrifice is the key to relationship success. Putting others ahead of self-interest... to love neighbour as much as self. It is never said who makes that decision to set Phil on his course but there's little doubt that there's a moral law or intelligence that exists teaching straying individuals that life doesn't revolve around them and their wants. As a result of coming to that realisation, Phil gets the girl. To find Ms Right, he had to be Mr Right first.

As for Sigma, he represents a kind of restless evil that good must constantly overcome. The roots of which run deep. It is true that time travel has been stopped so that instrument can't be used but evil will find new ways to steal, kill and destroy. It's the old Manichean dualism of good and evil in constant struggle over time.

Beyond Evil (2021) Episodes 13 and 14

*Beware of spoilers

Recent episodes of Beyond Evil over the Easter weekend brought ideas that were already gestating to the forefront of my mind. A couple of days ago a non-religious television broadcaster happen to make the point that Easter is the holiest day of the Christian calendar which set a train of thoughts in motion that will make up the bulk of this post. Afterall, Easter could arguably be thought of as Christianity's answer to the intractable problem of evil.  

In our time the word "evil" seems to be reserved for heinous crimes and unthinkable atrocities committed by genocidal figures, serial killers and any kind of psychologically unbalanced individuals. It's not so in Christianity where evil is something far more ubiquitous, less visible and lies within the very heart of every individual and community dysfunction. It is personal, communal, systemic and even spiritual. 

The brilliance of this drama for me is in the way evil is depicted in every strata and strain. It eschews villainous stereotypes and instead explores the complexity of the human soul in profound and also disturbing ways.  The doings of the people of Manyang is a parable of how evil is born and gives birth to tragedy. Before there is a Hitler or Stalin, the conditions have to be right. Human beings are... to use old language... sinners. We are capable of misdeeds, deception and horrific violations. Breaking the law is our default position. The fact that someone wears the uniform and carries the badge does not mean that they are above committing crime. The fact that someone is a police officer does not mean that they are incapable of crossing the line over to the dark side. According to the drama what distinguishes the "good guys" from the "bad guys" is that thing called conscience. The unmistakable inner voice that causes one to feel guilt, shame and regret when laws are broken and moral codes transgressed.

A character like Han Gi-hwan exists in this narrative as the personification of evil in the guise of social and professional respectability. One some level this aspiring Commissioner General of the country's preeminent police force feels familiar -- gradually revealed as the typical corrupt political heavyweight that we've grown accustomed to. He's the played the game to perfection and feels entitled to take the top job now that it's offered to him on a silver platter. For 21 years he's hidden a terrible secret that now threatens to bring down this house of cards he's built ever so meticulously through the years. To ensure that this closeted skeleton remains buried, he has been party to one act of cover-up after another. Of course a man harbouring such high ambitions is clever enough not to get his hands dirty so he has other people clean up after him. People who have as much to lose as he does. He isn't exactly wracked with guilt despite the fact that the unsolved crime has caused so much heartache and tragedy over the years. With no lack of irony, his insatiable greed for the top job has made him unsuitable for it which is to say that he forfeited the right to it long before the drink driving accident. What the accident and its aftermath proved is that he lacked the most important qualification -- character. 

A man who thinks that perfection is all about what you present publicly to the world can't be trusted especially in law enforcement. Getting involved with Lee Chang-jin and Hae Do-won was a terrible idea from the start. But then his own dubious moral compass made him desperate enough to throw his lot in with them.

The fact that the original case with Lee Yu-yeon's disappearance was closed in unseemly haste under his watch, fingered him as a possible suspect. There was something more than arrogance at work. Moreover, his relationship with his co-conspirators always hinted at something sinister and far more explosive. Clearly he didn't care for their company while they assiduously courted his. A part of him believed he was better than they were. Yet, he would eventually succumb to their demands despite the obvious contempt he held for them. An ugly secret had to be holding them together because they were a threesome of strange bedfellows indeed. Greed and distrust unites them in the same way friendship unites others. They are shackled together for better or for worse by shared secrets.

Han Gi-hwan wears his cloak of respectability with finesse as evidenced by the fact that his lifelong goal is now within reach. Lee Chang-jin might have left his gangster days behind him but he hasn't left his thuggish ways. Both will do "whatever it takes" to get what they want even if it means taking lives. In the fourth chapter of the book of James in the New Testament, the author might have been saying this of the two men,

"What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions..."

Although they might be labelled the "axis of evil" here because their deeds all those many years ago had long-term repercussions for the town, they were also aided and abetted by others. It's ironic that Lee Chang-jin and Hae Do-won constantly speak of wanting to develop Munju when in reality all they've done is bring the entire region into disrepute. It's always other people's fault not theirs that the dark cloud of murder hovers over their city. When one considers how much Dong-sik and what's left of his family has suffered as a result of Yu-yeon's disappearance, all of the trio's actions to deflect suspicion off themselves are truly evil. And it's a corrupting evil that carries long-term consequences. It's like a toxic dump site that's leached into the water supply and causing cancer clusters. There are consequences even if the wheels of justice turn over slowly.

It seems to be the season of discovery for Han Ju-won. He came to Manyang riddled with guilt but full of grim confidence that he was on the killer's trail only to find out that things were less simple than he believed. Whatever his motivations were, finding the finger-tip killer was important to him. The longer he remains in Manyang, the more he realises that the problem of evil is much closer to home than he ever thought possible. He is a pitiful creature when the realisation that the man he calls "father" is a major villain in this drama rather than just an obstructionist. It will be the same with Park Jeong-jae when he finds out what his mother's darker secret is. The one most likely involving the deer farm and the bodies of women found there.

The two younger men born to some degree of privilege find out that the privilege they've come to enjoy comes with a high moral price tag. Mum and Dad have devouring ambitions that don't allow for obstacles posed by family and will use their children as stepping stones if needs be to manoeuvre their way out of trouble. Children and their role in this journey are a double-edged sword. A very unpredictable sword that can be wielded in any fashion especially when they have personalities of their own.

Despite all the evil that's about the moral universe underpinning this is fairly sound. Evil can't triumph. Whatever anyone reaps they sow. There's a force at work outside of the natural plain that's bringing about justice. Munju development has never been able to take off as a consequence. The serial killer has finally been caught. The children of the perpetrators are in revolt against the older generation. The brother of the missing girl is on the case. Han Ju-won, the son of Han Gi-hwan despite many mishaps is the catalyst to unlocking the skeletons in that closet. There's a fascinating exchange between Lee Chang-jin and Lee Dong-sik in Episode 14 over the phone. Lee Chang-jin bellows philosophically sounding off like a moral relativist,

"Good purposes, bad purposes... Who decides that? Does the law decide it? The councilwoman's son is a criminal so he doesn't have the right, I guess. Is the councilwoman to judge it? Hey, Lee Dong-sik."

In response, Dong-sik answers, "Oh Ji-wan will judge it." And the siren of Ji-wan's vehicle rings out in the distance. Oh Ji-wan, the ex-wife, the only one that Lee Chang-jin has any regard for.

Afterwards when Lee Chang-jin is taken in for questioning, Dong-sik, Detective Kang and his wife search his car without a warrant. Once again Dong-sik crosses the line and Ju-won makes the observation but in a non-judgmental way. He asks Dong-sik if he regrets tampering with Min-jung's finger-tips. Dong-sik tells Ju-won he is asking the wrong question. This time both men are in earnest. No more cat and mouse game. Dong-sik tells Ju-won that he should be asking him if he could go back in time, would he do what he did with Minjung's fingertips again. Dong-sik replies in the affirmative. She may be the only judge he fears.

Both men acknowledge here that the law that they work to enforce has limitations. Hindsight is a wonderful thing but how things unfold afterwards is not so easy to predict. One can second guess till kingdom come but that's seldom helpful. For better or worse Ju-won learns something from Dong-sik. Staging a piece of theatre no matter how illegal it feels is sometimes the only way to get answers when injustice is the order of the day. 

There's a sense that universal justice exists even when there's plenty of reason to think otherwise when corrupt officials flout the law and cases go unsolved for over 2 decades. But bit by bit inconvenient facts come to light despite attempts by those involved to conceal unsavoury truths. The thing about the truth is as Ju-won is about to find out that it is often worse than one imagines. However that's necessary for the corrupted soil of Manyang to be cleansed.

Sisyphus: The Myth (2021) The end in sight

Somewhere in this hodge podge of romance, action adventure sci-fi and politics is a plot in search of a better script. Judging from all that I've seen in the past 7 episodes the potential for greatness was always there. The drama makes big claims, it wants to be weighty, it has tried to be mysterious keeping us all intrigued with a trail of breadcrumbs but there's little doubt that it is flawed project from the start. The stakes, we are constantly reminded, are high but the show using non-linear storytelling and an overabundance of flashbacks undermines its earth-shattering claims and diminishes any sense of urgency that the audience should be feeling. Instead the pacing is all over the place and the narration is weighed down by familiar tropes that often don't really enhance the way the package is delivered.

I don't think there's really anything that complex about the time travel side of things. From beginning to end it has been consistently about the problems associated with a temporal loop complicated by the possibility of temporal displacement if the past, present or future selves intersect. To my mind the confusion comes primarily because of the heavy-handed use of flashbacks. Flashbacks are used here for all kinds of reasons. Some provide glimpses of the leads' past while others give insight into the wartorn dystopian future. I'm not convinced that we needed that many scenes showing how Seo-hae and dad were living and surviving post-apocalyptic Korea. I don't see the point of us seeing her training regime after all this time. This is the sort of thing that would have been better shown at the start or not at all. But I suppose they needed some way of filling 16 episodes.

Certainly the show has to deal with some element of character. That's to be expected. But for one reason or another it feels clunky and not well integrated into the overall storyline. For me Tae-sul's character arc is better written and there's a sense of journey and growth. It's not that I think Park Shin-hye does badly as Seo-hae but her character isn't as well served here. It almost feels that her entire role in all of this is to be Tae-sul's bodyguard love interest. At least her training regime and skill set points to that. That said, I'm okay with the romance even if the leads don't have sizzling chemistry because it is quite an important feature of Tae-sul's evolution and it feeds his determination to do better than previous failed attempts at thwarting Sigma's foul plans.

Episode 14 offered some hope that Tae-sul is starting to think and act out of the box. It's obvious that some kind of sacrifice is expected especially when the story via Sigma has been sledgehammering us with a zero sum game all throughout. How many times has "is it the girl or the world" been thrown at our faces? Far too many I'd say. However, the question now is whether the show will be true to itself. I fear a cop out resolution. Of course that's just me bracing myself for the worst. Who knows the show might just surprise me a tad with some consistency.

Thoughts about the women who try too hard

The idea for this post came to me while I was ragging on about the secondary romance for You Are My Hero. The second male lead there, Shu Wenbo seemed to be incomprehensibly unwilling to make a move on the woman he likes despite the fact that she has bent over backwards to show her interest in him. It isn't as if he's averse to her either. That's the most frustrating part of the entire scenario. Two people who like each other but one party is holding back. Shu Wenbo though epitomizes a traditional kind of positive masculinity isn't exactly the sharpest tool in the box. But Xiao Xia who has done everything to show that she likes him -- not exactly backwards in coming forwards -- is rebuffed... or as the cool kids today would say "friendzoned". So it does beg the question: what is Mr Macho Man afraid of exactly? In the early episodes I didn't buy into their potential romance as I thought that Xiao Xia was a bit over-the-top with her overtures. "Leave the man alone" is what I was thinking but after the earthquake arc, I was sure he started show genuine liking and interest in her. She's a shrewd sort of girl and picked up on that fast. As soon as they were back in the Big Smoke she restarted their push-pull. For some reason even while it's abundantly clear to the entire planet that he likes her, he persistently keeps his distance.  

In more recent days Xiao Xia has made what I consider the wise decision of moving on, not only because she's done "enough" but because I don't think a woman who is normally shrewd and likeable should humiliate herself in such fashion. No man, however amazing he might be, is not worth demeaning oneself for. Moreover it's seldom a good look... it doesn't take long before persistence and courage start looking like obsession.

There's been a long history in Asian dramas of female characters primarily those designated "second female lead" trying too hard to win men who are seemingly disinterested and/or are in love with another woman. Since I started watching K dramas a decade ago, this kind of tropey female has been a permanent fixture of the landscape. More often than not she turns villainous as a result of not getting her way. Now I don't object to the fact that the unfortunate female falls in love with some guy who is indifferent to her -- that's not always within one's ability to control -- but it's truly mind boggling that she plots and schemes to such an extent that she not only debases herself but denigrates the object of her desire because he becomes something akin to a trophy to be won. She's seldom interested in his opinion about what he wants.The thinking that accompanies that sort of attitude stems from the belief that hard scheming alone can get her the man of her dreams.

In more recent episodes of You Are My Hero, a couple of sisters who are down on their luck have their eye on male lead, SWAT officer extraordinaire Xing Kelei. To their unerring dismay they discover that he is now attached to Mi Ka. Not only is their timing rather bad on that front but their schemes to separate the couple aren't particularly effective. They are also women who are trying too hard because they're looking at the male lead as a figure of financial security. Plus they take full advantage of the fact that he feels obligated to their dad who isn't around to care for them any longer. It feels cheap obviously. The erroneous assumption seems to be that if they succeed in separating the lead pair, he will somehow automatically fall in love with the older sister and voila... become their sugar daddy. It's a form of entitlement at work. The kind that starts with the line -- "But I saw him first" and it's entirely irrelevant what Xing Kelei thinks about all of this.

All of this also reminds me of one of the concubines of the Xu household from The Sword and the Brocade, Qiao Lianfang. She spends the better part of 26 episodes plotting to becoming the lady of the manor doing the most depraved sorts things certainly unbecoming of a female of her stature. Much is made of the fact that she's the daughter of a primary consort. Her entire claim to the Marquis' affection comes from her status and the fact that she's been head over heels for him for over a decade. She takes exception to the fact that the new wife is only a concubine's daughter and is the product of the late wife's machinations. Both might be understandable objections from the point of view of the people in that context but the Marquis aka Xu Lingyi himself was a party to this outcome. 

Frankly speaking I'm not one who is very sympathetic to these sorts of female fictional archetypes. They usually end up being villains of some sort in the storyline for the protagonists to have to contend with. Even in the Ming dynasty with all its polygamy/harem structure there is still some kind of moral code that the inhabitants adhered to. Much of which bears some resemblance to prevailing orthodoxy. It's not hard to distinguish between the good guys and the bad guys. Xu Lingyi doesn't care much for his personal harem. He's no fool about what goes on behind his back with regards to his wives. They are a burden rather than a pleasure. The new wife, sister of his previous consort, with all her baggage piques his interest because she doesn't try too hard except from time to time to keep her head above the water. She's more concerned with finding her mother's killer. Qiao Lianfang entire ambition is to win the heart of the marquis and keeps herself busy hatching plots to displace her biggest rival. 

Well of course not everything in life can be gained by sheer hard work or even ingenuity. Call it providence or chemistry or character, relationships aren't achievements in the normal sense of the word. So the woman who tries too hard "for love" often crosses all kinds of lines -- moral, social and relational. It's a completely self-absorbed endeavour with barely a thought for the beloved. She claims to love the man and yet all her stratagems are abhorrent to him (if he holds to strong ethical values) and causes problems to his loved ones. In the end despite her pleas, he rejects her flatly. Sometimes he might even throw in philosophically as is the case with many C dramas that "love cannot be forced". Or there's something inexplicable about why anyone falls in love.

I don't think falling in love is as inexplicable as the dramas make it out to be. While I'm not a huge fan of biological deterministic arguments, there might be something to them even from my own personal observations. Furthermore after the initial attraction, there has to be something more about the other party that holds the other's interest. I suspect it's far more complex even while possibly being esoteric. In the case of The Sword and the Brocade which is centred around a contract marriage between two people who are initially distrustful of each other, there is a really strong indication that love is much more than attraction. It is absolutely about character too.

You Are My Hero (2021)

This is one of those pleasant C drama surprises that was sprung on me during the past week. (Rainy weather and sick kid did it) It wasn't on my radar and I'm watching far too many K dramas at present but anything with Sandra Ma in it is always worth at least a peek for me. 

Indeed it was worth a look... still is... as it is a currently airing drama that's been very well received locally.  To my mind (and I mean it in the best way possible) it is a miracle that this combination of genres has come together so beautifully. Much credit has to be given to the writer obviously for holding the storytelling together but also to the production team as a whole for putting their best feet forward for this obvious labour of love. 

If you haven't already discovered You Are My Hero or You are My City Barracks (as it titled in Chinese), it's a slice-of-life drama (of sorts) featuring the happenings and romance between a SWAT squad leader and an aspiring neurosurgeon. They first meet in a robbery hostage situation and it's love at first sight apparently. Except that she doesn't know what her rescue looks like below his eyes, only that he suavely rescues her from a grenade. He, on the other hand admires her pluck and never forgets the plucky young intern who though petrified and teary was willing to put her life on the line for another customer.

Two years later they meet again under very different circumstances. Unknown to Dr Mi Ka, the man who saved her life is now her emergency rescue chief instructor. When she identifies herself during a "break out" he remembers her and the thank you gift she sent him. As she goes through rigorous training under his tutelage, she is initially unimpressed by his demanding and stern demeanour but gradually the two began to interact on friendlier terms.

The possibility of this bombing (no pun intended) was high but so far, it hasn't. There are tropes present but handled wonderfully. Overall it's a well-paced story about two highly committed professionals working in two different fields. For me, aside from the romantic leads the other best thing about this is how the show manages to juggle high risk policing with the medical side of things. At times they even manage to mesh well together in realistic ways, giving the leads opportunities of being together in dangerous situations. That this has worked so well has been the biggest surprise and a pleasant one. A major complaint I have with many cop shows coming out of the mainland is that the romance is most often badly integrated with the policing side of things. Not so here. The romances... and there are 3 main ones... are really well written and executed. Although I think one of the secondary male leads could do with a good kick in the rear end from China to Australia. 

The leads are immensely likeable both as individuals and as a couple. On a scale of adorableness, they are in the stratospheric range. Both are good at what they do, Squad Leader Xing Kelei especially but when it comes to romance it is awkwardness galore ie. they are newbies. For them being straightforward and honest is always the best policy in their dating because taking other people's "advice" is seldom helpful.

Sandra Ma has been a known quantity to me for some years now (since Love Me if You Dare). She seems to go for variety and I've enjoyed a number of her projects. She is reliably great here and pulls off the character with so much believability. Bai Jingting, on the other hand, is something of a revelation. At this moment I'm wondering where a fine actor like him has been hiding all this time. Apparently he was in The Rise of the Phoenixes which I did like but he was in a support role so that's my excuse for not remembering him. He is excellent here in portraying all the nuances of Xing Kelei and keeping him sympathetic and likeable all throughout. His chemistry with Sandra Ma is pitch perfect. The two ooze with cuteness whatever they do together. It's a pairing... to use an old adage turned cliche... made in heaven.

At this juncture I'm ready to declare them one of my favourite fictional pairings ever. I'm not someone to throw out hyperboles or plaudits at the drop of a hat but I love these two so much that I'm ready to jump out of my socks. I suppose when two people have been through so many life and death situations together they take opportunities seriously. There is so much credibility in their pairing because these are two people who really like each other. One of my favourite scenes... probably my favourite one so far more than them sharing their first kiss... is when they've both been rescued from a collapsed mine shaft. He hesitantly asks her to be his girlfriend more confident then before that she has feelings for him. The exchange then turns awkwardly transactional before she finally agrees and they shake hands on it. It's all quite adorable. Then he takes it up a notch or two and finally tells her who he is. Xing Kelei, the normally gung-ho and macho cop turns into a bumbling pubescent male when he's around the woman that he likes very very much.

Much of the show charts Mi Ka's journey to becoming a better doctor as she takes up various challenges in Renxin Hospital where she's based. Her gutsy impulses sees her on the field as she deals with all kinds of incidents including the aftermath of an earthquake. With Xing Kelei, he is at the top of his game already and is a proven leader of men. The previews for this week's episodes hints that his journey of growth will take a different route. 

Beyond Evil (2021) Unburying Bodies

This post contains spoilers for Episodes 7 and 8. So read at your own risk.

When Siri first captured our imagination one of the silly things we did for laughs was ask her where the bodies were buried. At that time she efficiently listed  all the nearest cemeteries in our area, taking our request rather literally. 

Perhaps I have a turn for the morbid but cemeteries are fascinating places for me. Not just because they contain outpourings of grief and deep affection for lost ones but they are reminders that none of us exist in a vacuum... that we're all part of something bigger like family or community and history. We all belong somewhere for better or for worse. When someone passes from our midst, sending them off is crucial not just for our mental health but so that we can move on and live the rest of our lives responsibly and without regrets. Although losing a loved one due to illness is not foreign to me, I can't even begin to imagine what it's like for those who are left behind when murder is involved. Moreso when bodies are never found. That missing piece of the puzzle becomes an open wound and the ones carrying them are constantly second guessing themselves wondering evermore if there was something they could have done to prevent it, taking more responsibility for what happened than they logically need to.

Whatever we think of the perpetrator and his motives for disposing of the women in the way that he did, this show refuses to make this about him. Feel free to throw invectives at him although there's a part of me that sees him as a rather tragic figure. He was impotent as far as women were concerned and was despised by even those closest to him. Once he had a taste of killing, it became his default way of lashing out at a world that reminded him of and jeered at his impotence. His impotence was reinforced by the way he buried the bodies and cut off the women's fingers. As long as they remained buried, it would be his game to enjoy in private satisfaction while suspicion was cast on others for the role of murderer. Yes, he was in crude terms, a coward. As long as he revelled in his extracurricular activities his community and his town could never move on, redevelop. His crimes were destined to haunt them, create a fog of suspicion until the bodies were finally found. When a small close knit community is gripped by crime, murder especially something malevolent transpires. It isn't just that a dark cloud hovers over the landscape but all kinds of emotions come to the surface.

Nobody who commits a crime is eager to be caught but when they're not caught, they're more likely to be emboldened. It's often the case but not always. The families of victims, on the other hand, often seem caught in a state of emotional paralysis. Doubt, suspicion and outrage prevail. When justice is not served it destroys lives, relationships and ultimately it has lasting impact on the social fabric. That's what every K crime show is fond of pointing out. And rightly so.

Episode 7 opens with a flashback that sees Dong-sik conversing with his former partner (his burden as he calls him) during his stint as a highly regarded detective at the Regional Investigation Unit. The two men are on a stakeout of a killer that got away. His partner confesses that he has a conflict of interest because one of the victims was a friend and he adamantly refuses to be taken off the case. As the audience anticipates, this scenario can only lead to an unmitigated disaster. And so it does. The younger man claims outrage that a murderer has gone scot free because the evidence isn't strong enough so he will do "whatever it takes" to get the bad guy. So what in the world does "whatever it takes" entail? That's the six million dollar question. Reckless pursuit of a suspect that leads to death and cover-up? Tampering of evidence? A lifelong burden for a competent cop who has a bad case of survivor's guilt? This entire incident begs many questions. Is capturing a perpetrator so important that the safety and integrity of others have to be compromised? What's the line that can't or shouldn't be crossed? On and on it goes. I imagine that's why there are procedures and processes in place because people being what they are, cross the line far too readily. No one is above the law no matter how good the cause happens to be. Zeal, no matter the cause, is no substitute for intelligence.

This was Ju-won's problem initially. He had a "whatever it takes" policy as well that saw him bulldozing into people's lives and situations that he hadn't the faintest clue about and has no interest in probing further. Until it gradually dawns on him that to solve these crimes, he has to do the grunt work of getting to know the people involved. Mixing it with the locals was always a tough ask for the mysophobic cop. Moreover Dong-sik stopped toying with Ju-won the instant he sensed some sincerity in the younger man. When Ju-won dropped his bravado, Dong-sik ended his game. Dong-sik had met a Ju-won before and that didn't end well for anybody concerned. 

Although in recent days Dong-sik has proven that he's not the ruthless serial killer he's been accused of, he is a man of many secrets. He's certainly not above fiddling with evidence or removing case files from the archives or acting on impulse. It's similar to Chief Nam. No one can accuse either of them of being "by-the book". Good or bad, being a cop doesn't necessarily mean that men and women with all their emotions on display act on the basis of regulation or logic. Unfortunately it would seem that some of their more "irrational" actions have stymied the investigation. At least from Ju-won's perspective. Why are these men so deliberately recalcitrant and obstructionist. For example, why didn't Dong-sik confront the perpetrator with the evidence of the finger-tips? Guilt? Friendship? Utter disbelief? Was he hoping that the killer would confess off his own bat? And then there's the issue of where the rest of the body is. No body, no indictment. The show then takes us through Dong-sik's thought process. It's not enough to gain justice for Min-jung. There are all the other women who died in the culprit's hands buried in an unmarked grave somewhere. The realisation hits home that redressing this wrong is a communal issue even though one man committed this heinous crime to individual women. 

Spotlight is cast on Jae-yi who has aged beyond her years living for much of her adult years with the tragedy of not knowing where her mother has gone. Is she alive? Is she dead? Through common circumstance, she can be Dong-sik's soul mate although not in a romantic sense I don't think. She's been sneered at and gossiped about. Blame for Mum's disappearance has been dumped at her doorstep. Salacious rumours related to her mother were rife especially in those early days. She shows up every time a body turns up. She's been on her own ever since. Hence it isn't surprising that she has a clarity about Dong-sik's state of mind that no one else has. In her butcher shop where she's made a living and serve up meat to regular gatherings of cops, she carries bruises from where life has hit her hard. She gets Dong-sik. 

Because of all that, there's something admirable in her recklessness. She's had enough of Dong-sik being the only one carrying the can for the entire village. It's a burden too much for one man to bear. Although why that man chooses to take it all on himself seems incomprehensible to the onlooker. Fortunately for her, Dong-sik catches on to the perpetrator's trick. At the end of Episode 8, there's overwhelming evidence to say that the body buried at the back of her shop, is her missing mother's. The show doesn't tell us how they know but those in the know must surmise that old habits die hard.

There's a strange paradox (if that's the right word for it) in that gesture. On one level it seems perverse -- needlessly torturing a young woman when you know she's been pining over her mother and bearing the brunt of village gossip -- when her mother has been so close the entire time. On the other hand, it feels like a warped sense of appeasement trying make up to someone else for their loss and lacking any kind of courage to go all the way. We aren't given complete insight into the inner workings of the culprit's mind so speculation is all we have at this point. He hid his crime so close to home and even in plain sight (some might say). Is it just cunning or there's something more?

Whatever his intentions, the way in which he concealed two women's bodies seems to be symbolic of an inability to let go that pervades the narrative. In his case, there's no remorse for what he's done but continuing resentment for the victims. He feels entitled despite the betrayal the people around him feel, particularly those who consider him a friend.

Right to the bitter end he vehemently maintains too that he's not responsible for Dong-sik's sister's disappearance. The fact that a body hasn't turned up in the backyard of the Lee family home adds weight to that. I have little doubt that there's another ugly secret that has haunted Manyang that's also in dire need of being exhumed. The odour of death has wafted through the town's air and contaminated drinking water long enough. The missing need to be declared dead. The ones waiting need to move on and live again.

So Manyang is a place where bodies and secrets are buried. The arrival of Han Ju-won heralds the unearthing of them, one by one. Where did it all begin? With whom did it begin? I suspect that the man who buried Min-jung alive is just the tip of the iceberg.

Beyond Evil (2021) and other stories

Of this current crop of crime shows that's on offer this is the one I like the most. It's not that the others are bad (although some stretch the plausibility factor a little more than I'm comfortable with) but this one offers something that I'm not getting from the others. Perhaps I am a little hasty in my judgement of all the rest. Time will tell. Rather than just say that this has character depth (which it does) I'll say that it reminds me of a decent 19th century European novel. Something like The Brothers Karamazov or Crime and Punishment for that matter. 

Beyond Evil or Monster isn't exactly a whodunit in the traditional sense nor is it a police procedural although it has the appearance of both. It is broadly a crime show in that crimes are committed but at the core of this puzzle is not about finding the culprit but for the unreliable outsider trying to come to terms with the dynamics of being a member of a small community. The biggest mystery it seems to me is not who did away with the women. The early reveal indicates that. The most important mystery is what other skeletons are rattling in the cupboards of the Manyang neighbourhood. The men in focus seem to manifest symptoms of mental instability one way or another and for the longest time that seemed indicate that they were prime candidates for Han Joo-won's suspect list. While they are troubled souls, it doesn't necessarily follow that they are murderers.

There's an obsession in more modern crime fiction with psychopaths and serial killers as if to say that people only kill because they're wired differently or unhinged. The ongoing debate of whether murderers are born or made rages on and underpins many a crime show whether Korean or elsewhere. Mouse starts off with an entire discussion about a psychopath gene that can be detected in the womb and so we have a Minority Report situation of preemptively striking before a potential killer can walk among us. But of course, it throws up all kinds of moral and ethical issues as do many of these convenient, quick-fix solutions involving sophisticated scientific processes tend to. (As an aside I'm similarly reminded of the Alzheimer's gene APOE4. Is it really inevitable that someone with that gene will succumb to the condition? It's certainly a risk factor but does it have to be a harbinger of doom if there are ways to mitigate it)

I get the sense that Beyond Evil is swimming in those sorts of waters although it's hard to be certain. There's a home grown psychopath in their midst and Dong-sik seems to have an inkling or two about the culprit. Dong-sik's dilemma is a fascinating one because he has created a persona for public consumption that sees him as prime suspect for the 20-year-old case and he does little to disabuse others of that fact. Instead he plays a cat and mouse game with the veritable outsider, Han Ju-won who saunters into town thinking that it's just a straightforward serial killing case. There's enough of a carrot for Ju-won to stick around, poke, prod and be enough of a nuisance to stir up the hornet's nest. It may be that he is a necessary catalyst for the truth to come to light but the lad won't have an easy time of it.

There's a strain of Educating Jun-won in all of this. Even while he's a hotshot detective from the Big Smoke, there's much he needs to learn about the people of Manyang and people in general. To his credit he seems to be capable of learning from his mistakes. I suppose he thought the clues pointed in one direction and all he had to do was follow them but as he realises clues can be interpreted in different ways.

So why does Dong-sik allow himself to be the town folk's punching bag? To be the figure of suspicion? To me this is the question that needs answering. I imagine guilt factors into his saviour complex. I can't imagine that he is just protecting the perpetrator due to a ridiculous sense of obligation. There has to be something else driving this. Perhaps it is the community as a whole that needs a defender. 

I suppose it is easy to think of crimes as mysteries to be solved and forget that there are people behind them. In order to understand why any crime occurs, one needs to get inside the minds and hearts of the people in a case. Red-herrings abound. Lying for whatever reasons is an inevitable complication. What captivates me about this story is that crime is as much a study about communities/group affiliations as it is about individuals. The small town backdrop with its dysfunctional dynamic is an ideal setting for this kind of in-depth examination. There's a festering evil at play and it isn't just the case of the missing women. I would venture also to say that the small town is symbolic of (or microcosm) of society as a spawning ground for criminality for a myriad of reasons. Poverty might be one. Covering up for dysfunctionality might be another.

In a place where you think everybody knows everybody, it's still possible to keep secrets. Moreover, it's becoming obvious that nobody knows everybody as well as they think.

Vincenzo (2021) Early Impressions

This is one of those shows (for me at least) that walks a very fine line with the humour. The pendulum swings from being bleakly humourous to outrageously comical. The bleak part I don't mind but the outrageous part is what sees me cringing inwardly now and again and rolling my eyes. To me much of the slapstick and exaggerated expressions/gestures don't add much to the storytelling although some might appreciate the comic relief. For others on the other hand, it might be off-putting.  It could be acquired taste but then I'm not sure if it's worth the time or the effort... rather like the offerings from the faux Italian restaurant (Areuno) run by wannabe chef Toto.

The drama of course has one key ingredient which makes almost everything palatable and that is Song Joong-ki. He oozes with charm and cool in the titular role as a Korean-born consigliere. Our introduction to him as he rubs shoulders with mafia opponents gives him his comparable John Wick moment. In a payback move (orders from his late mentor) he sets fire to a vineyard doused with combustible liquid. His choice of weapon is a Zippo lighter which he plays with symbolizing the fact that there's a dangerous man lurking beneath the well-groomed nicely suited facade. Even while he seems attractive and mild-mannered, he is not someone that should be crossed. Song Joong-ki is terrific in the role playing the straight guy to a host of escapees from a psychiatric facility cast of colourful and emotionally off-kilter characters. Generally the inscrutable Vincenzo keeps his cool while everyone else hits the panic button in ways that can be considered farcical. The occupants of Geumgang Plaza are a jarring and raucous reminder that the drama should be viewed entirely as a farce.

Unfortunately for him, Vincenzo is a creature belonging neither in Italy nor his birthplace, South Korea. The show hammers home the counter-culture shock when he is robbed on the way to meeting his collaborator and is the butt of some insinuations of his outsider status. He is a fish out of water especially when he has no family to anchor himself to in either contexts. Certainly introducing himself as Vincenzo Cassano in Seoul sees him looked upon (at least initially) as a suspicious sojourner. However, there are advantages to being an outsider as we gradually come to see. It gives one a different perspective and clarity of mind what's really going on. The veneer of respectability conceals a kind of accepted barbarism. 

Vincenzo's evolving relationship with Yoo Jae-myung's crusading lawyer, Hong Yoo-chan, is probably one of the show's highlights for me. The two have a connection in Vincenzo's mother who is serving time in prison for a murder that she took the rap for. More than that there's a lovely role reversal between them. Here the older man is the idealist and the people's champion while the younger one is a cynical, world-wise operator. Given his background, it doesn't take Vincenzo too long to work out what the Enemy is because he's been around them most of his life. He is the sort of fix-it guy Yoo-chan desperately needs as he's up against adversaries who are unconscionable about using violence and threats.

There are hints of a possible romance between Vincenzo and Yoo-chan's ambitious daughter, Hong Cha-young. The set-up has her and Yoo-chan are on opposite sides in the fray with Babel Inc. To her mind it's just easier to fall in line with the status quo while her father's persistence in going up against Big Pharma is an exercise in kicking the goads. As far as she's concerned, there's no need to go too far... whatever that means. But in this world run by thugs and gangsters, justice is a word that has no place in it.

I'm not so sure about Cha-young to be honest. I don't know if it's Jeon Yeo-bin or how she's being directed and/or how she's written. According to Asiawiki she was in Live but I'm struggling to remember her character there. My feeling is that she's a competent enough performer from how she delivers important emotional beats but all the nutty stuff the show has her doing diminishes the character's street creds as a professional woman. It's a hard sell considering what's at stake. However, it is a 20 episode drama... I have mixed feelings about that... so there's certainly ample time for her character to be developed.

For those of us in the know, Babel is something of a running gag in this show. I was chuckling when the company was first introduced as such. It's a reference to Genesis 10 in the Bible where the human decides to build a monument ie. tower that "reaches the heavens". There's been some debate over what that means but the general agreement is that it's a consolidation of power in defiance of the edict of the Creator to "be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth". The Tower of Babel was never completed because communication lines were disrupted among the builders. All building came to a screeching halt when the workers started speaking different languages and were forced by circumstances to migrate elsewhere.

The way I see it, Vincenzo, whether he knows it or not, is that heaven-sent disruption against the mighty Babel. What he wants is the gold buried at the bottom of the building and he's not going to give in that easily. But if there's one thing that one notes quickly about the Old Testament is that God uses all kinds of unexpected people to do his work -- many who are deeply flawed and often not-very-virtuous types. This is not to say He condones their activities but they become inadvertent instruments to achieve other ends.

In all likelihood the gold's gone. That's a theory I have. Or there's something fishy about the senior monk who seems to know where to position himself. Who happens to fidget at the right moment as if he is a sentinel keeping watch. I'm happy to keep on speculating. All that to say that the heist element does show promise if only we can be sure that the pacing doesn't go wobbly somewhere in the middle.

Beyond Evil (2021) First Impressions

Last year JTBC gave us The Good Detective which I had a lot to say about and it put a different spin on the ever reliable police procedural. I bring this up because there are things about this new production from the broadcaster that reminds me of its predecessor. Beyond Evil which stars the always reliable Shin Ha-kyun is less of a cop show than it is a show about cops. Not trying to split hairs here. Honest to goodness I'm not. The difference in emphasis is a point of differentiation which takes the show in a different direction. (I wasn't trying to play a game of morphology with "different". Really.) Even though murders have been committed (although there are no bodies that can confirm that) and the boys in blue make reference to these grizzly finger mutilations as their mission, that's largely window dressing. In fact at the heart of this is a fascinating (so far) study of guilt and suspicion as it touches a smallish, everybody-knows-everybody regional community.  

The set-up sees the protagonist, a veteran cop of considerable experience, being at the centre of the whodunit of deaths/disappearances 20 years earlier. He's never been able to shake the tag of No. 1 suspect. Making matters worse for himself Lee Dong-shik does little to dispel the pervasive suspicion directed towards him and he drags a ton of baggage around including guilt for the tragedy that befalls his entire family as a result. As soon as news of his sister's disappearance breaks, he's fingered as the prime suspect. On top of that his father freezes to death along a railway track waiting for said sister to return. Mother unable to take one blow after another loses it completely. What's surprising and despite the tragic pile on is Dong-shik's enlistment as a police officer, a career spanning all of his adult life. He has a reputation for being a "psycho" developed from being something of a maverick in the force. His current supervisor, Chief Nam, is backhandedly sympathetic but outwardly frustrated. To him, Lee Dong-shik is an exhausting creature who carries the weight of the world on his shoulders. His guilt over the deaths/disappearance is palpable but never definitively determined. Even Dong-shik himself has doubts about his innocence.

Shin Ha-kyun is an actor who brings his A game to the party. He is particularly known (from what I've seen) for playing idiosyncratic, troubled, brooding characters. And why not? He is rather good at it. It is a credit to an actor of his chops that he's able to flesh out all the aspects to Dong-shik. Through his performance we are quickly acquainted with the many and even contradictory aspects to the character's personality. Despite being a figure of suspicion, there is something immensely likeable about this tortured soul. While he's instinctively intelligent, he can't be sure about anything about his hometown, his friends and himself. He does his balancing act while playing cat and mouse with the newcomer to town, Han Ju-won a former Foreign Affairs bureau investigator who was working on illegal immigrant homicides. Frankly Shin Ha-kyun's performance is so good that I wouldn't mind it if he was the culprit although there's always a part of me that prefer if he is largely misunderstood.

Yeo Jin-goo's character, on the other hand, I find less likeable. Not because he's a somewhat arrogant humourless mysophobic cop from the Big Smoke but because he thinks the solution to the problem that's haunting him is a lot simpler than it probably is. The certainty and aloofness in which he enters this unfamiliar world arouses suspicion very quickly. It doesn't help that he's a fish out of water. He's not fooling anyone but he's keeping to his cover story for now because as his ambitious father keeps reminding him, there are political ramifications for poking around hornet's nests. But Ju-won is a zealot and he's certain he's got his man except "his man" seems to be a walking talking contradiction that leaves him scratching his head. It's clear too that his personal agenda and him being a man with a mission clouds the issues surrounding these crimes. One gets the feeling that he's in it because of guilt too. A woman in all likelihood died because of him. Or at least he thinks she did. So it wouldn't surprise me if he's trying assuage some personal guilt and atone for his sins.

There are people in the neighbourhood who are obviously hiding secrets and/or have agendas of their own. Everyone feels like they're perpetually living on edge. They are less concerned about the truth behind the mysteries and more about the fallout. This is also a story about community and what keeps people together. Often it is about friendship and common values but at other times, it is about tragedy and secrets forcing people together in negative, dysfunctional ways. Even in these early days, one already has an inkling that something is rotten in Denmark... or Munju as is the case here. For instance Dong-shik's longtime friend Jeong-jae, also a cop and son of a city official piques my suspicion radar from his odd antics and cryptic talk. He also knows enough about the law from his capacity as archives manager to get away ... quite literally... with murder.

After 2 episodes I sense that this is something I could end up liking a lot depending on where the writing takes it. As well as being laser-like in its focus, there's scope for more character development. It's not a straight up police procedural but the mysteries are sufficiently well presented to keep the audience guessing about what happened and what's happening. The show isn't necessarily about chasing up clues or interrogating suspects but about getting inside the headspaces of each person who could have a reason for doing away with the women in question.

The psychological impact of crime on a group  of people is an interesting subject to be sure. It can be potentially divisive as it has been well-documented but it could also be a cause to unite them especially when a variety of self-interests intersect. Evil takes different forms in all their subtleties. It isn't just about egregious murder and mayhem but it begins from a much deeper quieter place and without the usual external restraints, it can go in any direction.