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.