Reunion: Sound of Providence (2020) Final Remarks *Spoilers*

The drama's done and for the most part, it was entertaining. The ending wasn't too bad for a C drama and they left some room for another iteration if they can scratch around for the cash I expect. To be honest, I went into it not expecting a lot but found the big story surprisingly involving -- the mystery of the King of the South Sea and Thunder City. As I've said previously, I started this for Zhu Yilong, who can be relied upon to give a nuanced performance and he certainly delivered in spades. But the actual mix of sci-fi and mythology after the template of Stargate was what held my interest from start to finish. Sure some of the gobbledegook went over my head but I was able to make peace with that as the show progressed bit by bit, and the layers to this gigantic onion were peeled back. Jargon that had any long-term importance tended to be repeated so that even an ageing ahjumma like myself could take all the disparate pieces of the puzzle and make some sense of it.

Despite all the issues I may have had with the first season, part 2 was probably streets ahead in terms of pacing. Undoubtedly having to trim the show down to a smaller number of episodes helped plenty.  I'm not a fan of long dramas because 95% of the time, the length's not warranted. I don't care how much eye candy there is or if they dexterously pull out all the stops on the romance department, because once there is no reason for a story to continue, it shouldn't. As a principle I take a hard line on this. A good storyteller should always know when to bring things to a close. Besides, there's no reason why viewers can't go back and rewatch all their favourite scenes with all the technological advances available to us.

The set-up of the drama does resemble an RPG particularly in matters related to the mysterious Warehouse 11, navigating through increasing levels of difficulties and overcoming different tiers of villainy. The show isn't particularly innovative in that regard. But what it does do well is incorporate a sense of foreboding with world building and the mythology driving it. This is achieved through the inclusion of long stretches of dark corridors/tunnels, creepy crawlies leaping from nowhere, fog-like smokey interiors, dark dusty set pieces and sudden attacks from unknown assailants (a well-used but effective horror technique). 

The women in the show were a mixed bag in part one. Yeah I've ranted about that in another post and there's no need to rehash all that. In Part 2 it's fortunately just Bai Haotian (Rachel Mao) aka Xiao Bai who was always much better written considering her position in that world. It's not a big secret that I was rooting for her and Wu Xie but it was never a deal breaker if nothing resulted on that front. Romance while it has its place even in something like this, was never the show's great strength especially with how the more significant women were written. They seemed more to be encumbrances or potential dangers for men who made their bread and butter living on the edge. In this context there's no room for the risk averse or a lack of teamwork. Xiao Bai, despite the age gap was developed more in line with Wu Xie's talents and personality. The UST was always there even if he tried to maintain some distance because his own future was uncertain. But much more importantly Xiao Bai was a good fit with the Iron Triangle and Co. and as the show progressed, she became part of the team and pulled her own weight where she could. She wasn't a damsel in distress. She wasn't a possible love interest. Her skill set and her maturity made her an integral part of the team winning even the respect of the cynical Pangzi/Fatty. She became one of the boys as we see at the drinking bash at the end, never getting in the way of Wu Xie's relationship with his accumulated company of adventurers.

The show is really a delightful old-fashioned treasure hunt romp that unabashedly celebrates male camaraderie. I don't know if a show like this could be made in the English speaking world in this day and age under the current political climate. Wu Xie was someone who commanded loyalty because he modelled it. The show practically sledgehammers home the point. His intelligence ensured that they could get out of scrapes when they had their backs up against the wall but his righteous ardour and "leave no one behind" ethos is why they kept going back to him like moths to a flame... like gluttons for punishment.

In concert with everything else that goes on in the big storyline, this show is a parable about obsession or being narrowly focused on one thing to the rejection or neglect of all else. Third uncle who wasn't interested in wealth especially sought to know the mystery of Thunder City but when he got there, he experienced nothing but disillusionment. He had failed to see what he had and lost far more to attain the knowledge that he sought. Treasure hunters of all description seek treasure at the risk of their own lives but they miss the big lessons or great gifts they find along the way: friendship, loyalty, teamwork, love, trust... the kind of things that all the material wealth in the world can't buy. 

It's an old old story told afresh. Perhaps it can never be an old story because greed is never old. The timeless biblical adage that the love of money is the root of all evil is writ large here. Many will no doubt nod sagely in agreement as history is littered with such tales. But the single-minded pursuit of wealth is merely the most conspicuous manifestation of greed which finds its expression in far more subtle ways than is often realised.

Stranger Season 2 (2020) Episodes 13 and 14 "Politics as Usual"

Seo Dong-jae, I think, should thank God every day for the rest of his life that it was Si-mok and Yeo-jin that was on his case... with machine-like doggedness (I might add) despite every attempt to hinder the resolution of his kidnapping on several fronts. I eagerly await the look on his face when he realises who was instrumental in getting him out of the bushland area. It's true that some of the obstacles sent them on several wild geese hunts in that regard but the pursuit of those lines of inquiry eg. Segok station suicide did yield other pertinent facts highlighting why the law and order system is in dire need of reform.

Politics undoubtedly created many of the obstacles for the protagonists but it was political wrangling that helped clear the way for the Dong-jae kidnapping to attain its final result. That was particularly exemplified in the incident of pulling rank and seniority. So it seems that justice... as has been harped on all throughout the show...  has been relegated to side-taking. On some level no one seemed to care about the rights of the individual who was abducted except that if the incident could potentially open up the proverbial can of worms. Seo Dong-jae, the man, the father, the husband and even the prosecutor did not have value beyond his role in the politicking on both sides. Dong-jae wasn't well-liked to put it mildly beyond any kind of political mileage. The desultory chatter of the cops regarding his disappearance highlighted that clearly enough.  In blunt English, he was a nuisance. His reputation of being something of a weasel, brown-noser and political animal preceded him But I'm sure it's no accident that the show chose him as the victim here. Despite all that he is and what he represents, he is still a human being whose life has value, if for no one else but for his family. Perhaps we are meant to be stunned or at the very least struck by the cynicism that his kidnapping has brought out of the woodwork. The writer has successfully tied that to the prosecutor-police reformation council in the opportunistic strategies that are deployed here. It's not quantum physics, but it clearly suited one side (the prosecution) to fake evidence to finger a cop for Dong-jae's disappearance. The logic is to undermine their integrity and the currency of their claims. If that was all it was, perhaps no one would mind so much but the wasted resources spent to chase up that rabbit trail could have been the difference between life and death. 

There are grave moral implications to playing politics. I don't think that's news to most. But when one is fixated on a particular agenda, one misses crucial details despite the fact that they're staring one in the face. For instance the show highlights that both Choi Bit and Yeo-jin were told by the father of one of the boys who drowned about the new hugely expensive pair of trainers. That boy could never have afforded them. However, he assured his father that he would have to find a part-time job to pay for it. The implications of that was lost on both even as they heard those words fall out of the man's lips. For me that incident showed that the evidence was there to invite suspicion early on but what the two of them were interested in at the time was how they could use any information during the interviews for political purposes. This shows that biases can cloud the way key information can be viewed. An experienced police officer like Choi Bit missed it because she was listening for something she could use against the prosecutors.  She wasn't interested in the case for the dead boys although ironically if she had put her focus on that, she would have found the the ammunition she needed against the prosecutors for being shoddy investigators. On top of that she and Woo Tae-ha wouldn't have had to manoeuvre madly regarding the mysterious death of Park Gwang-su. But there's no doubt that that particular closet and all its skeletons are long overdue for an airing.

Bullying seems to be a common thread in the Segok and Tongyeong cases as well as the case that Dong-jae was involved in before he went MIA. I posed the question why Kim Hu-jeong involved in the Tongyeong drownings allowed himself to be bullied to breaking point but when I saw his interactions with his father, the light bulb came on. His father seemed to be a hard task master, a domineering figure and despite having been schooled in legal matters his entire adult life, he is just as happy as anyone else to circumvent the law when it suited him. In other words... he comes across as a bully too. The consequences of bullying in both cases is simply that lives are destroyed. Not just the victims' lives but the bullies also. And it's true and I've done the research, that as a whole kids don't tell the adults in their lives when they're being bullied.

It should also be said that bullying as a broader idea is about "might is right" and that is applicable right across society not just schools. I note too that Dad circumvented due process by calling on his judge friend (an authority figure) to complain about Si-mok. In order to counter that offensive, Tae-ha gets Sa-hyun to call a more senior judge he knows to throw his weight around. It begs the question of having processes in place if individuals end up gaming the system.

The writer is rather good on the moral universe in which all of this takes place and she's very thoughtful about the long-term social ramifications of this behind-the-scenes politicking as she was in the first season. In a real enough way, I'm of the opinion that the thinking behind this season's storyline is far more sophisticated than the previous. She certainly spends more time extrapolating the internal corruption without recourse to external forces. The Hanjos and the Park Moo-jungs of this world aren't the biggest problem. The biggest problem here is the lack of virtue demonstrated by individuals which use the system for personal gain. Justice is about the pursuit of facts and the truth to ensure individual rights but politics sees competing agendas taking sides while twisting the facts to suit the side's interests. It might be a bit old-fashioned to talk about virtue but as is seen here, it's a conversation that is desperately needed. 

On hindsight I think the show was doing something quite novel in terms of revisiting the 3 original but disparate cases as they relate to retracing Dong-jae's steps and for the investigators to see which one has any bearing to his abduction. He's the catalyst like the White Rabbit in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Our leads while fending off all kinds of obstacles and inexplicable red-herrings inadvertently reveal deep systemic corruption that plagues the criminal justice system. Both sides of this criminal justice fence, equally culpable, are busy trying to deal with perceived external threats to the detriment of what's going on within its jurisdiction. 

Alice (2020) Episodes 9 and 10: Families are Hard

At the risk of sounding reductionist, (and with some benefit of hindsight) it feels like every single K drama that I've watched this year is fundamentally about family even if it comes under the guise of time travel or crime or psychothriller. This one is no different. While I wouldn't be recommending my favourites this year under the "family" tag necessarily, the exploration of family and what that looks like seems to be a strong common denominator in all of them including, I would contend, the likes of 365: Repeat the Year. It makes sense on so many levels to insert that kind of emphasis as it is a universal phenomenon that resonates with people everywhere. Whether your birth or adoptive families are roaring successes on one side of the spectrum or whether they're abject failures on the other end, it's a key part of the human condition. Needless to say, there are a wide array of experiences one way or another, with nuances in between. My youngest was rewatching Avengers: Infinity War just the other day and I happened to listen in during the scene in which Thor unexpectedly consoles Gamora about the dysfunctionality of their respective families and then Peter Quill interjects and rants about his father.

On watching the last couple of episodes, I am struck again by how much Alice is fundamentally about family -- the institution as well as the people who form these units. Strip away the time travel mumbo jumbo, the body pile-up and the perpetrator hunt, this show explores family in all its glory and messiness. Space and time be damned... nothing can diminish the pull of family ties. Eventually those who need to find each other... will do so at the right time.

Because of the tyranny of the urgent present, it's easy to forget that Jin-gyeom is a man out of time. His alexithymia should remind us that he is someone that doesn't really belong in our present. It might be true that he's not a man of the future either. Perhaps that's why he's The Chosen One to close the door on time. Not unlike Neo from The Matrix. Born to a single mother who was time hopping, he personifies the cosmic anomaly that is destined to disrupt. While he might not be the second coming Jesus Christ, he might be a saviour of sorts. This would certainly explain why Mother Tae-yi wanted him to live, no matter the cost to her. It could be as she claimed that her maternal instincts kicked into gear. Before that day would come, however, he would be a special needs child that she struggled to raise until the day she died. When she was gone from his lonely existence, it gradually dawned on him what he had lost forever: Family. But it also fuelled an obsession to put the cuffs on her killer. After being adopted by Go Hyeon-seok, a father-figure for a decade of his life, Jin-gyeom begins to see how the "family thing" works. Everyone emphasizes this fact almost to ad nauseum. Jin-gyeom has been noticeably changing. He isn't what he was 10 years ago. During that time they have developed something akin to a father-son relationship which is why he can't bring himself to confront Go Hyeon-seok about what he may or may not have done (despite his stated resolve) or even point the finger at him. Ironically, the changes in Jin-gyeom in his journey to becoming "more human" creates a dilemma he might otherwise not have. Developing familial affection is now a stumbling block to Jin-gyeom's most cherished goal of finding Mum's killer.

The timely intervention of Min-hyuk into this morass of familial confusion is one that I welcome with open arms. Of course it doesn't hurt that he's easy on the eyes and has a voice that's music to the ears. ;) But watching him play out his introspections of late, my heart went out to him. He has all the qualities of the classic tsundere male lead. Far from being the aloof creature people assumed he was, he cares a lot and probably more than a man in his position should. Now that he knows the truth of what happened to his Tae-yi, the woman he loved, the mother of a son he never knew existed, he has much to regret. I appreciated his honesty. He can't even bring himself to blame his colleague, O Si-young, to any great extent because he can see that he was part of the problem. He was angry to the point of resentment and bitterness. At the time he thought only about himself and didn't consider the ramifications for Tae-yi and the child she was carrying. Having now been given the bigger picture, he not only accepts blame but it's finally sunk in what he's lost: Family. He is well aware that he can't just rock up to Jin-gyeom and announce their relationship to him because he had in some fashion lost all rights to him when he abandoned Tae-yi to her own devices. He had lived as if it didn't matter but the truth was... it did. It cut deeply. In bitterness he chose to stay away. When we get down to the brass tacks... he was an absent father. 

Herein lies the crux of the issue. Family is so vital that people are willing to live, die and even kill for family. It's much easier realise all of that when we lose someone we love. Time is really not on our side in that regard. Holding on to grudges means that we lose opportunities that we regret later.

It's difficult to muster any sympathy for O Si-young. Her infatuation for Min-hyuk while understandable doesn't give her the right to withhold crucial information about Jin-gyeom. There was a boy who lost his mother who needed his father. Even if her falsehoods were motivated by jealousy and selfishness, she's still not entirely in the clear with regards to Future Tae-yi's murder in 2010. She mightn't have fired the shot but it doesn't necessarily preclude her from being part of a conspiracy led by the Teacher. How much can we trust her? A drone was present at the night of the murder. Does that denote her presence? What about her cryptic comments to Jin-gyeom about everything being Tae-yi's fault. Did she watch it happen and did nothing? There's a streak of callousness intermingled with resentment accompanying her words. In her eyes, Tae-yi was a nuisance then and continues to be a nuisance now long after her departure.

I maintain (and this last episode really bore that out in clear terms) that Jin-gyeom's relationship with Prof. Tae-yi is familial rather than romantic. I found Do-yeon's conversation with Tae-yi helpful in that regard. Through her the show was articulating in very clear terms that Jin-gyeom's fixation with the good professor was due to her striking resemblance to his mother. She also correctly pointed out (as someone who understands him better than most people give her credit for) that Jin-gyeom has finally had his emotional growth spurt and is now trying to make up for lost time. Do-yeon basically stated everything I have said here and elsewhere about Jin-gyeom's attitude to Professor Tae-yi. Now that Jin-gyeom understands the value of family, warts and and all he is clinging on to what he does have, lest his loses it all again. 

Tae-yi's response to Do-yeon also strongly indicates that her concern for Jin-gyeom is not about romance. I can't imagine that the vast majority of women would be flattered by a man's attention because she was a dead ringer for his mother. It's not exactly Effective Pick-up Strategies 101. On top of that, Tae-yi seems to have matured overnight returning to 2020 much more appreciative of family and what she has.

Part of the problem of why we're having issues with the leads' dynamic has in part to do with the way we watch K dramas. Or have been brainwashed to make sense of the details. There may be an assumption that just because a male and a female are the leads, they automatically have to be in some kind of romantic pairing. I'd like to believe it's not the case here. And it's not the first K drama that doesn't follow the traditional kdrama stereotypes of what constitutes a male or female lead. In all honesty, whether deliberate or unconsciously, the show seems to have opened itself to that kind of interpretation too with its hamfisted and ambiguous use of common rom com cliches. Bad first impressions. Misunderstandings. Cohabitation. Whenever the leads embrace, cue: the emotional ballads. 

The contrast in Jin-gyeom's attitude towards his birth father and his adoptive one was stark. Seeing Min-hyuk next to the body of Lee Se-hoon, he accuses him immediately, strikes quickly and hard. His birth father is a suspicious stranger whose motives can't be trusted. With Go Hyeon-seok, he hesitates and holds back even when he knows the truth of what he's done because of their long-standing relationship. Was all the goodwill on Hyeon-seok's side a lie? I don't think so. The flashback from 2014 is proof of something. Whatever ulterior motives he might have had, Go Hyeon-seok cared for the orphaned Jin-gyeom beyond whatever guilt he might have felt. However, as he himself acknowledges later, when the crunch comes, it seems that Hyeon-seok has other priorities and Jin-gyeom is relegated to the back seat.

I very much doubt that doppelgangers are at play here either. All this rigmarole about all the Tae-yi manifestations being different persons... sounds dubious. If this show is about parallel universes I'll eat my hat. All I'm seeing appear to be causal loops thus far. I know that the characters keep throwing the multiverse concept around but I'm not buying it.  Unless it's a case of...

Plus, without trying to sound self-aggrandizing here, if this is really about parallel universes, the show is doing a ridiculously bad job of it.

Stranger Season 2 (2020) The Insider as Outsider

A question emerges as the story progresses in these recent days. Why is Seo Dong-jae still alive? Why does his abductor go to all the trouble of keeping him alive after all this time? Wouldn't it be easier to finish him off entirely and dump his body somewhere to be found? The effect would, to my mind be the same but without the inconvenience of having to feed the hostage. 

I pose the question not because I don't value Dong-jae's life or his role in this franchise but out of a curiosity regarding the kidnapper's motives for obviously wanting to create a stir and have the law enforcement agencies scramble around like headless hens in search of answers. What does he/she gain by keeping Dong-jae alive? Is the ruffling of sensitive feathers really all that the perpetrator has in mind? The answer to that question is perhaps the key to everything including the impetus behind the second season.

Imagine working for an organisation that you have devoted your entire professional life too. You're onboard with all their stated objectives. So much so that you consistently give it your all because of the belief that it is a cause worth fighting for. And what's more, you're good at what you do and catch the eye of very important people who can... you hope... move mountains.

However, as time goes by you realise, while rising through the ranks, that there are unstated objectives amongst the organization's hierarchy that clash with your cherished principles. Gradually you find yourself wrestling with your own conscience questioning your part in the organisation's agenda/mission -- You start to ask yourself if this is what you signed up for. The job that you love is gradually becoming more onerous with each meeting, with each new order delegated to you.

You're intelligent and competent enough to conclude after a while that you're perhaps little more than a puppet, strung along and dancing to the tune of your superiors. You're given a song sheet with the lyrics and the music but it's so out of tune that only someone who is tone deaf can carry on without too many qualms.

Moreover, you've always believed yourself to be a truth-seeker and now you're being hamstrung by your superiors from digging too deep and worse still you're forced to take sides while putting any kind of objectivity to bed. You're learning to play politics with the best of them.

It was always the case that the police-prosecutors council was a circus performance for media and public consumption. Both sides grudgingly went through the motions as they were obliged to. But the dial of cynicism was turned up a notch or two when Choi Bit and Woo Tae-ha deployed it as a distraction to prevent their underlings from probing further into the Park Gwang-su case. It's not entirely clear if the deceased was just someone who was corrupt during his prosecutor days and his mates in the office covered up for him or if he sank down further into the rabbit hole that he had dug for himself before his untimely death. From Woo Tae-ha's over-the-top reaction it does feel that there's something else going on. Whether DJ's kidnapping has any bearing on this, is still up for grabs. 

For me the most compelling part of this season is the way Yeo-jin and Si-mok grapple with being part of a "side". I've heard it said that politics is the art of compromise and yet it is clear that the political-prosecutor feud is far from being engaged in any kind of compromise. It started off with plenty of posturing and now it's an instrument of what can be rightly called... a cover-up. The potential for the slippery slope was there from the start.

Sergeant Baek Jung-gi who was of the Segok station bribery-suicide fiasco had a telling response when he was cleared from the kidnapping accusation. Surprisingly he showed no anger as one might have expected despite the fact that no formal apologies were offered to him. And yet the interesting part is that his mind flew to that pivotal moment with his team when he should have put a kibosh on the notion of taking bribes. Everything else that followed began from that decision. He acknowledged that. If he could turn back the clock, that would be the moment that he would change to prevent the domino effect which followed. That was a road paved with good intentions that led to hell for all its players. Even when he walked away when he said he would, the others persisted in the bribery as he looked the other way. In hindsight it is a microcosm of what is occurring at the other end of the organization.

The reality is that corruption isn't the work of a single day... just as Rome wasn't. Our institutions aren't necessarily the problem because we do need them. The problem lies, as Solzhenitsyn poignantly reminds us, somewhere in the human heart. The issues arise when men and women in key positions make crucial decisions that trigger a chain of events that undermine not only the integrity of the people involved but the organization they represent. Once trust is lost, it is difficult to regain. While no one committed murder in the Segok incident, serious damage was done on multiple levels. Sgt Baek's realisation is part of the morality tale unfolding. Even though he was innocent of the abduction charge, he was not innocent because it was that fateful decision which eventually led to the false charge. As a cop himself, he understood that his culpability was not so easily erased because he did lead his men astray which inadvertently caused Sgt Song Gi-hyeon's suicide which in turn saw the prosecutors exploit the event for political expediency. There was smoke even if the fire was a small one. It is something Baek Jung-gi will have to live with for the rest of his life. 

Because corruption has a way of mushrooming beyond the original offence, it has a way of coming back to bite the conspirators/participants. Some would call it karma. For me I prefer the biblical expression of "sowing and reaping". It's not even about being caught necessarily. It's about what corruption does to individuals... their conscience, their soul and their relationships with the people around them. I bring up Crime and Punishment as a wonderful study of this. It's no accident that the drama does this too. Dostoevsky did a brilliant job of plumbing a guilty person's headspace and the behaviour that follows. People who carry guilty secrets act in very specific ways and they respond to even the most innocent passing remarks accordingly. Take the jumpy Woo Tae-ha as an example.

Clearly this theme is most strongly played out in Yeo-jin's arc. She feels it most acutely because she was seconded from being a field officer to the reformation unit. It was never about politics for her. As Si-mok points out she was never one to be backwards in coming forward about her real opinions. It's not that I believe she will succumb but her situation illustrates how easy it is for the rot to creep in. It's so insidious because it's the subtle, little things that sees even the most well-intentioned person embarking on that trajectory. First you hold back from pushing back. Then you look the other way. Before you know it, you become complicit in something questionable. Something you never ever thought you would be a party to.

In her case, the egregious tribalism that she's been pushed into compounds the dilemma. Even Jang Geon was stunned by the repetitive back and forth at the council ding dong that he was compelled to comment. There's no incentive for her to be honest, to speak up because she would be perceived as a traitor to the cause just as Si-mok is accused of being so by his superiors. The police as an organization is obviously in need of reformation but the current fixation seems to be narrowly focused on getting investigative rights from the prosecutor's office. There's some serious need to put that house in order first. 

Of course the prosecutor's office haven't got clean hands either. It's a broad church with numerous moving parts or different agendas. But when push comes to shove, they like the house the way it is despite the leaky roof and the rotting floorboards. They too have conveniently forgotten that they are public servants. Their first call isn't to close ranks but to act in public good. They've become so bureaucratized that survival has become the default setting. I almost sound like an idealist when I say this but actually I'm not. I'm a realist. To me all these political games lead to little good in the long run. It sets precedence. It makes things hard for the rank and file to do their job well. It hurts good people. It hurts the organization in the long run because it doesn't reward ethical staff or provide any incentive for anyone to do what is right. Where are the mechanisms for doing the right thing?

I'm not saying that the council is a complete waste of time because good can come out of it. The philosophical underpinnings to the back and forth for the second meeting are hard to disagree with. But the reality is that it isn't about who has the best arguments. They know it. We know it. 

Wherever the show intends to take the leads, surely they are meant to be the stalwarts in an ever changing landscape. Yeo-jin can be open to Si-mok where she can't be elsewhere... even with her old gang at Yongsan station. Even though they are supposedly at opposite ends of the "dispute", their core beliefs are very much the same. They are willing to be collaborative and they are dogged about seeing things through to the bitter end. Even with all the obstacles that have been thrown in their path, they are resolute truth-seekers. They are the quintessential outsiders who instinctively reject being squeezed into the organizational conformist agenda. 

Lawless Lawyer (2018) A Review

After spending 18 years in Seoul biding his time, Bong Sang-pil (Lee Joon-gi) returns to Gisung, the place he spent as a child with his working mother. It is also where he last saw his mother alive. Sang-pil barely escaped with his life and went to live with his gangland boss uncle (Ahn Nae-sang). As soon as the stars align ie. when a series of circumstances come into play, Sang-pil immediately heads back to his hometown in readiness to execute his scheme to take down those who are responsible for his mother’s death. One event includes the suspension and sacking of another lawyer, the hot headed Ha Jae-yi (Seo Yea-ji), also an immigrant from Gisung. Although it isn’t immediately apparent, he’d been observing her for a while. Eventually she becomes embroiled in his big revenge plot.

 

Sang-pil lives up to his appellation as a badge of honour, coming across more as a smooth-talking hustler than a serious trial lawyer. All of that belies a steely resolve and a deep personal anguish to see justice done. He keeps a statue of Lady Justice close-by as a reminder that he will exploit the law as his weapon to do what is necessary to right past wrongs. In their early interactions, Jae-yi is suitably unimpressed with Sang-pil who seems to her more like a trashy gangster who resorts to unethical means to get his way. 

As Lawless Lawyer is less a crime show and more a revenge-political drama, it’s never any mystery who the conspirators are. What we’re privy to is a cat and mouse game initiated by Sang-pil and Co against the Goliaths of the city starting from the bottom feeders of the food chain. Our titular antihero sets up shop where his mother once had her law practice and manages to co-opt the idealistic Jae-yi to be his reluctant office manager as well as a motley crew of former loansharks. They are the show’s unerring comic relief.

Read the rest at JangHaven Forums.

Record of Youth (2020) Thoughts after Episodes 5 and 6

I like this show although I'm not exactly wowed by it. There are things I like about it but there are also things that don't exactly grab me. I don't mind admitting that if it weren't for Park Bo-geum, I'd probably have been more tentative about continuing with it.  I like what he brings to the Sa Hye-jun character and I like his dynamic with Park So-dam's Jeong-ha. While they don't exactly sizzle, I like that they are confidants and are both doing it tough together. In other words, we aren't seeing the usual power dynamics of a rom com. Their blossoming romance is fairly ordinary to say the least, giving off an innocent almost random "first" vibe. It's one of the reasons why I like the piano scene at the end of Ep. 6. One feels that it's strange not to be witness to any major push and pull before the confession. Hye-jun likes what he sees and goes for it. Jeong-ha can't say no to him despite her resolution. So I am absolutely certain that we're in for an ominously rough ride ahead regardless of what third party Hae-ho has in store.

It's not exactly all that surprising that a love triangle has emerged because the show certainly foreshadowed it some time ago. What is puzzling me about this love triangle is why Hae-ho is so eager to jump on board the Jeong-ha bandwagon when the time he's spent with her is largely limited to make-up repartee sessions. My own impression (and that's just my opinion) is that his interest in her seems to stem primarily from the fact that Hye-jun likes her. I could be reading him wrongly because in all honesty, I find him a rather one dimensional character so far. To me he's written as Hye-jun's childhood bestie who grazes on the side where the grass is greener. I haven't warmed up to him but I don't particularly dislike him either. To me he's more window dressing or prop to point us in a certain direction. That could change of course but I'm not exactly eager to care about him or his well-heeled family. 

The other reason why I don't feel especially enthused about Hae-ho's family is that they're so obviously designed to be a contrast to the Sa household. They argue and banter with half-hearted petulance but there's a lack of warmth. Everything feels sterile verging on pretentious virtue signalling. Some of it is due undoubtedly to mother, I-yeong. There are glimpses of authenticity but for me, they are few and far between.

Not all's well with the Sa household either. Dad yells far too much for my liking, as if that actually resolves anything. But then I don't think he's interested in resolution as he is in coercion and holding the moral high ground. At times he borders on being a caricature. It diminishes anything useful that might come out of his mouth. He's a bitterly resentful man who plays sides too much. The Sa family functions as two warring sides mainly because of him. I would appreciate the family dynamic a lot more if he was less prone to flying off the handle. As it is I enjoy the dynamic in spite of his tendency to run Hye-jun and Grandpa to the ground at the first opportunity. The family meeting about Gyeong-jun's desire to move out was hilariously entertaining. Grandpa's implication that Gyeong-jun was a con artist in the making was probably not too far off the mark. 

As far as the Sa household is concerned, my favourite bits have to be between Hye-jun and Grandpa, and any scenes involving mum, Ae-suk. Ae-suk is a character I really like because she feels well-rounded. There's a balance to her that I find relatable. Life isn't easy but she's carved out her own little niche and pleasure in it. Roomies Hye-jun and Grandpa find little moments of joy where they can. The world out there arguably isn't kind to creative, artistic types. Not only is the competition fierce and there's very little room to move in certain industries but there are also the terrible tactics to get ahead which are supposedly par for the course in these industries. 

I thought I had seen the last of agent Lee Tae-su but apparently he's destined to be the thorn of Hye-jun's side for a little while longer as he wreaks petty vengeance without any acknowledgment and recognition of his own failings which led to the exodus from his agency. His attempts to normalize dog eat dog industry behaviour had the odour of an insecure man playing the victim card. 

All of the pile on from external forces experienced by Hye-jun is all part of the struggle either before he hits the big time or goes off to the army. It's meant I'm sure to make us root for him. Which I do. Of course this also has the effect of drawing him closer to her because everything apparently seems to be working against him. She has become another scarce good thing in his life. It does beg the question of whether he will hold on to her if more good things or even bad ones start pouring in.

I suppose what I worry about is that when things get better for the two of them they will start to drift apart. Some of Hye-jun's retrospective internal dialogue portend unpleasant things to come. It doesn't have to come to that but they'll have to cross that bridge when they come to it.

Special Affairs Team TEN (2011-2013) A Review

 TEN is an all-time favourite for many reasons. It’s a well-written, stylish police procedural that delves into complex, puzzling cases working from the template laid down by the likes of Criminal Minds and Wire in the Blood. The atmosphere is often bleak and moody reflecting the deathly content. The action revolves around a criminal investigation team that handles the most violent crimes occurring domestically. The “ten” comes from the fact that these violent crimes usually have less than 10% arrest rate. This elite team comprises of 4 members (rookie in tow) with a variety of detection and profiling skills as well as policing experiences. The main reason why this show has a special place in my heart is because it is the first Korean police drama that I came across in my early days watching K dramas that I didn’t have to urge to throw things at. It became a great comfort to me that South Koreans are capable of producing good crime shows and OCN is where it’s at. From then on I’ve been an avid follower of the cable network’s offerings… for better or worse.

 Like with many other OCN shows, it is pre-requisite that the viewer come with a strong stomach. Violent crimes does mean violence… the whole bloody ball of wax. The team is spearheaded by Yeo Ji-hoon (Joo Sang-wook) a renowned criminologist-profiler (after the manner of Gideon and Hotchner) whose motto is “become a monster to catch a monster”. He has a tragedy in his past that drives him to extremes. Back Do-sik (Kim Sang-ho) is the veteran cop who has a couple of decades of field work under his belt. The other talented profiler in this team is the outwardly cheerful Nam Yi-re (Jo-An), psychology honours graduate who has an uncanny ability to read people accurately. Team Ten’s rookie is Choi Woo-shik’s Park Min-ho who doubles as Ji-hoon’s apprentice.

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