Nine Puzzles - 2025 - S Korea

Nine Puzzles - 2025 - 6/10  
AKA - Nain Peojeul // 나인 퍼즐

 
“I really hate people.  Why the hell do you work so hard just to stay alive?
“Why would you struggle to live?  I don’t see the point of it.”
Nihilistic K-drama involves the search for a serial killer.
One targeting the powerful and influential.
Fans of interlocking mysteries and compartmentalized puzzles may enjoy.
The profiler is too young to be believable, and the sock-hat cop rings wrong.
Who and why, worked out.  How, is completely overlooked.

A Shop For Killers - 2024 - S Korea

A Shop For Killers - 2024 - 6/10
AKA - Sarinjaui Syopingmol  // 킬러들의 쇼핑몰

 
Is it just me, or did she leave the lens cover on the scope?
Jian’s highly protective uncle was a mercenary, now a dealer.
He made enemies, and, straight off, dozens come a’callin.
Repetitive shootouts grow boringly repetitive.
The adults and their stories hold your interest, while the teenagers complain or boast.
Sniper Seong-Jo is the best thing going, musing aloud, thoughts wandering like loose balloons.
Intentionally or unintentionally, he is funny throughout.
Series sorta quits, leaving doors open for S02 of this Disney “aimed-at-children” K-drana.

Missing Noir M - 2008 - S Korea

Missing Noir M - 2008 - 8/10  
AKA - Siljongneuwareu M // 실종느와르 M

 
“A history of injustice manipulating justice to kill off justice.”
Exceptional K-drama.  Bleak, true-to-life, set amidst modern realities.
A small team is formed to work on unsettled cold cases.
An ex-FBI agent with too many killings for the Bureau.  A hot-headed cop.  A computer hacker with a past.
The opener is a two-parter, with clues for imminent murders, ala Se7en.
There are other two-parters, as well as stand-alones.
Contrary to the usual clichéd formats, the team don’t exactly bond, but begin to buckle under the stress.
The final episodes are pitch black and, unfortunately, eerily prescient of today’s normal.
For those skeptical of justice in this world, in this life, this is for you.

Parasyte: The Grey - 2024 - S Korea

Parasyte: The Grey - 2024 - 7/10
AKA - 기생수: 더 그레이

 
Alien spores drop through our atmosphere.
Landing, sluglike entities seek human, enters, devouring brains and taking control.
Once in the new body, it’s hungry.  And its preferred meal?  Yeah, tastes like chicken!
Team Grey is the government agency, aware of the invasion, trying to quell.
Several narratives in this six-part K-drama.
Aliens carving territory, local cops dealing with Black Ops.
A cheap thug, an honorable cop, a girl where the possession failed.
Sidespin of the anime Parasyte Maxim (2019), itself derived from the 1989 manga.
In-between, a two-part film in 2014.
Near the end, I was highly doubtful, yet this DOES reach a conclusion.

Blood Free - 2024 - S Korea

Blood Free - 2024 - 7/10
AKA - Jibaejong  // 지배종

 
Chae-woon, ex-Naval officer, is recruited / assigned to bodyguard the CEO of BF.
Blood Free, synthetic meat, meant to end the era of human carnivores.
Ranchers don’t like it, nor do the processing plants, nor do self-righteous protestors.
Then there are business rivals, who will steal or murder to appropriate BF’s data.
Original series mixes speculation with espionage, along with fights and ballistics.
Final ending, while certainly bloody, will fizzle for many.
The conclusion leaves stray threads and questions.
Being a Western (Disney) financed series, difficult to foresee if there will be a S02.
If you are comfortable with uncertainty, this is a gripping, action-punctuated show.

Revenant - 2023 - S Korea

Revenant - 2023 - 6/10
AKA - Akgwi // 악귀

 
“Beware of the handshake, that hides a snake.
“For smiling faces, smiling faces tell lies, and I got proof.”
Our heroine is possessed by a ghost, beneficial at times, murderous at others.
Trying to aid her, and exorcise the spirit, is a folklore professor.
Meandering K-drama goes full bore into supernatural, shamanism, fetishes, and violent deaths.
The narrative drags in the middle and is repetitive.
Plus, the mother is extremely tiresome; an anxious, fearful, foolish, nonstop whiner.
A fun watch, nevertheless, for its theme of what some will do for good fortune.
Finale is fairly enthralling, as twist piles up twist, clever opponents outguessing each other.

Through The Darkness - 2022 - S Korea

Through The Darkness - 2022 - 7/10
AKA - Agui Maeumeul Ilgneun Jadeul  //  악의 마음을 읽는 자들

 
Sweeping story of the establishment and grudging acceptance of S. Korea’s Behavioral Analysis Team.
Criminal profilers.
While opening in 1975, the chronology runs from 1998-2007.
This charts the team, especially the head profiler, Song Ha-Young, and their work within Criminal Investigations, Forensics, etc …  Also some of the politics, rivalries, and funding problems.
NO romance in this one.
Several serial killers are interviewed, before the arcs of three emerge.
Unlike so much Hollywood fodder, this does not glorify murderers.
Outstanding series.  Must for crime fans.

Inspector Koo - 2021 - S Korea

Inspector Koo - 2021 - 5/10
AKA - Kookyungyi // 구경이

Ex police officer Koo is unofficially part of an insurance company's risk management.
Our detective is a self confessed "alcoholic who displays antisocial tendencies with anxiety disorder."
This annoyed me - until I began to view Ms Koo as a spoof, a parody, of that endless stream of defective detectives.
Operatives with limited social skills.  Blind lame stutterers.  Ones with Tourette syndrome, Alzheimer's, leprosy.

 
Aside from Koo's confessed limitations, she also does not bath, her body odor is pungent.
She scratches her scalp frequently, head lice or flea infestation.
Chances are she fails to use the toilet so her clothes are a stench of urine and feces.
Anyhoo, Koo chases a couple of fraudulent claims, sniffs out a string of accidents that prove neither random nor accidental.
Nope.  There is a diabolical serial killer (aren't they all?).
And the prime suspect, a sweet faced drama student, seriously bent, but capable of meticulous staging and execution.

 
From the inspector to her boss to the big boss to the villain, forceful women rule.
Each have emasculated male sidekicks, neutered and cowardly.
Narrative arc descends from tightly plotted to padded to frivolous.

Squid Game - 2021 - S Korea

Squid Game - 2021 - 6/10
AKA - Ojing-eo Geim  // 오징어 게임

 
Sat on this over a year before watching.  Chief concern?  Global hype.
And yes, this has been overhyped, primarily by Western viewers who have never seen Asian TV.
Nonetheless, it does make an easy entry into K-dramas (the violent ones), although I doubt most newcomers are reading subtitles (as many declare) but are viewing dubbed episodes.
Watch the subbed if you can, if spite of inferior translators (oppa, for example, is NOT “old man”).
Anyway, a huge assortment of financial losers are recruited to compete is a slate of deadly games.
None know how lethal these are until after the carnage of the first match.
Although there are hundreds of competitors (bodies), the series follows about ten.
Ensuing rounds continue gruesome eliminations.
The J-dorama Alice In Borderland aired before this, as did movies Escape Room, Running Man, shoot, “Fun And Games” from the old Outer Limits.
Hardly original, Squid Game is lavishly made, though not as fiendishly plotted as the finest K-dramas.
A Netflix series, this does not suffer the usual “Netflix ending”, meaning this has a passing conclusion.

Hidden Identity - 2015 - S Korea

Hidden Identity - 2015 - 5/10
AKA - 신분을 숨겨라

 
Have only my own impatient self to blame for this.
Normally, with J-doramas and K-dramas, I wait to read end of year reviews on Dramabeans or similar sites.
Hidden Identity hailed from the same crew that did Bad Guys and had an excited buzz.
So, I didn’t bother reading any comments.  More fool me.
Elite, 5-member unit works outside usual law enforcement agencies to topple criminals.
Arc of the narrative is the pursuit of “The Ghost,” a mysterious unknown mastermind who is plotting ... something.
Action primarily fisticuffs, production values cheap, script padded, in run-of-the-mill cop show.
16 episodes ought to have been trimmed to 10.
Every character is wooden faced serious.  At first I blamed bad acting, but I had seen these actors in IRIS, Bridal Mask, Vampire Prosecutor, as well as several movies where they were more than capable.
No, the fault is clichéd writing and lame directing.  Can’t say how many lengthy reaction shots of every single team member I saw.  Easily two or three times an episode.
Hidden Identity = Boring Identity.

Beyond Evil - 2021 - S Korea

Beyond Evil - 2021 - 7/10
AKA - Gwimul  //  怪物

 
Took awhile for the hook to set in this K-drama, but this is a brilliantly written mystery.
New inspector, hotshot from Seoul, arrives to small Munju City, home to unsolved serial killings years before.
By chance (ha!), young Joo-Won is partnered with Dong-Shik, suspect #1 from twenty years earlier.
For the older man, his sister had been a victim, which is why he joined the police and maintains a personal hunt.
The younger guy, well, his motives are unspecified.  All we know is that he is totally overqualified at Munju.
As with many K-dramas, there is team support to bulwark against secrets, conspiracies, corruption.
And this one is packed with secrets, blackmail, subterfuges, and corkscrew twists.
Sixteen part series constructed as halves, where the first eight episodes conclude and splash into the final eight.
Gripping until the end, then the conclusion falters from an underwritten finale.

A Man’s Story - 2009 - S Korea

A Man’s Story - 2009 - 7/10
AKA - The Slingshot // Namja-I-Yaki //  남자이야기

K-drama squarely in the revenge genre.
Unlike Western vengeance that revels in payback and blood satisfaction, this studies the consequences of revenge.
The corrosion of the soul, and unhappiness that wounds friends and strangers.
Cha Do Woo, trying to acquire a competitor, destroys dozens of smaller companies.  Collateral damage.
Kim Shin’s brother loses all.  Business, money, respect, finally his life.

 
Kim vows to destroy the man responsible.
If that means going to prison, if that means joining with gangsters, if that means stealing ... so be it.
The rich playboy, Cha Do Woo, is a marvelous villain.  

 
A poised, polished sociopath, who regards 95% of humanity as dirt.
He has an easy time in early episodes, yet as stakes mount, ethics plummet.
Obstacles must crushed in pursuit of his grandiose scheme.
Both opponents analyze and exploit the weakness of each other.
Very much a chess match played across boardrooms and stock exchange.
Limited weeping - hooray.  Clever plotting throughout, the end stitches a few threads, leaves a few unresolved.
Yong-ha Park (Kim Shin) was on a meteoric ascent with this, his final work before his suicide.

Conspiracy In The Court - 2007 - S Korea

Conspiracy In The Court - 2007 - 5/10
AKA - Hanseongbyeolgok // 한성별곡

 
Costume K-drama set in 17th century Joseon.
New king wants to relocate the palace capital to new area where there will be more food for citizens.
Most courtiers and power brokers do not want to move.
Labyrinthian maze of scheming, poisoning, assassinations, financial chicanery.  
Plot is confusing, though not impossible if you persevere.
More intrigue than action, with dozens of villains.

Biggest drawback gainsaying recommendation art the Elizabethan subtitles.
Verily, the sole subs hailst from the now-moribund Written In The Heavens sub chamber.
Dialogue be heavy over-subbed, configuring archaic words and syntax.
“Liar!” might get subbed “Thou liest, foul knave.”
Gentle viewers wouldst squander precious time reading and pondering obsolete verbosity.
Yea, methinks WITH aimed for historic veracity, yet hold steady!
Yon play is enhanced with modern pop songs (which were not subtitled).
Be thou warned, varlets and slatterns.

Bad Guys - 2014 - S Korea

Bad Guys - 2014 - 6/10
AKA - Nappeun Nyeoseokdeul or 나쁜 녀석들

 
Hardboiled Korean actioner.  Oft told concept, but well executed.
Police commissioner offers special deal to three long term convicts:
“For every crime solved, five years will be knocked off the sentence."
The three include a professional assassin, a Gangpae strong arm enforcer, and a serial killer.
Overseeing them is a detective who had been suspended for excessive use of force.
Those expecting violence will be amply rewarded.
Beatings - stabbings - shootings.
Defying the usual K-drama clichés, there is limited romance, few tears.  Very plot driven, and it is apparent the writers have numerous ideas they want to explore.
For a couple episodes I worried the characters were going mushy, the sympathy route.  Did not happen.
Episodic by nature, yet there is an overall arc to the 11 episodes which gets progressively darker, concluding with an ass-kicking finale.

Dark Hole - 2021 - S Korea

Dark Hole - 2021 - 6/10
AKA - 다크홀

 
First episode, deadly tentacles hunt amidst the ruins.  Outside, hordes of zombies.
There is swirling black powder that must be avoided at all costs.
Oh, and a serial killer is loose!
Apocalyptic series mirrors the ongoing global pandemic.
There are numerous characters, and I figure most are going to die.
I predict those I think might go the distance.
The female detective, with a gun, a grudge and a mission to apprehend a killer.
Tow-truck driver, only because I have seen in other K-dramas and he looks like a lead.
Female shaman, of erratic ability, but magic is magic!
And the serial killer.  Villains always make it to the final reel.
Two episodes down, I will return to this when I finish the series.
v
v
OK, countless extras equate to hundreds of unhappy meals.
Villains are plentiful and are cockroach villains.  Meaning, hard to kill.
Two-faced types, cowardly appeasers, bullies, power grabbers.
Padded series is glorified zombie fest and will satiate bloodlust cravings.

Sign - 2011 - S Korea

Sign - 2011 - 5/10
AKA - Sain //  サイン

 
Exasperating K-drama that takes forever to find its groove, only to perform a cliff dive at the end.
I cannot decide whether to blame incompetent writing or wrong headed directing, probably a combination.
Episodic show occurring in and around the NFS (National Forensic Service).  Yes, the coroners.  Corpse cutters.
A new crime/mystery happens ever few weeks and wraps in a couple of episodes.  In each time, the examiners are summoned to determine what transpired.  Some are frightening, one poignant, others are mis-assumptions.
Weaving throughout the narrative is the murder of a beloved pop singer, the cover up, the destruction of evidence, the conspiracy, and the bullheaded doctor who probes remorselessly toward the truth.
The doctor is extraordinarily unlikeable, argumentative, with the manners of a pitbull.  No way, no matter how gifted, such an individual would be tolerated in any structured hierarchy.
The three assistants are complete and utter idiots.  Their main purpose seems little more than comic relief.  Any professional skills they may possess is dwarfed by their moronic behavior.
After ten episodes, the characters (and writers) find their footing and the cartoon antics subside, the stories tighten.
Still ... viewers had to endure half the series before this locked into an intense thriller.
The final episode was moving - and preposterous.  The finale seemed rushed, contrived, and unbelievable.
There were well reported production problems, but the root cause seemed to point toward the writers who apparently had written themselves into a corner.

This was one of the chilliest K-dramas I have ever watched.  Most of this was photographed in bleak winter.  It looked downright cold.  Definitely not the travel postcard for Korea tourism.
Three lead male characters boasted spiky haircuts.  Couldn’t tell if this is a fashion trend, but it was noticeable.

Family Hunting - 2014 - S Korea

Family Hunting - 2014 - 7/10
AKA - Kazokugari  //  家族狩り

 
Someone is slaughtering dysfunctional families.
Mass murder masquerading as suicide.
Overlooked series featuring a lot of guilty looking souls, and families with overwrought teens.
Deceptive camera work here, casting one character after another as spooky or creepy.
Plot well constructed, as well, layering clues, trails, doubts and fear.
Belief remains a slippery oil slick throughout as you hope, “maybe this person is a good one” ... “uh oh, maybe not.”
Absorbing, brief series.  Emotional outbursts and family drama may alienate disconnected types.

Nobody Knows - 2020 - S Korea

Nobody Knows - 2020 - 8/10
AKA - Amoodo Moreunda  //  아무도 모른다

Outstanding K-drama / thriller / mystery.
Almost 20 years after her childhood friend was murdered by Stigmata Serial Killer, Cha Young-Jin leads her own criminal investigation unit.
Just as well, too, for the killer has apparently resurrected after two decades of inactivity.

 
There is a lot of narrative track laid down in this.
It felt like at least 20 plotlines.  A killer, decades old murder, a church that may be a cult, a crazy rich hotel owner.
To the writer’s credit (yes, writer, not the compromising writing room), threads stitch by the conclusion.
There are also kids, a crutch I usually dislike, who are struggling junior high pupils.
Acting fine throughout, though Park Hoon steals the limelight as the hotel owner.

 
A soul of boundless enthusiasm, generosity, and possessing an uncanny ability to gauge others.
The richest guy in the room, yet still connected to his humble roots (his meals of instant noodles).
His roots, however, deeply embedded with the church, reveal a tangled web.
A stealthy malevolence in Memories Of The Alhambra, Hoon here is a rich complication.
At 16 episodes, Nobody Knows makes a fine introduction to K-dramas for those who enjoy mysteries.

Doll House - 2014 - S Korea

Doll House - 2014 - 5/10
AKA - Inhyeong-ui Jib // 인형의 집

 
Jeez Louise, did it really take me eighteen months to watch this 12 episode K-drama?
Shows how involved I was.
Young 20ish girl answers ad for light duty job at residence.
She has to wear schoolgirl uniform, pigtail her hair, and pretend to be a daughter.
What happened to the daughter in question?
Then she discovers there have been impersonators before her!  What happened to them?
Mystery with enough suspense to unsettle teenage viewers.  Maybe.

For the curious, you could easily watch the whole series in barely over an hour..
Each installment runs 6-8 minutes, including opening & closing credits and a preview of next week.

Devil - 2007 - S Korea

Devil - 2007 - 7/10
AKA - Ma-wang // 마 왕

 
K-drama about revenge.
Not the implacable, unstoppable, self-righteous vengeance of 99% of plots.
No, this factors the wages of revenge, the toll it takes on conscience, karma, and those around you.
Matching tarot cards are sent to police and victim, and the police hustle to identify and protect victim.
Luckily, a girl who works in a fortune parlor can explain what each card means - may not mean - plus, she is psychic!
Meandering puzzle plot that widens considerably midway, then tightens with little room for escape, as well as justifications for murders.
Exteriors appeared shot during spring as colors were often breathtaking.
Interiors more hit and miss, about the third of interiors rivaled cheap soap opera sets.
Romance elements, not too terrible.