İyi Seyirler Dileriz.
Heartless City (2013)
Heartless City
무정도시 / Cruel City
(May – July 2013)
--Spoiler Free Review--
who’s in it
Jung KyungHo (Smile You, Time Between Dog and Wolf)
Nam GyuRi (49 Days, Life is Beautiful)
Kim YooMi (Enjoy Life, Country Princess)
Lee JaeYoon (Ghost, Just Like Today)
Yoon HyunMin (Still You, More Charming By the Day)
Choi MooSung (I Live in Cheongdam-dong)
Son Chang Min (Horse Doctor, Man of Honor)
Go Na Eun (Assorted Gems)
what’s it about
For a show like this one, built on violence, suspense, and misdirection, any summary becomes too much summary because even a half morsel of information ends up giving everything away.
The bones of this drama, however, is simply about a police task force created for the sole purpose of bringing down a shifty criminal network that has been flooding massive amounts of soul-sucking drugs into Seoul. That is the spine of it, but there is so much more to the tale than the basic promise of cops going after drug dealers. There is blood, heart, brains, and a whole heaping mess of beautifully filmed gore, gristle, muscle…basically it’s a cinematically riveting organic explosion about the darker side of human nature as told from the point of view of a criminal underworld and a legal system that behaves no different than the people it chases. It is a modern story with old themes, ones as old as Rome, about the redemption of devils and the corruption of angels.
Lee JaeYoon plays the detective chasing and Jung KyungHo plays the man being chased. Nam GyuRi plays the innocent caught between two worlds. That’s all you are allowed to know until you watch it, the show will reveal the rest. That’s all you should want to know if you have any interest in watching this one. Trust me on this, Heartless is not the show you should indulge your need for spoilers, as part of its hypnotic quality is about going in blindfolded and tied, being tossed completely innocent into this stylish romance with the dark side.
commitment
20 episodes
network
JTBC
director
Lee JungHyo
screenwriter
Yoo SungYeol
music
Nam HyeSung
Amazing soulful music in this one, and perfectly constructed for the show. There were so many layers that it fit so many aspects and themes. Hints of jazz and blues, sometimes even carnie, and all parts emotional.
photography
Choi YoonMan
The look of this one was all vintage style, atmospheric, and a personality of its own. Practically black and white…without actually being filmed in black and white.
first impressions
What’s the date and time? I may have to notarize this moment.
It is possible that I have just begun watching the hands-down coolest, sexiest, most awe-smacking, well-produced drama served up to a kdrama audience in recent memory. Can a person tell they are living a momentous historical moment even before that moment passes? Absolutely I’m going overboard, but that’s how much amazement I have for this one, and how impressed I am by the first few episodes.
Not all the main characters have been introduced yet, in fact, a few only catch minutes of airtime. The ones we do meet have little direct interplay with the wider net of players as yet. They exist in their own corners of Seoul. Still, we already know that they are all insidiously interconnected, whether by circumstance or by people. The showdown we all know is coming already feels epic. We feel it looming ahead like the iceberg that must have seen the bloated tanker Titanic approaching. We know some of these characters only by their aliases, but what will happen when we know their true names and their true faces? How will they be revealed when their costumes are stripped away and the truth of the person inside is laid bare?
This world is a winding clock, and the players in it the gears grinding along…and it is not a natural world in which they exist, not a world built for surviving.
And as spectators, we all hold our breaths knowing that someone or something—pure and hot—is about to come along with a hammer and smash its constant simple logic to smithereens, offering us a glimpse into the chaos and complexity behind the movement of lives.
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I Can Hear Your Voice (2013)
I Can Hear Your Voice
너의 목소리가 들려
(Jun – Jul 2013)
who’s in it
Lee BoYoung (My Daughter SeoYoung, Ecuator Man)
Lee JongSuk (School 2013, High Kick 3, Secret Garden)
Yoon SangHyun (Secret Garden, Queen of Housewives)
Kim GaEun
Lee DaHee (Birdie Buddy)
Kim HaeSook (Childless Comfort, Life is Beautiful)
Yoon JooSang (IRIS 2, School 2013)
Jung WoongIn (Ojakgyo Brothers, Coffee House)
commitment
18 episodes
network
SBS
director
Jo SooWon
screenwriter
Park HyeRyun
(Dream High)
what’s it about
Lee DaHee is the privileged daughter of a respected but cold-hearted judge. Lee BoYoung, the heroine of this tale, is the daughter of his maid. When the two un-friends accidentally witness a maniac attempting to kill a man and his young son, their lives become permanently bonded. But it is the kind of bond built on distrust and rivalry, not any kind of survival-pact type kinship. When Lee BoYoung bravely steps up to testify (although she retro-believes her act of honor had been foolish), she succeeds in sending Jung WoongIn to jail, thereby also succeeding in becoming the target of his hatred and revenge. Whether by coincidence or by cruel design, Lee BoYoung eventually grows up to become a bristly, somewhat disliked public defender, while her nemesis Lee DaHee becomes a highly respected prosecutor.
Lee JongSuk plays the teenager version of the young boy saved, and he has a big secret. During the brutal events of his father’s murder, he develops an uncanny ability to hear people’s thoughts when looking into their eyes. As he describes it, the world is little more noisier for him than for other people. The headphones around his neck are not for trend’s sake, but his small defense against a constantly whining population.
Ten years have passed since Lee BoYoung’s testimony sent Jung WoongIn away to prison, and Lee JongSuk has had no contact with her, but not for a lack of trying. He has always wanted to find his savior again. When he finally does, thankfully, it’s just in time to help her as the crazy evil Jung WoongIn has been released from prison and is gunning for the woman who had been the cause of his incarceration. Lee JongSuk attempts to keep the vow he made as a little boy to the older girl who had selflessly testified on his behalf: I’ll protect you.
Also, Yoon SangHyun plays a fellow public defender who dorks his way into Lee BoYoung’s heart. As far as the dynamic between these two adults go, it’s not bad—think Clark Kent and Lois Lane, but attorneys, not reporters. Oh, right, no superpowers, either. Although now my comparison is getting confusing because technically I guess Lee JongSuk does have a superpower...ok, nevermind. Moving on. At a skim, an exceptionally serious sounding thing. In reality, more a funny and sweet rainbows and sunshine romcom, with only the occasional dark cloud to keep the story going.
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School 2013 (2013)
학교 2013 / School 5
(Dec 2012 – Jan 2013)
who’s in it
Lee JongSuk (High Kick 3, I Can Hear Your Voice)
Kim WooBin (Vampire Idol, Gentleman’s Dignity)
Park SeYoung (Faith)
Ryu HyoYoung (Greatest Love)
Jang NaRa (Baby-Faced Beauty, My Love Patzzi)
Choi Daniel (High Kick 2, The Musical)
Uhm HyoSup (Golden Time, Nine: Time Travel 9 Times)
Kwak JungWook (Queen SeonDuk)
Lee YiKyung (Nine: Time Travel Nine Times)
Lee JiHoon (Lee SoonShin is the Best)
Choi ChangYeob (Faith)
Jun SooJin
what’s it about
The question posed: is school merely a building of stone and mortar created to drill book knowledge or is it an organic womb that should nurture and guide kids in more than just test scores? School 2013 follows the blood that is shed when a school system intent on profit fights against its own teachers and students, creating an environment bent only on survival. The drama is a collection of stories about teachers, administrators, parents, and of course, the students caught in this pressure cooker.
The entire cast is a fairly long list of people but the chief figure is played by Lee JongSuk. He is an underachieving young man who spends most of class time asleep. He’s a kid of few words, a lone wolf cub, but despite his standoffish demeanor, he is mostly well-liked by his classmates. While outwardly meek, there is a self-possession about him that irritates the class bullies Kwak JungWook, Lee YiKyung, and Lee JiHoon, and the three make daily harassment of Lee standard practice.
This is where teachers Daniel Choi and Jang Nara come in. Not only do they try to defuse Lee JongSuk and Kim WooBin’s seething student war, but they also try to solve the many other tough personalities resident to Class 2-2, and in doing so, walk the line between being teachers and guardians. How invested should teachers get in the personal lives of their students?
commitment
16 episodes + Special
Be sure to watch the talk show style special. It was a totally weird and awkward talent show kind of thing, but the behind the scenes clips of the drama filming was enjoyable. For one, we got to see how cold the entire cast was during the shooting. What’s with KBS and their refusal to heat their sets? Remember Dream High and the huge fogs of breath throughout the show?
network
KBS2
director
Lee MinHong
Lee EunBok (Dream High)
screenwriter
Lee HyunJoo
Go JungWon
first impressions
I never intended to do a full review. In fact, I had already posted a blurb months ago in my Bite-Sized Reviews section, which went something like this, in brief:
“ Enjoyment Factor: 6/10
The underlying argument in education philosophy was interesting, but the tale itself often took easy shortcuts, as it was overburdened with a huge cast of young people with too many problems and only 16 eps to sort it all. The show was at times completely engaging, other times profoundly dull, and in the end, turned out School was mostly only interested in the bromance between Kim WooBin and Lee JongSuk. Specifically, what was most obviously not present was a more thoughtful development of the female student leads. Overall, an imperfect but enjoyable boyhood schoolyard romp powered by some fun glower power.
”
But lately, I’ve been feeling pretty warm and fuzzy with a lot of overflowing good will toward dramas and felt like enjoying some gangster-lite tales + a Lee JongSuk, thanks to current enjoyables Heartless City and I Can Hear Your Voice. So I went back and rewatched a few dramas, including School 2013, which lead to some refreshing new feelings on my part.
My second verdict for this drama: I don’t necessarily disagree with what I wrote earlier this year, as I still think the show was too short for all the serious problems these kids faced and wrapped too quick/handily, and I still wish the two main female students had been given more time, but I was clearly in a bad mood about something when I first watched it.
Warning: it is quite possible that below is The Longest drama review I have ever written on this site. So much for the quick in my ‘quick and biased’ tag. On the bright side, it’s a totally positive review.
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