Drama Recs #11
2022-03-02 04:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rodo1. Bad and Crazy: Ryu Su-yeol, a mildly corrupt internal affairs cop, had a bad couple of days. He smashed his car (not that he remembers – there’s video evidence), and he’s being stalked by a crazy guy who keeps beating him up and forces him to actually help people… if the summary hasn’t tipped you off, I’ll spoil you: this series is about the great friendship between a man and is alternate personality, who have to team up to take down corrupt cops, politicians, drug dealers and one obsessed psychopath. And it is a great friendship, even if the start is somewhat rocky. The two lead actors also do a great job of acting in tandem, and you notice the subtle things about them being essentially the same person, but different. I’d really recommend this one to all fans of unusual bromances.
2. Born Again: In the eighties, the paths of a police detective, a terminally ill bookshop owner and the damaged son of a serial killer get entwined in a doomed love triangle. In the present, they are reincarnated as a prosecutor, a forensic archaeologist and a medical student with sociopathic tendencies, and their paths cross again… I really liked this one, which is somewhat rare for me with reincarnation stories. But this one doesn’t treat love as something fated to happen based on who you loved in the past, and the characters in the present still have to deal with the fallout from their past lives, both in their souls and in the world that surrounds them. The mix of karma and choice is really well done, in my opinion.
3. Bulgasal: Immortal Souls: Six hundred years ago, the monster hunter Dan Hwal was turned into a monster. Now, he hunts the reincarnation of the monster who turned him, hoping to become human again. But there’s more to this story than either of them think… so, there’s a lot of criticism about the slow pace of this story, but that’s actually what I liked about the story. It gives you time to explore the raw emotions and hurt between all the characters, carried over from life to life for a lot longer than even Hwal knows. You won’t know what really happened until the last episode, and I really appreciate how that made the series feel rounded.
4. Signal: Park Hae-young, a cop who hates cops, finds an old walkie-talkie that lets him talk to Lee Jae-han, a cop who worked during the nineties, which helps Hae-young solve cold cases… Of course, there’s more to this series, but honestly, what I most enjoyed in this case was the cases themselves, and how they were intertwined in past and present. The acting is also top-notch, which is honestly to be expected, considering the casting, and the drama keeps you engaged until the last second. It’s a classic for a good reason.
5. Snowdrop: When injured North Korean spy Lim Soo-ho stumbles into a girls dorm in 1987, he is mistaken for a student protester and the girls help him. None of them realize that by doing so, they kick of a series of events that ends with a hostage crisis that might kill them all… So, I know this series is controversial, but I really loved it. And for what it’s worth, the secret police’s awfulness towards student protesters or anyone who might make a nice target tends to be brought up more in the later episodes than the first ones that caused most of the stir. Anyway, this series is really tense, gorgeous, well-acted and holds surprises for all of the characters. One of my favourite was the relationship between Lim Soo-ho and the guy who hunts him, as well as the one between the dorm’s phone operator and mistress.
2. Born Again: In the eighties, the paths of a police detective, a terminally ill bookshop owner and the damaged son of a serial killer get entwined in a doomed love triangle. In the present, they are reincarnated as a prosecutor, a forensic archaeologist and a medical student with sociopathic tendencies, and their paths cross again… I really liked this one, which is somewhat rare for me with reincarnation stories. But this one doesn’t treat love as something fated to happen based on who you loved in the past, and the characters in the present still have to deal with the fallout from their past lives, both in their souls and in the world that surrounds them. The mix of karma and choice is really well done, in my opinion.
3. Bulgasal: Immortal Souls: Six hundred years ago, the monster hunter Dan Hwal was turned into a monster. Now, he hunts the reincarnation of the monster who turned him, hoping to become human again. But there’s more to this story than either of them think… so, there’s a lot of criticism about the slow pace of this story, but that’s actually what I liked about the story. It gives you time to explore the raw emotions and hurt between all the characters, carried over from life to life for a lot longer than even Hwal knows. You won’t know what really happened until the last episode, and I really appreciate how that made the series feel rounded.
4. Signal: Park Hae-young, a cop who hates cops, finds an old walkie-talkie that lets him talk to Lee Jae-han, a cop who worked during the nineties, which helps Hae-young solve cold cases… Of course, there’s more to this series, but honestly, what I most enjoyed in this case was the cases themselves, and how they were intertwined in past and present. The acting is also top-notch, which is honestly to be expected, considering the casting, and the drama keeps you engaged until the last second. It’s a classic for a good reason.
5. Snowdrop: When injured North Korean spy Lim Soo-ho stumbles into a girls dorm in 1987, he is mistaken for a student protester and the girls help him. None of them realize that by doing so, they kick of a series of events that ends with a hostage crisis that might kill them all… So, I know this series is controversial, but I really loved it. And for what it’s worth, the secret police’s awfulness towards student protesters or anyone who might make a nice target tends to be brought up more in the later episodes than the first ones that caused most of the stir. Anyway, this series is really tense, gorgeous, well-acted and holds surprises for all of the characters. One of my favourite was the relationship between Lim Soo-ho and the guy who hunts him, as well as the one between the dorm’s phone operator and mistress.
