“Save Me” – Korean Drama Review 19

9/10: dark, enthralling, and kind of disturbing at times; great protagonists, absolutely despicable and well-developed villains.

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This was probably the heaviest drama I’ve ever seen, tbh, haha. The subject matter was just so intense and frightening, and the show crossed lines and entered territory that I don’t think is very typical for most Korean dramas. Basically, “Save Me” was fantastic, but also quite a burden to watch, in the best possible way. The story itself is fairly straightforward: Im Sang-mi is a reserved, strong-willed girl whose family moves to a small town and gets indoctrinated by a cult (her dad becomes a delusional “believer” and her mom gets drugged into becoming a vacant bed-ridden patient at the cult nursing home…), and she must save herself with the help of four boys she knew from high school. The show gets so dark so fast, and even though the plot progresses at a slow and steady pace, every episode was filled with such tension and anxiety because of how many horrible things happens to our main heroes, and because of how truly evil the leaders of the cult are.

[SPOILERS AHEAD]

Definitely the highlight of this show was the main cast. Seo Ye-ji as Sang-mi was hands-down incredible. She portrayed the character to be so strong and brave without being foolish or outspoken. There was a very quiet and dignified strength and resilience that Seo Ye-ji captured perfectly. Even though in many ways she fit the bill of a damsel in distress, and was often caught in helpless situations or was over-powered by authority, she was never passive about her situation, and didn’t take any of it lying down. She resisted in the ways she could, and after she gains friends who vow to help her, she confidently and thoughtfully protects herself and her mother.

The four friends who help Sang-mi were all great. They had such trust and faith in each other, and their willingness to sacrifice for Sang-mi was so touching. Han Sang-hwan is the son of the town’s very well-loved governor, Woo Jung-hoon is the silly and live-streaming son of a local police officer, Choi Man-hee is the gentle of the group, and finally, my favourite “bold guy” Suk Dong-chul, played by MY MAN WOO DO-HWAN, came at us once again with a tragic backstory and a flawless performance hahahahahha. His character was by far the most intriguing and multi-dimensional, and the foil he creates with his best friend Sang-hwan really elevated both characters.

I loved how Dong-chul had a straight and uncompromising sense of justice, and never hesitated to stand up for the weak. He sacrifices himself on many occasions for the sake of others, and often suffers because of the corruption of the system. His father is the village drunk, and his family has no influence or power, so he is the one that often gets exploited by those who do have power. All he has is his grandmother, who works hard collecting boxes to sell so that she can buy her beloved grandson his favourite jajangmyeon.

The initial incident that sets the tone of the whole rest of the drama heavily involves Dong-chul and his attempt to protect the weak. Sang-mi and her twin brother Sang-jin are introduced as new students to the four boys’ high school. However, Sang-ji was born with a limp in one leg, and he is ruthlessly bullied by other students. It is implied that the Im family moved to the small town of Mooji because he was being bullied at his old school as well. Things escalate quickly, and Sang-jin is taken up to the roof of the school and is beaten and forced to take his pants off and be sexually abused by the bullies (IT WAS APPALLING). Sang-mi is desperate to save her brother, and begs Sang-hwan and Dong-chul to help her. Dong-chul doesn’t think twice and leaps to action. Sang-hwan on the other hand, is conflicted because of the pressure to keep his father’s image clean before the governor election. In the end, he decides not to help. Dong-chul is disgusted, and goes up to the roof alone with Sang-mi to kick ass. Unfortunately,  Sang-jin is completely broken emotionally and loses all hope, and commits suicide by jumping off the school building, to the absolute horror of Dong-chul and Sang-mi (remember when I said this show goes to dark places? I wasn’t kidding). All the bullies and Dong-chul are taken into custody, but the other students are released because their parents come to their rescue. Dong-chul is left to take the blame for everything!! THE INJUSTICE WAS SO INSUFFERABLE. Eventually he is wrongfully sent to prison for three years, the scapegoat of a freak accident where one of the bullies is critically injured. In that time, his grandmother passes away due to working too hard to earn money to send to Dong-chul. One of the most heart-breaking scenes in this whole drama was Dong-chul after his release, eating a bowl of jajangmyeon by himself, sobbing and emotionally wrecked. I DIED.

The deep regret and self-hate Sang-hwan feels for his cowardly actions, and his inability to save his friend follows their friendship for a long time, but thankfully the boys’ bond is too deep to break, and they eventually reconcile. Dong-chul acknowledges that they were both imprisoned – him in a physical cell, and Sang-hwan in a prison of guilt. Their reconciliation really kick starts the mission to save Sang-mi. Dong-chul, aptly nick named “the bold guy”, immediately goes undercover and infiltrates the cult by pretending to be a clumsy, curious, good-natured student. Sang-hwan and Jong-Hoon and Man-hee work from the outside, slowly gathering police support and trying to convince detectives to investigate.

With Dong-chul by her side, and with the knowledge and trust that her other three friends are working tirelessly outside the church walls, Sang-mi defies the terrifying cult leader, who is basically a lustful power-hungry lunatic who brainwashes his followers into believing he is the Spiritual Father with a capital S and C, and that he will bring them onto the “ship of salvation” to the “mighty new sky”. I am a deeply Christian person, and I thought the portrayal of the cult was honestly so on point. Twisting the bible, manipulating followers into donating excessive amounts of money to earn “first class seats on the ship of salvation”, telling straight up lies and justifying them as being means to the ends, and calling people satan if they defy them…all classic cult-y behaviour haha. There were definitely some scenes that were sickening and almost hard to watch. When members were “prayed over”, except they were being beaten black and blue…when defiant people were dragged away and locked in underground “prayer rooms” aka dungeons…when the cult leaders took advantage of people’s fears and weaknesses to control them….yeah, it was pretty distressing stuff.

I’ll be honest, watching the drama was quite tiring, because I hate so many of the characters haha. I hated the cult leaders for being evil and crazy. I hated the cult followers for following so foolishly and turning a blind eye to the obviously shady things going on in their church. I hated Sang-mi’s dad for being a completely useless father who essentially consents to let his god (the cult leader) rape his daughter for the sake of “salvation”. I hated Sang-hwan’s dad for being a corrupt governor who desires power over his own family. I hated the many many MANY useless adults who do damn near nothing, while four 20-year-old boys single-handedly confront great evils. I know it’s a drama, so of course the heroes have to do most of the heavy-lifting, but man, it was rough!! But I think that’s also why the happy ending felt so earned and deserved. After so much hardship and pain, I was relieved and satisfied to see these brave resourceful young people come out on the other side victorious and vindicated.

I would highly recommend this drama to anyone who is looking for a slow-burning thriller drama. Please be advised that it is definitely for mature audiences, haha.

To end off, let’s admire how cute Woo Do-hwan looks as a dorky undercover cult-goer:

“MAD DOG” – Korean Drama Review 18

9/10: this drama keeps you awake and guessing, and the extremely well-developed characters will always have a special place in my heart.

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OMG, this was seriously the most under-rated drama I have ever seen. I was sleeping on this back in 2017 because everyone was too busy hyping about “Goblin”, lol. THANK YOU WOO DO-HWAN for being the reason I decided to check this drama out!!!

[SPOILERS AHEAD]

The main plot is about a group of private investigators uncovering the mysteries and frauds associated with a plane crash that was deemed to be due to a suicidal pilot. Choi Kang Woo (played by Yoo Ji-tae from “Healer”!!) is the leader of the “Mad Dog” team, and he has extra skin in the game because his own wife and son were killed in that plane crash. Kim Min Joon (played by my man Woo Do-hwan) is the clever younger brother of the suicidal/murderer co-pilot, and because he believes his brother was wrongfully accused, he approaches the Mad Dog team for help to clear his brother’s name. The other members of the Mad Dog group are the beautiful and capable Jang Ha-ri, or Player Jang, the big-hearted five time ex-convict  Park Soon-jung, and the classic tech genius “guy in the chair” Ohn Nu-ri. As Choi Kang-woo and Kim Min-joon unravel the complexities of insurance fraud, bribery, black-mailing, and murder, they also confront and reconcile with the very real struggles of past mistakes, regret, and survivor guilt.

The story was so well-crafted and suspenseful, paced perfectly, and most of all, the characters were amazingly developed!! There was a great balance of action and thrills, and humour and a sprinkle of romance. I find in many “thriller” dramas, that it is very plot-heavy at the expense of good writing and character focus. But in this drama, each character, protagonists and antagonists alike, are written super well. Their motivations are well developed and realistic, and the way the characters interact with each other and act as complements or foils was really sophisticated. The drama was also surprisingly funny given the pretty heavy subject matter! All the jokes were well-timed and landed perfectly in my opinion, and it definitely lightened the mood of an otherwise pretty intense drama.

Alright, now to talk about the highlight of this drama, heh heh. MY BOY WOO DO-HWAN. I loved the characterization of Kim Min-joon, and I know I might be slightly biased because Woo Do-hwan is SO FLAWLESS IN THIS DRAMA. But he really pulled off the “confident and clever con-man who is a hidden softie”, haha. He showed a lot of range with his performance; everything from pretending to be a ditzy nerd while going undercover, to being a cold badass, to being a vulnerable young man with a lot of fears and regrets.

The relationships that develop between Kim Min-joon and the rest of the Mad Dog team, especially Choi Kang-woo, was very organic and well-paced, so that the friendships and loyalty felt truly earned after everything they had been through together. Choi Kang-woo initially harboured so much resentment and hate for Kim Min-joon since he was related to the co-pilot that caused his family’s deaths, but as many sinister truths come to light, he and Min-joon develop a very deep brotherly bond. It was a cathartic journey for Kim Min-joon, who never reciprocated his real hyung’s affections, to begin to see Choi Kang-woo as an older brother figure, and to see Jang Ha-ri, Park Soon-jung, and Ohn Nu-ri as family as well. I also felt the subtle hints of romance between Kim Min-joon and Jang Ha-ri was the perfect dosage for a drama like this. It didn’t feel contrived or rushed, and it added some really cute and light-hearted scenes to off-set the fast-paced and heavy main plot. I also REALLY liked that there wasn’t a dramatic kiss scene. I thought it was so sweet and wholesome that Jang Ha-ri and Kim Min-joon’s relationship was primarily a supportive friendship as the main foundation, rather than a passionate romance.

Also, I have to commend all the villains in this show. In a crime/action drama especially, it is very hard to have bad guys that are well-developed, frightening, but also human and realistic, so I was pleasantly surprised!! All the antagonists had good depth and were well-explored, so that the audience can understand their motivations and actually be able to trace them back and follow their decision-making. Even though it’s a drama so obviously things are unrealistic and very “conspiracy”-esque, because the villains were grounded in reality, the problems they created and the unscrupulous things they resorted to all seemed plausible. For once, the twisted ball of plot actually unraveled into one coherent string, instead of falling apart into a pile of loose-ends, and that made the drama super fun and satisfying to watch! As an audience member, I felt like I could follow the clues and understand what was going on even when things got complicated!!

Finally, the ending was one of the best Korean drama endings I’ve ever experienced, not going to lie. I’m a sucker for things coming full circle, and repeated motifs and well-defined themes, and this ending had it all. Up until the very end it was suspenseful and impactful, and when justice was served, it felt so deserved and satisfying. The ending was quite predictable in the sense that good triumphs over evil, and all the protagonists end happily, continuing to investigate shady cases together as a bad-ass team, but the execution and delivery was so full of heart. It had just the right amount of cheesiness to make me smile, but didn’t cross the line and become too much or too preachy. When Kim Min-joon called Choi Kang-woo “hyung” at the end (his deceased brother had always asked this of him but he never complied, making it one of Min-joon’s biggest sources of regret), it really encapsulated how far he had come in terms of finding peace with himself, and accepting a new family where he had once rejected it. Ultimately, this was a story about family and friendship, and about how trust in a team can be built and cherished.

I would highly recommend this drama for anyone who loves a good well-thought-out thriller!! It didn’t have as much action in the sense of people fighting, or chasing cars, or jumping off buildings and stuff, but it keeps you on the edge of your seat rooting for the heroes more and more as they strive to seek the truth.

Thanks for reading, and happy watching!!