…in Lee Tennant's kitchen
It’s that time of year when we try to wrap everything up in a nice little bow and deliver it to you as an uncomplicated gift. Here it is! Your year in Kdrama! Sometimes it’s an easy and uncomplicated process. But 2021 was an unusual drama year and this was reflected in the end of year poll.
I finish up my reviews of 2021s best show, Beyond Evil, a piece of wonderfully produced television with fantastic performances.
Joo-won feels responsible for yet another death and is determined that his pursuit of the case will not risk any more lives. But with Dong-shik back in the game, the two can now try to find out what happened 20 years ago and how it resulted in what’s happening now.
As the second half of Beyond Evil opens, it emphasises this repetition of purgatory. Despite Kang Jin-mook’s arrest, the residents of this small town are no closer to knowing what happened to their loved ones. Despite all the frantic action, nothing has really changed and these episodes embody that: almost like the opening of a season 2.
One of the most powerful things about the writing in Beyond Evil is the way in which it weaves imagery to produce a consistent emotional impact. The song If You Go To Busan croons beneath the surface; a subtle note underneath everything that happens.
To call this a mid-season finale is an understatement. Beyond Evil wraps up its (apparent) main plotline, leaving us and our main characters confused and lost as to what comes after. But as Han Joo-won and Lee Dong-shik finally get their man, they discover that the hard work of getting closure for his crimes might just be starting.
This week’s episodes start with an intensely layered flashback to 2017 when the crazier of our protagonists was in the Regional Investigation Unit. Seeing how the events of 2017 unfolded gives us significant insight into Dong-shik’s character and how he has responded to the death of Min-jung.
For the first time I grabbed a notebook and took notes while watching Beyond Evil. And when episode 6 started I had to throw them all out because that was when the whole thing flipped over.
As the community tries to comes to terms with the airing of dirty laundry it had long wanted to keep hidden, we start to see that under every village and every person there is a thing that lies hidden and is rarely bared – their teeth.
I’ve picked up the new psychological crime thriller Beyond Evil, with industry veterans Shin Ha-kyun and Yeo Jin-goo. As I breezed through the first two gripping but almost unsettling two episodes, I looked for somewhere to discuss the show and found little. And so here we are – my first open thread!