Brief Story Line
In a small town outside of Seoul, a retired man named Jeon Yeong-ha (Kim Yoon-seok - Escape from Mogadishu, Loveholic TV series etc) was operating a rental vacation house which was doing OK. During one summer day, a guest named Yoo Seong-a (Go Min-si - Smugglers, Jirisan TV series etc) rented the house together with her young child. Her arrival would later disrupt Yeong-ha's peaceful life and also caught the attention of the new police Captain Yoon Bo-min (Lee Jung-eun - Hommage, Miss Night and Day TV series etc).
Meanwhile back in the year 2001 in another location, Koo Sang-jun (Yoon Kye-sang - Spiritwalker, The Kidnapping Day TV series etc) operated a small motel together with his wife Eun-Gyeong (Ryu Hyun-kyung - Fairy, Big Bet TV series etc) and their young boy. During low season, Sang-jun invited an out of town man later on revealed to be Ji Hyang-cheol (Hong Ki-joon - The Outlaws, Hyena TV series etc) to stay at his motel. The decision though would have significant implication to Sang-jun's family. Bo-min who was still a rookie back then was also involved in her first ever case.
So how would Yeong-ha deal with his very disturbing guest and what happened to Sang-jun's family? You could find out in this series.
End of Brief Story Line
When I first started watching the series, I was having difficulty in understanding the story as it frequently moved back and forth between two timelines without even making them clear by showing the years. It took me quite a while before I realized that there were two different group of people in separate timelines. In fact if the subtitle did not mention the name of young Bo-min (played by Ha Yoon-kyung - Go Back. See You in My 19th Life TV series etc), I might not have realized she was the same person with the other Bo-min in the present.
Anyway after getting more accustomed with the people, I was able to understand the story better. However, I was still unclear after the first episode where the story was actually heading cause the stories did not seem to have any link except for the same police. But I still patiently watched as more things were revealed in the present which grew darker, while the past took a dramatic turn. Surprisingly the fifth episode felt like a dark comedy that was rather amusing and quite fun. But once I reached the 6th episode. the series suddenly sparked to life and got really intense. The suspense continued to the following episode which was quite shocking with a bit of twist and ultimately finished with a pretty satisfying finale. The episodes were roughly 50-60+ minutes which were pretty standard for a South Korean series.
The plot of the series was interesting for me, unfortunately though, the story telling was a bit too complicated for my taste. I have no problem of having two different timeline told in a series, but I preferred a clearer distinction. The sudden jump between them was also a bit confusing since I had to guess when the scene actually occurred, was it during the past or the present. Oh another thing that I thought weird was the response of police and people in general (beginning of episode 5 and during the most critical moment in episode 6) as they did not seem logical to me. Good thing it did not have any major impact to the story.
The main cast in general were pretty good to my opinion, especially Yoon Kye-sang who I thought was convincing in his role with awesome transformation of his appearance (way better than the others). There were few touching & emotional scenes that involved him. Aside from those names, there were many support characters like Yeong-ha's daughter Ui-seon (Roh Yoon-seo - 20th Century Girl. Black Knight TV series etc), his close friend Yeong-chae (Lee Nam-hee -The Priests. Kkondae Intern TV series etc), Koo Gi-hoo (Chanyeol - The Box. Memories of the Alhambra TV series etc) and several other cast including the very familiar face Park Ji-hwan (Handsome Guys, Gyeongseong Creatures TV series etc) as Jong-du. All episodes were directed by Mo Wan-il (The World of the Married TV series etc) and written by Son Ho-young which did not seem to be based on anything (not mentioned during the opening or closing credits).
Overall this was a series that I personally felt would have been easier to absorb if the moving back and forth between two timelines were more clearly shown, particularly in the earlier part. I did enjoy the second half of the series which was a huge improvement compared to the first half. I also like the conclusion, the psychological "warfare" and that little twist even if it's not the main focus. So if you are into a dark psychological thriller drama set at two different timelines, then you should be able to enjoy this original series from Netflix. But do not expect this to be a straight forward easily understood story, as it might be too intricate and complicated.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
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