Brief Story Line
Story focused on people whose lives were entangled by ill-fated relationships. The first one was a man whose investment using money borrowed from loan shark was unsuccessful, resulted to him being debt-ridden and referred to as the Debtor (Lee Hee-joon - Badland Hunters, A Killer Paradox TV series etc). Second was Jang Gil-ryong (Kim Sung-kyun - Moving TV series, Officer Black Belt etc), a Korean-Chinese immigrant who was fired from his work and accepted offer to do a job that promised huge pay. Third was a surgeon Lee Ju-yeon (Shin Min-a - No Gain No Love TV series, My Love, My Bride etc) who was caught with the trauma from her past.
There were also a rich doctor & clinic owner referred to as Glasses (Lee Kwang-soo - The Pirates: The Last Royal Treasure, The Divorce Insurance TV series etc) with his girlfriend Yu-jeong (Gong Seung-yeon - Handsome Guys, Flower Crew: Joseon Marriage Agency TV series etc) who were involved in an unexpected incident. And finally the man simply referred to as the Witness (Park Hae-soo - Phantom, Squid Game TV series etc).
So how were all these people lives entangled? How would the story conclude? You could find out in the series.
End of Brief Story Line
As mentioned above, I was interested in the series due to its brief yet very intriguing synopsis. For series like this, it is quite common not to have the full picture in the beginning. However, I had to be patient when watching the first episode cause aside from few interesting scenes in the early part, the story was moving in a rather slow pace while introducing the characters. It's a good thing that half way through, it became more exciting. But the best part would have to be the shocking end to the episode. It gave me the catalyst to be excited for what come next, which was delivered by subsequent episodes.
The fourth episode though, was different. While it was an equally important part of the story, somehow it made the series pace slowed down a bit. By then I pretty much have an idea of what the twist would be and the why, but just not the how. The following episodes that revealed what actually happened were pretty great. Despite managing to guess the biggest twist (which I am sure my wife would have been able to do so), there was still one thing that I did not see coming. It only hit me when it was going to be shown towards the end. The series ended with a proper conclusion that truly fit the title. I was very satisfied as all aspects were clarified (including the part involving the past that was explained before the final).
I read that the series was based on webtoon of the same title by Choi Hee-sun. It was directed and written by Lee Il-hyung whose past experience was making the critically acclaimed A Violent Prosecutor and his other film Remember. I thought his story telling here were quite good as he managed to properly show the intertwine of all characters and the events that led to that incident. I also thought the cast did their job wonderfully with Park Hae-soo and Lee Kwang-soo as my favorites cause they were able to portray their characters very convincingly. In addition to the lead cast above, there were support cast that I was familiar with such as Kim Nam-gil (Nocturnal, Island TV series etc) as Dr. Yun, Kim Young-ah (Forbidden Fairytale, Study Group TV series etc) as a Nun and many others whom I am sure my wife would easily recognize.
The series only had 6 episodes with duration between 47 to 67 minutes (including credits). The opening credits like all Netflix series was stylish and accompanied by slow rock song that was nicely heard. There were brief violence here including sexual violence with lots of profanity language (if you have watched plenty South Korean movies/series, you would have picked up a thing or two and those words were spoken many times here). I personally like the first three episodes better than the second half, though the finale was really satisfying, especially for people like me who loved nothing better than karmic retribution.
Overall this is a series that I enjoyed due to its awesome story telling, the mystery and suspense, plus the satisfaction of seeing everything properly concluded. The short 6 episodes were also nice as it did not require long time to finish, plus there was no need to worry about whether or not it would be renewed or cancelled. Even though the biggest twist did not surprise me in the end, but I still think the revealing and the ending was worth the watch. So if you are interested in watching limited series with those attributes, then I am sure you would like this one. I cannot wait till my wife watch this and provide her views.
Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars
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