The Flower Of Evil (2020)
악의 꽃
Starring:
Lee Jong Gi, Moon Chae Won, Jang Hae Jin, Seo Hyun Woo
Seen:
October 2020, when it had been fully released.
I was recommened this by one of my Korean friends, who doesn't watch a lot of dramas. This of course made me think it has to be a good one and since I already knew Lee Jong Gi from Moon Lovers Scarlet Heart: Ryeo, of course I put it on my list. It is a very addictive show, especially for a crime lover as myself, and I wanted to know what would happen to Lee Jong Gi's character. Involving psychopathy is a tricky thing, considering the difficulty in finding them among society, usually due to their ability to play a part to fool others. It's a very interesting black hole of the human brain and how it can funtion malfuntionally. I recommened this drama for anyone who enjoys the performances of Lee Jong Gi as well as a good crime show which keeps you on your toes.
Storyline:
Baek Hee Seong lives under a stolen identity to hide from his past and keep his real identity of a murderer's son in the dark from his wife Cha Ji Won, a detective. To the blind eye, they appear to be a perfect family: a loving couple with a beautiful daughter who adores her parents, especially her daddy. Cha Ji Won and her colleagues begin investigating a series of unexplained murders and is confronted with the reality that her seemingly perfect husband may be hiding something from her.
First impression:
My very first impression of this drama was that it was indeed a very good start to a good action crime. My favorite genre is action-crime but it has to be a certain tempo and a certain mind standard to the detectives for me to find it well made. Considering how impressed I was by Jin Woo's ability to think outside the box and think about details that none of her colleagues did, it was a good sign.
I was quickly curious about what kind of person Hee Seong (Hyun So) really was. The cryptic speech with his (fake) mother about being able to play a part, fake a person who is everything and only what Ji Won wants to see and to see through his wife, it all sparked the little Sherlock Holmes lover in me. Who is he? What has he done in his past that got his olf school friend so scared of recognizing him? Why was his instint action to suffocate and kidnap him when he'd been recognized? And all this was only the first episode! I loved that he's a metal crafter though, that's such a creative thing! I've only seen a metal craft shop once. Very cool, lots of expensive things, everything smelled of burned iron.
By the first scene of the second episode, I got a hunch that Hee Seong could be a phycopath. Being unable to show real emapthy is one (of a whole-ass list - google it) characteristic of phycopaths seen from phsycological research and analytic data. He studies his wife and mimicks her facal expressions to trick her into thinking he's happy. Happy with her, happy with "his" life. My suspision felt to a part confirmed later on in the episode, when he tells his bully that he's like his dad: "you can't make me pity you, I won't feel a thing". I felt like the kidnapped reporters claim that Do Hyun Su has antisocial personality disorder which indicates a person's lack of emapthy, disregard and/or violation of other people's rights and feelings as well as a low or no moral sense of conscience, also was a small clue. Usually impulsivity and aggressive behavior are common in people with this disorder, as well as a connection to crime since they are unable to feel remorse, shame or guilt (Please remembered I'm no expert or psychologist, I'm just very interested in biological science). I could definitly see the patterns of this being a possible case for Lee Jonggi's character (shoutout to the guy playing young Do Hyun Su, by the way. He really does resemble Lee Jonggi, and Jonggi has very specific features if you ask me).
In episode 3 during the flashback of Hyun Su being about to kill Nam Soo Kil and he sees a hallucination of his father with black eyes like a demon, I started thinking that perhaps Hyun Su wasn't a killer. He just said that to Kim Moo Jin to feed him what he wanted to hear. Everybody in his hometown already thought he helped his father with all the murders, and later on murdered on his own. Why not just let them think that? Afterall, he emotionally can't care about it. I think it could possibly be a twist of his personality. Sure, he can most definitely have antisocial personality disorder but that doesn't automatically make him a crimial. It's just statistically common for people with APD to slip into a criminal life, it doesn't mean everyone does. He isn't a robot. I don't doubt he would be capable of murder, he is portrayed that way (and I mean, he strangled, beat, tied up and locked up his old classmate without batting an eye) but it was also quite clear that he's terrified of his serial killer of a father. He is terrified of the act of murder. Perhaps there's more to his past than the characteristics of APD, like some form of abuse or manipulation from his dad, that viewers don't actually get to see. Still, he scene in episode 15 when Do Hyun Su had Hee Seong tied up and found out that "his wife" was dead was so charged. A switch flipped in him and even Hee Seong was suddenly frightened of him and ran for his life. A murderer scared for his life? Quite humourous. That's where you clearly can see that yes, Hyun So would have killed him. It also proved that, no he's not emotionless. His emotional system just works differently, because of his selfcreated mental blockage from his trauma. He heard so much during his youth that he was a monster, that he couldn't feel, couldn't love, and eventually he believed them. He told himself they were right, and he continued to live with the door of feelings locked in his brain all his live. Until this moment. He was heartbroken at the thought of Ji Won having been killed by his enemy, which is why he thought he was hallucinating at the cliff when she was there. He'd blocked himself from feeling the emotions he inevitable always felt that he didn't know how to handle them.
I was completely creeped out by the actual Baek Hee Seong. So technically, I was completely right with my thought of him being a psychopath - it just wasn't him at that exact time, haha! I looooooved the plottwist that HE was a real psychopath, just the way his face turned when he had his eyes set on a pray was terrifying. Very well acted by Kim Jihoon. Lee Jonggi is a master at facial expressions, especially the difficult ones such as devisation and pure grief, hatred and emotion numb murderousness. I am yet again so amazed. (DAMN there's a lot of crying in this show, it's just the absolut top of the crying-drama pyramid).
The ever strong character in this drama is undoubtedly Ji Won. She stands by her husband, no matter who he really is and time and time again she's hurt, lied to, betrayed, hunted and left behind. Yet she waits for him with open arm when she realizes she's the only light for him not too loose his way and fall into the ultimate trap - becoming who everybody has always told him he is; his father's son, a muderer. She only doubts him when she logically has nothing else to do, nothing to go by that could help her prove the opposite. What does she do then? She locks them together by the wrists. Badass.
This drama got so addictive that I had problems keeping up with my notes. I made little notes up until episode 3, then suddenly I only had the last episode left. I swallowed this drama whole, I hadn't realized how much I'd missed a good crime show.
This is a story about a happy family, who gets caught up in the father's tragic past. I realized a very beautiful detail I don't think everyone notices, the simplest little detail of Eun Ha's love for her dad. Children have, at least what I think, an amazing way of feeling and knowing people in a way no one can explain. They just know whether the person is good or not, whether they like them or not. Of course, anyone gets first impressions and opinions about people, but if you think back to when Ji Won argues why Do Hyun So isn't a psychopath you understand more why Eun Ha is so important to the story. "A psychopath is unable to take care of life more vunerable than their own". She comments on that Do Hyun So had a dog as a kid, but she's really thinking about his relationship with his daugther. He takes good care of her and would never hurt her, they're best friends and he is Eun Ha's favorite person in the world. Had he been a vision murderer, she would probably have been scared of him even if she couldn't explain why. Or maybe that's just what I think, but it makes sense. Eun Ha is the key to Do Hyun So. He himself thinks it's Ji Won, but I just think she was the bridge, the anchor, the lock, between the three of them.
I felt a bit emotional in the last episode, when Do Hyun So watches Ji Won admire the rain. He smiles, genuinely. He's fallen in love with her all over again. He who practiced facial expressions in the mirror to be able to continue holding up the lie of his life, he who had started believing what the villagers in his hometown said about him and who lived a life of a murder's son facing nothing but judgment, suddenly found himself smiling out of pure emotion. He loves Ji Won all over again and this time there's nothing holding him back in the same way. I think him forgetting the last 14 years was both a cure and a blessing for him. Ji Won will stick by him either way, even if I completely understand her pain of calling him love names out of habbit and them not being recieved as naturally anymore. I'd be heartbroken, too. However, over all I actually didn't really like the last episode. I understand what they want to show, how he falls in love with his wife and his daugther all over again and the significancy of this concidering him "being unable to fell emotions". I would've much more prefered seeing them as a happy family right away, maybe making plans to go on a trip. maybe finding out they're having another baby. For the whole drama I wished nothing more for these two characters than to be allowed their happy family one way or another. The very last scene of course proves that they did indeed get to be a happy family at last, but I would've much more enjoyed seeing a kind of epilogue of their hardships paying off.
Cultural imput:
I'd like to make perfectly clear - You can't find rat poison in just any store, especially not a pharmacy, here XD
I always find it so fascinating in crime shows how the criminals always manage to get such huge amounts of money in cash. How does the person in question even get the money? In my country cash is starting to disappear more and more, banks don't even handle them anymore at all. If you need cash, you need to find an ATM machine. That's your only option. Had this situation happened here, I think it'd be much more logical for the victim or traders to deposite money into a loose account from where the criminal could retreave cash from. This is not a cultural comparison though, it's just questions without answers XD
Thanks for all the reads! It makes me very happy! Hope you like this one too~ Have you seen Flower of Evil?
Several more reviews are in the writing, stay tuned!
안녕~
Kommentare