Who Are You?

Who Are You?

3.5/10

Who Are You?

Genre:                                   Episodes: 16                                   Year: 2013

Mystery

Romance

Supernatural

Synopsis:

After Detective Yang Shi Ohn wakes up from a six-year coma, she is assigned to the Police’s Lost and Found Department. While working, she discovers that since waking up from her coma, she is able to see ghosts who have a lingering attachment to the world. Together with her partner Cha Gun Woo, she helps solve cold cases so that the ghosts can move on to the afterlife. One of the ghosts is Detective Lee Hyung Joon, a detective who died six years ago while on a stakeout for a drug trafficking case- a case that is connected to Yang Shi Ohn’s coma-inducing injury.

Cast:

So Yi Hyun (Yang Shi Ohn)

Ok Taecyeon (Cha Gun Woo)

Kim Jae Wook (Lee Hyung Joon)

General Thoughts:

The plot was laughably bad

I think it says a lot about a drama when there are only three main cast members, and they are all involved in the main love-triangle. The storyline itself isn’t all that good, it’s pretty shallow and there’s nothing going on under the surface. Everything is face value- what you see is what you get. There are no real surprises, even though the show does try, it’s all pretty clear where everything is headed. Taecyeon and Jae Wook are sad victims of poorly written characters, and rather thankfully, So Yi Hyun’s character was also poorly written- allowing us to mostly bypass her average acting ability. No characters change or develop, the plot is overly simple, and the second half drags.

What Was Great:

Male Cast:

By far the shining beacon of hope in this drama is its male actors. Originally, I only picked up this drama because it had Taecyeon on the front, and I was delighted to see that Kim Jae Wook would also play a role. Taecyeon fits well with the goofy, headstrong cop, delivering believable emotion in the one or two scenes that called for it. Jae Wook kills it as both the silent, vengeful ghost, and the loving, straight-shooting detective. He displays more depth and emotion in one silent facial expression, than our leading actress managed in the whole drama. Both the boys did excellent jobs at performing their rather sloppily constructed characters.

Just bask in the beauty of the boys

Ghosts:

I hate horror. I get scared easily. This drama does a really good job of making the ghosts creepy, but not scary. The ghosts were all acted really well, able to convey great emotion without uttering a single word. The ghost plotlines were also the most interesting aspect of the drama. These plotlines asked for very little acting ability from So Yi Hyun, and each segment was long enough that it was an interesting, well-rounded story, but short enough that it never felt dragged out.

Oh ghost girl, please distract me from the disaster that is the main plot

I was hoping that we would have a few more short ghost cases before getting into the so-called ‘thick’ of the story, as I so accurately predicted that there wouldn’t be enough content to stretch across 8 or so episodes. Sadly, the drama tries getting to the main point too fast, and loses what little momentum it had.

What Wasn’t:

Bad Acting:

Classic deer in headlights

I’ve never actually seen So Yi Hyun in anything else, so I don’t know how much was her little amount of acting ability, or just a terribly written character. In any case, the boys were able to act well (enough) despite their two-dimensional characters, and she wasn’t. It was less noticeable during the ghost plotlines, because all she had to do was stand there like a startled rabbit- and we all know Korean actresses are great at that. Even if you can’t do anything else, if you can do a good startled rabbit- you’re golden. Seriously though, as we got into the main story it became more apparent that Yi Hyun was not the best fit for the role. The sporadically written character (going from deadpan, humourless detective, to klutzy, cheeky girlfriend) was not helped by So Yi Hyun’s increasingly schizophrenic performance. Casting a weak female lead is basically shooting yourself in the foot.

That character flop though...eish

Poor Plot:

There’s not a lot that can save a badly written plot, try as Taecyeon and Jae Wook may. It’s just not good. It’s written as though it wants to go deep into the corruption in the police force and politicians, but it never really makes it there. It might have worked, had there been a few corrupt individuals, and innocent Detective Hyung Joon was working with them when he got shot, but the writers tried to make it too big. It wasn’t even slightly believable that two cops from Lost and Found could get involved in a highly efficient, deep-rooted string of corruption and get away (mostly) unscathed.

The police-work...it's not good...

There was never a sense that our two main cops were in over their heads, and they managed to arrest the highly powerful baddies far too easily. Go back to your little lost and found box where you belong. If a weak female lead is a shot in the foot, a terrible plot is shooting yourself in the head. Similar to how I’m sure many of us felt after sitting through this fiasco of a drama.

Character Similarities:

Cha Gun Woo and Lee Hyung Joon are way too similar. It was as though the writers couldn’t get past their own concept of a perfect man enough to create two distinguishable, enjoyable main male leads. Okay- dead, vengeful, angry ghost Hyung Joon was fantastic. He was stoic and determined in death. But in all flashbacks, alive Hyung Joon was cheeky, funny and sweet- much like Gun Woo. He also had a strong sense of justice and responsibility, taking his work extremely seriously- just like Gun Woo.

Notice any similarities?

Due to these similarities, it never felt like Yang Shi Ohn actually liked Gun Woo. All the moments when we see her contemplating her growing feelings are situations in which Gun Woo has acted similarly to Hyung Joon. I get that people have an ideal type, but these two boys were basically the same person. It just came across as Shi Ohn looking for the ghost of Hyung Joon in Gun Woo, rather than liking him for who he actually is. Did not buy the romance between them at all.

It's all a little uncomfortable

More Comas:

K-Dramas love their comas. First off, six years is a long bloody time for someone to be in a coma. Not to mention if Shi Ohn had accidently stumbled into witnessing the biggest corruption in the Korean police force, I’m sure SOMEONE would have managed to snuff her out in the six years she was lying there all defenseless.

Here's a coma, there's a coma, everywhere a coma coma

Why bother giving us the spark of hope with Hyung Joon? So he’s not dead- yay! But his girlfriend finds him just in time for him to die- boo! Not killing off Hyung Joon originally added nothing to the plot or character development, and he ended up dying anyway. I’m not sure if my verging tears were for Hyung Joon, or the 16 hours I flushed away.

She Didn’t Look at Him:

Look at the beautiful man, LOOK AT HIM

Was I the only one bothered by the fact that Shi Ohn didn’t look at Hyung Joon’s ghost as he died? Surely this pissed off more people than just me. It’s such a stupid thing to get annoyed about, but I just can’t help it. Like, rather than looking at his currently…living(?)…existing(?) presence, she’s focused on his dead body. C’mon girl, the dead body will be there forever. Turn your ass around to look at the smiling, weeping ghostie who’s trying to say goodbye to you. Jeezus.

Re-watch?

Never. I adore both Taecyeon and Jae Wook- but frankly, I can watch them in other, better dramas.

I feel sad for all Jae Wook's wasted potential