Nobody Knows

Nobody Knows

8.5/10

Nobody Knows

Genre:                                                   Episodes: 16                                     Year: 2020

Mystery

Thriller

Synopsis:

After her friend is murdered by a serial killer, Cha Young Jin becomes a detective in order to catch the killer. Her investigation is disrupted when her young friend, Ko Eun Ho, is involved in an accident. As Young Jin investigates Eun Ho’s accident, she comes to realise that the two cases may be related.

Cast:

Kim Seo Hyung (Cha Young Jin)

Ahn Ji Ho (Ko Ein Ho)

Ryu Deok Hwan (Lee Sun Woo)

Park Hoon (Baek Sang Ho)

Moon Sung Geun (Hwang In Beom)

Min Jin Woong (Lee Jae Hong)

Kwon Hae Hyo (Jang Ki Ho)

Yoon Chan Young (Joo Dong Myung)

Yoon Jae Young (Ha Min Sung)

Jang Young Nam (Jung So Yeon)

General Thoughts:

I had been anticipating this drama since I first heard it announced, as I thought it sounded quite unique. I missed the memo on the serial killer aspect, and was a little apprehensive when I saw it introduced in the first episode, as I couldn’t help thinking ‘ohhhh, another serial killer mystery-thriller’.

So much more going on than just another serial killer on the loose

Not that there’s anything wrong with serial killer mystery-thrillers- they just aren’t as unique as I was hoping this show would be. Boy was I soon realising just how wrong I was. Even though this drama had a serial killer at its core, that didn’t prevent this from being a unique or engaging show.

And all the mysteries centred around one kid

It’s been a little while since I’ve been really satisfied with a mystery show, and ‘Nobody Knows’ just hit that itch I’ve been trying to scratch for some time, that the last few mystery-thrillers I’ve seen just didn’t hit. ‘Nobody Knows’ had quite a few different story threads running through it that served brilliantly as smaller mysteries to unravel and solve before the finale of concluding who the Stigmata murderer was and catching him for good. And what was even more amazing, is that each of these smaller story threads wove together to become a part of the bigger mystery. The mystery item given to Eun Ho by Ki Ho, Eun Ho’s relationship with Dong Myung, the drug case, Eun Ho’s accident, Min Sung’s driver- all of these things had something to do with Sang Ho and came together as pieces of a bigger puzzle. Absolutely everything in this show was interlinked, and it was so addictive to watch how everything pulled together to be drawn into Sang Ho’s web that Young Jin was slowly unravelling. I think another part of what made this drama such a success is that our villain, Sang Ho, wasn’t untouchable.

Young Jin is buying exactly none of what Sang Ho is selling

In sooooo many mystery K-dramas the villain is so far ahead of the good guys, that it becomes rather frustrating to see the good guys floundering so bad. In this case, Sang Ho thought he was miles ahead of Young Jin and her team, but he woefully miscalculated, and it was obvious to us as viewers that Young Jin was slowly reeling him in.

Man, finding the killer in the first ep sure threw me for a loop

It became clear relatively early on that Sang Ho was the guy we were looking for, but the show never went so far as to confirm it beyond a reasonable doubt, which always kept a small layer of doubt present. The story then became more of a how we were going to catch the bad guy, as opposed to who the bad guy actually was. Revealing the bad guy early on can sometimes leave the mystery to become a bit stale, but in this case it allowed Sang Ho to feel more threatening. Most of the things that Sang Ho did were very reasonable and actually could be received as very caring and considerate. But once there was an undertone of manipulation and emotional abuse, all those nice, caring things Sang Ho was going around doing suddenly became very dark and dangerous. Because Young Jin was able to see through Sang Ho’s act so early on, us viewers never felt the frustration of our hero being blind to all the shady things the villain was doing. Sang Ho liked to taunt and brag a bit, and it was super satisfying seeing Young Jin’s expression show that not only was she not falling for Sang Ho’s sweet-talk, she was seeing it for what it really was. Young Jin was just a star of a heroine all round.

Gah- the way she protected all the kids was just so, so, so good!

She had just enough softness to see how Eun Ho and the rest of the boys felt safe and protected by her, and just enough toughness that it seemed reasonable that she would be able to catch the murderer and keep all the kids safe at the same time. Kim Seo Hyung  gave Young Jin a HUGE amount of charisma, and she was an excellent fit for the role.

She was just amazingly bad*ss

Occasionally I feel like actresses who take on detective roles, or typically ‘manly’ roles, feel like they have to give their character manly characteristics to sell the part. I loved that Kim Seo Hyung didn’t make Young Jin feel like a man in a woman’s body. While I certainly wouldn’t describe Young Jin as ‘girly’ she also wasn’t ‘manly’ either. It was great to see a character injected with a great amount of female charisma- she was amazing and so easy to root for. On the flip side, we almost had Ryu Deok Hwan doing the exact opposite. Sun Woo was a character that had a lot of love for his students and for his family, and I loved that this affection was presented as a strength and not a weakness. Sun Woo wasn’t any less manly for loving these young kids and wanting the best for them, and he didn’t have his masculinity threatened by having a strong, competent woman like Young Jin around. In fact, it was these same characteristics in Young Jin that Sun Woo admired and felt drawn to. I adored their friendship and their partnership throughout the show.

What a wonderfully cute team up

Seeing Young Jin slowly start to open up and ask for help as she needed it was a wonderful thing to see, and likewise Sun Woo started to trust Young Jin and rely on her so that they could work together towards their common goal. I love that she show didn’t feel the need to force a main loveline, as I preferred Young Jin and Sun Woo as platonic partners. While there was a hint that Sun Woo was developing a crush on Young Jin, I’m glad that the show didn’t feel the need to go much deeper than that.

This pairing was just...not great...

This drama knew what it was (and that wasn’t a romance) and stuck to what it was doing well. The rest of the detectives weren’t given too much screen time, but they were fleshed out enough that they felt like slightly more than recurring extras. Young Jin’s relationship with her team was an interesting one, as she relied on them in a sense, but she also preferred to fly solo. It was a great moment of character growth for her when Jae Hong apologised for being late and Young Jin replied that he wasn’t late, she just never waited. It brought an awareness to her actions that she hadn’t had before, and showed how Young Jin was learning to accept help from others, including her team. The one thing going on in the detective team I didn’t like that much was the weird rivalry going on between Jae Hong and Ja Young. It felt a bit strange and forced, and frankly I think the show could have done without Ja Young’s character as a whole (even if that would leave the female role count pretty darn low). The drama was really great at building atmosphere and creating tension. The lighting was used really effectively in shots to make the tone feel much more intense and dramatic, and a lot of detail went into creating a moody, mysterious atmosphere- Young Jin only wore black until the final episode when she switched to white to show her closure and moving past the stigmata case.

The calm after the storm

The music also added to this effect, helping to create a tense atmosphere and build emotion. The production quality on this drama was really high and gave the show an overall feeling of cleanliness and professionalism. 

What Was Great:

Sang Ho:

Man, I love a good villain. Nothing is worse that when you have a super lame villain and everybody is scared of him for no apparent reason. Or a villain that seems super easy to catch. Or even a villain that is so ridiculously over powered that it feels like the good guys should never be able to win! Sang Ho was none of those things.

He was super creepy ever since that first phone call

He was so brilliantly constructed that he had the perfect level of creepiness, without being downright obvious that he was the evil murderer man. His smaller interactions with the younger kids, including Dong Myung and Dong Myung's brother showed just what a competent groomer Sang Ho was, and use how exactly he had established this entire network of people who respected and trusted him enough to do shady things just because he was the one to ask them. Park Hoon played the character to perfection- he was dripping charisma all drama long, and at times made Sang Ho seem like a really fun and likeable man.

So scary, so scary

He found the perfect blend of charming and shady, and could flip his expression in an instant. Park Hoon had a way of drawing you into his character- even though we were fairly sure that Sang Ho wasn’t a nice guy, he was so interesting, and we as viewers wanted to know more about him. His manipulation was an interesting type of scary, as it’s not usually one we see in run of the mill villains- usually we get blackmail and threats, not coercion. The scene of Sang Oh basically convincing Sang Won (the initial stigmata murderer) to kill Hee Jung for him and then kill himself was just downright terrifying. The character was written so well, and Park Hoon's subtle expressions, such as a flash of hope in his eyes when someone agreed to his suggestions, really made Sang Ho a villain to remember. And yet, as much as he was a horrible, despicable man, there was still a level of sympathy for him. At the end when he had been caught and he wondered what his life would have been like if someone like Young Jin found him instead of Sang Won, my heart broke a little. His downfall was also wonderfully perfect. The way he tried to set things up so that Young Jin would end up killing someone (most likely Sang Ho himself) seemed like a strange way Sang Ho was trying to dodge responsibility for his actions- as if he was convincing himself that anyone could kill if they were presented with the right circumstances.

Man, the way he threw away his team was brutal

But Young Jin (as usual) didn’t fall into Sang Ho’s hands and act the way he wanted. She saved Sang Ho’s inner circle who Sang Ho had left to die, and even saved Sang Ho from falling over the edge of the very building where Eun Ho fell. And then to see him locked away in solitary, so similar to how he was first found alone and abandoned as a child, just felt like the most fitting punishment for this man.

Relationships:

There was not a single relationship in this show that wasn’t interesting to watch on screen. Young Jin and Eun Ho, our main friendship pairing, had a really sweet and endearing relationship.

They are too cute

I liked that they didn’t try to play it off like Eun Ho was the son Young Jin never had, or Young Jin was the mother Eun Ho always dreamed of- they were simply friends. Sure, they were different ages, but that didn’t prevent them from enjoying each others company and looking out for one another. Sun Ho’s relationship with Sun Woo  was also really interesting to watch develop. Despite Sun Woo being afraid to get too involved in a student’s life again, he couldn’t help but be drawn to Eun Ho.

Absolutely adorable 

His attempts to try and protect Eun Ho (misguided as they were because Dong Myung wasn’t actually bulling Eun Ho) were sweet to watch, and set Sun Woo up as an easily likeable character, even if he wasn’t always in the loop. Perhaps my favourite relationships of all were between the young school boys. They were so awkward and sweet, and bumbling in their ways of showing affection that they were really fun to watch. The slow reveal of Eun Ho and Dong Myung’s relationship was just perfect, and it only got more fun once we added Min Sung to the mix. The boys really looked to In Beom as a father figure, as much as they denied it, and it was so wonderful to see these young, vulnerable boys finally find someone who was able to look out for them, trust them, and protect them. The way all the relationships were developed in this show was really wonderful- no one was given a free pass, and everyone had to work to earn the trust of those around them- especially the trust of the younger boys who had been so mistreated. 

What Wasn’t:

Gloss Over:

The only thing I didn’t love about this show was the quick skim through it did of the map inside the special Gospel book. The show made such a big deal out of Ki Ho giving this book to Eun Ho, and then Ki Ho being the only one to be able to read and decipher the code inside it, that it was a bit of a let down when the drama just breeeeeezed right on past explaining or showing how Ki Ho actually found the evidence the the book was pointing to.

If it was so darn easy to find the evidence why did he find it sooner?

Like, if Ki Ho could figure it out without having insider knowledge on the book’s secret, then why couldn’t Sang Ho? It’s just as well that the detectives got enough evidence to charge Sang Ho without the tape of Jin Young’s friend’s murder being super necessary, because it felt like a total fluke that they even got the tape. For how much importance was placed on the book, it was actually kind of redundant.

Recommend?

100% yes! This is one of the best mystery-thrillers I’ve seen in quite some time.

Seriously so satisfying

Hundred Million Stars From the Sky

Hundred Million Stars From the Sky

6/10

Hundred Million Stars From the Sky

Genre:                                                 Episodes: 16                                         Year: 2018

Romance

Mystery

Synopsis:

Detective Yoo Jin Kook is working on a murder case that has been disguised as a suicide. His sister, Yoo Jin Kang, has been growing closer to an enigmatic man, Kim Moo Young, who Jin Kook suspects is the murderer.

Cast:

Seo In Guk (Kim Moo Young)

Jung So Min (Yoo Jin Kang)

Park Sung Woong (Yoo Jin Kook)

Go Min Shi (Im Yoo Ri)

Jang Young Nam (Tak So Jung)

Do Sang Woo (Jang Woo Sang)

Kwon Soo Hyun (Eom Cho Rong)

Seo Eun Soo (Baek Seung Ah)

General Thoughts:

This show really annoyed me. Because it was kinda good and did have a lot of really interesting, fresh concepts, but I just didn’t like the characters enough to actually care what happened to them.

I actually didn't want the main couple to work out

The one thing that makes me lose interest in a drama really quickly is not having any emotional investment in the characters. Because all three of our leads were stubborn and kinda selfish, I ended up not caring about what hardships they went through. I was more on Jin Kook’s team that the main couple, which I’m not sure is what the show was aiming for. While I haven’t seen the original Japanese drama, I did take a bit of a look at how it differed from this remake.

Felt like a cop-out when they didn't end up being related though

Essentially it seems like the plots are pretty much the same with just a few differences sprinkled throughout- some differences bigger than others. The biggest differences seem to be that in the original Japanese version, Moo Young and Jin Kang (Ryo and Yoko) are actually brother and sister. The K-drama version shied away from this incestual twist and made the brother-sider relationship between the leads a lie created by rich girl Se Ran. The other big difference is that originally Yuko kills Ryo (not sure on the reasoning- after a misunderstanding?) and then in horror/regret (because she still loves him) she kills herself. I can see why the Korean version shied away from those twists, as they are fairly dark, and I’m not sure a Korean audience would be as accepting of those turns of events as a Japanese audience may. A smaller difference between the shows is that Ryo just seemed much darker than his Korean counterpart, Moo Young. Originally Moo Young was painted with a rather tainted brush, and he definitely gave off a bad-guy vibe. I still stand by that he’s a massive *sshole.

He wasn't mysterious. He was manipulative and emotionally abusive.

He abetted a young, troubled girl into unknowingly murdering another girl, and then later set up a situation that resulted in the death of another dude, and an innocent girl that he was using for fun. But as the show progressed on, and Jin Kang started falling for Moo Young, these past deeds were just swept under the rug.

In the interests of continuing the love-line, we're just gonna bypass his craziness

It felt kind of like the show had pushed itself into a corner by making its hero into someone dark and fairly unlikable, and then had to somehow convince its audience that it was totally normal and not at all creepy for this girl to fall for him. I mean, I guess they succeeded with a lot of viewers as I’ve mostly heard positive things about the show, but it just didn’t work for me. Moo Young was so dark and then suddenly he was just a normal guy who was misunderstood. I would have loved the show to go deeper into Moo Young’s struggle with his nature- it would have been so interesting to watch him try and figure out how to be a ‘good’ person while constantly battling with the fact that at this point he just wasn’t. Frankly speaking, after Moo Young asked Jin Kang to teach him how to be a good person (which was a great scene I might add), he was suddenly just there without much struggle. All his desire to manipulate and play games with people just seemed to vanish. Which I found super unbelievable. In fact, I found it super unbelievable as a whole that he would try and turn himself around for Jin Kang at all. To me it felt much more like Moo Young was trying to get Jin Kang’s attention and affection purely because she wasn’t giving them to him.

He just isn't used to not being fawned over by females

As someone who was a smooth talker and was so charming, it felt like he’d never really been in the position where a girl just hadn’t been interested in him before. His desire to get close to Jin Kang felt (to me at least) much more like he viewed her as a difficult conquest, and that he wanted to ‘win’ her rather than any actual real affection. And of course the usual trajectory for these kinds of relationships, is that once the person has been ‘won’ the ‘winner’ then pretty much loses interest.

Boy, did I worry about that cat's longevity

While at the end I did buy that Moo Young had genuine and sincere feelings for Jin Kang, I never truly believed his transition. For someone who had never once in his life really cared about anyone else, he sure fell for Jin Kang pretty darn quickly. I also wished that Jin Kook had a better reason for hating Moo Young so much. I mean, yes he was a dark and dangerous dude and I sure as hell wouldn’t want any sister of mine anywhere near him, but Jin Kook seemed to have a deeper hatred against Moo Young that went beyond what we were seeing of him. But then it turned out he didn’t. At the start of the show when Jin Kook was so adamantly against Moo Young, it turns out he didn’t know any more about him than we did. He just hated him way, way, way more. It also bugged me how Jin Kook seemed completely unable to have a rational, reasonable discussion with Jin Kang about why Moo Young wasn’t a great guy to hang around. I’m sure sitting down with her and explaining that he is either a murderer, or someone who orchestrated and cleaned up a murder would probably crush Jin Kang’s enthusiasm for Moo Young far quicker than any nonsensical screaming match ever could. The plot as a whole was just excruciatingly slow, with hardly anything actually happening.

Literally nothing was going on besides Jin Kang deciding whether to date Moo Young or not

There were a lot of mysteries being built and a whole lot of atmosphere being developed, but when it comes down to it, there wasn’t a whole lot going on. Others seemed to get their enjoyment from the building tension and all the character interactions as they slowly circled each other and came closer to the truth, but as I personally didn’t care all that much about any of the lead characters, I kinda didn’t care about the slow circling and atmosphere building- I just wanted the story to hurry up and do something. Despite my lack of interest in the show overall, I did find that the production value of this drama was really good.

Such moody cinematography  

The scenes were all beautiful, and visually very appealing. The angles and lighting in play during this drama really helped to emphasise the dark, mysterious vibe the show was going for, and actually contributed a great deal to making the characters seem creepier than they otherwise would have been. 

What Was Great:

Acting:

Pretty much everyone who acted in this drama was brilliant. Seo In Guk was an obvious standout (when is he not), and it was so brilliant to see him trying out a new type of character. He’s mostly stuck with nice, warm roles in the past, and while he’s definitely had his go at heavy emotional scenes, I think this is his first time playing a villain role (despite being the actual hero of this drama, you can’t deny that Moo Young is still a total villain).

The way he could deaden his eyes was amazing (and slightly unsettling)

He brought a moodiness to Moo Young that really made your hair stand on end, but paired with his trademark cute-guy smile it made it really hard to tell if you wanted to love him or run away from him in terror. Which I believe is the exact effect this character is supposed to have on you- we know he’s bad, but he just seems so good. Seo In Guk was so good at toeing the line of right and wrong, and completely made you question whether his character was actually a bad guy, or just a misunderstood guy that didn’t bother to correct others’ wrong judgement of him. On the other side, we had Seo In Guk/Moo Young’s rival, played by Park Sung Woong. I kind of can’t believe that I hadn’t heard of him until last year, as I feel like I’m seeing him in everything now. Which I do not have a problem with at all. Park Sung Woong delivered another fabulous performance here, and I adored him as the protective, slightly goofy older brother. He was excellent at expressing both Jin Kook’s dorky love for his sister and his aggressive suspicion of Moo Young without ever feeling out of character. Similarly to Seo In Guk, Park Sung Woong could pull out different aspects of his character that made us feel as though we were discovering deeper traits and emotions rather than feeling like we were having random new information thrown at us, which can sometimes be the case.

I must say, I'm glad we phased out the red hairdo

Even the supporting actors such as Go Min Shi, Jang Young Nam, and Kwon Soo Hyun delivered great performances that added to the overall sleek and professional feeling of the show. The one performance I didn’t totally buy was Jung So Min as our leading lady. While she wasn’t bad, I didn’t think she was on the same level as her male costars. Though, this could also be because her character was just lame. 

What Wasn’t:

I Don’t Care About You:

The biggest issue I had with this drama is that I did not give a flying f*ck about any of the characters involved in the story. The problem with not caring about the characters is that this dramatically lowers the stakes and the tension of a show.

Jump, live, be a murderer- at this point I don't really mind ether way

So all this atmosphere that the drama had done such a good job of building was pretty much cancelled out by the fact that it didn’t necessarily matter to me what happened, because I wasn’t emotionally invested in the characters I was seeing on my screen. Would I care if Moo Young and Jin Kang couldn’t be together? Nope. Would I be sad if Jin Kang turned her back on Oppa so she could date Moo Young? Not at all.

I didn't want a happy ending and I didn't get one, so...yay?

Would it bother me if the three main characters all took each other out at the end? No, no, and no. Perhaps this says more about me as a person than this drama as a show, but all the problems that came up for these characters just felt like karma. It was hard for me to feel sympathy for these characters, because every bad thing that happened felt like it was nothing more than the consequences of their own actions. It’s not like they were great people facing life’s unfairness- they did sh*t things and then those sh*t things came back to bite them. I couldn’t feel torn up about Moo Young being thought of as a murderer and a bad guy because he kinda was. If he hadn’t played games with Yoo Ri and her bully friend, Yoo Ri wouldn’t have been able to kill her. If he hadn’t used Seung Ah as a way to antagonise Woo Sang, both Seung Ah and Woo Sang would have lived. So excuse me for not feeling pity for him when his girlfriend’s detective brother wanted her to have nothing to do with him. Cuz you know what- fair call. I couldn’t feel for Jin Kang’s situation of being torn between her brother and her boyfriend because it was her own darn fault.

'I'm gonna ditch my lifelong bestie and the brother who raised me for a dude I've known for 5 minutes' 

For starters, I never like characters that make eyes at their friends lovers, and Jin Kang went out and made eyes right from the start (even if she was pretending she wasn’t). And then after her friend was in a life threatening accident that lead to her being in a comatose state that was so obviously caused by Moo Young, Jin Kang was STILL making eyes. While his girlfriend was dying. Like, it’s just a dog move and there was no way to recover her character in my eyes after that. If she was someone I knew in real life I wouldn’t want to be involved with her, and as a character I just didn’t care what happened to her.

They're all as crazy as each other

When it was revealed that she and Moo Young might be siblings, rather than feeling aggrieved at the bitter twist fate had given them, I almost felt a savage jolt of pleasure- maybe if you’d both been more decent human beings you wouldn’t have ended up in this situation.

In what way did you think this would end well for you?

I was on board with Jin Kook for most of the drama, but he lost me a bit when he stabbed Moo Young. At that point I still believed that he knew some deep dark secret of Moo Young’s (that went beyond that he was a child victim whose parents had been killed). Once it was revealed that Jin Kook didn’t actually have any reasoning behind his intense hatred, it was hard for me to sympathise with him. It just felt like the drama was trying way too hard to make me cry for these characters, when in actuality I didn’t care about them at all. Even having Moo Young and Jin Kang shot and killed at the end didn’t get much of an emotional response from me. While it was an extreme reaction, Moo Young did kill that Chaebol’s two kids- Woo Sang indirectly when he encouraged him into a drunk car chase, and Se Ran very directly when he, ya know, shot her (again, I felt no pity when Moo Young got played by Se Ran because it was exactly what he’d been doing to other people. Karma.). Like, you can’t just kill off all these rich people with all these connections and not expect some retaliation. 

Recommend?

Personally I wouldn’t but I seem to be on the minority for this one.

I feel like I should be sadder that both the leads died...but I'm just not