When I started watching The Uncanny Counter, I wasn't really sure what I was getting myself into. Initially I was expecting an almost completely fantasy drama of the superhero-like Counters going around vanquishing evil spirits and while we did get a lot of that, this drama was so much more. At it's core, this drama was a well-written mystery thriller that delved into the sickening world of political corruption, all while following the fantastical undertones that came with the supernatural nature of our heroes. While the screenwriters focused a lot on the evil spirits terrorising the living realm, equal emphasis was placed on the unsavoury characters that will do anything for political power, with our leads struggling against both parties. This culminates in this drama's masterful execution and compelling story. Let's dive in.
SERIES RETROSPECT AND REVIEW (SPOILER ALERT)
A good drama has many aspects that keep viewers invested. Interesting plot elements, amazing portrayals and characters that you feel something for. That last point is what The Uncanny Counter has executed to perfection. It's no secret that the drama is So Mun's story, heck the literal translation of the title is Amazing So Mun, but what makes this series so special is the chemistry between the Counters and their familial bond with one another. All the Counters have tragic backstories and as the drama progressed, we got a glimpse into each of our leads' origins to varying extents. Of course, we understood and got the best look at So Mun, with his strong sense of justice and uprightness a direct product of his guilt at thinking he caused his parents' death. As we go further into the series, we see our hero's character development, going from someone practically incapable of controlling his emotions, posing a danger to both himself and his colleagues, to a matured hero who has learnt to harness his powers and more importantly keep his feelings in check, becoming one of the greatest Counters the world has known.
I labelled Mo-tak as the drama's second male lead and while that's not entirely wrong, I feel like that would be almost reducing his impact in the story, even saying he's less important than the female lead (more on her later). In truth, he's second only to So Mun in terms of importance to the drama, with his backstory and motivations being directly tied in to the plot. An amnesiac ex-detective, Mo-tak's primary motivation in the drama is to regain his memory and solve the last case he was working on, a case that's not only a part of So Mun's past but also something that'll uncover a nasty scheme over 7 years, a scheme that has put the corrupt in almost untouchable positions of power. While he generally puts on a gruff attitude, Mo-tak's really a sensitive and fatherly character, behaving as So Mun's surrogate father, and as we'll find out as the drama goes along, oftentimes ends up becoming the butt of the Counters' jokes.
Our two female leads, Ha-na and Mae-ok, while having a slightly smaller presence in the overarching plot, are no less important and they add an important dynamic to the Counters. Ha-na's primarily presented as a fairly standoffish character, spending a good part of the drama being very adverse to physical contact for fear of having her darkest memories read through psychometry, and is very much the strong, silent type. Mae-ok on the other hand, is the motherly matriarch of the Counters and cares deeply for everyone, putting her unique healing powers to good use, even at the extent of her own health. As the drama progresses, we see them start to change as well, Ha-na slowly opening up to her teammates and Mae-ok starting to let loose a little bit.
A major factor behind why these characters work so well is because they've become their own surrogate family. The shared idea in all the Counters' backstories is the loss of loved ones. So Mun lost his parents, Ha-na's entire family was poisoned, Mae-ok's son drowns and while she doesn't die until later in the drama, Mo-tak "loses" his girlfriend Jeong-yeong by forgetting her due to his amnesia. Because of their individual losses and their emotional scars, the Counters become a family all on their own, learning to support each other as they fight against evil. In many ways, Mo-tak and Mae-ok behave like So Mun's parents, with Ha-na being very much like an older sister to him (there're also hints of a very very small romance but nothing ever comes to fruition). Over time, the Counters truly open up to each other and come to terms with their sorrows, using that growth to become stronger as a team and as individuals. With their improved selves, they then go on to combat both their inner and outer demons, the latter being in the form of the evil spirits.
I have nothing but praise for the performances by our four leads, they're nothing short of superb. Jo Byung-gyu has given us an excellent performance as So Mun and you really feel every ounce of emotion pouring off his character. You get personally invested in his struggles as well, feeling hopeful to see him reunite with his parents, feeling despair when their souls are supposedly lost, joining him in resignation when his parents fail to recognise him and then finally, emotional relief when So Mun gets the closure he needs by finally meeting his parents in Yung. Jo has portrayed all these emotions well and you feel personally connected to So Mun as he rides his own emotional roller coaster. Not losing out, our other lead actors are super entertaining to watch and it's because their acting is so good, they sell the family nature of the Counters very well. Whether it's the Counters roasting Mo-tak or the team discussing their game plan over a bowl of noodles, they're a believable family and their chemistry is off-the-charts. I also want to say that seeing Se-jeong playing the somewhat cold and distant Ha-na was quite refreshing, especially because she's always been known as the bubbly and aegyo-filled one in the group, so seeing her portray a badass heroine is something totally different.
I want to give special mention to Lee Hong-nae and Choi Kwang-il, who portray main antagonists Ji Cheong-sin and Shin Myung-hwi respectively. When you really hate a drama villain, you know the actors are doing a good job. Both of these villains are a combination of the political corruption and fantasy elements of the drama, both being products of corruption while also being combined with evil spirits. Since he's the true big bad of this drama, I'll talk about Myung-hwi first. He's literally the cause of all the terrible events in the drama, being the one who ordered the death of Mo-tak and of So Mun's parents, all in his bid to gain political power. Even before he's possessed by the powerful Level 4 evil spirit, he's still an absolutely despicable man. It's an absolutely savage look at the dark side of politics, albeit on a more dramatised scale. The most amazing thing is that in many cases, drama villains show some form of "emotional motivation" that gives us a good reason of sorts to their actions but Shin Myung-hwi was just a completely irredeemable scumbag, I hated his guts. In recent times, Choi Kwang-il has taken on a lot of villainous roles and he's great at it. He truly sells the corrupt politician character well.
Cheong-sin on the other hand, represents the evil spirit problem. While he does start out as a pawn in the corruption circle, he really become a whole other kind of villain later on, even if he does work with Myung-hwi's gang later on in the series. As we know, evil spirits hop onto people with murderous intent and start at Level 1 (where the human isn't aware of the spirit's presence) before leveling up until Level 4 (where the spirit and human become one, gaining immense powers and becoming immortal). Cheong-sin is by no means a good person, oftentimes being hired as a hitman by Myung-hwi and his lackeys, and he's also the one who killed So Mun's parents (even consuming their souls after). As his evil deeds stack up and he consumes more souls, Cheong-sin becomes a Level 4 evil spirit and starts to amass an army of evil spirits to wreak havoc. It's easy to assume that Cheong-sin's a purely evil character and yes, he's very clearly a villain. But underneath all the villainy, I find that he's just a sad abused child who longs for a father's affection.
We find out through flashbacks that Cheong-sin was raised in an orphanage run by a cruel director, who abused him savagely. Even then, Cheong-sin wanted to please the man he called his father and thought that the abuse was for a reason, so he just went along with it and did everything he was told. Later on, he's adopted by Bae Sang-pil, the head of Baekjo Motors and another of Myung-hwi's cronies. Sang-pil, who Cheong-sin also calls "father", is clearly not showering his adopted son with love, physically abusing him all the way into adulthood and crafting him into a ruthless hitman, sending Cheong-sin to do all the dirty work. Even then, he just wants his father's approval and affection, doing everything he's told, even murder. As the drama progresses, Cheong-sin ends up killing both Sang-pil and the orphanage director, severing his ties from both his fathers. Even at that stage, when he's completely merged with the evil spirit inside him, a small part of Cheong-sin still longs for a parent's love and he has a soft spot for the other younger orphans like him. His evil nature is kept briefly at bay by wanting the orphans to grow up in a loving environment, an environment that he was never provided with and I think the last vestige of humanity in Cheong-sin believes that if he had been nurtured with care, his life would've turned out differently.
Why Ji Cheong-sin is such a great villain can be summed up really easily by comparing him to So Mun. So Mun effectively grew up without parents but was still showered with love and care by his grandparents and his friends. Coupled with his parents' occupation as police officers, his strong sense of justice was cultivated and when he was granted powers as a Counter, he used them for good and became a superhero. Cheong-sin on the other hand had parents, having spent his childhood with two different fathers. However, even though he had parents, his formative years were the polar opposite of our hero's, growing up in an environment without warmth and parental affection, even being used by his adoptive father to commit heinous crimes. While I think the drama doesn't play up this contrast that much, it's a big part as to why the conflict between So Mun and Cheong-sin is so engaging because it's very similar to the "one bad day" that draws the fine line between heroism and villainy. Lee Hong-nae (who most people will probably only recognise from The King: Eternal Monarch) plays this role very well, both the sympathetic human elements and the creepy evil spirit part of him, and I hope his popularity will grow after this.
While the heartwarming familial nature of the Counters as well as the incredible acting and engaging characters are all important driving forces for this drama, another really important aspect is the focus on corruption and abuse of power. In my previous series retrospect for Live On (go check it out if you want an in-depth and interesting read), I talked a lot about the bullying issue in South Korea and how their society views it, and The Uncanny Counter brought back a lot of the same thoughts I had while watching Live On. Watching these dramas reminds me of my humanity because I'm absolutely sickened by the countless scenes of corruption and bullying. Whether it was the blatant disregard for others in the corporate world or even more scenes of school violence, I could feel my blood boil at all these scenes. You know that feeling when your chest gets tight and your frustration grows? I felt that with so many scenes in this drama and I was just furious. I think most viewers will probably feel the same and it's not made better by the fact that the power abuse depicted in this drama is far more distressing than what we saw previously. It's raw, visceral, physical violence that even leads to people's deaths. It's a crucial aspect to this series and is what a good part of the story revolves around.
There's a lot of great things about this drama but there are some things I wish we had gotten a little more development on. For starters, I wish we delved a little bit more into Ha-na and Mae-ok's backstories. With Ha-na, we know her entire family was poisoned, with our heroine being the sole survivor, falling into a coma and eventually being turned into a Counter. It's mentioned by Ha-na that it was actually her father that laced their food with poison, probably in an attempted family suicide in order to escape their crippling financial situation. This tragedy is her main motivation and also what causes her to become very cold and distant from others, initially violently rejecting physical contact so that others don't know about her sad past. While we do get very brief scenes showing Ha-na's guilt over being the only survivor, I feel like we could expand a lot more on her story. As for Mae-ok, the only thing we know about her past is that she ran a photography studio and at some point in her life, both her and her son Su-ho end up drowning. Su-ho dies and goes on to become her Yung partner, while Mae-ok survives and like most Counters, enters a coma. We don't really touch her backstory, only getting brief glimpses in flashbacks as well as with her interactions with her son and her ex-daughter-in-law.
I understand why the drama didn't focus on our female leads' stories as much because the story is very much So Mun and Mo-tak's, for their personal tragedies are directly tied into the plot. However, I feel that our heroines' stories have so much potential and if we would just go a little bit deeper into their psyche, we would have way more stories to tell. We could get a more detailed look at Ha-na's past and for Mae-ok, we could actually see the cause of her coma. I don't know, I feel we could've gotten a lot more in that regard.
Another thing I would've liked to see more of is Yung, specifically the partners. There's so much we don't know about them and how they ended up there. The only thing I can figure out is that they're dead people who have inexplicably been chosen to take on this supernatural role and given powers, all while awaiting reincarnation. The only partner we know more about is Su-ho, who as I mentioned above is Mae-ok's son. In order to push Mae-ok's personal motivations forward, we also find out that Su-ho was married and he still holds on to the memory of his now widow. It's honestly quite depressing and it does make me wonder whether the other Yung partners have the same kind of backstories as well. Why is Gi-ran (Mo-tak's partner) so uptight and wanting to reincarnate so badly? How did Woo-sik (Ha-na's partner and a literal child) end up in Yung at such a young age? Why were both Wi-gen and Dong-pal (Jang-mul and Jung-gu's former partner) drawn to So Mun even though he wasn't comatose? And how is So Mun able to have two partners? I truly have so many questions about the workings of Yung.
Rumour has it that The Uncanny Counter is in the process of getting a season 2 and it makes a lot of sense. The webtoon it's based on does have 2 seasons and as far as I know, it's still ongoing. In all honesty, a lot of the stuff I mentioned above could've been covered in season 2 of the webtoon but since I've never read it, I can't confirm anything. This was an excellent drama and having a second season would be great but at the same time, with the way we ended, it's a conclusive enough ending. So Mun and Mo-tak have found closure in their struggles, and the team are continuing the hunt for evil spirits, this time across the whole of South Korea. We could just end there but if the ominous warnings of Cheong-sin right before he was banished to the afterlife mean anything, this is only the beginning of So Mun's wretched fate. Until then, we've reached the end of a truly amazing series and it's no wonder that it ranks as one of the highest rated K-dramas on cable TV. I hope you'll give it a watch. Thanks for reading.
Comments
Post a Comment