Lee Je-Hoon

Review – Taxi Driver

/ Lady Divine / 2 Comments

What would happen if James Bond, Mr. 007 himself, decided to quit tracking down international threats and instead focused his attention on his own community? “I’m sorry, M, I can’t track down those nuclear codes right now because I’m busy helping this teenager deal with the punks who torment him at school.” I mean… if only, right?

What if Batman stopped chasing after criminals in Gotham and instead opened a help-line? “Oh, sorry Commissioner Gordon, Batman can’t help you with that bank heist right now… he’s helping an old woman who got swindled by a mail scam.”

Well, that’s what Taxi Driver is. It’s everyone’s wild dream of justice-for-hire. So get on board!

In Taxi Driver – people who have been screwed over by the system can seek revenge outside of it, by contracting someone to do their dirty work for them. This is yet another show that illustrates how people with money and power have less fear of retribution. At the same time… it’s a show about criminals who ultimately use money and power to create “justice.” Do you see it? Do you see the Batman parallels? I mean, in this show they have a secret base in an underground lair, access to fancy computer systems and a nerd who inexplicably knows how to use them, they have fancy customized cars and motorcycles with gadgets, and they have connections gained from wealth. All of of these things give our vigilantes the power to act.

Welcome to the bat-cave

What is Batman without his bat-cave and wealth? Who is James Bond without his fancy gadgets and his military combat training? Well, Batman would just be a pissed off dude on a rampage – and one that is bound to be quickly rounded up and tossed into the pen. And James Bond would just be a dishy misogynist. The wealth and power is required. So… it can get a little messy when you’re tackling problems like social justice based on inequality – because the answer to the problem shouldn’t be the problem. But whatever. This show realizes there are problems with the premise and addresses them as best it can. It even makes a point of highlighting some of the pitfalls with vigilante justice. Cause justice is complicated.

But sometimes we just want a hero to rescue us.

A theatrical hero who likes to wear a gold hockey mask on occasion. Cause style matters, damn it.

It’s not like this is anything new. Robin Hood. Hong Gil-dong. Ned Kelly. Bandits we love. Played by attractive male actors. Give them a tragic back story, a broody demeanor, an impressive physique, and it’s cat nip for boys and girls alike. This drama reminded me how much I love Lee Je-Hoon (who I had only known from Signal). I was so mesmerized by his performance that I immediately ran to his wiki page to see if there any other dramas I had missed (and was gifted the beautiful perfection of Move to Heaven, as well as the gift I wish I could return of Where Stars Land).

Though I think Taxi Driver would have been great no matter who they cast in the roles, since the writing was fantastic and the plotlines were action packed and exciting, I believe we should all thank the people who decided Lee Ji-Hoon should play the lead. Cause he nailed it.

Without getting into spoilers, let me say there is an unexpected element to this character that really elevated him beyond your usual Batman-hero-type: The vigilante in Taxi Driver wanted to be theater major. That’s right, folks, this butt-kicking badass is a drama club geek at heart. He gave up his dreams of the stage and enlisted in the military for, you know, whatever reason, but underneath his lean muscled exterior beats the heart of a man dying to act. So when he gets to go undercover to root out criminals and sabotage their lives… he’s not just undercover, he is living for these roles. Not only is this unexpected and really funny, but and it adds a whole juicy layer of nuance to the character. Sure, he enjoys his work of vigilante justice, but you can tell he loves his work when he gets to play a character. When he’s playing a geeky teacher, a shady businessman, a lothario gangster… he’s playing to his heart. He’s putting is full game into it. He’s having so much fun, it’s contagious.

This is where I think the choice of Lee Ji-Hoon really paid off, cause he’s able to shift into all these characters and you can tell he’s having a blast doing it, just like the character he’s playing is supposed to be doing. It’s very meta.

Listen, you need to watch this show. Unless you’re put off by violence, this show is going to win you over completely. It’s got it all. A great cast (and every character gets their moments to shine), a unique overarching storyline as well as amazing individual episode plotlines, fantastic production design (it’s beautifully shot, the action scenes are epic, the aesthetics are spot on in every scene), and a killer soundtrack (a cool mix of rock and synth that will have you searching the internet for the OST). You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll be invested. The show is based on the webtoon The Deluxe Taxi by Carlos and Lee Jae-jin, and apparently many of the crimes are based on real crimes committed in Korea.

What can I say other than watch it? WATCH IT. Watch it now.

Rating: 10/10. Deluxe Taxi Service Includes Stylish Revenge.

And now for a few spoilery-extra thought…

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Review – Move To Heaven (cause this drama will kill you)

/ Lady Divine / 3 Comments

Move to Heaven is currently airing on Netflix. It’s only 10 episodes long, so I highly recommend you wait until you have 10 hours to spare because it will be very difficult not to binge this drama in one sitting. I myself stayed up until 3:00 AM last night, even though I had to get up at 7:00 AM, because I had to know how it ended… I needed the completion. I was a total emotional wreck for, roughly, ten hours. And I am extremely glad to be working from home today so I don’t have to see anyone in person, cause my face is a puffy mess from crying… repeatedly… just… sobbing all over the couch. I haven’t cried over a show in a long, long time, ya’ll… but this one hit me hard.

It’s a perfect 10/10 drama. It has it all – blood, sweat, and tears. It’s both heartwarming and heartbreaking. The characters are so memorable and fully developed over the series. The individual story lines that tie to the deaths are diverse and show the “end” may be different for everyone but every life is valued. The cinematography, music, and editing are perfect – and with a tight 10 episode run time, you don’t have to suffer through the dreaded flashbacks upon flashbacks or ridiculously long sequences of, say, staring at someone, that are the plague of so many lengthier dramas. This drama hooked me from the first episode and did not let go until the final credits… and arguably is still holding on to me, cause I am rooting for a second season (and I don’t like multi-season dramas – and hope that their creation and use remains sparse so we can ensure K-dramas maintain their originality and casting shuffles).

There is a little humor, a little mystery, but overall I would call this a standard DRAMA drama. It’s a story about people – a very sentimental one, but also a highly unusual one. It revolves around trauma cleaning – which is a specialized service that comes in and cleans up homes in which someone has died. They both sanitize the spaces, as well as pack up and organize the possessions of the deceased. It is not for everyone, certainly. Just like working in a hospital or a meat processing plant or a nursing home is not for everyone.

There will be blood. And… other icky things.

But such is life, and death, and this show does not gloss over the nastier aspects of the gig.

It doesn’t linger on it, either. Anything shown is important to the story telling of the individual episodes. This is also the case with any violence in the show – and there is some violence as well. My mother would have been disturbed by some of the scenes in this show – but she doesn’t watch television except on rare occasions and hasn’t been as desensitized by the media as most general audiences are. Anyways, I suppose viewer discretion should be advised.

To balance out this rather dark topic of death cleaning, we have the beautiful stories of the deceased which are brought to light as the crew digs through their belongings. We have the lovable characters of the main cast. The leading male has Asperger’s Syndrome and his uncle has just gotten out of prison for illegal fighting. These are two very isolated men, with very distinctive personalities, who are attempting to live together for the first time. Add on top of that an incredibly nosey and overprotective neighbor, and you (as a viewer) have a highly enjoyable trio to follow.

Overall Rating 10/10 – Learning to Live a Better Life by Cleaning Up After the Dead.

And now I shall babble about the characters – including full spoilers for the entire show so please watch it first before proceeding…

SPOILERS BELOW

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Review – Tomorrow With You

/ Lady Divine / 1 Comment

Review – Tomorrow With You

This is a show about a guy who can jump back and forth between his current time line and the future (until his own death, which isn’t too long in the future so he’s got a limited jump frame).  Anyways, using his ability to pop forward and backward in time via the subway, he’s able to make some great investment decisions and manages a successful real estate company… doing little to no work, showing up in ripped jeans, treating the majority of his employees like douchebags, and being generally an ass to everyone.  Normal CEO behavior, I guess, according to K-World.  It isn’t until he decides to use his amazing time traveling ability to actually prevent a death that his own life changes – and his life gets further tangled with a beautiful photographer’s whom he decides to marry in an attempt to prevent his own future demise.

Since this drama was so insular – so focused on just two characters – it would have been a LOT BETTER if the two characters had been more interesting and/or more likable.  They were just… eh.  Both of them.  They recently played very cool characters in other shows I loved (Shin Min-A in Oh My Venus… adorable! and Lee Je-Hoon was cool as cucumbers as the newbie cop in Signal), which only made it worse.

For a show about time travel, I felt like I was stuck in a time hole watching this.  My God, it just dragged on and on for hours… and for what?

Overall Rating – Final Verdict… abandoned to the K-Drama Graveyard.  Didn’t finish it… don’t care to.

More Musings with Spoilers…

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Review – Signal

/ Lady Divine / 3 Comments

Review – Signal

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I heard everyone raving about this show but I thought, “Ugh, a cop show.  Ugh, sounds like Frequency.  Ugh, matching up an older woman with a younger man again.  Ugh Ugh.”  I should have slapped myself across the face.  And so should you, if you are entertaining such thoughts.  Snap out of it!  Signal is AWESOME.

Yes, it’s a cops-solving-crimes show that jumps back and forth between the past and present, connecting cops and crimes across decades.  And yet I was riveted.  None of the cases ended like I thought they would.   None of the future’s interventions had the outcome I expected.  None of the usual cliches and tropes applied to this show.  There was no noona romance, for one thing.  Instead, a seasoned female cop works alongside a young cute rookie and NOTHING HAPPENS except for work.  Gasp!  I was sooo happy.  Yes, ladies and gentlemen, men and women can be friends.  They can care about each other and not want to have sex.  It is, in fact, possible to live and work in a nonsexual way with half of humanities population.  Signal was a revelation!

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It was also very dark.  The crimes were horrible and gritty.  The justice system struggled, realistically.  Crimes were unsolved.  People died and their killers were never brought to justice, not in this past, not in the present.  It was hard to know what the right thing to do was.  People are so many shades of gray, after all.  The story lines were complicated and compelling and every single episode was gripping and intense.

I highly recommend not reading too much about it before starting it up.  It’s nothing like Frequency (the movie or the show).  It’s a mystery and all mysteries should remain vague and ponderous until you actually watch it unfold before your eyes.  I don’t like to do lengthy reviews on mysteries for that very reason.  So I leave you with this – just watch it.  When you’re done, you can pick at the little pieces and discuss characters and debate the ending all you want to.  Somewhere else.  This review is just to get you to bite and spend sixteen hours devouring this amazing show.

Overall Rating – 10/10.  Dark Crime and Magical Realism.