Is There A “Trace” Of Hope With Actually Trying To Watch ‘ Tracer’?
Procedural dramas, particularly ones revolving around mundane subject areas such as tax evasion or bureaucracy, can be a bore for viewers. However whilst ‘ Tracer’ is still not unable to evade its more tedious moments, under the directing reigns of Lee Seung Young ( ‘ Voice 2’, ‘ Missing Noir M’) and the writing tutorage of Kim Hyun Jung ( ‘ Who Are You: School 2015’), MBC’s ‘ Tracer’ possessed a surprisingly rigid plot motive from beginning to end.
The drama focused primarily upon male lead Hwang Dong-Joo ( Im Shi-wan). Formerly a disreputable accountant with his own personal vendetta , Dong-Joo ends up working as an investigator for the National Tax Service (NTS). However instead of ending up in a reputable and prestigious department of the NTS, Dong-Joo ends up being sent to division five; a dumping ground for undesirable and difficult cases by other departments.
Alongside the help of team investigator Seo Hye Young ( Go Ah-Sung), Chief Oh Young (Park Yong-woo) and his extensive knowledge into the field from his past , Dong-Joo is determined to stop at nothing in order to enact his own personal justice.
Kim Hyun Jung’s screenplay is notably dark in parts as well as primarily fixed upon the objective of the storyline. Whilst there are admittedly moments where certain overblown dialogue exchanges , Hyun Jung’s personal touch towards the series’ notably heartfelt plot moments and subject areas was surprisingly subtle, yet effective.
Arguably one of the star attractions of ‘ Tracer’ came through the casting choices. Im Si-Wan ( ‘ Misaeng: Incomplete Life’, ‘ Hell Is Other People’, ‘ Run On’) is particularly brilliant onscreen as main lead Hwang Dong-Joo;adding a surprising touch of charisma towards his role as the antiheroic main lead.
Costarring alongside Si-Wan was Go Ah-Sung ( ‘ The Host’, ‘ Snowpiercer’ and ‘ Samjin Company English Class’ ); a hesitant yet virtuous individual in the NTS, Park Young Woo (‘ Ditto’, ‘ My Scary Girl’ , ‘ Hwayi: A Monster Boy’ and ‘ Late Spring’) took on the part as the ridiculed yet talented Chief Oh Young, whilst Son Hyun-joo ( ‘ Tazza’, ‘ Secretly, Greatly’ and ‘ Empire Of Gold’) played antagonist and director of the Central Regional Tax Office, In Tae-Joon. All of the main cast were brilliant as our main leads; helping to flesh out and add a dynamic charm towards their onscreen personas.
However within the execution of ‘ Tracer’, the pacing could notably present a pitfall also. The drama’s attempt to stimulate the storyline’s narrative could often leads to the motives of characters, or the roles of key players rarely feeling elucidated. Perhaps this was also a consequence of a nonlinear narrative; rarely allowing certain moments for viewers to sit back and take in in the events of the storyline.
However perhaps one of the saving graces for ‘Tracer’ came through screenwriter Kim Hyun-jung’s ability to intertwine niche and predictable setups against moments which allowed opportunities to explore the wider scope of Dong-Joo. Whilst Hyun Jung could sometimes fall into a slightly cyclical pattern of a “ new dilemma” forcing Hyun Joo to keep on his toes, this did highlight diverging writing niches of characters being merely plot devices. Instead Hyun Joo and the supporting characters of the series were involved and attached towards the events and processes of the storyline; allowing opportunities in order to explore certain elements of character depth.
The dialogue is admittedly overblown in parts. However Hyun Jung did include some surprisingly witty and sardonic responses for Dong Joo, helping to personify his unpredictable nature to audiences throughout the series. The comic relief present in ‘ Tracer’ is notably an odd mixture between ferocious insults and name calling, as well as lighthearted and somewhat benign exchanges also.
‘ Tracer’ isn’t a series that will suit everyone’s personal tastes. However whilst ‘ Tracer’ focuses upon a notably mundane and simplistic formula, the execution of the narrative is surprisingly tactful. The acting performances are brilliant and solid throughout and whilst the finale helped to setup events for season two, ‘ Tracer’ is notably not without its more evident writing flaws here and there. Overall the first part of ‘ Tracer’ is notably a dynamic mixture of revenge, angst and wit in order to create a surprisingly entertaining drama along the way.
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ADDICTIVE
Must admit iit me three tries to get into this drama. I have always liked the ML so gave it a try. Once you get past the first episode you will be hooked. It is about revenge. I did get lost in some of the tax audit meetings. The ML is a genius in strategy and planning his revenge on those responsible for his father’s death. As usual th are the usual corrupt prosecutors and tax auditors. Office politics are scary with betrayals and back stabbing. I hope there is a season 3. This is one of the few dramas where I loved the music. There is one particular song (girl group) I can’t get out of my head.Was this review helpful to you?
Awesome
Awesome❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️♥️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️♥️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️♥️♥️♥️❤️❤️❤️❤️
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This review may contain spoilers
The kind of drama that should be a standard for "k-dramas".
Well, this is the story of Hwang Dong Joo whose father was involved in a massive financial scandal and whose circumstances of his death remain suspicious. Hwang Dong Joo becomes a chief of taxation at the National Tax Service. He works hard to achieve his purpose and revenge.Now the comments are mixed on this series in general and contain only two reviews. I want to say I thought it was a thriller as the tag meant but it was more of a drama overall.
So, I had to give up on the thriller atmosphere that I love in general, and although here it was more colorful and light-hearted, there was enough action and thrilling moments to keep me focused.
The series has its somewhat silly and clichéd sides, where Hwang Dong Joo is a step-ahead of everyone else, the false suspense when you're supposed to believe the antagonists are winning, the slow-motion moments a bit cheesy. Well, if we forget that which is inevitably part of Korean dramas, the series is very enjoyable.
Hwang Dong Joo, despite the fact that it is predictable that he often wins, I like his character, he is a smart-ass and moreover arrogant and frank, a little rough but funny. Honestly, a kind of arrogant character that we love because he says out loud what the viewers are thinking quietly, especially to the antagonists. So his character is really enjoyable and a treat for us.
I have to say that the other characters all pretty much have a clichéd role in traditional k-drama fashion. The somewhat dumb but big-hearted teammates, the sometimes annoying superiors and the subordinates who are assholes, the "evil" director, Seo Hye Young (the FL) who is generous and friendly but sometimes a little dumb, and then the mentor who can be trusted.
In short, a quite few clichés, and I would have liked to see more complexity in the characters.
As for the plot and the story, I must say that it's pretty good overall, we have several cases that come together and that lead to the grand finale and to put the antagonists in sight, the words are certainly technical and the meetings quite incomprehensible for us who have no knowledge of how these finance companies work but it is quite easy to follow overall. We follow Hwang Dong Joo with delight in his revenge and taking down the antagonists who are really too arrogant for their own good. The story is really about revenge with a sassy but fun character who is determined to bring down the entire system if need be. There is a lot of fiction, but also quite emotional moments, honestly this drama gives us a bit of everything, and it's very well done.
I would like to add that there are a lot of series produced in South Korea that I could qualify as made in "k-drama fashion" so comedy, silly, emotional and simple, sometimes bad acting.
This series although not hugely elaborate, should be the kind of standard for the industry, this is what a k-drama should look like, not low-end series especially in acting and script. Frankly, this series is solid for its genre.
So, I would honestly say to at least see the series because Hwang Dong Joo is worth it as a character, it's really him who carries the series and makes us want to follow his adventures, certainly it's not ground-breaking but his character is worth it, and like I said, it's pretty solid.
With that, I'm going to get into season 2 right now.
Ps. It's been hard to get good subs for this series which is a shame because it deserves to be commissioned properly, I believe Kocowa did it recently but only for the American continent and in addition the season 1. So I recommend the links shared by Tax Payers Sub Team who did a superb job to sub this series for international fans and the entire two seasons.
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Skip it
I should have dropped this show earlier, but i expected to get better. Unfortunately it was just becoming worse and worse.There is no reason this show should exist in this current format. mydramalist.com requires 500 or more words to explain how bad this show is. I am not sure what to do here instead of rambling about how bad the show is and was.
Acting was bad
ScreenPlay was terrible
Story was ok
The ML suppose to be smart and calculative, the writer was probably dumb so he could not write anything smart, the screenplay and director decided to chop up the scenes randomly, jumbled it up and put together this show so that they could confuse the people who are watching this terrible show.
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I'm Already Tracer
It's not really 2 seasons, there was just 3 weeks broadcasting delay in the middle because of Olympics. Otherwise, it's a full 16 episodes drama. However, it would have been really nice if they kept it to 8 episodes because the smaller side cases were really boring despite their relation to the bigger one. Both main characters Dong Joo & Hye Young had a good characterization but the remainder of the cast couldn't carry their own weight and ended up being bland. Although the plot was centered around tracing money but more often than not it deviated away from the tax evasion plot trying to be a different type of show. While the ending may have been acceptable but it left much to be desired. A drama with an interesting concept but it couldn't pull through to the end.Was this review helpful to you?
Good Enough
Korean Drama " Tracer " is a tax invasion drama with some action and many twists.The performances of the show were spot on, especially by the leading roles, who did a great job with the characters.
The twists and criminal cases were, in addition, well handled and created the right atmosphere for the story.
However, the drama did get tedious, mostly because of the theme of the story that didn't aid it much, though the creators did try to help it by adding some intrigue and some business thriller scenes.
So, overall, five out of ten.
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