"Mawang" -- Police Procedural as Greek Tragedy
The show's conceit is perhaps the most inventive I've encountered in Korean TV so far: A police procedural re-imagined as a Greek tragedy about guilt, vengeance, and forgiveness.
It tells the story of Gang Oh-soo, a passionate, hard-driving police detective tasked with investigating a series of murders that are orchestrated by a mastermind who sends tarot cards and pictures as warnings to his targets. As he gets deeper into the case, however, it's revealed that this killer is someone deeply damaged by a violent act Oh-soo committed as a teenager. The killings Oh-soo investigates activate his latent guilt, and the forgiveness he seeks by serving the law proves to be harder to come by than he imagined.
Oh-soo is set unknowingly on a collision course with defense lawyer Oh Seung-ha, an enigmatic figure who publicly serves the law but covertly orchestrates crime. Something precious was taken from him when he was young and he pursues vengeance, defending the numerous killers Oh-soo identifies as suspects. He harbors real feeling for the show's third lead Seo Hae-in, a woman with psychometric powers that allow her to view an object's history. (Oh-soo uses this extensively in his investigation). She witnesses the aftermath of Oh-soo's crime as a teen and grows up to become an unwitting pawn in Seung-ha's vengeful game.
While it functions well as a police procedural, "Mawang" is ultimately more interested in the interior worlds of its characters, especially Oh-soo and Seung-ha. As Oh-soo increasingly realizes that the mastermind of these crimes is seeking revenge, it breaks him. The show capitalizes on two main ways to present this breakdown: his aggressive tactics and his abandonment of his own well-being. There are numerous scenes in which he accuses stutterer Yeong-cheol of committing crimes he did not actually commit. While it's understood that Yeong-cheol is a co-conspirator with the mastermind, Oh-soo often assumes that Yeong-cheol is the mastermind and is unable to pinpoint his specific involvement for a long time. Oh-soo's pursuit borders on harassment on numerous ocassions, confronting him at his workplace, in a nearby park, and even at his apartment door. These are symptoms of a man unraveling under the specific horror of being both investigator and target.
On the other hand is Seung-ha, the mastermind Oh-soo is pursuing. While he wears a calm demeanor, he is haunted by the pain he felt when his brother was killed by Oh-soo. It's the seed of the destruction of his family, with his mother passing shortly after his brother's murder, leaving him to grow up in an orphanage. Oh-soo's crime, which was forgiven because his powerful father ensured that he was let off easy, is also the seed of Seung-ha's vengeful pursuit. As the show continues, however, it becomes clear that Seung-ha's revenge causes more damage than Oh-soo's murder did. Seung-ha effectively destroys Oh-soo's entire family as well as the network that let Oh-soo go free. It isn't until the bruising and heartbreaking final scene that Seung-ha seems capable of seeing past his pain enough to see the cost of the damage he's done.
While the show definitely shows its age, it was made for network Korean TV in the aughts with all the technical hangups that implies, the writing is imaginative enough that I found it absorbing viewing. It's a slow build to the final scene, which brings everything into sharp and painful focus. I imagine that I could watch 40-50 more Korean dramas without ever finding an episode as grimly cathartic and tragic as the final episode of this drama. The ending of "Sandglass" is the one ending in Korean TV that matches this in that both shows refuse to offer the audience relief when a major character is killed at the hands of a sympathetic instigator at the end of a slow accumulation.
It tells the story of Gang Oh-soo, a passionate, hard-driving police detective tasked with investigating a series of murders that are orchestrated by a mastermind who sends tarot cards and pictures as warnings to his targets. As he gets deeper into the case, however, it's revealed that this killer is someone deeply damaged by a violent act Oh-soo committed as a teenager. The killings Oh-soo investigates activate his latent guilt, and the forgiveness he seeks by serving the law proves to be harder to come by than he imagined.
Oh-soo is set unknowingly on a collision course with defense lawyer Oh Seung-ha, an enigmatic figure who publicly serves the law but covertly orchestrates crime. Something precious was taken from him when he was young and he pursues vengeance, defending the numerous killers Oh-soo identifies as suspects. He harbors real feeling for the show's third lead Seo Hae-in, a woman with psychometric powers that allow her to view an object's history. (Oh-soo uses this extensively in his investigation). She witnesses the aftermath of Oh-soo's crime as a teen and grows up to become an unwitting pawn in Seung-ha's vengeful game.
While it functions well as a police procedural, "Mawang" is ultimately more interested in the interior worlds of its characters, especially Oh-soo and Seung-ha. As Oh-soo increasingly realizes that the mastermind of these crimes is seeking revenge, it breaks him. The show capitalizes on two main ways to present this breakdown: his aggressive tactics and his abandonment of his own well-being. There are numerous scenes in which he accuses stutterer Yeong-cheol of committing crimes he did not actually commit. While it's understood that Yeong-cheol is a co-conspirator with the mastermind, Oh-soo often assumes that Yeong-cheol is the mastermind and is unable to pinpoint his specific involvement for a long time. Oh-soo's pursuit borders on harassment on numerous ocassions, confronting him at his workplace, in a nearby park, and even at his apartment door. These are symptoms of a man unraveling under the specific horror of being both investigator and target.
On the other hand is Seung-ha, the mastermind Oh-soo is pursuing. While he wears a calm demeanor, he is haunted by the pain he felt when his brother was killed by Oh-soo. It's the seed of the destruction of his family, with his mother passing shortly after his brother's murder, leaving him to grow up in an orphanage. Oh-soo's crime, which was forgiven because his powerful father ensured that he was let off easy, is also the seed of Seung-ha's vengeful pursuit. As the show continues, however, it becomes clear that Seung-ha's revenge causes more damage than Oh-soo's murder did. Seung-ha effectively destroys Oh-soo's entire family as well as the network that let Oh-soo go free. It isn't until the bruising and heartbreaking final scene that Seung-ha seems capable of seeing past his pain enough to see the cost of the damage he's done.
While the show definitely shows its age, it was made for network Korean TV in the aughts with all the technical hangups that implies, the writing is imaginative enough that I found it absorbing viewing. It's a slow build to the final scene, which brings everything into sharp and painful focus. I imagine that I could watch 40-50 more Korean dramas without ever finding an episode as grimly cathartic and tragic as the final episode of this drama. The ending of "Sandglass" is the one ending in Korean TV that matches this in that both shows refuse to offer the audience relief when a major character is killed at the hands of a sympathetic instigator at the end of a slow accumulation.
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