It opens with a really graphic scene of murder in the bathroom of a burger place in Itaewon (a district of Seoul) and develops into basically a Korean Law and Order. There are two suspects, Pearson (played by Jang Geun-suk), an American born mexican/korean with really horrible corn rows and AJ (played by Shin Seung-hwan), a Korean-American brought to Korea by his father for getting in trouble.
At first, everyone thinks it's Pearson, because of his gangsta-like appearance and near sociopathy. Then it looks like it's AJ. Of course, they finger each other for the crime. The prosecution (played by Jeong Jin-Yeong) goes after AJ and after a lengthy trial he ends up with life in prison. Pearson does a year for possession and witholding of evidence.
But it doesn't end there. AJ's father (played by Ko Chang-Seok), still ever convinced of his son's innocence, brings the case to the Supreme Court, where AJ's conviction is over-turned. Pearson get's pardoned two months before the end of his sentence and high-tails it back to America after gettig rid of those corn rows (thank god). The case itself goes unsolved, much to the victim's family's dispair. I, personally, think AJ did it. He was whiny and obnoxious and, as Shakespeare famously wrote, "the lady (or man I guess) doth protest too much, me thinks".
After watching and reading the comments on DramaCrazy, I did some digging into the background of this movie. Turns out it was based on a true story. On April 3, 1997, a college student was stabbed 9 times in the bathroom of a Burger King in Itaewon. This case also went unsovled and in 2012 it'll be closed officially. That makes me sad. I am a firm beleiver in the justice system, and the fact that it failed for that poor family really ticks me off. I hope something comes up before then.
Anyway, on to my review. For a cut and dry mystery flick, it was pretty good. There was a nice amount of suspense and the do-gooder in any viewer's heart will rear it's ugly head when AJ gets aquitted. The characters are very unsypathetic, as they are meant to be. You really end up hating AJ and his daddy's boy attitude and Pearson, while creep-tastic, is a tad more likeable. I give it four stars. It wasn't perfect, but it was pretty damn good. I reccomend it highly if you like crime dramas.
On a side note, I'm really starting to like Jang Geun-suk. At first, when I saw him in You're Beautiful, I didn't like him all that much. He was aattractive, but not much more than average and his character was a bit of a douche. Then, all of a sudden in the episode where Mi Nyu and Tae Kyung get lost, he smiled. And I heard angels sing. I don't know what it is, but that smile. It's the most adorable thing ever. Here, see for yourself.
I don't know what it is about it, but it's the most adorable smile ever. And later on, in the episode with the pig, he does this scrunchy angry face thing, which is just as cute.
And thus, my obsession was born. We'll add him in with Kim Jae Wook, Gackt, and Changmin (Max) from DBSK.
No comments:
Post a Comment