This review will be on SBS's 너를 기억해 I Remember You. It's also known as Hello Monster as I believe it was the working title before they decided on this title. I prefer I Remember You as the title so I shall refer to this drama using that title.
I finished watching this drama 2 weeks ago but I had to watch the last few episodes again to fully internalise the plot. There are a few main themes for this drama - good vs bad (right vs wrong), family, different type of crimes and also romance. I'll go into detail later on in this post.
Genius profiler Lee Hyun returns home to Korea after something from a case he’s been sent triggers a memory he thought he’d lost forever. Unbeknownst to him, one of his team members, Detective Cha Ji-an, has been investigating him for some time. She is aware that his father was murdered and his brother disappeared under mysterious circumstances involving a criminal named Lee Joon Young -- whom they both want found and incarcerated. Each seeks to unravel the other, unaware that they’ve been drawn into a dangerous game of cat and mouse by a master player and that both truth and evil are closer and far more twisted than they think.
Description of the drama taken from Wikipedia. Without further ado, let's begin this drama discussion!
Note: This post will contain spoilers so for those who have not watched the drama, you may not want to continue reading.
The Characters.
There are seriously more male actors in this drama than normal but I guess that's expected from a crime drama. It would be unrealistic to have so many female characters in a police department.
The main character for this drama is Lee Hyun, played by Seo In Guk. The whole plot is related to him somehow so like his character is definitely the most important one. He's basically this cool charismatic guy who is really good at solving crimes. At least that's how he's introduced to us. Of course, if you continue watching you'll find out more about his (dark and oh so complicated) past.
The female lead, Cha Ji An, played by Jang Na Ra, is a female detective and from the starting scene, we see that she has some sort of relationship with Lee Hyun. She isn't the typical kind of female character, however, I do want to point out that she does get herself in tough situations quite a lot. Of course, these situations would be necessary since it would give the chance for Lee Hyun to come and rescue her, which would then allow their relationship to bloom.
Lee Joon Young played by Choi Won Young, is the cause of all the problems! He's a psychopath that existed from Lee Hyun childhood.
Psychopath definition: A person with a psychopathic personality, which manifests as amoral and antisocial behavior, lack of ability to love or establish meaningful personal relationships, extreme egocentricity, failure to learn from experience, etc. - dictionary.com
Lee Joon Young, had murdered many people and was known for his bodiless kills. Without the body, there wouldn't be any evidence to convict him. So basically, he was a very clever criminal which also led to his escape from prison. And with his escape, he killed Lee Hyun's father which made the plot thicker. I'll probably continue to explain this more later on. It's pretty confusing as it is already.
The next character also played quite an important role in the drama, Lawyer Jung played by Park Bo Gum. It'll be revealed later on in the drama what his real relationship with Lee Hyun was. But of course, in this sort of crime drama, the writers would purposely want you to be suspicious of every character. It's really like guilty until proven innocent. It could be just me, since I've watched tons of crime shows, I'm always suspecting everyone. Haha.
The supporting roles were pretty good as well. The other detectives that worked with Cha Ji An and Lee hyun, and also a few other characters. I felt they provided the comical relief to this otherwise rather serious drama.
The Plot.
The plot of the drama is pretty complicated. I mean you would expect something like this from a crime drama. However, I liked how this drama took time to reveal bits and pieces of information to us instead of bombarding viewers with information. With complicated story lines like this, this was pretty good as it gave viewers time to process the information before moving on. Also because viewers are kept in suspense, it would keep them watching. So I thought it was pretty good! I was kept at the edge of my seat throughout the whole drama. I basically forgot which episode I was watching the day before as I just kept clicking 'next episode'.
The plot line was quite similar to a few crime shows like The Mentalist and also Criminal Minds. Maybe the producers got their inspiration from these shows. Then again, you can't differ very much since there's a certain standard format to solving crime. I thought that Lee Hyun resembled Patrick Jane from The Mentalist in terms of attitude and his keen eye for details but since Lee Hyun also did some profiling, that part was similar to Criminal Minds.
Earlier on, I mentioned that this drama has a few main themes. The main theme of the drama would be crime and related to that would be the theme on good versus bad. They're linked because the characters asked this question a few times, "Why is it wrong for a person to kill another person?" So basically the crimes in the drama are like murders that are thought to be 'good' murders because they're helping someone out. So it's like they're punishing the person that ought to be punished by killing them. And because these murderers are psychopaths, they do not feel any emotions as they commit their kills. So to them they're thinking that they're helping someone by removing the bad people so why is murdering them wrong? I think they looped around this topic quite a fair bit. Of course, Cha Ji An does answer the question in the end when she tells Lee Min that it's not up to them to decide what's wrong and what's right, and ultimately murder whatever the reason is still wrong.
Also, they do point out the fact that crime is a choice. So although one may be born a psychopath like Lee Min or have some characteristics of a criminal, with the correct upbringing and good choices, it can all be avoided. As shown through, Lee Min and Lee Hyun's life. It wasn't pointed out surely that Lee Hyun was a psychopath as he was covering up Min's deeds but nonetheless there was a contrast in how both the brothers grew up - Hyun being the good one and Min on the total opposite side.
The next big theme would be on family. This would be a pretty obvious one because it was frequently seen throughout the drama. From the beginning, we were introduced to Lee Hyun's past with his family - dad and brother. It was a pretty complicated beginning. Lee Hyun like grew up alone as his father was murdered and his brother went missing. He also had selective amnesia which caused him to forget the painful yet important parts of his past. (Therefore the title of the drama is I Remember You, geddit geddit?) So Lee Hyun returned to Korea to try figure out and remember his past. I think most people would've guessed or suspected that Lawyer Jung would be Lee Hyun's younger brother because of the stark resemblance to the younger Lee Min. Seriously, how did they find a kid actor that looked so much like the adult actor! Even the young Lee Hyun resembles the adult Lee Hyun. And I think it was because of this, the drama received alpha more cool points from me! LOL.
See what I mean?! They look alike!
Lastly, there's also a theme on romance. It was kind of expected that something romantic would happen between the two main leads especially since they had a past together. Also, the writers incorporated scene where Lee Hyun had to save Cha Ji An and although it is very cliche, it's usually how the male lead falls for the female lead, vice versa. Or rather it makes them own up to their feelings since it was already suggested that the two characters might have started developing feelings for each other since the drama started. Am I making sense? I hope so. Haha.
Although in the romance area there were intense scenes, there were also pretty funny, light hearted scenes. I think my favourite scene would be the one where Cha Ji An slid down the pathway of this really cool lecture theatre in a rolly chair. And Lee Hyun just stared at her with this totally unimpressed look on his face.
The scene where she was slight concussed as well. It was funny! I think it was mostly funny because they over exaggerated and it got me all cracked up.
There were other scenes that were just so awkward it became funny. Like who would say things like that in a real life situation? It was good to have some comic relief as well. They couldn't really add much comical moments in the other few theme components because they were just serious in nature so they had to compensate by making their relationship a funny one.
The Ending.
Honestly as much as I like the ending, there were a few parts that I found confusing. I mentioned I had to watch the last few episodes to make sense of things. It might just be me though. Despite the confusing parts, I felt the writers tried to answer as many questions as possible.
The last episode was quite intense especially with the unexpected turn of events when Min got stabbed. I literally was like WHAT?! After watching the whole episode, I think they needed that scene to direct the episode to the end.
It gave an opportunity for the writers to include a part where Min finally gets to make a choice. A choice on choosing the right path. Since it's been mentioned quite frequently throughout the drama that the life of crime isn't inborn but a choice. So I thought it was necessary for them to end with that and I'm glad they did write it in. It was seen that Min was given an envelope containing a new identity from Lee Joon Young. Min then says that Lee Joon Young is giving him a choice to continue hiding or live openly as Lee Hyun's brother and admit to his crimes. The scene closes with Min leaving the envelope on the hospital bed and walking out confidently. Yay!
In the romance department, Lee Hyun and Cha Ji An finally ended up together! Yay! I think most of the viewers would be happy with a conclusive ending like that. Although I liked how the romantic scene was somewhat interrupted by Lee Joon Young walking by. And then the couple turns around. I thought it was pretty cool like how it was captured on camera. Of course, the ending statement by Lee Hyun was indeed a powerful one where he vowed to catch Lee Joon Young.
That's the end of the long review for I Remember You (finally)! It took me sometime to complete writing this considering the rather complicating themes.
Aside from this, I left the best for the last! Do Kyungsoo! I'm sure everyone who watched this drama would have noticed how convincing his acting was. Even Korean netizens were singing his praise! It's not easy to act as a murderer and make the viewers believe it. Watch the video clip below and decide for yourself!
Hope you've enjoyed reading this drama review! Do check out the other drama reviews on this blog! And I'll be back with a new drama review soon!
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