By Jae-Ha Kim
Substack
August 30, 2018
Kang Chul (played by Lee Jong-Suk)
Oh Yeon-Joo (played by Han Hyo-Joo)
↑Note: Korean names denote the surname followed by the given name.
I usually don’t reveal spoilers until the end of my reviews. But the premise of the Korean series, “W,” centers around an element that I am going to reveal in the next paragraph. So, if you haven’t seen the series yet and don’t want to know about it, please stop reading now. Come back after you’ve seen it and we’ll discuss. For now, enjoy this video of Lee Jong-Suk dancing to PSY‘s “New Face”:
😂 I am dying because #LeeJongSuk is so stinking cute here. Dancing to a PSY song is not easy. It’s so fun to watch him laugh at himself, get winded, cough, get embarrassed during the pelvic thrust portion of the dance and then do…jazz hands! https://t.co/R94STOyNn7
— Jae-Ha Kim 김재하 (@GoAwayWithJae) August 21, 2018
Spoiler Alert: Director Jung Dae-Yoon described the series as the “story of a man and a woman who discover their reason for existence, while living in different dimensions in Seoul.”
I’ve often thought about life on other planets. But I have never once wondered if there was a parallel comic book universe that exists, as it does in “W.”
When the series begins, we meet Chul, who is a 17-year-old wunderkind who wins a gold medal in the Air Pistol Shooting (I think) competition at the 2004 Athens Olympics. Not long afterwards, he is framed for murdering his parents and two younger siblings. After spending time in prison, he’s released and at a loss for what to do. He attempts suicide, but is rescued.
Flash forward 10 years or so. He is now 30 and a multi-millionaire, thanks to the conglomeration he founded, which includes a news center that is dedicated to finding criminals like the murderer who killed his family.
Meanwhile, we meet the woman who will become his love interest. Yeon-Joo is a surgeon, whose boss is obsessed with a 만화 called “W.” Coincidentally, Yeon-Joo’s father — Oh Seong-Moo — is the creator of the manhwa. Mad Dog (the boss) asks her to get him some spoilers for the upcoming edition of the webtoon. In her attempt to do so, she literally gets pulled into “W” and meets Chul, who has been beaten and stabbed. She goes into doctor mode and saves his life. But when people start asking who she is and how she got there, she realizes there is no way she can explain what is happening.
And then she disappears back into her real world.
I’ll be honest. In the beginning, I didn’t realize that Chul existed only in the comics. I thought that Yeon-Joo’s father had created a webtoon based on the real-life exploits of the former Olympian, who was living in a different timeframe — kind of like in “Il Mare.” When it came to light that he only existed as he was drawn, I was surprised.
Kim Eui-Sung is superb as Oh Seong-Moo. An alcoholic whose career was resuscitated by the success of “W,” he loses his purpose in life when he realizes he no longer has control over the webtoon’s storyline. Rather, it has taken on a life of its own and he is shocked to see that his daughter is now traveling between the parallel universes.
Seong-Moo had absolute control over his manhwa characters’ lives for almost a decade. It was only after his daughter entered that world that he began to worry about how his actions were affecting others. What happens when you try to alter free will?
In this case, absolute chaos.
The concept of this series is incredibly clever. Both lead actors are stunning to look at and the animation for this series is just as beautiful. The artists did a stellar job in capturing a world that mirrors the Seoul that Yeon-Joo lives in, with the panache that can be represented in a manhwa.
When her father is unable to draw, because he’s under the control of the webtoon villain, Yeon-Joo takes over to try to save Chul’s life.
We learn in a backstory that it was actually Yeon-Joo who came up with the concept of Chul — her dream boy — when she was a high school student.
“W” has an intriguing plot & two stunning leads: #LeeJongSuk & #HanHyoJoo. The animation’s just as beautiful. The artists did a stellar job in capturing a world that mirrors Seoul, with the panache that only exists in 만화. My review⏯️https://t.co/xROWLZ7Rdl #kdrama 🇰🇷 pic.twitter.com/f3ZA1BsaRU
— Jae-Ha Kim 김재하 (@GoAwayWithJae) August 31, 2018
Lee Tae-Hwan plays Chul’s bodyguard, Seo Do-Yoon. I’ve only seen him in two roles so far, and each time he has successfully played characters much older than he is in real life. In “What’s Wrong With Secretary Kim,” he played Park Seo-Joon’s older brother. Here, he plays Lee Jong-Suk’s older bodyguard. He is younger than both actors by 6 and 5 years, respectively.
Not for nothing, but I thought a-ha’s video for “Take On Me”– in which a young woman falls for a handsome cartoon man — was clever way back in the 1980’s. It looks like childplay compared to what appears in “W”:
Violence: This isn’t a series to watch with young children. Characters are shot in the head, stabbed, beaten to a bloody pulp and tortured.
Airdates: Sixteen 70-minute episodes aired on MBC TV from July 20 to September 14, 2016.
© 2018 JAE-HA KIM | All Rights Reserved
Great drama & storyline!!