“Chicago Typewriter” (시카고 타자기)

By Jae-Ha Kim
jaehakim.com
November 24, 2019

☆☆☆☆
Han Se-Joo (played by Yoo Ah-In)
Jeon Seol (played by Im Soo-Jung)
Yoo Jin-Oh (played by Go Kyung-Pyo)

↑Note: Korean names denote the surname followed by the given name.

“Chicago Typewriter” takes place in modern-day Seoul, but some of the best storytelling occurs during flashbacks to the 1930s, when Korea was under Japanese occupation. There, we learn about three resistance fighters whose lives and friendship will set the tone for the 21st Century story arc.

Se-Joo is a famous author with a following usually reserved for K-pop stars. Renowned for his superb writing and good looks, he is suffering from a writer’s slump when he meets Jin-Oh, a mysterious ghostwriter who secretly writes chapters for him that are too good for Se-Joo to turn down. Seol is the woman both men vie for. Though trained as a veterinarian, she runs her own errand service, where she promises to complete whatever needs to get done.

She is told to pick up a package from the airport and deliver it to Se-Joo. It’s an old manual typewriter that seems to have a life of its own. I’m about to reveal a MINOR SPOILER, so skip to the next paragraph if you don’t want to know: For more than eight decades, Jin-Oh’s spirit has been trapped in the typewriter. He wanted to be delivered to Se-Joo so that he could fulfill promises he made in in a previous life and be free to move on to the afterlife.

The premise is utterly intriguing and the three lead actors all own their roles, leaving viewers invested in their layered relationships. Se-Joo and Jin-Oh both have a need to know how they died in their previous incarnations. And Soo-Jung wants to be free of the unsettled feeling she has that she somehow played a role in their demise.

This K-Drama is another where the leading man is initially presented as a jerk, making him difficult to warm up to. We learn that he was orphaned and raised by a family he thought had loved him. But each member of that family would betray him both professionally and personally to certain degrees. Even knowing this, he is torn between feeling grateful to them for taking care of him in his youth and resentful for robbing him of what was rightfully his.

The series does a great job of balancing out the drama with some comical moments (I’m thinking of a big fluffy white dog that Seol loves as much as Se-Joo dislikes it). But the recurring theme of who you were in the past setting the tone for who you’ll become in the future is both intriguing and a little frightening.

Meta moment: Primarily a film actress, this was Im Soo-Jung’s first series in 13 years. There’s a sly nod to her 2004 series “I’m Sorry, I Love You” when part of her dialogue includes the K-Drama title.

Airdates: Sixteen 70-minute episodes aired on tvN from April 7 to June 3, 2017.

Spoiler Alert: After his parents died, Se-Ju was raised by a renowned author. His wife is jealous of the boy, who shows more literary talent than her own biological son, Tae-Min (Kwak Si-yang). Early in their career, Tae-Min steals Se-Ju’s unpublished novel and presents it as his own work. His parents, who suspect what he has done, never acknowledge his actions. He is never able to write a book as good and lives in constant jealousy of Se-Ju’s success. Even still, he is initially presented as a good person. But we see his darker side emerge when he uses his sick cat as a ploy to win Seol’s attention. But back at home, when the cat wants to play, he throws it across the room. In his previous life, Tae-Min was a traitor who worked for imperial Japan.

As for this K-Drama’s title, the clacking of the manual typewriter is said to mimick the sound of the gun the freedom fighters used in combat (and vice versa). The symbolism is that just as they fought with artillery, Se-Ju and Jin-Oh fought for freedom with the words they wrote in their past incarnations as part of the resistance movement. And while Jin-Oh dies, his memory will live on in the book Se-Ju wrote about their lives together.

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