Korean Drama: Ghost (aka Phantom)

I’m now an addict, I admit it.

I’m addicted to sharp, well written, high quality television. It’s true.

In this case, it’s the currently running Korean drama called Ghost (also know as Phantom, which can be another translation of its name in Korean) which is an utterly unique and compelling TV series. I heard about it from my wife, who has friends in Korea, and decided to give it a watch.

What I found was a show which was at the same time both familiar and completely new.

Without giving too much away, the basic premise is basically about a man who comes out of a horrible accident with another man’s face, and now has to solve the mystery of who killed “him” without his true identity being discovered. The result is what could be called a mystery-espionage-thriller, and is really hard to pin down.

The tension and suspense in the show is nail-biting, and the twists and turns can only be compared to something like 24,  Death Note or The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. (Yet at the same time, it’s like none of those.)  It’s one of the highest rated things on TV right now in South Korea, and totally deserves it. As a side note, it’s also a fairly realistic (though not totally) examination of how real computer hacking and cyber-espionage is done.

One of the things I also love about the show is how it takes your expectations and then twists them around. Much like Game of Thrones, the writers seem to look at each scene and say “what would happen here if this was a typical story” and then they completely do something else.

Is it perfect? No. It still has what I would called Korean Drama-isms, where characters think and do things that real people wouldn’t, but which happen in dramas all the time. There is also a lack of chemistry between the male and female leads, but since that’s not the focus of the show it doesn’t matter much. The real story is among the male leads anyways.

Right now they’re up to episode 11, with 9 more to go. One of the nice things about Korean dramas is that they’re complete stories. Each is only a season long, and in that season they tell a complete story from start to finish, with no plans or setup for more. I like that, and think they should experiment with that format over here as well.

So if you’re looking for something to watch during the hot lazy days of summer, give Ghost a shot. Each episode is better than the last, and I promise it will be anything but dull!

Rob

%d bloggers like this: