The excellent cinematography is another thing I’ve been meaning to comment on about this kdrama. There’s at least one interesting camera trick per episode.

Again, this will be a work in progress. Every time I see something interesting which you should know, I’ll update this.

BTW, I’m not a cinematographer. I’m merely sharing with you what I know. Sharing is caring.

Episode 1.

The opening shot. Do you want to guess what think this is?

I believe it’s a tilted shot of a spiral staircase. From a tilted angle of a camera lens, we’re looking down at the ground floor from the top of the staircase.

It reminded me of the staircase in the Vatican. But this one isn’t tilted….

To me, that opening shot was an excellent one because it foreshadowed the story. The hero Dongshik would soon find his life spiraling out of his control.

Here he is. Flanked by the police.

The next shot showed feet walking down the corridor.

Dongshik’s shoes are in the middle. He seems to be wearing casual shoes, like sneakers. They’re suede, laced-up.

Again, I interpreted this shot to be a foreshadowing. You see, Dongshik always wears the standard corporate men shoes, the oxfords. So something life-altering would happen to him.

See his normal shoes? This screenshot is from Episode 1.

And these are the shoes of the real psychopath, Seo Inwoo. They wear the same style of shoes, although the leather of Inwoo’s shoes is shinier, the shoelaces are stiffer, and the silhouette is more tapered.  (hahaha. Didn’t I tell you before that I love shoes??)

Inwoo’s oxfords.

Dongshik’s oxfords. Inwoo’s shoes are obviously more expensive.

Episode 2.

The dolly zoom at 1:06:05 is a neat trick often used in Hollywood movies.

Here the camera sits of a dolly and focuses on Dongshik.  Then, it zooms away from the Dongshik.

But as the camera zooms AWAY from Dongshik, the camera LENS zooms IN on Dongshik’s face so his face is kept the same size in the frame.

This “dolly zoom” gives the optical illusion that Dongshik is stationary but his background is receding.  The effect of this “dolly zoom” on the viewers is disconcerting. The viewers are visually being transported to feel his paranoia up-close. Combined with the background sound of Dongshik’s heartbeat, the viewers are also seeing his intense internal stress and transformation into a psychopath.

Episode 3. 

The panning camera trick at 17:22 shows Dongshik cleaning the storage room. He’s been “exiled” in the storage room away in preparation to his being fired from the company.

To show the interior of the room, the camera pans from right to left.

When camera hits the black window frame, the camera

slides back to show the room gradually being cleared.

Dongshik is hard at work without complaining.

As the camera pans again, Dongshik is seen moving methodically from one corner of the room to another.

He’s now organizing the shelves.

He finally tidies up everything,

and he takes a seat

in his new office. After he’s spruced up everything, the storage room actually looks like an office. It’s much better than a cubicle.

And notice that red box in the foreground? I thought that it’s a neat reminder of the red diary.

What I like about this scene is that, aside from showing us his organizational skill, it also symbolizes his coping skills. He organized that messy room, right? Likewise, even though he finds himself in a muddled situation because of the red diary, he can work his way out of it with his diligence.

Before I forget: I have to mention this about the lead detective/”uncle” of BoKyung. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s the leaker in the police and provides information to Seo InWoo’s brother-in-law.

Episode 4.

The dutch tilt angles create an unsettling, foreboding sensation in the viewers. I’ve explained this technique several times now in this blog, so I won’t bore you again with details.

Throughout this drama, the director has been tilting the camera angles to show both the confused thoughts of Dongshik and psychopathic tendencies of Inwoo. But in this scene (at 14:01)) the director switches between Inwoo’s tilted shots with the company auditor YuJin’s level shots, creating a dizzying effect. Inwoo and YuJin are talking at cross-purposes.

Inwoo: Things are getting complicated because of that jerk.
YuJin: Pardon?
Inwoo: Did Yook Dongshik come in yet?
YuJin: It’s past the time for reporting to work, so he probably did.
Inwoo: He probably did? I asked whether he did or not.
YuJin: I’ll check.
Inwoo: Crazy jerk. Why did he make this difficult by doing whatever he wants?
YuJin: What are you talking about?
Inwoo: Never mind. If he’s in the office, send him to my office immediately.
YuJin: Okay. But should I tell him the reason you’re looking for him?
Inwoo: Just tell him not to ask anything, nor quibble, and that his life is in my hands.

Level shot = sane person

Skewed shot = twisted person

There’s also another noteworthy shot in this episode.

This is a bird’s eye view of DongShik being beaten by the psychopath’s brother/company director/JiHoon in the lobby of the corporate building. From the shot, it’s obvious that this scene is staged so the Dongshik and JiHoon are literally the “center of attention.”  But Dongshik’s coworker MiJoo steps in and tells all that it was actually JiHoon who took the lewd pictures to incriminate Dongshik.

But what I like about this scene is that revolving door. lol. I thought it added an extra meaning, an extra oomph! to the scene.

What goes around, comes around.

What goes up must come down.

The last shall be first and the first last.

Turnaround is fair play.

Karma’s a bitch.

JiHoon is out, and Dongshik is in.

Episode 5. 

Speaking of angle shots, there’s another clever use of different camera shots at 17:45 when the high school bullies attacked Dongshik. This scene was shot from multiple angles, but I’ll discuss only three, okay?

One, there’s one camera perspective showing BoKyung and her sidekick watching the bullying scene unfold as if they were watching a movie. BoKyung and her sidekick were viewing the live-action from an alley, and the walls of the alley “framed” Dongshik’s encounter like a camera shot. They were observing his actions to determine whether Dongshik was a psychopath or not.

I thought this shot effectively showed their separation from the crime scene.

Meanwhile, the corrupt detective who was hired by Inwoo was watching the same scene develop from the top of a wall on the other side of the alley.

The director used an interesting shot because high angle shots (i.e., the camera points downward from above) typically make the subject of the camera look weaker and helpless than he/she is. (Just imagine an eagle perched high up on a tree branch, watching a field rat).

From his vantage point, the detective saw a powerless Dongshik facing a gang. And Dongshik looked even more pathetic because the detective was viewing him from above. He then confidently reported to his Inwoo that Dongshik was a total pushover.

Now, the third shot, I’m going to mention is this one.

Dongshik was just kicked by a gang leader. He wiped off blood from his nose, and he stood up, clutching small pebbles in his hands. He moved as if to strike a blow at the kids and then he stopped and thought to himself, “In the old days, I would have buried these small fry on the spot but I need to hold back since I’m not the Yook Song Sik from the past.”

He released the pebbles.

Now, this is a low angle shot. You can tell that the camera is positioned below Dongshik and it’s pointing upwards. In contrast to the high angle shot, a low angle shot tends to make its focal point look bigger, braver and more powerful. To me, this camera shot reflects the message of this scene. Dongshik made a decision not to strike back and retaliate against the bully. His decision made him, metaphorically, a “bigger man.” He was being courageous.

Releasing those small pebbles from his grasp symbolized him releasing the “small fry” and backing off from the high school punks. But viewing the release of the pebbles from that angle, made more impact than watching it from the side view or from above.

Episode 6. 

Rack focus is used twice in this episode so I might as well point it out. 🙂

Rack focus is what you call the change in focus of the camera lens, without moving the camera itself. It’s used to expose something hidden, to highlight something or to show that the character is unaware of something important.

Take for instance the scene at the start of this episode. The doorbell suddenly rings and Dongshik opens to the door to find nobody there.  We already know that Inwoo’s hiding behind the door with his hatchet.

This is a rack focus.

The camera changes focus from the predator to the prey. The effect on the viewers is to heighten their fear that poor, clueless Dongshik is going to get whacked any second. He’s unaware that the hatchet man is behind him.

Now, this trick is repeated later on this episode, at 48:30.

The bad guy rams his forklift through Dongshik, and says, “What does this bastard take me for?”

He doesn’t know that Dongshik has appeared behind him till Dongshik says in a raspy voice, “Yeah, and what do you see me as?”

The camera then focuses on Dongshik and his blurred face is revealed to be smiling devilishly behind the forklift.

So, yes, rack focus is one of the few tricks we see in this kdrama.

I think the director and the cinematographer are having a lot of fun filming this show. It’s too bad, however, that this show isn’t everybody’s cup of tea.