Incoming missile.
1. Deplorable female character
A badass, kickass, and smartass female character isn’t an idiot. Not in my book, anyway.
I don’t get this writer’s female creation. GuReum is certainly one hell of a street fighter, but she can be frustratingly dense. Who on earth would think it was a brilliant idea to confront three suspicious characters in an elevator single-handedly, when her team was there to help her out?
For a second, I wanted the crap beaten out of her to teach her a lesson in stupid heroics.
She can’t even cross the road without getting hit by a truck.
Didn’t she play “Frogger” as a kid??
Note: this is how the villain crosses the road. Like a boss.
I get that she’s sassy and bold. Going rogue, however, is endangering not only the mission, but also the lives of her colleagues. Furthermore, her recklessness gives her senior colleagues “just cause” to behave paternalistically. Every time she goes off on her own and ends up in scrapes, her Captain thinks:
a) she’s fragile and must be protected.
b) her sassiness and boldness are “cute” — like a little girl having a temper tantrum.
Writers know that damsels-in-distress are no longer in vogue. But they shouldn’t think that simply endowing the lead female character with stereotypical male attributes like physical strength and taekwondo moves will make the heroine into a feminist icon. Thinking bitches like me don’t want impulsive heroines who are all brawn and no brains.
2. Fetus-in-a-jar
I don’t know if this is relevant in the future, but we are missing fetal experiment Z-03. There were six jars on the shelves. I’m presuming the first one was Z-01; the camera just panned through Z-02, Z-04, Z-05, Z-06, and the empty Z-0. What happened to jar Z-03?
Also, there’s a jar of eels on a lab table in the lab nursery.
It’s interesting that of all amazing abilities of animals, the Doctor chose to reproduce the shocking power of eels. What good is this power? Are they trying to weaponize this ability? If I were to select one animal feature that could be useful to humans, I would have picked the healing traits of an axolotl. This salamander is known to regenerate a limb, part of its heart, and even part of its brain.
source: yale university
Since the Doctor had a non-functioning arm, I thought limb regeneration would have suited his interests.
3. The names
We got this already, right? I mentioned it when I was searching for a drama to watch in February.
The hero’s name “Ji Oh” When pronounced in English, the hero’s name “Ji Oh” is “Geo.” Geo means earth. The heroine’s name on the other hand is “GuReum.” Gureum in Korean means cloud. I guess she’s the cloud protecting him and giving him cover from the mysterious figures hunting him down because of his supernatural powers.
https://bitchesoverdramas.com/2021/01/21/bitch-talk-should-we-watch-these-in-february-2021/
Note: The doctor who created him calls him “Ji-yeong.” In Korean, the letter “Z” is pronounced “ji” or like the letter G, and zero is (remember from “The King: Eternal Monarch”?) is “yeong.”
Since this kdrama made no bones about its religious underpinnings, I wouldn’t be surprised if a connection linked JiOh to Jesus. Jesus after all is the Big “J.” Already there were references to Christian themes, like the cloaked woman running away with the baby (the Flight into Egypt to escape Herod), JiOh’s healing hands, the “Madonna and child” paintings inside the empty church, and of course, this glowing cross visible from afar.
As of Episode 2, the name of the Assassin is still unknown.
I like the actor who plays the assassin, Kim Sung Oh. He was in “Korean Odyssey” and “Warm and Cozy.” I’m sure he’d make a good predator, similar to Agent Smith in “Matrix,” but I half-expect him to break out character and do something comical any minute.
Like here in “Running Man.”
Too bad, Shin Sung Rok (“Kairos” and “Vagabond”) has moved from playing villains to heroes.
There was somebody who called the Assassin while he was in surgery. The phone listed him as “A – 01.”
I hope he wasn’t the same man who spotted JiOh’s clip on social media saving GuReum.
That man seems to be source of the business card that JiOh had in his wallet.
JiOh recalled writing the phone number down.
If JiOh trusted him enough to keep his business card in his wallet, I don’t want him to be the guy to betray him to the “hired assassin.”
3. Monster
The Assassin’s lack of self-awareness is intriguing. He truly believes that JiOh is the monster, and not himself.
But from the onset, the audience is led to believe that JiOh isn’t monster.
JiOh: I fell into a dreamless sleep. And woke with no memories. I don’t know who I am. (woman’s voice) “Baby. Don’t forget. ‘You are not a monster.’”
Note: The electrical charges and the baby’s blue eyes were conspicuous as the baby was dropped from the top of the building. But the philtrum (or that groove below the nose) of the baby is interesting, too. The human face fuses together during the 2nd to 3rd month of the pregnancy, and the philtrum is said to be the intersection. When the face doesn’t join properly, the baby will be born with a cleft lip and palate. The reason I’m pointing this out is that GuReum had the dental record of the missing person Kang Yong Su. According to her, that person had an alveolar bone graft. This is a surgery performed on children with a cleft clip and a cleft palate.
JiOh: I always wake up in an unfamiliar place. Am I on the run? Or am I chasing after someone?
He surveyed the dying men around him then looked down at his hand. His hands had no bloodstains.
As he stood there, a hand appeared out nowhere and gripped his leg. It was bloodied. JiOh saw the Assassin trying slice him with a sickle.
The contrast between JiOh’s and the Assassin’s hands is part of the visual storytelling. It reinforces the idea that the monster isn’t JiOh, but his attackers. They’re the ones with blood on their hands.
4. GuReum’s “String Theory”
This is a trope, you know. The intrepid detective must have a wall with photos and newspaper clippings connected with a string (preferably red string). It doesn’t matter that nowadays there are software programs to execute stats and data analytics, and to tease out the links among individuals. A detective show must have a collage of evidence pinned on the wall.
But let’s note the things she posted for future reference:
“Kang Yong Su: dead”
“There’s a male, around age 10, blue light?” – this is presumably JiOh when she last saw him
“Another murder in Juan, Police Investigation in Progress”
Dental record
“Hwang Eun Gyeong” – a nun wearing a habit
Euicheon Church”
“Choi Ji Yeong: missing”
“800 Dollars, given or loaned?”
And her family photograph.
The wall is a testament to GuReum’s sole mission in life: to unearth the truth of her missing parents. She gives a new meaning to JiOh’s being the “missing link.”
To the doctor and researchers in the lab, he’s the missing link in human evolution. To the investors, he’s their missing investment since he ran away. But to GuReum, he’s the missing piece of evidence, the hidden clue, and her most significant lead in her investigation.
5. Cruelty-free Cosmetics
I think the writer is clear where he stands on cosmetics. His voice is the voice of the JiOh’s coworker.
This is the pertinent dialogue. JiOh seemed apathetic but then he doesn’t realize yet that his existence was no different from that of the lab animals he was incinerating.
Coworker: JiOh, about the cosmetics company we stopped by earlier, for experiments, it’s known to shave off the dogs’ hair completely and use its shampoo on their bare skin.
JiOh: Yes, for skin test.
Coworker: Not only that, it tests its shampoo in the dogs’ eyes, too.
JiOh: Yes, to test it for their eyes as well.
Coworker: Even when their skin gets severely irritated and their eyes go blind, the company withholds even a drop of antibiotics or painkiller until the dogs die.
JiOh: The company is invested in seeing the test results.
Coworker: Even so, burning the dogs in a furnace like this is too cruel, right?
JiOh: Doesn’t matter. They’re dead.
Coworker: They’re dead from the experiment!
JiOh: They’re only animals.
Coworker: Even so. Though I make a living doing what I do, I feel we humans have no right to treat animals as we do.
JiOh: We don’t do it because we have the right. We do it because we have power.
Coworker: Just because we have power, can we do what we do?
JiOh: It’s only natural.
Coworker: Natural? No, we’re cruel.
JiOh: A tiger isn’t being cruel when it hunts and feeds itself on a hare.
Coworker: That isn’t the same as this.
JiOh: It’s not different, really.
Coworker: The tiger does what it does for its survival. We, humans, without doing a thing like that (pointing at the incinerator) can survive.
JiOh: Researchers, too, experiment and research to make a living.
Coworker: Boy, aren’t you coldhearted or what? Did you grow up being unloved?
JiOh: Yes.
Coworker: Forget it. Just go out there and do the cleanup. Rude guy.
In other words, when it comes to shampoos, BB creams, and eye shadows, there isn’t any need to use animals to conduct research on the toxicity of the ingredients on humans. No animal need to be sacrificed for cosmetics since cosmetics aren’t required for human survival.
However, the writer is silent – as he should be — when it comes to the ethics of using animals in medical education and training (e.g., physiology, surgery, and pharmacology) and in medical research (e.g., finding a cure for Alzheimer’s and COVID). I don’t think this kdrama, or any kdrama for that matter, is the proper medium to tackle and discuss such weighty issues. They wouldn’t be able to give the matter its proper attention, in between the chase scenes and drama tropes.
6. Cinematography
Unless there are more secrets to uncover, these first two episodes appear to have given the gist of the story away. I’m sticking around for now to find out who lives and dies, AND to watch the cinematography.
I like the use of the aerial shots. I think @Welmaris also pointed them out.
Here, it conveyed the feeling of being in danger. She was all alone. The circles look like a never-ending maze. She was trapped with the baddies chasing after her and the baby. I thought the aerial shot was well-conceived.
Here, the baby was being dropped from great height. It seems as if there was a plan in place to drop him exactly into the hole on the ground in order to activate his powers. An overhead shot is also called the “god’s eye shot.” Supposedly, it gives the perspective of the god(s) watching mortals from the heavens.
In this scene, however, the reverse is happening. Instead of the gods watching us, we’re watching one of their own, a demi-god, being created. The infant was transformed and given his supernatural ability, as he fell from the skies.
Here is another aerial view. This was a site of JiOh’s destruction. From the air, however, it reminded me of those English garden mazes.
Another aerial view. This time, this was a view of the incinerator at JiOh’s waste disposal plant. I thought it was a good image of how hell is often depicted in literature: a fiery pit.
Then, this was a bird’s eye view of JiOh after he was thrown off the building. To me, this established a connection between the baby who was dropped from the top of the building and the man who was kicked off the top of another building. Both times, he produced electrical sparks as a reaction to danger and impending death.
This was the close-up view of JiOh. I like how the director placed him at the epicenter of the crater.
Last, this shot. This wasn’t an aerial shot. 🙂
This shot is a low-angle shot. Typically, a low-angle shot makes the hero appear bigger and larger-than-life, and thus gives the illusion of power. However, here, JiOh was dwarfed by the tall buildings in front of him. Even the full moon seemed so far away. The overall impression here is that the gods were distant and didn’t care what happened to him on earth. He was alone, defenseless, and diminished.
These are just a few examples of how camera angles help the writer and director tell the story.
Cops getting hit randomly during chasing scenes, cops handling things on his/her own, cops in one department feeling insecurity complex with other Alpha department are some of the usual tropes in kdrama with such theme. 😅 Gureum staying alive with a bit of a scratch after a hit that stopped her heart and subsequent accidents she got into did roll my eyes🤭🤭🤭 Since her dad was directly involved with the experiment, given that he had access to the young JiOh and saved him, what is the odd that she was also one of the baby experimented? Who also has similar self healing ability? Cos really, she should be hospitalised with critical injury with that first accident alone.
We will see if she continues to be reckless. I always wonder why kdrama writers always write similar tropes/ plots for cops. Like they are generally painting cops as headless chicken and kinda low in the iq department. 🤷♀️ The rare breeds are… rare 😅
I already watched a drama with experimentation on children and super powers with Awaken. This one was more subtle about super powers and the characters were more endearing. After 2 episodes, the ML is still a mystery in LUCA, the FL is arrogant and reckless. The team of villains was more interesting.
As usual, a great analysis. Thank you. I too find GuReum very irritating in her one-eyed addiction to discovering the circumstances behind her parents’ disappearance. Certainly I’d like to know why and how my parents disappeared if it happened to me, but I wouldn’t ignore my professional duties and protocols while discovering the facts. And why do police captains tend to lack sexual appeal? I can think of a couple of actors who would make great middle-aged police captains but who would carry a much higher level of charisma.
Another thing; the thought that three unofficial people can walk onto an intensive care ward, one that’s already bristling with an additional police presence and calmly remove a patient from a room simply makes my eyes dilate with disbelief. It could happen on a general ward perhaps, but even then… However, this happens quite frequently in Kdramas; I wish they could get past it, although I do realise that in some cases, escaping from hospital wards can be a crucial part of the plot.
Still, like you @packmule3, I’m sticking with L.U.C.A. for now. I feel there’s interesting story material to come, although I do hope that nothing romantic builds between JiOh and GuReum.
Here I begin a series of comments, each dealing with one of the strong points of this particularly spectacular drama, and containing certain elements never before seen on Korean television.
The strong points of LUCA. – The cinematography.
For 15 very short years, Korean dramas have evolved at breakneck speed. And although other Asian countries are offering more and more interesting things, kdramas are still ahead of the game in terms of innovation, aesthetics and experience.
Classifying the dramas by period is difficult because of course, this evolution is progressive, the dates overlap. I start with a summary, to know where LUCA stands.
1995: Sandglass. Made in 4/3 format, but with a style that ignores this format. The isolated case, or almost. I would have dreamed that the kdramas would learn the lesson of this drama in cinematic matters, unfortunately this was never the case. Not even 1% of the dramas use what we see here, not even the director’s latest drama “Faith”, which is appalling. And yet there was material for the wave of melodramas of the 2000s. All this talent and knowledge scattered like the ashes of a dead man thrown into the wind. What a waste! Why didn’t Korean directors continue on this path, which guaranteed to offer more serious and more emotionally powerful works?
2000-2007: The era of 4/3 dramas, often melodramatic, with sad endings. All dramas of the “winter”, “autumn”, “spring”, or “Starway to Heavens” type. A retro production.
2008-2012: The transition to 16:9. The image is clean, the frequency adjusted to 30 frames per second. Nothing extraordinary, but a very good clarity, adapted for emotions. Shinning Inheritance, King of Baking, Incarnation of Money. All these dramas have the same visual style.
The exceptions: some of the dramas had a cinematic quality well ahead of their time. Precursors. So far ahead that seeing them today, it is almost impossible to believe in their year of making. Dramas whose direction remains just as valid today and probably forever. Hwang Jin Yi, Three with deep roots, IRIS.
2013-2016: A new style is on the rise, a quality so good that any drama made in this style today will be perfectly satisfying. Clean image, accompanied by strong colors and brightness. Perfect clarity, a little sweet. You who come from the star, I can hear your voice, Bridal mask, City Hunter. Some dramas are still made in the old style, and others are ahead of their time. This is the golden age of dramas in my opinion, and one of the periods offering the best kdramas.
2017-2018 : No fundamental change of style, but an important evolution of the previous style towards more finesse and aesthetic debauchery. The 16/9 format is shrinking (I don’t know the new definitions), and there are now more or less thick black stripes. Hotel Del Luna, or Goblin as a precursor. At the same time, the daily dramas (makjang or family) have increased in quality, and have all become as clean as the weekly dramas of the 2008-2012 period. Some precursors had already done so, such as Temptation of Wife.
The dramas of this period have a quality clearly sufficient to compete with or even surpass any series in the world. But mainly in the romantic/esthetic register. As a result, we’re even talking about an American remake of Hotel Del Luna (which will be unable to surpass the original when we see the total sabotage that was the remake of The Good Doctor, just my quick opinion on the subject).
2019-2020: Here appears the last step in the evolution of kdramas. Some of them become totally objects of cinema, and no longer of television. This is the only possibility to compete with western series in terms of action, entertainment, or realistic and serious content. The problem is the budget. South Korea, a country as small as France, alone produces more TV series than a large country like the United States or China. You would think that over there, the entire population works in this sector, while the last refractory people make Kpop or smartphones! So on top of that, put a budget into it? How can you get equivalent quality when millions of dollars are displayed on screen for the biggest American series, and dramas cost 10 to 20 times less? I have no explanation for this miracle, apart from talent, inventiveness, experience, the will to surpass oneself.
My country the new age, with a huge battle in sequence shot, Memories of Alhambra, Kingdom, Vagabond which is one of the most significant steps. Even the more modest Train drama has new assets of this nature.
And here we are at LUCA, another significant step following Vagabond. A drama that is no longer television but cinema. Asian content inspires Western content as much as it is inspired by it. What is missing is “thinking big”, because it requires budget. LUCA succeeds! Scenes with supernatural electric explosions and flying cars. Of course, there won’t be as many of them as in a series like “The boys”, but enough to be convincing and to strike people’s minds. If we want to set a super mutant free, it must be shown as a typical movie show, or a cartoon like Akira. Here no cheating, just a sense of proportion because a budget is not unlimited.
Apart from the very spectacular scenes, the overall realization is in any case extremely spectacular. Wide shots, aerial views, lots of outside sets with a large number of extras (subway station), subjective cameras, new sets. No missteps. It’s almost too good to be true! Once again, a drama puts me on my ass. Not necessarily for the story, the characters, but just the performance and the cinematographic rendering. It’s also a new challenge for the next kdramas. The way is paved.
Still, I give my quick opinion on the story: the drama is easy and enjoyable to follow. Although some scenes are average, they are not boring. Scenes of FL’s interaction with colleagues, for example, or scenes of antagonisms between them. All in all, whatever flaws there may be, it avoids the main flaw: boredom.
LUCA’s strong points. – The action.
Many kdrama have good action scenes, but it is often risky or unexpected. A kdrama made to be an action drama can be disappointing, or soft, while in a historical drama one is surprised by exceptional action scenes. TV series are at a strong disadvantage compared to movies when it comes to action.
Yet, for a long time, Asian countries have been moving action in cinema in directions as new as they are primordial, while supporting low budgets.
HK style. The 80’s. Whether it is Jacky Chan’s Police story or the advent of HK Gunfight with John Woo’s films, or later surrealist action scenes like in Tsui Hark’s Time & Tide. Heroic Bloodsheld, Gunfu, etc. Thai cinema also gets into it, with dangerous stunts, or actors like Tony Jaa.
This ends up inspiring sooner or later American directors and films such as The Matrix, Equilibrium. American films outbid each other and contributed to the style. This means that today, a film like John Wick does not only copy the ideas, but also proposes a new style, which was copied in turn in an action film whose title I don’t remember (with the actor who makes Thor).
Korean cinema also participates in Asian innovation in terms of action films. That means, proposing a style of action or a way of filming never seen before. Old Boy, more recently Man from Nowhere because of the final knife fight both aesthetic and realistic.
I come to the main point: the Villainess, a Korean film. A scenario that is a copy-pasted from Nikita in a more simplified and more buffoonish way. But something new in terms of action. A style never seen before. Subjective camera, like in a video game, dynamic camera, which follows the action with a feeling of a sequence shot, and some shots that seem impossible to shoot because of the camera placements.
On the sidelines, I would also add the Indonesian films, The Raid and The night come for us (beware, it’s very violent!).
Like any precursor film, these films are copied. And the John Wick 3 film does not hesitate to copy and paste the motorcycle chase scene from The Villainess. I don’t think this is done by cheating, but rather as a tribute (just my opinion).
What does this have to do with LUCA ?
An unforeseen scene, which manages to almost impeccably replicate the style of The Vilainess. Finding action scenes in series or dramas that do that is very rare, even more so by copying a recent and innovative style. If the series used what John Woo or John Wick does, it would just be crazy, but that’s not the case.
So seeing that in LUCA, I was left on my ass! The other action scenes in LUCA are not as marked, but you can feel it always pulls that way. The Vilainess or a bit of Indonesian action cinema.
The elevator scene!
That’s the scene I’m talking about. A fight in an elevator is effective in raising the tension. Cramped space, few possibilities to dodge or escape. We remember the ancient fight in a tiny elevator in James Bond “Operation Thunder”, and more recently the very good fight in Die Hard 3. So LUCA sets up a few plot pawns to set up a scene of this kind, or jumps at the opportunity to do so as soon as the script allows it.
To better understand, here is an excerpt from The Villainess, a movie that any action-movie addict now counts among the classics :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcjxbKEaxr4
Once again, the Koreans did something crazy and new.
And now…. They ALSO do it in a drama?!?!!!!!!!!
Go ahead guys, I want more now!
LUCA’s strong points. – Background music.
First of all, I would like to point out: here I consider the songs as background music. What interests me is not the quality of the song or the singer’s voice, but its effectiveness as background music.
In the same way for other background music, I am not interested in the fact that it is compositions that one wants to listen to on an mp3 player, but purely their interest and their effectiveness in supporting the action.
On this point, I’ll make it simple and give my opinion: it breaks records!
I’d like to give examples, but just turn up the sound and rewatch the episodes, the background music is incredible and reinforces the drama at almost 50% of what it would be without it. The music and various sound effects, produce power and thrill at a level rarely heard before. With that behind it, I think even TKEM could have convinced me!
I’ll give an example, with just one song. So I repeat myself, quality as a song is not important, what counts here is the evocative power as background music, the power to increase the emotion.
On the scene where the ML saves the LF, after she was hit by a van. This event being plot-driven. That is, it doesn’t really matter if the heroine crosses the street without looking right and left. In any case, a pretext is needed to create the scene of the rescue, since this event allows them to meet, and then the ML is spotted by his enemies and chased.
Normally, this scene could very well have been any ordinary scene, without any particular emotion, or with only a minor emotion. But not with this song in the background!
As giving other examples would require me to review the episodes with too many things to choose from, just pay attention to that and pump up the volume! I remember a lot of powerful sound effects in the scene where the blind sister invects the ML. Otherwise this scene would have been missed, because the blind sister looks so crazy, it could have been laughable, sounded badly played, overacted or caricatural.
The background music (or song) is everywhere in this drama and makes it a success against all odds (including possible weaknesses in the script).
That’s it! I’m done with my comments. I have nothing special to say about the script and characters, except that it’s quite raw and creepy, rather harsh and violent, and the themes are interesting.