Psychopath Diary (2019)

Una historia particular

La premisa me pareció muy convincente para empezar a ver este drama y tengo que decir que cumplió con mis expectativas.

Es un tipo de historia que combina una cosa más seria como el thriller con algo más relajado como la comedia. Y considero que logró generar tanto intriga como risas. El humor que se desarrolló, me gustó mucho.

Con respecto a los personajes, Dong-Sik es quién le da el verdadero sazón a la historia, el actor hizo un gran trabajo interpretando dos facetas. Te dan ganas de protegerlo en toda la historia, te divierten sus torpezas y te conmueve con su corazón genuino. Como mención honorífica me gustaba que mencionara frases de películas de asesinos.

El villano, tiene la combinación perfecta entre carisma, querer matarlo y que te genere incluso risas. El actor también hizo un gran trabajo.

La chica que es policía mostró todo el tiempo un personaje íntegro, lo cual es de admirar. Sin embargo sentí que su personaje no destacó demasiado. La conexión que tuvo con Dong-Sik me pareció muy buena y agradecí que no lo llevaran a un plano romántico.

En cuanto a mensaje, deja una reflexión acerca de como la vida le devuelve con bien a alguien que tiene un corazón genuino. El protagonista era una buena persona, pero en su trabajo la gente lo trataba como un tonto y le sucedían ciertos infortunios, sin embargo, al final la vida le sonrió porque pasó de ser alguien sin suerte a un ser afortunado.

Como puntos negativos, consideré que la chica policía era muy ingenua, y eso me frustró. Me hubiese gustado que fuese más perspicaz, claro que tampoco ayudaba que sus compañeros de la policía se comportasen de manera incompetente.

Tampoco me gustó que la única manera que se halló para atrapar al asesino fué cuando Dong-Sik recuperó la memoria, me pareció muy conveniente, como para que se resolviese y ya. Como una especie de milagro afortunado en el momento justo, cuando nunca se aseguró que podría recuperarla (o al menos en tan poco tiempo). Incluso, aunque esa hubiese sido la única manera, creo que al menos la mujer policía hubiese tenido confirmaciones de quién era el villano por mera perspicacia basado en como se comportaba su padre cada vez que se encontraba con él, entonces quizá le hubiesen tendido una trampa al villano para que cayera solito (solo es una idea).

Por último, tampoco me gustó una parte de final porque lo sentí como relleno, me refiero específicamente cuando el villano escapa y luego lo atrapan, lo consideré innecesario completamente, no sé si querían una última escena emocionante o rellenar el final. Pudieron haberlo atrapado en ese capítulo final, dando conclusión así a la serie.

A pesar de todo, tuvo un final bueno, ya que me gustó que Dong-Sik dejará esa empresa e hiciera lo que quería.

En resumen, es una buena historia con un humor particular, para reírse un rato y encariñarse con el personaje principal. Además de que tiene sus toques de suspenso que la hacen mucho más interesante.

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Psychopath Diary was a drama I thought wasn't for me. The plot didn't sound like something I would really enjoy; crime-thrillers aren’t often very high on my lists. However, I tried it out for Yoon Shi Yoon and it captivated me and amused me from the very first episode.

This drama surprised me so much. The story is just as crazy as it sounds, memory loss isn't anything new in kdramas and often I shudder when I hear the words amnesia being used to advance the plot, but the story is told in such a amusing, cleaver and sincere sort of way that you can't help but be hooked by it. The show always seemed to be very aware of itself and what it was trying to do and just very comfortable with its absurdity.

The tone of the story is rather slice of life some places, but achieves those more dramatic moments when it needs to, humor is on the black side and takes advantage of how ridiculous everything is around what I appreciated and it always managed to blend it, thrill and more the mundane story of the characters we meet along the way.

I didn’t feel like the drama thread a lot of new ways with some of the tropes it used, or dives too deeply into them. It more so just has a lot of fun with them. There is a very nice balance between the comedy, the absurd and then the more thriller aspect of the show, which makes it stand out. It makes Psychopath Diary become unlike other kdramas I have seen before.

I expected the more serious side of the show to take over at some point, for the comedy to sort of step aside as the story got bleaker. But the story always seems to flow well between those different genres the show has all mixed up in there. It had a rhythm going on. There is always some twist to every aspect of the story, and the comedy interrupts the tension a lot of the time and vice versa. There was such a nice mix going on there, one that I didn’t think would work as well as they did. It never gets too tired.

They never make you guess too much, not even with who the real psychopath is; that makes us just in on the joke. You have a hunch about where this is going, but still the drama is so cleverly absurd that you do have a hard time guessing what will happen next. And the drama makes great use of it.

In Woo also always managed to be one step ahead of the other characters, and while it did feel a bit repetitive (and very annoying towards the end, but in a good way), that I still found myself very enthralled and excited about each new episode. In Woo is a killer I could really enjoy. He's just evil, no trauma or explanation needed, and it’s just great to watch. It worked out well for the story and you somehow never knew what he would do next.

Sometimes he seems a little too cartoonish as the bad guy, smirking and laughing in the background. But it felt so intentional and in the spirit of the humor within the show, that it sorts of works.

Sometimes the comedy goes a bit overboard, and sometimes you can sense when the switch between the tension, the more dramatic points, and the more comedic aspects of the shows (like when the twists are revealed) but it is always so very entertaining and just a very fun ride throughout. I was expecting it loose steam at some point, for the plot to become way to ridiculous, but it just went full steam ahead and just made this crazy plot its own.

There is very little romance here. I was expecting more, but I was very happy with how little we got. There was plenty else to do within the story already and adding romance on top of that would have been too much. We just got more solid character interactions and different relationship development instead. There was definite fondness, possible attraction between Dong Sik and Shim Bo Kyung. But there weren’t much more than a few longing eye-contacts and so on between them

I liked Bo Kyung, our female heroine, as a character. She was always very consistent with herself, rather sensible and smart and always went after what she thought was right. Her character was never set aside as the story went along, people listened to her, she was valued, and she had real impact on the story. So often female cops on these shows are just there running along with the men and just there to get into dangers. Not here.

Dong Sik who goes from being a pushover to someone who learns to stand up for himself, , and over the story does a good job with presenting the characters to us so we can understand them, and get behind their actions and why they did things the way they did them; despite the absurdity that is prevalent all around them. Yoon Shi Yoon plays Dong Sik so well. He is so good in this role and he gets to show all his aspects as an actor here. All the actors here are very good in their roles.

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