One of the best dramas EVER!
What to say about this drama that completely escapes the cliché? I have never seen such a complex story in my life, full of plot twists, minutely interconnected events. And the best thing is that even being a story full of details, they managed to show us all these details in just 16 episodes. Your head fills with theories. It fills with outbreaks because all the time you think one is the culprit, because all the time someone appears who took actions that impact the main story. The entire cast's performances were perfect, but the one that caught my attention the most was Yeo Jin-Goo. His performance was FLAWLESS! We could feel from here all the emotions that the character felt through his performance.Each episode that ended was a different impact.
In short: a perfect drama, with a perfect story, with a perfect cast and a perfect acting!
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"누구든, 의심해야죠. 그건 내 직업이니까."
🔸️How hypnotizing the two leads are! They both resemble two feral territorial cats fighting for domination - and very shrewd ones! Shin Ha Gyun's magnifying asymmetrical eyes stare right into the depth of your soul, and they just won't let you go. Yeo Jin Gu and Shin Ha Gyun are the ones who make this show work because, honestly, the screenplay alone wouldn't be engaging enough for me. Just like any other crime/thriller it focuses a lot on the antagonist supporting characters we don't want to observe for an extended period of time. Instead, who would refuse to watch Han Joo Won and Lee Dong Sik filling the screen with borderline erotic tension and hold onto each other in the moments of pain?🔸️Other K-drama directors produce, Shim Na Yeon creates. She is the master inside a genre. If it's a drama - Good Bad Mother - then it is deeply traumatic and affectionate. If it's a crime - Beyond Evil - then it throws you head-first into the darkness. The editing - that could be irregular like in any TV project - is under perfect control; the actors are living through their characters; the score is filled with passion. What will this wonderful director gift upon us next?
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✋️The Hoods in the Hood °7.4° °VG°
BE flies in the face of the concept that time heals all wounds. Sometimes time merely allows wounds to fester into a gangrened mess. A 2021 release that is rated 91 on AWiki, it is1 season consisting of 16 60-minute episodes.Back in time we see Lee Dong “Shik”, who is the older twin by a minute, but only half as accomplished as his younger sister. The priggish church lady readily points that out. Two decades forward he's a cop. Known for his temper, as we first see him 20 years hence, he's busting up an illegal gambling ring - of old ladies at the beauty shop! Shin Ha Kyun (Evilive) is perfect as Shik. He's crazy, alright… but does that make him guilty? His sister died 20 years ago. She wasn't the only one. Now, people are dying again.
It's good to see Yeo Jin Goo in a highly rated production. He's marvelous in Hotel del Luna-8.4, but My Absolute Boyfriend-6.5 has some problems, as does Link: Eat, Love, Kill-6.7. Both of them are (arguably) good enough for a one-time watch. He's the primary reason why. I haven't gotten to the popular Circle nor The Crowned Clown yet. Here, he's born-to-privilege Han “Joo” Won, son of the next police commissioner. His dad's making him do the rounds of small town police stations to get the feel of the force. That lands him next to Shik. The chief notices their distaste for eachother and pairs them up. Mr. Yeo always plays someone slightly fussy or high maintenance. In BE he's a germaphobe.
Shik and Joo are a good iteration of The Odd Couple. Manyang is a small town, and the small town feel weighs heavily on the production. Shik is from Manyang, but Joo is from Seoul. Shik is from a humble family while Joo's family is the furthest thing from that. Shik's no germaphobe! We'll see him touch things that'll make the average person squeamish. Joo is a rule follower. That ain't Skik! As the body count mounts, almost everyone is suspect. Shik, having suffered his own share of loss and trauma, might just be the most suspicious.
The acting really is superb. It seems like many of the side characters get their Oscar worthy moment. Choi Dae Hoon (Flower of Evil-8.9, Extraordinary Attorney Woo) plays Park Jung Je. Kim Shin Rok plays violent crimes officer Oh Ji Hwa. Her resume isn't long, but wow. She's excellent. She has a small but pivotal part in The Cursed-8.3, and she slays it. Choi Sung Eun (The Sound of Magic) is Yoo Jae Yi. Choi Jin Ho (The Heirs-7.3, Oh My Venus-7.4) plays Han Ki Hwan, Joo's father and Deputy chief of the National Police Agency. Kil Hae Yeon is Do Hae Won, Congresswoman of Munju City. She gets alot of work. She portrays the mom in both Something in the Rain-8.6 & One Spring Night-7.8, shows that echo eachother like two volumes of the same book. . Nam Yoon-Soo plays the youngest cop we see. He was fabulous in The King's Affection-8.3. Yoo Jae Yi is played by Choi Sung Eun from The Sound of Magic. She is amazing, particularly in ep7. Jang Sung-Bum (Call It Love-8.4, Stranger) plays Shik's former partner. He gets a brief but excellently acted out death scene in flashback. He can sing beautifully, btw. He shines in Call It Love-8.4.
Let's not overlook Lee Gyu-Hoe as Kang Jin-Mook, the painfully shy and stuttering father of one of the victims. After I looked up his bio I noticed that I've already seen him in Crash Landing on You-9.1, Link: Eat, Love Kill-6.7, Daily Dose of Sunshine-7, and DP-8.4. I didn't recognize him at all! It's a testimony to his superb skills, as he is most definitely superb in BE. Screenwriter Kim Soo Jin gave us Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Jook & the excellent comedy, My Only Love Song-8.7, and Shim Na Yeon also directed The Good Bad Mother.
⛔Mini spoiler⛔
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The most painful death is Kang Min-Jung's. Her demise seems to break Shik's heart. They have various suspects locked up that are, at the time, believed to be the last person to see Min-Jung alive (she's marvelously played by Kang Min-Ah from True Beauty). They managed to surprise me when the culprit is finallyrevealed.
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Do most of Shik's moves make sense? I'm not sure… I can't adjust to the 💅 finger thing. They do explain it, but I can't fully board that car and ride along. Do they reach alittle far? Go to the border of nonsense? Sure, a couple times they get dangerously close and it isn't always a smooth ride. But they get away with it. Overall, BE is very good. Not everything that happens helps the plot along, and it was slightly dragged out at the end, but it is still a quality crime caper that is worth watching. Ep7 is magnificent.
Overall, the cadence and filming are good. The palette is dark and most scenes have a grimy feel. That takes skill. In one scene, they are searching in a cornfield at night. Aerial shots show black trails between the stalks where other wanderers have trod. I don't know Korean or Mandarin, but I have to wonder if, from an aerial view, the trails make any kind of character? It looks possible.
Manyang's past and present will collide before the end. Long standing corruption is at the seat of many of the issues, but not all of them. Not only are there crimes to solve, but the biggest mystery is if Skik & Joo will be able to work together without killing eachother before the end. One can't figure that out early on. It remains a question to be answered until nearly the last frame.
QUOTE📢
Can't you tell that nut-job is 100 times more rational than you?
〰🖍 IMHO
📣7.4 📝7.6 🎭8.3 🎨7.7 🔚7 ▪ 🌞4.5 ⚡5.5 😅2 😭7.7 😱5.4 😯3.8 🤢5 🤔4 💤2
🎵/🔊7.5 Shazams: The Road, by sunwoojunga & Empty by car, the garden
Age 16+ Murder, violence, gore. Rated TV-MA: Mature Audience Only.
Re-📺? Doubtful
In order of ~lite&trite~ to ~heavy&serious~ you may also like:
Modern Day -
Love to Hate You 8.9,
Oh My Ghost 10,
It's Okay Not To Be Okay 9,
My Mister 9.5,
The King's Affection 8.3,
Mr. Sunshine 9
Action/Crime/Sci-fi -
K2 8,
Private Lives 8.1,
Inspector Koo 8.4
When the Camellia Blooms-8,
Law School 8
Sisyphus 8,
Tunnel 8.5,
Signal 8.6,
D.P. 8.4,
The Cursed 8.3,
Flower of Evil 8.9,
The Man from Nowhere 8.9,
Parasite-9
Black 9,
Squid Game 8.4,
Kingdom 8.3,
Sweet Home 8.4
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Impressive Thriller
Have to say at the beginning 2 - 3 episodes storytelling gave the impression of cat - mouse chase only to subvert it later by adding layers of plot twists in realistic way. So do watch for at least 4 episodes before considering to drop altogether, it's a slow burn. Both the leads does fall under some greyish morals making is more interesting to watch.Cast performance especially shin ha kyun is outstanding making all more realistic to watch, happy to hear he won the award. More than story, the show draws it strength from the conversations and powerful dialogues between leads and characters. Hope to see more thrillers with power pack performances in near future.
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Gripping from start to finish!
I have an awful attention span when it comes to watching KDramas, I'm one of those people who finds a scene boring and puts it on 2x or just turns it off... but this show was so gripping that I finished it within a week or so. What will I even do now?The character development was incredible, the culprit was not predictable at all, and the pacing was great. The only thing I struggled with sometimes was remembering everyone's names because there were so many characters, but it's not really a fault of the drama. It got a bit morbid and very sad at points, but didn't wallow in it too much which was great! :)
I never write reviews, that's how good I found this drama.
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They made me look stupid
So where do I even begin? This drama was something unexpected to me since I thought that I would get bored 2 episodes in but I didn't. I am happy I took a little break from investigation dramas because that would probably affect this review. I came into this thinking it would be like an eight-star watch, something I would get over fast but it turned out to be master peace with a lot of shocking moments. I even enjoy some of the OSTs because even the music caught my interest. Maybe in like a year I will watch it again and think about every happy moment, and what my reactions were when some shocking stuff happened. Also, this review has a headline " They made me stupid". It's because there were multiple moments where I acted smart and started insulting the characters for being stupid but they were one step ahead of me, as always. To wrap this up I am just surprised how I can watch 16 episodes in 4 days.Was this review helpful to you?
Beyond Evil is beyond your average thriller
Beyond Evil is a great example of how to take a simple concept and absolutely run with it. Between the exemplary acting, tight writing and numerous twists and turns along the way, this Korean drama is easily one of the best shows of the year.Given the simplicity of the story, it’s actually quite impressive that the series adds layers of twists while also making sure there are no plot holes left behind either. Every single character has an alibi, a place to be and – more importantly than that – a motive for killing. In fact at one point there are 8 different possible suspects!
Beyond Evil is amazingly consistent and efficient in its writing; it not only manages to keep episodes compact yet compelling, it also manages to keep up the suspense for its full 16 episodes, which is a big deal. The OST was used skillfully as well.
My Rating : 8.5/10
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A story about choices and self-identity. Beyond Evil is a slow-burn psychological thriller full of eerie crime and corruption that involves an entire town. The story takes its time to tell the motives, behaviours and connections among the characters, the mystery unfolds very slowly and intend to be confusing. For that reason, I think it's perfect to binge it than watching weekly to keep feeling engaged and focussed. Trigger warning. there were many many suspenseful and gruesome scenes that I found quite disturbing.
The bonds that Dong Sik and Joo Won form between each other is another highlight of the show. Despite their initial mistrust, they are two people on the same side of the law who learn to walk that fine line between good and evil together. They both were obsessed with finding the truth. Aside from the two, all the other characters were significant. The police team is heartwarming and the villains are blood boilingly frustrating, as how they should be. Overall, it's a though, slow show, great performance and character developments.
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tiring, endless accusations, but acting was great
a series of mysterious, unsolved murders in a small town where the killers cut off the fingers of the victims? just right up my alley. i think the mystery was well-developed.at the beginning, i found Lee Dong Shik very hard to read—i couldn’t tell what his intentions were, why he did what he did. he really did look crazy to me. but, this was explained at the end of the series, and i guess he did what he thought was best in his situation, even when it made people questioning his actions.
this series contains endless accusations, which gets tiring as the story goes. since the beginning, the murder investigations from 20 years ago already started out wrong. it was kinda surprising to know that that many people were involved in tempering evidence and covering up the murders. despite the tiring and endless accusations, it was interesting to see how a tight-knit group in a small town started to suspect one another, and later, worked together to catch the killers. speaking of teamwork, i loved it when Lee Dong Shik and Han Ju Won worked together. they were unstoppable!
there is one character that i couldn’t stand, and that person is Park Jeong Je’s mother. she wanted to have her ways and keep her son safe. she is the type of mother who will do anything for her son, even when her son is in the wrongs. unbearably annoying, even more so than the antagonists in this series.
anyway, the acting in this series was superb.
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Good drama - was expecting much more
To be honest I was expecting much more from this drama after I read so many great reviews. The first half was great but the second half started dragging the story and it wasn’t so interesting and I had to push myself to finish it. It is real shame as the story was great but not executed very well. After finishing the last episode I didn’t feel any joy or sadness as it haven’t leave any impact on me as other great drama did.The acting of the main lead Ha Kyun was great he’s really good actor. He has done outstanding performance.
You cannot compare this drama to a masterpiece Mouse or Flowers of evil.
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What kept me going however was not Yeo Jin-goo but Shin Ha-kyun. I actually loved how much of a lunatic Dong-sik was and how he stopped caring about what people thought about him. Joo-won didn't grow on me until the latter half of the show because he seemed too cocky and gung ho to catch the culprit without actually verifying his thoughts with evidence. Even now I'm still confused by some of his thought processes. I would recommend this to anyone.
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