From Wikipedia: “Life on Mars” is a South Korean television series based on the 2006–07 British series of the same name. It stars Jung Kyung-ho, Park Sung-woong, Go Ah-sung, Oh Dae-hwan, and Noh Jong-hyun. The series aired on OCN from June 9 to August 5, 2018 on Saturdays and Sundays at 22:20 (KST).
Genre: police procedural, crime, science fiction
“Life on Mars” won the following awards:
6th APAN Star Awards: Excellence Award, Actress in a Miniseries, Go Ah-sung
Asian Academy Creative Awards: Best Adaptation of an Existing Format
6th APAN Star Awards: Top Excellence Award, Actor in a Miniseries, Jung Kyung-ho
2nd The Seoul Awards: Best Supporting Actress, Go Ah-sung
The drama was broadcast on tvN Asia with subtitles in Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar and Sri Lanka where it premiered on October, 2019.
How I wrote these episode summaries with no spoilers
1. I assumed that you will be reading these summaries and watching the videos chronologically.
2. I narrated some of the main actions in each episode without revealing the plot’s twists and turns.
3. At the beginning of each summary starting with Episode 2, I placed in a table a recap of the major twists and turns of the previous episode. But because you have already watched the video of the previous episode, they aren’t spoilers anymore.
4. I followed this structure all throughout, except for Ep. 16 (Finale) where I included spoilers. Reason — most people want to know if the drama has a good/happy ending or a sad ending before they invest the time in watching it.
Episode 1
2018 ...
Lieutenant Han Tae-joo works at the Evidence Analysis Branch of the Forensics Department of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency. After getting into an altercation with a veteran police officer over a case which was overturned because of improper evidence, he meets Prosecutor Jeong Seo-hyun.
As a way for Tae-joo to get back to the Regional Investigation Unit, Seo-hyun convinces him to study the evidence in the latest case involving Kim Min-seok, the alleged “Manicure Serial Killer.”
After the trial, Tae-joo finds out that Seo-hyun has been kidnapped by Kim Min-seok. As he and the police officers chase after Kim Min-seok, they track him down to a neighborhood of small alleyways. Kim Min-seok’s car has been abandoned, however, and there’s no trace of Seo-hyun. He catches up with Kim Min-seok in an alleyway and tries to force him to tell where Seo-hyun is. But someone walks up to him and points a gun to his head. Before escaping, Kim Min-seok gloats to Tae-joo that he now remembers where they first met.
Tae-joo wakes up in the middle of a road. A burly man yells at him for suddenly crossing the street and causing damage to his car. As he looks inside the man’s car, he hears over the radio that it’s February 23, 1988.
Episode 2
Ep. 1 recap:
Flashback ... The young Tae-joo runs along the railroad tracks and goes to an abandoned building where he sees the limp, manicured hand of a woman.
The court declares Kim Min-seok not guilty after Tae-joo testifies that the DNA evidences against him were contaminated and are thus unreliable.
After being shot, Tae-joo staggers towards his car, but he gets hit by a car. When he regains consciousness, he finds himself back in 1988 Korea.
Tae-joo gets into all kinds of conflicts and misunderstandings with Captain Kang Dong-cheol and his detectives (Lee Yong-ki and Jo Nam-sik) from the Violent Crimes Unit 3 when he runs after someone who looks like Kim Min-seok and when he insists that he’s a police officer with the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency. Dong-cheol says that there’s only Seoul City Police Agency, but Nam-sik finds documents stating that Tae-joo has been assigned to their station as the new chief investigator.
Yoon Na-young is the only female officer in the unit; she’s treated by Dong-cheol and his men as someone who makes coffee and cleans up the station. Thus, she’s moved when Tae-joo treats her with respect by addressing her as “Officer Yoon Na-young.”
At a shopping center, Tae-joo finds a store owner (Mr. Yang) who seems to know about him and why he’s in this town.
Dong-cheol brings Tae-joo to a crime scene; to his shock, Tae-joo finds that the victim’s body bears signs similar to Kim Min-seok’s victims.
As Tae-joo walks away from the crime scene, he tells the flustered Dong-cheol that it’s a murder and not a suicide. The reporters and photographers hear him and follow him. He thinks that if he can solve this murder, he’ll be able to find out how he ended up in 1988 Korea.
When Dong-cheol catches up with him, Tae-joo explains how the blood patterns indicate that the woman was killed elsewhere; he also says that they’re dealing with a serial murderer. A reporter who overhears their shouting match later publishes a news article about the “Insung Serial Murder Case.”
Conflict intensifies between Tae-joo and Dong-cheol after the Insung police chief detective scolds Dong-cheol because of the news article. When Dong-cheol says that he can investigate the case any way that he wants, Tae-joo goes to the records department to check for any connection between the victim (who worked in a coffee shop) and Kim Min-seok. There, he again hears voices of doctors and nurses working on an emergency patient.
Dong-cheol and Tae-joo bring in for investigation a man who stalked the victim; Dong-cheol beats up the man, who claims that a lot of men who frequented the coffee shop stalked the victim. After studying the man’s police records, Tae-joo says that the man is innocent.
After finding out that a mother has filed a missing person report for her daughter who works at a coffee shop, Dong-cheol and his men, Tae-joo, and Na-young start calling up all the coffee shops in their jurisdiction.
Episode 3
Ep. 2 recap:
Tae-joo and Dong-cheol find Na-young at the crime scene. While Dong-cheol dismisses Na-young’s observations about the case, Tae-joo is impressed by her insights into the possible killer.
Tae-joo surprises Dong-cheol and his men by finding the shoe prints in the room where the missing woman and a man stayed. Dong-cheol orders his men to coordinate with the nearby military base to find out who left the base on the day the woman went missing.
Tae-joo surprises Na-young by saying that he’s actually from 2018 and that Kim Min-seok killed several women. But Na-young replies that an eight year old boy could not have killed anyone.
When Tae-joo says that the missing woman only has nine hours before she’s killed, Dong-cheol gathers all the elderly female leaders in the community. One of the women gives the tip about a young man who always wears a hat and combat boots.
After finding evidence that the first victim was killed in a room at the factory, Tae-joo and Dong-cheol rescue the missing woman. After a long chase, they capture the young man who kidnapped the woman. Later, as the reporters and photographers swarm around them, Tae-joo asks the young man if he knows Kim Min-seok, but the young man denies knowing anything about Kim Min-seok.
While Dong-cheol, his men, and Na-young celebrate their big arrest at a “noraebang,” Tae-joo goes back to the police station. There, he sees and hears a man who says that he’s a doctor at a Seoul hospital. The doctor tells Tae-joo that he’s comatose in the hospital and that Seo-hyun is waiting for him; he also tells Tae-joo that whatever he’s experiencing right now isn’t reality and that he must break through it.
The next day, Tae-joo climbs up to the roof of the Insung Seobu Police Station and thinks about jumping to the ground below.
Na-young dissuades Tae-joo from jumping off from the rooftop.
The conflict between Tae-joo and Dong-cheol continues as Tae-joo stops him from beating up a suspect in several pickpocketing and robbery cases. As they’re arguing, Chief Detective Kim Kyung-se arrives. Later on, after availing of the services of a lawyer, the suspect walks free.
While Tae-joo is talking with Mr. Yang at the shopping center, Na-young arrives and tells Tae-joo that a woman who works as a janitor in the station has been violently robbed and attacked by a group of men that includes the newly released suspect.
Based on Na-young’s notebook of observations and bits of evidence, Tae-joo and Na-young deduce that the group of pickpockets are targeting women for their IDs and credit cards.
Episode 4
Ep. 3 recap:
Na-young tells Tae-joo that she’s the one who referred the doctor to him.
Tae-joo and Dong-cheol fight each other inside the hospital room of the station’s janitor.
Instead of using the credit cards in Korea where they can be traced, the pickpockets sell the credit cards overseas.
With Na-young acting as the bait, Dong-cheol and Tae-joo arrest the newly released suspect. After being threatened by Tae-joo with long prison sentences for his various crimes, the suspect reveals the names of the other pickpockets.
At a photo studio with Na-young, Tae-joo is shocked to see a picture of himself as a young boy with his mother and father.
Tae-joo tries but fails to call his parents’ phone number. As he walks away, the phone rings; when he picks up the phone, he hears a doctor and a nurse talking about him falling deeper into a coma that could lead to brain damage. After the phone call, his family portrait mysteriously appears on his hand.
A village chief is found dead near a river, and Tae-joo suspects that it’s a case of cyanide poisoning. Among the pieces of evidence in the crime scene are a bottle of "makgeolli," kimchi, and a red scarf. Later on, Dong-cheol arrests Yoo Soon-yi, an intellectually impaired woman, who has been known to use cyanide with her 7-year old daughter for hunting pheasants. At the station, Yoo Soon-yi confesses that she alone killed the village chief.
After the chaotic reenactment of the crime, Dong-cheol tries to call up and arrange for Yoo Soon-yi to be transferred to the prosecutors’ office. But Tae-joo disconnects his calls, saying that they should wait for one more day before handing Yoo Soon-yi over to the prosecutors.
With the coroner finding several other fingerprints on the bottle of cyanide-laced "makgeolli," Tae-joo asks Na-young’s help in getting the fingerprints of all the village residents. Later on, they go to Yoo Soon-yi’s house to investigate, but Dong-cheol is already there. Na-young finds a family picture with Yoo Soon-yi’s daughter Young-joo wearing a red scarf.
Young-joo suddenly appears and snatches the picture from Na-young. As she runs away, Tae-joo, Na-young, and Dong-cheol chase after her. They end up at the village chief’s house where the chief’s daughter, Song-ja, protects Young-joo.
Episode 5
Ep. 4 recap:
The village chief sexually abused Young-joo.
Young-joo poisoned the village chief after being ordered to do so by Seon-ja, the chief’s daughter.
With the help of her lover (an insurance agent), Seon-ja took out several insurance policies on her mother and on her disabled husband. The coroner and Tae-joo deduce that using bleach, Seon-ja methodically poisoned her husband to death.
Tae-joo and Dong-cheol arrest Seon-ja while she’s trying to feed her mother with bleach-laced porridge.
At the police station, Tae-joo recognizes one of the bickering woman as his aunt. After getting his parents’ address from his aunt, he goes to a beauty salon where he sees a boy (his younger self) running. He chases after the boy who’s running along the railroad tracks.
Inside the tunnel, the young Tae-joo sees a woman who’s covered in blood and with her nails done in red manicure. As the young Tae-joo screams when the faceless man running after him appears, the adult Tae-joo, meanwhile, passes out on the street.
After finding Tae-joo unconscious, Dong-cheol and Na-young rush him to Manager Park at the health center; later, as he wanders in the corridors, Tae-joo hears a doctor say that he’s suffering from dangerously high pressure on his brain.
After Na-young says that there has been a report of theft, Tae-joo and Dong-cheol go to the salon of Tae-joo’s mother. There, Tae-joo meets his mother and his aunt Han Mal-sook, who reported that a man entered her room, folded up her clothes, and arranged her makeup. When the man moved closer to her, she screamed, and the man ran away. She also says that someone had been making creepy phone calls to her. Dong-cheol wonders what kind of criminal sneaks into a room without taking anything, and on the rooftop, Tae-joo finds a piece of broken bottle with blood on it.
At the station, Na-young says that there’s a similar case that happened to a woman named Lee Joo-yong four moths ago. Dong-cheol thus orders Nam-sik to bring in a known pervert for questioning, while he orders Yong-ki to check the urology clinic for clients who suffer from erectile dysfunction. Tae-joo and Na-young, meanwhile, track down the victim Lee Joo-yong.
After failing to establish any connection between Han Mal-sook and Lee Joo-young and the men they know, Dong-cheol and his men try to establish a connection between the victims Han Mal-sook and Lee Joo-yong. After Na-young says that both Han Mal-sook and Lee Joo-yong were sick on the night they were attacked, they consult Manager Park of the health center as to how Han Mal-sook and Lee Joo-young could have been drugged.
Episode 6
Ep. 5 recap:
Park Yong-gun is a pharmacist whose asthmatic wife died a year ago; despite his wife’s death, he kept submitting stories of his wife (as if she’s still alive) to a local radio station.
Despite her fears, Han Mal-sook agrees to be the bait, with Na-young hiding nearby to protect her. While surveilling Yong-gun at his pharmacy, Tae-joo collapses as he hears the voices of doctors, nurses, and his mother.
Tae-joo and Dong-cheol race through the streets, following Na-young’s whistles as she chases after Young-gun.
As the team tries to arrest a group of scammers known as the “Lottery Gang” at Hawaii Room Salon, Tae-joo sees his father hiding with a prostitute.
After giving his statement denying that he knows the members of the "Lottery Gang," Han Choong-ho (Tae-joo’s father) is conditionally released.
Accompanying Han Choong-ho to the beauty salon, Tae-joo meets his mother, aunt, and his young self. Later that night at a bar, after he has had several drinks, Na-young arrives. When he says that everything he thought he knew about his father isn’t true, Na-young explains that fathers always want to look stable and reliable in their children’s eyes.
The next day, the team studies the frozen body of a man on a street (that’s only a short distance from where the man’s ex-wife and child are living). Among the items they retrieve from the man’s body are a busted watch, a slip of paper with a phone number scrawled on it, and two Opening Day tickets to a baseball game.
At the health station, Manager Park tells Dong-cheol and Tae-joo that the man died of a heart attack caused by a blow to the ribs.
After Na-young finds out that Opening Day tickets are not yet on sale, Dong-cheol interrogates a young scalper. The scalper denies having seen the tickets and says that a group of men bought 3,000 tickets from a government employee known as Chief Oh. The scalper confirms that the man who froze to death belonged to the group that cornered the tickets; he also sets up a meeting with Chief Oh in a nightclub.
Episode 7
Ep. 6 recap:
Tae-joo helps his father Han Choong-ho to clean himself up and to buy a fruit basket before going to the beauty salon. Later, in a surreal moment outside the beauty salon, Tae-joo talks with his young self.
With Na-young disguising herself as a call girl, Dong-cheol and Tae-joo arrest Chief Oh in the night club. Later on, at the baseball stadium, they arrest the group of scalpers.
Na-young invites Tae-joo to watch a baseball game with her. After she leaves, Tae-joo remembers how his father got him an autographed baseball. As his young self drops the baseball, he flashes back to that day in the tunnel when he saw the dead woman. As the blurry face of the man who jumped at him while he’s looking through the hole becomes in focus, he sees his father’s face splattered with blood.
As Tae-joo, Dong-cheol, Yong-ki, and Nam-shik walk along after having had several rounds of drinks, they see the silhouettes of a man and woman whom they think are having sex. But it’s actually the Manicure Serial Killer murdering his latest victim.
Tae-joo hears through the telephone his mother telling him that his brain has suffered too much damage and that the doctor has advised her to have his ventilator turned off at 2 PM today.
Three convicts escape from a prison transport bus and take a mother and her daughter as hostages. (The TV news report says that the escapees were convicted of heinous crimes such as rape and murder.) They demand a truck and a ship, or else, they will kill one of the hostages by 2 PM.
When one of the hostage-takers fires a shot, Dong-cheol and Yong-ki think that they should also get their guns in a show of force. But Tae-joo talks some sense into Dong-cheol and leads him to a rooftop overlooking the house where the mother and daughter are being held hostage.
12:46 ... Tae-joo finds out that the hostage-takers know everything that’s going on outside of the house because they’re monitoring the TV news reports. He smashes the phone line and TV box outside the house.
13:02 ... Showing that the mother and her daughter are still alive, the hostage-takers demand that food and a doctor be sent to them; they also demand that they be given a tape of the Bee Gees song "Holiday." Pressed for time, Dong-cheol and his team decide to disguise Na-young as a nurse.
Na-young enters the house with the leader of the hostage-takers pointing a gun at Tae-joo. A few minutes later, Chief Detective Kim Kyung-se arrives with a SWAT team. When Tae-joo protests that Na-young could be put at risk and that photographers and TV news crews could record the hostages or the hostage-takers being killed, he says that it’s exactly what their higher-ups want to see — justice being served. He says, “It would paint a pretty picture.”
As the SWAT team prepares to rush into the house, one of the hostage-takers threatens to kill Na-young. Chief Detective Kim Kyung-se blows Na-young’s cover when he stupidly shouts at the hostage-taker that he will be shot on the spot if he kills a police officer.
Episode 8
Ep. 7 recap:
Tae-joo and Dong-cheol enter the house through a window, but they’re also captured by the hostage-takers. When the wounded hostage-taker loses consciousness, Tae-joo applies CPR on him.
When Tae-joo and Dong-cheol try to reason with them, the hostage-takers say that they are victims of Korea’s justice system that’s skewed in favor of the rich and powerful. Two of them were sentenced to five years for stealing a box of ramyeon, while their wounded partner was sentenced to 17 tears for stealing five million won [around four thousand US dollars]. One of them says, “If you have money, not guilty. If you don’t have money, guilty.”
2 PM ... In 2018, the doctor disconnects Tae-joo’s ventilator. In 1988, to save Na-young, Tae-joo lunges at the hostage-taker for the gun. As the gun goes off, the SWAT team forces its way into the house, and Dong-cheol gets shot in the process.
While celebrating at the Insung Shopping Center bar, Tae-joo and Dong-cheol find out that the woman who was hiding with Tae-joo’s father has been murdered. As the fragments of his memories come together, Tae-joo is shocked to realize that his father might be the Manicure Serial Killer.
Things look bleak for Han Choong-ho,Tae-joo’s father, when Na-young reports that the fingerprints and blood samples found in the crime scene belong to him.
At the station, Tae-joo also finds out from the murdered woman’s co-workers that his father had been giving them cosmetics (including red nail polish) and has another girlfriend, who’s part of the Lottery Gang. When the co-workers mention that the girlfriend was close to “CEO Oh Jung-man”, Dong-cheol becomes agitated.
Dong-cheol and his team track down in a coffee shop the young woman who Han Choong-ho had been calling every 10 PM from a corner store payphone. To their shock, the young woman claims that Han Choong-ho and his girlfriend named “Madam Jo” are the leaders of the Lottery Gang. The young woman adds that the gang has made around 750 million won [around 614,000 US dollars] from its operations.
Episode 9
Ep. 8 recap:
At the “pog” shop, Tae-joo and Na-young arrest Han Choong-ho. But Han Choong-ho escapes as Tae-joo and Na-young fight with CEO Oh Jung-man’s men.
The coffee-shop woman identifies Madam Jo as one of the murdered woman’s co-workers. Later, Na-young finds out that besides owning 60 percent of Hawaii Room Salon, Madam Jo also owns an abandoned cement factory near the railroad; Dong-cheol remembers that Madam Jo’s husband committed suicide in that factory.
The young Tae-joo goes missing, but Tae-joo and Dong-cheol find him at the railroad tracks near the abandoned factory. Nam-sik gives guns to everyone in the team, with Na-young standing guard (in disguise) over the young Tae-joo.
Thinking that Na-young is the woman in a white dress that his young self saw lying dead on a table, Tae-joo runs into the abandoned factory. To his relief, the dead woman isn’t Na-young; it’s Madam Jo. In the woods just as he’s about to handcuff Han Choong-ho, Han Choong-ho smashes a rock against his head.
Tae-joo staggers to the tracks and sees his father Han Choong-ho scuffling with a man in a baseball cap and accusing him of killing Go Yeong-suk. The man pulls out a gun and shoots Han Choong-ho as he tries to run back to Tae-joo.
Tae-joo becomes agitated when Dong-cheol, Yong-ki, and Nam-shik hesitate to investigate the Seongho Gang, a powerful and well-organized gang. He becomes adamant about bringing in CEO Oh Jung-man for questioning when Na-young says that a muscle relaxant was found in the bodies of Han Choong-ho and his girlfriend Go Yeong-suk.
Alone, Tae-joo arrests CEO Oh Jung-man at his fancy hotel for beating up a woman with his golf club. At the station, when he asks CEO Oh Jung-man if he ordered that Han Choong-ho and Go Yeong-suk be killed, CEO Oh Jung-man sneers that he must be new in Insung; he adds, “I can’t stand it when other people touch my things. If they were standing in front of me, I wouldn’t order anything … I would murder them myself.”
After Chief Detective Kim Kyung-se intervenes in CEO Oh Jung-man’s case and gets him released, Tae-joo follows Dong-cheol and sees him receiving a bribe from one of CEO Oh Jung-man’s men.
At the railroad tracks where his father died, Tae-joo finds an inhaler. Back at the station, he asks Na-young to process the evidence. Later, he goes to CEO Oh Jung-man’s club to stop a man from beating up the woman whom he had previously saved from CEO Oh Jung-man. The woman, Kim Young-ok, thanks him and says that CEO Oh Jung-man was in Insung, not in Seoul, on the day Han Choong-ho was shot and killed; she says that after receiving a call that day, CEO Oh Jung-man rushed out of the club with his gun.
Despite Tae-joo’s plea, Kim Young-ok, however, refuses to put on record what she said about CEO Oh Jung-man, saying that she’s got a debt to repay and that she doesn’t want to be killed. As they have several rounds of drinks, Young-ok tells Tae-joo her life story.
The next day, Dong-cheol finds Tae-joo handcuffed and half-naked in a motel room.
Episode 10
Ep. 9 recap:
Touched by Tae-joo’s gesture of giving her a ferry ticket for her trip home, Kim Young-ok clears Tae-joo’s reputation as Na-young listens from nearby, giving him the negatives of him handcuffed and half-naked in the motel room. But the next day, she’s found dead, her body floating on the river.
Tae-joo challenges Dong-cheol, Yong-ki, and Nam-shik that they should fight fire with fire against the Seongho Gang. After finding a footprint near the crime scene, Dong-cheol and Tae-joo kidnap one of CEO Oh Jung-man’s thugs and bring him into a freezer. Under the threat of suffering from frostbite (after Tae-joo pours liquid all over him), the thug confesses that CEO Oh Jung-man himself strangled Kim Young-ok to death using her scarf.
Chief Detective Kim Kyung-se tries to pressure Dong-cheol to release CEO Oh Jung-man, but Tae-joo proves that CEO Oh Jung-man killed Kim Young-ok by using her scarf that was crafted with a special dye that reacts to alcohol. CEO Oh Jung-man’s hands turn black after Tae-joo spills alcohol on them.
The mystery as to who shot and killed Han Choong-ho remains, however, when Na-young says that the tests show that CEO Oh Jung-man’s gun has not been fired.
To his shock, Tae-joo finds out the 2018 serial killer Min-seok is a friend of his young self. He runs after the young Min-seok but loses him. The young Min-seok runs up to and embraces a man whose face is shrouded in darkness. As the man stares down at where Tae-joo is, he breaths deeply from an inhaler.
As Tae-joo is about to leave the station, he sees and hears a vision of Min-seok as a doctor in 2018 hovering over him in his hospital bed. From Min-seok’s tape recorder, he hears Seo-hyun’s voice screaming for him to save her.
The next day, Tae-joo calls elementary schools to try and track down the young Min-seok. While doing so, his ear starts bleeding, and he hears the doctor saying that he has suffered too much brain damage that he has no chance of recovering.
A young officer reports to Dong-cheol and Tae-joo that a crime has been reported in the countryside. At the crime scene, they see that a woman’s body was discarded in a deep hole. The victim, Kim Bok-rye, could have been dead for nearly a month now. In the surrounding area, Na-young, Nam-sik, and other police officers find Kim Bok-rye’s shoe, purse, and some other things.
In Bok-rye’s house, Dong-cheol stumbles upon a family portrait; Tae-joo is shocked to see the young Min-seok standing between Bok-rye and a man. Later, after he and Na-young check the nearest elementary school, they find out that the young Min-seok has history of absences because of illness, didn’t get along with his classmates, and was recently taken out of school by his mother for a long-term absence because of a bad injury.
At the health center, Manager Park tells Tae-joo and Dong-cheol that Bok-rye was beaten to death with a bat, breaking and fracturing several bones in the process, with the fatal blow a strike to her head. Later, after Na-young notices something strange about the crime scene photos, Dong-cheol and his men return to the crime scene.
Based on the evidence that Tae-joo found near the crime scene, Dong-cheol and his team arrest a junkie named Yang Gil-soo; in his house, they find a bundle of meth and Kim Bok-rye’s missing earrings.
Episode 11
Ep. 10 recap:
Based on the young Min-seok’s medical records, Tae-joo and Na-young find out that his injuries are similar to those of Kim Bok-rye; they conclude that Kim Bok-rye was killed in revenge for what she did to the young Min-seok.
Yong-ki and Nam-shik blame themselves after Yang Gil-soo dies while being beaten up during his interrogation. Chief Detective Kim Kyung-se slaps them both, but Dong-cheol stops him, saying that he will take care of his team.
Manager Park says that Yang Gil-soo died of a heart attack, not because Yong-ki beat him up but because of a forced drug overdose.
The tape recording of the interrogation reveals that after Yang Gil-soo collapsed, Yong-ki left the interrogation room to call for an ambulance. While he was out, someone sneaked into the room and forced the meth into Yang Gil-soo’s throat.
From the tape recording, Na-young hears the person who killed Yang Gil-soo use an inhaler; Tae-joo thinks that the same person killed his father, Go Yeong-suk, and Kim Bok-rye. He rushes out of the room and surveys the people in the station’s busy lobby. As he turns, he fails to see the young Min-seok happily running down the stairs to meet the killer — the young officer who earlier reported to Dong-cheol about the crime scene in the countryside.
Tae-joo volunteers to write and submit to Chief Detective Kim Kyung-se the report of what happened to Yang Gil-soo; while thinking about Yong-ki’s actions that he should include in the report, he gets a mysterious phone call from someone who tells him, “The mission has to be accomplished. The problem lies inside. If you find a solution to that, you will be able to come back home.”
After concluding with Na-young that the killer works at the station, Tae-joo questions Dong-cheol, Yong-ki, and Nam-shik. Later, after he submits his report, Yong-ki is slated to be dismissed from the police force, with Nam-shik facing suspension.
While the other police officers sign a petition asking that Yong-ki not be dismissed, the young officer introduces himself as Lee Soon-ho to Tae-joo and says that he supports Tae-joo in standing up for the truth.
Tae-joo visits his mother at the beauty salon. Later, after an altercation in the bar with Yong-ki, he goes back to the station where Na-young helps him sift through the records in order to find out who the killer is. They narrow down the suspects to around 25 officers.
The next day, as he talks with Na-young and Lee Soon-ho (who has been assigned to check on Min-seok’s orphanage), Tae-joo suddenly remembers the address — “Sung Il-ro 42-7” — and house that he saw while trying to rescue Seo-hyun in 2018. Although there’s no such address in Insung, Lee Soon-ho becomes agitated as Tae-joo describes the house with a cross on the door.
After Yong-ki is dismissed by the disciplinary board, Nam-sik returns to the team. But things turn for the worse when Tae-joo and Dong-cheol find out that the tape of Gil-soo’s murder has disappeared.
Episode 12
Ep. 11 recap:
After their altercation at the bar, Tae-joo asks for Yong-ki’s help in unmasking the killer. In front of numerous officers at the station, Yong-ki holds up the tape and says out loud that it contains how Yang Gil-soo really died.
Lee Soon-ho attacks Yong-ki in an alley and snatches the tape, but Yong-ki manages to stab him with a piece of broken glass. Later on, the lab results confirm that the blood on the broken glass is of the same type as Lee Soon-ho’s blood. The lab results also state that there’s streptococcus (which can cause pneumonia and asthma) in the blood from the broken glass.
Dong-cheol and Tae-joo find out that “Lee Soon-ho” is a stolen identity; they also find out that Lee Soon-ho became a police officer to find a kid and that he transferred to Insung on the day Tae-joo arrived from 2018.
Lee Soon-ho kidnaps Na-young. Police checkpoints are set up all over Insung, and Tae-joo finds himself retracing his steps in 2018 when he was trying to rescue Seo-hyun.
Tae-joo finds the house with a cross on the door and rescues Na-young; as they leave the room where Na-young was held captive, they see the young Min-seok staring at them. Later, as a police officer questions the young Min-seok, Tae-joo remembers Min-seok’s words in 2018 before he was shot: “I remember now. The horrified frown on your face. Yes, that’s the face I remember.”
At the station, Dong-cheol and his team find out from Min-seok that “Lee Soon-ho” is his biological brother named Kim Hyun-seok and that they got separated three years ago near Insung Station. Min-seok also says that they have a sister, but he clams up when Na-young asks where she is now. When Min-seok says that his brother left him and Na-young in the house because he has something left to do, Dong-cheol and his team become worried because Lee Soon-ho (Hyun-seok) still has his police-issued gun and was recently provided bullets.
After Na-young remembers how enraged Hyun-seok became when she asked why he killed Go Yeong-suk, Tae-joo tells the team that in order to find Hyun-seok, they must find the connection between Hyun-seok and Go Yeong-suk.
Based on a map of the areas near Insung Station, Tae-joo calculates where Min-seok and Hyun-seok might have come from before they got separated. Later, based on Hyun-seok’s call history, he and Na-young find out that Hyun-seok called up the police station, orphanages in Insung, hospitals, hostess bars, inns, and motels; he also called the Hawaii Room Salon where Go Yeong-suk worked and the inn where she was killed. Tae-joo also notices that Hyun-seok called up the Hangbok Welfare Center multiple times.
The next day, Yong-ki tells the team that Go Yeong-suk worked as a nursing assistant two years ago at the Hangbok Welfare Center. But before he and Nam-shik could follow up this lead, Chief Detective Kim Kyung-se orders Dong-cheol and all the detectives to proceed to a crime scene — a police officer has been killed.
Episode 13
Ep. 12 recap:
After finding out that his sister died, Hyun-seok burned down their house with his drunken father in it.
Hyun-seok and Min-seok got separated three years ago at Insung Station when Hyun-seok was tagged as a vagrant and detained at the Hangbok Welfare Center as part of the “environmental cleanup project” for the Asian Games and the 1988 Summer Olympics. At the center, Go Yeong-suk sadistically abused Hyun-seok and the other vagrants by beating them and giving them strange medication; besides applying makeup, she also painted Hyun-seok’s fingernails red.
Hyun-seok shoots the director of the Hangbok Welfare Center.
At the bridge, Na-young arrives and tells Tae-joo and Dong-cheol that Min-seok disappeared from the station. Separating from each other to pursue Hyun-seok, Tae-joo unknowingly retraces his steps in 2018. He catches up with Hyun-seok at the bridge, but to his surprise, Hyun-seok tells him about the phone call from Seoul; Hyun-seok also tells him not to trust the caller too much.
Hyun-seok stabs Tae-joo in the stomach, but he’s shot in the back by Chief Detective Kim Kyung-se. He hangs on to the bridge’s railing, but Tae-joo grabs his arm. After telling Tae-joo “That person … will come to see you,” he lets go and plunges into the river below. In a split second decision, Tae-joo also plunges into the river; as he sinks deeper into the river, in 2018, he flatlines.
With Tae-joo safe and Hyun-seok dead, Dong-cheol, Yong-ki, and Nam-shik celebrate at the station. But Chief Detective Kim Kyung-se deflates their high spirits by saying that their team will be broken up and reassigned to various units. Dong-cheol’s men and other police officers stop him from attacking Chief Detective Kim Kyung-se.
After Dong-cheol gets roaring drunk that night, Tae-joo drives him home. But the directions that Dong-cheol gives him lead them to Chief Detective Kim Kyung-se’s house. On the street, Dong-cheol raucously challenges Chief Detective Kim Kyung-se to a fight; as he wanders off, Tae-joo hears the payphone ringing.
The next day, Dong-cheol is arrested for killing Chief Detective Kim Kyung-se. Tae-joo says that he will handle the investigation, but Chief Ahn Min-shik corrects him, saying that he’s in charge of investigating Chief Detective Kim Kyung-se’s death. When Chief Ahn Min-shik says that he came from Seoul Central Police Station, Tae-joo realizes that he’s the one who called him on the phone.
During the interrogation, Chief Ahn Min-shik presents the evidence against Dong-cheol — the murder weapon with Dong-cheol’s fingerprints, the blood on his shirt, and the commotion he caused on the street at 3:30 AM (with Chief Detective Kim Kyung-se’s estimated time of death at 4 AM). Later, as he is about to be transferred to a new detention facility, Dong-cheol shouts at Yong-ki and Nam-shik, “I didn’t kill Kyung-se. Do everything you can.”
While visiting Na-young at her new assignment, Tae-joo hears over the radio that Dong-cheol escaped while being transferred.
Episode 14
Ep. 13 recap:
After Dong-cheol says that there was somebody else in Chief Detective Kim Kyung-se’s house the night he was killed, he and Tae-joo sneak into the mortuary to look at the corpse. Tae-joo thinks that because of the running hot water that kept Chief Detective Kim Kyung-se’s body warm, the estimated time of his death is wrong.
Not wanting to get Yong-ki and Nam-shik into more trouble, Dong-cheol tells Tae-joo that he’s got someone who can help them investigate — Detective Shin Chul-hong, his former boxing coach.
Tae-joo, Yong-ki, Nam-shik, and Detective Shin Chul-hong capture a burglar named Oh Yong-tae, who admits to them that Chief Detective Kim Kyung-se was already dead when he got into the house. The burglar adds, however, that there was somebody else inside the house.
Detective Shin Chul-hong tells Tae-joo that he has stomach cancer and only has about a year left to live.
Dong-cheol refuses to believe Tae-joo, who tells him that the burglar recognized that Detective Shin Chul-hong was the other man in the house because of his military boots.
Detective Shin Chul-hong takes his own life by shooting himself.
The TV doctor tells Tae-joo, “You will be able to come back home soon.” The doctor explains that the fragment in the skull that’s keeping Tae-joo in a coma will be removed soon — by Dr. Ahn Min-shik of the neurosurgery department.
Chief Ahn Min-shik tells Tae-joo that Dong-cheol and an unidentified man were seen near the body of Detective Shin Chul-hong. He also says that Chief Detective Kim Kyung-se and Detective Shin Chul-hong were receiving bribes from Insung Construction, which is involved in Insung City’s redevelopment. Detective Shin Chul-hong received the bribes monthly through his daughter’s bank account. When Tae-joo asks him why he’s here, he replies, “After this case is closed, let’s go home together.”
After a close call in the mortuary with Chief Ahn Min-shik and his men, Tae-joo and Dong-cheol go to the station to look at Detective Shin Chul-hong’s bankbook and records. But they run into Chief Ahn Min-shik again.
Tae-joo and Dong-cheol go to Chief Detective Kim Kyung-se’s house and try to trace the sequence of events. Later on, after having Oh Yong-tae released from detention with Nam-shik’s help, they arrive at Oh Yong-tae’s house to look at everything that he stole, but a man is already there ransacking the house. As Dong-cheol struggles with the man, he sees that the man has a tattoo indicating that he’s a member of the Seobu Gang. Later on, Oh Yong-tae says that the ledger that he stole from Chief Detective Kim Kyung-se’s house is missing.
At Tae-joo’s house, Nam-shik and Na-young tell the rest of the team that after CEO Oh Jung-man’s arrest, the Seobu Gang was reorganized into Insung Construction, with Chief Detective Kim Kyung-se’s 2nd cousin as its new leader. When CEO Oh Jung-man was arrested for fraud, part of the items seized from him was a ledger. Thereafter, Chief Detective Kim Kyung-se had the fraud charge dropped.
The next day, Chief Ahn Min-shik confronts Tae-joo about meeting with Dong-cheol; when Tae-joo asks when he’ll take him back home, he replies, “When the risk factors are gone.” He then gives Tae-joo a file of bribery allegations against Dong-cheol, with a bankbook similar to that of Detective Shin Chul-hong.
Episode 15
Ep. 14 recap:
Chief Ahn Min-shik messes with Tae-joo’s mind by saying that he’s is not from the forensic branch but the Seoul Central Investigative Agency sent to investigate Dong-cheol. Later on at the station, Tae-joo finds out from the records that it was Chief Ahn Min-shik indeed who had him transferred from Seoul to Insung.
Tae-joo and Na-young find the tape recorder in Detective Shin Chul-hong’s car. Detective Shin Chul-hong hoped that it would prove Dong-cheol’s innocence; he refused to hand over the ledger to Chief Ahn Min-shik until Dong-cheol’s name was removed from the wanted list.
Chief Ahn Min-shik killed both Chief Detective Kim Kyung-se and Detective Shin Chul-hong.
Dong-cheol, Na-young, Yong-ki, and Nam-shik are cornered in a warehouse and are fighting off the members of Seobu Gang (Insung Construction). As Tae-joo wrestles the gun away from him, Chief Ahn Min-shik shouts at him that his teammates are all “delusions” that are keeping him in 1988. But Tae-joo replies, “Who you really are isn’t important to me. I will believe … what’s happening before my very eyes.”
As Tae-joo runs towards Na-young, Yong-ki, and Nam-shik, everything suddenly turns white, and he awakens ... in 2018.
2018 ...
After a month being in a coma, Tae-joo is finally able to come home. His mother confirms to him that they lived for a while in Insung and that his father was shot to death.
To find closure, Tae-joo visits the Insung Station and studies the records of the 1988 serial killer case. He finds out that the murders of Go Yeong-suk and Kyung-se and Hyun-seok’s shooting on the bridge really did happen and were not just dreams when he was in a coma. But he can’t find any information about Dong-cheol, Na-young, Yong-ki, and Nam-shik.
Kim Min-seok kills another woman, but the police later find his hideout. There, Tae-joo sees a packet of painkillers.
Seo-hyun tells Tae-joo that Min-seok has now killed nine women and that the murders have become more violent. Tae-joo notices that the period between the murders have shortened and wonders why Min-seok’s behavior has changed so much. After studying the CCTV footage of the convenience store from where Min-seok followed his last victim, he deduces that Min-seok doesn’t choose his victims randomly.
Min-seok snatches another woman and, after applying makeup on her, bashes her head with a dumbbell. But Tae-joo and Seo-hyun find the woman, who’s barely alive. Tae-joo runs after Min-seok.
Episode 16, Finale (with spoilers)
Ep. 15 recap:
Tae-joo captures Min-seok, but Min-seok refuses to reveal anything about his accomplice.
From the records, Tae-joo finds out that Director Park of the Hangbok Welfare Center was shot in 2008; he thinks that Hyun-seok survived the 1988 incident and has been living under an assumed identity. Later, he captures Hyun-seok at a junkyard.
Because of Tae-joo’s testimony, Min-seok is sentenced to death, while Hyun-seok is sentenced for being Min-seok’s accomplice and for killing Director Park.
From the old case files sent from Insung, Tae-joo is horrified to learn that Dong-cheol, Yong-ki, Nam-shik, and Na-young died in 1988.
2018 ...
Tae-joo is promoted as chief of the Violent Crimes Unit 1 of the Regional Investigation Unit. But his mother and Seo-hyun notice that he’s unhappy and distracted.
1988 ...
Using Chief Ahn Min-shik’s gun, Tae-joo stops the Seobu Gang members from attacking Dong-cheol, Yong-ki, Nam-shik, and Na-young. Later on, the team captures Chief Ahn Min-shik at the docks.
Despite being ordered to return to Seoul, Tae-joo decides to stay in Insung with his teammates and friends.
Historical /cultural backgrounders and other information
Chi Kang-hyon (Ji Kang-hun) became famous with the words “If you have money, not guilty. If you don’t have money, guilty.” He shouted out these words to the police officers and reporters while he and the other escaped convicts were holding their hostages.
Koreans have a popular saying, ‘Yujeon Mujoe, Mujeon Yujoe.’ It means, “He who has money is innocent; he who has no money is guilty.”
This common sentiment prevails among the Korean people, especially among the common people who do not have much money. Economic indices show that 99% of the entire population of Korea is classified ‘have-nots’ while only one percent enjoys the lions’ share of the social wealth.
This incident became the basis of the movie titled “Holiday” (during the hostage crisis, Chi Kang-hyon demanded from the police a cassette tape of “Holiday,” a Bee Gees song).
3. This drama’s antagonist is known as the “Manicure Serial Killer.” South Korea has had serial killings since 1975. These serial killers acted alone, except for the Jijon clique that had six members.
Probably the most infamous serial murders in Korea are the “Hwaseong serial murders,” where 10 women were raped and murdered between 1986 and 1991.
(These murders became the subject of the 2003 film “Memories of Murder” directed by South Korean director Bong Joon-ho, who became the first Korean to win the Palme d’Or and Oscar Award for his 2019 film "Parasite.")
For decades, the Hwaseong serial murders have spawned such fear among South Koreans that they became the best-known cold cases in the country. The victims, ranging in age from 14 to 71, were strangled to death after their mouths were stuffed with their stockings, bras or socks. Some of the bodies were mutilated with umbrellas, forks or razor blades.
4. Ep. 12 explains why Hyun-seok and his younger brother Min-seok were separated for three years; Hyun-seok was tagged as a “vagrant” and detained at the Hangbok Welfare Center.
Choi was one of thousands — the homeless, the drunk, but mostly children and the disabled — rounded up off the streets ahead of the 1988 Seoul Olympics, which the ruling dictators saw as international validation of South Korea’s arrival as a modern country. An Associated Press investigation shows that the abuse of these so-called vagrants at Brothers, the largest of dozens of such facilities, was much more vicious and widespread than previously known, based on hundreds of exclusive documents and dozens of interviews with officials and former inmates.
Yet nobody has been held accountable to date for the rapes and killings at the Brothers compound because of a cover-up orchestrated at the highest levels of government, the AP found. Two early attempts to investigate were suppressed by senior officials who went on to thrive in high-profile jobs; one remains a senior adviser to the current ruling party. Products made using slave labor at Brothers were sent to Europe, Japan and possibly beyond, and the family that owned the institution continued to run welfare facilities and schools until just two years ago.
5. Videos that show life in South Korea during the time span of the drama
Lessons in photography from "Life on Mars" with analysis of its visuals, cinematography, and editing
A. The shots or scenes that I like best
(1) In Ep. 8, Tae-joo sees his father shot and killed three times by a mysterious man on the railroad tracks. As I will explain below, this scene uses what is called “dolly zoom” (aka “Vertigo Effect”). This scene is brilliant because of the use of the “dolly zoom” (aka “Vertigo Effect”), slow motion, reverse motion, green screen (?), and repetition, all of which serve to depict Tae-joo’s utter confusion and disorientation as to what’s happening.
Note: The GIF program that I use has a limit of 30 seconds per GIF, and so I had to cut this railroad scene in Ep. 8 into several parts.
(2) In Ep. 10, Tae-joo walks out to the hallway of the police station to look for the person who killed Yang Gil-soo by force-feeding him with meth. At the bottom of the staircase, he becomes out of focus as the camera pushes in on him; the camera then arcs counterclockwise around him as several police officers pass him by. As he turns, Kim Hyun-seok passes by and salutes him.
Tae-joo disappears from the frame as the young Min-seok appears at the top of the staircase. Min-seok meets his brother Hyun-seok (frame right) at the bottom of the staircase, and the camera tracks them as they walk towards the left: Tae-joo then reappears in the frame.
I stand to be corrected, but I think there are two slow motion parts of this tracking shot: (1) when Hyun-seok passes by and salutes Tae-joo and (2) when Min-seok is about to meet Hyun-seok at the bottom of the staircase.)
This tracking shot (aka “oner”) takes a lot of practice for the actors and the cinematographer to get their movements and timing right.
(3) In Ep. 3, we have the funniest scene in this drama. Tae-joo and Dong-cheol fight each other, without making a sound, inside the hospital room of the police station’s janitor. As the camera slowly pulls out, Tae-joo and Dong-cheol take turns in getting punched, kicked, or pushed out of the room. The shot ends with the nurses in the foreground (frame left) wondering about what’s happening.
B. The use of “dolly zoom” (aka “Vertigo Effect”) in numerous shots or scenes is the distinctive feature of this drama.
Ep. 4 probably has the earliest use of the “dolly zoom” (aka “Vertigo Effect”) on this drama. Tae-joo has a flashback of what happened in the abandoned cement factory. As the young Tae-joo screams in terror, he (the adult Tae-joo) collapses on the street.
Ep. 14: The Seobu Gang members attack Dong-cheol, Na-young, Yong-ki, and Nam-shik, but Chief Ahn Min-shik shouts at Tae-joo that his teammates are mere illusions that are keeping him from going back to 2018.
In all their boldness, dolly zooms can achieve some of cinema’s most powerful moments of visual storytelling.
They can create a sudden sense of unease and disorientation. They can signal powerful and uncanny emotional states such as tension, epiphany, euphoria, and dread. They can make it feel like the floor is dropping out from under you or that the walls are closing in. They can shrink distance or send the background barrelling off into the unknown. When deployed with purpose, like the best effects, they are so much more than a visual flourish.
Employed brazenly, dolly zooms can have a positively brain-breaking effect. And after you scrape your flabbergasted grey matter off the floor, you might find yourself asking: why did that look so strange? How did they manipulate space like that? Did the filmmakers use a green screen? Was it rear projection? What is going on here, exactly? How’d they do that?
The dolly zoom is one of the most discussed cinematic techniques. You can use them in many ways, but a great director will find a logical reason to include them. When paired with the correct story moment, the dolly zoom can draw the audience into the story and the character’s state of mind.
What is a dolly zoom?
A dolly zoom is an in-camera effect where you dolly towards or away from a subject while zooming in the opposite direction. Also known as a zolly, this shot creates a sense of unease in the viewer, simulates a spatial warp, and can either shrink or extend distances based on the choice of direction.
We are comfortable with zooming or dollying independently, as they mimic natural movements and changes of perspective. Combined, though, they create an unnatural manipulation of space, and that catches our attention. Even if the audience doesn’t recognize why the shot makes them feel uncomfortable, it naturally will.
Other names for “dolly zoom” (aka “Vertigo Effect”) are:
Hitchcock zoom
Vertigo zoom or vertigo effect
Jaws shot
Trombone shot
Zolly or zido
Telescoping
Contra-zoom
Reverse tracking
Zoom in/dolly out (or vice versa)
Basically, there are two kinds of dolly zoom: dolly in, zoom out; dolly out, zoom in.
When we dolly out and zoom in, we create the illusion that the world is closing in around us. You can use this for several kinds of visual metaphors, such as paranoia or impending danger (something unseen creeping up on the viewer or the subject in the frame).
We see this effect put to good use in The Fellowship of the Ring. When we dolly in and zoom out, we create the reverse effect: the world pushing away from us. Visually, this can illustrate feelings of isolation, or in the case of Steven Spielberg’s Poltergeist, the feeling that one’s destination or goal is perpetually out of reach.
The Studio Binder article says, however, that since Alfred Hitchcock and his cinematographer first used the "dolly zoom" (aka "Vertigo Effect") in 1958, other directors have built upon Hitchcock’s foundation. The article mentions the Spielberg dolly zoom and the Stephen Jackson dolly zoom (using "tonal shift" together with the dolly zoom).
Other resources on “dolly zoom” (aka “Vertigo Effect”):
(1) “The Evolution of the Zoom Dolly”: When the Dolly Zoom shot is used in conjunction with an unsettling or emotional moment...the viewer is swept up in a visceral visual that represents the pain/confusion/anguish occurring in the story. Here are 23 classic film examples of this technique in chronological order.
Scenes/shots in “Life on Mars” that use the “dolly zoom” aka “Vertigo Effect”:
Ep. 8 (scene at the railroad tracks when Tae-joo sees his father shot and killed); the GIF program that I use has a limit of 30 seconds per GIF, and so I had to cut this railroad scene in Ep. 8 into several parts.
Part 1
Part 2 (with reverse motion that further heightens tension and creates confusion in Tae-joo’s mind as to what’s happening)
Part 3
Part 4
Ep. 5: While surveilling the drugstore employee, Tae-joo collapses on the street. As he stands up, he hears voices again from 2018.
Ep. 7: As Na-young leads away the mother of one of the hostage-takers, the camera dolly zooms out of Tae-joo as he hears voices again from 2018. At the end, the camera pushes in on him.
Ep. 13: As Dong-cheol walks away drunk after having challenged Chief Detective Kim Kyung-se to a fight, Tae-joo hears the payphone ringing.
Ep. 14: The camera dolly zooms on Tae-joo, combined with VFX (visual effects of pieces of paper flying all around him).
C. Except for the 90-degree Dutch angle shots of Tae-joo lying on the street after being struck by a car in Ep. 1 and a mere handful of Dutch angle shots, the absence of short siding and Dutch angle shots also distinguishes this drama’s cinematography.
Unless my eyes have become blurry, I didn’t see a single short-sided shot in this drama. There’s only less than a handful of Dutch angle shots:
This shot from Ep. 15 uses a hardly noticeable Dutch angle shot.
This shot from Ep. 9 (when Tae-joo was drugged and handcuffed in a motel room) is the only overly dramatic Dutch angle shot that I saw.
D. Tracking shots
Ep. 2: After recognizing that the woman in the alley was murdered by a serial killer, Tae-joo walks away confused; the reporters and photographers follow him. As Tae-joo walks forward, the camera moves backwards, with Tae-joo basically remaining the same size (which means that the distance between him and camera remains the same). As the shot continues, however, you’ll notice that he becomes bigger in size; his elbows can be seen earlier, but later, he’s shot from the elbows up. I think the director staged the shot this way to reinforce Tae-joo’s feeling of being suffocated (he loosens his tie; he turns around to look back at the crime scene and the reporters and photographers, etc). The camera may have been a Steadycam or mounted on a dolly with wheels.
Ep. 6: The camera tracks Tae-joo as he walks along the narrow alleyways; the shot ends when he stumbles upon the young son of the man who froze to death on the street.
Ep. 7: The camera tracks Tae-joo as arrives at the crime scene, moves up the stairs, and into the room.
Ep. 11: Tae-joo chases after the man who attacked Yong-ki and took the tape recording.
“Visual cues” are explained in an excellent series of articles from “My Drama List” written by someone with the username “3GGG.”
Ep. 1: Seo-hyun loses the case against Kim Min-seok because Tae-joo testified that the DNA evidence shows traces of other people’s DNA and is thus unreliable. To show her dilemma and emotional agitation, she’s boxed in by the frame created by the staircase.
Ep. 2: Tae-joo and Dong-cheol disagree on the cause of the woman’s death; Dong-cheol believes that the woman committed suicide by jumping off from the roof, while Tae-joo insists that the woman was murdered by a serial killer. Later on, they unexpectedly meet in the alley where the woman died. To show the conflict or division between them, they’re boxed on within the same frame.
(Note: When characters are boxed in within the same frame, it could indicate either unity or conflict depending on the context.)
Ep. 2: Tae-joo, Dong-cheol, and the team arrive at a charcoal factory in search of the missing woman. As Tae-joo surveys the workers milling about, the killer passes him by. Notice that he and the killer are boxed in within the same frame. (They’re also positioned at a lower quadrant.)
Ep. 3: Dong-cheol blames Tae-joo when the station’s janitor was stabbed by a group of pickpockets, including the pickpocket who was released after he availed himself of a lawyer upon Tae-joo’s advice. Notice that Tae-joo is boxed in by the frame created by the bathroom mirror.
Ep. 5: Tae-joo, Dong-cheol, and their team face the possibility of a stalker terrorizing women in their jurisdiction. Notice that they’re boxed in by the frame created by the doorway.
Ep. 6: Tae-joo is embarrassed to see his father shamelessly taking the fruits, candies, and other food items from the public bath. Notice that they’re boxed in by the frame created by the ceiling and walls.
Ep. 7: Tae-joo, Dong-cheol, Yong-ki, and Nam-shik plan their strategy in dealing with the hostage-takers. Notice that they’re boxed in by the frame created by the open doorway.
Ep. 9: Tae-joo breaks down at the mortuary after seeing his father’s corpse. Notice that he’s boxed in by the frame created by the ceiling and posts.
Ep. 11: Tae-joo and Dong-cheol are in conflict over the death of the junkie named Yang Gil-soo because Yong-ki ostensibly beat him up during the interrogation. Notice that they’re boxed in within a narrow frame created by the walls.
Ep. 11: Conflict arises between Tae-joo and Na-young; notice that they’re in separate frames and divided by lines.
Ep. 12: Na-young is kidnapped by Kim Hyun-seok. At the city hall library, Tae-joo and Dong-cheol find Na-young’s shoe. Notice that they’re boxed in by a narrow frame created by the bookcases and the wall to reinforce their concern for Na-young’s safety.
Ep. 13: Tae-joo and Na-young hear from the car radio that Dong-cheol has escaped from his police escorts. Notice that they’re boxed in within the frame created by the car window.
Ep. 13: After escaping from his police escorts, Dong-cheol hides in Tae-joo’s apartment, much to Tae-joo’s discomfort and dilemma over aiding a fugitive. Notice that the beer bottle between them creates a dividing line that reinforces their conflict.
F. Miscellaneous observations (How can you hide the camera in mirror shots?; Rack focus; Arc shot; One continous shot or two shots stitched together)? “Walk and talk”)
(1) How can you hide the camera in mirror shots?
Ep. 3: In slow motion, Tae-joo washes the blood away from his hands; the slow motion continues with the bloody water flowing into the drain. Afterwards, the camera becomes jerky, moving from side to side to depict Tae-joo’s emotional agitation. At one point, we see his reflection on the bathroom mirror.
The question is, why don’t we see a reflection in the mirror of the camera or of the cinematographer?
How can you hide the camera in mirror shots? ... Showing the camera breaks the illusion of the film and can be very distracting if spotted ...
Usually, you would shoot at an angle, so that the crew’s reflections are outside of the mirror’s frame. If you need the shot to be straight on, you can fake it by shooting the actor through an empty frame (implying a mirror) or by removing the camera and crew from the mirror as a visual effects shot.
Rack focus: A K-drama isn’t a K-drama if it doesn’t have rack focus shots.
Ep. 6: The family portrait (foreground) is in focus while Tae-joo (background) is out of focus. As the family portrait becomes out of focus, Tae-joo becomes in focus.
Ep. 8: Tae-joo’s reflection on the side mirror (foreground) is in focus while the young Tae-joo (background) is out of focus. Then, Tae-joo’s reflection becomes out of focus as the young Tae-joo becomes in focus.
Ep. 9: Tae-joo (foreground) is out of focus while Dong-cheol and CEO Oh Jung-man (background) are in focus. As Tae-joo becomes in focus, CEO Oh Jung-man becomes out of focus.
With Tae-joo behind him, Dong-cheol gets a call from Manager Park of the health center, but he doesn’t understand the technical things that Manager Park is talking about. The camera starts to arc around him as Tae-joo moves towards him to speak to Manager Park. The camera continues to arc around him and Tae-joo until we see him, Na-young, Yong-ki, and Nam-shik looking perplexed as Tae-joo talks technical stuff with Manager Park.
(4) One continous shot or two shots stitched together?
Ep. 4: We first see Tae-joo (frame right) and the young Tae-joo (frame left, wearing a baseball uniform) facing each other on the street. The young Tae-joo disappears from viewers as the camera trucks (moves parallel) to Tae-joo. As the camera moves almost completely past Tae-joo, we then see the young Tae-joo now as an adult Tae-joo (still wearing a baseball uniform but now frame right).
(5) Ep. 4: “Walk and talk”
As Tae-joo and Na-young talk about the case of the murder of the village elder, the camera tracks them; as they walk forward, the camera moves backwards in lockstep with them to keep them in focus and in frame.
The shot then shows a medium closeup of Na-young as she continues to walk and talk with Tae-joo. The shot cuts to Tae-joo as he listens to Na-young; the shot then cuts back to Na-young. The "walk and talk" then ends with Na-young cheerfully saying that they’re doing something good with their investigation; Tae-joo is shown in an OTS (over-the-shoulder shot) from Na-young’s point of view.
The “walk and talk” was popularized by Aaron Sorkin, director of “Sports Night” and “West Wing.” The “walk and talk” may seem simple to do, but it needs a lot of rehearsals for the actors and cinematographer to synchonize their movements. For more information, please read “The Walk and Talk: Crafting Exposition That Won’t Bore Your Audience” (Premium Beat).
Lessons in photography
Diagonal lines
Bokeh (aesthetic quality of the blurred areas of a photograph
Band-Maid is an all-female Japanese band (formed in 2013) that’s considered as one of the best rock bands in the world today. The band combines genres such as rock (hard, progressive, punk), metal, pop, blues, and jazz. Examples of their rock-jazz-blues songs are “Manners,”“Wonderland,” and “Bubble.” For the band’s softer side, listen to “About Us” and to acoustic songs “Puzzle,”“Anemone,”“Smile,” and “Catharsis.”
“Dice” and “Hate?” at Lollapalooza 2023
“Don’t You Tell Me” fan cam video (lead guitar vs. bass from 2:21 to 3:41); watch official MV.
Band-Maid’s B-sides are also excellent; for example, “Hide and Seek” (fan cam video; listen to the bass and lead guitar).
Do you love great basslines? Listen to “Yuragu” where the great bassline leads to an explosive lead guitar solo (2:19 and 3:06 marks in the fan cam video below; 3:03 and 5:27 in the reaction video, with the lead guitar solo at 5:39 mark).
Free seminars on photojournalism, journalism, science/technology writing, and English proficiency
For Metro Manila and Rizal Province schools only; for more information, contact me at gtgalacio@yahoo.com or 0927-798-3138.
Photojournalism (23): Composition: Decide first what theme, emotion, idea or concept you want to convey; Think about the best way to shoot your subjects before actually doing so; Every good picture has a hidden geometric pattern; Other ways of composing your shots: Visual balance; Place vertical elements against horizontal elements, or vice-versa; Contrast one object in sharp focus with another object that is out of focus; Using linear perspective; Balance by tone; Using the picture diagonal; Breaking the rules to get better photographs; Each subject presents unique possibilities; Ways to improve your composition skills
Have regular hours for work and play; make each day both useful and pleasant, and prove that you understand the worth of time by employing it well. Then youth will be delightful, old age will bring few regrets, and life will become a beautiful success.
Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888)
Marital infidelity: causes, consequences and conclusions; Mediation not allowed in domestic violence cases (with apologies to Pia Guanio); Why Marriages Fail: He said, She said; Transformers: Why do persistent suitors become passive husbands? How to save your marriage alone; All about women; Why do men think the things they think, say the things they say, and do the things they do? Surviving marital infidelity; Legal lessong from Willie Revillame and Liz Amoro; Marriage: The Ultimate Fighting Championship; Boundaries in marriage; and other articles
Amy Perez case: psychological incapacity in declaring a marriage null and void; Adultery, concubinage and psychological violence; Can a mother be deprived of custody of her child? Can an unwed mother avail of the benefits of the Solo Parents Welfare Act? Divorce obtained abroad by a Filipino not recognized here; How to disinherit your spouse; Support for abandoned woman and family; The "Battered Woman Syndrome" as defense; The right of a divorced Filipino spouse to remarry under Article 26 of the Family Code; What happens in an annulment case if the respondent fails to file an Answer? RA 9262 Anti-Violence Against Women and their Children Act of 2004; and other articles
