Beyond Evil ~ Two Police Inspectors Have Trust Issues

“Beyond Evil” (also known as “Monster”) is a Korean drama series released in 2021, with 16 episodes, categorized as Thriller, Suspense, Police Procedural, Crime, Mystery, and Murder Mystery; and streaming on Netflix, Viki, and Tubi TV.

SUMMARY: The severed fingertips of a woman are found but her body was never found. Even without the body, the woman’s twin brother was arrested for her murder but not proven guilty. Twenty (20) years later, a similar murder occurred. A woman’s body was found and her fingertips had been severed. Two police inspectors who were at the scene when the body was found are suspicious of each other. They both believe that they both know more about the victim than they are willing to reveal. One suspects the other is the killer.

♦ Twin Killer or Serial Killer?

In “Beyond Evil”, Lee Dong-Sik had a twin sister who was very successful in everything she did. She was perfect in every way and even played the organ for church services. By contrast, her twin brother was the opposite. Everyone praised her and wanted to know why he couldn’t be successful too. One day his sister’s severed fingers were found. Just her fingers. Her body was never found.

Police said they had evidence that proved Lee Dong-Sik killed his own sister. But they never proved it and he got a job working in law enforcement. At one time he was an ace detective, but 20 years have passed and now he just does menial tasks at the Manyang Police Substation. People say he’s a nut job. They even talk about him among the police investigators in Seoul.

One day Han Joo-Won shows up and says he has been transferred to the Manyang Police Substation. He has excellent credentials – a top graduate from the police academy, etc. In addition, his background is affluent and his father might be the next Police Commissioner. While everybody else at the substation greeted him enthusiastically (because you don’t want to ruffle the feathers of an elite detective whose father might be the next police chief), Lee Dong-Sik was not impressed. He knew who Han Joo-Won’s father was and had no respect for him because his father was in charge of the case about his sister.

The father closed the case saying there wasn’t enough manpower (or some kind of excuse), ended up getting promoted, and is now working in Seoul, working on getting himself appointed as the police commissioner. He didn’t want his son, Han Joo-Won to work at the substation. Why was his son there?  That’s suspicious.  But Han Joo-Won insisted on working there because he has been following the trail of a serial killer. He believes the murder of Lee Dong-Sik’s twin sister which happened 20 years ago is related to other cases he is investigating. He also thinks that Lee Dong-Sik may have killed his sister but nobody could prove it.

The boss at the substation had requested additional officers but did not expect them to send them. So he was surprised when Han Joo-Won appeared saying that he had asked to be transferred. But the boss didn’t give him any special treatment. As soon as he realized that Lee Dong-Sik and Han Joo-Won did not get along with each other, he made them work together as partners. Han Joo-Won noticed that Lee Dong-Sik accepted calls to perform his “official duties” on his personal phone. In other words, the phone calls don’t come in through the police substation so they don’t get recorded as the performance of his official duties.

When Lee Dong-Sik takes the call, he performs official duties but they are also personal. That increased Han Joo-Won’s suspicions about his partner. It added to the suspicions he already had when he arrived at the station, even though he had never even met him. He knew Lee Dong-Sik by reputation because the police in Seoul called him a “nut job”. From what he observed of Lee Dong-Sik’s behavior when he first arrived, he agreed that the guy must be a nut job!

Is It a Copycat Murder?

One day Lee Dong-Sik had taken another one of his official/personal phone calls. When Han Joo-Won arrived at work, his boss told him to go out and help his partner. He had sent another young partner along with Lee Dong-Sik, but the boss thought that Han Joo-Won should go too. It’s a good thing because the young partner discovered a dead body. The young partner was so upset, Lee Dong-Sik told him to go sit in the patrol car until he calmed down. When the young partner was no longer on the scene and it was just the two of them, Lee Dong-Sik asked his partner, Han Joo-Won, if he could identify the victim.

Han Joo-Won’s reaction upon seeing a body with severed fingers aroused Lee Dong-Sik’s suspicions. Han Joo-Won, in turn, asked if he knew the victim. More specifically, was the victim his twin sister who went missing 20 years ago? Then his question got very pointed and specific and he asked Lee Dong-Sik “Did you kill your own sister?”

The body they found was eerily similar to the murder of Lee Dong-Sik’s twin sister 20 years earlier. Lee Dong-Sik said that if his partner thought he was the murderer then Han Joo-Won should investigate him according to proper police procedure. Proper police procedure? That’s rich coming from a person who takes official police calls on his personal phone. Nevertheless, when they returned to the police substation they both went into the interrogation room. Both their boss and the team leader of the Violent Crime Unit wondered what was going on. (???)

The two (2) police inspectors both discovered a dead body and they’re both sitting in the interrogation room as if they were the suspects who needed to be questioned. (???) The boss was just as confused as the VCU team leader. But neither Lee Dong-Sik nor Han Joo-Won would leave the room so she had no other choice but to go into the interrogation room and question them. From that point forward, their professional working relationship which already had a lot of friction got even more abrasive.

• So what are the choices? Either one of them is a killer, both of them are killers, or there’s a killer or killers out there the police have not captured and it’s been 20 years! Truth be told, the guy in line to become the next police commissioner, Han Joo-Won’s father, is suspicious too. After all, when he worked at Manyang Police Substation, he closed an unsolved case.

Main Characters:

• Lee Dong-Sik (played by Shin Ha-Kyun*, “Inseparable Bros”, “Joint Security Area”, “The Auditors”, “Mr. Zoo: The Missing VIP” (he was the dog))
• Han Joo-Won (played by Yeo Jin-Goo, “Hijack 1971”, “Ditto”, “The Royal Gambler”, “The Moon Embracing The Sun”)

*Best Actor – 2021 (57th) BaekSang Arts Awards

Where to Watch

Viewership and Rating:

• IMDb: 8.1 out of 10 stars
• My Drama List: 9 out of 10 stars
• Google users shared a public rating of 4.8 out of 5 stars
• Viki viewers rated this series 9.6 out of 10 stars

My personal rating is the same as the Viki viewing audience.

“Beyond Evil” had two male leads who are powerhouse actors and they really bounced off each other. Plus the support cast was phenomenal. This series made me think about something. In real life, police are usually assigned a partner to work with for various reasons. One reason is that two is better than one and they can help each other. But also, they can keep an eye on each other in case one of them is dirty or corrupt. But suppose the two (2) partners become very close friends, If one of them does something bad, the other might try to cover it up for them because they’re best buds.

However, in this series, the two guys did not like each other, so the boss intentionally put the two of them together. Not only did they not like each other but they didn’t trust each other. That made their police-partner-teamwork much more interesting because they weren’t a team. They worked together but acted and thought independently when doing their job. Also, it’s not very often that a police officer thinks his partner is a murderer. That must make working together, including driving around in the same car, extremely … “uncomfortable”.

Frankly, I didn’t trust either of them. My Sherlock Holmes antenna went up. Right from the beginning I was suspicious of both of them! I pegged one as a murderer and the other as a copycat. Then I had to watch the series all the way The End to see if I guessed it right! LOL.

LINKS OF INTEREST:

Review: Beyond Evil [Monster] – The Fangirl Verdict

Beyond Evil: Spoiler-Free Kdrama Review | KDRAMAOMO

Review | K-drama review: Beyond Evil – masterful serial killer drama keeps the screws tight until the very end | South China Morning Post

Beyond Evil (2021) Review: A well-executed crime drama with a pair of protagonists to rival a romcom | Barely Sane Reviews on Tumblr

TRAILER/TEASER:

Netflix K-Content. “Beyond Evil.” YouTube, 14 June 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQCOdcBAWtU.

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