Duel ~ It’s not an Evil Twin. It’s a Clone.

“Duel” is a 2017 Korean drama, 16 episodes, categorized as Science fiction (Sci-fi), Thriller, Crime, Mystery, and Suspense; and it is streaming free on the Roku Channel and Tubi TV.

• Memorable Quote: “Until I find my daughter, you can’t die, even if you want to.”

SUMMARY:  Can a detective be professional when the case is personal? Can a prosecutor skirt morality and ethics and administer justice?  Can a clone be guilty?

♦ He Has an Accomplice. He Has a Twin!

In “Duel”, veteran detective Jang Deuk-cheon, a member of a violent crimes squad and devoted father, sees his world collapse when the ambulance carrying his ill daughter is hijacked. Knocked unconscious during the incident, Jang Deuk-cheon awakens to find his daughter missing and a single baffling clue: witnesses saw two men with the same face at the scene.

Two identical men are the prime suspects.

• Lee Sung-Joon is gentle, confused, frightened and suffering memory loss. He struggles to understand his past.
• Lee Sung-Hoon is cold and calculating, self-assured and ruthless, and manipulates events in pursuit of revenge and survival. He is an intelligent figure with a hidden vendetta.

What begins as a straightforward kidnapping spirals into a chilling mystery involving human cloning. In Jang Deuk-cheon’s desperate search for his daughter, he discovers that the truth is far more complex, and that both may be victims of a larger experiment. He gets drawn into a web of biotechnological corruption, linking the case to clandectine laboratories, unethical medical research, and a corporate conspiracy.

♦ I Have to Trust You

Prosecutor Choi Jo-hye is a sharp, ambitious official whose involvement in the investigation straddles justice and self-interest. She vacillates when forced to confront political pressure and her own moral boundaries. Though he doesn’t want to trust her because of a previous bad experience, Jang Deuk-cheon and Choi Jo-hye become uneasy allies.

As she probes deeper, Choi Jo-hye uncovers buried files and silenced witnesses, and discovers institutional complicity in illegal cloning experiments and a cover-up stretching into the upper echelons of power. Jang Deuk-cheon follows leads through abandoned labs, hidden medical facilities, and corporate boardrooms, and fights to uncover the truth before time runs out for his daughter. At the same time, there is a psychological duel between Lee Sung-Joon and Lee Sung-Hoon, one yearning to understand his origins, and the other seeking retribution against those who created and exploited them.

It’s a complicated three-fold cord.

1. Jang Deuk-cheon, a father’s personal and emotional pursuit, who against the rules is involved in a case where he is the victim;
2. Choi Jo-hye, a prosecutor with ethical and morality issues that require reckoning, and
3. Lee Sung-Joon and Lee Sung-Hoon, the clones. Should they even exist? Which one is the clone? The good one or the bad one?

Main Characters:

• Jang Deuk-Cheon (played by Jung Jae-Young, “Partners for Justice 1 and 2”, “You Call It Passion”, “The Fatal Encounter”, “Assembly”, “Castaway on the Moon”)
• Choi Jo-Hye (played by Kim Jung-Eun, “Strong Girl Nam-Soon”, “Lovers in Paris”)
• Lee Sung-Joon / Lee Sung-Hoon (played by Yang Se-Jong, “Low Life”, “Doona!”, “Dr. Romantic 1 and 2”, “My Country: The New Age”, “Still 17”)

Where to Watch

Viewership and Rating:

• IMDb: 7.5 out of 10 stars
• My Drama List: 8.4 out of 10 stars
• Dramabeans: 9.2 out of 10 stars
• Google users shared a public rating: 4.9 out of 5 stars

My personal rating is the same as the Google users’ rating.

“Duel” can be summed up with this one quote: “Someone who looks just like me made me a murderer.”  This Korean drama blends an intense police procedural with science fiction and provokes a philosophical exploration of humanity. It probes:

• how science, when unrestrained by ethics, blurs the line between creation and corruption;

• how love, duty, and conscience endure even when the very idea of being human is put to the test; and finally,

• does a clone have an IQ, an EQ, and a soul?

LINKS OF INTEREST:

Duel | Meicchi’s Blog

Review – Duel | subtitledreams

First Impressions: OCN’s ‘Duel’ Contains All the Intensity and Action You’ve Been Hoping For. | Soompi

K-Drama Review: Duel – A Heart-Racing Pursuit To Claim A Death Defying Medicine | Hello Kpop

Duel Korean Drama Review | Kdrama Kisses

TRAILER/TEASER:

CJ ENM Global. “Duel.” YouTube, Video, 2 Jan. 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMDTNhXCfk0.

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