“Psychopath Diary” ~ An Amnesiac Believes He is a Psychopath

“Psychopath Diary” is a 2019 Korean drama TV series, with 16 episodes, categorized as Crime, Mystery, Thriller, Suspense, and Dark Comedy.

SUMMARY: A person loses their memory and when they wake up they think they’re a psychopathic serial killer. But when they try to kill their victim, they can’t do it and they don’t know why. They have a diary that records all of their evil deeds. It’s probably because it’s not their diary.

♦ But I Know I’m a Killer! It’s Written in the Diary

In “Psychopath Diary”, Yook Dong-Sik is a super nice guy. That’s why his boss and his co-workers let him take the blame for their mistakes. His family bragged about how successful he was and how had a great job at a major brokerage company. But when his family and friends found out what happened because they saw it on TV in a news report … Yook Dong-Sik decided that it was time to end it all. He wrote a suicide note and left it on his desk at work.

On the same night, he decided to commit suicide, somebody was at the same location committing a murder. The murder victim reached out and cried in a weak voice, “Save me”. It was then that the killer realized somebody was there witnessing the crime. Seo In-Woo is a cold-blooded serial killer who keeps a diary. Coincidentally, he is also a manager at the company where Yook Dong-Sik works. However, Yook Dong-Sik has never met him. Yook Dong-Sik’s boss is Seo In-Woo’s brother. Seo In-Woo stops the murder he was in the middle of committing to chase after … whoever it is that was witnessing the crime. Seo In-Woo doesn’t know Yook Dong-Sik works for the brokerage company because he has never met him.

Even though he planned to commit suicide, his survival instincts kicked in and he tried to get away from the killer. There was a police car patrolling the area and the officer accidentally hit Yook Dong-Sik. They took him to the hospital emergency to get treatment. The police officers were relieved when he woke up and couldn’t remember who he was. They didn’t want to report that they were the ones who hit him with their patrol car. If he didn’t remember anything maybe the incident could be forgotten.

Somehow in all of the kerfuffle, the killer lost his diary. Seo In-Woo would keep a record of the murders he committed, with details including dates, times, and how he did it! Yook Dong-Sik had the diary but it was left in the police car. Sim Bo-Kyung is one of the officers who hit him with the patrol car. When he saw the diary she returned it to him. He was not a suspect and she thought reading the diary would violate his privacy. So she had no clue that she was giving him the psychopath’s diary. Since he was suffering from amnesia, he didn’t know that the diary did not belong to him.

He returned to work not remembering what had happened. His co-worker took the suicide note that he left and destroyed it. Yook Dong-Sik is confused. Everybody at work and his family tell him he’s a nice guy, meek, humble, innocent, and a pushover. But what he read in the diary tells him he’s a cold-blooded serial killer who preys on the weak. Yook Dong-Sik starts believing that he is a serial killer and that he presents himself differently to others so that they won’t suspect him.

Meanwhile, …

• Seo In-Woo, the real serial killer is looking for the victim he intended to kill but was interrupted. The victim was a homeless man but he eventually found him and asked him to give him back his diary. The victim had seen Yook Dong-Sik with the diary, but he lied and said he had the diary. This time, Seo In-Woo made sure to finish killing him by setting a fire. He believed that his diary was destroyed in the fire, along with the homeless man, and that one diary doesn’t matter because he has more!
• Sim Bo-Kyung is investigating suspicious deaths that are written off as suicides. She believes they are serial murders made to look like suicides. The information and evidence she has gathered leads her to Yook Dong-Sik.

Seo In-Woo becomes suspicious of Yook Dong-Sik and starts following him around. This time he is the witness. Because he had the diary, Yook Dong-Sik had convinced himself that he was a serial killer. He even carefully planned out a murder but something went wrong and he did not finish. The intended murder victim (his boss) got away. Seo In-Woo was watching this bungled effort and he also left the scene of the attempted crime. When Yook Dong-Sik came to work that day, his boss attacked him and accused him of kidnapping and attempted murder. Nobody believed the boss because they knew he had a drug problem. So they thought he started taking drugs again. Seo In-Woo became Yook Dong-Sik’s new boss, and because he thought Yook Dong-Sik was also a serial killer, he wanted to partner with him.

Where on earth is this relationship going to go? (O.o)

Main Characters:

• Yook Dong-Sik (played by Yoon Si-Yoon, “Grand Prince”, “Nokdu Flower”)
• Sim Bo-Kyung (played by Jung In-Sun, “DNA Lover”)
• Seo In-Woo (played by Park Sung-Hoon, “The Distributors”, “Queen of Tears”, “The Glory 1 and 2”)

Where to Watch

Viewership and Rating:

• IMDb: 7.7 out of 10 stars
• My Drama List: 8.3 out of 10 stars
• Letterboxd: 3.6 out of 5 stars
• Google users shared a public rating: 4.8 out of 10 stars
• Viki viewers rated this series 9.5 out of 10 stars

My personal rating is the same as the Viki viewers.

“Psychopath Diary” is a dark comedy.  A serial killer is not something to laugh about, but the main character was hilarious. What a unique storyline. A person loses their memory and when they wake up they think they’re a psychopathic serial killer. But when they try to kill their victim, they can’t do it and they don’t know why. They have a diary that records all of their evil deeds. The funniest part of this series was the various references to violent crime movies and series like “The Silence of the Lambs”, “The Merciless”, “American Psycho”, and “No Country for Old Men”.

LINKS OF INTEREST:

K-DRAMA REVIEW: Psychopath Diary | Pearl and Bubbles

Psychopath Diary: The Good and the Bad | the talking cupboard

Good Ol’ Review: Powered by Excellent Performances from Yoon Shi Yoon and Park Sung Hoon, tvN’s “Psychopath Diary” a Heartfelt, Yet Darkly Comic Thriller | DryedMangoez.com

TRAILER/TEASER:

CJ ENM Global. “Psychopath Diary.” YouTube, 12 Mar. 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CL_p1TI8a0Y.