Spiritwalker ~ Action Spy Thriller Korean Drama Film

Spiritwalker is an intriguing action spy thriller Korean drama film, released in 2021, and currently streaming on Viki. Murphy’s Law says: “You know it’s going to be a bad day when ______.” Fill in the blank.

For Spiritwalker, these words complete the sentence:  You know it’s going to be a bad day when you wake up with amnesia and your spirit jumps from body to body twice a day!

♦ Who am I?

A man wakes up with no memory of who he is. It looked like he was involved in a car accident, but the doctors tell him that he was shot! As if being an amnesiac isn’t troubling enough, twice a day he gets a new face. His spirit jumps to a different body at noon and at midnight. Since he doesn’t know who he is, he doesn’t know which body belongs to him.

After a few “spirit exchanges” he realizes that none of the bodies belong to him. But why is his spirit jumping into the bodies of certain people? None of them are dead! What do they have in common? He thinks his name is Kang Yi-An because all of the bodies his spirit jumped in know this man. If he is Kang Yi-An then, where is his body? It wasn’t just a car accident because he was shot. So was he shot and killed? Or was he was shot and left for dead, but he’s actually alive … somewhere?

♦ Who do I Love?

The spiritwalker continues jumping from body to body, going to various places, picking up clues, and piecing together the mystery of his identity. If he is Kang Yi-An, then there is a woman that he loves. Her name is Moon Jin-A. Perhaps he can make contact with her, and she can help him recover his memory and his body. However, when he tries to talk to her, she gets into a physical struggle with him and demands that he tell her where Kang Yi-An is.

She doesn’t realize that he is Kang Yi-An, and he wants to know the answer as badly as she does. She’s not convinced that he is who he says he is and decides that he must have some information about her missing lover. So she tries to stay on his trail. That trail leads both of them into a shady underworld. Shady? No. A dark underworld. Very dark! Now the question is: If he is still living, will both of them make it out of the underworld alive?

Main Characters:

• Kang Yi-An (played by Yoon Kye-Sang)
• Moon Jin-A (played by Lim Ji-Yeon)

Where to Watch

Viewership and Rating:

Many viewers and reviewers had different things to say about Spiritwalker (see links below). Mainly, people could not agree on which genre. Some categorized it as supernatural, some called it fantasy, and some even said it was a sci-fi. I understand the confusion. After all the guy is jumping from body to body. That sounds like supernatural or fantasy. There is some science involved because there’s a laboratory run by a sinister corporation that performs questionable experiments. But ultimately, the film is just a good old-fashioned Spy Thriller, with lots of Action.

• IMDb Rating: 6.2 out of 10 stars
• My Drama List: 7.6 out of 10 stars

• Viki Viewers rated the series 9.1 out of 10 stars

My rating is 8.9 out of 10 stars; because it kept me engaged to the very end.

LINKS OF INTEREST:

• Spiritwalker review – stylish South Korean body-swap actioner | Movies | The Guardian
• Spiritwalker Review: Clever, Engaging Korean Body-Swapper
• Film Review: Identity-Bending Korean Actioner “Spiritwalker” — from Planet Dave

Well. “SPIRITWALKER Official Trailer | Korean Sci-Fi Action Adventure Thriller | Directed by Yoon Jae-Keun.” YouTube, 5 Apr. 2022, www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiBNa0h7sN8.

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