“Bargain” begins with a scene in a motel room. No Hyung-Soo had driven a long distance to an obscure location, with the hope of being to have sex with a “virgin”. He was willing to pay $1,000 for the act. If she is a virgin, $1,000 is a bargain. Right? He and the young woman were in the room hammering out the details.
“A Model Family” is about Park Dong-Ha, an ordinary man who could be described as a “model citizen”. But that’s only because he has never been in trouble with the law. He has never even had a traffic ticket.
in Happiness”, COVID is over and people are looking forward to normal living again. It has got to be a medical scientist’s worst nightmare when they try to develop a drug to combat an infectious disease like COVID and the drug ends up causing an infectious disease that is far worse. That’s what happened when the scientists developed a drug called NEXT. Initially, a person who took the drug felt relief. But as time went on they developed a thirst for human blood. Pretty much they became zombies.
All five (5) Korean movies were released in 2022 and are streaming on Rakuten Viki. They were picked because the Viki viewing audience rated them 9 out of 10 stars (or higher), and I agree.
He is Psychometric is about a person who is psychometric, i.e. he has the ability to analyze a person or an object by touching them and can see the past. Such a gift comes in handy for police detectives and prosecutors who are trying to solve crimes. Lee Ahn has this gift, although he wonders why he has “the ability to read peoples’ pasts”. Logically … ??? … “Isn’t seeing the future better?” When he was about 8 years old, he realized he was able to touch a person or an object and see the past. As a child, it frightened him, but as he got older he began to accept that this ability might be a good thing.
The storyline of “Longing for You” is wrapped around Cha Young-Woon, the chaebol heir of the Jinjin Group. He’s precious because he’s the only son that’s been born to the family in generations. Who can predict if or when another son will be born? It would be a great loss if he did not live because there are no other possible heirs. No heirs at all? OK. Let’s just say, he’s the only legitimate heir.
This movie is categorized as action and horror. However, the religious undertones and motifs can not be ignored. As a young boy, Yong-hoo’s father became ill and a Catholic priest told him that he should pray in order for his father to get better. But when his father dies, the boy gets angry with the priest and calls him a liar. From that day forward he wants nothing to do with anything religious.
Everybody can justify what they do as being the right thing to do based on their circumstances. If they have to use criminal means to solve their problem, for them their acts are justified.
Prosecutor Hwang Si-mok had brain surgery as a child and as a result of the surgery, he can not feel empathy. His colleagues and superiors find him hard to read and figure out his true intentions because his face is usually expressionless. One might think he was ambitious and out to make a name for himself. But ambition has nothing to do with it. When he is assigned a case, he objectively investigates, gathers evidence, methodically solves the crime, and brings the criminals to justice. Isn’t that what a prosecutor is supposed to do?
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.
Hae Jun (played by Kim Dong Wook, “Along With the Gods”) works as an anchorman at a news station. One day he drives his car into a tunnel and finds an abandoned car. At least …??? It looked like a car. It was actually a time machine. He did what anybody else would do if they found a time machine. He got inside and tested it to see if he would really travel through time. First, he went to the future and then he went to the past. It was a blast!
Yoo Min-ho (played by So Ji-sub) is a suspect in the murder of his lover. He was arrested but later released because the arrest warrant was nullified. But that does not mean he is no longer a suspect. On the contrary, he is still the prime suspect and he needs to hire a defense lawyer. To get away from the news media and other prying eyes, he goes to stay in a secluded private residence, far from the crowds.