“The Veil” ~ Lose Your Memory, Find a Mole

“The Veil” is a Korean drama series released in 2021, has 14 episodes, and can be categorized as Action, Spy, Thriller and Suspense, and Crime and Mystery. This series has a prequel: “Moebius: The Veil” (or “Moebius Project 2012: The Vei”.)

♦ A Missing Spy is Finally Found

In “The Veil”, there is a boat in the water but a man has just been thrown overboard. Several people on the boat looked like they were hoping that they would have a better life wherever the ship was taking them. They had no clue that the boat was a butcher ship. The passengers had been deceived. Their organs were going to be harvested and the rest of their body would be tossed overboard. The passengers consisted of men, women, and children. When the butchers tried to take a man’s young daughter the father fought back but he was overpowered. One passenger stood up to save the child. The butcher ended up dead. After that, all of the butchers ended up dead. They all died at the hands of that one passenger. Who was this man?

That passenger was Han Ji-Hyuk, a top National Intelligent Service agent, who had been missing for a year. He was on a mission with two other agents. Their dead bodies were found and Han Ji-Hyuk was presumed to have also died. When he was found, there were a lot of people with a lot of questions. He also had a lot of questions. The problem is he had also lost his memory of everything that had happened during the year he was missing. According to a medical examination, his blood showed traces of a drug that causes a person to lose their memories. People wondered if he had been captured, tortured for information, and then drugged.

There was a mole in the agency who had betrayed Han Ji-Hyuk and the other members of his team. That’s why they were killed. However, his superiors and co-workers think differently. They believe he betrayed his fellow agents, and that is why he is the only one still living. As his memories gradually return, Han Ji-Hyuk eventually realizes that he injected himself with the drug. He intentionally wanted to erase his memory and start from scratch.

There was someone in the NIS who was a mole and he wanted to reset his memory by erasing an entire year. Then he would start putting the pieces of the puzzle together. There was one time when he believed he could trust the people he worked with. Now he believes that one of them is a mole and he needs to find out who. Now he doesn’t trust anyone.

Yoo Je-Yi graduated early from KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology), and wants to gain field experience. She volunteered to be assigned to work as Ji-hyuk’s partner. Since she has skills that will be extremely useful, Ji-hyuk allows her to work for him and with him. But that doesn’t mean he can trust her. He is on a mission and is all alone in his quest to find the truth. Yoo Je-Yi doesn’t know or understand what’s going through her partner’s mind.

Rumors were circulating that Ji-hyuk was not be trusted and that she should be careful. But all Je-Yi knows is that any experience gained by working next to Ji-hyuk will be profitable for her career. She has not yet realized that the NIS has a dangerous dark side. Her innocence and naïvety is refreshing. It’s a sharp contrast to Ji-hyuk’s skepticism and anger at being betrayed. Yoo Je-Yi does not know that her partner is searching for a mole. If she finds out, will Yoo Je-Yi and Ji-hyuk ultimately work together to find the mole, or is her innocence and naïvety just a pretense? Maybe she didn’t volunteer to work with Ji-hyuk. Maybe she was planted, i.e. assigned to work closely with Ji-hyuk and keep an eye on him.

Main Characters:

• Han Ji-Hyuk (played by Namkoong Min, “My Dearest 1 and 2”, “Doctor Prisoner”, “Remember: War of Son”, “Awaken”)
• Yoo Je-Yi (played by Kim Ji-Eun, “Branding in Seongsu”, “One Dollar Lawyer”, “Longing for You”)

Where to Watch

Viewership and Rating:

• IMDb: 7.6 out of 10 stars
• MyDramaList: 8.3 out of 10 stars
• Letterboxd: 3.5 out of 5 stars
• Google users shared a public rating of 4.9 out of 5 stars
• Viki viewers rated this series 9.4 out of 10 stars

My personal rating is the same as the Viki viewers.

As soon as they identified the guy on the boat as an undercover spy who went missing and that he had no memory, “The Veil” had my full attention.

LINKS OF INTEREST:

“The Veil” (2021 Drama): Cast & Summary – TRENDS | KpopMap

The Veil Is Great And Deserves Another Season | hallyureviews

Good Ol’ Review: Namgoong Min Powers MBC’s Gritty, Intricate Thriller “The Veil” | DryedMangoez.com

K-Drama Review: “The Veil” Takes Spy-Action Series To Heightened Level of Reversals That Truly Scintillates | kdramadiary

TRAILERS/TEASERS:

KOCOWA TV. “[the VeilㅣFirst Look] the New Thriller Premieres Sept. 17 on KOCOWA.” YouTube Video. YouTube, August 27, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNBxAJ1sA2g.‌