meganbmoore (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
meganbmoore) wrote2018-07-13 07:50 pm
meganbmoore) wrote2018-07-13 07:50 pm
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Life on Mars (Korea)
I made this post for tumblr, but decided to repost it here since I know I used to have some mutuals who liked the original version that aren't on Tumblr as far as I know.
I have never seen the original, seemingly universally loved, UK version of Life on Mars (filed under “thing’s I’ll watch if I get enough free time” for about a decade now) or any of its previous adaptations, so all I have going in for the Korean version is hearsay. My understanding is that it follows the basic setup and character archetypes with the modern cop travelling roughly 30 years into the past and joining the local police department in a place where he lived as a child, though I’m told Dong Chul is a very toned down and more palatable version of Gene (though, from what I know of the character, they’d never get a faithful version of Gene in a kdrama unless he was a villain) and that Na Young gets to do considerably more and be more involved in the action than Annie was. I do know, in general terms, the reality of what the time travel is in the original UK version, but don’t know if the kdrama version will keep that explanation.
That out of the way…
This is some weird surreal stuff and I am all about this. I haven’t cared much about the general cases except for the one the evolved from a small rural murder in a small village into a horror movie serial killer plot. With that one, the friends I was watching with were pretty much going “WTF?” a lot and I was just sitting there going “yes, give me more of this.” And I don’t even like serial killer plots much, I just loved how that one kept building up and getting wilder and wilder. It’s bizarre and completely committed to the surreal aspects, and it’s deeply immersed in the worldbuilding.
While the original has an urban setting, this is set in 1988 rural Korea, fresh out of a dictatorship (with two senior police officers whose methods are most likely partly formed from being in the police force during said dictatorship. It’s so very, specifically, immersively rural 80s Korea (especially when it comes to everyone being in everyone else’s business) that it’s hard to imagine it having started out anything else.
It’s also interesting to compare it to OCN’s Tunnel from last year (or was it late 2016?) which is almost an inverted version of this. Tunnel features a cop from the 80s travelling to the present and having to adjust to the advancements of the world, encountering a case reminiscent to one he was working on in his own timeline, as well as the more versions of his junior and children he knew from his own timeline. Life on Mars features a cop from the present travelling back to the 80s, learning how to investigate and solve crime without the technology and communication systems he’s used to, and encountering a case reminiscent to one he was working on in his own timeline, as well as being faced with the harsher realities of his childhood memories from an adult’s perspective. They also deal with changes in gender roles, class and education from opposing perspectives. The fate of their love interest (wife in Tunnel, ex-girlfriend in Life on Mars) also factors into their need to return to their own timelines. Even though Life on Mars is based on an existing franchise a decade older than Tunnel, it’s easy to see the two shows as companion pieces.
Long story short, unless it drops the ball, Life on Mars will probably end up one of my top kdramas for 2018, despite being more of a sausagefest than I usually go for.
I have never seen the original, seemingly universally loved, UK version of Life on Mars (filed under “thing’s I’ll watch if I get enough free time” for about a decade now) or any of its previous adaptations, so all I have going in for the Korean version is hearsay. My understanding is that it follows the basic setup and character archetypes with the modern cop travelling roughly 30 years into the past and joining the local police department in a place where he lived as a child, though I’m told Dong Chul is a very toned down and more palatable version of Gene (though, from what I know of the character, they’d never get a faithful version of Gene in a kdrama unless he was a villain) and that Na Young gets to do considerably more and be more involved in the action than Annie was. I do know, in general terms, the reality of what the time travel is in the original UK version, but don’t know if the kdrama version will keep that explanation.
That out of the way…
This is some weird surreal stuff and I am all about this. I haven’t cared much about the general cases except for the one the evolved from a small rural murder in a small village into a horror movie serial killer plot. With that one, the friends I was watching with were pretty much going “WTF?” a lot and I was just sitting there going “yes, give me more of this.” And I don’t even like serial killer plots much, I just loved how that one kept building up and getting wilder and wilder. It’s bizarre and completely committed to the surreal aspects, and it’s deeply immersed in the worldbuilding.
While the original has an urban setting, this is set in 1988 rural Korea, fresh out of a dictatorship (with two senior police officers whose methods are most likely partly formed from being in the police force during said dictatorship. It’s so very, specifically, immersively rural 80s Korea (especially when it comes to everyone being in everyone else’s business) that it’s hard to imagine it having started out anything else.
It’s also interesting to compare it to OCN’s Tunnel from last year (or was it late 2016?) which is almost an inverted version of this. Tunnel features a cop from the 80s travelling to the present and having to adjust to the advancements of the world, encountering a case reminiscent to one he was working on in his own timeline, as well as the more versions of his junior and children he knew from his own timeline. Life on Mars features a cop from the present travelling back to the 80s, learning how to investigate and solve crime without the technology and communication systems he’s used to, and encountering a case reminiscent to one he was working on in his own timeline, as well as being faced with the harsher realities of his childhood memories from an adult’s perspective. They also deal with changes in gender roles, class and education from opposing perspectives. The fate of their love interest (wife in Tunnel, ex-girlfriend in Life on Mars) also factors into their need to return to their own timelines. Even though Life on Mars is based on an existing franchise a decade older than Tunnel, it’s easy to see the two shows as companion pieces.
Long story short, unless it drops the ball, Life on Mars will probably end up one of my top kdramas for 2018, despite being more of a sausagefest than I usually go for.
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