Signal is about a present day rookie cop, Park Hae Young (Lee Jehoon) who obtains a radio that is able to send and receive transmission with Lee Jae Han (Jo Jin Woong), a detective from the past. The 2 of them, together with Cha Soo Hyun (Kim Hye Soo), who was a rookie while Jae Han was a detective and is the team leader of Hae Young's team in the present day, come together to solve the cold cases of Korea and also uncover the greater mystery of why Jae Han disappeared for 15 years.
What can I say about this drama other than it was amazing and one of the best korean dramas I've ever watched. Heart thumping and emotionally wrenching.
This review will be full of spoilers!!
The show scored on all 3 fronts of writing, acting and directing but if I had to pick ONE standout aspect, it was the writing. Past-present communication is an extremely difficult topic to write about, but this writer managed to weave the past and present and how they affect each other into an almost seamless story. Never did I question the logic of the drama because I was convinced by the internal logic of how the radio worked, how the time loop ceased when Jae Han survived and how events in the past affected the future.
The individual cases themselves were well plotted, using varying methods to keep the viewers on their toes, from the urgency of the first case to the spine chilling scariness of the case with the convenience store worker. I tend to watch my dramas in the middle of the night and I had to cover my eyes with my hands and watch through the gaps of the fingers...though that doesn't really help haha. I particularly liked that most if not all the cases were based on real life cases. It adds just that bit of realism to a supposed fantasy crime drama.
Another standout point was the minute details that the writer included, such as Hae Young's seemingly throwaway comment about wanting to eat omurice when he was asked out for lunch by his colleagues. Omurice will never be the same!!
The characters were also well written and developed with significant character development. And the cast...that is a cast worthy of a blockbuster movie. I expected nothing less.
The most obvious character development would be Soo Hyun since she appears in both the past and present. While she maintained certain traits such as her complete devotion to Jae Han, her detective skills significantly improved, from being a super rash rookie who just pounces on a robber on a motorcycle to a confident team leader. Kim Hye Soo was simply excellent. I've watched a few movies of hers before but both had ensem casts so I didn't pay that much attention to her but wow, she was pitch perfect in this show. Other than the adeptness in portraying young and older Soo Hyun through the variations in her voice, I really loved her subtlely in portraying emotions. On a side note, I'm so happy an actress in her 40s can still play such a meaty lead role. It's not often that female lead roles are written for actresses in their 40s, even if they're A listers.
Jo Jin Woong as Lee Jae Han...sobs. I love him T_T Both the actor and the character. Was there a difference? Jo Jin Woong WAS Lee Jae Han. Phenomenal.
Jae Han grew from a righteous officer to a righteous, intelligent, super awesome detective haha. I don't know what else I can say other than he's one of the most awesome male leads in a korean drama. Not a pretty boy at all, but I totally see why Soo Hyun was head over heels in love with him because I would be too. Most of the memorable lines in the drama were said by Jae Han, and most of my personal favourite scenes involve him too. One of them was Jae Han breaking down after he was too late in getting to Sun Woo and his subsequent confrontation with that awful Kim Bum Joo.
We followed Hae Young from his childhood, briefly in his adolescence and in his adulthood, and it is incredible that young little timid boy turned into this smart profiler :D Hae Young's character was slightly frustrating (more on that below), and he was so emotional, especially in the later episodes, but that may be exactly what is endearing about this character. Lee Jehoon, similarly, did an excellent job. He may have seemed a tad overdramatic at the start but I was fine with it, because here was this rookie cop who is eager to right the wrong he witnessed years ago but was always brushed off. I was more concerned that he was constantly frowning, especially in the latter half of the show haha.
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| Even while smiling, he's still frowning! |
While I had no problems with the plotting of the show, I did have a few points in the writing or the characters which I was frustrated with. Firstly, Hae Young was always so frustratingly silent!! In ep 14, when Soo Hyun was confronting Hae Young about the radio, he took foreverrrr to say something lol I was so frustrated! And when he was arrested for supposedly killing the section chief, all he could say was 'It's not me.' Every killer says that omg Hae Young you need to use your smarts and say something more valuable.
Secondly, during the transmissions, they were taking forever to talk and I was going crazy screaming at my computer for them to stop the dramatic pauses and start transmitting the important information cos they have limited time!
Ep 15 made me particularly frustrated. Soo Hyun finally got the chance to talk to Jae Han and there was so much info to be transmitted but no, she only talked about her waiting for 15 years and kept trying to confirm his identity. Girl, I know you had a massive crush and waited ages but still, these transmissions are precious don't waste them :( And why would Soo Hyun point the gun at Kim Sung Bum just after Hae Young managed to talk to him, knowing he kept emphasising that Hae Young was to come alone. It made no sense to me.
But these points were minor in the grand scheme of things and the finale more than made up for these.
The directing was solid, as expected from the director of Misaeng. There weren't any particularly aesthetically pleasing shots (other than the final scene) but it was successful in allowing me to differentiate the different timelines accurately. This is especially important because the story often made use of flashbacks with no warning. I know some people were really irritated by the different aspect ratio for the scenes in the past but it never bothered me much.
There wasn't much use of songs in the show, which was appropriate for a crime drama. The OST songs were mostly played during the preview. But I still really liked the songs, especially Kim Yuna's Road (Gil).
Signal wasn't perfect, but almost there. Please go watch it now if you haven't!!! For people who dismiss kdramas as being all about romance and cliches, I'm sure this will change their opinion. I've been busy promoting this gem to people who usually watch those standard, mainstream kdramas and hopefully it'll open their eyes to the world of cable (it's mainstream in korea but not much in my country unfortunately) and korean dramas that are different from what they are used to.