I had heard many good things about Moving, which was this year's Baeksang Awards Drama Daesang winner, and finally got to watch it on Disney+. Based on a novel by Kang Full (who was also the screenwriter), the show is about humans with special abilities like flying, super strength, regeneration, xray vision, and is a 20-ep epic that follows two generations of superhumans.
The show started out strong, with the first 7 eps focusing on the younger generation in high school, particularly Kim Bongseok (Lee Junha) who inherited the ability to fly from his father (Kim Doosik, played by Jo Insung) and heightened senses from his mother (Lee Mihyun, played by Han Hyojoo), as well as Jang Heesoo (Go Younjung) who has regeneration/healing abilities inherited from her father, Jang Juwon (Ryu Seongryong). I really enjoyed the world building and set-up, and the super cute relationship between our two young leads.
Eps 8-9 then moved back in time to the older generation, starting with Bongseok's parents, Mihyun and Doosik who were both black agents and their wonderfully sweet yet tragic love story. Eps 10-11 moved on to the backstory of Heesoo's parents, Juwon and Jihee who were equally sweet and tragic, then eps 12 and 13 continued the stories for these 2 couples. This stretch of episodes were probably the strongest. There was romance, action, actual stakes and kept the plot moving. Eps 14 to 16 was more backstory for other characters and it was still sufficiently engaging. .
But this was when the show started to unravel because eps 17 to 19 was a mess. The North Korean superhuman-equivalents decide that it was time to test the kids, and just so happens that both Mihyun and Juwon decide to visit the school that day. Which begins an extremely long battle that I grew increasingly bored of. There's only so many times you can watch two superhumans with super healing abilities fight. The only enjoyable part of the battle was probably Mihyun using her smarts to notch the most kills.
The end of the battle was somewhat anticlimatic with the NK team in disarray, and eventually the heads of both the SK/NK superhuman units sitting comfortably in their offices while the superhumans were fighting their guts out finally being offed by the superhumans. Nevertheless, I did like the overall message of it, and I couldn't help but tear when Kim Doosik finally reunited with Mihyun and Bongseok!
While the writing could have been better, I couldn't fault the acting very much. This show had a large ensemble cast filled with huge names. Like, I was surprised every time a new character was introduced and the actor was someone who would usually be a lead. But here, the format of the show was such that some characters appear just for a couple of episodes. For example, Park Heesoon turning up in the last few eps as the commander of the North Korean group of superhumans, or Ryu Seungbum appearing in just the first couple of eps as assassin Frank. With the stacked cast, the acting was definitely assured of a certain quality, yet I was still thoroughly impressed.
Han Hyojoo played Lee Mihyun, a MOTHER of a high school child, which may be a stretch considering how young she is (and looks), but somehow, she managed to pull it off pretty convincingly. From the overly anxious mother to Bongseok (Lee Junha), to the young agent tasked to make Kim Doosik fall in love with her, to the older but equally sharp Mihyun turning on her badass mode to protect her son, her acting was grounded, convincing and...moving. Another standout was Ryu Seungryong, but of course, he is ALWAYS a standout. Who can forget the scene where he walks out of Heesoo's hospital room to his wife's funeral. Truly gutwrenching.
Not to forget the younger generation. It was my first time watching Lee Junha and Go Younjung and I was pretty impressed. Lee Junha's portrayal of sweet and innocent Bongseok was adorable, though it could have been a little too much at times. Go Younjung also held her own against the veterans, and I'm excited for her upcoming projects.
Directing wise, I think this show must have been a huge challenge given the special effects required to portray the abilities of the superhumans. While some of the effects (especially the flying) weren't the most elegant at times, I think it was mostly serviceable and I wasn't overly distracted by them.
All in all, the show had so much potential and the first 2/3 were definitely some of the strongest episodes, but alas, it suffered from being too long and ended with a whimper. I wonder how much better the show could have been if they condensed the last battle into 1.5 episodes.