Kdrama 2020
Missing: The Other Side (Kdrama Review & Summary)
Missing The Other Side poster
- Genre: Action, Mystery, Supernatural
- Release Date: 29 August 2020
- Origin: South Korea
- Kdrama: 12 Episodes
Cast
- Go Soo as Kim Wook
- Heo Joon Ho as Jang Pan Seok
- Ahn So Hee as Lee Jong Ah
- Ha Joon as Shin Joon Ho
- Seo Eun Soo as Choi Yeo Na
- Song Geon Hee as Thomas Cha
- Kang Mal Geum as Kim Hyun Mi [Villager]
- Lee Joo Won as Park Young Ho [Villager]
- Lee Joo Myung as Jang Mi [Villager]
- Ahn Dong Yeob as Park Bum Soo [Villager]
- Ko Dong Ha as Kim Joon Soo [Villager]
- Park Hye Jin as Choi Mi Ja [Villager]
- Jang Kyug Su as Detective Bok [Police]
- Ji Dae Han as Baek Il Doo [Police]
- Kim Jae Cheol -[Detective]
- Jung Young Sook as Han Yeo Hee
- Lee Yoon Jae as Lee Dong Min
- Kim Jung Eun as Jo Myeong Soon
- Son Ji Yoon as [Haneul’s mother]
- Lee Won Koo as Seok Woo
Episode 1 – 2
Currently watching this supernatural drama on Netflix. Totally recommend it.
A charming & at times heartwarming story, although the plot has the sad victims of violent crime as much of its leitmotiv.
Viewers who like crime and supernatural stories should be satisfied.
The storyline can be seen as an interesting variation of the successful ‘Hotel De Luna’ K Drama series (second series en route).
Kim Wook is a bit of a scammer. He commits fraud to get money from the rich. Like a modern-day Robin Hood, he is not averse to helping the poor.
Anyway, he was out one day, when he witnessed a kidnapping. Men in black suits had an unconscious woman put in a car. Kim Wook had the presence of mind to catch the whole thing on his mobile phone but he was not clever enough not to get caught.
Initially, he got away but later on, they found him. And took him to a forest to bury him alive escaped again, but was chased and cornered near a steep ravine. He fell off the ravine, a long drop. The gangsters assumed he must have died.
But he did not die. Instead, his fall was broken by a huge branch of a tree near the bottom.
A passing Jang Pang Seok found him unconscious & suspended in a branch. Seok took him down and then carried him to his nearby house in the forest and hills.
When he recovered consciousness, Kim Wook was confused as to where he was. Jang Seok showed Wook his home and surrounding area and was surprised when Wook could see a village below his house.
With Seok, Wook wanders around the village and meets the inhabitants, men women, and children who are at first wary of Wook as a newcomer. He chats with the owner and customers of the village inn.
Wook finds the inhabitants slightly strange as they do him. Seok finally tells Wook that the village is in fact the home to the lost souls and spirits of those who have died, accidentally, suicide, or murdered. The reason that they are in the village is that their bodies were never found. The villagers at first assume that Wook is a newly arrived spirit but is unusual in his attitude
Some of the inhabitants have been in the village for over a century but look the same age as when they died. They bring with them memories of close personal items even homes. These memories form the structure of their existence & homes in the village.
Seok tells Wook that for some reason like Wook, he can see the village and its dwellers and interact almost physically with them. The outside world can never see or have knowledge of the village, it is invisible like in another dimension. Indeed in a later episode, Wook’s feisty friend and colleague, mentions genius Stephen Hawking’s opinion on parallel universes.
Seok mentions that he has become the self-appointed guardian of the secret village. The owner of the inn is its leader as he is one of the longest-existing spirit dwellers there. Spirits of the dead with lost bodies enter the village through a portal within a room in the inn. The innkeeper welcomes these lost souls & allays their confusion at becoming dead, and with fellow villagers makes them welcome.
Seok tells Wook his story of coming and being in the village. As he is still alive, he becomes like an interface and liaison between the living world and the village. He has dedicated himself to finding the bodies of the spirits in the village and so help release them to the next stage of their afterlife. Seok also has deeply personal reasons for doing this duty. When Seok finds a body or secretly informs authorities, family members etc, of the location of the bodies, he also performs a spirit-passing ritual.
When a body of a villager is found, immediately the spirit and their homes in the village, etc fade away & vanish from the village forever. Fellow villagers can witness these events, with mixed feelings.
Connected to the outside world, Seok can sometimes inform a villager that their body is soon to be discovered so they can prepare themselves and say goodbye to fellow villagers before their transition to the next life. The villagers are very close to each other like an extended family. Sometimes evil-minded spirits of killed criminals with lost bodies etc can also end up in the village. They are shunned & dealt with via the village elder, or Seok tracing their bodies to expedite their transition.
As Seok and Wook become firm friends they start to work together on this mission. Adventures follow as the interconnected plots/stories of the series unfold. Wook & his friends also become involved in the deadly machinations of gangsters.
There are some contradictory situations. One such is those who lost someone close who is missing ever do visit the area where the village is would be able to see their deceased loved ones if dwelling there & the village because of the close bonds between them. The police detective hero Joon Ho cannot see his beloved beautiful fiancee Yeona, who was murdered, and her body hidden by hired gangsters. When Ho visits the location in the hills to see Wook, Ho can only see fields and hills, while anguished Yeona can see him and tries desperately and unsuccessfully to communicate with him. Good emotional acting between the couple in these moments.
I found the series enjoyable but as with many K Dramas, the viewers have to sometimes suspend belief at times – makjang, but after all, this is a fantasy drama too. There are some wonderful humour, and emotional moments. Good acting from the cast. We are happy that series two is scheduled for later in 2022 and hope it will be as good as series one.