Later: Aigooo, Those Two Crazy Bastards
Jan. 13th, 2022 10:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
handful_ofdustYeah, that didn't really work out like I hoped it would. After the pop-up booster, I was sick pretty solidly for the whole weekend, only starting to feel fully human the night before last; even today, I'm not quite up to snuff. I felt okay this morning, but I'm flagging. I'll try to get some words transcribed before I fall into bed, but I know it's going to happen.
Now it's Wednesday, and Cal is finally better as well--Steve seems good too, or good enough to be getting on with. Though Cal does still keep doing this performative little dry cough, waiting for us to ask if he's okay and then yelling: "I'm fine, I'm fine!" I think he's imitating me. It's more cute than annoying, but annoyance is still definitely part of it.
Pretty much the best thing that's happened is that I stumbled across Beyond Evil on Netflix, a truly delightful k-drama that combines a vague spin on Bong Joon-ho's Memories of Murder with Hannibalian vibes, small-town eccentricity and that very particular stripe of overall cheerfully endemic corruption that characterizes a lot of Korean narrative. IMHO, it'd transfer extremely well to either a rural Irish setting, a rural Quebec setting or a rural Nova Scotia setting.
For twenty years, everybody in Manyang-eup has suspected that Inspector Lee Dong-sik had something to do with both the murder of a local girl and the disappearance of his own sister; as a fuck-around twenty-year-old, he was arrested and beaten up to extort a confession but cleared fairly quickly, and the same police captain who arrested him eventually became both his sponsor into the police force and his adoptive father figure. Similarly, everybody in town "knows" that now-forty-year-old Dong-sik is "a nutjob," "a lunatic," "that cheeky punk"...the kind of guy who's both annoyingly good at his job (he knows the criminal code inside and out) and prone to constantly breaking the social code, flying off the handle, laughing inappropriately at the mountain of shit life keeps piling on top of him (his real father froze to death waiting for Dong-sik's sister to come home, his mother lost her mind, he managed to get out of Manyang-eup and become a Violent Crimes/RUI detective in Seoul only to eventually lose his partner and get busted back down to patrolman in his home town, hobbling around swallowing pills every time his bad leg starts paining him). He's an amazing asshole and a walking wound, best friend to the helpless, worst nightmare for the comfortable.
Into Dong-sik's life descends Inspector Han Ju-won, his exact opposite--rich, privileged (his father is just about to be elected General Commissioner of the entire Korean police force, and everybody knows it), an ice prince with K-pop good looks and a host of vaguely Aspergian tics (doesn't like to be touched, doesn't form attachments, doesn't eat stuff he hasn't prepared himself, doesn't like dirt). Having already annoyed his father by demanding to be transferred to Manyang-eup's tiny police station, he turns out to be trying to prove not only that the original murder/disappearance which has poisoned Dong-sik's adult life was the start of a string of serial murders, but that Dong-sik remains the most viable suspect. Dong-sik, with whom Inspector Han soon finds himself partnered, and enters into a weird fandango of mutual distrust, flaring dislike and slow-building, reluctant affection/admiration.
Beyond Evil's first and probably only season has sixteen episodes; I'm three away from the end, though I've already spoiled myself for the basic round-up by checking out the fanfic available on AO3. (This is, hilariously, probably the most active fandom I've scouted out in years.) And I'm going to stop here, because if you're into checking it out, I don't want to ruin the twists and turns. The whole cast is wonderful, and I'm very much in love. It helps with the lingering crud.
Now it's Wednesday, and Cal is finally better as well--Steve seems good too, or good enough to be getting on with. Though Cal does still keep doing this performative little dry cough, waiting for us to ask if he's okay and then yelling: "I'm fine, I'm fine!" I think he's imitating me. It's more cute than annoying, but annoyance is still definitely part of it.
Pretty much the best thing that's happened is that I stumbled across Beyond Evil on Netflix, a truly delightful k-drama that combines a vague spin on Bong Joon-ho's Memories of Murder with Hannibalian vibes, small-town eccentricity and that very particular stripe of overall cheerfully endemic corruption that characterizes a lot of Korean narrative. IMHO, it'd transfer extremely well to either a rural Irish setting, a rural Quebec setting or a rural Nova Scotia setting.
For twenty years, everybody in Manyang-eup has suspected that Inspector Lee Dong-sik had something to do with both the murder of a local girl and the disappearance of his own sister; as a fuck-around twenty-year-old, he was arrested and beaten up to extort a confession but cleared fairly quickly, and the same police captain who arrested him eventually became both his sponsor into the police force and his adoptive father figure. Similarly, everybody in town "knows" that now-forty-year-old Dong-sik is "a nutjob," "a lunatic," "that cheeky punk"...the kind of guy who's both annoyingly good at his job (he knows the criminal code inside and out) and prone to constantly breaking the social code, flying off the handle, laughing inappropriately at the mountain of shit life keeps piling on top of him (his real father froze to death waiting for Dong-sik's sister to come home, his mother lost her mind, he managed to get out of Manyang-eup and become a Violent Crimes/RUI detective in Seoul only to eventually lose his partner and get busted back down to patrolman in his home town, hobbling around swallowing pills every time his bad leg starts paining him). He's an amazing asshole and a walking wound, best friend to the helpless, worst nightmare for the comfortable.
Into Dong-sik's life descends Inspector Han Ju-won, his exact opposite--rich, privileged (his father is just about to be elected General Commissioner of the entire Korean police force, and everybody knows it), an ice prince with K-pop good looks and a host of vaguely Aspergian tics (doesn't like to be touched, doesn't form attachments, doesn't eat stuff he hasn't prepared himself, doesn't like dirt). Having already annoyed his father by demanding to be transferred to Manyang-eup's tiny police station, he turns out to be trying to prove not only that the original murder/disappearance which has poisoned Dong-sik's adult life was the start of a string of serial murders, but that Dong-sik remains the most viable suspect. Dong-sik, with whom Inspector Han soon finds himself partnered, and enters into a weird fandango of mutual distrust, flaring dislike and slow-building, reluctant affection/admiration.
Beyond Evil's first and probably only season has sixteen episodes; I'm three away from the end, though I've already spoiled myself for the basic round-up by checking out the fanfic available on AO3. (This is, hilariously, probably the most active fandom I've scouted out in years.) And I'm going to stop here, because if you're into checking it out, I don't want to ruin the twists and turns. The whole cast is wonderful, and I'm very much in love. It helps with the lingering crud.
no subject
Date: 2022-01-13 08:04 pm (UTC)I have never heard of this and it sounds incredible.
*hugs* for the aftermath of the booster. My weekend disappeared into things mostly happening to other people which took out all of my energy, from which I have not actually recovered this week, which is one of the ways it goes.
no subject
Date: 2022-01-14 01:14 am (UTC)