The Man in the Mask or Masked
Prosecutor (Bokmyon Komsa) is not what I thought it would be. I was expecting a
fluffy silly drama where I only need to sit, drool and laugh at Joo Sang Wook’s
(주상욱) antics. I wasn’t
planning to use my brain nor did I plan to feel much emotion except for lots
and lots of love for my man (FYI, besides Jo Hyun Jae, Jo Sang Wook is the only
other man that has my heart).
But despite the existence of that
Mask which makes it rather difficult to take the drama seriously, Masked
Prosecutor turns out to be a serious crime thriller drama, albeit a romantic one
with rather droll humors.
I should have guessed that a
drama with a prosecutor and a police woman could never really be light hearted
and silly unless if we want both of our hero and heroine to be dumb and dumber.
I appreciate how the drama
chooses to take its legal issues seriously. It gives Masked Prosecutor a certain
layer of darkness that fills our heart with worry whether our leads could
really win over the bad guys.
However, despite the fact that
Masked Prosecutor turns out to be a better drama than I imagined it would be, I’m
not that enamored with the story of our leads when they were young – fortunately
their scenes are being kept to the minimum with a few flash back here and there.
Watching Masked Prosecutor
reminds me of the feeling I got when I watched City Hall. I found its first five
or six episodes rather taxing which resulted in me almost gave up watching City
Hall entirely.
Although the first episodes of
Masked Prosecutor weren’t that hard to watch I need to acclimatize. The
characters take time to grow on you. Particularly Kim Son A’s (김선아) character Yu Mini. I don’t really like the young Yu Mini, but I’m
slowly warming up to the grown up Yu Mini.
While Joo Sang Wook…what could I
say I’m totally bias when it comes to him. He’s the reason why I’m watching
this drama. My bias aside, I find his character in this drama to be richer than
his previous characters e.g. in Cunning Single Lady or Birth of Beauty.
I like how despite having the
kind of emotional burden that the writer dumps on his character, Joo Sang Wook
manages to make Han De Chol strong, vulnerable, and endearingly cute and funny
all at the same time.
I love how he keeps his pains in
check. I love how he doesn’t lose sight of what’s important and doesn’t wallow
in self pity. I love how even when he is drunk he doesn’t lose his sense of
humor.
I love the scene when he unburdens
him self to Kim Mini and says that he is very sorry to his dad. I love seeing
how Kim Mini holds her breath and prepares herself to hear a big secret only to
hear some nonsense about how picky Han De Chol is about girls. I wonder why the
writer doesn’t give us more scenes like this?
Okay, let’s go back to the crime
parts.
The main villain in this drama is
Jo Sang Taek but I find Han De Chol’s mother to be even scarier despite always
looking so fragile. I don’t fear her husband either but I feel that her other
son Kang Hyun Woong (Uhm Ki Joon) is just as scary as her.
This combination of mother and
son makes me shudder. I’m anticipating how evil they could be. But on the other
hand I’m also expecting that somehow there is still goodness deep inside their
hearts. That money and power are not everything to them.
Masked Prosecutor might want to
say that you have to uphold the law no matter what. For a law abiding citizen
will not and should never resort to vigilante act otherwise you are no
different than those criminals you want to catch.
There is nothing wrong with this
tenet except for the fact that the law which we are supposed to uphold isn’t
that upright itself. Our law bends and sways like coconut trees when they are being
blown by sea breeze. Just imagine what happens to that law when the typhoon
comes.
When the law fails to deliver
should we just take a deep breath and say: ‘We did our best. That’s all we can
do. If we can’t punish him God will.’
When the law is being used to protect
the criminals and when the heavy weight of the law is always fail to land on
top of those in power, the law is pretty much useless thus there is no need to
revere it. I’m 100% on Han De Chol’s side.
When you know someone is
committing a crime beyond any reasonable doubt, justice has to be done. Not
only to punish those criminals but most importantly justice has to be given to
their victims.
The poor victims who have been
victimized by the criminal should not be victimized again by the legal system.
Justice has to be delivered no matter what.
I like how Han De Chol’s mask
doesn’t really fool people who are close to him. So Rina finds out about it as
soon as she sees him in action. Yu Mini keeps on asking him whether he is the
man in the mask. While Kang Yoon Woong is finally on to his tracks.
Masked Prosecutor is getting
better by each episode. I’m hoping that it’ll only get better towards the end.
Seeing how the story is progressing I have faith that the show is more than
capable to give us a satisfactory ending even if Yu Mini’s father is the one
who killed Han De Chol’s father.
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