Park Sung-hoon and his evil serial killer grin in Psychopath Diary

21 November 13, 2019November 13, 2019

Park Sung-hoon and his evil serial killer grin in Psychopath Diary

by tineybeanie

This teaser of Park Sung-hoon (Justice) makes me want to watch Psychopath Diary. In a dark room covered in plastic wrap (reminiscent of murder scenes à la Dexter), he sits alone, drinking wine and contemplating this critical dilemma: “I lost the diary. The diary that no one should see. My diary…”

To give context, Psychopath Diary is an upcoming tvN drama that’s about a hapless, insecurity-filled salaryman, played by Yoon Shi-yoon (Nokdu Flower), who stumbles upon a murder scene. This is where Park Sung-hoon and his diary come in. While running away from the terrifying scene, Yoon Shi-yoon’s character ends up getting into a car accident with the diary in his possession.

Jung In-sun (My Secret Terrius) plays the friendly neighborhood cop who finds Yoon Shi-yoon with memory loss after the accident. Due to the graphic content of the diary, describing previous murders in detail, Yoon Shi-yoon begins to believe that he’s the perpetrator.

Now back to the teaser: As Park Sung-hoon is drinking his wine in his creepy plastic room, a man (presumably a security guard of sorts) shines a flashlight on him and asks, “Who’s there?” A corner of Park Sung-hoon’s mouth turns up in a chilling, lopsided grin, and he ends his thought monologue by saying: “..and all my perfect plans are beginning to fall apart.”

Danggg, I’m actually not too familiar with Park Sung-hoon’s filmography, but this teaser definitely has me interested. Wednesday-Thursday drama Psychopath Diary begins airing on November 20 on tvN.

Via Hankyung

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Tags: Jung In-sun, Yoon Shi-yoon

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1 PakalanaPikake

November 13, 2019 at 1:06 PM

Thanks for that creeptastic teaser for PSYCHOPATH DIARY, @tineybeanie. Park Sung-hoon played the memorably murderous insurance scammer Go Jin-cheol in MAD DOG (shudder). It looks as if his Gil Yoo in SIX FLYING DRAGONS was psycho swordsman Gil Tae-mi's son (but I don't recall the details). He portrayed Secretary Cha in JEALOUSY INCARNATE, but I was fixated on Hwa-shin and seem to have missed him. Along with Lim Ju-hwan and Song Joong-ki, he and Hong Jong-hyun served in the king of Goryeo's Gunroyng Corps in A FROZEN FLOWER.

One week to go. I can't wait. ;-)

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PMSahjumoni

November 13, 2019 at 7:14 PM

I love him in his romantic roles such as Jang Go Rae in My Only One, the lovelorn Park Gon in Black Knight and especially in the excellent KBS Drama Special: Review Notebook of My Embarassing day as Na Pil Seung which really showcased his ability as a romantic lead, all of which were too brief so I was really hoping to see him more in rom-coms but he keeps doing dark thrillers. Sigh.

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PakalanaPikake

November 14, 2019 at 1:57 AM

@PMSahjumoni,
Thanks for your impressions of Park Sung-hoon's performances to date. It sounds as if he's been developing versatility in a variety of genres and character types. Now I'll keep an eye out for him, especially in sageuks.

Thanks for the pointer to the 2018 DRAMA SPECIAL: REVIEW NOTEBOOK OF MY EMBARRASSING DAYS. It's been on my to-watch list for nearly a year. Holy cow, Jeon So-min is in it, too. She was great as the satoori-spouting Kang-soon in TOP STAR YOO BAEK with Kim Ji-suk and Lee Sang-yeob (Ma-dol oppa!!) and a hilarious veteran cast on a strange and remote little island. I had no idea I'd seen her some years ago in the hilarious and touching THREE FATHERS, ONE MOTHER with Jo Hyun-jae, Jae Hee, and Shin Sung-rok as a non-homicidal(!) righteous cop. IIRC, she played SSR's fellow cop with a secret crush on him.

I just finished watching REVIEW NOTEBOOK. What a sweet little drama. (Shout-out to Oh Dong-min for his nicely-nuanced turn as Jeon So-min's cheating ex-spouse. He gave a touching performance as Ye Ji-won's sincerely smitten boytoy in LOVE AFFAIRS IN THE AFTERNOON. Speaking of psychos, he was in DOCTOR PRISONER, too.)

You're absolutely right about Park Sung-hoon. He was great in this role, which at the end gave me flashbacks to LIVE. I'm glad that he hasn't been totally typecast as a baddie. Now it makes me wonder how he's going to portray the real killer in PSYCHOPATH DIARY. (Is there some deep hidden significance to his repeatedly playing characters involved with diaries or what?!) He's got the chops to give Yoon Si-yoon a run for the money in imbuing his character with a sympathetic tinge. I have a feeling that there will be more to this psychopath than meets the eye.

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2 Kairoskat 💐

November 13, 2019 at 1:15 PM

I'm not familiar with Park Sung Hoon, he is channeling some Mo Tae Gu (Voice) vibes in the teaser~~ and yes to a new killer character with amazing hair!

Poor good guy YSY got stuck with frizzy mushroom hair for now. Hopefully when he learns his psycho tendecies, he'll change it.

A tidbit: psycho killer PSH writes with his less-dominant hand in the diary, supposedly to make it hard for handwriting analysis. Why YSY thinks he wrote it is the question, either his own handwriting is so bad, or he forgot how his handwriting looks liks or he forgot how to write. Hehe

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PakalanaPikake

November 14, 2019 at 2:13 AM

@katakwasabi,
Thank you for that tidbit re: the real killer writing his murder log with his non-dominant hand. Duly filed for future reference. ;-)

Perhaps YSY's character is a lefty who was forced to write right-handedly. My kid brother has always had tortured-looking writing, and I've long suspected that he is probably a southpaw who never got to follow his natural inclination. He was one of the quiet kids who would have been overlooked in his too-large kindergarten class.

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3 egads aka Dame Maggie

November 13, 2019 at 1:37 PM

I'm slightly allergic to Yoon Shi Yoon, and if it turns out the psychopath has a penchant for killing pretty girls, I'm going to say no. But, if YSY can dial it back, and the killer strays from the usual killing sprees we see in dramas and films, this could be interesting.

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LT is Irresistibly Indifferent, Dame Judi

November 13, 2019 at 1:41 PM

Imagines a universe where YSY is capable of "dialing it back".
Fails.

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egads aka Dame Maggie

November 13, 2019 at 2:05 PM

True. Sigh.

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PakalanaPikake

November 13, 2019 at 2:42 PM

YSY actually did dial it back in NOKDU FLOWER, and for much of GRAND PRINCE, too.

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egads aka Dame Maggie

November 13, 2019 at 3:44 PM

I also have a slight intolerance to sageuks, but it's good to know that he can dial it back.

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PakalanaPikake

November 14, 2019 at 2:53 AM

YSY completely banked that charisma of his in NOKDU FLOWER, to devastating effect. Except for early, happier interludes in GRAND PRINCE, he basically abandoned all traces of youthful exuberance and adopted a spartan survival mindset against his ceaselessly aggressive (and paradoxically sensitive and vulnerable) usurper hyung, portrayed by Joo Sang-wook. (I didn't recognize him at all from THREE FATHERS, ONE MOTHER, the only drama I'd seen him in before this one. Later, I watched CUNNING SINGLE LADY, and couldn't get over the contrast between his two characters.)

Come to think of it, YSY also played the judge twin in YOUR HONOR as completely serious and non-charismatic. As the ex-con brother continued to impersonate him, he increasingly assumed the judge's staid demeanor. It was fun to watch the transformation -- once I got past the disconcerting makjang and whack-o writing and directing at the start.

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LT is Irresistibly Indifferent, Dame Judi

November 14, 2019 at 10:33 AM

The only one of those I've seen is Your Honour, where I found his performance to be wildly OTT. So I guess this is where mileage varies.

bong-soo

November 16, 2019 at 8:28 AM

I agree @pakalanapikake with your comments about YOUR HONOR. You probably remember how shocked I was after watching Yoon Shi-yoon in the first two episodes. Talk about over the top! Part of my problem was that my only YSY drama before YH was GRAND PRINCE. You made the point at the time that he really damped down his natural charisma for the role of Lee Hwi.
The reduction in episodes from 20/40 to 16/32 really hurt YH and was a disservice to the actors who were giving fine performances. I have fond memories of the comments when we were trying to solve the mystery of the music in episode 24. Lol. I loved seeing YSY in judicial robes hunched over the bench with tie askew.

shach

November 14, 2019 at 3:04 AM

I actually found his "evil" Oni act in Nokdu Flower rather cringy, because I thought he went overboard with "evil acting", it sometimes looked like he has facial muscle spams to me.

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PakalanaPikake

November 14, 2019 at 6:02 AM

@shach,
I considered the facial spasms (clenched jaws, etc.) to be indicative of Oni's inner conflicts, at least some of the time. That and PTSD, and the betrayal by Lord Hwang, which is what I think truly sent him over to the Dark Side.

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shach

November 14, 2019 at 7:42 AM

@pakalanapikake, I thought his portrayal of his inner doubts and later PTSD was exceptional that's why I found his acting as Oni so surprising and jarring honestly, he used all standard "super villain" expressions short only of evil moustache twirling.

Ms. Rabbit 🐇

November 14, 2019 at 10:04 AM

@shach I agree. I love YSY, but he does not do smarmy and smirky right. That's why I don't like his gangster twin in Your Honor.

4 theimprintonmynose

November 13, 2019 at 3:59 PM

This is definitely on my to-watch list. I love thriller dramas, but this one has some rom-com aspect so it'll be interesting.

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5 cheekbones

November 13, 2019 at 9:40 PM

Oh ! He's the creepy, serial killer chaebol in Justice. He had his hair down in Justice, and up in Psychopath. But I think he's just as effective as a serial killer either way.