Revenge of Others: Episode 1 (First Impressions)

by missvictrix

High on style and crisply told, Revenge of Others gives us a strong look at the drama to come with its first episode. Though it paints a pretty bleak picture for its characters, there’s something about how the story’s told that keeps you hooked.

Editor’s note: Continued drama coverage is pending based on Beanie feedback.
 
EPISODE 1 FIRST IMPRESSIONS

So, this episode basically did everything I love (and a few things I hate but we’ll get to that later): strong character setups, world-building that sucks you right in, and some super crispy scenes that say much with little. While the overall story is dark in theme and cold in tone, it also doesn’t not give us some lightness, too. After all, this might be a story of revenge, but it’s set in a high school, and with that comes some requisite cuteness. Or, at the very least, uniform-sharing chivalry.

We open to meet our heroine, high school athlete OK CHAN-MI (Shin Ye-eun) who’s headed for a pistol championship shortly. But when we meet her, she’s video-calling her adorable twin brother PARK WON-SEOK (Kang Yul). Though they’re far apart (he’s in school in Seoul, she’s on the beach in Busan), their bond is apparent — and so is their affection. Chan-mi first refuses, but then finally gives in to call him “oppa,” which she does as teasingly as possible. After all, he’s only 10 minutes older than her.

This is such a good opening scene — not only because we immediately understand their relationship and basic character setup, but because the camera quickly shifts from Chan-mi on the beach, to Won-seok in his classroom.

The push and pull between what we see in the classroom, and what Chan-mi gets on the other side of the video call is really well-conceived. We see Won-seok look up and react to someone coming into the empty classroom; Chan-mi sees the phone dropped, hears a voice, and then the call is disconnected. Importantly — and tragically — she doesn’t see what we see: there’s some sort of struggle, and Won-seok falls from the window to the snowy ground below, and dies. (I know this is the crux of this plot, but nooooo!)

Chan-mi blows it at the pistol championship because she’s distracted — she hasn’t heard from her brother since the hurried way their call got disconnected, and it’s been days.

The plot is quite speedy here, and follows the very independent Chan-mi to Seoul. We also get more background on the siblings: they grew up together in an orphanage in Busan, but Won-seok (whom she knows as Chan-gyu) was adopted at the age of eight. The twins were heart-broken to part, and I already want to kick the people that adopted him — and we haven’t even seen their full awfulness yet!

In Seoul, Chan-mi loiters outside her brother’s high school and learns from some kids outside that Won-seok has died. It’s utterly shocking for her, and amazingly played as a scene. In quick succession, we see Chan-mi at the columbarium, confronting Won-seok’s parents (apparently they never knew the two kids kept in touch!), and eventually landing at the local precinct. Here she meets with the detective on the case and raises hell that it wasn’t suicide, like everyone thinks.

And here I have to pause and say how much I love Shin Ye-eun — I might not always love her roles (I’m looking at you, Welcome!), but she’s really great at giving convincing, and even raw, performances, and we see that here while she’s hysterical at the precinct. She insists her brother would never take his life, she explains the circumstances around their last call, and she demands to know why his cell phone is missing if this is indeed just a quickly-closed suicide case. She’s dismissed, and like the heroine that she is, she takes matters into her own hands.

Soon, even though it’s the worst thing for her athletics career, she switches schools to transfer into her brother’s old high school. I love the touches of color the drama gives here — she has to beg to stay in the goshiwon she planned to live in (since she’s under age), she buys a cheap scooter to get around the city, and we see just how much this 19-year-old is used to fending for herself. It’s both sad and empowering at the same time. I love this heroine already.

It’s at this point in the story that Chan-mi’s path intersects — repeatedly, humorously, literally — with JI SU-HEON (Park Solomon a.k.a. Lomon). We’ve been introduced to him earlier with some scenes showing his character’s setup, and it’s no brighter than Chan-mi’s. Actually, it might be worse.

He works like a beaver at his part-time jobs (bowling alley, delivery food boy) but he’s burdened by the medical bills of his mother, who’s sick and requires hospitalization. He visits her and their relationship is super touching (damn you, drama!) — so of course that means more heartbreak is in store for our hero.

Although he doesn’t have two cents to rub together, his scooter gets stolen after an accident. And if that wasn’t enough, the accident was due to some neurological issues he’s experiencing. (Brace yourself.) Su-heon’s stolen scooter gets purchased by Chan-mi, and the two start off their relationship with more enmity than anything else.

They’re thrown together several times because of said scooter and it all culminates during Chan-mi’s commute on her first day at the new school. Chan-mi’s on the scooter, Su-heon’s on a borrowed motor bike, and after a near-collision, Chan-mi winds up covered in garbage.

Here, like in so many of Su-heon’s scenes, we see that there’s a chivalrous and kind young man under the ruffled feathers and toughness: he helps her wash her shirt (self-consciously trying not to look through her wet shirt) and when that doesn’t work, gives her his school jacket to wear. And by that I mean tosses it to her and leaves.

And so, Chan-mi starts her first day of investigation high school in Su-heon’s jacket. Understandably, this creates quite a buzz, and the students speculate that they’re dating. And, as drama fate would have it, the two wind up in the same class.

But there’s even more connection between them, because Su-heon is slightly suspicious to Chan-mi. She has sleuthed the phone number of her brother’s girlfriend, but when she calls the number, it’s Su-heon that answers.

Chan-mi follows him around a bit, and they wind up at a hospital. Then — in a scene that requires suspension of disbelief on so many levels — she overhears his conversation with his doctor. Poor Su-heon can’t catch a freakin’ break. Not only does he have to take care of his mother, and struggle financially instead of training as a boxer, but… he’s just been diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor and given six months to a year to live. Hold up, drama, this is just too cruel!

As melodramatic and painful as this particular plot pill is — and as much as I hate it — I’m willing to wait it out and see what the narrative purpose is. Why do we need to have Su-heon in such a dire situation? Isn’t his difficult life enough? We’ll have to wait and see how this pans out. As it is, we end with a great cliffhanger around his character.

Chan-mi is in the still-cordoned-off classroom from which her brother fell, reliving the day of their call. Suddenly someone appears in the room — gasp — it’s Su-heon! He says he was thinking about the kid that died all of a sudden, and then admits, “I wasn’t close to him, but I saw him fall and called the cops.”

And so the web continues to spin for Chan-mi — and it’s so cool because no one knows the two were siblings yet (thanks to his adoptive name). She’s even more suspicious of her surroundings (and Su-heon) now, but also, poor Su-heon is probably just reckoning with what’s ahead for him.

If you couldn’t tell, the drama packs a ton of plot development into its first episode, and we’re not done yet! There’s one more introduction to add to the mystery factor, and that’s another new(ish) student: SEOK JAE-BUM (Seo Ji-hoon). We see him welcomed back to the school and announced as repeating the school year. He’s been through some kind of ordeal and can’t remember anything — aish! — and so he’s a little suspicious lol. And yet, he’s also strangely sympathetic, just like Su-heon. (Either that, or his Seasons of Blossom character is forever lodged in my mind.)

Outside of doing a great job with its fast pace and succinct storytelling (the writer really knows what’s up), this drama is just excelling at tone. For instance, winter. It’s clearly winter, they’re all clearly cold, and there’s just no other season that this story could exist in. Similarly, we see moments of warmth in our characters, but they’re all locked in the coldness, so to speak, of their difficulties.

Additionally, the drama uses all of its parts to build suspense, and the overall direction is really great. It has an unsettling and sad feel to it overall — hammered in by the excellent music, cool palette, and the long moments the drama lets our characters stare into the abyss and contemplate their battles. To all that world-building, add the clues and the carefully unfolding mystery, and I think this drama could be really riveting straight through its 12-episode run.

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