Stream K-Dramas at OnDemandKorea

[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Remember" Episode 3

The first portion of this episode is spent going over plot points that have yet to actually be established, but of which we mostly know the substance. Of course there aren't going to be any meaningful obstacles to Dong-ho becoming Jae-hyeok's lawyer. Likewise, it's pretty obvious why Jae-hyeok signed a confession which we knew to be false. The confession isn't even consistent with the prosecution's own theory. They've already admitted that Jae-hyeok has memory problems, which is why he can't fill in missing details.

Advertisement

The material is all important but predictable, which is why "Remember" gets a lot more interesting once Dong-ho and Jin-woo sit down and hash out a plan to fully embarass the prosecution in open court. Jin-woo's perfect memory is an imminently appropriate ability to have for a legal thriller- minor details tend to be irrelevant in everyday life. But in the context of the courtroom, they're indisputable proof when one side has them and the other does not.

The extra-legal element, though, looks to be the more important one for the long haul. It's still not completely clear whether Gyoo-man is the actual killer. While Gyoo-man continues to be a basically reprehensible human being, his father Il-ho (played by Han Jin-hee) does not strike me as the kind of man who would put up with this kind of behavior in any kind of public context. Moreover, one would expect better security at the compound if something really shady was going on.

Or maybe that whole sequence was just sloppy writing. It's kind of hard to tell because even though Jin-woo is the alleged main character, Dong-ho is the one who's running the show this episode. He's the one that's coming up with elaborate schemes, mugging for the camera, and smiling silently even when things apparently go wrong because somehow this is all according to plan.

That much looks to be a problem- because Jin-woo is in fact the main character, and isn't going to just stand back and accept all of this legal jockeying. Unfortunately "Remember" still hasn't moved much farther than just basic character archetypes and concepts. Wronged man, wronged man's son, wronged man's son's love interest, skilled yet slimy defense lawyer, corporate conspiracy- as genre material "Remember" is decent enough. But I'm still really hoping that the material breaks out into something more dynamic soon, because the production team definitely has the chops for that.

Review by William Schwartz

"Remember" is directed by Lee Chang-min-I, written by Yoon Hyeon-ho and features Yoo Seung-ho, Park Min-young, Park Sung-woong, Namkoong Min, Jung Hye-sung and Jun Kwang-ryul

Watch on Viki

❎ Try Ad-free