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[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Hello Monster" Episode 8

Hyeon isn't really in love with Ji-an just yet. We can tell because throughout the entire crisis at Ji-an's apartment, Hyeon continues to think logically and ask reasonable questions about the suspicious occurrences on their date. Naturally these questions carry over into the apparent attack- what motive could anyone have to put Ji-an in danger? And more relevantly, why would Seon-ho be nearby? It's like Hyeon says- there's never really any such thing as coincidence.

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Seon-ho's character is put in greater focus here as well. To be honest I found most of the revelations regarding Seon-ho to be fairly dull, because his true identity seemed rather obvious from the beginning. I do think it's rather telling that what seemed obvious from the viewer perspective never managed to cross Hyeon's mind. In all fairness it's not like Hyeon is constantly on the lookout for his long lost brother. Even so, Seon-ho's mannerisms have always seemed eerily close to Hyeon's- just from the opposite angle.

It's one of the more interesting rivalry concepts at play in "Hello Monster" overall- to date Hyeon hasn't really been an investigator, and Seon-ho hasn't really been a criminal. It's a little disappointing to realize that in this regard at least, "Hello Monster" has morphed into a more traditional detective story. But then it's their personalities that are really interesting anyway- mainly the way both Hyeon and Seon-ho seem to treat everyone around them with callous disregard.

This also manages to be the drama's best source of comic relief. Note how Hyeon never really actually bothers lying- he just acts very curt and unexplanatory so of course by the time the detectives have figured out what's going on Hyeon is already on the scene having managed to unravel a bunch of obscure clues that the police would never have bothered to take a close look at in the first place. That was a long sentence- Hyeon would have found a way to state it in maybe half a dozen words. He's that good at shortcuts.

The pacing in "Hello Monster" also manages to be fairly brisk. Ironically, the action and the setpieces in this episode were unusually attention-grabbing at the time- which is perhaps why I didn't see all that much serious depth this time around. But as has always been the case so far, we manage to end the episode with all sorts of intriguing possibilities. At the halfway point, I definitely have faith that the answers to these questions will be satisfying ones.

Review by William Schwartz

"Hello Monster" is directed by Kim Jin-won-I and No Sang-hoon, written by Kwon Ki-yeong and features Seo In-guk, Jang Nara, Choi Won-young, Lee Chun-hee, Park Bo-gum, Min Sung-wook and more.

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