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Resurrection korean drama review
Completed
Resurrection
0 people found this review helpful
by Gastoski
Oct 3, 2024
24 of 24 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 6.5
Story 6.5
Acting/Cast 8.0
Music 7.0
Rewatch Value 6.0
This review may contain spoilers

I'm Never Gonna Die Again

A frankly disappointing and confusing drama, ‘Resurrection’ has the ambition of putting so much -too-much- meat on the fire in the plot, ending up giving an exaggeratedly complex and extremely confusing story; and it's a pity, because the basic assumption, on one of my favourite cinematographic themes, that of the double (but let's not bother Dostoevsky, of course! ), could and should have been exploited much better, instead being reduced to an accumulation of clichés and stereotypes that irregiment the story in a classic makjang scheme that is not even that engaging.

The beginning is chaotic, to say the least, with the introduction of so many characters that it is hard to sort out the narrative patterns and the peculiar aspects of the actors on stage; evidently the authors must have realised this too, because at the beginning of the fifth episode, a providential summary of the previous episodes comes to our rescue, clarifying most of the tortuous plot, but beware! we will find ourselves with at least a dozen or more characters involved in what, up to that moment, has turned out to be a barely comprehensible affair...

Trying to sum up, more or less:
A policeman, his vice-presidential twin, the former's fiancée and the latter's almost-wife, aspiring journalist, a senator (father of the journalist but not only ... ) and another business executive (with his rather useless son), and their henchman/gangster, the twin vice-president's family - mother of the twins, stepfather and younger sister - and the policeman's adoptive father, several killers, dead or providentially brought out in the process, just to make even more of a mess, wives or ex-wives, real and alleged crooks, nosy journalists and even several policemen...

At this point, the story, so to speak, tries to stabilise itself for several episodes, which obviously, with the dramatic change of identity of the main character, have an easier time creating the right tension, relying on the gimmicks of the policeman who has to pass himself off as the twin vice-president of the company.

Nothing particularly memorable or innovative, it must be said; the ‘sentimental’ side is much more interesting, with the interchange between the two women in love who develop more than one doubt about the twin's identity, rather than the family aspect, with the anguish and turmoil of the protagonist's mother, which would have deserved more in-depth analysis; but we are nevertheless in the ordinary, the minimum acceptable:
It is the usual theme of revenge for a crime twenty years earlier that will uncover the classic Pandora's box, with a twist, largely phoned in and out of time, and that will take no prisoners...

But then, irreparably, the plot wraps up again, adding more characters to the story and rekindling confusion about it, as well as attempting to unravel it through the contrivance of some object/fetish such as the gaming dices or the bracelet

We are again in a total mess, with tired repetitions of protracted situations (the investigations of the would-be journalist, for instance), daring parental entanglements of the ‘that's the son of that other guy from an extramarital affair’ kind, searches for relatives, corrupt and then repentant cops, and others in a coma, as well as murderous killers who pop up out of nowhere (like the too-often-quoted Park Sangcheol).

It proceeds towards the finale with a sense of weariness and heaviness, a final episode in which we move from an anthology-like incipit of the ridiculous, with an explanation and related listing of names that would need another summary, an explanation so lengthy between the players that it verges on ludicrousness, to a hasty use of cinematic off-screen, hopelessly rushed in closing the stories of some characters who had been crucial up to that point.

Absolutely inexplicable the epilogue after the usual time jump (‘one year later’), ‘Resurrection’ leaves a sense of utter unfinishiness, despite the amount of material at hand, it is saved by some good performances, such as Uhm Tae Woong of course, in the double (or rather triple) part of Seo Ha Eun / Yoo Gang Hyuk / Yoo Shin Hyuk, as well as the beautiful Han Ji Min in the painful role of Seo Eun Ha, as well as Kim Gab Soo, in the role of Senator Lee Tae Jun, father of the journalist;
Kim Kyu-chul's grimacing in the part of Choi Dong Chan is frankly unbearable, while the final question that will remain unanswered is:
What happened to Seo Jae Su, Eun Ha's father and adoptive father of policeman Ha Eun, who at one point in the story simply disappears from the drama!?
6,5 / 10
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