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SeikaRin

LoSt My WaY

SeikaRin

LoSt My WaY
One Ordinary Day korean drama review
Completed
One Ordinary Day
7 people found this review helpful
by SeikaRin
Dec 18, 2021
8 of 8 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 9.0
Story 9.0
Acting/Cast 10.0
Music 8.5
Rewatch Value 8.0

Innocent until proven guilty taken to the extreme

I know this is a remake of the original story from the UK. I haven't seen it yet and refrained myself from getting spoilers or try to compare both for their details or any mismatched storylines.

Perhaps, the Korean version is darker. The cinematography draws us into the abyss of a presumed innocent young man accused and most likely framed of a hideous and hate crime that took a woman's life. We see and witness his confusion, his pain and his struggles through it all. And at the same time when everyone is turning their back on him, we can see his transformation in survival mode, hence that being the name of this episode...

'When in doubt, in favor of the defendant. No one is presumed to be guilty.'

However, it's with these cliffhangers and the mysterious aura this drama portrays, that they leave us wavering between the lengths of innocence and misconduct. I like this type of scrip that messes with the viewers perceptions and beliefs, it makes us analyze the evidence alongside the characters and hope for the best result. We have been following his journey and believing him to be framed, and that the criminal is most likely out there. By each and every episode the story gets bleak and the light at the end of the tunnel keeps getting dim. To mess this way with the perception of everything presented so far is a bold move.

What is the truth behind the case? Will there be a plot twist? Or have we been right all along?

The investigation was poorly done, it sounded like a fanfic.
It was based on mere speculations and not any solid evidence.
They just needed someone to blame. And he was an easy target.

Could this be his mind being manipulated to believe he is who everyone is making him out to be?

How will he prove his innocence and live with the consequences of his life's decisions?

There's the thing about all of this. The stigma of being imprisoned, the scars it leaves on a person who has seen and felt under his skin how quick people can drop someone in desperate times. Sometimes, those being the people closer than you think. Next of keen even. It brands someone, who will have to try and return to society knowing life itself is not the same or ordinary.

The cinematography is well matched with the OST, alluring, dark and mysterious. The same goes with our many characters here, some shady, others with a hidden agenda, and some with good intentions. Too bad that in this drama those are counted by a single hand at most. The rest reveals itself as the story unfolds.

Kim Hyun Soo, Shin Joong Han and Do Ji Tae, are those characters that pull you in the minute they appear on screen. The actors really got immersed into their roles that every interaction, scene and conversation was worth to watch. I really like the brotherhood formed between Ji Tae and Hyun Soo. There was something in Hyun Soo, that both Joong Han and Ji Tae - who are from opposite sides, and yet with the law as a common interest as we can see by one's profession and the other's hobby - saw at first glance. They were both his pillars through the nightmare that his life had become. A balance of justice if I may say.

Unfortunate events can be turned into life lessons. There are people who come into someone's life to teach something. Ji Tae's worth was more than a guardian and a Hyung in times of need. He was a teacher, and a counselor. One who contributed towards Hyun Soo's transformation and probably smoke addiction. Well, no one said he was a good influence. They were inmates and locked inside for a reason. Although they shared more in common than one could think.

We can say Ji Tae could be a representation of what Hyun Soo's future looked like if he had no one who believed in him.
And Hyun Soo was a reminder to Ji Tae of what he used to look like in the past, before losing his freedom and himself.

Not only Kim Soo Hyun did a remarkable job on his role, but the whole cast did too - in fact - it's both the actors and production who are the true core of this drama and not only the protagonist alone. Still, we can't deny how powerful Soo Hyun's deep and silent stares in many scenes truly are. Or even turn a blind eye his desperate cries and raw emotions through this journey.

Cha Seung Won delivered a rugged image of a third-rate attorney - Shin Joong Han - with his life upside down, but with a sense of Justice within him to not give up on the most complicated case of his life.

And am sure no one was left indifferent whenever Kim Sung Gyu appeared as Do Ji Tae, with his powerful and yet calm aura. He truly embodied someone who ruled the yard and whose presence alone was somewhat respected. He yearned that given his years. In the end he was the life and soul of that prison, so that final scene with him in his cell, and the last glance Hyun Soo gives as if everything is as it was, although far from the truth given the emptiness that it is felt was symbolic.

Corruption and cases like such can happen when one least expects. There is a thin line to prove someone's innocence. This was focused on that alone and the difficulties on both parties. The accusers and the defendants. The system is despicable, seen with this point of view and with how they handled now only the case but the aftermath alone. Some win, some loose.

The prize in cases like this is not with merits and credits for something they had not part of... -The victory would be more personal, - to those who truly yearned it, who really worked hard for it, those who never gave up despite the ordeals presented, and to the victim who midway resigned with fate, not seeing a shred of hope with the outcomes, - even if it's baffled and not for the world to know, it does not lose it's worth in the end.

Because there will always be more cases out there in need of a helping hand of Justice as this end foretells...
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