The Bequeathed

This isn't a murder mystery or thriller. Nor is this a horror story about shamanism. All those are cover for a study on basic human emotions. With a few murders to fill in the blanks.

People are selfish, people can be greedy, people can hold a grudge and shape a lifetime of experience and impression. The harder question is why can't people change ? Is personality hard wired or is it how one's mind fixated/dwell to much on the past that we can't get out of its trap? Nature AND nuture.

There are two stories to show all this. First the burial ground inheritance between two siblings. Which is also interwoven with land dealings. Second is the history of two detectives.

In both cases, emotions clouds judgement, which limits or hinders communication, and builds walls.

You really must have patience on this one. It has not the usual comedic relief but tension, albeit a slow burning one.

It absolutely baffles me when shows like this get rated below a 7, whereas other completely mindless, horribly written ones with atrocious dialogue and acting get much higher ratings.

Albeit no "Train to Busan," most of Yeon Sang-ho's works post that blockbuster were all compelling in their own rights. Hellbound tackles the issue of religion and the dangers of cultish behavior, Jung-E is a family story packaged in an action drama, and this one, once again tackles familial relationships but in a much different arena. And there's always something humane at the core of these shows that grounds them, despite some of the outlandish scenarios. What happens when absolute devotion to your family pushes you to do irrational things; what happens when lack of devotion creates similar outcomes? This is a wonderful exploration of the complexity of what family means, should be, could be, shouldn't be, is expected to be, etc.

The acting is superb, and the characters are complex and dynamic. Highly recommended.

Kim Hyun-Joo plays Yoon Seo-ha who is exploited by a professor to ghost write his books and also has a husband who is cheating on her. She gets news that an uncle she was unaware of has died and left her a burial site at the top of a mountain. We learn that the land maybe worth a lot of money and at the wake a man turns up claiming to be Seo-ha's brother and then murders suddenly begin to happen in relationship to the land. Investigating events are two detectives who have a back story putting them into conflict. It is a thriller with supernatural overtones as shamans are involved when we have flashbacks in the story. An interesting well acted series with good and bad points and is well directed over the six episodes.

So, I shall not put this as a 'must watch' programme, because the phrase is often overused.

I will definitely say that it is a 'should see'.

Without spoilers, I will say that there are some plot holes, but then there is the build up to the final episode.

I did like the fact that the character development is retrospective, and that continues right to the last seconds of the final episode.

There are layers upon layers, and at one point, I had convinced myself that I knew what the final twist would be.... Then the final twist caught me by surprise, and I really enjoyed that. It is a strange blend of secrets, coupled with some parallel storylines.

If I had any complaints, it should have had another episode or maybe two, just to flesh out the additional storylines, and fill the plot holes.

But, it is very well done, it is definitely worth seeing, and there is a commentary on the troubles of being human.

As an avid fan of mystery films, I was very disappointed by this drama.

The dialogue is incredibly watered-down, lacks subtlety, and usually overexplains and oversimplifies. The deductions in the film and the motivation behind the criminals are often nonsensical. The murderer can only be found through sheer guesswork. The themes explored in the drama are either meaningless and used solely for shock-value or banal. And, much of the conflicts early on in the drama is completely forgotten or scrapped by the end. I.e., even this seemingly short 6 episode drama is flooded with useless fillers.

It's quite unfortunate because everything else beside this amateurish screenplay was surprisingly good: The actors were great, the music score was on point, and the cinematography was good. Had this been any other genre and it would have most likely been palatable, but as a mystery drama, which requires an intelligent screenplay, it was subpar.