Train to Nowhere
My latest attempt to watch a Korean drama didn't go well.
Train is a drama about the detective ML realizing that the serial killer he's chasing is from a parallel universe. While that may be an interesting premise, there has to be romance in it for some reason. Will ML catch the serial killer with his shoddy detective work? Well, since I don't recommend anyone watch this drama, I will spoil everything in my review below.
Characters and Setting
I realized that I'm quitting my attempts to watch Korean dramas, so I won't bother with the cast. I'll just list major characters so I can talk about why this drama is so bad.
Since there's a parallel world, I'll call the original world Alpha and the alternate world Beta.
Seo Do Won is the ML detective. In Alpha, he's this boring, run-of-the-mill detective. There's really nothing interesting about Alpha ML.
He consistently has this expression on his face, like he's tired of his own boring self.
I much prefer the darker Beta version of ML, but too bad he dies in one of the most stupid ways possible. Basically, he saves his father who had wandered onto a road in the middle of the night using the standard push person out of the way that happens all the time in dramas. After saving him, they're both sitting in the middle of the road - in the middle of the night - the same road in which his father nearly got hit because who hangs out in the middle of the road in the middle of the night??? So of course, a second car comes by and hits both of them. Fucking idiots.
Han Seo Kyung is the FL prosecutor/detective.
Prosecutor in world Alpha, who lets her hair down.
Detective in world Beta, who is the anti-Mulan and puts up her hair to fight (crime).
She has the same stupid expressions in both worlds. People say Korean dramas feature better acting than Chinese and Taiwanese dramas. I really don't see if based on this drama.
Lee Jung Min is the second FL forensic scientist in both worlds and probably the only character I liked.
Oh Mi Sook is the head detective (there's probably a better term for her title) in both worlds.
Suk Min Jun is the second ML psychiatrist and serial killer.
He's not pictured because I can't easily find a picture online and I don't feel like screencapping for this mess.
But basically, this character plays into the tired old troupe that, if you have a mental illness, you're the serial killer. Suk Min Jun has Huntington's Disease. Therefore, of course he's the serial killer! I thought the world has started to progress beyond vilifying disability and mental illness?
All the Cons
Parallel World Internal Logic
I'm that person that's very nitpicky about fantasy worlds' internal logic. I know people's defense is always "it's a story about [zombies, demons, fairies, time traveling, dragons, body swapping, wizards]" and therefore normal logic doesn't apply. Be that as it may, that fantasy world still has internal logic that has to make sense in that world and stay consistent. Train fails that.
ML finds out that there's a specific train # that has the ability to travel from world Beta to world Alpha on rainy days at 9-ish PM. It has to be that train # and not any other train running on the same line. It has to be a rainy day. And it has to be a 9-ish PM. If all those criteria meet, someone from world Beta will have the ability to travel to world Alpha. And if someone from world Alpha gets on that world Beta train that happened to be stopped on the tracks at the time, they can travel to world Beta.
The catch is that in world Alpha, Mugyeong Station (where the story starts) has been closed since 2015.
But in world Beta, Mugyeong Station is still a bustling, vibrant train station. And therein lies the issue. ML finds out about this way of traveling between worlds when they start finding bodies dumped on the empty, abandoned railroad track. It is therefore disclosed that the serial killer in world Beta also knows about parallel worlds and has been dumping dead bodies in world Alpha. In all, there has been six or seven bodies over the course of several years. I'm not sure if the drama ever mentions how long, but some of the bodies are skeletons so this parallel world traveling has been happening for a long time.
In all that time of serial killering and body dumping, how come no one from world Beta accidentally traveled to world Alpha? In world Beta, Mugyeong Station is still an active station. So no one travels on rainy days to Mugyeong Station and accidently realizes that they're in an alternate world where Mugyeong Station has been closed? 9-ish PM isn't exactly super late. There has to be people traveling to Mugyeong Station.
Even if miraculously, no passengers from world Beta ever gets out at Mugyeong Station, wouldn't the train conductor know that something is wrong? world Beta Mugyeong Station is supposed to be full of people. World Alpha Mugyeong Station is this emptiness:
And no one from world Beta was ever confused about this and no one accidently crosses over into world Alpha.
Worlds' Most Ineffective Detectives
ML and his group of detectives are some of the worst ever at solving crime. There are numerous times ML and/or his detectives want to check out a tip/lead. But it's always by themselves, without telling each other where they're going, without backup, and in the middle of the night. That stupidity leads to world Alpha's FL dying.
She was the prosecutor and decided to go to the abandoned Mugyeong Station alone at night to check out a place where she had previously been attacked by the possible killer (on yet another dark night). So technically, she wasn't the detective. But use some common sense, woman!
And get this...she didn't die right away after she was shot. She had time to run away from her shooter, sit down, and call the ML. But instead of telling him anything important (hey, I just saw a train arrive at the abandoned Mugyeong Station and someone got off the train and shot me. By the way, the person that shot me looked exactly like our head detective boss, Oh Mi Sook), she tells him how happy she is he entered her life.
I get that it's romantic and I would probably want to tell the person I love that I love him before I die. But realize that Oh Mi Sook is ML's superior officer and quasi foster mother. If she's the killer, then wouldn't that imply ML's life might possibly also be in danger? So wouldn't it be very very important to tell your loved one to watch out, be careful, etc.?
Hey, at least world Alpha's stupid FL dies and we don't have to put up with her stupidity anymore, right? WRONG! Because world Beta's FL isn't any better. I can't even fault her. Pretty much everyone in the department is always investigating dangerous places in the middle of the night, talking about splitting up, never calling for backup. If it's the ML and FL, you can also bet that they're never telling their subordinates and each other where they're going.
Oh, and they also suck at gathering evidence. They don't use gloves and are not methodical. How to they expect to use any potential evidence they gathered as evidence in court? But that's minor compared to the other crap.
At one point, Suk Min Jun confesses to the killings. But since they don't have the bodies (his mother, Oh Mi Sook, helped him dump them in world Alpha), they have to gather circumstantial evidence. One of their junior detectives suggests investigating further into one of the murders they're certain Suk Min Jun committed in world Beta. That makes perfect logical sense! But ML dismissed that possibility immediately, saying that Suk Min Jun committed that murder to frame someone else. Therefore, it's "impossible" that Suk Min Jun would have left any evidence pointing him to the murder. Hey, dickhead...how about TRY? ML's solution is to go ransack Suk Min Jun's apartment with FL (the aforementioned gloveless evidence gathering happens then). Did they ever obtain a warrant? Can those evidence ever be used in court? It probably doesn't matter. Maybe world Beta's due process works differently.
Hero Complex
Basically, I think the world Alpha ML is horribly uninteresting because he thinks everything is about him. He believes world Beta exists because of a decision he made 12 years ago to give FL his umbrella.
The ML in world Beta didn't do the same thing 12 years ago, and therefore world Alpha ML believes that is where their worlds diverged. How egotistical does someone have to be to believe a whole world exists purely because of a different decision he made?
Everything is about him, even world Beta FL's pain is about him.
Terrible Romance
World Alpha ML and FL grew up together and they have a great relationship. But once world Alpha FL dies, ML travels to world Beta and meets the Beta FL. In world Beta, ML and FL have an antagonistic relationship. But that doesn't matter to ML and he creepily wants to be together with FL by "protecting her from afar".
It's the standard drama cliche that's "very romantic" if you like having a stalker boyfriend. ML constantly talks to FL about loving a girl but she doesn't remember him but it's okay as long as he gets to be by her side, silently watching her and being by her. Well, what about the wants or desires of the woman? It doesn't matter to ML, as long as he can be a creep.
LOL you think he cares about your wants and needs?
He goes out of his way to not tell FL that she is the love of his live in world Alpha, even when her life is in danger (again). He goes to so much trouble to not tell her about this previous relationship. Yet he just casually leaves his photograph from world Alpha on his world Beta desk where FL can see so there can be a big reveal of what ML feels for her.
Execution - or, the Writers Think Audience are Idiots (they probably are, for watching this drama to the end)
The above example of a big reveal is also an example of this drama's clunky execution. In drama, one expects flashbacks and a certain degree of repetition. This drama is so draggy and repetitious that I can probably cut two hours from the 12 hour show and nothing would be missing.
In that it's a detective drama, there's going to be twists. Oh Mi Sook starts off as the kindly head detective and it's revealed at the end that she's the serial killer's mom and had been hiding the dead bodies to save her son from prosecution. But it's not enough for the drama just to reveal that to the audience through plot and dialogue. The drama also has to go back and act out all the parts to show that it was Oh Mi Sook that dragged the suitcases containing the dead bodies from world Beta and dumping them in world Alpha. That it was world Beta Oh Mi Sook that shot world ALpha FL. That it was Oh Mi Sook that shot a random informant. Why treat the audience like they're stupid? All those were revealed in dialogue and plot progression. There's no need to beat it over the head. But the drama keeps doing that for all the twists and reveals.
The drama also does this editing thing I hate, where the beginning of the episode repeats scenes from the end of the previous episode but with a few extra shots added in. So they're basically wasting the first five minutes of episode time with repeats and a few extra seconds of new information to make the scenes unskippable. Basically, the editors want to waste the audience's time.
In the end, it's implied that ML is stuck in an endless loop. It's the same endless loop that Oh Mi Sook was stuck in, always trying to save her serial killer son. Therefore, ML is also cursed to go through an infinite number of parallel worlds.
Except it's not made clear what his purpose is. He kills himself in world Beta because he believes that any world in which he coexists with FL will lead to her death. The next shot we see is him running from the cops (including another alternate ML) in an undisclosed parallel world. Is his plan just to keep running and then killing himself? Is he trying to accomplish something or is he just an aimless loser? I'm inclined to think the latter. Then he meets with another alternate world FL who seems to know what he's running from. Rather than stick with his vow to not interfere with FL in any parallel worlds, they look fondly at each other.
I'm okay with stories that have bad endings. But it feels like the story tries to give ML a bad ending (cursed in an endless loop) and then just decides to have a half-assed happy ending anyways. If ML was so determined to get away from FL that he's willing to kill himself in world Beta, why is he so satisfied to be with FL in the end in another world? Isn't his existence going to lead to her death?
After Train, I'm not sure if I'll ever attempt another Korean drama.
Train is a drama about the detective ML realizing that the serial killer he's chasing is from a parallel universe. While that may be an interesting premise, there has to be romance in it for some reason. Will ML catch the serial killer with his shoddy detective work? Well, since I don't recommend anyone watch this drama, I will spoil everything in my review below.
Characters and Setting
I realized that I'm quitting my attempts to watch Korean dramas, so I won't bother with the cast. I'll just list major characters so I can talk about why this drama is so bad.
Since there's a parallel world, I'll call the original world Alpha and the alternate world Beta.
Seo Do Won is the ML detective. In Alpha, he's this boring, run-of-the-mill detective. There's really nothing interesting about Alpha ML.
He consistently has this expression on his face, like he's tired of his own boring self.
I much prefer the darker Beta version of ML, but too bad he dies in one of the most stupid ways possible. Basically, he saves his father who had wandered onto a road in the middle of the night using the standard push person out of the way that happens all the time in dramas. After saving him, they're both sitting in the middle of the road - in the middle of the night - the same road in which his father nearly got hit because who hangs out in the middle of the road in the middle of the night??? So of course, a second car comes by and hits both of them. Fucking idiots.
Han Seo Kyung is the FL prosecutor/detective.
Prosecutor in world Alpha, who lets her hair down.
Detective in world Beta, who is the anti-Mulan and puts up her hair to fight (crime).
She has the same stupid expressions in both worlds. People say Korean dramas feature better acting than Chinese and Taiwanese dramas. I really don't see if based on this drama.
Lee Jung Min is the second FL forensic scientist in both worlds and probably the only character I liked.
Oh Mi Sook is the head detective (there's probably a better term for her title) in both worlds.
Suk Min Jun is the second ML psychiatrist and serial killer.
He's not pictured because I can't easily find a picture online and I don't feel like screencapping for this mess.
But basically, this character plays into the tired old troupe that, if you have a mental illness, you're the serial killer. Suk Min Jun has Huntington's Disease. Therefore, of course he's the serial killer! I thought the world has started to progress beyond vilifying disability and mental illness?
All the Cons
Parallel World Internal Logic
I'm that person that's very nitpicky about fantasy worlds' internal logic. I know people's defense is always "it's a story about [zombies, demons, fairies, time traveling, dragons, body swapping, wizards]" and therefore normal logic doesn't apply. Be that as it may, that fantasy world still has internal logic that has to make sense in that world and stay consistent. Train fails that.
ML finds out that there's a specific train # that has the ability to travel from world Beta to world Alpha on rainy days at 9-ish PM. It has to be that train # and not any other train running on the same line. It has to be a rainy day. And it has to be a 9-ish PM. If all those criteria meet, someone from world Beta will have the ability to travel to world Alpha. And if someone from world Alpha gets on that world Beta train that happened to be stopped on the tracks at the time, they can travel to world Beta.
The catch is that in world Alpha, Mugyeong Station (where the story starts) has been closed since 2015.
But in world Beta, Mugyeong Station is still a bustling, vibrant train station. And therein lies the issue. ML finds out about this way of traveling between worlds when they start finding bodies dumped on the empty, abandoned railroad track. It is therefore disclosed that the serial killer in world Beta also knows about parallel worlds and has been dumping dead bodies in world Alpha. In all, there has been six or seven bodies over the course of several years. I'm not sure if the drama ever mentions how long, but some of the bodies are skeletons so this parallel world traveling has been happening for a long time.
In all that time of serial killering and body dumping, how come no one from world Beta accidentally traveled to world Alpha? In world Beta, Mugyeong Station is still an active station. So no one travels on rainy days to Mugyeong Station and accidently realizes that they're in an alternate world where Mugyeong Station has been closed? 9-ish PM isn't exactly super late. There has to be people traveling to Mugyeong Station.
Even if miraculously, no passengers from world Beta ever gets out at Mugyeong Station, wouldn't the train conductor know that something is wrong? world Beta Mugyeong Station is supposed to be full of people. World Alpha Mugyeong Station is this emptiness:
And no one from world Beta was ever confused about this and no one accidently crosses over into world Alpha.
Worlds' Most Ineffective Detectives
ML and his group of detectives are some of the worst ever at solving crime. There are numerous times ML and/or his detectives want to check out a tip/lead. But it's always by themselves, without telling each other where they're going, without backup, and in the middle of the night. That stupidity leads to world Alpha's FL dying.
She was the prosecutor and decided to go to the abandoned Mugyeong Station alone at night to check out a place where she had previously been attacked by the possible killer (on yet another dark night). So technically, she wasn't the detective. But use some common sense, woman!
And get this...she didn't die right away after she was shot. She had time to run away from her shooter, sit down, and call the ML. But instead of telling him anything important (hey, I just saw a train arrive at the abandoned Mugyeong Station and someone got off the train and shot me. By the way, the person that shot me looked exactly like our head detective boss, Oh Mi Sook), she tells him how happy she is he entered her life.
I get that it's romantic and I would probably want to tell the person I love that I love him before I die. But realize that Oh Mi Sook is ML's superior officer and quasi foster mother. If she's the killer, then wouldn't that imply ML's life might possibly also be in danger? So wouldn't it be very very important to tell your loved one to watch out, be careful, etc.?
Hey, at least world Alpha's stupid FL dies and we don't have to put up with her stupidity anymore, right? WRONG! Because world Beta's FL isn't any better. I can't even fault her. Pretty much everyone in the department is always investigating dangerous places in the middle of the night, talking about splitting up, never calling for backup. If it's the ML and FL, you can also bet that they're never telling their subordinates and each other where they're going.
Oh, and they also suck at gathering evidence. They don't use gloves and are not methodical. How to they expect to use any potential evidence they gathered as evidence in court? But that's minor compared to the other crap.
At one point, Suk Min Jun confesses to the killings. But since they don't have the bodies (his mother, Oh Mi Sook, helped him dump them in world Alpha), they have to gather circumstantial evidence. One of their junior detectives suggests investigating further into one of the murders they're certain Suk Min Jun committed in world Beta. That makes perfect logical sense! But ML dismissed that possibility immediately, saying that Suk Min Jun committed that murder to frame someone else. Therefore, it's "impossible" that Suk Min Jun would have left any evidence pointing him to the murder. Hey, dickhead...how about TRY? ML's solution is to go ransack Suk Min Jun's apartment with FL (the aforementioned gloveless evidence gathering happens then). Did they ever obtain a warrant? Can those evidence ever be used in court? It probably doesn't matter. Maybe world Beta's due process works differently.
Hero Complex
Basically, I think the world Alpha ML is horribly uninteresting because he thinks everything is about him. He believes world Beta exists because of a decision he made 12 years ago to give FL his umbrella.
The ML in world Beta didn't do the same thing 12 years ago, and therefore world Alpha ML believes that is where their worlds diverged. How egotistical does someone have to be to believe a whole world exists purely because of a different decision he made?
Everything is about him, even world Beta FL's pain is about him.
Terrible Romance
World Alpha ML and FL grew up together and they have a great relationship. But once world Alpha FL dies, ML travels to world Beta and meets the Beta FL. In world Beta, ML and FL have an antagonistic relationship. But that doesn't matter to ML and he creepily wants to be together with FL by "protecting her from afar".
It's the standard drama cliche that's "very romantic" if you like having a stalker boyfriend. ML constantly talks to FL about loving a girl but she doesn't remember him but it's okay as long as he gets to be by her side, silently watching her and being by her. Well, what about the wants or desires of the woman? It doesn't matter to ML, as long as he can be a creep.
LOL you think he cares about your wants and needs?
He goes out of his way to not tell FL that she is the love of his live in world Alpha, even when her life is in danger (again). He goes to so much trouble to not tell her about this previous relationship. Yet he just casually leaves his photograph from world Alpha on his world Beta desk where FL can see so there can be a big reveal of what ML feels for her.
Execution - or, the Writers Think Audience are Idiots (they probably are, for watching this drama to the end)
The above example of a big reveal is also an example of this drama's clunky execution. In drama, one expects flashbacks and a certain degree of repetition. This drama is so draggy and repetitious that I can probably cut two hours from the 12 hour show and nothing would be missing.
In that it's a detective drama, there's going to be twists. Oh Mi Sook starts off as the kindly head detective and it's revealed at the end that she's the serial killer's mom and had been hiding the dead bodies to save her son from prosecution. But it's not enough for the drama just to reveal that to the audience through plot and dialogue. The drama also has to go back and act out all the parts to show that it was Oh Mi Sook that dragged the suitcases containing the dead bodies from world Beta and dumping them in world Alpha. That it was world Beta Oh Mi Sook that shot world ALpha FL. That it was Oh Mi Sook that shot a random informant. Why treat the audience like they're stupid? All those were revealed in dialogue and plot progression. There's no need to beat it over the head. But the drama keeps doing that for all the twists and reveals.
The drama also does this editing thing I hate, where the beginning of the episode repeats scenes from the end of the previous episode but with a few extra shots added in. So they're basically wasting the first five minutes of episode time with repeats and a few extra seconds of new information to make the scenes unskippable. Basically, the editors want to waste the audience's time.
In the end, it's implied that ML is stuck in an endless loop. It's the same endless loop that Oh Mi Sook was stuck in, always trying to save her serial killer son. Therefore, ML is also cursed to go through an infinite number of parallel worlds.
Except it's not made clear what his purpose is. He kills himself in world Beta because he believes that any world in which he coexists with FL will lead to her death. The next shot we see is him running from the cops (including another alternate ML) in an undisclosed parallel world. Is his plan just to keep running and then killing himself? Is he trying to accomplish something or is he just an aimless loser? I'm inclined to think the latter. Then he meets with another alternate world FL who seems to know what he's running from. Rather than stick with his vow to not interfere with FL in any parallel worlds, they look fondly at each other.
I'm okay with stories that have bad endings. But it feels like the story tries to give ML a bad ending (cursed in an endless loop) and then just decides to have a half-assed happy ending anyways. If ML was so determined to get away from FL that he's willing to kill himself in world Beta, why is he so satisfied to be with FL in the end in another world? Isn't his existence going to lead to her death?
After Train, I'm not sure if I'll ever attempt another Korean drama.