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[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Hello Monster" Episode 9

The last case was apparently resolved just as quickly as it looked. This is another one of the more uneven qualities of "Hello Monster"- it really is impossible to tell how long any given investigation is going to last. Right away we're given more hints as to another incoming crime, and sure enough, it isn't too long before the situation heats up until we get to a cliffhanger that just gives off a portent of disaster.

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It's uneven in a good way, just to be sure. I like how none of the perpetrators of past crimes ever really go away. They remain in stasis as possible clues for solving future cases. This is part of what makes Seon-ho's role as potential mastermind such an interesting one- we don't actually even know for sure if he's the one behind all this. It's possible that he's working for some other individual, or part of a larger team.

But the broader mysteries of "Hello Monster" are mostly kept at a distance. The only new facts we learn for sure are ones that were easiest to guess. Additionally, it's difficult to tell what Seon-ho could have to do with this new case at all except to the extent that it's obvious the crime had at least one accomplice. It's simply logistically impossible for a person to manage that kind of kidnapping without any kind of help. So who's helping out? And why?

This episode overall is mostly focused on legwork so we don't get any very satisfying answers to that questions. This is more genre-standard police procedural stuff. That's not bad by any means. It's just that "Hello Monster" always pushes the envelope in terms of weird and creative presentation, so it's difficult to really assess this episode in a vacuum. That might change later on, when we get more background information on the case that puts things in a rather different light.

Again, though, that's all just speculation. This is such a standard episode even the initial construction makes a point of highlighting the big climactic events of the last episode, rather than directly getting into anything here. The comic relief is the closest we really get to cute, mainly because we haven't seen that particular character in that particular context- and of course his co-workers will interpret the situation in that way. What other possible options are there given everything we've seen so far?

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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