Drama Review: 'Flower of Evil' (2020)
This drama is included in the list of nominees for the 57th Baeksang Arts Awards
Korean Title: 악의 꽃
English Title: Flower of Evil
Network: tvN (Korea), Viki (Global)
Episodes: 16
Broadcast Period: July 29 - September 23, 2020
Genre: Romance, Suspense, Thriller
Language(s): Korean
Cast: Lee Jun Ki (Lawless Lawyer), Moon Chae Won (Tale of Fairy)
Directed by: Kim Cheol Gyu (Chicago Typewriter)
Written by: Yoo Jung Hee (Naked Fireman)
Flower of Evil is a romance-thriller drama about how a series of murders more than a decade ago interrupts the seemingly perfect family life of married couple, Baek Hee Seong (Lee Jun Ki) and Cha Ji Won (Moon Chae Won).
Produced by Studio Dragon, the 16-episode series aired on tvN from July to September 2020 and is distributed globally by Viki and is nominated in multiple categories at the 57th Baeksang Arts Awards taking place on May 13, 2021:
Best Drama
Best Director - Kim Cheol Gyu
Best Screenplay - Yoo Jung Hee
Best Actor in a Television Series - Lee Jun Ki as Baek Hee Seong/Do Hyun Soo
Best Supporting Actor in a Television Series - Kim Ji Hoon as Baek Hee Seong
Story
Baek Hee Seong (Lee Jun Ki) is a doting husband to Detective Cha Ji Won (Moon Chae Won) and father to their daughter, Baek Eun Ha (Jung Seo Yeon). Hee Seong spends most of his time at his shop as a metal craftsman when he is not taking care of his family.
On the surface, Hee Seong seems like the perfect husband. However, it turns out that he hides his true identity behind the image of the perfect family man. Unbeknownst to Ji Won and Eun Ha, Hee Seong has a dark past and the trauma from his childhood has progressed into his adulthood causing his lack of ability to genuinely process and express human emotions. In the beginning of each episode, details regarding Hee Seong’s real identity slowly get revealed in the form of flashbacks shown in chronological order.
Eventually, his past catches up to him after Ji Won gets assigned to a case surrounding serial killings that took place in 2002. As Ji Won begins to unravel more details about the case, she learns that a majority of the evidence end up pointing towards her beloved husband. Being completely devoted to her job as a detective and hopelessly in love with Hee Seong, Ji Won ends up in a conflict between the picture of Hee Seong being painted by the evidence and the image of the loving husband she’s witnessed all her life.
The Verdict
Overall Rating: 3/10
Flower of Evil went off on a great start, there was a lot of potential for a hot and spicy plot - especially with how well they established the mental and emotional struggles Hee Seong/Hyun Soo developed from his childhood. But man, did they mess this one up. This drama was notorious with building scenes up to its highest potential and then putting it to waste by interrupting it with melodramatic or romantic dialogue between Hee Seong and Ji Won.
One of the main arcs of this show revolves around how hopelessly in love Ji Won is with Hee Seong and the devastated feeling she must have now that her husband is a prime suspect… Now, while I have complete appreciation for that, the problem with blatantly inserting romantic dialogues within critical scenes between a detective and a potential serial killer is, it removes all logic, practicality and urgency from the situation at-hand. Dramas that classify themselves as suspense-thrillers, need to have a good grip on logic and reality to keep viewers at the edge of their seats. Unfortunately, Flower of Evil fell short and ended up feeling like nothing pivotal was moving the plot along, with each 1-hour episode feeling like a hundred years long.
Given the fact that Flower of Evil is led by two of the most bankable actors in the industry (Lee Jun Ki and Moon Chae Won), I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what else made this show feel empty (besides the turbulent writing). Then, it occurred to me, that it could perhaps be from the lack of chemistry between Lee Jun Ki and Moon Chae Won. While their individual performances were good, there was something about the Lee Jun Ki and Moon Chae Won combo that just didn’t feel natural to me. I found it highly problematic that the lead actors had better chemistry with the supporting actors than they did with each other.
On the topic of actors and chemistry, Flower of Evil was definitely hard-carried by supporting roles, Kim Woo Jin (Seo Hyun Woo) and Detective Choi (Choi Young Joon). Rookie Actor Kim Ji Hoon who played Baek Hee Seong, too was a scene stealer and did a fabulous job of portraying his psychopathic character. They did an immense job of matching the overall wavelengths of the actors around them - so shoutout to them.
