Finished watching all 16 episodes of Korea's Beyond Evil, a police thriller. One actor in this movie is from Awaken, another from Squid Game. Two cops, a veteran and a newbie, revive cold-case murders and search for a serial killer at large. In the meantime newly-surfaced murders are discovered. Everyone in the small town has reason to suspect one another. Yet another movie that addresses the darkness within men, as complex as a piano piece by Rachmaninoff. The viewer has to be at least 30 years old to appreciate the characters, their motives, and their interrelationships; young audiences will find them perplexing, if not boring. Great ensemble acting, and a satisfying ending.

Quite a few Korean movies involve a senior protagonist and a junior protagonist working together or in conflict with each other. To me this is a reflection that South Korea is in the midst of changing its values, perhaps because of its successful exposure to the outside world. I believe that two big factors in the worldwide success of Korean movies is that 1) their performers are appealing not because they are beautiful but because they have extremely expressive faces, and 2) they have highly intelligent subtitle writers/translators with a good knowledge of Western idioms and the intention of making everything clear to English-speaking viewers. They add subtitles even when the characters are saying nothing!  

Incidentally, that was an interesting whiskey glass in Episode 5. I want a set of six!