In the fall of 022, two Korean dramas with science fiction themes have appeared successively - "Mystery of the Outer World" and "Over There". However, the two received very different evaluations.
The story of "Outer Mystery" is like this: a young woman who follows the rules, can hallucinate aliens, and her boyfriend has mysteriously disappeared, which has triggered a series of tracking and exploration.
This drama is sat by Quan Rubin and Lin Jinna, the CP is good, and the picture quality is also good, but unfortunately the plot is weak and the score is not high.
Quan Rubin, who had a wonderful performance in "Melo Physique"
Beautiful and handsome Jenna Lin
As for "Over There", which was broadcast not long ago, the reputation is better. The director of this drama is Li Liyi, who directed films such as "Suyuan", "Si Mourning", "Zishan Fish Spectrum" and other movies, starring Baeksang TV Di Shen Hajun, and Han Jimin, who has starred in "Spring Night" and "Our Blues".
The story takes place in the year 2032, when science and technology advance.
After his wife died, the male protagonist was immersed in sadness. Not long after, he received a video from his "wife", and then, guided by a mysterious agency, he came to the virtual world and met the cyber "wife" who was both real and fake.
It turns out that the wife entrusted an agency to build her own electronic image and part of her personality with her memory, and after her death, the husband could enter the virtual world and get along with the "wife" and get comfort. The discussion of life and death, truth and falsehood begins.
On the one hand, emotions that transcend life and death are moving.
The virtual wife says to her husband: "After what is lost, it is not a loss if you still remember it". Such lines are reminiscent of the theme of the animated movie "Dream Travel": death is not the end of life, forgetting is; Remember me until the memory of love wears away.
But at the same time, what the occult agency does is ethically controversial.
Virtual people are not equivalent to the deceased themselves, they are shaped by limited memories, only carrying subjective obsessions and one-sided imagination.
Under the operation of the institution, virtual humans have become trading products. Should they be created? Can it be used as a tool? And, does this existence mean the negation of the deceased's being?
For example, there is a girl in the play who longs for family affection, so through the institution, she creates an active cyber father, but in the real three-dimensional, this is not the case.
Similar problems also appear in the male protagonist. It is not difficult to foresee that he will be driven by his thoughts to meet with his wife and choose between soothing the pain and staying awake. Contradictions and trade-offs will become a major attraction.
In addition, there is an intriguing detail in the play: at one moment, the virtual wife hesitates about her identity. This moment actually has a bit of the flavor of "Blade Runner". Isn't a false wife a replicant, and if the replicant is aware, where will the story go?
At this point, looking back at the OP of "Over There", I feel deeper.
In this title, there are many beautiful symmetrical pictures, as if "this side" and "that side" are displayed side by side. The area on both sides, maybe life and death, maybe reality and virtuality, this contrast and confrontation is deep and fascinating.
Overall, "Over There" is short and concise (six episodes, about 30 minutes each), beautiful pictures, a plot is told, and new technologies appear in the protagonist's daily life in a low-key manner, in line with the calm atmosphere of combining science fiction and emotion.
This approach is sensible.
Previous Korean science fiction dramas often spread out a large stall, difficult to control and finish, 21 years of "Silent Sea" and the aforementioned "Outer Mystery" have similar problems. "Over There" starts from the emotional theme that Korean dramas have always been good at, telling stories in a small pattern, but it is comfortable, which is a kind of science fiction road.
Stills from "Sea of Silence"
Moreover, because the director is Li Bin-yi, the audience can look forward to the thinking contained in his works.
He has focused on the ancient (Si Mourning, Zishan Yu Book) and modern issues (Suyuan), and now he has his eyes on the future. How technology serves life, and what are the side effects, is not only tomorrow's business, but also today's problem.
Coincidentally, Shen Hejun starred in another unpopular masterpiece "Unicorn" in the same year, through the experience of new companies, ridiculed many strange phenomena in the traffic era. Although the genre of "Unicorn" and "Over There" are different, one is modern comedy and the other is lyrical science fiction, but the reflection of the two on technology coincides with each other.
In short, look forward to the follow-up of this niche science fiction drama.