Review of the Week

Ghost/Phantom

The Love of So Ji Sub Continues

**********Warning Spoilers**************

Title: Phantom/Ghost 유령

Network: SBS

Episodes: 20

Starring: So Ji Sub, Choi Daniel, Lee Yeon Hee, Uhm Ki Joon

Aired: May 30, 2012 – August 9, 2012

I am going to be very honest and admit that the only reason I started watching this drama was because of So Ji Sub. Obsession, I hear your name loud and clear. Ghost, unlike the title would lead us to believe, is a drama that deals with political intrigue in the digital world. For some odd reason, the title, ahem, I thought this was a drama about the main character being able to see the ghosts of dead people, I could have sworn there is a drama with that premise out there, and no not the Master's Sun or Oh My Ghostess, but I digress. It is a drama about how money and power corrupt and how easily one can either destroy or be destroyed by a simple click of the mouse. And although, this drama contained no romantic storyline, one side crushes and potato crushes aside, I kept watching episode after episode and enjoying each episode tremendously.

The heart of the story revolves around the friendship of two very different people. Kim Woo Hyun and Park Gi Young met when they were both in the police academy wanting to make a difference by becoming police officers with a focus on cyber crime. Through a series of events during their time in the academy, Kim Woo Hyun becomes a lieutenant in the police department while Park Gi Young seemingly switches sides to become a hacker known as Hades. They both start looking into the apparent suicide of a well known actress and stumble upon corruption at the highest levels of politics and the police department. As we watch Kim Woo Hyun investigate the death of the young actress, we wonder which side is he really on. How does he know the murderer and most importantly why is he not arresting him. Early in the drama there is an explosion involving both friends, of which only one survives.

Through a series of circumstances, the survivor is mistaken for the other, and so for most of the drama we have Hades walking around with a police officers face. So Ji Sub does an excellent job of playing to characters brilliantly, and one of those playing a character playing a different character. And I'm not only saying this because of my massive hard on for So Ji Sub.

Park Gi Young pretending to be Kim Woo Hyun must find out the truth about his old friend and all the secrets he was keeping. With the help of the rest of the cyber unit, except for the fucking bastard traitor, Gi Young takes it upon himself to clear his friend's name and bring down the man behind the corruption.

Ghost does an excellent job of exploring that very thin line between evil and doing evil things in the name of good. Hades, Park Gi Young, by all extents and purposes is a criminal, even when he is pretending to be Woo Hyun. Even that pretense can be seen as wrong, especially when one takes into account that he is pretending to be his dead friend to his dead friend's child. But, in his mind, he is doing these things to right all the wrong caused by Jo Hyun Min, the evil behind everything.

Does the end justify the means? Park Gi Young would like to think that it does, but as a viewer I'm left with the impression that good men who do evil things are tinged with that evil. It's not something that can be washed away or forgotten. One can pretend that he didn't cause the death of Hyun Min, but it doesn't change the facts that lead to that death. This is the first Korean drama that I watched that was not a romance, and I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. But, fucking shit, a kiss between the main characters would have made it much better.