Gap Dong (2014)

I would have rated this drama a 10 if not for a few episodes toward the end that I found ridiculous....
Cast: Ryu Tae Oh - he was my favorite character (of course he was evil) but no matter how evil he was I couldn't bring myself to fully hate him b/c he was just too darn good-lookin' ;) and I think their was a shred of a human hiding deep within him.... I liked his scenes along with Ji Wool - their scenes together were always good.
Mad Monk - he was a pretty good detective and I liked him for the most part. as for Doc Maria - she was ok and then not ok - I found a lot of her scenes to be ridiculous. I hated one guy in particular (but to say who would probably be a spoiler).
Story: based on real events - I'd have to say they did a great job on this drama - I liked every episode except for a couple closer to the end with about that one guy I hated. I like the "lesson" they talked about at the end.
Music - Really really good! love the ending theme the most!
Re-watch value: possible - but I would be skipping and watching mostly only Ryu Tae Oh scenes lol

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This drama confirms my belief that Korean is no good at making crime drama.  The drama is more a melodrama disguise as crime and thriller drama. I find the plot is so messy without any logical research. The police were too busy quarreling between each other to lose precious time to catch the culprit. the doctor was too annoying.  Every character was too damn emotional which make me skip too many useless scenes.  This series should be shorted. less than 16 eps.  The only thing that keeps me ongoing is because I just want to know the ending.

However, close to ending, I feel that the story was being pushed too hard. The ending makes me feel that the whole journey was a total waste.  I think this drama has a lot of potentials to become great but the writer total misses the mark.   Too much sappy unneeded scenes. Even the criminal is not consistent. There was none intelligence shown at all.

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I love this drama, really. It is not perfect. It is sometimes hard, a bit boring, but it just gives it a specific atmosphere. The heroes are not great, idealized, they are full of vices, like any normal person. This adds realism to the drama. Some elements are unreal, others are exaggerated, but hey, this is a c-drama, you will find such elements in each of them.
History, although it has traces of banality, is not. The drama was created in 2014, when the topic of serial killers and psychopaths was not yet so widespread. Of course, a criminologist or psychologist would have some charges against this drama, but this is an entertainment series, fiction, not a documentary series.
Finally, I must say that the music is great. It really gives the right dark mood and lets you feel the atmosphere of the presented reality.
I have seen "Gab Dong" three or four times so far. I already know who the killer is and how the fate of the characters went, but the atmosphere of this story is really unique and can absorb the viewer.

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Lee Joon is Awesomely Brilliant acting as a Psychopath, the rest not so much.

LIKES:
Lee Joon's acting in this crime drama is superb. He became a psychopath and even gave me chills a few times. I liked Tae-oh and Jiwool's moments together. She was naive and compassionated with Tae-oh, but utterly stupid around Mad monk. When the drama focused on Lee Joon's character, especially in the beginning episodes, it was really good. I like that the show focused on murderer's psyche and not so much on the victims. The music was okay too and the FXs were decent. The cast was well selected for their roles. I liked seeing Jiwool's webtoon.

DISLIKES:
The writer failed on so many levels; plot holes, unbelievable moments, etc. [See end of review for Spoiler of one of the biggest writing fails.] Production was good in some parts, but total crap in other ways. They had a bad case of shaky camera syndrome going on in each episode. Sometimes it was so bad it gave me a headache. Mad Monk got to be very annoying , but out of all the police seemed to be the least stupid, but towards the end of the drama his storyline became idiotic [See end of review for Spoiler]. Throughout the drama the police were made out to be morons. Maria, aka Dr. Oh was another moron and there were a lot of conflict of interest moments, that the writers failed so bad. She also contradicts herself and makes her profession seem ridiculous. Some parts the story gets boring and they repeat scenes over and over, which is unnecessary and lengthened the number of episodes. The plot twist wasn't too surprising, but was okay for a "who done it" drama. The ending was very rushed and seemed to be slapped together, it was disappointing how they "resolved" the crime drama.

OVERALL: Watch this for Lee Joon's acting!!! This is his best drama ever. I liked Tae-oh and Jiwool's interactions the most, so much so I wrote an alternate ending fan fiction (Gap Dong: Chosen By The Beast). I do recommend watching this and I did rewatch it (and bought the DVD).



SPOILERS:
Moo-yeom's brain injury portion of the show was stupid, didn't add to the story and seemed an easy way out for the writers.
In the scene were we see Tae-oh as a child, where Moo-yeom tells him that the person who killed Tae-oh's father was Gap Dong. The writer failed, because the murder scene is still being investigated by police, the body is there with all the blood and yet, no officer stops the kid from entering the area, contaminating the scene (his foot touches the blood) and seeing the body. Ridiculous! Maria Oh as a psychiatrist is stupid because she's still traumatized by having been a victim of Gap Dong the original. Same reason why she sucks as a profiler. Ji-wool is the perfect person to show how manipulative psychopaths can be, especially Tae-oh .

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Gap Dong ??

Well, normally I‘m not this interested in horror and crime, but I saw the trailer and wanna watched it. So I did.
It’s definitely such an amazing story, the acting is grandios and Lee Joon as Ryu Tae Oh Made this all hitting the top. It was interesting and I cried so much at some parts. I tried to think of who’s gap dong but I realized it really late. Even tho Ryu was the best psycho in there.
Then there’s the sound. The hide and see whistle sound. I love it. It made such an perfect vibe to the show. It’s just sad to know that the story is real. The Hwaseong Serial Killer Crime. Over 30 years took it to find the true psycho. There were so many victims. Rest In Peace to all of them.

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I turns out, The real Gap Dong was..........

I've watched Hwaseong murder case dramas before like tunnels and signals. And this drama also has a different story and keeps a mystery in it. Hmmm if I could give an opinion, it would be more satisfying if this drama revealed the nine stories behind it and gave details on why the killer did it. I still don't feel quite satisfied because this drama only reveals a few cases like only 2 or 3. And I feel like the main focus is just exposing who Gap Dong really is and catching them. Although the story will be even more excited if the drama reveals the background of the nine cases and tell the details of why he killed them. I feel sad and empathetic for the victims of this story. Imagine the reality for the victims who suffered and how terrified they were before they died. How terrifying, inhuman and cruel. Even some of them have nothing wrong with the killer but their fate is to be killed by a psychopath even someone they don't know. I felt very shocked and didn't expect when I found out who the real gap dong. Because he never got the antagonist role and his face is also very kind. I had some prejudices before the real gap dong was revealed but apparently none of them. So I can say that this story is unpredictable. I also doubt " is it true" ahjussi " is the real gap dong ? Because in some previous scenes before he revealed. He looks good and I don't think so. But when he shows his real face ... It scares me ... Hmmm .. when the real gap dong and the younger gap dong was caught, I was really waiting for that scene because I felt it would be amazing but it was ordinary for me :)) But the ending enough satisfying. They paid for their karma. Feel a little sad to see the oh died even though he was slowly changed to a positive person. totally the story was exciting and I enjoyed it.

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Plot Twist(s)

In all honesty I was stoked and hyped for this show in the beginning. but by the end of the beginning I started losing interest. I'm hard core into serial killers so whenever that part was mentioned I was all for it. However, by the middle there were already a few plot twists and it became repetitive. The theme song was sadly better than the whole plot to me lol Overall I was decently satisfied, but DEFINITELY was left craving more. The ending has me feeling some type of way so that's why my re-watch value is minimal. Toward the end it felt rushed and sloppy making it unfortunately, probably the least favourite of my psychological killer/thriller dramas. Lee Joon aka Ryu is bae and made the show as bearable as it was for me lol

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This drama is really interesting. But really hard to keep up with. this show will show you the best PSYCHOPATH and MANIACS there is. so many strategies and killing chains. like one killing after another all by GAPDONG. it really makes you want to follow the clues that they give you. and trust me you start to suspect everyone that is involved in the GAPDONG case. form the past all the way to the present. You meet mental hospital [patients, survivors, and killers. follow the patterns of the killings if you want to find out who started all of this. There are a lot of secrets revealed, Must watch until the end to understand everything. Trust me. so many people in the drama that you have to keep up with. Mostly killing, and action.

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A different type of a serial killer story

I've watched real life and many fictional documentaries and stories on serial killers, the initial summary of this drama feels like cliche and non-interesting but honestly it is different. Firstly, if you have watched something like Death Note then you would feel that this is vaguely simillar to its plot, but if you have not then you are in for a treat. What I personally liked was the insane plot twists of the drama, you know they rush things quickly so they are giving you something new. Fact wise, I really learnt a lot about serial killers, MPD and law system. How these cases can get squeezed out disregarding justice. I felt like when actually the truly identity of Gap Dong was revealed the drama got monotonous and that's a bit sad.

The acting is okay and excellent of the main characters, excluding Dr Oh which seems a bit exaggerated or superficial. Lee Joon really made himself up for a psycho role, I think he delivered it really well. The music is pretty epic as well, the soundtracks are incredible and the OSTs are amazing. I've noticed that people classified this drama as "disturbing" but it really depends. To my level this is not that disturbing. What was actually disturbing was how much sympathy was given to a psychopath which is utterly controversial.

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