[HanCinema's Drama Review] "The Girl Who Sees Smells" Episode 5

Every time I think I've figured out what kind of story "The Girl Who Sees Smells" is trying to tell the script throws me for another loop. At first it just seems like we're doing more character building between Cho-rim and Moo-gak. Then another procedural murder shows up out of nowhere. Then it's a brief break from the procedural murder to get back to having characters examine the backstory in more detail, then we have just enough time left over to explain, in clear detail, how the murder took place.

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I'm never all that sure to what extent the police are supposed to look incompetent or whether their assumptions are supposed to be reasonable. My first thought upon the apprehension of the murder suspect was that there was precious little evidence a murder was even committed at all- it really looked more like a suicide, and the only evidence was circumstantial at best. I know "The Girl Who Sees Smells" is trying to convince us that this guy is up to no good, but even by the dumb murderer logic in this universe that situation's a pretty hard sell.

"The Girl Who Sees Smells" constantly annoys me with minor plot points like this. Take another scene in the middle where Cho-rim is on the run, in broad daylight, from a guy with a knife. In a situation like this, wouldn't the natural reaction just be to scream? We see extras walking past in the background. The rescue just seems rather convoluted, and the moral point kind of odd.

But that's all just nitpicking. Once again, I have to give credit where it's due- the mystery is logically constructed. It makes good use of Cho-rim's abilities, and the conflict is a reasonable one. From a screenwriting perspective "The Girl Who Sees Smells" is actually fairly well-written. Even if the plot contrivances have a tendency to get convoluted they're still portrayed consistently, and internal logic is always more important than objective logic.

Be that as it may I'm starting to suspect that I'm never really going to enjoy this drama all that much. Pretty much every objectively good scene is sandwiched between two others that have to make deliberate use of the story's more unrealistic constructions. Is realism all that important in a drama where the central conceit is a girl who see smells in colorful special effects? Probably not. Even so, there's no accounting for arbitrary taste.

Review by William Schwartz

"The Girl Who Sees Smells" is directed by Baek Soo-chan, written by Lee Hee-myeong and features Park Yoo-chun, Shin Se-kyung, Namkoong Min, Yoon Jin-seo, Kim So-hyun, Choi Tae-joon, and more.

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