[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Drama Special - The Wind Blows to the Hope"

The opening is stylish enough. The scene is a prison bus, and the inmates are clearly up to no good. We can see them messing around furtively with their hands, and then all chaos breaks loose. Director Kim Yong-soon-I sets up a marvelous single shot camera take, where we somehow pan around the entire bus, getting only vague snippets of the action until in one, final explosive moment, victory is achieved via a loud popping sound.

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That is, regrettably, the only real compliment I can offer to "Drama Special - The Wind Blows to the Hope". Sometimes the camerawork looks really tricky. As for other important parts like, say, characterization, I'm afraid there's very little useful, interesting information. The prisoners are in jail, and they want to get out. The survivors somehow manage to ingratiate themselves into normal society for several decades, only to belatedly find themselves under investigation by the fuzz.

It's weird how a drama where so much of the action takes place in the late seventies manages to not really look particularly old. The best clue for remembering whether we're in the present day or the past is to take a look at the makeup the principal actors are wearing. "Drama Special - The Wind Blows to the Hope" tries to split the difference by casting people who are middle-aged rather than old or young- it's a method that's truthfully not terribly effective versus just hiring two different people per part.

The tone is also inconsistent. At times it seem like "Drama Special - The Wind Blows to the Hope" is going to be fun somehow, but then there's multiple portions where we see explicit graphic murders. It's just, oh right, these guys are in jail, so this is just the world they live in. Except that whenever another character sees a murder being committed they're clearly completely terrified so...well, look. It's just a mystery anyway. We're supposed to be piecing together clues, not overthinking narrative themes.

Take that for what it's worth- you might find "Drama Special - The Wind Blows to the Hope" if you just happen to like mysteries and the general conceit of escaped prisoners who have spent a long time in hiding. There might be even be some appeal for those of you who prefer the film-style of photography versus the static cameras we're usually presented with in TV dramas. But on terms of general aesthetics or even just pleasantness, this drama left a bad taste in my mouth and I can't recommend it.

Review by William Schwartz

"Drama Special - The Wind Blows to the Hope" is directed by Kim Yong-soo-I, written by Hong Soon-mokand features Kim Young-chul, Defconn, Choi Sung-won, Lee Won-jong, Seo Hyun-chul, Lee Young-hoon,...