[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Pinocchio" Episode 5

The cliffhanger last episode has forced a split between Dal-po and In-ha. It's a weirdly amicable split though. Yes, In-ha is pretty upset about Dal-po's ruining her dream for no apparent reason, but even then her frustrations are played for comedy rather than tragedy. The implication is that In-ha realizes her condition makes reporting impractical, and if even Dal-po agrees with that statement, then there simply isn't any hope for her dream at all.

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I really have to applaud the sheer concentration Park Shin-hye shows here. No matter how tense or emotional she gets there's always a hiccup for every lie, even if we in the audience aren't really sure which statements are lies and which aren't. It feels kind of mean to laugh at In-ha considering all that she's going through, but it's oddly appropriate given her character. In-ha knows that she always comes off like a joke, which is why the unexpected opportunity to get back into the reporting game is so enticing, regardless of the circumstances.

Dal-po's another matter. He doesn't actually have any reason to care about reporting at all, particularly now that In-ha's gone. One character confronts him on this point, and here's where we finally get to the crux of the storyline. It seems extremely likely that "Pinocchio" will not be about reporting in general, but rather the involvement of In-ha and Dal-po regarding the journalism ethics and controversy springing from this one case, as well as its ongoing extensions.

Take Jae-myeong. He's quite obviously living in a completely different drama, not that it's all that hard to blame the guy given everything that's happened. Even so, he has a dark side here that's very frightening, and seems to represent shades of what Dal-po could turn into provided the situation gets extreme enough. It seems quite likely that Dal-po will end up fighting not just In-ha, but even his own brother.

Thankfully the intermittent scenes of comic relief do a lot to prevent "Pinocchio" from getting in to truly alarming territory. The episode really isn't as gruesome as this review makes it sound- it's the undertones that threaten to turn this into a terrifying conflict. In the meantime there's Dal-po and In-ha at home, generally just having a goofy time because they're still young and aren't putting any thought into how this is going to shape the rest of their lives. That much, at least, looks like it will be around for some time.

Review by William Schwartz

"Pinocchio" is directed by Jo Soo-won and Sin Seung-woo, written by Park Hye-ryeon and features Lee Jong-suk, Park Shin-hye, Kim Young-kwang, Lee Yu-bi, Lee Pil-mo, Kang Shin-il and many more.

 

 

 

 

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