Miraculous Brothers (2023) First Impression

Miraculous Brothers is a science fiction adventure murder mystery that takes a novel (pun intended) approach to preoccupations that’s become K drama staple in the last few years. Much of the story is seen through the lens of an aspiring and struggling novelist (Jung Woo) who is doing it tough as a part-time courier way behind on his rent. His situation is made more onerous by a mother who has very little discretion and is more likely to create problems for her only son than be of help. One rainy night as Dong-joo goes about his business he collides into a young man (Bae Hyun-sung) who literally leaps out of nowhere. Or so it seems. Dong-joo hurriedly takes the lad to the nearest hospital and all attempts to resuscitate him prove fruitless. The young John Doe dies. Minutes later, however, Dong-joo notices hot breath emanating out of the body’s mouth and goes in for a closer look. John Doe opens his eyes and a startled Dong-joo falls to the floor. John Doe on the other hand, falls into a coma.

This encounter is destined to complicate matters for an already bone-weary Dong-joo. In order to seek out the identity of his mysterious victim, he goes through a backpack that the lad had with him. In it he finds a rock, an old Rubik’s cube, a walkman style cassette player, some 3.5 inch floppies and an unpublished manuscript titled God is Dead… after the manner of Friedrich Nietzsche. Dong-joo starts reading and is immediately riveted. No authorship is attributed to this work and one thing after another it eventually finds its way into the hands of former college mate and future publisher Lee Myeong-seok (Lee Ki-woo). A desperate and frustrated Dong-joo claims ownership. The manuscript is published and God is Dead turns into an overnight bestseller. Consequently Dong-joo’s insignificant existence is irrevocably changed.

Two months later John Doe wakes up and the fun and games begin. Not only does he have a second stab at life, he comes endowed with extrasensory abilities. To further compound an already complicated situation, John Doe has a rather bad case of amnesia. I am loath to give to much away because the charm of this production lies in the fact that the audience and the characters know very little to start with. It’s a puzzle that cries out to be solved with some of the pieces at hand but the overall narrative remains unclear. At the same time a body is found buried in a sunken car wreck at the bottom of a lake so the cops become heavily involved in this tale of revenge and cover-up. The question then becomes how this discovery links in with all the others. Hence the Nietzschean allusion. Where can a man find justice if God is indeed dead?

Like many K dramas this does have in its mix corporate capture, corrupt politicians and school violence. Dong-joo is certainly not everyone’s idea of a likeable protagonist as he prevaricates his way out of one predicament to another with his characteristic bluster. In a moment of pride and weakness, he takes credit where credit isn’t due. He is catapulted into the limelight which doesn’t sit easy with him. He is high strung and acts suspiciously when difficult questions are posed. Yet there is something sympathetic about a flawed Every Man groping around in the dark, completely out of his league trying to make sense of a situation not entirely of his own making. Jung Woo inhabits the role with a certain amount of unseemly glee. He certainly has the boisterous braggadocio down pat as he yells (and blubbers) his way out of one tight corner to the next. His relationship with Bae Hyun-sung’s character does develop into a bromance which is fraught with all kinds of drama due to Jung Woo’s need to conceal vital information. Nonetheless Dong-joo’s conscience is not so desensitized that he doesn’t feel guilty or responsible for the youngster that has been dropped into his lap. Bae Hyun-sung, last seen by me in Gaus Electronics, more or less replicates his act in that show — a naive fish out of water trying to navigate the rough seas of a world that’s foreign to him, with no bearings to work from.

The cast boasts of many familiar veteran and character actors. At the top of that list is Ahn Nae-sang who shows up as a cop that’s on the cusp of retirement who finds connections between the case of the body in the lake and one that he was a part of 27 years earlier. His new partner is the returning detective Park Hyeon-soo (Park Yoo-rim) who first encounters Dong-joo and Amnesia Lad in her time at Traffic Investigations. She’s got her own baggage as do most in the Violent Crimes team but there’s something off-putting about her in the early days. Smart but not necessarily circumspect. This seems to be Park Yoo-rim’s biggest role yet which may explain why I find her performative earnestness somewhat unconvincing. Perhaps it’s in part that need for the character to prove something to her grudge-holding colleagues that makes the package hard to buy into. Rather good here is Lee Ki-woo as Lee Myeong-ski, Dong-joo’s publisher and sometimes foe. Lee Ki-woo plays the unabashed snob despite his own low standing in his chaebol family with a certain cavalier and sleaze. The two men often lock horns providing comic relief.

I’ve seen 8 episodes so far and the storytelling is excellent once you get a handle on the myriad of characters that enter and exit this ever changing landscape of past and present occurrences. Yes, there are flashbacks. What K drama doesn’t have them these days? It is non-linear plotting at its gripping best with plenty to offer those who are looking for something other than fluff, romance and your garden variety police procedural.

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