The Journalist (2022) Side Story of Fox Volant (2022) Narco Saints (2022)

The Journalist (2022) Completed

Before I discovered K dramas, I devoured J dramas in quick succession most especially the crime-based ones. Occasionally there’s one that piques my interest and this one The Journalist came up on my Netflix feed just the other day. It had all the magic words in the synopsis: “journalist”, “government corruption”, “the truth” and “justice”. Mind you the first episode was dizzying in the extreme having to get my head around not only the neverending parade of cast members but also the various story threads that were being thrown about at the speed of a moving train. Apparently that didn’t deter me in the least because I finished all six episodes in about a day. While it turned out to be a good watch, it doesn’t exactly do anything original nor aims to. But I hasten to add that it probably won’t have widespread appeal because of political wrangling that goes on within the bureaucratic chain of command in the Japanese public service. Some will certainly find it slow moving at times but that can work in its favour as well because it allows for plenty of breathing space and room for emotionally charged moments to do their magic. Here too the atmosphere is often bleak even occasionally intense but there’s definitely light at the end of this seemingly long tunnel.

The titular role in all likelihood refers to Matsuda Anna, a dogged investigative journalist who writes for Touto News but the show isn’t about her per se. She’s a key character in the overall narrative undoubtedly but there are other focal points in the plot which eventually intersect when a man dies in tragic fashion as a result of the rough and tumble of the political machinery that position bureaucrats as figures in an exclusive cult for those who seem themselves as society’s elites.

While the English title (and accompanying synopsis) might offer the impression that this about an underdog journalist triumphing over darker more powerful forces, it is ultimately a show about the role of the conscience without which the pursuit of truth would be futile. In fact it is the lynchpin in that endeavour seen through the struggles of mid-level bureaucrats and their relationship to a recent land sale scandal associated with the current administration. Indeed the entire story is something of a timely diatribe on the application of coercion — the enormity of compelling diligent human beings of good will to commit acts that cause their consciences to labour relentlessly overtime. The conscience afterall is a mechanism of restraint endowed by the Creator to prevent individuals from or cause them think twice about crossing clear moral and ethical lines. All the external manipulation, blackmail, bullying calculated to ensure a particular result might succeed in the short-term but there are long-term psychological costs for individuals who act against their own cherished principles. Guilt, shame, regret, depression and even suicide could be life changing consequences for those who do not act in concert with their conscience. In that regard The Journalist is better described as a psychological exploration rather than a political thriller as it has been touted in certain quarters. It’s almost entirely misleading to label it a thriller.

While the narrative might be somewhat starry-eyed about the fourth estate, truth seekers have to be found somewhere. The persistent Matsuda Anna is chief among them but she’s not the only one. She certainly does enough to inspire the aimless young Kinoshita Ryo to follow in her footsteps. Revelations, however, are often more dependant on those who have skin in the game to appeal to the consciences of those who know more than they are willing to say. The psychological warfare is real and the fear utterly crippling. What’s at stake is no less than the battle for the heart and soul of the public service. Top level bureaucrats see themselves as gatekeepers of the system as the mid to low level types are made to wrestle with carrying out orders that goes against the grain. At the end of the day the excuse that “we were only following orders” won’t wash and all the people involved in the scandal are responsible for the outcomes in some fashion.

The subject matter is especially topical in 2022 with growing discontent at the grassroots level with the political class and global elites in recent times. Too much power in the hands of self-interested human beings is never a good thing. The historical record is absolutely clear on that. That said the show does end on an optimistic note about individuals making a difference even when the odds are heavily stacked against them because of their willingness to stand up and be counted. It usually begins with one or two to get the ball rolling before the momentum builds. The message is unequivocal: Some battles are worth fighting for especially when the country’s future is at stake.

Side Story of Fox Volant (2022) Episodes 11-14

Is it really so hard for all wuxia dramas to have this level of commitment to having this number of action set pieces? It has increasingly bothered me over the years that all kinds of C dramas get labelled wuxia only for fight scenes to end up becoming perfunctory additions to the storytelling. Just because certain characters happen to bear arms and brandish them occasionally shouldn’t automatically entitle these stories to a spot in the genre. There’s been a drought of jianghu based dramas in the last couple of years and it’s tremendous to see something like Fox Volant make the effort with the fight scenes which have generally been sorely lacking even in the most lavish productions.

While I’m no fan of the adultery arc (Let’s call a spade a spade here, shall we?) featuring Miao Renfang’s ex Nan Lan (Maggie Huang) and Tian Guinong (Peter Ho) and the somewhat sympathetic tone that’s injected into this unholy union, I console myself with the fact that there’s at least there are some concrete consequences for the hanky panky that went on during Miao Renfang’s brief absence. This is the problem when the writing tries too hard to “humanize” characters. It’s easy to make up excuses because life is hard for everyone but I’m not at all certain that over-explaining Nan Lan or Tian Guinong’s motivations has justified their case to be together. I didn’t care for Tian Guinong even before he cozying up to another man’s wife so this so-called desire to protect Nan Lan by seducing her in record time makes absolutely no moral sense to me. If the object is to score some points with the audience, judging from online reactions, it been an abject failure. Of course Peter Ho has name recognition so they must have felt obliged to expand his role in all this.

I’m still at a loss as to what the show wants to me to think about Hu Fei’s dynamic with Yuan Ziyi. On paper I like the idea of the two of them being together and she certainly has feelings for him as he does for her. What’s disturbing however, is the fact that she’s not being very upfront about her future plans. It is obvious that she’s torn between the prospect of the celibate life that’s in store for her and being with him. Whatever it is that’s motivating her to care for him so meticulously, she is in effect leading him on to have expectations because she’s gone above beyond the call of duty. On top of all that her mentor is always around to remind her of oaths previously made so I imagine that all of this will end in tears for someone. Hu Fei mightn’t have all his wits about him but he’s a well-meaning likeable kid. He knows what he wants and he’s not wrong in thinking that Ziyi is acting more like a lover than a friend.

Narco Saints (2022) Episodes 1 and 2

This is a rowdy, unabashedly violent crime offering that stars Ha Jung-woo, Park Hae-soo, Yoo Yong-seok, Hwang Jung-min and Taiwanese actor Chen Zhen. I face palmed my way through much of the first episode as the protagonist glibly attempts to strike gold by importing skate (fish) from Suriname to South Korea after an incident in one of his small businesses sees him seeking greener pastures overseas. Although Kang In-goo (Ha Jung-woo) is depicted as being self-made, resourceful man, he is in over his head in crime ridden Suriname as he finds himself treading on other people’s territory and falling prey to a local drug lord’s shenanigans. As a result he lands up in the slammer and his business partner ends up dead. I suppose it’s meant to be something of a gag that a man would try to conduct a respectable business in a place where he knows almost next to nothing about. In-goo isn’t a particularly sympathetic character except for the fact that he’s a hardworking dad who cares about his kids back in South Korea. Even while the second episode is an improvement on the first, it’s not a show I would recommend to the Little Women crowd. The violence is gratuitous and there’s some random sex scene thrown in quite possibly to make some kind of statement about the unseemly side of the degenerate drug-addled wealthy set.

Because of the drug running angle, I am immediately reminded of the C drama Daybreaker from earlier this year especially when the desperate In-goo goes undercover back into the lion’s den after being recruited by the NIS’ Choi Chang-ho (Park Hae-soo) to take down a particularly slippery Korean drug lord who runs his finely tuned operation like a religious cult. Pastor Yohan brainwashes his followers with the hard stuff and they become willing minions in his own private army and production operation. Desperate to make the best out of a bad situation, In-goo does a deal with the NIS for cash that his family can live on while he’s otherwise occupied. As he begins his task of infiltrating Yohan’s drug operation, he encounters Yoo Yeong-seok’s David Kim in a scenario that threatens the start of a turf war between Yohan and the Chinese gang.

So yes, this is yet another tale about hubris and greed. That’s evident even as In-goo begins his story. Even if it’s a fable under veneer the Tarantino style nihilism, the R and X rated stuff will put limits on who will want to sit through this from start to finish.

It’s not hard to see where all this will lead. A blood bath will ensue and the body count will keep rising until the main players come face to face with some retribution of sorts — death or prison. Whether In-goo gets out of all this alive to be reunited with his family back home in South Korea remains to be seen.