Ghost

Title: Ghost / 유령 aka Phantom
Genre: Crime, Action, Investigation, Mystery
Cast: So Ji Sub as Det. Kim Woo Hyeon, Lee Yeon Hee as Det. Yoo Gang Mi, Uhm Ki Joon as Jo Hyun Min, Kwak Do Won as Det. Kwon Hyuk Joo
Directors: Kim Hyeong-sik, Park Shin-woo
Scriptwriter: Kim Eun-hee
Broadcast Network: SBS (Sony One Channel on Indovision ch 164)
Number of episodes: 20
Runtime per episode: 75 min
Language: Korean
Country: South Korea

A really nice story about hi-tech anti cyber crime squad, with twist of foul play of corruption inside of major corporation, media and even the police's and juctice organization themselves. I was hooked from the first scene of the series, when a hacker named Hades --yes, I thought people in cyber world always chooses extravagant names-- meddling police's investigation of online gambling, and there's a cyber duel between him and the leader of  the cyber invenstigation squad, Kim Woo Hyeon. I thought the episodes will devided into a series of crime/investigation like every other police stories while step by step closing to revealing this Hades persona, but I was wrong. The story line has another twist, involving Kim Woo Hyeon / Hades faith.

So, turn out that Kim Woo Hyeon is not that clean smart charimastic leader that he shows. In one of the case of a model/actress suicide/murder whose Hades became the main suspect, Hades found an evident that he was buried to the neck with covering a big corporation director's death. With some not-so-bizzare chance, Hades real personality was actually Pak Gi Yeong, Woo Hyeon best friend in Police Academy. Then with big boom boom bang bang explosive, 2 bodies discovered, one dead and one burned without recognition. Pak Gi Yeong who held Woo Hyeon police ID card mistakenly identified as Kim Woo Hyeon.

Fast forward a year after. "Kim Woo Hyeon" now fully recovered from the accident and back to police squad. Pak Gi Yeong took over Woo Hyeon life with the help of Yoo Gang Mi, who was Woo Hyeon most loyal, faithfull and 'he-saved-my-life-so-now-my-life-is-in-his-dispossal' subordinate, to reveal the one who responsible in all these haywires. Unfortunately, his position of Cyber Crime Squad Team Leader has been taken by Det. Kwon Hyuk Joo the Mad Cow of police squad, who did not really believe all these hocus-pocus cyber blah. He was a old school detective, who believes of old manner investigation process. He also believes that Pak Gi Yeong is responsible for the actress murder case and suspects Kim Woo Hyeon involved in Director Nam Sang Woo poisoned case, and had nosing around these two cases. So now WooHyeon/GiYeong should works triple responsibity, proving Hades innocence, investigating Nam Sang Woo murder while living Woo Hyeon normal life (uuhmm... did I mention that Woo Hyeon has a toodler son?).

But these cases gone cold after a while and both Det Kwon nor Det Kim don't have much to carry on. Until one case involving Korean Stock Market DDoS attacked case, the director, Jo Hyun Min, meet with Woo Hyeon and asked whether he knows him, which he didn't, of course. Director Jo tell him to have another meeting, when his memories got back. Few cases later, when Kwon Hyuk Jo officially re-opening Director Nam Sang Woo murder case,  a fact unfold that he was doing bussiness with Se Gang Company, where Director Jo was a black sheep nephew in his uncle's eyes, who was the owner and the Chief of Directors. But then all the evidence pointing to the son, not the nephew, who now next to throne.

One by one the curtains fall. All the secrets involving Park Gi Yeong resigned from the academy, Kim Woo Hyeon involvement in the Nam Sang Woo murder cases, Jo Hyun Min hatred to his uncle and cousin, the actress death,  it's all tangled one another into a giant decieve web.

Is it him or isn't it? That's the question both Kwon Hyuk Jo and Kim Woo Hyeon should answer. And while their individual search moved them closer to the truth and closer to each other, they still could not trust the other party. In rare occasion when they actually work together, they realized the benefits -Hyuk Jo unorthodox method and Gi Yeong/Woo Hyeon tech wiz-, and towards the end, they might need all the benefits and the support they could have.

****

Distance rumble:
OOOHHHHH, watching this series making me envious beyond words of korean drama compairing to Indonesian sinetrons. While the sinetron's theme still could not move forward from struggling for wealth and love, without any other morale of the story, Korean drama, eventhough the main themes were not so different from those, could sugar coated it with so many other things. This one here shown how very much advanced their ICT technology, which was my field of work and interest.