FLOWER OF
EVIL
PLOT
HOLES
DEBUNKED
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Lee Joon Gi and Moon Chae Won,
the leading stars of Flower of Evil, scriptwriter Yoo Joon Hee and
director Kim Cheol Kyu, and the drama itself have made an indelible
impression on global viewers, critics, drama and media organizations. The two
leading actors have remained on top of their game and their performance in
the suspense-melodrama masterpiece stands among their absolute greatest and
bears their unmistakable stamp. However, we do not know whether it is fortunate or unfortunate that SCMP, a
prestigious Asian newspaper, ran an article written before Flower of
Evil’s finale and discussed what it perceived to be - five of the biggest
plot holes of Flower of Evil. Flower of Evil has not only received
many global accolades but also won many awards and nominations. The
achievements include Best Director award (Kim Cheol Kyu), Best
Artist Award (Lee Joon Gi), Asian Celebrity (Lee Joon Gi) and 2020
ICON (Drama) (Lee Joon Gi). It has garnered nominations for Best Drama,
Best Screenplay (Yoo Joon Hee), Best Actor (Lee Joon Gi), Best
Supporting Actor (Kim Ji Hoon), Popularity Award (Actor) (Lee Joon
Gi) & Popularity Award (Actress) (Moon Chae Won). The SCMP claims of plot holes in Flower of Evil have riled up some people who love the masterpiece. But, some may wonder if SCMP has set the viewers some awesome homework. The article, whatever the writer's intentions, can be seen as a challenge; it is a test of the audience's knowledge and critical thinking skills. PLOT HOLE 1 Why did Soon-kil give Hyun-su the
tip-off when the voice was clearly different? Nam Soon-kil, Chinese restaurant
owner and former colleague of Do Hyun-su, called reporter Kim Moo-jin with a
tip-off about Hyun-su. When Hyun-su locked Moo-jin in his workshop basement,
he went to Soon-kil and Moo-jin’s meeting place to intercept the tip-off. Soon-kil immediately tips off
Hyun-su without hesitation, revealing that Hyun-su had been calling him every
morning and threatening him. But they lived and worked together
for three years, even to the point of nearly killing each other over money,
so why didn’t Soon-kil recognise Hyun-su’s voice? Hyun-su didn’t even use
technology to alter his voice.
  Park Kyung Choon, who impersonated Do Hyun Su, phoned and threatened Nam Soon Kil, the frightened restaurant owner-cum-chef, several times in the middle of the night. Having been suddenly awakened from his sleep, he must have been weary and confused. He couldn’t even tell whether the caller’s voice was that of Do Hyun Su’s. Many years had come and gone since they lost touch with each other. When the
excitable and rash Nam Soon Kil was contacted by Do Hyun Su in
the locality of the Cheonggyecheon Stream, he immediately believed that
the caller was Kim Moo Jin, the Hanjoongan reporter, since the phone Do
Hyun Su was using belonged to him. Soon Kil was steaming
and failed to exercise proper judgement. He immediately launched into a
tirade against Do Hyun Su and confided in the person at the end of the
phone about the death threats. Little did he know that he was talking to the very
man that he had tried to kill many years ago. Why
couldn’t Nam Soon Kil recognise Do Hyun Su’s voice? First, when
Nam Soon Kil phoned Kim Moo Jin to postpone their interview, their
interaction was very brief. He
was busy as he had many customers to tend to in his restaurant that day. He was
not very alert. Second,
when Nam Soon Kil was talking to Kim Moo Jin, he couldn’t hear Moo
Jin’s voice clearly because he was cooking with a wok over a blazing fire.
It was very noisy not only because of the roaring fire but also the clanging of kitchen utensils. He switched off the stove for only a short while before the conversation ended. That he couldn’t differentiate between the voice of Kim Moo Jin and the voice of his impersonator (Do Hyun Su) was unsurprising. Third, to
put it succinctly, VOICES CHANGE WITH AGE. Let’s
set the record straight. It was at the beginning of the 21st century when Nam Soon
Kil and Do Hyun Su parted ways. Do Hyun Su’s voice and tone
now and then were different. Do Hyun Su was now confident and calm,
and his voice was measured, restrained and unflustered unlike that of
yesteryears. He spoke slowly and deliberately.   PLOT HOLE 2 How could Jiwon not recognise her
own husband? In episode four, Hyun-su and
Moo-jin went to see Oh Bok-ja, an elderly woman living in their neighbourhood
and possessed a photo with Hyun-su in the background. Hyun-su met taxi driver
Park Kyung Choon at the house, but got away. He was about to run after him
when Jiwon arrived and caught him in the action of jumping over the fence.
Her immediate reaction was to call out to him as Hyun-su. Earlier in the
episode, she said she could recognise everything about her husband, even his
shadow. They have been together for 14 years, and yet she did not recognise
her own husband?
First, the incident happened at night. It was quite dark. The place, which was in the rural area, was badly-lit. The moon was not bright that night. Second, humans, unlike animals, have poor night vision. Cha Ji Won did not have Superman’s vision or his x-ray vision to see things or through things in the dark. Third, Hyun
Su was wearing a cap which shaded or cast shadows on his face. Fourth, Hyun
Su had the presence of mind not to turn back to look at his wife. His
back was always facing her. She had a hazy image of his body at a distance;
she saw only his back from the time she spotted him at the stony garden wall of the
old lady’s house to their tussle in the warehouse. Fifth, it
must also be pointed out that Cha Ji Won, although in shipshape
condition, was not as athletic as Do Hyun So whose legs were also longer
and stronger. The chase, which was quite gruelling, wreaked havoc on her mind.
One can understand why she could not see him clearly throughout the chase
since at one stage, they were running through a dark, wooded area. She was
way behind him and she must have been breathless. With the huffing and
puffing, how could she have the energy and mind to figure out who he was? Sixth, she was there, in the first place, to collect the photo of Do Hyun Su from the old lady. When she saw the fleeing figure, she treated him with great suspicion. She was certain that he was the real Do Hyun Su. The thought of running into Baek Hee Sung, her husband, in that rural area never crossed her mind. ‘Earlier in the episode, she said she could recognise everything
about her husband, even his shadow.’ It must
be driven home that it was meant as a joke, it was not literal. That
demonstrates the skill of the scriptwriter in showing us this ironic aspect
of their relationship. The
whole point of Flower of Evil is that the feisty Cha Ji Won,
though a powerful force in her own right, knew next to nothing about her husband. She,
being an intelligent, confident, tough and analytical detective, thought she
knew and understood every inch of him but it was ironic that she didn’t have the slightest idea about the
man who was sharing her bed, life and home. To her horror, it suddenly
dawned on her that for the last 14 years her husband had been wearing a ‘mask’ and had
lied to her. He was a fugitive from the law and an interloper. He was, in
fact, a total stranger. Her reality was just an illusion. PLOT HOLE 3 How did the taxi driver pass off
as Hyun-su in the first place? Taxi driver Park Kyung Choon’s
wife went missing after the Yeonju City serial killings. Through the years,
he searched for his wife and Hyun-su, whom he suspects of knowing her
whereabouts. Because the police closed the case early, he pretended to be Hyun-su
so that the police would reopen the investigation and look for his wife. When the police saw Kyung Choon
killing Soon-kil, they deduced that it was indeed Hyun-su. Although he wiretapped the police
station, it would still be impossible to exactly copy the original modus
operandi and how it was done. It was still not enough evidence
for the police to assume it to be Hyun-su.     Nam Soon Kil was in his
restaurant on the night that he was murdered. He had phoned Kim Moo Jin
and was in the process of leaving a voice message to him. Things
happened like a lightning strike. When Park Kyung Choon suddenly
appeared and rocketed towards Nam Soon Kil, the restauranteur panicked.
He wrongly believed that the intruder to be Do Hyun Su so, he was screaming
out his name in terror. Nam Soon Kil’s dying screams
were recorded on Kim Moo Jin’s phone so the police naturally assumed
that the hooded attacker (Park Kyung Choon) whose image was captured on
CCTV, was Do Hyun Su. Prior to wiretapping the police
station, Park Kyung Choon was probably already privy to certain
information collected on the serial killings by the Yeongju police
since his wife had also disappeared at that time. An
extremely devoted husband, Park Kyung Choon had also collected and
accumulated all the news reports and plastered them on the wall of the rented
place where the shrimping pool was located. He had a vested interest in all the
murder cases as the victims had also vanished into the thin air.
It is reasonable to assume that a mad and obsessed man like him had learned a
lot from his personal investigations in the last 18 years.
  PLOT HOLE 4 Why did the police not recognise
Hyun-su disguised as a doctor? After Hyun-su nearly drowned in
the swimming pool, he woke up in his “fake” father’s hospital. He was
notified by his “father” that Kyung Choon was still alive and must be “taken
care of”. Hyun Su agreed to killing Kyung Choon, and put on a doctor’s
uniform as a disguise. The only thing covering his face was a mask, but the
police officer who was on duty during his visit to Kyung Choon’s room didn’t
recognise him. Hyun-su didn’t alter his voice either, so why didn’t the
officer notice who it really was?
 How
could every Tom, Dick and Harry police officer know what Do Hyun Su
looked like? Even the top brass of the police organization were ignorant of
his existence. Do Hyun
Su disappeared from the radar screens more than 14 years ago after he assumed
Baek Hee Sung’s identity. The only photo that the police had of him
was the one when he was very young. The
police were trying to make a facial composite of Do Hyun Su with the
help of Kim Moo Jin and Do Hyun Su’s former Chinese restaurant employer.
Kim Moo Jin was not only unhelpful but also duplicitous; he gave false
details in order to disrupt the identification process. (The scene is
hilarious.) When Cha
Ji Won & Im Ho Joon, the rookie detective, drove all the way
to Homi village, Gakyeongri, to collect the only photo of the adult Do
Hyun Su from Oh Bok Ja, their mission was foiled by Park Kyung
Choon. The photo was subsequently burnt so, nobody knew what the adult Do
Hyun Su looked like. One has
no illusions about the question of recognising people in masks. Most people
who wear masks are not recognizable. When Do Hyun Su impersonated an intern,
he was wearing a mask, just like any cautious medical staff. Needless to say,
he was unrecognizable.
 PLOT HOLE
5 How did Jiwon hear Hyun-su and
Hae-su’s conversation from afar? Jiwon followed Hyun-su to his
meeting with his sister, Hae-su, via the tracking device she installed in her
husband’s watch. She was quite a distance from the siblings when they were
having a conversation. How did she manage to overhear them – and so clearly?     Remember,
the filming site for the reunion of the Do siblings is the Alps
Ski Resort, a cluster of ruined and abandoned buildings in
Goseong, located near the Korean Demilitarised Zone (DMZ). It is a place
far from the hustle and bustle of the city. The
siblings met at the empty swimming pool which is enclosed in a huge building.
When Do Hae Su, his emotional sister hugged him, Do Hyun Su looked like a
cold fish. Perhaps, the damaged man, an impassive and emotionless
fortress, could be compared to the isolated, ruined but huge sports complex. There
were no sounds save for the external sounds of the natural world which were
not audible in the enclosed space. It was
late evening when Cha Ji Won secretly spied on the siblings in the
building. Do Hyun Su and Do Hae Soo’s voices may be drowned out
by crowds in busy urban areas in the day time but in such a quiet location, their
voices would be loud, particularly at dusk or in the still of the night. The
place was still and quiet. Remember,
Do Hyun Su and Do Hae Soo were not talking in whispers. There was
no fear of being heard by other people in such an isolated place. Naturally,
the conversation, which was conducted in their normal voices, was audible. From where Cha Ji Won was standing and eavesdropping, at the open doorway, which was not far from the siblings, she could definitely discern the content of their conversation which wafted across that still and quiet building.
 Website owners who have translated the article into other languages (Chinese, Indonesia, et cetera) or ‘copied and pasted’ the article on their websites, and readers should not accept everything at face value. Here's the link to the article: *Why isn’t CULTURA’s accolade, Lee Joon Gi ICON 2020 (DRAMA)
for Flower of Evil recorded in Wikipedia? |
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