LEE JOON
GI’S
FLOWER OF
EVIL
THE NUMBER 1
TELEVISION
SERIES
ON
NETFLIX JAPAN
IN
2023
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Of all the South Korean television series of 2020, tvN's Flower of Evil has been the most praised and Lee Joon Gi’s performance has been the most lauded. Unsurprisingly, the drama has been adapted by the Philippines and India. The latest news is that the Flower of Evil, is the most watched show or the Number 1 drama on Netflix Japan in 2023.
https://flixpatrol.com/top10/netflix/japan/2023/
Flower of Evil compares 2 indivduals born of psychopathic or psychologically unhinged parents: Do Hyun Soo and Baek Hee Sung. Lee portrays Do Hyun Soo, the lead character who is psychologically unstable as well as the fake Baek Hee Sung. The real energy of Flower of Evil resides in its consummate portrait of its protangonist, Do Hyun Soo. The television show carries audiences deep behind Do Hyun Soo’s mask of sanity. Do Min Seok, Do Hyun Soo’s father, is a psychopathic serial killer while his mother is not. He tries to groom his young introverted, emotionally detached son to be a cold and merciless killer but does not succeed. Do Hyun Soo, diagnosed as having an anti-social personality disorder, never kills anyone, even when he has the opportunity.  The real Baek Hee Sung, played by Kim Ji Hoon, is a psychopath who has been groomed by Do Min Seok. Ironically, the psychopathic master is killed by his own psychopathic apprentice.
Upon the revelation that his dead father was a psychopath, Do Hyun Soo, a tortured soul, falls victim to heartless school bullies. Even Kim Moo Jin, his best friend played by Seo Hyun Woo, turns against him.
 Fearing that he might have inherited his father’s psychopathic traits, the naïve and gullible villagers of Yeonju, led by the evil and scheming village chief, heap abuse on the frightened teenage boy and regularly force him to undergo humiliating shamanistic rituals.  The frequent abuse takes a heavy toll on Do Hyun Soo. He begins to hallucinate, and imagines himself talking to his father in the aftermath of the systematic mental and physical torture. 
However, when Do
Hae Soo, his sister, confronts the evil, corrupt village head, she accidentally
kills him. Do Hyun Soo takes the blame and both flee the village. Kim Moo Jin would
later prove to be a good friend who helps Do Hyun Soo resolve his problems.
Do Min Seok has considerable success with Baek Hee Sung, whom he turns into a psychopath and serial killer.
Through a twist of fate, Baek Hee Sung falls into a coma and Do Hyun Soo assumes his identity. He is lucky to be able to live the dream existence of a normal life with the consent of his adoptive parents. Cha Ji Won, a passionate and determined young
lady, played by Moon Chae Won falls in love with him and doggedly pursues him.
Though he resists her advances, she is persistent enough to make him fall for
her. They eventually marry and have a daughter.
One scene that
sticks in the mind is the startling erotic bedroom scene of the married
couple.
The secretive Do
Hyun Soo wears a mask of sanity and does not reveal his true self to his
wife.
Being a homicide detective, Cha Ji Won is involved in the Yeonju Serial Murder cases. The team discovered that both Do Min Seok, the psychopathic father of Do Hyun Soo, and Baek Hee Sung have similar signatures, which fulfils them emotionally. They have a fetish for the thumbnails of their victims. Do Min Seok takes the right thumbnails while Baek Hee Sung takes the left ones. They also slash the ankles of their victims.
To prevent his
wife, Cha Ji Won, from learning about his dark secrets, Do Hyun Soo
pressures his adoptive mother to distance herself from his wife. After
receiving a harsh call from her mother-in-law, Cha Ji Won cries while
standing on the landing of a curved staircase in the police station.
A crackbrained taxi driver, Park Gyeong Chun, who is obssessed about searching for Jeong Mi Sook, his wife who had vanished into the thin air, suspects that Do Hyun Soo knows her wherabouts.
He stalks him and kidnaps him to force the truth out of him. Before succumbing to the chloroform used on him, Do Hyun Soo manages to throw an incriminating photograph of himself with Cha Ji Won into the fire in an oil drum.
Park Gyeong Chun threatens him with drowning in a big shrimping pool but Do Hyun Soo survives the murder attempt.
The experience shows the audience that desperate times call for
desperate measures. The enraged Do Hyun Soo bites the ear of the crazy man who was
going for the jugular.
  Upon realising her
husband has been kidnapped and is in the kidnapper’s car, Cha Ji Won gives
chase in her police car. Im Ho Joon, who is with her, tries to calm her
down.
When his wife begins to suspect him, Do Hyun Soo realizes the
importance of clearing his name instead of hiding behind a mask for the rest
of his life. In the course of his investigations to find out the truth, he suddenly
remembers the bartender at The Whisky Bar, who had been hand carving
an ice ball during one of his past visits there. Ice ball carving is a Japanese practice in whisky bars.      It is inevitable
that his determined detective wife would stumble upon his secrets. She
decides to investigate him and she even interviews his former Chinese restaurant
employer.  
Cha Ji Won begs Choi Jae Sub, her superior, to help her when he accidentally learns that Baek Hee Sung, her husband, is, in fact, Do Hyun Soo. She pleads with him to turn a blind eye to her situation and allow her to continue working with the police team.
 After more in-depth investigations, Cha Ji Won decides to arrest her husband. When she tries to handcuff him, Do Hyun Soo turns the tables on her.
Meanwhile, the
criminal, Yeom Sang Cheol, requests for Jeong Mi Sook’s
discharge from the mental hospital. Jeong Mi Sook had lost her
memory and had been sent to the hospital years ago by him.
He brought her to the former childhood home of Do Hyun Soo where he would hand her over in a transaction with Baek Hee Sung who has awakened from his coma.
The river metaphor is emphasized in the television series, Flower of
Evil. The river is the symbol of the great flow of life
itself. Small mountain streams, which are the sources of the
river, depict the beginnings of life.
In Episode 2
of Flower of Evil, Do Hyun Soo is at the
Cheonggyecheon Stream supposedly to meet Nam Soon Pil. The
Cheonggyecheon Stream reminds him of the beginnings of his unfortunate life,
which had been caused by Nam Soon Pil, Baek Hee Sung and Do
Min Seok, his father. When the river
meets with the ocean, it symbolises the end of life. A death is foreshadowed.
When Do
Hyun Soo fights with Baek Hee Sung in an
emotionally charged scene at the edge of the cliff in Episode 15, the life of
the latter ends. He is shot by the police.
 The hair-raising cliff scene, is stupendous and full of meaning. The drama shows us the meeting of the river and the sea. The river, a symbol of inevitability, swirls and surges and pushes forward to its final destination. The drama hammers
home the sense of closure for Do Hyun Soo with the death of the
psychopath, Baek Hee Sung, who has been destined to impact his life. Flower of Evil poses the question: Is psychopathy inherited? The viewer is made to confront the issue of heredity. Do Hyun Soo's father, a psychopath, probably murdered his wife. Baek Hee Sung’s parents have psychopathic tendencies. They are willing to lie and murder for their psychopathic son. Baek’s father is his willing accomplice; he pays criminals to kill Do Hyun Soo. When Kim Moo Jin discovers that Baek’s father has been protecting him, the murderous man tries crazily to kill the journalist with a fatal injection. His mother is just as evil. After Baek Hee Sung kills the maid, she tries to frame Do Hyun Soo for the murder. The masterpiece, Flower of Evil, is written by Yoo Jung Hee and directed by Kim Cheol Kyu.
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tO-IDgofK70 |
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