Hello Monster/I Remember You - KDrama

Everybody likes to think they’re crazy, even if it’s for a little moment. There’s just something freeing about the idea that we could go bat-shit crazy and do something unbelievable and plead insanity afterwards, even while we’re still grinning like we belong in the madhouse. In a recent Kdrama that I started watching, a lot of talk of psychopaths has been covered and I can’t help myself but do the research and my, is it interesting.

The Kdrama, Hello Monster/I Remember You, takes a look at the minds of psychopaths and tries to twist and turn a few serial killings into its storyline and I must say, though it was tough to keep up at first, now that I really took a moment to look into it, it’s fascinating how the drama plays out. The story follows the main protagonist, Lee Hyun, who is a gifted child so much so that he actually comes across as a bit of a concern to his father who coincidently deals with juvenile criminals, one of which is a psychopath.

Because of this Lee Hyun goes through a somewhat unconventional childhood and then, due to unforeseen circumstances he is confronted with the murder of his father and the disappearance of his younger brother. Traumatized by these events, his memory becomes fragmented and he is raised by a family friend and grows up to become a genius criminal profiler with a somewhat sketchy personality.

Years later, he is drawn to a crime scene that reminds him of his forgotten past and here he crosses paths with detective Cha Ji-An. But this isn’t our female lead’s first time meeting the oblivious Lee Hyun as she has been effectively stalking him since their childhood, for various reasons.

The two officially reunite over this first case which leads them to working together and a mystery is discovered as Lee Hyun tries to discover who it was that reached out to him through the crime scene, while Cha Ji-An investigates case after case and continually seeks out Lee Hyun’s help as she hopes to keep him in her line of sight for her own reasons.

The drama is entertaining to watch. I especially like the whole ‘stalking’ detective that was pretty hilarious for me. Another aspect is the criminal profiling that is done by Lee Hyun’s character. It’s a unique take on detective skills that I haven’t yet seen in Kdrama’s and it’s pretty intense and I like it, definitely works. As for the story, I’m very curious to see where it goes. Having only watched six episodes I can only hope it gets better as I anticipate who the bad guys really are and how they get revealed.

On that note, I really hope they go into depth about mental illness and other details about psychopaths and I don’t mean the made up stuff, I’m hoping they do their research and they use some real world cases and all that. I mean after all, mental illness isn’t something to joke about at the end of the day and if they can spread some awareness that would be great too, just saying.

*I suppose we can’t forget that there needs to be romance, right!?…*

[Just for kicks, here is an interesting article I found recently that covers psychopaths and what professions they're most likely to have.]