[REVIEW] KBS drama "Man From the Equator" - 5th Episode

A capture image from KBS' "Man From the Equator" [KBS]

The last thing Sun-woo (Uhm Tae-woong) saw before he lost his sight was a crystal-clear blue sky. When opening his eyes years after the accident, Sun-woo probably felt the darkness surrounding him was darker than it actually was. That blue sky was the scene he saw after being betrayed by his best friend Jang-il (Lee Jun-hyuk). He was being dragged down the street, bleeding. While Jang-il was on his way back after watching Sun-woo having a stroke, he was seized by an unexplainable feeling. Meanwhile, Yong-bae (Lee Won-jong) felt relieved after making sure that Sun-woo lost his memory, but tears ran down his face when going back home. There was a layer of a deep blue sky above both characters, like the one Sun-woo saw the other day. The contrast shown through tragic accidents happening in such a beautiful scenery explicitly conveyed the main characters’ emotions; like the strong feeling of the land at the equator, where it is as hot as a summer during the day and as cold as a winter at night.

The drama’s directing skills, which drastically compared the characters’ feelings through the dramatic scenes, is one of strong factors in the series that grabs the audience’s attention. For example, Jang-il’s feeling about hiding his father’s secrets gets revealed at the very crime scene -- the edge of a cliff. Also, the sky bridge shown the background when he is going back home after throwing Sun-woo into the sea, reveals that he’s on the verge of a break down. On the bridge, he stops and thinks for a while about what he has done, but without looking back, he walks away. The production crew’s powerful directing skills are well proven by the scene in which Sun-woo and Jang-il share a conversation in a living room. The tension flowing between Sun-woo, who throws question pretending that he had lost his memory, and Jang-il, who tries to avoid talking with him by changing the subject, gets more intense by inserting close-up scenes in between, and string instruments playing in the back ground. As the camera zooms in on their faces, the tension gets more dramatic than ever, as if the camera is zooming in their inner feelings. The confrontation of the two could have been a cliche story, but the drama crew has done a fabulous job in leading the tension to the peak by giving a twist and spice.

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