I know I said I wasn't going to write for a while, but I figure I should at least finish this review before I forget all the things I have to say. I tried Kill Me Heal Me a while back, since it was a clear favourite from 2015, but I gave it up almost immediately since I couldn't sit through the first episode. I'm glad I came back to it, though, because Kill Me Heal Me - for the most part - has been a delight.
Cha Do-hyun, a man living in America, has a perfectly ordinary life until something sparks a change in him. Likely brought on by something lurking in the gap in his memories, one day Do-hyun's soul shatters and he develops alternate personalities so unpredictable and different from him that one would never believe they are all the same person. Do-hyun spends years living simply to clean up their messes - especially for Shin Se-gi, the strongest of the personalities and definitely the most dangerous. He had every intention of living tucked away forever, but when Se-gi brings him back to Korea, Do-hyun is forced to face the family at the root of all his problems. But he also meets energetic and slightly temperamental psychiatrist Oh Ri-jin. This encounter proves to him that even if he's slightly broken, he's still capable to falling in love. After finding her, he starts a journey towards healing himself.
Obviously, the most note-worthy part of Kill Me Heal Me was Ji Sung. Playing seven different people at once is no easy feat, so frankly the project could have tanked if they casted someone with less experience. I'm sad to say I've never been able to finish one of Ji Sung's dramas before - whilst he is a fantastic actor, nothing he's done has hit the right chord for me. Secret, where he starred alongside Hwang Jung-eum a year before this, was a standard of dark I couldn't stomach. Protect the Boss was a little juvenile, and I wasn't a fan of Choi Kang-hee. I could go on, but the only thing to take away from this is that Ji Sung was stunning in his role.
Although, saying that, Kill Me Heal Me really went overboard with the transitions between personalities. The wardrobe and hairstyle changes, as well as Ji Sung's great performance, made it easy enough to discern each personality from the next - so why add a fantasy spin by giving Se-gi a magical tattoo? That's not how it works. The directing really was a problem. It didn't matter most of the time, but Do-hyun's flashback scenes to his childhood were bizarre and repetitive.It looked like he was trapped in a wooden dollhouse, and if that was the vibe they were going for, I'm just confused.
Aside from that, there are so many things Kill Me Heal Me did well. The writing was superb, for the most part, because the personalities each generally received a sufficient amount of screen time before going on their way, and the writer was clever enough to weave the melodramatic and comedic elements of the plot together. I would have felt this story was completely wasted if the writer hadn't dug right to the heart of Cha Do-hyun's trauma and squeezed all the emotion out of his struggles that she could, The show wasn't lacking in heartfelt relationships, either, which was good for striking a balance with Do-hyun's messed up family. I'm glad that no-one cut corners, and that Do-hyun was able to meet loving people before the walls he's kept up over the years could come crashing down. I'm also super grateful the writer bothered to keep Do-hyun as the centre of attention. It would have been easy to stray from his story when their were all his alternate personalities to play with, but ultimately he was the main character and the one I was rooting for.
Honestly, the complicated family plot line wasn't necessary. I was so confused - not intrigued, just plain confused - until a few episodes to the end over this crazy conglomerate and their abundance of scandalous secrets. Sure, it kept the angst high, but in a story about healing all these villains weren't needed. I think developing Do-hyun's many personalities in depth and focusing on building him back together again could have spanned the length of a shorter drama by itself. Regardless, Kill Me Heal Me has done so much well and it was a pleasure to watch. I want to see more shows about healing romance in the future, with a side of hilarity.
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