Bok-soo is Back: A Feast for the Eyes

Everything Yoo Seung-ho touches nowadays turns to gold. Hey, everyone, it's been a while - now I'm going to gush over a potential new favourite of mine: Bok-soo's Back, or My Strange Hero.

I've always been one to stress the importance of good writing more than good directing. After all, the narrative is everything in a work of fiction - if you didn't enjoy the story, you wouldn't persist with it. Therefore, since I started watching dramas, I considered the direction as something supplementary. Most dramas aren't visually striking, and that's okay. There are other elements to make it worth watching.

  Bok-soo is Back, a 'revenge romance', is probably the last place one would expect to find the best direction. The best shot composition is often saved for melodramas, thrillers, and psychological feats like Mother, Signal or My Ajusshi. Not to mention, it doesn't have an enormous budget, so it isn't visually stimulating in the same way as, for example, Goblin or You From the Stars were.
  And yet, I can't tear my eyes away when I watch it because, somehow, the visual presentation adds more substance to the drama than there would have been otherwise. Bok-soo is Back already had everything going for it - the writing is solid, and the cast is filled with phenomenally-talented actors who elevate the emotions of everything. But the fantastic directing and editing are the reasons that it stole my heart.

There isn't anything particularly special about this drama's promotion material - the posters are pretty, but somewhat uninteresting, and the teasers didn't give a lot away about how funny it actually is. I was actually a little turn off my the glossy shots of the characters' past, glazed purple and dreamy-looking. It seemed unnecessarily beautiful, if that's even possible. I felt the same way about last year's Fox Bride Star and I didn't like it. Because the look of the show should reflect the mood of the show, don't you think?
  Bok-soo is Back has that down pat. When the drama focuses on Kang Bok-soo's perfect first love, the screen is extra beautiful to compensate. I suppose it also represents his sunny disposition, and tendency to be clumsy, sincere, naive. When the mood changes to one that's tension-filled and angst, the shots become dark and suffocating. A lot of productions are very consistent with the colouring they use, which is absolutely fine, but when you have tonal shifts as dramatic as the ones in Bok-soo is Back, I'm happy to find this team adapts to suit that. And this is only the beginning.
  The editing is genius, employed perfectly to contribute to sharp comedic timing. In particular, I love the scene in which Yoo Seung-ho acts as a shuttle and races across the school - I probably can't describe how funny it is in words, so go watch it! Episode 6!

  I love it when the camera gets way too close to the actor's faces to show how uncomfortable the scene is supposed to be. That little trick, a friend of mine pointed out, is actually used commonly an older Japanese comedy drama, including my favourite comedy of all time, Hanazakari no Kimitachi e.
  I could now pick every episode ending to dissect, but why not do them all? The editing is so clever, often making the most important reveals and montages almost sensory. Like I'm not just passively watching the drama, I'm experiencing it. That's why I love Bok-soo is Back.
  It's strange when I think about how directors need to make executive decisions about how each scene looks, and yet there are so many dramas out there where it's impossible to detect a personal touch. This director only has Greasy Melo on his resume besides this, and I don't remember anything outstanding about the way that looked, so what changed? Perhaps him gaining more experience led to more interesting choices, so I definitely can't wait to see this man's next work.