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[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Two Weeks" Episode 12

This episode starts off a little bit disorienting. After resolving the cliffhanger from last episode, there are a lot of sequences that aren't the story taking place in the present day, and it's a little difficult to keep track of who's doing what and what time in the chronological narrative of "Two Weeks". The emotional stuff is effective as usual, but it's nearly an unwelcome interruption given how much was promised in terms of actual, immediate storyline action.

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The best way to understand this drama's themes in the context of this episode is in terms of tenacity. No one ever gives up here, no matter how difficult or hopeless the situation seems to get. And it's funny to see the villains finally put in a difficult situation instead of just shrugging off the latest police interference as being a mild inconvenience.

The basic arrogant smugness of the villains is their best character trait. I really like that they never really say or do anything that could be construed as super-evil unless they're just talking to each other. The bad guys in this drama know that they're operating against the rules of society and that they'll be in big trouble if they ever get caught. So they deflect it by trying to provoke angry overreactions, since as everyone knows, the person who expresses emotion first in any social interchange is the one who has the wrong opinion.

And where does this all leave Tae-san? Well, I'm not really sure honestly. The drama is doing that thing again where it's questionable whether Tae-san is making the best possible choice, but this time his actions come off as rather over-aggressive. A lot of ground is retread here in terms of "Tae-san evades surveillance", but it feels strange to see him still going on the offensive when at this point he only really needs to last four more days. Of course, it's not like the villains are going to stop trying to kill him- still, I get the feeling this is more to let the drama solve all its conflict in its full runtime than it is an actual reasonable interpretation of Tae-san's character.

Really, the most decisive progress made this episode isn't even because of Tae-san, but of incidental information that the detectives simply hadn't investigated before. So, on the whole, this episode is a little mixed. All the important elements of "Two Weeks" are intact, and some are done very well, the final product is just slightly muddled. Particularly given the confused timestamps of the scenes, which persist right up until the cliffhanger.

Review by William Schwartz

"Two Weeks" is directed by Son Hyeong-seok, written by So Hyeon-kyeong and features Lee Joon-gi, Kim So-yeon, Ryu Soo-young and Park Ha-sun.

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