Review: ReBirth (KBS)

Rebirth, Resurrection, Revenge... call it what you want. There were are a lot of different titles for this K-drama. But the literal translation would be Life Again... thus Rebirth making the closest title. After reading a review about it in the internet, I had this sudden urge to watch and see what all the fuss was about. And to my surprise, afte watching an episode, I got hooked. The story revolves around police officer Seo Haeun (Eom Tae Woong). Unknown to him, he has a dark past that was revealed to him eventually when he tackled a case that was linked to a crime commited 20 years ago. He found out that his real name is Yoo Kang Hyeuk and was actually a son of a former police officer who was handling the 20 year old case and that he has an identical twin brother, Yoo Shin Hyeuk. After finding out all these pieces of information, he tried to contact his twin brother and tell him that he was alive and their dad didn't die of a tragic car accident, but was murdered. After 20 years, Haeun and his twin brother met and formed an alliance to solve their father's death. But as all stories go, this happiness was short lived. The people behind the crime wanted Haeun dead. And by some weird twist of fate, Haeun's brother was killed instead of him; mistaking Shin Hyeuk for Haeun. Haeun did the unexpected and took on the role of his twin brother and let the criminals know that Haeun really did die. He later found out that his brother is a vice president of a big construction company and later used this power to hunt down the people who murdered his father and brother and make them pay for their crimes. The story is very complex but was well written. Though, while watching it, it gave me a sense that I've seen this kind of story before. Researching Rebirth in the internet, I found out that it was actually inspired by Alexander Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo. Cool.

Sadly, this k-drama didn't get higher ratings when it was aired in Korea. Because of the Kim Sam Soon phenomena, people watched My Lovely Kim Sam Soon rather than Rebirth. But when Kim Sam Soon ended, the ratings for Rebirth doubled. And according to my research, the drama's lead star, Eom Tae Woong, had a strong following and was later called the "Eom force". For those people who watches k-drama, you might recognize Eom Tae Woong as the ruthless movie producer in Sassy Girl Chun Hyang. To be perfectly honest, I had doubts about Eom Tae Woong because I really hated his guts in Sassy Girl Chun Hyang. But upon watching Rebirth, I totally respected his acting. It's tough to act two persons at a time. Rather, make that three. I'm referring to the dark figure that was the equivalent of the two personas merged together.

The soundtrack is also awesome. None of those candy pop music. The theme and music was really heavy and dark. Upon hearing the music, one can not help but get suck in to the drama as well. All in all, I suggest for those k-addicts out there (as well as those who aren't) to look for this k-drama and watch it. It's so engrossing.

Bounce!