Mawang and Maou First Impressions

This is a story I knew I was going to watch when I saw the poster – half detective, half meticulously plotted vengeance. It looks good and Japan TV adapted it so quickly, so I went in for the kill. Mystery is minimal; the plot synopsis is a complete spoiler. A lawyer turned murderer, out for revenge against a detective. The question is not who or why but how – how he does it and how it will end.

The basic premise of the story is very simple. Jung Tae Song (Manaka Tomo) had a brother who was killed in high school. He was defending a schoolmate against a gang of bullies led by Kang Oh Soo (Serizawa Naoto). He was stabbed in the ensuing scuffle and left for dead when the culprits ran away. Oh Soo got off scot-free because he had a powerful father and a family lawyer who turned the case into self-defense, i.e. Oh Soo (Serizawa) who held the knife was said to have done so in self-defense. Tae Song, angered by their lies and the splintering of his family, vowed to make Kang face his past transgressions. He discarded his name and past and became Oh Seung Ha (Naruse Ryo), the angelic lawyer who takes defense cases out of the kindness of his heart – or is it the Devil himself?

“First impressions” because I haven’t finished watching either of ‘em, so my verdict is based on incomplete evidence. I’m watching them concurrently, its impossible to get done in a night. *There are some people who are sensitive about comparing. Why not?! It’s not a “drama in its own right”. It’s a remake, dude. If the remake is better, I’ll say so.

Joo Ji Hoon or Ohno Satoshi?
I’ll go with Joo Ji Hoon. Girl tells boy – “you ought to be someone loved by everybody”. I never got the logic, until I saw Joo Ji Hoon. Never underestimate the power of GQ good looks. JJH has a face that lends itself to inscrutability. Ohno had to school his face into deliberate stillness – like a Noh mask. It was so eerie that he really looked more like a serial killer than a lawyer. The strange thing – I don’t like princess hours, but dig the subsequent dramas of YEH (Coffee Prince) and JJH (Devil) respectively.

Uhm Tae Woong or Ikuta Toma?
Surprisingly, Uhm Tae Wong. Ikuta Toma is a personal favorite and I like his performance on the whole. But his Serizawa is really quite different from Uhm’s Oh Soo. Its difficult to convey in words. I get the drift that Detective is a hotheaded officer who’s a bit thick in the skull. He gives all to fighting crime but conveniently forgets his past. A strange mix of human decency and hypocrisy.

Uhm Tae Woong comes across more strongly as this character. His Kang is a poor buffoon slow to realize that he’s attracted to a girl, endearing in a rough bumbling way compared to JJH’s polished calm. He’s totally clueless so you want to jolt his memory but you feel sorry for him when the world comes crashing down. A nuanced and sensitive performance.

(edited) Ikuta, although I was impressed by his acting, didn’t seem right for the character after watching Uhm Tae Woong. Perhaps he’s disadvantaged in terms of appearence, since he just doesn’t look like a boor. Also I get the impression that he’s constantly haunted by his past, not that he has conveniently stuffed it into the back of his mind. Its as if he’s working his ass off just to repay that debt. Hence, I was never quite convinced that he could have forgotten it so completely as to fail to make that critical link between his past and the tarot card.

Shin Min Ah or Koyabashi Ryoko?
Shin Min Ah. For her looks and screen presence. Seo Hae In also had more personality and assertiveness than Sakita. One thing I liked was that her ambiguous chemistry with both male leads carried across to the Japanese remake. You could either root for her to be with the lawyer or the hapless detective, depending on your sympathies.

Plot and Pacing?
Japanese remake is a condensation of the original. Having watched the beginning, I can safely say that the episode 1 of Maou contains elements of up to episodes 2 to 3 of Mawang. There is good and bad of course. Maou run much faster and keep you glued. Mawang is a more tedious to watch.
Mawang allows you to uncover the bits and pieces leisurely (in the bits and pieces as they come). Maou crams a lot into one episode and sort of gob-smack it into your face. As a result, it loses a lot of subtlety.

Length?
Maou 11, Mawang 20. Mawang might win if it capped at 16 and tighten the storyline a bit more.

Cinematography?
Mawang, by a long shot. Carefully composed symmetric and asymmetric shots. I tend to think that they chose library for Hae In’s occupation simply because she’ll look good strolling up and down the aisle between rows of book shelves.

Music?
Mawang. I thought Maou was dramatic and did the atmosphere really well. Then I watched Mawang and the ost grew on me. They also performed this tricky thing of keeping time to the background music.

Miscellaneous?
Joo Ji Hoon is so TALL. He’s like one head taller than Uhm Tae Wong who is what? 181cm? For record, he’s 187cm. Holy cow.

Joo Ji Hoon looks like a giraffe (long neck), dressed like a frat boy. Which lawyer wears a knit vest underneath a suit jacket as if he’s modeling for high fashion?! Hasn’t gotten over his ‘princely days’ in Goong?

I’m not sure whether I got this one right, but in Maou, it seems the younger brother died whereas in Mawang the older one did (and made more sense).

The young actors in Maou appeared younger than the ones in Mawang did (looked better).

Mawang reminds me of Oldboy which I saw recently. They all had antagonists (antihero in Mawang’s case) who took vengeance for justice and executed horrifying things to balance out their own losses.