The Smile Has Left Your Eyes Prospective— Should You watch it?
This show is complex...and potentially beautiful. It reminds me of Cheese in the Trap with the leading man that has a mysterious, dark undercurrent, which you can’t quite put your finger on. And so far, it’s showing elements of a thriller mixed in with some heavy, convoluted romance.
tldr: a bit dark with pockets of light-heartedness, but the potential exists for some nuanced storytelling that will confuse and compete for your support of varying characters.
Basic Premise
4 episodes in, it’s still hard to really put your finger on a basic premise.
- A woman is found dead, with her boyfriend as the prime suspect
- But, one of the cops on the investigative team (Yoo Jin Gook) suspects that another guy is the culprit (Kim Moo Young) for various incredulous reasons
- In a separate, but slightly intertwined storyline, Kim Moo Young seems like a womanizer, involved with multiple women, including Yoo Jin Kang’s best friend…but then, his attention turns to Yoo Jin Kang
- The kicker to all this: Yoo Jin Kang & Yoo Jin Gook are “siblings”.
Yes, that could be described as the “basic premise”, but what draws me to this story is that I can’t quite say who the protagonist or antagonist is in this story. I can’t bring myself to root for any particular character, but instead, I am just rooting for the truth to be revealed.
It’s a complex story that nonetheless feels expertly, intricately, woven together that I can’t wait to be unraveled in due time.
What to Expect
I’m honestly not sure. The first 2/3 episodes, I thought that Kim Moo Young was going to be the enemy, the “criminal” to be caught…but now, though all signs still point to him being the “killer”, he’s become a character you have some sympathy for. Here are the story lines I’ll be keeping track of:
Yoo Jin Gook’s past
- We know that there was some “tragic event” early in Yoo Jin Gook’s career as a cop and that his “sibling”, Yoo Jin Kang, is probably someone he adopted a a result of that case.
- He holds a lot of guilt for this event, which is what made him raise Jin Kang and also seemingly causing him to not marry this woman he closely socializes with.
- There also looks to be a connection to Kim Moo Young with this event.
- His captain keeps preventing him from acting like a “good cop”. What’s going on? I’m sure that relationship will prevent some kind of “justice” from being served, though it may also be what prevents some other perceived injustice from happening.
Kim Moo Young + Yoo Jin Kang
- They constantly hint that the event that took their parents from them, their burns, and Jin Gook’s guilt are all related.
- Are they siblings? If so, will their relationship be incestuous? If not, what is their connection?
- What fruit is their shared trauma going to birth?
Baek Seung Ah’s relationships (+ Yoo Jin Kang)
- The basic premise of this storyline is typical romcom material: rich person likes normal person → drama ensues with other rich person who can’t stand not getting their way.
- It looks like it’ll also add in the contrived overlapping-triangle drama.
- The expression in the press photo says some of it: a ‘pure’, but naive, love that exerts influence in unintended ways.
- What intrigues me about this storyline isn’t what happens to her and the involved characters, but how their decisions will in turn affect the main storylines. It feels like a story device to use power (that comes from money) to further convolute the main storyline. In a sense, making the final payload harder fought for…creating a greater cost for the main characters to get to wherever they go.
Conclusion
I was originally drawn to this because of the two main characters that play siblings Yoo Jin Kang (Jung So Min) and Yoo Jin Gook (Park Sung Woong).
I’ve yet to not enjoy a character that Park Sung Woong has played in a multitude of shows, even if I didn’t like the show (latest: Life on Mars!). Jung So Min I really liked in Because It’s My First Life. The draw for me in that show and how I see her for this show is that she has a way of playing an unrealistic situation in a believable way.
The thematic elements of this story look to be about how people deal with trauma in different ways. How the actions of those around them affect that person. And lastly how power then has an overarching, unfounded, effect on everything.
I was reluctant to start this show because I usually only watch more comedic shows, but the actors drew me in, and then this story got me to jump in. I’m ready for the journey this show will take me!
OVERALL: 8.5/10
- STORY: 9.0/10
- DIRECTING: 9.0/10
- LEAD Actors: 9.0/10
- SUPPORTING Cast: 7.5/10
- CINEMATOGRAPHY: 8/10
- MUSIC: plays its part without incident
