‘Prison Playbook’…With a superlative screenplay and formidable storytelling, it’s another home run from the ‘Reply’ team.
There are some tropes that we have come to associate with dramas written by the Reply (or Answer Me) team. Like the dry humour, signaled with a goat’s bleat (in Prison Playbook, it’s a shrill whistle), and delivered with an air of nonchalance. The multitude of (well-developed) characters, in an array of varying ages. The childhood best friends turned lovers. The radio, its host, and its music uniting the numerous characters through an episodic theme and at times, across timelines as well. It has also lent incredible popularity to many of its actors, some like Sung Dong Il, Lee Il Hwa, Kim Sung Kyun, Ra Mi Ran, Kim Sun Young, Choi Moo Sung, who have now become drama staple.
But really, it all boils down to the storytelling. The meticulously rounded characters elevate the bareboned plot from serving only nostalgia. (More on that point soon.)
The entire Reply series is a rose-coloured perspective on youth, love, and friendships, set in the pre-technology dominant society of the now. So then, how do you lend that same perspective to a story set in prison? How do you make something that most dramas regard to be the culmination to be attained for the antagonist as the entirety of the show? With Prison Playbook, writer Jung Bo Hoon and director Shin Won Ho set themselves up for a challenge, and well, outstandingly pull it off.
The first and foremost challenge would have been the characters. As inmates, they would have had to commit some crime to land up in prison, but for us to able to empathize with them, the show adds a few who are falsely accused of their crime, like Captain Yoo (Jung Hae In) and Dr. Ko (Jung Min Sung). The lead too, Kim Je Hyeok (a terrific Park Hae Soo), a baseball player, is convicted of excessive self-defense. Some inmates admit to their wrongdoings and are on a path of repentance like Kim Min Chul (the ever-dependable Choi Moo Sung) and Yoo Han Yang (a surprisingly animated Lee Kyu Hyung), while some like Kang Chul Doo (an amusing Park Ho San) might not care for any change in their ways, but are generally harmless. With this mixed bag keeping us entertained, the drama is also able to shed light on the various problems in the (Korean) society like corruption in the corporate offices, physical abuse in the military, special treatment for the rich and powerful and so on.
Prison Playbook (and the Reply series) isn’t as much plot-driven as they are character-driven, and that’s why they are all about the striking moments. Otherwise, a show on the day to day existence in a prison can get very boring, very fast. So, you have the daily taunts exchanged between Chul Doo and Han Yang. Chul Doo trying to sneak in cigarettes in ramen packets. The sporting and singing competitions with cartons of noodles or bread to be won. An amusing operation to fill some hot water to cook noodles. A challenge to change the TV channel, and services like inmates.com, that can manage your Instagram account on your behalf, until you finish your sentence, or send flowers to your loved ones, and even connect you with pen pals across other correctional facilities. These are of course the funny bits, but in between them, we get some beautifully crafted bittersweet moments. One very significant scene occurs in a flashback as Je Hyeok recalls his tryouts for the Nexen’s trainee team (from where he would have the chance to make it into the final team) to Kim Ming Sung (Shin Jae Ha). When he makes it to the team, he is extremely happy but soon he overhears another player complain to the coach, asking him why Je Hyeok got selected when he played far better. The coach states that they were in need of a left-handed pitcher and Je Hyeok happened to be the only one in the tryouts, so he got selected. Je Hyeok’s whole world comes crashing down at that very moment. This hits harder for us too, as through multiple other flashbacks we have witnessed how hard Je Hyeok has trained and the obstacles he overcame to reach this spot. As a young player, even after a late night of drinking, he is up early to exercise, and after the accident, he goes through years of intensive physical therapy to fix his shoulder, so he can play again. So, to know that your success was based on the ratio of right-handed to left-handed pitchers in the tryouts is truly devastating. The placement of that flashback hence becomes crucial, because if we watched it in an earlier episode, it just wouldn’t have had the same effect.
To deliver these moments, that are built on various interactions and interjecting flashbacks, there must be stringent editing at play, which I finally appreciated Director Shin Won Ho for, while viewing this show. Take episode four for example. The entirety of the episode is essentially a flashback, which starts with Lee Joon Ho (Jung Kyoung Ho) doing an assortment of activities, the reason for which is explained towards the end of the episode, and the whole scene ties up with the other proceedings in the episode. Within the episodes also, you have multiple flashbacks but they rarely tire or confuse you. Another example is when we are introduced to Captain Yoo. We get a small clip of him kicking his juniors, with a strong emphasis on his actions and dialogues. When the real perpetrator finally comes to light, that very same dialogue and actions are placed over the real incident, indicative of how the truth was manipulated to frame Captain Yoo. These are very minute details, which you may or may not notice, but they add a fresh perspective to an otherwise repetitive set of happenings and a deep sense of admiration for the makers.
I thoroughly enjoyed Park Hae Soo’s Kim Je Hyeok. Though simple-minded, he is not an idiot. He doesn’t know much of the world outside baseball but he often surprises us with his smartness when confronting criminals like Seagull (Lee Ho Chul) and Chief Yeom (an effectively creepy Joo Seok Tae). Park Hae Soo sells his poker face and his understated mannerisms, without overdoing it and his weak exclaims of oops or yes! are delightful to watch. On the other hand, Je Hyeok’s constant support, Joon Ho, was whom I felt was the weakest link in the whole drama. I didn’t buy it one bit, that after years of not being in contact with Je Hyeok, he is suddenly pulling off the stops for helping him back on the mound. This is where the show occasionally slips, as all of Joon Ho’s purpose seems to be to only help Je Hyeok. In his initial stay at the detention center, it helped that Je Hyeok had a familiar, trusting face around, but when in the correctional facility, with so many other inmates and guards helping him or ready to help him, Joon Ho’s singular purpose become tiresome to watch. His love story too with Kim Jae Hee (Im Hwa Young) felt forced, but his backstory was quite interesting. During my viewing, I couldn’t see the point of it, as all his backstory seemed to suggest that he was a genius who could get any job he wanted. But upon some introspection, I understood the point of it, as it showed the two friends' differing outlooks after the accident. Je Hyeok continues pursuing baseball with no deterring in his aim, while Joon Ho even with a chance of a faster recovery, decides to quit. He then studies business, develops an app, becomes a prison guard, and during this job too, he is already studying to take up a job as a teacher. While Joon Ho is definitely the smarter of the two, he is unable to stick to one solid aim to pursue, and that is why he hasn’t been able to achieve the level of success that Je Hyeok has.
Prison Playbook does feel a bit too much of sunshine and rainbows at times, with the selfless inmates and prison guards helping them out at each step or maybe it’s my pragmatic view of the world, that isn’t able to disgust all of this sweetness beyond a certain limit but you can’t deny that this show is another feather in Director Shin Won Ho’s cap.
The show greatly emphasizes teamwork, stressing the amount of assistance Je Hyeok gets while preparing for his comeback to baseball, and that applies to the show as well. With any one part missing from these — brilliant actors, a good story and fabulous direction, this drama would not have been half as good as the final product. Teamwork indeed does make the dream work.
