 |
| Image of the drama’s promotional poster was taken from the drama’s official website (tvN) and reproduced under Fair Dealing for educational purposes. |
In the previous blog post, we discussed the character of a slightly corrupt law enforcement officer in The Fiery Priest who saw the error of her ways and became a hero, helping to take down the real villains. In this blog post, let us look at another similar character in the drama Bad and Crazy (배드 앤 크레이지, tvN, 2021-22). Ryu Su-yeol is a detective in the anti-corruption investigation division who takes bribes from powerful people to overlook their misdeeds. As he investigates two main cases, the deaths of police officers who were killed because they discovered that some of their fellow officers were into the drug business, and serial murders where the murderers were persuaded to kill by a criminal mastermind whose identity is unknown, Su-yeol eventually decides to turn over a new leaf and go all out for justice. Let us look at his character’s journey and its significance.
 |
| Lee Dong-wook plays anti-corruption investigation division detective Ryu Su-yeol, who struggles to do his job without compromising his principles. Photo from the drama’s official website (tvN), reproduced under Fair Dealing for educational purposes. |
Like the character of Park Kyung-sun from The Fiery Priest, Ryu Su-yeol came from a humble background but worked hard to become a law enforcement officer because he really did want to do good in the world. And, like her, he realized that he couldn’t get ahead because he had no money or connections. When he is passed over for a promotion despite his excellent job performance, his superior officer and mentor explains the situation: “I understand that you passed the exam with the highest score. But you come from nothing and didn’t even go to college.” Without powerful backers or high social status, Su-yeol has to figure out how to make it on his own. Being a skilled detective, which he is, actually puts him in a more difficult position than if he had been incompetent, because he ends up making trouble for powerful people by uncovering their misdeeds. And the powerful reward those who help them and block the career advancement–and even threaten the safety–of those who don’t. So, like Kyung-sun, Su-yeol decides to just go along, thinking that at least he’ll still be able to do some good as a detective, even if he sometimes has to compromise his principles.
 |
| Su-yeol toadies up to a politician (played by Lim Ki-hong) whose patronage can help his career. Photo from the drama’s official website (tvN), reproduced under Fair Dealing for educational purposes. |
While Kyung-sun justified her behaviour by saying that no one was being hurt by it, Su-yeol’s attitude is just to ignore all the wrongs that are being committed and focus on unrelated cases that he can solve without inconveniencing his patrons. Unfortunately for his emotional comfort, his fellow officers, including his ex-girlfriend and the youngest member of the team, refuse to let him remain in this complacent state about his own behaviour. The two of them are presented as straight-arrow police officers who stick to their principles even when they are punished heavily for doing so. Compared to them, Su-yeol seems to have taken the easy way out by going along with the corruption of the higher-ups. When confronted about his behaviour regarding their current case, Su-yeol admits that he planned to ignore the corruption that he discovered, even though discovering corruption on the force is exactly what he is supposed to do. “I was going to pretend that it wasn’t my job and turn a blind eye to it,” he says. After being forced to admit that his position is untenable, with the help of his fellow officers, he begins to change his attitude and behaviour. He wavers when his patrons start threatening his family: “The powerless must apologize and beg on their knees,” he says. This echoes the sense of futility we saw with Kyung-sun. But in the end, he realizes that he has allies, and together they set out to catch the bad guys once and for all.
 |
| Su-yeol’s ex-girlfriend, Lieutenant Lee Hui-gyeom (played by Han Ji-eun) criticizes him for turning a blind eye to corruption, and he admits pitifully that she is right. He realizes now that he can’t continue like this. He can no longer pretend that corruption isn’t happening, and he can no longer pretend that covering up the corruption doesn’t affect him deeply. Photo from the drama’s official website (tvN), reproduced under Fair Dealing for educational purposes. |
I said above that Su-yeol was complacent about his own corruption, but in fact, that is not really the case. Bad and Crazy has an aspect that I haven’t mentioned yet: it is a comedy, and the laughs mainly come from Su-yeol’s bickering relationship with a mysterious man named K who appears out of nowhere to punish bad guys when Su-yeol needs him, but who also challenges Su-yeol about his behaviour. K is a vigilante for justice who is completely unpredictable. The title refers to the duo: Su-yeol is the bad one, and K is the crazy one. But they are not two different people. Su-yeol is suffering from dissociative identity disorder, and K is his alter, his other personality state. He first appeared as a protector when Su-yeol suffered abuse as a child, and he began to reappear as a sort of manifestation of Su-yeol’s conscience after Su-yeol started taking bribes to cover up his patrons’ misdeeds. Because K appears when Su-yeol is in distress, this suggests that taking bribes to ignore corruption even though investigating corruption is his job causes Su-yeol distress. While he may have appeared complacent about his own corrupt behaviour, in truth, he struggles a great deal with his inability to act in a way that upholds his moral beliefs. It is only when he accepts that K is a part of himself, and that he can be his own conscience as well as his own hero, that he is actually able to defeat the bad guys.
 |
| Wi Ha-joon plays K, the crazy character from the drama’s title, who is actually Su-yeol’s other identity state. Photo from the drama’s official website (tvN), reproduced under Fair Dealing for educational purposes. |
Through Ryu Su-yeol’s struggles to be a successful detective who doesn’t betray his principles, the drama critiques the upside-down system where those responsible for rooting out corruption are actually the ones behind it and those who want to do the right thing are rendered powerless. At the same time, Ryu Su-yeol’s story shows that it is possible to stand up to money and power and be one of the good guys, even if you stumble along the way.
Comments
Post a Comment