SBS, 2020, 16 episodes
Genres: drama, sci-fi, thriller
Written by Kang Cheol-gyoo, Kim Ga-yeong, Kim Gyoo-won
Directed by Baek Soo-chan
More information: Wikipédia / HanCinema
Alice:
A Symphony of Time, Fate,
and Quantum Paradoxes
Alice is a very successful piece among science fiction series, dealing with the popular theme of time travel. Its structure is a magnificent construction, complex enough to keep viewers in a state of constant alert amidst thriller-like excitement, providing ample food for thought in finding explanations.
According to the story, by the year 2050, research has led to success and time travel has become possible. The intention of the researchers was to enable meetings with loved ones from the past, as well as the rectification of mistakes committed. An enterprise named Alice was established for this purpose, with its headquarters settled in the year 2020. The company organizes time travels for its clients arriving from the future, among whom it seems that more and more are transgressing the established rules created to preserve the order of the world.
The protagonist of the series is Detective Park Jin-gyeom (Joo Won), who, along with his colleagues, faces numerous inexplicable cases. Following their trail, the thought arises in him that they are facing time travelers, which seems an impossibility. The investigation leads him to a female physics researcher, Yoon Tae-i (Kim Hee-sun), and upon meeting her, the detective notices with shock that the woman is the exact double of his mother, who was murdered ten years prior under mysterious circumstances. Jin-gyeom became a police officer specifically to find his mother's killer, whom he has been investigating ever since.
The threads lead to a research institute named Kuiper, and they increasingly run into the employees of Alice as well. The investigation taking place in 2020 is soon colored by time travels in which Tae-i and Jin-gyeom are participants. These journeys enrich the backstories of the two protagonists with new information and realizations, as well as point to the questions to be answered in the contemporary investigation. We see the characters appearing in the story in multiple forms—who are their own versions from different times or different dimensions—and accordingly, their characteristics and intentions change. Finally, an unknown grouping emerges whose members follow a mysterious Master.
The unfolding of the series' story is built on a mystical element. Simultaneously with the beginning of the time travels, according to rumors, a writing was also born: the Book of Prophecies, which predicts the end of the time travels and contains the method for their final shutdown. Some fighting for the continuation of the travels, others for their termination, but every organization struggles resolutely to acquire the book, which they eventually find, and thereafter it changes hands several times. The problem is represented by the last page torn from the book and gone missing, which contains the final prophecy. While they search for its whereabouts, as the story progresses, we get to know certain details of the book, and we see the events corresponding to them in the plot.
Jin-gyeom's travels lead back to the day of his mother's death every time. We always see the same thing in different versions, supplemented by a few newer elements, but the end result is always the same: his mother is killed. The realization of the prophecy of the final page and a parable based on a paradox brings the change that influences the actions of both the mother and Jin-gyeom.
Alice thus satisfies the expectations of fans of both sci-fi and mysticism. Through the lectures of Professor Yoon Tae-i, we always get a few sentences of insight into the mysteries of quantum physics, and we play with such well-known elements as the parable popularized under the name "Schrödinger's cat."
Despite the complicated web, the series as a whole is quite coherent, yet—as is not rare in the case of such stories—it leaves certain questions unanswered. Such is, for example, the relationship between the parallel realities and the final solution answering the paradox of the closing parable. It is difficult to interpret why the original day is preserved—even if in a modified form—with the characters of the time traveler, and how memories can remain or be recalled whose owners never existed. Of course, we receive sentimental references regarding the omnipotence of love, but this still does not fit into the strict logical order of the story.
Perhaps the explanation for the strangeness is to be sought in the fact that the creators of the series wanted to satisfy the desires of viewers longing for romance as well, and let us admit they did so masterfully. For despite emphasizing logical explanations several times, they nevertheless keep another possibility hovering throughout: whether the detective sees different age versions of his mother at all times, or whether the younger and older woman are two independent beings of different dimensions with separate life stories and personalities? In reality, it is our movie-watching routine that sees romantic attraction into their relationship as well, which immediately triggers our resentment against the unnatural mother-son relationship—moreover, the conclusion leaves this question open as well. Yet if we watch the shared scenes carefully, in none of them does anything happen other than what could occur between a mother and her child at any time. For the making of a subsequent series, all this can be interpreted as a cliffhanger; thus, it is not surprising that the news of a sequel has already arrived.
The visual world of the film must be highlighted, in which the futuristic locations, events, and devices can be seen in eye-pleasing design and execution—the Alice building, the road leading to it, the drones and weapons, the functioning of the punitive handcuffs, or even the depiction of the freezing of time are magnificent. The reserved showing of the mysterious book is also effective. The interiors are realistic and lifelike, whether they be from the past, present, or future.
We do not lack action either; we can enjoy well-executed, surprisingly inventive car chases and stunt performances.
The characters of the two protagonists stand out high above the rest, as both actors received diverse acting opportunities through their richly written roles. In Kim Hee-sun's performance, we accurately perceive the personality differences between the contemporary and the time-traveler Yoon Tae-i. While the young girl is chatty and cheerful, a very determined, sharp-witted being, the woman in the maternal role is a delicate and deeply feeling, worried person full of love. One cannot pass by the mother's finely feminine, mature beauty without word.
We could already see in Good Doctor seven years earlier with what incredible authenticity Joo Won displayed the protagonist possessing autistic characteristics. Now too, he had to show something similar, because the detective in the film struggles with a problem called alexithymia, which makes it impossible for him not only to express his emotions but also to recognize them in himself or in others. Such people identify emotions from the accompanying bodily signs (gestures, facial expressions, and the like), and they are capable of working off this disadvantage through learning. Although series creators are fond of employing such character traits, in this case, it repeatedly enriches the acting potential of bringing Jin-gyeom to life. On one hand, the deadpan detective's effort to follow behavioral norms is a constant source of humor, to which we can thank such dialogue snippets as this interrogation detail between the schoolboy Jin-gyeom and a police officer:
- We go to the same theater club.- Theater? Do you want to be an actor?- No. My mother forces me to go; she says it's useful.- Useful? For what?- It hasn't helped yet, so I don't know.
We encounter a multitude of further great characters in the series, and the majority of the actor choices are also a bullseye. Beside a few weaker characters—for me such were Detective Ko (Kim Sang-ho), Tae-i's foster father (Choi Jung-woo) causing a disturbance at the police station in the only perfectly incredible scene of the drama, or the time-traveler psychopathic fratricide (Lee Jung-hyun-I9)—we see great ones as well, like Choi Won-young as the leader of Kuiper or Yoo Joo-man as the perpetrator of the serial killings. The members of Alice are all bullseyes, who differ from the contemporary figures perhaps thanks to their special, yet not dominantly perceptible makeup. Although in the role of Yoo Min-hyuk, Kwak Si-yang is present in the story almost throughout, his role could have been made much more emphatic, because thus his developing relationship with the detective remained somewhat pale despite the interesting and well-shaped character.
Alice is an eventful, tight series rich in surprising turns, definitely worth watching. Especially because beyond the cinematic excitement, it also raises numerous moral questions related to intervention in our fate, or to the consequences of great human inventions and the greed and lack of scruples influencing their utilization.
No comments:
Post a Comment