Rating: 3/5
Hellbound is one of those cool and mysterious K-dramas, whose refusal to render up its real meaning in the conventional sense, has given me an eerie brain-tease in the past, and now the release of its second season is equally opaque and enigmatic. The show about demons descending on Earth to drag people to hell, is mind-bending and more satirical than you can imagine. It is dark, so dark, that it leaves behind an array of puzzling pieces and with each twist the audience wonder how they should be fitted together.
It is a show with an excellent narrative style, popping with a constellation of themes, moods, ideas, in which viewers relate more to the concept than the characters. Hellbound centers around the graphically violent demons who hunt down ‘sinners’ after they are informed the date and time of their death by a celestial being. The giant horrific creatures incinerate their victims prompting an outbreak of public hysteria and religious zealotry. But there’s more to it than meets the eyes.
In the debut season, Jung Jinsu (Kim Sung-cheol, formerly played by Yoo Ah-in) built up an elaborate scheme to make everyone believe only sinners were bound for hell. When in reality, he knew the victims were picked at random, including himself who was given the celestial decree 20 years ahead of his death.
In the time leading up to his final moments, Jung Jinsu terrorised people with the fear of sin and eternal damnation. But his twisted quest to save mankind rid humanity of free will, giving rise to a crazy world, thereby setting the proper foundation for season two.
The New Truth, loyal followers of Jung Jinsu, found themselves accused of exploiting God’s divine intervention for their own gain, after a hell decree was sent to an innocent newborn. This prompted the rise of the notorious group Arrowhead, who branded themselves as God’s only apostle, rioting and scouring the streets in clown make-up.
Meanwhile, the government is pushing all its resources, be it human or finance, in manipulating the two groups as opposing forces for reclaiming its authority. Sadly, no one is interested in finding the truth, they all believe only a ‘solid lie’ can be the foundation they need for a stable world and everything that’s perceived as ordinary is evil here.
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Amid this, the only one defending justice is the Sodo lawyer Min Hye-jin (Kim Hyun-joo), a strong female character to come out of a K-drama in a long time, who excels in action, high-speed car chases, and hand-to-hand combats, better than her male counterparts in true sense.
Sending the already crazy world into more frenzy is the resurrection of sinners Jung Jinsu and Park Jungja (Kim Shin-rok), who we learn underwent different purgatory in hell. Jungja describes her experience as a “never-ending despair that goes on forever.” But for Jinsu, he continued to live his hell even in resurrection, which meets a mind-boggling end in the climax.
Hellbound unleashes a fun trick that allows for an escalation of neat mind-twisting reveals, playing with our perception of reality along with the characters. It’s a finely created dark thriller, from the score to the direction to the casting to the overall vibe, that makes you curious to question what’s morally right and wrong. It is a deliberately dense but ultimately hopeful examination of the concept of hell and its perception with human intelligence.
The K-drama challenges us with intricacy and complexity about God, social system, humanity, and hell; all working together to create a monster of wrongness. Hellbound is a show that does not render up its meanings easily in general, and its repeated motif is to replay the same events from a different viewpoint; in another type of K-drama this might deliver the smooth and gratifying narrative click of a twist-reveal falling into place, but here it has a way of raising more questions than answers.
Final thoughts:
Hellbound isn’t about what it initially appears to be; the narrative peels away the diversionary misapprehensions until it arrives at its emotional kernel of truth, and the show offers us both hope and despair. Violence is a recurring idea here and no one is spared, be it newborn children, teens or adults.
It is trying to feed into our collective desire to give us a real glimpse of hell in brilliant cinema, rather than whatever washed-out pieces of content Netflix dumps on our smartphones. It makes everyone concede to the story’s artistry, its conviction, even its brilliance.
Hellbound is a challenge; it is complex and demanding. This is not some casual streaming-TV-type content to be consumed. Some will find it rewarding and some won’t. But as an event or a spur of thought, its eerie brain-tease idea will be welcomed, serving a mind-boggling story of torment.
The second season, created with great moral intelligence and humanity, retains all its power to disturb but also encourages viewers to stop creating hell for themselves and rather live and find a world one desires, while they can.
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