The Manipulated - K-Drama

I watched the first four episodes of The Manipulated, a Korean drama (K-Drama) about a guy framed for a murder he didn’t commit. Actually, it should be called Framed; that would be better. The Manipulated sounds kinda weird and English-as-second-language.

Anyway, The Manipulated starts off pretty strong, with a guy riding his motorcycle on the side walls of a tunnel. That’s right, he’s so fast, he can go vertical to overtake other cars. Impressive! That got me hooked. I figured I need to watch this shit to see more of his shenanigans.

What followed was 30 minutes of the main protagonist doing the most goodly things possible. Like, he’s the nicest guy. Helps the elderly, remembers his deceased mom with a dinner every year, waters his plants, is a nice boyfriend, the whole deal. I figured there’ll be a twist and he turns out to be a serial killer, but nope. He’s just nice. And then… police barge into his flower shop and arrest him. For murder! No! Not him!

Apparently he’s under suspicion of having chopped up a girl and placing the remains next to a river. He’s a delivery guy, so his stops line up with the crime scenes. Hmm. He goes to prison, and it all turns to shit. No more motorbike scenes. Where are the motorbike scenes? That’s why I started watching this. Anyway, that scene with the bike happens in the future, so we’ve got something to look forward to.

In prison, he gets beaten up, raped, and eventually his brother kills himself. So, it’s total shit. He’s at the bottom. Of course he picks himself up again, and the next episodes are mostly about prison shit. In episode four, we finally get to see the evil guy behind the framing. It seems every K-Drama I watch is ultimately about class struggle. Rich vs. poor. Are there any other stories out there? Everything comes down to the rich using the plebs as chess pieces for their entertainment.

So, is this worth watching? I don’t know. I didn’t expect much, never heard about it. I think one of the actors is from Squid Games so maybe this is somewhat famous in SK. I say give it a try if you like Crime Noir style hopeless dark stuff. I hope we get more ass-kicking in the following episodes. Prison drama is not my thing.