“Psychopath Diary” (Review) Korean Drama
Psychopath Diary is a Korean Drama released in 2019, starring:
- Yoon Shi Yoon as Yook Dong-Sik
- Jung In-Sun as Shim Bo-Kyung
- Park Sung-Hoon as Seo In-Woo
The Pushover
Yook Dong-Sik (Yoon Shi Yoon) works at Daehan Securities, where he constantly gets bullied by his superiors and treated like a pushover.
After a huge problem arises at the company, he is used as their scapegoat. They proceed to threaten him with dismissal from his job, if he doesn’t take full responsibility.
Upon finding out, his family is disappointed; especially his father.
That night, Dong-Sik is overwhelmed with the feeling that he will never amount to anything. Wanting to end it all, he goes back into the office. He writes a suicide note, which he leaves on his desk as he walks out.
Subsequently he enters a nearby building that is still under construction. Once on the rooftop, he proceeds to climb onto the ledge of the building. Looking down however, Dong-Sik becomes scared of jumping. He also notices a car parked down below, that wasn’t there when he first arrived. He decides it’s better not to go through with it and makes his way back down.
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On his way down he hears noises and decides to check up on it. Dong-Sik slowly goes toward the sound but makes sure to stay hidden behind a stack of wood and steel. Suddenly, a little red notebook comes sliding across the floor toward him. He picks it up but keeps observing the scene before him.
A man with a gashing headwound is lying on the floor, pleading for his life. Another man, all dressed in black, is kneeling beside him. The injured man sees Dong-Sik and asks him to save his life while stretching out his hand towards him. The man in black proceeds to break the victim’s arm, causing him to scream in agony. Completely shocked at what he just witnessed, Dong-Sik doesn’t know what to do.
The attacker turns around to see what the man was looking at but is unable to see anything. To further investigate, he slowly makes his way in Dong-Sik’s direction. Scared senseless, Dong-Sik retreats a couple of steps which in turn sets the stack of steel rods in motion. They come crashing down, creating enough distraction for Dong-Sik to flee the scene.
Turning a new page
Still trembling, Dong-Sik runs out of the building, while trying to call the police. Without paying attention to his surroundings, he runs into the street, where he is promptly hit by a car. (A/N: It’s a K-drama after all.)
The car in question is a police car, with officer Shim Bo-Kyung (Jung In-Sun) behind the wheel. She and her partner immediately check up on the man, who was flung a couple of meters forward onto the curb.
Unresponsive at first, Dong-Sik suddenly comes to, screaming out in pain, due to Bo-Kyung stepping on his hand. **ROFL** He loses consciousness again and they quickly take him to the ER. Later in the hospital, once Dong-Sik regains his senses, it becomes clear that he has lost all his memories.
Through his documents police obtain his address and bring him home. They also give him back the little red notebook found on his person. As Dong-Sik opens up the notebook and starts reading it, he discovers all the words are written in reverse. He goes in front of the mirror in order to make sense of it, and is shocked as he reads the first sentence. Because it states the following: “Today I killed another person…”
These… These are clearly the words of a psychopath.
The Detective
Shim Bo-Kyung is a police officer but well on her way to be promoted to detective as she has great profiling skills. She inherited at least some of these skills from her father, who was once known to be a great detective. Unfortunately he became partially disabled as a result of an accident.
Whenever she is on a case, she thinks of her father and imagines him next to her going over the details, looking for evidence. She talks to him, in some way giving her an outlet for her thoughts.
When contemplating something she has the habit of stroking her chin just like her father used to do.
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And now she hit a person with her patrol car? Her Superior can never find out about this! It could cost her partner and herself their jobs! Against her better judgement she even gave Dong-Sik back his diary.
Now she can only hope, that if he ever remembers that fateful night, he will have no ill feelings towards her.
As of late, a number of strange cases have been haunting Bo-Kyung. Cases that seem like suicides at first but strangely all have a distinct M.O. She is sure she stumbled onto something big and doesn’t want anything to interrupt her investigation. Was what happened to her father perhaps not an accident after all?
Psychopath Diary
Reading through the diary to further learn about himself and his past, Dong-Sik can’t believe what he finds. All these anecdotes describing precisely how he killed numerous people.
Dong-Sik decides to return to the place where the police picked him up that night. He goes into the building and recalls being there that night. He remembers the man pleading for his life. All this does however, is further assure him that the diary is in fact his and that he actually did all those horrible things.
Comedy ensues when Dong-Sik comes back to work. Convinced he is a cold-blooded psychopath, he no longer lets his co-workers push him around. But soon his co-workers are the least of his problems.
The Detectives are lurking around the cases in his diary and getting far too close for comfort. With the help of his new found thug friend, – who decided to be his bodyguard of sorts -, he tries to get them off his tracks.
Author’s Note
This drama is not trying to be taken seriously at all. It is 85% comedy with some suspense and romance sprinkled in between, accompanied with great acting.
Yoon Shi Yoon has proven himself again as a versatile actor. He hilariously interpreted the character that was Yook Dong-Sik. Changing his facial expressions in the matter of seconds.
Park Sung-Hoon played a perfect villain. Easily making it into our Beloved K-drama Villains list. I don’t know of any of his prior work but I for sure will be on the lookout for future projects of his.
I thoroughly enjoyed Psychopath Diary. It was wonderfully paced and kept things interesting all the way to the end. To anyone who hasn’t watched it yet, I strongly recommend it.
Until next time…
-R-
