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[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Drama Stage 2021 - EP, Hi Dorothy"

The somehwat questionable ethical premise to "Drama Stage 2021 - EP, Hi Dorothy" is that reporter Jeong-hoo (played by Kim Joo-hun) is morally culpable for the popularity of a secretly filmed sex tape because he wrote an article about it. While I can appreciate the sentiment behind this outrage, blaming the matter on Jeong-hoo doesn't really make sense. Reporters, in theory at least, write about stuff that's already happening. They don't will the news into existence by selectively choosing what subjects to cover.

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But as far as this aspect goes I'm probably overthinking "Drama Stage 2021 - EP, Hi Dorothy" as Jeong-hoo's character exists chiefly as a paternalistic cipher to show how a man can dismiss a woman's complaints or concerns without necessarily being a bad person. Do-yeong (played by Han Ji-eun) is the woman who calls him to task. She's trying to erase the online record of gross sex tape stories that Jeong-hoo creates. Which is another plot point that's both factually and ethically questionable, although again, that's probably overthinking it.

So which parts of this short drama are worth thinking about? Well, mostly, that would just be the sheer existential dread of knowing that someone you care about might be driven to suicide because of a sex tape that was posted online. This isn't something I can much relate to, as I feel neither the need to make sex tapes nor the need to watch them. Interestingly, writer Baek Yi-shin appears to have anticipated this complaint by making the sex tape around which the action centers a rape tape.

This once more puts the drama at cross-purposes because the fact that there was a rape seems to be of greater importance than the fact that there was a tape. Although this does finally get to the drama's main strong suit- the oppressive sense of invisible voyeurism. With one brief exception at the end, we never get a good look at anyone involved in this marketplace of online sex tape distribution.

It's a perpetratorless crime, with the leading members of the community objectifying women in the most literal possible sense. They don't actually seem to understand that the women who nonconsensually appear in these tapes are people at all. Consequently, any time "Drama Stage 2021 - EP, Hi Dorothy" gets into cyberspace, whether it's by abstract conversation or disembodied computer imagery, the whole feel of the drama turns otherworldly. It's viciously tense, and genuinely inhuman in terms of cold unempathetic logic.

This design is further intensified via juxtaposition with the ongoing suicidal thoughts narrative, which plays off the same atmosphere in reverse. Where the creepy sex tape community is united in their love of creepy sex tapes, their victims are convinced that the whole world just consists of the creepy sex tape community. The result is self-hate, not just for being an exposed victim, but simply for being human at all. This dark compelling direction makes up for the holes in the writing, rendering "Drama Stage 2021 - EP, Hi Dorothy" an outstanding piece of work.

Review by William Schwartz

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"Drama Stage 2021 - EP, Hi Dorothy" is directed by Kim Yoon-jin-I, written by Baek Yi-shin, and features Kim Joo-hun, Han Ji-eun, Choi Ji-su, Jung Kang-hee, Kim Kyu-baek, Cha Ji-hyun. Broadcasting information in Korea: 2021/03/10, Wed 00:10 on tvN.

 

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