Most Popular Korean Drama Movie Review: Signal

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Drama: Signal
Revised romanization: Sigeuneol
Hangul: 시그널
Director: Kim Won-Suk
Writer: Kim Eun-Hee
Network: tvN
Episodes: 16
Release Date: January 22 - March 12, 2016
Runtime: Fri & Sat 20:30
Language: Korean
Country: South Korea

Plot

Hae-Young (Lee Je-Hoon) works as a criminal profiler and is also a police lieutenant. Even though he is a cop, he doesn't trust cops due to his own past experience. Back in 2000, when Hae-Young was in elementary school, his classmate Yoon-Jung was kidnapped and later found dead. Hae-Young saw a woman taking Yoon-Jung from school that day, but the police announced that the suspect was a man. Hae-Young even went to the police station and told the police officers that he saw the kidnapper and she was a woman. The police officers though didn't pay attention to him. The killer was never caught and her case remains unsolved to this day.

Hae-Young meets a reporter at a cafe to reveal bombshells about a celebrity scandal. Meanwhile, veteran detective Soo-Hyun (Kim Hye-Soo) is at the cafe staking out the meeting, unaware that Hae-Young is a cop. She arrests Hae-Young for stalking celebrities. While leaving the police station (the same police station he went to as a kid), Hae-Young hears someone talking to him. He looks around to find a walkie-talkie. The man who is talking to Hae-Young is Detective Jae-Han (Cho Jin-Woong). The detective though is from the year 2000 and he is investigating the disappearance of Hae-Young's elementary school classmate. Hae-Young and Detective Jae-Han begin to communicate via the walkie-talkie.

Notes

"Signal" takes over the tvN Fri & Sat 20:30 time slot previously occupied by "Reply 1988" and will be followed by "Memory" on March 18, 2016.
The criminal case depicted in the drama series is inspired by a true incident that occurred in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea over the course of six years (1986 - 1991). 10 women were raped and murdered within a 2km radius ranging from a 71 year-old grandmother to a 13 year old schoolgirl.
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