Saturday 15 November 2014

Pinocchio 2014 - Episode 1

Lee Jong Suk, Park Shin Hye
"Pinocchio" is a Korean drama about a group of rookie journalists who seek to chase after and report the truth. The female protagonist has Pinocchio syndrome, a nervous condition which causes hiccuping as an automatic response to lying. The male protagonist has a sad past in which his family was destroyed by unethical media reporting and sensationalism.   

The drama begins with students of a school gathering in their classrooms to watch a live broadcast of a quiz show to support their schoolmate, Ahn Chan-soo, the show's defending champion. Choi In-ha (Park Shin-hye) is one of them, and she is in the same class as Chan-soo. Her teacher is angry to discover that her classmate, Choi Dal-po (Lee Jong-suk) is skipping class again.

The show begins and everyone is surprised to see Dal-po as Chan-soo's opponent on this week's show. In school, Chan-soo is ranked 1st in his level while Dal-po is ranked 34th. Dal-po confesses that there are only 34 students in his level, and his nickname is 'All-zero' because he scores 0 for everything.

Dal-po has to answer 5 questions correctly before he can challenge Chan-soo. The first question is, "It is said that 1 out of 43 people has this nervous condition, hiccuping as an automatic response to lying. What is the name of this condition which is named after a popular fairy-tale character?" 

Although this is an easy first level question, Dal-po uses his 'chance card'. He has 30 seconds to ask someone in the studio for help, and he chooses Chan-soo. But instead of asking the quiz question, he asks, "If I win you, you have to let me smack you in the face 10 times. If you win me, I'll let you smack me 10 times, okay?" Chan-soo agrees. 

Dal-po turns and says to the camera, "In-ha, if I become this show's champion..." For a moment, it seems like he is going to confess his feelings for her, but he is cut off suddenly because the 30 seconds is up.

His answer 'Pinocchio' is correct and the host asks if he knows anyone with Pinocchio Syndrome. He replies yes and apparently, that person is In-ha. (*Pinocchio Syndrome is not based on an actual syndrome.)

Lee Jong Suk, Park Shin Hye

The host asks the second question and suddenly, we see flashbacks to Dal-po's past. When he was 13, his name was not Dal-po, but Ha-myeong. He and his brother, Jae-myeong appeared to be geniuses with higher than normal IQ. Their father, Ho-sang is the head of a firefighting team. 

One day, a factory caught fire and Ho-sang's team went to the scene. The factory manager said that there were 2 workers trapped inside and thus, Ho-sang's team entered the building. Later, the 2 workers appeared and the manager realized that he had made a mistake. Unfortunately, there was an explosion and nine firefighters died while Ho-sang's body could not be found.       

The manager lied to the police that he told Ho-sang that nobody was inside the building. The family members of the dead firefighters were angry with Ho-sang for ordering the team to enter the building when nobody was trapped inside. 

The police received a report from Ho-sang's neighbor saying that he saw Ho-sang alive. Nobody doubted his words because he had Pinocchio Syndrome. The police suspected that Ho-sang was hiding out of guilt. The family members of the dead firefighters directed their anger at Ho-sang and his family. 

Under the scrutiny of the media and the public, Ho-sang's family suffered tremendous stress. Ha-myeong's mother could not take it anymore and committed suicide by jumping into the sea together with him. Saddened by his family's deaths, Jae-myeong lost his cool at the journalists who were at the suicide scene, especially Song Cha-ok, an unscrupulous journalist who sensationalized the news. 


Meanwhile, In-ha's parents divorced and her father, Dal-pyeong brought her from Seoul to the countryside to stay with her grandfather. There, they met Ha-myeong, who was thought to be dead by Jae-myeong. Ha-myeong did not drown in the sea and was saved by grandfather. Dal-pyeong's big brother, Dal-po passed away 30 years ago. Grandfather, who had dementia, mistook Ha-myeong as Dal-po and adopted him. Dal-pyeong was forced to call the young Dal-po 'hyung' (big brother), and In-ha became Dal-po's niece. 

Dal-po and In-ha became close. In-ha told him that her mother often appeared on TV and she missed her. Dal-po fixed the TV for In-ha, and found out to his shock that her mother was Cha-ok, the ruthless journalist who contributed to his family's tragedy and mother's death. He turned hateful and cold towards In-ha. 


Back to the present, Dal-po successfully answers the 5th question correctly, much to everyone's disbelief. In-ha's classmate insists that Dal-po is just pure lucky. When In-ha defends Dal-po, the classmate asks if she is in love with him. In-ha replies no, and she is not hiccuping. The episode ends with Jae-myeong, who is working as a water delivery man, staring with hatred at Cha-ok on TV.  

"Pinocchio" is thought-provoking as it depicts how powerful and frightening the media can be. I thoroughly enjoyed episode 1 and look forward to the next episode.

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