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Friday, January 26, 2024

Korean drama: "Night Has Come", episode nine of twelve recap

 


 Air Dates: December 4th until December 21, 2023 on U+ Mobile TV, aired on Monday to Thursday nights for three weeks and there were a total of twelve episodes that were about 35 minutes in length.
Director: Im Dae-Woong Writer: Kang Min-Ji.... subs by MrHulk

Main Cast: Always need to edit the info at the top as we go along, may set a record for this show with how many changes there will be! One problem could be who to add onto this list? The top few characters should be around for most of the series but besides them who knows what character(s) will be killed off in each show! Below is the chart featuring everyone who was around in the first show, slowly most will be killed off! The basic premise is that this is heavily influenced by the 'Werewolf Game' films and TV series. The setting is the Muryeong Retreat Center where three classes from the Yooil high school would be spending two+ days at. However only one bus arrived which was for class 2-E, what happened to the other students?

 Right below is the chart of the characters and many will be killed off, already four through two episodes! The characters in the middle are your more major ones so will have most of them listed below, only a few if any of the side ones. This takeoff from Werewolf is called the 'Mafia Game', more info on the game a bit further down. If you like horror dramas and films this may be right up your alley as the killings have been quite gruesome, after four shows already sixteen have met their fate! **** Have kept updating this section as so many events take place and sure there will be changes right to the end. Though a takeoff of the 'Werewolf Game' franchise this drama is so, so much better than any film or the TV series.


 Lee Jae-In as Lee Yoon-Seo.... It seems she will get more screen time than any other character though she does remain a bit of a mystery. Yoon-Seo appears to be a smart student and is best friends with Jung-Won, they're rooming together at the retreat center. Yoon-Seo is a daring young woman but is also easily scared, she has such a huge crush on the next student. Her game position is that of a Citizen. After two episodes she's the only living student who I know what her game designation is. Yoon-Seo does have asthma but it hasn't been a problem yet, since the first show she's seen ghosts and spirits around but no one else has.



Kim Woo-Suk as Kim Joon-Hee.... Class president and seems like a very responsible young man though does try a bit too hard in making sure order is kept among the students. Yoon-Seo above has a crush on him but not sure if Joon-Hee has realized that. But did get the impression in episode one he too has a crush on Yoon-Seo, both are too timid to confess to each other. Now it's too late for either to do that for in such a shocker at the end of the sixth episode Jun-Hee was voted to be a Mafia person and drowned himself in a pool. Really thought he would remain until the very end. EDIT: He may remain until the end for at the beginning of the seventh show Jun-Hee came back to life! Not as a Zombie but had been 'saved' by the one Police person who is unknown, Jun-Hee was 'saved' just before he drowned himself. 



Choi Ye-Bin as Oh Jung-Won.... Yoon-Seo's best friend who is a tech whiz and also the number one student in her class at Yooil high school. So far she's been a very conservative young woman who does not like to take chances. 



Cha Woo-Min as Go Kyung-Jun.... Every class has their 'toughie' and that's what Kyung-Jun is though really when only surrounded by his two cohorts. That's him in the middle below, to his left are his two 'gang' members Seung-Bin and Jin-Ha.  At the beginning of the seventh show Seung-Bin was killed by a Mafia person. However Kyung-Jun is a smart lad and he's very adept at conniving others. Thought he would make it to the end but that wasn't to be as Kyung-Jun was slain by the Mafia person Da-Bum in the ninth episode.


Jung So-ri as Kim So-Mi.... Pretty and popular girl but can be a bully and has picked on Yoon-Seo on occasion but don't know why. She's the class vice president and is in the middle below. It was revealed at the end of the sixth show her identity is a Mafia.


 Hong Min-Ki as Jang Hyun-Ho.... One of the school's best athletes and can't stand the bully Kyung-Jun as he constantly stops him from picking on others. There's a shy girl named Na-Hee who has such a crush on him, he does too but neither can admit and one better hurry for the end is coming soon. Too soon as Hyun-Ho was killed for not voting at the beginning of the fourth episode, was shocked he was killed so soon and he was a Citizen.


 Ahn Ji-Ho as Jin Da-Bum.... Seems like a decent guy but him and his best mate Ju-Won are constantly harassed by Kyung-Go and his two cohorts who also make them pay a fee for not beating them up! At the beginning of the second show his best and perhaps only friend Choi was killed even though he was a Mafia person. Not positive but 95% sure and that's of Da-Bum being a Mafia person which he semi revealed at the end of the eighth show. But by the ninth show it was confirmed that Da-Bum is a Mafia.


 There are others and may add in some more in if they survive to the halfway point! Below on the right is the student's teacher Kim who we only saw briefly in the first show. He left the retreat to see what happened to the other two busses and hasn't been heard from since. Here we are near the end and Kim still hasn't been heard from, isn't the school missing these students?


 Rules for playing the Mafia Game

 Like the 'Werewolf Game' there are four kinds of people a player can be. Citizen is your average person and most students will be one. Mafia is a group that can kill the targeted person between midnight and 6:00 am. Doctor is someone that can save a targeted person from the Mafia and don't think there's more than one or two of them. Fourth and last kind of player is Police, they can also prevent a killing which has happened once. The Police has a special power where they can prevent a student from dying after they get voted as a Mafia person. The vote may not be correct/just as a Citizen could get killed and seeing as how there's more of them it does happen quite often.


 The Citizens, Doctors and Police are part of one team, Mafia are by themselves. Whichever side gets wiped out first means they're all dead(!) and the other team wins. There seems to be about thirty students, it hasn't been revealed how many are Citizens, Mafia, etc. There is a boundary surrounding the retreat but it does stretch into the nearby forest, if you go over the boundary you're immediately killed in a gruesome manner and oddly you end up killing yourself! There's no cell phone service to the outside but whoever is running this death game can send the students messages which baffles them, how are they doing that?





 List of those who have been killed, will be updating it for each recap

There was one death in the first show but four in episode two! The third show had a trio killed at the end bringing the total amount of living students down to 23. In episode four eight students died in the first ten minutes which brought the total living down to 15 from 31. Seven of the eight deaths were from not voting who was in the Mafia by midnight. Episode five just saw one death and that's okay as don't want the entire cast to disappear yet. The sixth show saw two more dead leaving the total alive an even dozen. The killings have slowed down, by the end of the seventh show eleven are still alive. Two more deaths took place in episode eight, one Citizen and the Doctor(!), ten now remain. Episode nine saw one killing which was another Citizen, the total remaining is nine with three of them being the Mafia.

Heo-Yul.... Boy who was a Citizen, died at the end of the first episode as he was voted off the game by his classmates! His death was from jumping through a third story window.

Choi Ju-Won.... Was killed overnight but not discovered until the following morning, it almost appears he may have killed himself in a bathroom stall. The death had to take place between midnight and 6:00 am, the only ones that can kill are those classified as Mafia. Which Jun-Won was so why would his own group kill him the students wondered?

Kim Hyun-Saek and Lee Sang-Hwan.... Both were citizens and killed at the same time in episode two and both had a part in the others death. The two boys had stepped over the boundary line outside of the retreat, that means an instant death. An eerie sound was heard but only by them too, both began to head butt each other brutally before taking their own lives!!!! 

Kim Dong-Hyun.... Fourth student killed in the second episode and it happened right at the end. Dong-Hyun was in the nearby forest with many other students, he fell and went over the boundary line. Like the other dead students his eyes became a solid white and he even punctured them with his fingers before rolling into a tree stump which was the final blow.

Lee Soo-Bin, Park Ji-Hoon and Oh Jin-Seok.... All were killed at the end of the third show for not voting, it happened just after midnight. Lee and Park had fallen from the ceiling in the event's hall room, how did they get up there and they weren't noticed missing? Oh had stuck an electrical wire in her mouth which short circuited the electricity, a gruesome way to die but her death seems to have gone unnoticed or at least until the next episode. All three were Citizens.

Kong Ye-Won.... Killed in the fourth show for not voting, the second Mafia person to die.

Lee Hyun-Jun, Park Jung-Eun, Oh Hye-Seung and Kim Yeon-Ju.... All too were slain by not voting and none were major characters as their names had never been mentioned. The four were all Citizens.

Baek Eun-Ha.... Once the students got their phones back Eun-Ha was the person who got the most votes for who they thought was a Mafia person. She wasn't and all of the deaths in this drama have been self inflicted in gruesome manners.

Lee Ju-Young.... Killed overnight by the Mafia, she was a Citizen.

Jang Hyun-Ho.... He too was a Citizen and saved his fourth episode death for last. Hyun-Ho was the first major character killed and it was because he didn't vote. it wasn't possible because the thug Kyung-Jun had kicked his phone under the gym bleachers. Shame he died because he was one of my favorite characters.

Park Woo-Ram.... Killed at the end of the fifth episode, he was voted off by his classmates who thought he was a Mafia person. At the time most didn't believe but had been bullied by Kyung-Jun to get rid of Woo-Ram or else! So in a twist after his death it was revealed he truly was a Mafia person who had killed Ju-Young, now three Mafia are deceased.

Park Ji-Soo.... Citizen who was killed at the beginning of the sixth episode by a Mafia person. Won't reveal the identity in this section until the next recap

Kim Jun-Hee.... Killed at the end of the sixth episode and this was a shocker as he had the second largest role to date. Jun-Hee was the class president and was well liked until the third episode when a huge mistake of his led to some students dying. So he did lose mush respect and in a tie-breaker round was voted off and accused of being a Mafia. However it was never said in this show what his identity was. ****EDIT: This edit is extremely important! Though he 'drowned' at the end of the sixth episode Jun-Hee came back to life in episode seven! It appears he was never officially dead and had been saved by a Police person, their identity is still unknown.

Shin Seung-Bin.... Was a Citizen and was murdered by a Mafia person near the beginning of the seventh show. He was one of Kyung-Jun's lowlife cohorts and was not a likable guy.

Cha Yu-Jun.... Was beaten badly by Kyung-Jun and Jin-Ha as the seventh episode ended. At the beginning of the eighth is when he finally died and the students lost someone very powerful. That's because Yu-Jun was the only Doctor which meant he could stop a death from happening and he was the one who saved Jun-Hee

Kim Jin-Ha.... Killed at the end of the eighth show and it was because he was voted to be a Mafia. Which Jin-Ha wasn't for he was a Citizen and not many remain. Though he had that identity Jin-Ha did take part in killing Yu-Jun which is why he was voted off the game, he died by throwing himself off a third floor balcony.

Go Kyung-Jun.... Citizen killed by a Mafia person at the beginning of the ninth episode, the person was Da-Bum who Kyung-Jun and his two mates had bullied for a long time. Though Kyung-Jun was a lowlife thug and bully he gave the impression to us viewers that he may have been a decent person and had wanted everyone to survive the game. That wasn't to be as he was tricked by Da-Bum and his Mafia associate So-Mi which led to his death.

Previous recaps 
Think it would help out checking the recaps as so much takes place



The below video features behind the scenes footage from the ninth and tenth shows
  

 

 Third and last of today's recaps, will have the final trio within the week and am going to hate seeing this terrific series end! What's not too common are these medium sized Korean dramas and need to search for more of them. This series has a dozen episodes that averaged 35 minutes each. That's a total of 420 minutes or seven hours so you're not giving up too much of your time. A regular drama is usually sixteen episodes that are often an hour or more in length. That adds up to be at least 960 minutes or sixteen hours(!) so that definitely eats up a lot of your spare time and how do some viewers watch 25+ of those dramas in a year?

 Just one death in this episode which was a scene that continued on from the eighth episode. That brought the total down to nine students who are alive, 31 started this Mafia Game so over 70% are now dead. The person killed was a Citizen which leaves the total at five Citizens and one Police, they are a team so they number six. The Mafia side has three, whichever side gets eliminated first means the other is the Winner though does that mean they get to leave this 'Prison' alive? Need to add in this isn't like "Battle Royale" where there's only one winner, all five Citizens could walk out as Victors if they are allowed to leave. Let's get to the action and I truly thought the student who died in the beginning would make it close to the end of the series.










 The first two screenshots above were of a brief flashback, it had shown that the meek boy Da-Bum was the killer of Seung-Bin and near the end of the last show Da-Bum had told Kyung-Jun he was a Mafia. The second screenshot shows another Mafia person So-Mi taking the axe Da-Bum used and his bloody shirt which she had placed outside of the Arcade room where Kyung-Jun was hiding out during the night. In the morning he had hid that evidence in a fire extinguisher hatch and much of that info was in previous recaps of him hiding the evidence. But we viewers didn't know the full details of that until now and what Kyung-Jun had done led to the deaths of Yu-Jun and Jin-Ha though Kyung-Jun wasn't totally to blame for them. But that action also led to the death of Kyung-Jun which happened in the beginning of this show as he was brutally stabbed to death by Da-Bum. That too is above and Da-Bum's anger had gone overboard again as he remembered how Kyung-Jun and his two cohorts had bullied Da-Bum for so long. It is true that Kyung-Jun was a thug but did have his good side which we viewers saw but not the other students, his identity was one of a Citizen.

**** After reading the above it can sound a bit confusing but not if you've been reading these recaps so checking out the older ones could be very important.

 Da-Bum had always appeared to be a very meek person but with those two killings and with something that happened later on in this show it proved he can be a ruthless young man. So the total stands at nine of the original 31 students alive, one is a Police who is still unknown but my money lies with the girl Jung-Woo. There are five citizens left, we know that Yoon-Seo and Jun-Hee are but who are the other three? Two could be the boys in the bottom screenshot above and for so long they were unnoticeable but now that so many have perished their roles are getting bigger. In that screenshot on the left in the white shirt with glasses is Yeon-Woo, the other boy is Eun-Chan and had never mentioned their names before now. They were accusing So-Mi in the sweater of stealing Kyung-Jun's keys that opened many of this sham resort's doors, those keys Kyung-Jun had somehow found and because of So-Mi having them could she be a Mafia? We viewers know she is, Da-Bum is too and the third is the very quiet girl Na-Hee who I don't think has killed anyone to date as she is so meek. That scene with So-Mi being accused of being a Mafia didn't go much further, actually the pair of boys were accusing her of using those keys for her own survival such as hoarding all of the food.










 In that last episode there was a brief scene where the 'heroine' Yoon-Seo had found a gold key on the floor of the resort's main office. Right after she received a text message telling her to find the Game Host, she was the only student to get a message so Yoon-Seo wasn't quite believed. But she was in this show as Yoon-Seo felt discovering who the Game Host is may be the only way to leave alive, she was helped by her best friend Jung-Won and the class president Jun-Hee. While the pair were looking for clues in a different room Yoon-Seo found a small locked box which the key could open, inside the box was the photo at the top which was of her class. Right at that moment Yoon-Seo and the other eight students received a message that the Game Host was a girl named Park Se-Eun, who was she as we hadn't heard that name before. The nine students quickly assembled for a meeting to discuss this key bit of new info but there was one major problem with it. Which was that some months back Se-Eun had committed suicide by throwing herself off their high school's roof, a ghost is the Game Host???? However Jung-Woo brought up the subject that Se-Eun hadn't killed herself but had been pushed off the roof, is that why there is this Mafia Game?

 So the accusations began to fly around the room toward the students. Se-Eun had been a very quiet girl who had been bullied by So-Mi, her two cohorts Na-Hee and Mi-Na who wears a pink shirt along with the boys Da-Bum and the dead Woo-Ram. Did their bullying get out of hand and end up with them or at least one pushing Se-Eun off the roof? But the more pressing matter may be how could a Ghost be running this game(?), is that the one Yoon-Seo has been seeing off and on? For the last 3-4 episodes I've been thinking that the Supernatural element that had only been hinted at is the key to this story and it appears that's the case. So though there have bene many accusations nothing can be proved or at least not yet, the students went their on ways until they would assemble again for their nightly Mafia vote. After that meeting Na-Hee did meet up with So-Mi and it is true that they along with Mi-Na to an extent had truly bullied Se-Eun badly and it does appear they may have pushed her off the roof. But we viewers are still in the dark on what truly led to Se-Eun's death and that's to keep us guessing for a while. There was a fourth involved in the bullying of Se-Eun who was Da-Bum, he's not the meek man we thought he was. Above he was telling So-Mi to make sure Na-Hee doesn't tell anyone the truth on what really took place so that means four of the nine know the true facts of how Se-Eun died. In total seven knew how Se-Eun's death occurred and/or took part in bulling her, the other three are dead Mafia persons.










 So while knowing how the Mafia Game may have been started because of a Ghost having a grudge(!) the game is still going on. By midnight the nine students need to vote for who they think is a Mafia person which will lead to their death. Mi-Na had brought up some suspicions to So-Mi about Da-Bum which were all correct but So-Mi can't allow him to be voted off as he's on the Mafia team, Mi-Na doesn't know her close friend So-Mi is also a Mafia. The class president Jun-Hee has some suspicions too towards Da-Bum for he found Kyung-Jun's phone in the storage room, Da-Bum had been the last to see him alive. It's now 11:00 pm, the nine have gathered to talk about who they will be voting for and to discuss more about the suicide or murder of Se-Eun. We learned here that the now dead Mafia person Woo-Ram had made a secret video of Se-Eun and had started to spread it around. But what kind of video was it, one with her being with another boy or possibly taking a shower? Either one could have made Se-Eun want to kill herself or then again she may have threatened to turn Woo-Ram and his gang in which is why she had been targeted.

 Once again the accusations were flying back and forth and of all people So-Mi accused her 'friend' Na-Hee of being a Mafia person and voted for her! It is true that Na-Hee has that identity but it appears So-Mi has made a huge mistake, she wanted to make sure Na-Hee was voted off as not to reveal the true cause of Se-Eun's death. Have no clue how Na-Hee was able to do it nor did any of the students. She said she could prove that So-Mi was a Mafia person and should be voted off the game which will lead to her death. As the episode ended Na-Hee in the bottom screenshot above did some typing on her phone and showed the others what she had searched for. Which is that the Game had said that So-Mi was a Mafia person and how did Na-Hee do that, does she also know everyone else's identities? That ended this episode and there was one other thing that I noticed. Which is that all of the Mafia people had a hand in the bullying of Se-Eun, there were seven in all. This game was to get back at them but wonder why she would want so many innocent students killed? While not as much action the shows have still been excellent, we're finally learning about what this Mafia Game is all about but much of it is still a mystery. Three more episodes to go, will be back within the week with those recaps and hope it ends on a strong note.














 

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