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Sunday, January 14, 2024

Korean drama: "Night Has Come", episode one 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 two shows already four have met their fate.


 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. 



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. 



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.


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.


 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.


 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-Jun and his two cohorts who also make them pay a fee for not beating them up! 


 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. 


 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 but so far not sure how and what their powers are. 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. 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

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.


Promo video for the drama, will try to have a new one for each recap.

 

 Whew, that above section took longer than any other drama I've ever posted about and still not done with it!!!! Was leery about watching this series but after two episodes think I made the right decision as this is one creepy, gory and action packed show. As of now am  not sure what kind of format I'll be using, most of the time talk about characters in these recaps. While there are some major ones think I may be discussing more about what the whole class from Yooil high school is going through, guess when I start writing the actual recap then will see what works out best and is easiest to understand. Let's finally get to the action from episode one, sure I will make a few minor mistakes at first with things but least the top should be accurate enough. One semi beef was that the names of the students weren't said often enough, you know who the main characters are but the names of some minor ones still aren't 100% clear to me.









 The location is the Muryeong Retreat Center where three classes from the Yooil high school will be staying for 2-3 days. Guess it comes out later that there was no such retreat so obviously what takes place was a setup for one class. Which was second year class 2-3 from the high school which has 31 students and their bus was the only one to arrive at the retreat. After waiting a few hours their teacher Kim began to worry about the two other busses, he left the retreat to find out what happened and hasn't been heard from since. Am wondering about Kim leaving and may bring up some thoughts later such as is he involved with this Mafia Game? So there's 31 students in the beginning, huge cast but it appears just six will be getting a lot of screen time. A few more we'll be seeing enough of so I know their names, the others will probably be killed off quickly and have a feeling many before we even knew their name! On the left in the fourth screenshot above is Yoon-Seo and think she will get more screen time than any other character, on her left is her best friend Jung-Won who is he smartest student in the class. Yoon-Seo was saying how it appears she's been at this place before and what she was talking about was a dream she had on the bus ride which are the top two screenshots and that dream did take place at the retreat.

 This class is just like almost every other one on the world. You have your brains, jocks, bullies, nerds, etc. but it's hard to assign Yoon-Seo to any group. She is smart and for the most part well liked, most of what I've learned about the students after two episodes is in the intro. Upon arriving at the retreat the students were told to download it's App to their phone but many didn't. That didn't matter as somehow the App downloaded itself onto their phones and the mysteries began after just a few minutes. At the retreat there's no internet or Wi-Fi service yet somehow this App has been sending the students messages and instructions, what's going on? The girl who says the Wi-Fi isn't working above in screenshot five is So-Mi, she's the class VP and popular yet does hold a grudge against Yoon-Seo and bullies her as we'll soon see. In the intro section are screenshots of what will be taking place at the retreat, they will be participating in the Mafia Game. All of the rules are in the above intro section, no sense writing everything out twice. There are many rules which were sent via the App and one key one is that by midnight every day the students have to vote for one classmate who they want to see eliminated or is a Mafia person, of course most thought it was just a joke. Many did vote for Heo-Yol to bid farewell as he was the class clown and had scared many of them already at this creepy place, he's in the third to last screenshot.










 When the students arrived at the Muryeong Retreat Center there were some workers, by the time night arrived all were gone and just what is happening???? Did say there were some bullies at the school though they're not too tough compared to others we've seen. With the orange hair above is Seung-Bin who is a cohort of Kyung-Jun, he's the leader of this trio of bullies. Seung-Bin was talking to the class president Jun-Hee who had broken up the group from extorting money from Ju-Won and Da-Bum. That fracas was eventually broken up by Hyun-Ho and his mate, Hyun-Ho is the best athlete in class plus the biggest student and we'll see more of him in the next show. Will also talk more about the main bully Kyung-Jun then as his role seems as though it will be a largish one. Next to Yoon-Seo the most important character will be the class president Jun-Hee who tries to make sure law and order are kept, he can go a bit overboard with trying to do that. He had been talking with Yoon-Seo and her best friend Jung-Won when Yoon-Seo was called to the pool, supposedly all of the students were to do a video interview there. 

 Upon arriving at the pool Yoon-Seo realized it was the same creepy one she saw in her dream. The lights were out and before she could react they were turned back on, standing with a birthday cake in the midst of four other students was the class VP So-Mi. But I don't think it was Yoon-Seo's birthday as her best fiend never mentioned it, that didn't matter to So-Mi who I said bullies Yoon-Seo. And she topped herself this time around by pushing Yoon-Seo into the pool and she couldn't swim! To make matters worse at the bottom of the pool was a mysterious figure holding Yoon-Seo down though no other student saw it. Arriving to save the day was Jun-Hee who dove in and dragged Yoon-Seo to safety. He brought her to the infirmary where Yoon-Seo recovered quite quickly, she has such a crush on Jun-Hee but has been too shy to admit it. During this brief scene had the impression that Jun-Hee also had a huge crush on her but like Yoon-Seo was too timid to confess his feelings. So-Mi did come to the infirmary to apologize and said it was all a joke but no one saw the humor in it. We also learned that Jun-Hee had been an Ace swimmer but had quit the team because of an incident, Since then he's avoided the water but when Jun-Hee saw Yoon-Seo needed to be saved nothing could stop him!










 A lot will take place in these episodes but because the intro is so long think I can make these recaps just have three segments and we're in the final one. After that pool incident it was getting late, Jun-Hee told the class all should retire for the night and the following morning they can figure out what to do next and perhaps their teacher Kim will have returned. The time was 11:59 pm and the students all received a text that they had less than one minute to vote for which of their classmates they thought was a Mafia and would be executed! Of course all had thought it was some sort of gag but soon they will find out that death will await them and not just at midnight! There were 31 students on the trip, 24 voted for the class clown Heo-Yul to be killed at midnight and now it was that time! An interesting thing, least through two shows, is that the student who has to die will do it via his own hands! Heo-Yol's eyes became a solid white, he threw himself to the floor and began to pound his head endlessly against the floor with the other thirty students screaming and looking on in sheer terror.

 Heo-Yol arose and then began to hit his head extremely hard against the wall, is there nothing anyone can do???? No for Heo-Yol had pushed his two friends away, shortly after that he took a running start and threw himself out of the third story window to his death which is right above!!!! Before the students could check on Heo-Yol an eerie sound came from the speakers and within seconds the thirty students crumbled to the ground unconscious, that's the last screenshot above and it's how this first episode ended. WOW, what an intense ending and also a very gruesome one, the deaths in the second show are just as gory and guess that's why it aired on a cable network. The recap for the second episode is the next recap and the action was even more intense, wasn't too confident coming in this would be a drama worth viewing but glad I was wrong with that thought.




















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