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Cast: Ko Yoon-Jung, Lee Yeong-Ha, Kim Do-Hoon, Ryoo Seung-Ryong, Han Hyo-Joo, Zo In-Sung, Cha Tae-Hyun, and Ryoo Seong-Bum
Creator: Park In-je
Director: Park In-je
Streaming On: Hulu, Disney+
Language: Korean (with subtitles)
Runtime: 20 Episodes. Around 40 minutes each.
Moving Season 1 Review: What’s It About:
Moving is a South Korean web series that pulls a lot of inspiration from the world of comic books and gives us a chance to see this very popular genre through the eyes of the South Korean entertainment industry, one of the largest and most important entertainment industries in the world right now. In Moving, we find ourselves with a generational story that sees both parents and their kids discover that they have abilities beyond the ones of other humans and how those abilities change the way they live their lives.
Moving Season 1 Review: Script Analysis:
Watching Moving for the first time seems to be a very nostalgic experience, at least for me, as it reminds me of the time when Television was starting to open up to more mythology-based storytelling. Shows like Lost and Carnivale managed to give people a glimpse of what could be and how far serialized storytelling could go. Moving especially reminds me of Heroes, an ABC TV series that ran parallel to Lost and that, with a fantastic first season, captured the imagination of millions.
Moving has many parts taken directly from Heroes, especially when it comes to making the story a generational story. Thus, Moving divides its story into two separate points of view, one belonging to the parents and another one to their children. This decision creates plenty of opportunity for mystery and revelations that will come as the story progresses. However, while there are plenty of revelations and plot twists along the way, Moving feels a bit aimless at times, as it has a hard time finding the proper pacing for its story.
The pacing of Moving can be erratic and inconsistent at times, and in several ways, this hurts the show more than anything else combined. Moving can be seen doing some truly powerful emotional scenes at one moment, and then action sequences, to then move into glacially paced scenes where the characters talk endlessly about nothing. Sometimes, most of the dialogue feels superfluous and just a way for the writers to stretch the story as much as they can.
Nevertheless, the revelation and the mythology that the story is trying to build are intriguing and entertaining enough to keep viewers around for most of its 20 episodes. Some batches of episodes might be easier to go through than others, but the story remains consistent in what it is trying to do, even when it doesn’t know very well how to say it. Some of the characterization also feels well too generic at times, which is fine. Many shows just want to use archetypes, but it would be cool to see something more in-depth.
Moving Season 1 Review: Star Performance:
Thankfully, Moving has an amazing cast of actors, both old and young, to help bring this story to life. Actually, the cast might be one of the best in recent memory when it comes to Korean dramas. The show mostly centers around the story surrounding the younger generation and in this story, Ko Yoon-Jung, Lee Jeong-Ha, and Kim Do-Hoon stand out from the rest. The young actors manage to feel very mature, and their interactions with each other and other characters feel very genuine. Yoon-Jung, most of all, feels like a big star in the making.
Meanwhile, when it comes to the older generation, Moving has been able to gather a fantastic set of actors like Ryoo Seung-Ryong, who will be familiar to most audiences, Zo In-Sung also stands out and brings all its charisma to a character that could easily have gone the other way around. Ryoo Seung-Bum also manages to bring a lot of heart to a character that could have been difficult to play and hard to understand to audiences both in South Korea and outside of it.
Moving Season 1 Review: Direction & Music:
Moving is directed solely by Park In-je, a director who has worked in shows like Kingdom. The director seems to have a great understanding of visual effects and how to apply them to complement the story. When it comes to delivering a full-on adventure, Moving is successful as it feels like a show that is big, fun, and intriguing. In-je also makes excellent use of the camera to achieve a dynamic presentation, especially when it is time to execute action sequences. His grasp on the most dramatic scenes is a bit too much, but it is not a deal-breaker at all.
The music composed by Dalpalan fits the idea of the show very well, we get a mix of heroics, scary, and emotional pieces that help propel the scenes to a new level. Dalpalan has worked before with director Park In-je, and their collaboration here feels just right. There might be any really memorable pieces, but as a tool to elevate the scenes, the music does just fine, although a bit more catchy tunes would have been amazing.
Moving Season 1 Review: Last Words:
Moving might not be the next Squid Game phenomenon, but it doesn’t need to. The show knows what it is trying to do even when on the road. It is clear it has a hard time doing it. The show does have weaknesses here and there when it comes to dialogue and pacing, but the characters and the universe are intriguing enough to keep audiences watching the series from beginning to end.
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