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Pierce Conran

Lead cast: Park Hae-soo, Lee Hee-joon, Kwak Sun-young
Latest Nielsen rating: 4.1 per cent
Picture the scene: outside a rural town in 1980s South Korea, a red scarecrow stands in a field of pale reeds, within which stalks a serial killer whose diabolical acts will consume the detectives who later search for him in vain.
From its opening moments and all through its first two episodes, ENA’s new period investigative drama The Scarecrow is unable to escape the spectre of Bong Joon-ho’s landmark crime thriller Memories of Murder, a 2003 film whose influence continues to loom large over the local industry.


Officially, The Scarecrow is inspired by the notorious serial slayings of Lee Choon-jae, one of South Korea’s most infamous murderers, just as Bong’s masterpiece was.
However, when Bong made his film, the frame of reference was very different, as the killer was not then known. Lee evaded capture for 30 years, until he was finally identified in 2019, while already in jail for another murder.
Leading the show are Park Hae-soo (Squid Game) and Lee Hee-joon (A Killer Paradox) as a detective and a prosecutor on the case who despise one another.
Park is Kang Tae-ju, a brash, big-city police officer unafraid to make a scene, while Lee portrays Cha Si-young, an ambitious prosecutor who is only too eager to crush anyone who gets in his way.

One afternoon, Tae-ju saunters into a police awards ceremony and slaps cuffs on one of the award recipients just as his name is announced. He brings the sergeant in on bribery charges.
Unfortunately, he has picked someone with high connections, and before he knows it, he is transferred back to the police precinct in Gangseong, the rural town he grew up in.
Tae-ju is not happy to be back, but almost as soon as he arrives, he is drawn into a murder investigation. Local detectives are trying to force a confession out of a suspect, but Tae-ju can see that he is innocent.
As he digs into the evidence, he connects the case to other recent murders and comes face-to-face with Si-young, on whose behalf the suspect is being coerced.

What’s worse, Tae-ju and Si-young share a dark history: back in school, Si-young and his friends mercilessly bullied Tae-ju. As more bodies turn up and the investigation intensifies, so too does the bitter rivalry between these childhood nemeses.
During a recent press event, director Park Joon-woo – known for the hit action series Taxi Driver – stressed that his show and Bong’s classic film focus on different timelines, themes and characters.
Made in the wake of Lee’s capture, this new take on the Lee Choon-jae murders includes scenes set in 2019, when an older Tae-ju learns the killer has been apprehended and goes to meet him in prison.
The lead characters are nominally different, and the show attempts to reframe Lee’s crimes by focusing on the people affected by them, rather than the elusive, chilling ghost of the man who committed them.

Yet it is all but impossible to separate the works. The Scarecrow can’t help but evoke Memories of Murder at every turn, from its tone, style and mood to specific props, scenes and developments in the case.
But put aside the issue of its indebtedness to another film and this is a procedural thriller that is engaging right from the get-go, as it pulls us into its tale of tortured investigators and despicable acts.
Whereas Memories of Murder was a male-dominated affair, The Scarecrow adds Seo Ji-won (Kwak Sun-young, Behind Every Star), an intrepid journalist, into the mix. She works in Gangseong, is close to Tae-ju, and is always ready to ask the tough questions.
Unfortunately, she largely appears on the sidelines in the first couple of episodes, only occasionally stepping forward from the press huddle to shove a microphone in someone’s face.

Nevertheless, as an objective observer, Ji-won is the character most likely to make this show stand on its own two feet. Hopefully, future episodes will allow her to realise that potential.
Despite its similarities with Memories of Murder, The Scarecrow is not necessarily an ideal fit for fans of Bong’s film; tonally, a closer K-drama equivalent would be something like Beyond Evil.
Still, for viewers just looking for their latest K-thriller fix, they could do a lot worse than tune in to this dark and angsty trip down memory lane.
The Scarecrow is streaming on Viu.


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Park Hae-soo, Lee Hee-joon and Kwak Sun-young lead this engaging police procedural inspired by the serial slayings of Lee Choon-jae


Park Hae-soo, Lee Hee-joon and Kwak Sun-young lead this engaging police procedural inspired by the serial slayings of Lee Choon-jae.


K-drama The Scarecrow: serial killer thriller echoes classic film Memories of Murder

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Park Hae-soo, Lee Hee-joon and Kwak Sun-young lead this engaging police procedural inspired by the serial slayings of Lee Choon-jae

Park Hae-soo, Lee Hee-joon and Kwak Sun-young lead this engaging police procedural inspired by the serial slayings of Lee Choon-jae