Revenge, the bittersweet candy we all love. Enjoy this review of Time Between Dog and Wolf.
Time Between Dog and Wolf Details
Name: Time Between Dog and Wolf; 개와 늑대의 시간
Date: 2007
Country: South Korea
Episodes: 16
Time: 1 hr. 5 min.
RATING: 8/10
My Review of this series
While waiting for new episodes for Cruel City (Heartless City)
I was ready to be swept away again, but albeit I liked his character in Time Between Dog and Wolf, he just didn’t have that sexy aura around him. It was a bit disappointing, but I must respect Mr. Jungs acting ability, because he did truly play two totally different guys and made them both feel very real.
Back to the review. Time Between Dog and Wolf starts out in the childhood period. We see Lee Soo Hyun and Soo Ji Woo (Ari) as teenagers becoming friends in Thailand. The child-actors were a match for the adult ones. Especially Park Gun Tae as the young Soo Hyun impressed me.
Then fate strikes. Ari moves to Korea with her mother and soon-to-be stepfather. Soo Hyun’s mother gets killed in front of his eyes and he is adopted and also brought to Korea by NIS agent Kang.
It will not surprise you that these two are destined to meet again. When Soo Hyun and his now-brother Kang Min Ki graduate as NIS agents everything seems to be going smoothly for these guys. But then Soo Hyun recognizes the murderer of his mother. Suddenly his life is centered around revenge.
The series has a love triangle (oh boy), but it is rather clear from the beginning who Ji Woo (Ari) likes best, so I don’t think the following will be a big spoiler. I liked the way the love was handled in the series. Everyone was in touch with his feelings and for the sake of friendship or love sacrifices were made, without holding big grudges. It did feel a bit bad for Kang Min Ki, because he seemed to deserve her much more. Soo Hyun willingly gave her up. Ji Woo herself did get annoying nearing the end of the series: constantly interrupting and bringing the brothers in danger.
But even with this nice romance I must make a confession: liked the love, but I absolutely LOVED the bromance. The chemistry between the two brothers was just far better than with the girl.
The main theme for me was not the love but the revenge. We see how revenge can consume you, even to the point that you become as evil as your enemy. The struggle to remain true to yourself or become yourself again was beautifully portrayed. You could feel it was a very narrow line Soo Hyun was walking on, and some moments he even crossed it and went into crazyland himself.
The plot was okay, but a bit shaky here and there (some things were unrealistic). I feel like the story could have been a little more compact (few less episodes in the middle), but it didn’t come to a point where it started to really annoy me. The ending was all right. It could have been better, but it was still satisfying. I would have liked to see a faster pace in the middle.
Music.. yes.. not the best music I’ve heard and it got even worse when I realised some of the tunes sounded like my alarm clock, so I got regular heart attacks when watching. Did make the adrenaline spike.
I loved the symbolism. For example the watch which connected the fate of the main characters. But also the painting called ‘Time Between Dog and Wolf’. In the series we are being told it is like a twilight hour. You can’t be sure if its a dog or a wolf that approaches. To me it was our leads going from loyal dog (following every instruction) to independent wolf (making ones own choices). It was Soo Hyun’s (and other characters) struggle to choose between being good (dog) or bad (wolf), it was the difficulty for the characters to find out who was friend or foe, and it was the bitterness of the ending: was the wolf once a dog too?
Overall I enjoyed this series. It does have an interesting (but somewhat unrealistic) plot and the acting is very good. But in the end I still have many questions… Like: what’s up with this ‘Giraffe’ dude?
I love it!