The Uncanny Counter Review!
The Uncanny Counter (경이로운 소문)
Genre: Fantasy, Drama, Thriller TV show
Originally aired on OCN (2020). Distributed by Netflix in the U.S.
Written by: Yeo Ji-na (여지나)
Directed by: Yoo Seon-dong (유선동)
Rating: 4.5 bingsu’s
This post CONTAINS spoilers for The Uncanny Counter.
Content Warnings for The Uncanny Counter: violence, bullying
Summary: Based on the webtoon with the same name*, this show follows SoMun’s adventure where he transforms from a high school student to a Counter. The Counters have the power to sense and fight against evil spirits. They work as a team to tackle evil spirits who try to capture human bodies.
I absolutely enjoyed this Korean superhero show. The show differs itself from traditional superhero shows to the point that I’m a bit hesitant to call it one. While the characters have the usual elements of other superheroes such as being selected to serve the common good and living with the painful past, many of their aspects are new and unique.
To give a brief background about the show, there are evil spirits who have the power to detect people who are evil spirited, take over their body and soul to strengthen their power. I found this perspective interesting - that they are not after innocent beings, but rather it follows the like-attracts-like design. The more people they possess, the stronger they get.
The Counters are essentially brought back to life from death. They were all in a coma (except for SoMun, watch the show to find out how he becomes a Counter!) but are given consciousness and strong power in exchange for accepting the destiny of being a Counter and using their power to fight the evil spirits. They are connected to their partner spirits who reside in Yung, where heaven, hell, and afterlife coincide.
It was refreshing to see a superhero show that is set in a non-Western world, Korea to be specific, and own all the Korean-ness as well. It didn’t feel like the show was trying to imitate the superhero archetype set by the Western media. The Counters run a mom-and-pop noodle restaurant when they are not fighting against evil spirits. They are not famous or even known to the public, and actually, one of their priorities is to not get discovered by the lay people. And they wear full-on sweats to their missions - not the fancy kind, but the kind that resembles the PE uniform worn by Korean students, the kind that the Korean media usually portrays ‘lazy unemployed people’ in. I’ve put quotation marks there because I believe it is problematic to portray them in that stereotypical manner without addressing the societal and structural barrier, but that’s a whole other story.
What makes the show really special is that the sentiments of 정 and 한 run through the whole show. (You can read more about Jeong/Jung 정 here, and more about Han 한 here.) The feelings of deeply tangled affection and sorrow dictate the storyline, not only giving the plot validity but also inviting the audience to really empathize with the Counters.
I also loved the strong female superheroes, Hana (played by Kim Se-jeong 김세정) and MaeOk (played by Yeom Hye-ran 염혜란). What I appreciated is they were strong, compassionate, and powerful female superheroes who do not wear tight suits or show off their sexiness. There is nothing wrong with doing so, but often female characters are sexually objectified and the sexiness is added without adding any depth to the story. I felt much pleasure watching women who seem like they could be my own mother or sister, or my next door neighbor, fully being their ‘regular citizen’ selves but also doing all the superhero stuff.
And I loved loved loved how they redefined the meaning of family. Especially in the Korean culture, families related by blood matter a lot. However in the show, people who lost their loved ones, who are struggling with their own grief or who are isolated from the community come together and develop new familial bonds. They define their own living family, who they can depend on and who they can trust with their lives.
One shortcoming I felt was that this new family still resembles the traditional ‘normal’ family, the only form the Korean society (and many others as well) seem to be comfortable in accepting. One that consists of a father figure, a mother figure, and children. At some point I would love to see media that imagines families beyond this ‘normal’ structure and show how deep, inseparable, and beautiful such families can be.
CoreaMod
*The webtoon and the TV show have the same name in Korean but it was translated differently into English. The webtoon translated to Amazing Rumor and the show to The Uncanny Counter. The word 소문 has dual meanings here: It is the main protagonist’s name, and in Korean, it can also mean rumors.
