Show: Signal
Language: Korean
Platform: Netflix
Imagine a day if your mobile phone rings at a certain time, and you get to hear a voice that you never heard before. What if the caller says he/she is from a time period 30 years ago? You would be laughing on reading this.
I have not experienced this before. It is the premise of a Korean web show I recently watched and it blew my mind. Signal, a 2016 thriller streaming on Netflix is a show which many of us might not have heard of.
Directed by Kim Won-seouk, the South Korean show is about two cops from different time period interacting with each other to solve complicated criminal cases.
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Signal K-drama plot
Park Hae Young is a cold case profiler in 2015, who mysteriously discovers a discarded walkie talkie. On a fateful night at 11:23 pm, he received a voice message from a stranger. It turns out that the caller is detective Lee Jae-Han from 1989.
The conversation pertains to the mysterious disappearance of Park’s classmate, which was investigated by Jae Han. Park was the last person to see the girl in his school who disappeared 15 years ago.
Slowly, both Park and Jae-Han begin to interact frequently at 11:23 pm to discuss about the criminal cases.
Park is inducted into the cold case squad, being led by Cha Soo-hyun, who had been searching for Jae Han for the past several years. Soo-hyun regarded the detective as her mentor, who groomed her in early years in the police department.
“The past can be changed. Don’t ever give up,” says detective Jae Han to Park. The show depicts how the duo solve cold cases across time periods. In case you don’t know, the Houston Police Department describes Cold cases as those cases which remain open and unsolved after a period of three years when all probative investigative leads available to the primary investigators are exhausted.
Signal K-drama cast
Signal features Lee Je-hoon as criminal profiler who investigates cold cases. He is known for his role of Shin-II Young in Korean war film The Front Line. Kim Hye-su plays Detective Cha Soo-hyeon while Cho Jin-woong essays the role of Detective Lee Jae-han. Jang Hyun-sung plays a corrupt police officer called Kim Bum-joo.
Should you watch K-drama Signal?
If you are a K-drama fan and above all enjoy thrillers, then this is one show you shouldn’t miss. The writing of this film is brilliant, seamlessly traversing across different time periods. The episodes are based on some real life incidents in South Korea, and are realistic in nature.
The makers of the show have left no stone unturned to make Signal an edge of the seat thriller, leaving you with enough stuff to discuss several theories with your friends who are fond of such content and have seen it.