W and its Two Worlds

*Please note this blog contains
spoilers for episodes 1 and 2.

Global sci-fi fans should tune in and check out new TV series W—Two Worlds. Storytelling genres like science fiction, speculative fiction, and slipstream fiction can cross language and cultural barriers: exploring meta concepts, wild ideas, and out-there possibilities in engaging, intelligent, and emotive ways.

The concept of the imagination fascinates me, and I think in the future there will be a test to measure a person’s imaginative capabilities. For a long time I didn't understand people who said they couldn’t “get into” a strange story. Once a friend tried to explain what happens when she reads a fantasy or futuristic novel: how the words on the page don’t create a clear picture, let alone a place that feels real in her mind.

Loving the lighting/set design/cinematography
in both worlds.

For me, and many fans of strange stories, what’s happening in a book, television, or film setting is as real as what’s happening somewhere in the world. I’ve been like that since I was a kid, while mistakenly assuming everyone around me is having a similar involvement with storytelling. To only be able to truly experience the place you live and the life you have is a limitation I can’t comprehend.

When the female lead recognizes a character
from the webtoon, this happens.

W—Two Worlds extrapolates that feeling. For a while, the audience isn’t clear who in the show is “real” and who is fictitious. Viewers are presented with two narratives to follow (albeit one more dramatic than the other) and before long we’re invested in the lives of the male and female leads. By the time it’s revealed one is a webtoon character, this supposedly important fact seems oddly irrelevant.

That moment when you realize your life is now surreal af.

The Korean series screens two episodes a week until September. More meta elements are mixed with intrigue, romance, humor, tragedy, and comedy. To heavily summarize the plot, our female lead Oh Yeon Joo is in the real world, and our male lead Kang Chul is the main character in a bestselling webtoon created by her father. 

When dad decides to kill off the webtoon’s famous hero, Oh Yeon Joo is pulled into the story to stop his death. This places father and daughter at loggerheads, as dad is determined to exterminate the imaginary Kang Chul one way or another.

#writerGodcomplex

 Our female lead Oh Yeon Joo is a bit of a ditz. Strange, considering she’s a surgeon? But her confusion on entering the webtoon world is well played. What could be more traumatizing for a pragmatic person than this experience?

Korean TV often utilizes the linear elements of a location.

At heart she’s a good person, and actress Han Hyo Joo conveys empathy and kindness with her performance. The character’s calling is to save lives even if the blood on her hands came from an illustration program. I love that she’s a terrible liar, and not really creative, so having to come up with plot points and dialogue on the spot inside the webtoon isn’t working out so well for her…

The supporting cast are fab.

When you're the only one outside the time lapse.

Kang Chul is a larger-than-life webtoon character: a teen Olympic gold medalist framed for murder, who grows up to become a rich tech genius slash playboy. Actor Lee Jong Suk is considered beautiful by Korean standards, in that he has very white skin and is tall and slender (previously a model). He’s got the right look and onscreen charisma for the role, but he’s also a great actor, and manages to humanize this exaggerated ideal.

Surgery, webtoon-style.

Obviously we’re on the road to romance, but at this point Kang Chul treats Oh Yeon Joo as more of a puzzle piece he needs to see the whole picture, and she treats him more like an idea she’s protecting, rather than a person. It’s a nice setup.

Girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do
(to get out of a webtoon).

Dad is like a wrathful Old Testament God here, determined to wipe out the character he’s created. For some reason he believes Kang Chul is “eating him up” and wants to destroy him first. You get the feeling dad’s been in the webtoon as well, and knows more than he’s letting on.

Webtoon workplace worries. 

The first two episodes are fabulous at world building, partly because they abide by the created rules, and also because the writer has thought a lot about "reality" within the webtoon, and how the imagined world would interact with the "real" world. Maintaining that framework is so important with fantastical narrative, and writer Song Jae Jung's quality world building stands out.

I think the show won me over when Oh Yeon Joo was sitting at a bus stop in the webtoon for half an hour, while months went by high speed in the webtoon. The story was moving to the next plot point (i.e. after Kang Chul recovered from the latest assassination attempt). So while it had been months for our male lead, only thirty minutes passed for our female lead, adding an unexpectedly comedic element.

Spinning watch hands are never a good sign.

Omg awkward.

The edits between the webtoon and the real world in the show are well done. The music fits nicely, and the cinematography is as lovely as ever. (Korean television takes a lot of care with the technical aspects.) I’m expecting to see an offshoot W manga hit shelves in the next few months—why waste the fabulous illustrations?

Very cool.

Only two episodes in and the show sets up many interesting ideas to mull over. Why is dad determined to kill Kang Chul? How come Oh Yeon Joo is the one crossing over? Is the webtoon like a storytelling version of AI, what with rewriting itself in the computer to keep the webtoon's lead character alive? Most of all—can Kang Chul cross into reality? And if he comes to Oh Yeon Joo’s world, is he officially “real”?

Or is he already real enough?

Yes, he's on a newsreel being watched
in a webtoon inside a tv show. Any questions?