[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Chimera" Episode 1

Jae-hwan (played by Park Hae-soo) is a reasonably enthusiastic criminal investigator. After opening up with some ominous imagery of scenes yet to come, and explanations of what a "Chimera" is, Hae-soo meets FBI investigator Eugene (played by Claudia Kim) who provides his greater unit with a demonstration regarding improvised explosive devices. Befor long, both are looking into the case of a burned car- one where Jae-hwan's boss Joo-seok (played by Kang Shin-il) has inexplicably pilfered evidence.

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"Chimera" is, for a serial killer story, surprisingly unpretentious. Strictly speaking the fact that this is a serial killer story at all is a spoiler. Jae-hwan, Hae-soo, and for that matter Jae-hwan's junior partner Geon-yeong (played by Kwon Hyuk-hyun) investigate the entire case straight from the beginning. The whole extended first part of the episode is mostly just Jae-hwan postulating and ruling out possible explanations for the condition that the car's in.

The investigative pacing in that regard "Chimera" is fantastic. We still don't have an explanation for why Joo-seok is nervous about the car explosion being connected to past murder cases. Jae-hwan also manages to be quite charming just by not losing his cool and being patient. Park Hae-soo and Claudia Kim both have excellent professional chemistry, in that they act like fairly intelligent people with the patience to hear each other out and ask appropriate questions.

There's also very meitculous crafting to the entire scenario. First our heroes have to identify the victim. Then they have to figure out what he wanted. Then they have to figure out why he was where he was. Each individual piece of evidence leads to more and more evidence, finally building up to a confrontation with the chief suspect. And even here I have to use ambiguous phrasing, since we actually know very little about the man who runs away. He may not have even been a man.

"Chimera" doesn't rely on gimmicks, despite the title kind of feeling like one. From the first episode alone it's fairly clear that this story is a heavily layered mystery, where even basic motives are nearly impossible to clearly ascertain. All we know for sure is that all the characters are quite competent, capable of both laying their own traps and falling into subtle ones they hadn't foreseen. The story is quickly shaping up to be a true battle of wits, with an excellent script and smart enough direction to keep the actors from overplaying it.

Review by William Schwartz

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"Chimera" is directed by Kim Do-hoon, written by Lee Jin-mae, and features Park Hae-soo, Lee Hee-jun, Claudia Kim, Cha Joo-young, Nam Gi-ae, Kang Shin-il. Broadcasting information in Korea: 2021/10/30~Now airing, Sat, Sun 22:30 on OCN.