‘The Frog’ Netflix Series Review - Mo Wan-il’s Mystery Crime Thriller is Exhausting

"If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? Or is there a silence?"

In The Frog (aka, Amudo Eobsneun Supsokeseo), these words are repeated at the beginning of almost all the episodes. It's related to Jeon Yeong-ha's (Kim Yoon-seok) suspicion that a mysterious woman (Go Min-si) has committed a murder. Yeong-ha is the owner of a pension house who rents a room to that woman and her kid. The trouble arrives when the woman checks out of the room, and Yeong-ha enters it to clean it. He discovers traces of blood on a disc and soon realizes that some towels are missing. When Yeong-ha checks the dashcam footage, he notices that the woman left the premises without her kid. It immediately becomes clear to us, as well as him, that the lady has killed the child (his body is packed inside a bag). But if a murder is committed and no one is around to see it, did it really happen? Yeong-ha tries to calm himself down by saying that he imagined everything, that the kid is fine, and that the woman didn't do anything. The Frog doesn't tell us that woman's name until the seventh episode. So, let's call her Killer 2. Yes, there is another murderer in the series, Killer 1, who remains active in the year 2000. Killer 1 checks into Gu Sang-jun's (Yoon Kye-sang) motel and kills somebody. Both Sang-jun and Yeong-ha (unknowingly) behave politely with criminals and suffer serious consequences. A police officer, Yoon Bo-min (Ha Yoon-kyung when young, Lee Jung-eun when old), is the common thing about these two almost similar events.

The corners of Yeong-ha's lips are bent downwards, making them look like an inverted U. This is why when you see this man, you sense that he hasn't felt genuine happiness in a very long time. Your guess turns out to be correct. Yeong-ha has experienced great personal loss in the past, and its effect is still visible on his face. When Killer 2 comes into his life, a friend jokes that she looks like his deceased wife. We also sense something romantic between them due to the way they look at each other. The Frog, though, never enters the amorous region. Still, there is a one-sided attachment. Killer 2 finds it fascinating that Yeong-ha covered up her crime instead of reporting her. She sees him as an accomplice - a good companion whose house fills her with creative fervor. By being mute, Yeong-ha only adds fuel to this terrible bond. Notice how, after getting bored from living alone on the property for a few hours, Killer 2 happily runs towards the main entrance when she hears the noise of a vehicle, thinking Yeong-ha has returned from his chores. Writer Son Ho-young inserts such minor doses of humor in The Frog. Just wait till you learn what name Yeong-ha has used to save Killer 2's phone number. Ho-young also gets into the ugly space where the media ruins the lives of individuals by turning crime into a public spectacle. The people then scandalize the incident through gossip that only does more harm. And there is a crushing revelation regarding compliments from serial killers. Their kind words might uplift the mood of an average worker, but those words are nothing but a tool for manipulation.

This is where we part ways from the strengths of The Frog. Ho-young and director Mo Wan-il's mystery crime thriller has many flaws. You can't stop yourself from asking simple questions like, "Why didn't Killer 2 destroy that evidence against her?" Wan-il generates tension in the most basic manner. He stretches time when Yeong-ha wonders if he should go inside the police station and when a boy, with his sniper, targets Killer 1. In both cases, you easily predict the outcome produced through hesitation. Wan-il's filmmaking tricks are too old - there are no surprises. What this tells you is that despite the non-linear, timeline-hopping narrative, Wan-il and Ho-young serve us a stale dish and an old wine from an old bottle (be prepared for unnecessary, uninteresting dream sequences). This is extremely evident from Min-si's performance. As a psychopath, Min-si follows the footprints left behind by other female manipulators/seductresses/femme fatales. She has the most exciting screen presence, but we have seen a performance like this in various films and shows. Min-si doesn't bring anything new to the table, and Wan-il doesn't push her in new directions. The shift between the years 2000 and 2021 is often so abrupt that you are temporarily disoriented. However, the bigger problem arises when one realizes that this back-and-forth technique is not yielding any fresh rewards. You can separate the timelines and make a watchable movie by focusing on the life of only one owner. There is no compelling reason behind combining and connecting the two timelines other than this lazy one: Churning up eight episodes.

Wan-il and Ho-young are selling us clichés by packaging them as a puzzle. The puzzle is intricate, so you don't instantly recognize the banality of The Frog. You do, however, recognize the setups as soon as you come across the payoffs later. For instance, the scene where Killer 2 holds her breath and swims underwater and the one where she mentions she hates water come to your mind during particular moments in the future. Nevertheless, by converting their story into a puzzle that needs to be solved, Wan-il and Ho-young end up wiping out the emotions. You don't feel sorry for Sang-jun's situation and are never apprehensive about Yeong-ha's confrontations with the murderer. The Frog wants you to participate in a son's quest for revenge as well as his decision to give life a second chance to experience happiness, but he remains distant from us. Two scenes - one where a sniper runs towards his target and the other where a daughter handles a killer - give you some pleasure, but they exist in isolation. And then, there is that dull and unintentionally funny climax where characters assemble at the pension house with guns, and you desperately wish for someone to pull the trigger so the show can end. The Frog is a puzzle you don't want to solve. Rather, you want to break it into a million pieces, pack it in a bag, and bury it deep into the ground.

Final Score- [4/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
Follow @vikasonorous on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times