K-Drama Reaction: Circle: Two Worlds Connected

Circle: Two Worlds Connected brought the curtain down for good in a finale that placed everything in a perfect spot. I was having a bad Circle withdrawal for days now and writing this somehow helped me in curing this separation anxiety. This is a drama that needs to be shown worldwide, a breakthrough for Korean entertainment. Too bad not many people were able to watch it, but I still hope international K-Drama fans will soon pick it up and enjoy the crazy yet fun ride that I experienced.

With only one episode left and there are still concerns left unanswered, I think the show gave its audience a pretty decent ending to this dystopian fiction that we all learned to love. The series finale is simpler compared to the other episodes, and it had more “heart” than technicalities. After all the conflict has been resolved, this is where the usual K-Drama tropes come in handy. The end of Minister Park as the main villain is very common in dramaverse, but I honestly don’t have any problems with it. The show gave me a poignant script and excellent cinematography that I have no right to complain with its lapses.

GRUMPY FIX

Woo-jin (Yeo Jin-goo) was the star of this show all throughout. From the first scene up until the end, the entire plot revolved around Woo-jin’s search for his twin brother, his discovery of the Human B, and his disappearance. If you would ask me about my opinion on the open ending about Byul/Jung-yeon’s (Gong Seung-yeon) “alien” background, I would still give it a thumbs up. Circle remained true to its nature of giving awesome cliffhangers. And I would not have it any other way. Byul’s background was not the main focus of this story, anyway. Whether she is an alien or not does not matter anymore because she already chose to live as the present Jung-yeon, with Woo-jin and Joon-hyuk/Beom-gyun (Kim Kang-woo) as her family.

Although the finale was typical – evil forces were defeated and the good prevailed. Minister Park Dong-geon died because of his greed and we witnessed the fallout of Human B. Peace has been restored to Smart City and Mayor Yoon recovered his lost memories. Everyone was happy. Even my Lee Ho-soo is at peace now, with his new BFF, Detective Kim. I still ship their bromance up until the last second of this drama. Ho-soo’s smile makes me so happy I can’t contain it.

The only thing that worried me in this finale was the clone Woo-jin. We all know the real (spoiler alert!) Woo-jin died 15 years ago, and Human B has created clones of him. But what was unclear though was the life span of every clone. The Cloning Bill in the country has yet to be passed in 2037 even though Minister Park Dong-geon has been pushing for it. What made Human B decide to create a third clone? What happened to the other clones? It’s just sad to think about it that way, so I hope the best for this Woo-jin clone to survive the test of times and stay young forever with Jung-yeon.

Circle is a breakthrough project on its own with superb screenplay and amazing actors. Not even a single episode was cranky. I just hope more and more dramas like this one will be created in the future.