(Spoiler Alert: I will be revealing and discussing key plot points of each series in this article, this is your final warning)
For a character to haunt the narrative, their absence must drive the plot. They must leave such a gaping hole in the story that the story can’t be told without you, the viewer, noticing their absence, as the story warps in the attempt to fill that hole. These characters are only known in the context of those who knew them; they are the heart beneath the floorboards.
Manner of Death and Beyond Evil are two very different shows with very similar themes. Manner of Death follows Bunn, a forensic specialist, after he moves back into the small town he grew up in. Here, he ends up becoming involved in the murder case of an old friend along with her mysterious business partner, Tan. Beyond Evil follows two police officers, Lee Dongsik and Han Juwon, in the small town of Manjang as they unravel a two-decade-old mystery surrounding the disappearance of Lee Dongsik’s twin sister. Manner of Death is marketed as a thriller/mystery BL (Boy’s Love drama), while Beyond Evil is a crime drama. The women that we’ll be following are Janejira Sookyod (Manner of Death) and Lee Yoo-Yeon (Beyond Evil).
Jane and Yoo-Yeon are the main victims of their respective shows; they both represent what kickstarts the unravelling of each mystery. Jane is alive during most of the first episode, but she’s found dead after a party, staged as if she had committed suicide. To Bunn, however, her death feels wrong. They had been friends for years and, when he met her after the 10 years he was away, she seemed to have everything going for her. She had opened a school and loved her students deeply; she had a long-term boyfriend and a sister whom she was very fond of — the idea of her committing suicide was bewildering.
Then, he is tasked with doing the actual autopsy, and his suspicion is all but confirmed. Jane was drugged before her death so she physically wouldn’t have been able to string herself up the way the scene was set up to imply.
Someone did this to her. But why?
In contrast, we meet Lee Yoo-Yeon briefly and not at all. We learn about her through her family — her aunt and mother discussing her success in life, compared to her struggling twin brother. We learn about her through her twin, who resents how much he’s compared to her but loves her, still. She goes missing before we can really process her existence, and the story begins long after her death.
Lee Dongsik never got over his sister’s death; it carved his path ahead in life. He joins the police force with the hopes of finding her one day; he stays in their decaying small town despite wanting so much more out of his life; and his reputation remains as that of someone who possibly killed his sister out of jealousy.
In this way, Jane and Yoo-Yeon differ drastically in the way they haunt the narrative. We know who Jane is; not only through the people who knew her, but we also get to hear her own voice. In every flashback and every memory, we get a clear picture of who she was, making her untimely demise, as well as the tragic events leading up to her death, rage-inducing.
A particular thing I like about Manner of Death is the slow reveal of what led to Jane’s death. It begins as an out of context scene our protagonist witnesses, a fight between Jane and who we eventually find out is her boyfriend, broken up by Tan. It unfolds with every piece of new information we learn about Jane, and, by extension, an entire human trafficking operation led by figures of the local government. In every episode, there’s more of the scene revealed, and here we learn more and more about Jane.
Lee Yoo-Yeon, on the other hand, exists in her own absence; we do not hear her voice, but we meet her through her impact on other characters (mainly Dongsik). She is a ripped-up poster that was never cleaned up; she is Dongsik’s memory of her flower-stained nails; and she is the person looking back when Dongsik looks at his surrogate niece, Kang Min Jung.
Kang Min Jung is a character that I find really fascinating because I believe she exists as a mirror to Lee Yoo-Yeon. She is the daughter of a family friend, and due to her slimeball of a father not being the greatest, she often comes to Dongsik for her needs. She is also the complete opposite of who Yoo-Yeon is portrayed as. She’s reckless and rude; she gets drunk on weekdays and has to be rescued — Dongsik cares for her as if she were his own daughter. When Min Jung dies, she’s 21, just a year older than Yoo-Yeon was when she died. To Dongsik, this feels like losing his sister all over again.
Ultimately, their deaths are shocking and tragic. They affect our main characters in a very tangible way, but, outside of the emotional aspects, their deaths also move the plot. Jane and Yoo-Yeon are used as the initial thread that ultimately unravels the whole narrative.
Jane’s death is a catalyst. Her murder being executed in the way that it was blows the cover of a widespread human trafficking operation. If she had lived, if they had managed to actually stage the suicide properly, Bunn might’ve never been alerted. His relentless pursuit of the truth is what ultimately causes the story to progress the way it does. That said, I can’t really say it wouldn’t have happened if she hadn’t died. Some other girl was bound to have turned up dead; hell, one did right before her. Someone else was bound to get too curious. Regardless, the story would’ve had a completely different plot had she stayed alive. The story depends on her to exist.
Part of me wonders if she would’ve saved herself and the other women if she had the chance to.
Yoo-Yeon’s death is a trigger. Her death is the initial event that triggers several domino effects. If she hadn’t died, most of the events in the story simply would not have happened. Dongsik would’ve probably never become a cop and Juwon would’ve never ended up at Manjang if her case hadn’t driven him there. If she specifically hadn’t died, Kang Jim Mook’s murders would’ve simply remained unsolved and the Manjang serial killer would’ve remained a boogeyman for the rest of time. If he hadn’t killed her, Han Gi-Hwan would’ve remained in power, and Juwon would’ve never escaped his father.
I don’t want to imply that their deaths were necessary, or that the violence that they were subjected to was ultimately positive. What I am trying to say is that they didn’t go quietly; their murders had such a deep impact that you can’t consume these stories without seeing them and their impact everywhere. They are not the main characters, but the story doesn’t let them fade into the background at any point, Jane and Yoo-yeon are never just victims.
My goal is to bring attention to this central aspect and why I love how both of these shows manage to center these women. In the current media climate where genres like true crime focus more on the killer than the victims who’ve lost their lives, the women who are the subjects of violence aren’t really highlighted often. Additionally, since crime shows tend to fixate on these fictional murderers who are portrayed as untouchable and terrifying geniuses and the women affected remain as props to serve the larger narrative, it’s refreshing to see shows where the killers are not the point.
An aspect I didn’t really touch on, but that does pop up, is just how pathetic the abusers and killers in both shows are portrayed. They aren’t aggrandized and they aren’t important. Jane’s abusers are portrayed as cruel and disgusting. All of the local government officials are portrayed as dirty old creeps. Her sister is cruel and greedy, and, even after she tries to wash it off, Jane’s blood remains on her hands. The closest to a redemption we get for any of the people who abuse her is her boyfriend, and his redemption ends in death. He is not justified either, and he isn’t absolved of his crimes.
Similarly, in Beyond Evil, Kang Jin Mook is considered a creep even by his own daughter. Han Gi-Hwan is powerful until he isn’t; he’s a man who loses everything over a night of drinking and driving. His cronies are greedy pigs who get their hands dirty to keep their proximity to his power, and eventually fall with him.
These are both shows that respect their own stories enough to keep their women at the center. They both leave a deep impact on any viewer that comes across these shows. Through their deaths they find themselves being just as if not more important than the male main characters. Jane and Yoo-yeon are not to be ignored.