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

Published on 2022/01/08

Dong-joo (played by Im Si-wan) is a tax collector. He's initially presented as having deep-seeded issues relating to his father Cheol-min (played by Park Ho-san), who did tax fraud crimes which resulted in the destruction of the family. This is despite Cheol-min himself appearing to be a fairly pathetic figure. Dong-joo comes off as rather heartless in his pursuit of justice, though he's still better than nearly every other character in the revenue service, where it's hard to tell whether they're corrupt or just lazy.

"Tracer" is surprisingly bleak and depressing like that. Sure, we eventually get to the exciting climax, where Dong-joo brings a hammer to a high-profile search, having done homework enough to figure out the most likely hiding space of the money. But this whole scene is prefaced by one of our elderly corrupt corporate character successfully making the cops look like buffoons, and his angry employees look like liars.

I can't help but be reminded of "Squad 38" from five years ago. At that time, South Korean morale in regards to the government's interest and ability in going after rich tax cheats was incredibly low, which is what made the subject matter relevant. And today it's...still really low actually. Possibly even worse than it was back then. Where "Squad 38" could at least be optimistic in the sense that there's nowhere to go but up, "Tracer" is a harsh reminder that the situation never actually improved.

The political subtext of South Korean TV shows centered around tax collection isn't the most thrilling material, I know, but in general "Tracer" suffers from just not having a whole lot of action. Aside from Dong-joo's father and the aforementioned elderly crook, most of the plot here is just spent on office politics. Hye-yeong (played by Go Ah-sung) spends most of her screentime getting ever more slightly annoyed enough to finally tender her resignation.

She can't actually do that, of course, since the story has only just started and it takes her awhile to even meet Dong-joo. But then that's another issue- the almost comically small interaction between Im Si-wan and his leading co-stars. With opening ratings of 7.4%, "Tracer" clearly has the potential to be a hit. But I'm skeptical the drama can really get that far, especially when international distributors are so lacking in confidence in the concept that there still isn't an official English language version available to stream anywhere.

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"Tracer" is directed by Lee Seung-young, written by Kim Hyeon-jeong-IV, and features Im Si-wan, Go Ah-sung, Son Hyun-joo, Park Yong-woo, Park Ji-il, Chu Sang-mi. Broadcasting information in Korea: 2022/01/07~Now airing, Fri, Sat 21:50 on MBC, WAVVE.