D. P.
Introduction
D.P. (an acronym for Deserter Pursuit) is a South Korean streaming television miniseries directed by Han Jun-hee, from a screenplay by Kim Bo-tong and Han, based on the Lezhin webtoon D.P Dog’s Day by Kim.
This miniseries shows painful reality of south Korean men’s struggle as they must fulfil mandatory military service, Trailer was promising and I was determined to watch Jung Hae-in in such masculine role. I must say, two leads going for “deserted back” mission is terrific to watch.
Story & Screenplay
The story unfolds showing Jung Hae-in as Ahn Joon-ho, a south Korean common man’s journey.
A pizza delivery boy who is enlisted in mandatory military service and how he gets mapped to a deserter pursuit unit, is strong definitely. This mandatory military service requires lots of mental and physical struggles and hell lot of patience. As Ragging, bullying are common culture shown in this series, new joiners are the easy target of all sorts of intensive abuses by superiors, many commoners escape their mandatory service midway, Here comes D.P. (Deserter Pursuit) team, their primary role is to return to normal civilian life to capture deserted soldiers and take them back to military service.
It’s a tough, adventurous journey of Ahn Joon-ho who teams up with Corporal Han Ho-yul to find the deserters. It’s heart wrenching to watch the pain of aspiring soldiers. This series beautifully shows soldiers everyday struggle for “Survival of the fittest” and the hierarchy structure in military service, as we all know if the structure is fragile and orthodox, every level of that structural hierarchy needs to pay for this.
Performance & Direction
Directed by Han Jun-hee, D.P is definitely an eye opener how bullying culture actually affects common people’s life, some deserts, some becomes revengeful, some loses confidence and goals in life and many gone to infinite.
This 6-episode series shows couple of desertion cases that Joon-ho tackles. Each case shows harsh reality of deserted soldier’s journey and it’s tough to investigate also. Screenplay is brilliant and it shows all cases without any flaw.
It’s not easy to portray real life misfortune, ill-behavior one receives, Jung Hae-in is such a versatile actor and “Something in the Rain” guy perfectly nails this character, I truly believe. His silent protest against all the sufferings, injustices, bullying that he and his fellow mates receive, are surely praiseworthy. Young Private Ahn Joon-ho’s maturity, sense of responsibility and courage are surely great assets that D.P. team requires and I am looking forward his journey in season 2.
Koo Kyo-hwan as Corporal Han Ho-yu is surely a stress buster for me in this series. This series is all about dealing with toxic mistreatment a solider receives in their military services and Han Ho-yu surely plays a key role to solve this problem, He has his own way to deal with all major serious issues. “A problem is only as big as you make it, feel it” and his comical presence with a sharp minded calm nature is great. I love the way he helps Joon-ho to grow professionally and emotionally. Their bromance rocks and I am looking forward more to see in the coming season.
Conclusion
D.P. is definitely a unique and complicated south Korean series that shows deep rooted problems soldiers face in their mandatory military services, starting from verbal criticism to serious beating. It surely throws bunch of questions to the society. As a viewer, it’s nerve biting and I wish to see a better tomorrow where no one will fight in the dark and empathy not bully will be the key to deal with any juniors.
It’s highly recommended from my end.
It’s currently available in Netflix.
Disclaimer: The above review solely illustrates the views of the writer.