Bong-seok's classmates soon learned what he meant when he told them to never, ever let him drift off. Photos: Handout
Admittedly late to the Moving party here. All because it looked, at the outset, like a teen rom-com with "special ability" hijinks: a boy who starts to float when he loses focus, for one.
Whoa. It turned out to be more than just that, and way, way more.
Not too far into its 20-episode run, Moving – adapted by artist/screenwriter Kang Full from his 2015 webtoon – began giving me some serious Heroes vibes.
As in that 2006 Tim Kring series' glorious first season, sadly done in partly by the writers' strike during its second year, but mainly by just taking itself too seriously after its initial success.
Moving, with its look at seemingly ordinary people with extraordinary gifts, harks back to that brilliant debut season, but is its own beast, with many outstanding moments and audience hooks of its own.
It flies off in so many different directions, yet still keeps us riveted and never leaves our minds idle long enough to wonder what's going on elsewhere in its layered universe.
'I really don't see why we have to keep using the elevator when your boyfriend there can fly.'
Kang's adept juggling of scenarios, timelines and characters, deftly visualised by directors Park In-je (Kingdom Season Two) and Park Yoon-seo, should serve as a masterclass. With the folks behind Lost, and all those other high-concept/mystery box series that meandered off course and left audiences feeling indifferent, taking some serious notes.
It didn't even bother me that the young lead characters Bong-seok (Lee Jung-ha), Hui-soo (Go Youn-jung), Gang-hoon (Kim Do-hoon) and the older (but also heroic) bus driver Gye-do (Cha Tae-hyoon, My Sassy Girl) dropped out of sight for the entire middle third of the season.
Simply because, when the necessary backstory rolls around involving their parents, it is served up as a delicious smorgasbord that's part conspiracy theory, espionage tale, awkward romance, gangster epic (heck, more epicness in an hour-plus than some nearly-three-hour Hollywood gangster wannabe-epics), South-vs-North intrigue – and all of it absorbing.
It's here that the adult cast takes centre stage and shines, including Zo In-sung (The Great Battle), Kim Sung-kyun (Fiery Priest), Han Hyo-joo (Heaven & Earth and we're-all-connected alert: she was also in Prime Video's Treadstone, created by Heroes main man Kring) and Ryu Seung-ryong (Extreme Job, Kingdom, Miracle In Cell No. 7).
'That's my secret, Cap ... I'm always angry.'
The faint of heart should note that Moving is not exactly a bloodless outing – far from it, the show's gorier bits rival even the crimson-drenched Project Wolf Hunting. (TBH, I've not seen such schoolgirly savagery since Gogo Yubari.)
Yet even through the red haze that tints some episodes, Moving never loses sight of its humanity: from characters who've hit rock bottom to those forced into inhuman acts by duty and heartless superiors (take a bow, Moon Sung-keun), from parents taking extreme measures in protecting their kids to youngsters coping with the additional complication of superpowers in their already chaotic adolescence.
Even when the seeming Big Bads of the climactic showdown (you need to set aside a good four hours to watch it right through) arrive, Kang reminds us that they too are people, with revelations and flashbacks that only raise the stakes of the various confrontations in the finale.
Bottom line: Moving strikes a perfect balance of sweet and unsavoury with hardly a sour note – undoubtedly the best thing I've watched on TV all year.
Sure, it gets corny; it's unavoidably derivative given the superhero saturation in mass entertainment; and is perhaps too busy for its own good (you'd think) – but never for a moment is it anything less than compelling. Ultimately, it is undeniably ... moving.
All 20 episodes of Moving are available to stream on Disney+ Hotstar. (PSA: Post-credits scenes in Ep 20.)
Summary:
Save the PE student. Save the world.
