Critical Overview: Ms. Ma, Nemesis (Part One)

Critical Overview: Ms. Ma, Nemesis (Part One)

 

South Korean productions are enjoying some well-deserved attention and acclaim in recent years, most notably Parasite, which won the Oscar for Best Picture; Minari, which led to Youn Yuh-Jung’s Best Supporting Actress Academy Award; and Squid Game, the series that became a smash hit on Netflix.  Fans of the aforementioned works who are interested in watching more productions from South Korea, as well as Agatha Christie fans, might be interested in seeking out the recent South Korean series Ms. Ma, Nemesis.

 

Unfortunately, Ms. Ma, Nemesis is not widely available to American audiences as of this writing on major streaming services (to the best of my knowledge), though I write this post in the hopes that someday soon it will be.  I was able to watch it by buying an official, affordable Japanese DVD edition of it on eBay, with English subtitles. 

 

The series is based on numerous Miss Marple novels, primarily the titular Nemesis (it’s worth noting that at least one South Korean news source translated the title to Goddess of Vengeance), though The Moving Finger, A Murder is Announced, The Mirror Crack’d, and The Body in the Library are also incorporated into the plots, with the central villainous organization at the center of a murderous conspiracy taking its name from At Bertram’s Hotel.

 

The series transplants Christie’s mysteries to present-day Korea.  As I have stated many times before and will again in the future, I am a Christie purist.  I do, however, recognize that Christie is a global phenomenon, and I’m always interested to see how different cultures respond to Christie’s work and adapt her work.  Yunjin Kim (best known to American audiences for her role on Lost), plays Ma Ji-won, a mystery writer hiding a secret.  She was wrongly convicted of the murder of her young daughter, escaped from prison, and is now undercover, attempting to identify the real killer.  Over the course of thirty-two half-hour episodes, Ms. Ma makes unlikely friends and allies, discovers a conspiracy far greater than anybody imagined, and solves several other mysteries, many of which have unexpected connections to her own daughter’s case.

 

Ma Ji-won is a much younger version of Miss Marple with a vastly different background.  Christie fans will observe how the central mystery of Nemesis has been adapted to form the backbone of this series, and other novels see their crimes closely replicated in the South Korean equivalent of St. Mary Mead.  There are also lots of new characters, subplots, and plenty of original and radically reworked material.  More often than not, it works pretty well.

 

So, how well does this series work?  I will address that question in more detail in future posts…

 

 

 

–Chris Chan

 

 

Chris Chan’s first novel, Sherlock’s Secretary, was released on November 3^rd.  His book Murder Most Grotesque: The Comedic Crime Fiction of Joyce Porter was published by Level Best Books on September 7^th.  His first non-fiction book, Sherlock & Irene: The Secret Truth Behind “A Scandal in Bohemia” is available for sale at Amazon.com and the MX Publishing website, as well as at Book Depository (with free worldwide shipping there).  It is also available in a Kindle  edition.