Nine Puzzles
나인 퍼즐
Disney+ / Hulu (2025) 11 Episodes
Murder Mystery, Grade: B+
Korean Drama Review by Jill, USA (No End Spoilers)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chopin
Nocturne 15 from the OST
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I've become a huge fan of the leading man
in this murder mystery melodrama titled Nine
Puzzles (2025), actor Son Suk Ku (Heavenly
Ever After, My
Liberation Notes, D.P.
1 and 2, Jirisan,
Mother),
and so I was not about to miss this drama, even
though I am not the biggest fan of serial killer
murder mystery stories and most of the time I tend
to avoid them. It's not just because of his rugged
handsome good looks and impressive masculinity on
screen that caused me to become enamored with Son
Suk Ku, rather it's mainly because he's so versatile;
he can play any type of character with total
brilliance and have you hooked on his performance
from the first moment he enters a scene. In this
drama he had very nice on-screen chemistry with his
younger leading lady Kim Da Mi (Itaewon
Class, Our
Beloved Summer); as the drama
progressed one could sense that his character had
grown more than a little fond of her character, and
it became quite endearing, even though there was
never any overt romance depicted between their
characters.
At only
eleven episodes one could breeze through this murder
mystery fairly quickly. My only mild criticism of
the drama is that I wish there could have been more
flashback scenes so that the audience could
understand a little more clearly -- and sooner --
why each of the eight murder victims in this story
were bumped off. With each dead body discovered a
black and white illustration puzzle piece was left
near the victims. The audience therefore knew that
all the puzzle pieces would have to be fitted
together as a whole picture to help give police more
of an idea about who the serial murderer could be.
The drama writer was Lee Eun Mi, who had written one
of my top favorite suspense K-dramas, Tunnel,
in 2018. Perhaps I was expecting more from this
drama just because Tunnel
had been a veritable masterpiece that I had graded
an A+. To be fair, I think that drama had a much
bigger budget, and more episodes, so that may have
accounted for some of the overall quality
differences.
The
Story:
A quirky high school
aged girl named Yoon Ena (Kim Da Mi), who was
raised by her ex-cop uncle Yoon Dong Hoon (Ji
Jin Hee, cameo) after the death of her parents,
returns home late from school one night only to
find her uncle in a pool of blood, dead on the
floor, his carotid artery stabbed with an awl.
Ena goes into shock and right after discovering
his dead body finds an odd black and white
puzzle piece in her hand; she has no
idea how it got there. Ena blunts the memory of
what she saw -- and heard -- that horrible night
and she actually comes under suspicion for the
murder by the local police department, including
a chief of police named Tae Dong Su (Jeong Man
Sik) and a rookie detective named Kim Han Saem
(Son Suk Ku).
Han Saem finds it
very suspicious that Ena claims not to recall
what happened to her uncle that fateful night.
There is no concrete evidence proving Ena the
murderer of her uncle so the police can't arrest
her. She is put into therapy at the local
Sunshine Mental Health Clinic (what a name!)
under the guidance of therapists Lee Seung Joo
(Park Gyu Young, excellent performance!) and
Hwang In Chan (Roh Jae Won).
Therapists Who Rarely
Smile ....
Ten years go by and
now Ena has become a professional criminal
profiler. She has been a member of the criminal
analysis team at Seoul Metropolitan Police
Agency for several years and is usually the
first on the force to figure out the motive of a
murderer from the evidence at a crime scene.
Ena meets Han Saem all over again, who had been
convinced in the past that she killed her uncle.
Slowly but surely they begin to work
constructively on murder cases together and Han
Saem can't help but be impressed by Ena's
attention to detail. Then suddenly more murders
begin to take place where black and white puzzle
pieces are discovered by the victims' bodies.
This of course makes the police force think that
all these new murders are connected in some
way(s). The connections seem to be related to
the construction of a luxury apartment complex
called One City, and to the former occupants of
a nearby orphanage.
At
one point even a member of the police force
falls under suspicion, as the puzzle piece
serial murder cases increase in number. His
name is Yang Jung Ho (Kim Sung Kyun,
excellent performance!) who is in charge of
the violent crimes division at the police
department. Detective Han Saem feels very
close to this man and is shaken to his core
when Jung Ho is arrested.
Just around this
same time criminal profiler Ena begins to
have some of her memories restored to her of
the night her uncle was murdered and Jung Ho
is let go. He actually confronts whom he
thinks is the real murderer and that
coincides with Ena's restored memories too
so she too confronts whom she suspects is
the serial murderer in the puzzle piece
cases. It does not go well for this person
in the end! (I won't reveal who it is here,
you'll have to watch the drama and find out
for yourself!). :)
In the last
minute of the drama they pull a teaser that
makes it obvious this production team is
hoping for a season two to their drama. This
kind of teaser at the end of K-dramas today
has become so frequent now it's rather
amusing to me because they rarely ever work
to gain additional seasons, and the actors
move on to different projects so it becomes
almost impossible to bring them all back
together at the same time for a season two.
However maybe the teaser here might actually
work this time since Nine Puzzles
has become the most watched Korean drama on
Disney+ / Hulu. I wouldn't mind a season two
at all.