The Manipulated VS Fabricated City
- 6 hours ago
- 5 min read
It's a bit late: "The Manipulated" already aired and is finished, and "Fabricated City" has been out since 2017. But if you still haven't seen the film or the drama, here's my two cents:
Watch the film!
If you're curious about my opinions on them separately, here's the review of "The Manipulated", and the review of "Fabricated City" will be out on the 27th of March!
There will be spoilers in this post!
Which one did you like more, film or drama?
The same screenwriter created both the film and the drama. It even has the same composer, but the difference in quality might lie with the changed director.
"Fabricated City" and "The Manipulated" have all the same plot points with just a few differences.
Cannon events:
Getting a call from a stranger.
Random arrest of the person who didn't do anything.
Trial
Prison time
Getting out of prison
Finding out what's happening
Revenge
In the film, everything happens more quickly, and compared to the drama, it doesn't have filler. The trial lasted only a few minutes, as well as the hardships in prison.
This structure seemed better.
We don't have a random "Squid Game" moment; the prison break makes sense and is not dragged out. It helps to keep viewers' attention and makes you guess what is coming up next.
After watching the film, the drama seems as if they didn't know what to do with the given time.
As mentioned, they run away from prison. Kwon Yu injures himself, and while he is driven to the hospital, he runs away. On the other hand, Park Tae Jung tries to think of a way to escape prison, and almost succeeds, until the drugs start working on him. He gets out into the world after Tae Jung is transported to the prison that the villain created.
It feels unnecessary to include the second runaway, as we could have spent more time in different areas.
The endings for both film and drama felt a bit rushed.
This was a part that the drama could have fixed, but it made the same mistake. Somehow, even worse than its predecessor.
"Fabricated City" has a sequence of them trying to run away, while gangsters and police are chasing them. It's unrealistic as their car flies from a third or second-floor building, but at the end of the day, it was amusing to watch.
The police get Kwon Yu, and everyone is filming the arrest, so how will the bad guys be taken down?
"The Manipulated" has Park Tae Jung fighting the bad guys for the last time, but there are hardly any stakes. We already know that he has plot armour and won't die.
He sees a video of his brother dying, which is already known to the viewer. The breaking point that we saw in "Fabricated City" doesn't happen here.
The biggest difference between these two is the characters. Even if Ji Chang Wook portrays both main leads, they're complete opposites.
Park Tae Jung ("The Manipulated") is very diligent, yes he doesn't have a lot of money, but he tries his best to earn it. He has different part-time jobs, and is only now starting to create his dream.
That is one thing that the drama did really well. Setting up his character helped a lot to prolong the trial. He has receipts of where he was at one time, and he has video evidence to prove things.
On the other side, Kwon Yu ("Fabricated City") doesn't have a job; he relies on his mother and goes to a PC cafe to play games. That's why when he gets a chance to receive quick money, he accepts.
He was also an athlete at some point in his life. That is the only information we have about him.
That's why I'm not surprised some people wanted to get a drama version of it. There are places to develop, for example, characters, but they went a different route.
Both the film and the drama have some unrealistic aspects: driving through a news studio in "Fabricated City" or not dying after severe injuries in "The Manipulated".
Some parts can be ignored, but now that I know that there was a chance to make it logical, it makes me mad.
What bothered me a lot was Park Tae Jung's background. He is a florist who has various part-time jobs (we only see him doing deliveries), but he is also very knowledgeable with technology, knows a lot about cars, and trains himself to fight.
While we have Kwon Yu, who seems pathetic at first, but was an athlete. Another prisoner makes a comment that Yu knows how to protect himself from being hit in crucial parts.
He doesn't know how to hack into computers or check CCTV footage.
Personally, the "Fabricated City" villain was way better for me. He was more composed, yes, he still had his moments to show why he's doing it all. To show his true self as a psychopath without feeling too cartoonish.
"The Manipulated" villain was the opposite; he was very eccentric.
This would not have felt so bad if we had some connections to the film. "Fabricated City" ends with the manager of the law firm saying that the villain is replaceable. So connecting that line to the drama where we now have someone else would have been great.
But now they're different worlds, and I'm left to complain about it.
Because Park Tae Jung is so incredible, we have only two sidekicks by his side. Which is an old man, No Yong Sik, who gives him a place to live and his daughter, No Eun Bi, who tries to help too. There's a nice police officer, too, but he barely does anything.
It's interesting how the drama has more time but also has fewer characters for us to like.
In "Fabricated City", we have Mr Hairy, Demolition, Yeobaeki Mi and Yongdosa. They help Kwon Yu with hacking and other things that don't include fighting. It felt balanced having the main lead know how to fight while the brain is somewhere else with other little helpers.
However, there was no time to get to know the team. No background stories, barely any personalities, too.
The prison villain was more cruel in "The Manipulated"; Yeo Deok Su tried to do anything to destroy Park Tae Jung. While Deok Su in the film felt more comedic, a bit stupid to be the leader of a gang.
I don't mind either version as they both served their purpose.
If the film were redone as a drama, it would have a strong potential to be amazing. There would be a time to show what Kwon Yu was going through. Why did he turn to gaming instead of continuing to be an athlete? There would be a chance to showcase his team's personality and their work together.
However, the drama completely turned away from it and made the same mistakes. It now has even more time for fillers, like car racing!
My only wonder is if I would've given a bigger score for the film (I gave it 8) if I hadn't seen "The Manipulated". If I didn't know the plot and what to expect.
If you watched the film, congrats, don't watch the drama. If you watched the drama, sorry, but there's a better version. There is no need to watch it, though; the plot is the same.
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