Designated Survivor: 60 Days

Politics, Conspiracy, Terrorism, political technology - all these are quite difficult subject when it comes to film. Although those subject are fun but sometimes, they are not something that can be watched at leisure. So, again this series isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. But if you enjoy the topics I mentioned, don’t forget to check this one out as it provides a nice look into South Korean politics and problems.

Truth is, when I first read the title, I thought designated survivor was more of a survival apocalyptic film or some experiment about apocalyptic government and dystopian society. But I found out, apparently Designated Survivor 60 Days is adaptation from American series with the same title. After watching both, Designated Survivor 60 days is a lot shorter and more digestible than the main series. The main series were quite complex and the problem wasn’t really my thing. It’s why I prefer watching the 60 days and shorter version of the series than the original American version series.

There are differences between the original and adaptation series of it. Designated Survivor 60 Days is filmed in South Korea with a lot more shorter time frame than Designated Survivor from the US. The main difference is obviously how their constitution works which is the base of how the plot of the film will move.

In the South Korean Version, instead of the staff that survived it, it was one of the underdog minister who survived the bombing attack in the National Assembly of ROK(Republic of Korea). The minister was about to resign because he failed in securing a deal with the US regarding imported cars. But because it wasn’t proceed, the minister got lucky and eventually became the acting president of ROK as the president and the cabinets are all passed away.

The minister who had no political background and was from engineering major and was an environment minister found it hard to navigate live in the blue house. But with help of competent secretaries, he shortly rose to power and helped unveiling the conspirator behind bombing in the National Assembly of ROK.

Although the plot was solid, once you watched way too many South Korean film, the topics would remain the same. It was them vs North Korea and/or attempt to reach peace treaty because they’re technically still at war. It was the same with this drama where there was an attempt of peace treaty between two countries. What intriguing was that the country shown to be divided as they are also allies to the United States. So, in the film it was shown that one party wanted a peace but another wanted to maintain a good friendship with the United States. It was also hinted that the involvement of United States would certainly cause a war in the Korean Peninsula where there are China, Japan and North Korea.

Considering that this was intended for South Korean audience, I think that it was a good way to make people re-think about the involvement of United States. For outside audience, given the track record of the US, it was no wonder that somehow, they’re brokering, presence, even softly meddling in foreign countries affair. But there was also a part in the series that was showing how general south korean feel about the “discrimination act” where it was hinted towards the sexual minorities in South Korea. Generally, it was still seen as taboo which is why in that film and set within the government, even behind the curtain everyone was divided.

The series has good tier South Korean actor and actresses as well. In fact, one of my favorite actor Son Suk-Ku was taking a secondary main character in the series. The acting of each of them was quite believable and they were all young. It almost felt like watching a real governance at play and instead a film. Unfortunately, the ending was quite a cliffhanger but it was worth it and hopefully they’re thinking about making a sequel to this or season 2 because we would love to see more from the president and if he’ll be an actual president in the next series.