“If a tree falls in a forest, and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”
It’s the classic question that’s posed repeatedly in Netflix’s newest thriller K-drama The Frog. At first glance, the show’s Korean title <아무도 없는 숲속에서>—which means “In the forest where no one’s around”—might seem more fitting than its curious English-language counterpart.
But there’s a Korean saying that goes, “A frog is hit and killed by a carelessly thrown stone.” That is, a thoughtless word or action can cause great harm to others. And in that sense, perhaps no other title is more appropriate for a series that expands upon this idea to show how the actions of a single person can have unforeseen ramifications for countless innocent bystanders, who inadvertently become victims themselves (“frogs”).
Directed by Mo Wan-il (The World of the Married, Misty) and written by rookie TV writer Son Ho-young, The Frog stars Kim Yoon-seok (Escape from Mogadishu), Yoon Kye-sang (Kiss Sixth Sense), Go Min-si (Sweet Home) and Lee Jung-eun (Parasite) and boasts an equally impressive supporting cast that includes Kim Sung-ryung (The Call), Roh Yoon-seo (Our Blues), EXO member Chanyeol (Memories of the Alhambra) and other notable names. (Fun fact: Yoon Kye-sang is also a member of the legendary first-generation K-pop group g.o.d, and the show’s writer Son Ho-young happens to share the same full name as one of Yoon’s bandmates, which initially sparked some confusion and laughter among Korean audiences.)
In this stylish eight-episode limited series, Kim Yoon-seok plays Young-ha, the owner of a vacation rental home tucked away in the woods. His tranquil life is abruptly upended when a mysterious woman named Seong-a (Go Min-si) shows up at his property. Sang-jun (Yoon Kye-sang) ran a motel in the same area 20 years earlier. Like Young-ha, he and his family’s lives are forever changed when he decides to rent out one of his rooms to a sinister-looking guest.
For fans of Korean crime thrillers, The Frog might feel somewhat reminiscent of TVING’s hit K-drama A Bloody Lucky Day (available globally on Paramount+), at least on the surface. Both series start off on a (mostly) upbeat note until roughly about three-quarters into the first episode, when things suddenly take a chilling turn. Like her role in A Bloody Lucky Day, Lee Jung-eun once again plays someone who’s determined to nab the culprit in The Frog. Then there are the creepy eyes in the title card for each show. Some of the themes, characters and character arcs presented in both thrillers seem similar, too.
But such superficial commonalities aside, The Frog spins its own intricate web of interconnected narratives, relying on unique plot devices and masterful use of lighting, colors and music to set the mood for each scene. However, the show struggles with uneven pacing. It tries a bit too hard to be clever and unsettling in the beginning, resulting in a painfully slow buildup that drags down the plot. Viewers may be tempted to drop the show after the first few episodes, but that would be a huge mistake, as the pace picks up in Episode 4, and things start to get very interesting in Episode 5. Episodes 6 – 8 more than make up for the molasses pacing of the first half. Still, the entire series probably would’ve worked better had it been condensed into four or five episodes instead of eight.
The story is told in non-linear fashion, constantly switching back and forth between the early 2000s (represented by the events surrounding Sang-jun and his family at Lake View Motel) and the early 2020s (associated with Young-ha and Seong-a). This might seem confusing at first, but the show somehow manages to guide viewers in quickly discerning the past from the present without explicitly stating the time period in which any particular scene takes place. And although it’s unclear in the beginning how the storylines involving Sang-jun and Young-ha are connected, everything comes together in the second half of the series.
Like many other Korean thrillers, The Frog takes a dig at issues that are at the forefront of South Korean society, such as the shortcomings of the country’s criminal justice system, school bullying and the abuse of power by the wealthy elite. And while The Frog contains some plot holes and characters sometimes do things that don’t make sense, that could probably be said of almost any thriller/horror show or movie. The brilliant acting performances alone—especially in the second half—make this series worth a watch.
Various characters in the show use the analogy of the unfortunate frog to allude to the fact that when people get caught up in a terrible incident, they often wonder why it’s happened to them. Why did they have to be the frog that gets hit by a stone? But every single one of us has probably experienced being a “frog” at some point in our lives. We’ve had bad things happen to us for reasons that were beyond our control. But ultimately how we choose to deal with the misfortune in our lives determines our fate. And this—as we saw in A Bloody Lucky Day—is perhaps The Frog’s core message.
The Frog is streaming now on Netflix.
