As someone with a keen interest in media and showbiz, Big Issue which revolves around paparazzi and the dark side of entertainment is totally the kind of genre that I like and successfully reeled me in from its first episode.
Fast-paced and intriguing, this drama revolves around the lives of the paparazzi photographers and the over-the-top lengths they go to, eg. hiding and crawling into some ventilation pipes to peep through the wall to snap pics, for an incriminating shot of the scandals the rich and famous are embroiled in.
Of course, our male lead Joo Jin Mo has a sad past in which he lost everything in one day due to a picture he took during his stint as a photojournalist in a big paper, and I’m sure there is a conspiracy somewhere that will take time to come to light as the story progresses.
In the first episode, we already see Han Seok Joo (acted by Joo Jin Mo) doing dangerous tasks with no regard for his safety like climbing atop of a moving train just so as to fulfil his mission of getting a shot of a celeb gambling. All these dangerous moves in return for his estranged child’s address. And the person who promises him this address is Ji Soo-Hyun(acted by Han Ye Seul), the chief editor of a notorious paparazzi media.
There are many ethical issues and conflicts behind every paparazzi shot, such as the infringement of privacy, whether it is ok to trespass into another place just so as to take a picture, even if the picture is a worthy one? Is it ok to snap a picture of someone who is dying or should you throw down your camera to help the dying person?
I think this is a very interesting and different theme from the usual Korean dramas and I would like to see how the drama revolves and play out all these ethical issues as we follow the lives of the paparazzi team.
Rating: 8.5/10. Great watch though it may seem far-fetched at times.
Chasing Carefree 