REVIEW: ‘Connect’ is Genre-Blending Perfection

Hulu has been expanding its library of South Korean content this year, and now, it’s bringing a Studio Dragon production with teeth to the United States. Takashi Miike is a genre genius. His ability to capture body horror, hyperviolence, action, and thrillers is unmatched, as is the sheer number of films he’s directed and written. Now, with Connect, a South Korean series from Studio Dragon, viewers get lowered into a thrilling body horror story about an immortal and his eye. The six-episode series stars Jung Hae-in, Ko Gyung-Pyo, and Kim Hyejun and is also written by Masaru Nakamura, Heo-dam and is adapted based on the webcomic of the same name by Shin Dae-Sung.

Connect would make Cronenberg proud with its exploration of bodies, autonomy, and the pleasure and capitalism involved in it all. The series follows Ha Dong-Soo (Jung Hae-In), a new immortal mankind called ‘Connect,’ who is kidnapped by a gang of organ harvesters determined to take his eyes. After suddenly waking on an operating table following the surgery, Dongsoo can escape without one eye and later discovers that he can still see out of his missing eye, which is now being used by a serial killer, Oh Jin-Seob (Ko Gyung-Pyo),  who has been terrorizing the residents of Seoul. Determined to get back what was taken, Dongsoo pursues the serial killer, taking whatever steps necessary to make himself whole again and maybe stop a killer in the process.

Actor Ko’s work as Oh Jin-Seob is phenomenal. He’s polite, sexy, and a competent employee at work, but underneath it all, he has a bodily obsession that manifests in his killings. An artist, Jin-Seob, is actually a cold-blooded serial killer whose particular sense of superiority feeds his need to make art and to do it by controlling the human body. The easiest way for me to recommend Connect is to like its brutal murders to those depicted in Hannibal. 

They’re violent but methodical. They’re horrific but also portrayed as art by the killer, as statues are frozen in time. It’s a terrifying balance of grotesque and beautiful, and Miike and his team know this. Each murder scene is shot as an art exhibit, the camera panning up across the body and moving across the entire scene. It’s consistently unsettling and, when paired with the body horror as Dong-Soo’s body is cut, ripped, and torn apart, is perfect. The clean, artistic killing of Jin-Seob against how Dong-soo’s body is maimed repeatedly creates a tension that builds moment after moment.

Connect’s focus on a body that will continually heal itself and mend its broken parts allows Miike’s excessively gory style to shine brightly. Cut off an arm, and the blood pours as veins like tentacles reach to reconnect the severed limb. It’s all a lot, and visually, most of the effects are spot on, but even when they waver in their fidelity, they’re over the top in a way that fits everything that we know Miike for. In fact, given the series’ takes on body horror and violence, Miike is the only director I could see tackling this webcomic adaptation. In fact, while the story isn’t entirely faithful to every event in the webcomic, the visuals don’t hold back. Additionally, the way the series uses the same horror visuals from a romantic angle in the penultimate episode showcases the depth of what sci-fi body horror can create.

That said, a series is only as good as its characters, and the constant push and pull between Jin-Seob and Dong-Soo is excellent. Dong-Soo holds no power in life, consistently on the bottom rung of the societal ladder and abused for it. Jin-Seob, on the other hand, has it all, a job, a girl, and a fancy house to show his wealth. He has power, and his serial murders are an extension of maintaining it. When Dong-Soo crashes Jin-Seob’s world, the tension is thick. For Jin-Seob, it’s a violation of the power that he’s carefully crafted. Someone can look into his life, see his evil, and he can not look back the other way. For Dong-Soo, he has to witness the violence and ultimately be powerless to stop it. It’s a dance between who has power and who doesn’t, with a tempo that ebbs and flows as the story develops.

Actor Jung has always brought emotion and vulnerability to roles as a romantic lead. Here, he explores personal grief and pain in a way that stretches his already dynamic acting range. As Dong-Soo, he’s a fantastic leading man. He carries loneliness and fear that transforms throughout the series as he grows close to another connect and tries to stop Jin-Seob.

Connect is a sci-fi horror crime thriller that succeeds in every way. A genre-blending series that only Takashi Miike could bring to life, it should top your list of television this year, and at only six episodes, there is no excuse not to hit play.

Connect is streaming now exclusively on Hulu.