The Asexual K-Drama Geek Reviews: Sisyphus

In my list of favorite K-Dramas, it would be impossible to not have at least one great science fiction story among them. I’ve been a huge fan of sci-fi since I was a young kid watching Star Trek and, as such, any well-told sci-fi K-Drama is going to become something I love and cherish. So when you tempt me with a clever time travel story lead by great actors with plenty of action, likeable characters, a dash of romance, and even a bad-ass heroine who loves my favorite band BTS? I’m sold.

That describes the 2021 drama Sisyphus (also known as Sisyphus: The Myth), which became an instant favorite for me. And, like many of my faves, I’ve watched this series more than once, my enjoyment of it only increasing as I revisit it and think on it again and again. To me, not only is Sisyphus a great series and a great sci-fi adventure, but it actually does many things that I as an aspec viewer appreciate and which I think leads to better storytelling. So today, let’s take a journey through time – back to when I first saw the series about a year and a half ago, that is – and discuss why I love and appreciate this show.

Summary

Sisyphus begins with genius inventor and CEO Han Tae-sul, a brilliant mind who struggles in his personal life with guilt and sorrow following his older brother’s death. Through a series of incredible circumstances, Tae-sul comes to believe his brother is actually alive, and even more spectacularly, meets a young woman who claims she has come from the future to find him. It turns out that Tae-sul’s company (and their new invention that allows matter to be transported) will be responsible for a nuclear war when their technology is eventually used to transport both people and objects through time – including a nuclear warhead.

Image description: Gang Seo-hae, bad-ass warrior girl from the future who combines the childlike wonder of her past with the harsh reality of her present

Although the show begins with Tae-sul and it’s his actions and inventions that are largely responsible for the plot, I’d argue the show’s main character is actually the woman who comes from the future to find him – Gang Seo-hae. Having been a little girl when the calamity is set to strike, Seo-hae spends her life learning to survive in the bombed-out world and hold her own. This continues until she eventually uses Tae-sul’s own invention to come to his time in an effort to prevent the war from ever starting in the first place. As such, it’s Seo-hae who moves a lot of the plot forward at this point, and in some ways she’s the hero of the story.

Together, Seo-hae, Tae-sul, and other unlikely allies they pick up along the way do their best to not only prevent the coming war, but to uncover the plot behind it and reveal a villain who comes directly from Tae-sul’s past. There are many questions to answer, secrets to uncover, and a fair amount of plot twists that kept me guessing until the very end. All of this is portrayed spectacularly by the talented cast full of well-known Korean actors, chiefly Cho Seung-woo (Tae-sul) and Park Shin-hye (Seo-hae), the latter of whom you may remember from my review of another drama, Memories of the Alhambra. They and the entire ensemble cast are brilliant and make the show, in my opinion, a compulsively watchable and highly enjoyable series.

My Thoughts/Review

As a sci-fi fan, I often see how much writers can struggle with time travel related plots – or, perhaps it’s more accurate to say, I often struggle with time travel plots as a fan. In my eyes, time travel is one of the hardest sci-fi tropes to execute well because the result tends to be either wildly cliché or immensely confusing, which is why these types of stories have to be crafted with care, dedication, and careful intentionality. I believe Sisyphus manages to do exactly that. Although I have seen a few reviews that describe the plot as confusing or plot-hold laden, I personally disagree, and think that all the time travel elements are handled extremely well, making them interesting and exciting, but also with enough logic to make sense.

Furthermore, I believe that every good piece of science fiction media needs heart as well as mind – an emotional core to go along with the more spectacular elements. Having great time travel elements or satisfying sci-fi shenanigans is all well and good, but I think that sci-fi is at its best when these elements are also grounded by stories about people. Sisyphus knows that lesson well, and the story is rich with great characters and great character relationships.

While the developing romance between Tae-sul and Seo-hae is central to the story, it’s not the only relationship in the forefront; rather, we get friendships, family dynamics, the complicated relationship between Tae-sul and his brother, the deep and loving bond between Seo-hae and her father, and so much more. In fact, even though the romance is well-portrayed, I actually think many of the other relationships shine through even more, and I think that’s great. It allows so many other characters to really shine – including Choi Jae-sun, who some of you may know is not just on my Best Boy List, but is actually one of my favorite best boys of all time.

The story doesn’t shy away from The Feels, either. It unflinchingly shows the difficulties of life for Seo-hae, the emotional heartache faced by Tae-sul and his brother throughout their life, and depicts the struggles even of the show’s villain in a way that has deep pathos. Giving all these characters such dimension makes everything that happens feel truly high stakes, and in so doing, does what all my favorite K-Dramas manage to do – keeps me guessing and emotional from its thrilling start to its open-ended conclusion (which, again, was something I really enjoyed).

The Aspec Stuff

As with pretty much all of my favorite K-Dramas, Sisyphus has no sexual content in it whatsoever. The worst that can really be said about it are a few scenes that make it clear Han Tae-sul has a reputation as a bit of a ladies’ man – and this is not meant to be understood as a good thing. Rather than him being a womanizer as a status symbol, I feel it’s kind of meant to be understood that this is one of the things he uses to cope with the disappointments, regrets, and hardships of his life, and is not emotionally fulfilling for him. Of course, most of this is largely implied rather than shown, which is something I always appreciate.

Speaking of things I appreciate, Sisyphus does feature romance, but I certainly wouldn’t describe the show as a romance. Rather, it’s an action-packed science fiction time travel story that happens to feature romance as an important part of the plot. That might sound like the same thing, but much like I said in my review of Memories of the Alhambra, I believe there is a huge difference between a story that is entirely or solely about romance and one that has romance as one of many elements. While there is of course nothing wrong with just being about romance exclusively – and there are plenty of K-Dramas that are primarily that genre – I tend to get disgruntled whenever a piece of media that used to be about something else get steamrolled by the romance, which is something many of my favorite K-Dramas manage to avoid.

Image description: Tae-sul assisting an injured Seo-hae

Another thing many of my fave K-Dramas manage to do is avoid falling into romantic tropes that I personally consider to be story traps. Sometimes, genre shows that also feature romance not only get steamrolled by romance plots, but they also get steamrolled by certain tropes of the romance genre that affect not only the story, but its characters as well. To me, one of the best examples of this is the trope of the love triangle, and how many love triangles end up devaluing all three characters involved.

Just recently on my main blog, in fact, I discussed how much I usually hate love triangles and why; in that same post, however, I also mentioned Sisyphus as an example of how to circumvent the problematic nature of the trope. If you’ve read my “How K-Dramas Do Romance” posts, you’ll know I also discuss the same topic there too. Although the concept of a love triangle isn’t an aspec issue, I’d nevertheless argue that the way this show handles its love triangle is part of what makes it aspec friendly when analyzed through my own personal lens.

The love triangle between Seo-hae, Tae-sul, and Jae-sun doesn’t feel to me like it diminishes any of the characters involved. Rather, it serves to highlight the parts of each character that makes them special – Seo-hae’s determination mixed with heart, Tae-sul’s ability to grow and become a better person, Jae-sun’s self-sacrificing and kind-hearted nature. To me, the best romance plots happen when the romance allows for a deepening of character, and that’s exactly what we see in Sisyphus. These characters are more than just love interests, and they’re more than just tropes. They’re individuals with whom we can relate and identify.

Love triangles feel like they make romantic relationships in media into weird competitions – there’s the object of romantic and/or sexual desire, the person who wins, and the person who is left out in the cold, sometimes with the consolation prize of another romance for their troubles. That never happens with this love triangle. As I said earlier, Seo-hae feels like the hero of the show, and as such, I feel it’s impossible to look at her and see a character who merely exists to be the object of sexual or romantic conquest.

Likewise, her relationship with Tae-sul isn’t just predicated on romance, and he doesn’t feel like someone who “won” her through sheer power of will or persistence, but because of the understanding he eventually shows for her and the way their circumstances develop. Jae-sun likewise has those things, and the fact of him not getting the girl is not a mark of personal failure, just one of her choice – a choice which is respected and honored. Additionally, Sun is not given another relationship as a prize, nor is he dismissed from the story as non-essential; instead, his presence in the story is seen as important just because of who he is as a person, not who he is as part of the love triangle.

By creating more complex characters and encouraging us as viewers to see them as such, I believe many K-Dramas like Sisyphus are doing something quietly great for storytelling and for consuming those stories as an aspec fan. Rather than distilling these characters down to romantic subjects, they let them be seen as people, which is a good reminder that not all of life has to function around romance exclusively. Romance can be there, and it can be a good thing, but it doesn’t have to be the only thing. And believe me, that is often the most fantastical type of portrayal out there, even in worlds where time travel exists, so I always appreciate it when it happens.

Image description: A promo image for Sisyphus, featuring Seo-hae and Tae-sul with the Sigma symbol that becomes so important to the plot later in the show

At its core, I feel like Sisyphus is a story about choices. All our main characters make choices in their life that they regret and wish they could change, and part of their journey involves not being defined by the choices of these past moments, and instead making better ones in the future. Through their own personal evolution, they attempt to save the world. While hopefully none of us ever have to make choices quite that grandiose and important, I think that theme makes it even more appropriate that Sisyphus, in my eyes, makes a lot of good choices with its characters and story.

Falling into bad storytelling conventions or unpleasant tropes is a choice, and it’s a choice that doesn’t have to be made. Sisyphus proves this – and proves that the choice to do better can lead to some great storytelling. I sincerely hope, whether I’m watching K-Dramas from the past or will find new ones in the future that haven’t even been created yet, that I can continue to see more dramas made in this mold.