Let's just cut right to it, this show was painfully boring. There, I said it. A story built around partial amnesia has real potential, but between the choppy scene structure and random flashbacks thrown in constantly, the whole plot ends up feeling more tangled than it needed to be. The romance doesn't fare much better either, it's written so poorly that I never really found myself invested in this couple. Both leads come across stiff on screen and deliver their lines in a really awkward way. The show runs 8 episodes, each somewhere around 30 to 35 minutes. Hanuel, a 29 year old language teacher, wakes up after an accident only to realize his memory stops at age 19. It turns out he'd been in another accident back then too, which is why his memories cut off at that point. He has zero recollection of the fact that he's currently living with his childhood friend Saebyeok, who's now a huge celebrity. That makes the whole situation even harder for Hanuel to wrap his ...
The documentary introduces us to several people who were targeted during these "witch hunts," and the stories they tell are gut-wrenching. They talk about living in total fear, being followed by investigators, and having their private letters read. The interrogations they went through sounded more like criminal trials than workplace meetings. We hear from an Army bandmaster who is still heartbroken over being treated like a criminal after years of loyal service. There's also a woman from the Women’s Royal Army Corps who describes the horrific experience of being forced into medical exams and pressured to snitch on other lesbians. Another veteran, a Naval radio operator, explains how she lost her entire identity and career in a single night. Finally, the film follows a high-ranking Navy Commander who took his fight all the way to the European Court of Human Rights. He helped start a group called Rank Outsiders, and even though they lost at first in the UK courts, they eventually won and got the ban overturned in 2000.
Even though the film talks to about fifteen different veterans, it focuses on a few specific stories to show just how cruel and humiliating this whole period was. I thought the pacing was spot on—it didn’t feel like it was trying to be "clickbaity" or over-the-top like some documentaries you see these days. One of the coolest parts was hearing an actual tape recording from an old investigation that a victim managed to get their hands on; hearing that voice from the past really made it feel real. The show works because it never loses sight of the human side of the story. Seeing these tough, military veterans break down in tears while talking about things that happened thirty years ago proves that these scars never really go away. It’s incredibly frustrating to watch because the cruelty was so unnecessary, but seeing them finally get justice in the end is a huge relief. Even though they don't use the word PTSD, it’s very clear that the mental and emotional damage is still there today.
This is a powerful and moving documentary that honors the bravery of service members who fought for the right to serve their country without living in fear. (7.5/10)
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