“Hello God” is one of the more interesting, and maybe the sweetest, retellings of Daniel Keyes’ 1958 short story “Flowers for Algernon.”. It was first published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in 1959. It was expanded into a novel in 1966. Both won awards, the Hugo for the short story and the Nebula for the novel. Algernon was a mouse on which the surgery was first performed. The short story and novel tell the story of Charlie, the first human subject. “Hello God” treats the story well, with added side stories and some laughs that keep one’s interest throughout the series. The acting is good, with Yoo Geon doing a credible job of portraying Haru’s transformation. Kim Ok Bin shines as Suh Eun-hye who is the other character we see change the most. All in all a good cast.
The one big disappointment for those of us who speak only English was the very poor English subtitles. They made the story almost impossible to follow in places and robbed the story of much of its impact, I suspect. Certainly not up to the standard we see in most of the Korean series.
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