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The Gist: Friends and comrades, Lee Jin-pyo (Kim Sang-joong)
and Park Mu-yeol (Park Sang-min) are ready to do their country proud when they
are called to a secret mission: assassinate North Korea’s high ranking officials.
However, mid-duty, South Korea’s leaders decide the mission could lead to
scandal and take out their own men to hide their secret. Protected by his
friend, Jin-pyo is able to escape back to his homeland as the only survivor. He
then abducts Park’s son, names him Lee Yoon-sung (Lee Min-ho) and trains him
fiercely in combat to one day avenge his father. That moment comes when Yoon-sung
gets a job at the Blue House (Korea’s White House), where he is poised to take
down the five people who commanded his father’s death. Things are complicated,
however, when he begins to take notice of the president’s daughter’s bodyguard,
Kim Na-na (Park Min-young). Her increasing interest in him threatens to expose
his identity as City Hunter as he fulfills his uncle’s quest or revenge.
Love:
1.The Action
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Lee Min-ho is proving himself much more than a pretty face as he fights his way through the romances he’s cast in. One of the things that make this drama worthwhile are the tension filled fight scenes. Well set and choreographed, the battle sequences are charged and exciting, perfectly displaying our feature character.
2.The Romance
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Of course it’s going to be complicated when a bodyguard to the President’s family falls in love with a terrorist, which is really what Yoon-sung is. I’m surprised at how sweet the moments between the two macho types got. For someone as stoic as a bodyguard, Na-na is totally adorable. When Yoon-sung is staying with her is really when the drama gains traction.
Meh:
1.Slow Start
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The entire first episode had me bored out of my skull for how action packed the whole thing was. I don’t really care for the politics of the show and I felt like it took too long to find its footing. That said, I’m glad I stuck with it because it definitely does pick up as time goes on.
2.Lee Jin-pyo
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You have to feel bad for the guy, I mean, his country betrayed him and his best friend dies. That really doesn’t warrant stealing his son and raising him to be a killing machine, but whatever. Still, I never made a good connection with Jin-pyo. You feel bad for him and he’s the only father figure Yoon-sung knows, but his obsession makes him bitter and unlikable. However, considering that most of this dissonance I feel for the character is intentional, I’m letting it slide as a decent device by the drama.
Hate:
1.The Politics
Honestly, I feel totally split about this show. I really
like the personal aspect and the chemistry between our two leads, but the
political backdrop and constant ranting from characters we don’t know about
made me seriously disinterested. The revenge is the backbone of this show and I
just couldn’t possibly care less about it. I know in my head I should care, but
it just wasn’t that interesting to watch any of the officials converse. Min-ho’s
other show, Faith, does a better job of mixing the political with the personal.
So:
Final Grade: C
Picture credit: dramacrazy.net
Picture credit: dramacrazy.net
The longer this went, the worse it got. I'd agree with the "C". One of those where I watched it all to see what happened in the end and that was the only reason.
ReplyDeleteI so agree! I think the more it focused on the plotting and less on the relationships, it just left me a bit uninterested, which is a shame, since I liked the actors well enough. Oh well, they can't all be winners.
DeleteI am the odd woman out, this was one of my favorite Korean dramas. Maybe I just have more tolerance for plotting and adventure arcs that are built on a series of quests. However, if I were going to show it to the average American, I would probably skip the first 30 minutes of episode one, because that was just egregious. But I did like the Thailand half of the episode.
ReplyDeleteI have come to the conclusion that the only thing that possibly explains Jin Pyo's mad, obsessive and excruciatingly long, drawn out revenge is that the best friend was actually his lover. Shakespeare would have trouble following some of his convoluted plotting. Seriously, he's Special Ops and cold-blooded as fuck, he would have had no trouble torturing the truth out of the Assemblyman-guy when he first gets back to Seoul.