Dropped like a hot potato - Successful story of a bright girl (2002)

This is a new series of posts, for all the dramas I dropped recently and don’t indent to finish watching. 

It is one of the classic Korean dramas that made more or less Jang Hyuk and Jang Nara famous. I was prepared for the awful early 2000s fashion – I haven’t watched a series/movie that has escaped from that - and more predictable story line. I’ve watched old movies and dramas and if they had that extra factor to make them timeless, I loved them to pieces. And this is where the problem lies with this case. Successful story of a bright girl didn’t age well. 

It sets the tone and expectations from the first minutes, where a girl dreams of fighting school boys to protect her prince while the swan lake music plays in the background. Try to picture that. We have the standard jerk male lead, Ki Tae, and the standard country pumpkin female lead, Soo Ki. Their first meeting is with him falling with a parachute into the bathtub she is washing herself outside the yard of her house. He certainly knew how to make an entrance. Anyway, her parents have a huge debt so she agrees to work as a housemaid to repay that, because her bold and brave parents run away. So, we have several shenanigans between out hot-tempered hero and the equally hot-tempered heroin.

One of my biggest complains is the lack of chemistry. In the reviews I read, they compiented about the chemistry between Jang Nara and Jang Hyuk. I didn’t see it. At all. I could have watched this drama despite all the other misgivings, if the chemistry worked. But it didn’t. I understand that this is an older drama and things were less explicit then than now – if you can say that now they are explicit in comparison. For me, the body language didn’t show that. 

Here the actors were pretty much newbies, so the acting is the strongest, however the direction isn’t doing anyone any favors. And when we have the fashion and the music combined, well then, my eyes hurt a bit. When it comes to writing this isn’t a very eventful drama. An episode can pass by and almost nothing that moves the plot or the characters happens. And the characters are one dimensional and not that charming or winning. And in the second half it went to corporation drama territory, which was blah.
I think I wrote too many words for a drama I didn’t even like. If you want to watch it proceed at your own risk.

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City Hunter (2011) - Review

My comeback review is a very well known Korean drama, City Hunter. If you asked me how I can not have watched it before, you would be right. But as it always happens with me, I full my hard drives (yes plural) with all the dramas I want to watch and some are forgotten in some dark corner. This past few months I am trying a massive hard drive clean up and I have rediscovered some of the dramas I wanted to watch for the longest time.

What is this about:

In 1983, 21 South Korean military operatives are sent into North Korea on a secret mission. After completing their mission, they are executed by their own side by a government cover-up. The sole survivor, Lee Jin Pyo, takes his best friend’s son and raise him as his own to take revenge on the men responsible. Some twenty years later Lee Yoon Seong returns to Korea with one goal in mind: to find and bring down the five men responsible for the murder of his father. While bringing these men down, he also brings justice and he is given the nickname “City Hunter”.

My review:

It is considered one of the most popular kdramas and rightfully so. It had a combination of things, directing, writing, acting, and that extra x factor that makes everything click together and I think it is a very nice choice if you want to introduce kdramas to someone who like adventure/romance. It is very Korean, but at the same time it has a more international appeal, I think, due to the very skilled directing.

Yoon Seong aka City Hunter

Yoon Seong (Lee Min Ho) is more on the cleaner side of heroes/vigilantes. He has a weak arrogant persona in the day and a more heroic in the night, reminding a bit of Clark Kent/Superman, Bruce Wayne/Batman, a trope I simply love. The reason why this hero grew to me was his reason for not killing his enemies. He wanted to bring these people to justice so that their families will know the truth and won’t want to retaliate. Would this character benefit from a better actor? Probably yes. But I have to say that this is one of the best Lee Min Ho’s performances, maybe the best. The role had so many layers, from playful kid, to dutiful son that wants his father’s approval, to a hero, and he made the effort to embrace all of it. Really I miss the rawness Lee Min Ho showed in his acting here.  

Jin Pyo smiling at his best friend before hell broke loose

The other important character (and maybe more important that the city hunter himself) is Jin Pyo (Km Sang Joon). He was the emotional and intellectual force of this show. His story is tragic, one of the most tragic ones I have seen in dramas, and has scared him deeply to the point of no return. He treats Yoon Seong only as a tool to revenge, even though he supposedly raised him as his son. He wants the men responsible for the death of his comrades dead and he will do anything to achieve that, even break poor Yoon Seong’s heart. 

Yoon Seong’s relationship with his mother (Yoon Ye Hee) is a rocky one. Jin Pyo stole her little baby so he can train him as a human weapon and she is left alone to deal with the consequences. When Yoon Seong returns to Korea, he is with the impression that she didn’t want him, so it took him a while to know the truth and to deal with his own feelings. 

Nana (Park Min Young), the female lead, has her own heartbreaking story. But the reason why I love her is that she is honest with her feelings and has her own sense of right and wrong. She doesn’t convince me as a bodyguard, but her personality is so winning that I am not going to let it bother me that much. 

Prosecutor Yeong Ju (Lee Joon Hyuk) is the epitome of passionate advocate of law and justice. He wants to believe in the system and tries his best to work with it to bring the bad people to justice. But he is not a crystal white prosecutor. He has his own secrets that play significant role to why he behaves the way he does. One could say that he is the other side of the coin when it comes to City Hunter. While City Hunter uses not so legal ways to find evidence, Yeong Ju uses what City Hunter gives him to enforce the law. Their core beliefs are the same and, if they could get past their differences, they could be a team to be reckoned with. Also, I loved the intensity the actor brought to his character and I honestly can’t picture anyone else in his shoes.

City Hunter literally delivered the corrupted politician in a box

But all these talented actors could be wasted if the writing was not so good. But it is good. It is very good. Besides the strong multidimensional characters, what impressed me was the handling of revenge. In these types of dramas, usually there is a bid bad that our hero tries to overthrow and after twelve-fourteen episodes we have the resolution which can sometimes be anticlimactic. After so many hours of watching, was he beaten only in like twenty minutes? Here the writer used a group of five people as the bad guys, so the hero beats them one by one in the course of the drama. This resulted in a sense of progress, he is not trying to outsmart one guy for sixteen episodes, but five of them, one at a time. Also, it led to the bad guys being delivered to the prosecutor in sometimes funny ways. 

It had some beautifully shot scenes in Thailand

Last but not least, the directing made all of these work. The director was sure about what story he wanted to say and how to say. He did have a problem with effective cliffhangers in the first part of the drama, but he improved. He delivered one of the strongest first episodes in dramaland and an equally strong final episode, which is not an easy accomplishment. The final five minutes or so are a bit choppy, though, but I won’t fault the directing due to live shooting. Of course, the director had an expensive production behind him to support his vision and it really shows in the first two episodes.

One of my favorite scenes in the whole drama

Why you should watch:

• A revenge drama done right.

• Great writing. The writer created a full world with multidimensional characters.

• The revenge is not centered on one person, but five, thus creating progression and climax.

• It starts out strong and it finishes out strong – this is not always the case and should not be treated as guaranteed.

• Lee Min Ho delivers a raw performance, maybe his best. His hero is also very well written.

• We have the father of the decade in the face of Jin Pyo – excellent performance by Kim Sang Joon.

• Strong confident direction that delivers not only intellectually and emotionally but also visually.

Why not to watch:

• Well, if you are not into this type of dramas.

Final verdict:

10/10. One of the best dramas in revenge/action genre. I even recommended it even to those who don’t like that much the genre or Korean dramas in general.

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