Writer - Jang Hyeok rin
Network - tvN
Episodes - 16
Released - 2016, Sept - Nov
Genre - Thriller, Political
CAST
PLOT
Kim Je ha is a former solider for hire. He becomes K2 as a bodyguard of Choi Yoo jin. Yoo jin is the daughter of a chaebol family and the wife of presidential candidate, Jang Se joon. Ko An na is Se joon's secret daughter and a recluse. ~DramaWiki (w/edits)
REVIEW
I liked this one and I didn't like it.
And, what this is
actually about is corruption, greed, and political mayhem in very typical Korean Drama-style.
Relieved it only went for 16 episodes, too.
I was tempted to add FANTASY to the genre listings, but that is a stretch.
And, I know things are a bit different over there, but still . . . having a love child is still considered a death wish?
C'mon.
So, here's where I really didn't like things (the fantastical script aside).
Yoona's Ko Ah na.
Ugh.
It's just REALLY difficult to wrap my head around the idea of a grown woman behaving like she's still 9.
Being held against her will, always running away -- but at night and in bare feet and her nightgown -- and getting as far as a subway station but unable to figure out how to hop aboard the train?
Really?
She's from eminent wealth, too, so how is it that it never once occurred to her to steal something from someone's purse and make her escape in a logical and mature manner?
When she's back in Korea and still held captive at her stepmother's house, it still never occurs to her to make her escape.
She mopes, lies around, and avoids the guards yet somehow can't figure out how to turn on a stove.
Ri-ight.
Then she meets K2 and what does she do?
Whines, weeps, cries, sobs, and carries on (and on, and on) about the past; about her dead mother and what she thinks happened, what she believes happened, what might be true and what might not be true.
I was over this twit by the third episode and cared less about her plight from then on.
The inconsistencies baffled as well.
K2 falls in love and asks a foreign girl to marry him when she's gunned down right before his eyes and he goes berserk.
He's on the run after being framed for the murder and returns to Korea in search of the real killer when Choi Yoo jin starts threatening him by taking out anyone he's involved with.
K2 wants his revenge for that, too, so he hires in at Yoo jin's security team, buddying up to her and promising her husband he'll protect his daughter, Ah na.
Immediately, and I mean right away, K2 falls for Ah na.
But later in the show, he tells her he feels guilty about his not being able to protect the woman he loved, and then turns right around and promises Ah na he'll do everything he can to protect her.
Is this meant to be reassuring?
He's a mercenary for hire turned bodyguard, yet he's unable to shoot to kill because of PTSD.
Again with the ri-ight! remark.
If this was a Romance Novel, it would be panned something awful.
So then, let's just jump on ahead to the good stuff, shall we?
Ji Chang wook is still smokin' and abundantly so in K2.
His acting was superb (as always) with his unique (and rare) ability to transform himself on-screen so that what we're watching is a character come-to-life and not a hot actor playing the part.
Oh, and the shower scene that drove the censors up the wall? Hilarious!
I felt bad for Yoona, though.
When she sang Amazing Grace (at least I think it was actually her?) I was stunned, but beyond that, her character was too namby-pamby, whining baby, immature dolt for my taste.
There isn't a soul on earth who hasn't experienced some form of trauma in their lifetime, and while some do tend to carry that burden with them to the grave, it is just as rare for a grown adult to remain suspended in childhood animation well into adulthood.
Korean or not, she needed to get over herself years ago, and at some point say enough is enough, I'm my own person, I don't need my parents, so there.
But, no.
Back to the good stuff.
The central plot (and there are always several in a K-do) had to do with Yoo jin's UNbelievable ability to manipulate all of Korea with her wealth -- which, by the way, she'd forfeited decades earlier when she married Se joon against her father's wishes.
Somehow, and despite her having been ostracized from the Chaebol clan, Yoo jin still managed to amass a huge fortune, controlled a major share of her late father's holdings, and worked tirelessly to see that Se joon becomes the next president.
She's got enough power and money to create this totally cool MIRROR gimmick 9 floors beneath the company, but she's completely helpless against the people of South Korea when it comes to her step daughter's existence.
Can I get a huge eye roll, please?
And speaking of MIRROR and inconsistencies in the writing . . . K2 has to get everyone off that 9th level of Dante's hell before a bomb explodes, so what does he say?
"Shoot the elevator cables to send the car
down; it's safer that way."
How many more freaking levels below earth can a massive office building hold before it caves in on itself?
AND!
What makes K2 think he's being genius with that remark?
Excuse me, sir. Newton's Theory on Gravity proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that ALL THE THINGS must come
down . . . eventually.
So, the bomb goes off, nothing happens to the building or any of the people on the above floors, not even a massive fireball barreling up the elevator shaft!
Oh, and no rubble atop the disengaged elevator car, either.
Need another mass EYE ROLL here.
Still, I have to say this was worth it.
It was still exciting enough to try and overlook all the glaringly apparent Uh-uh's! that occurred and enjoy the rest of the show.
The intrigue was there and so was a good amount of fight scenes which, sorry to say, became over-the-top unrealistic toward the end.
That
Korean Men Don't Get Concussions thing occurred in the last episode and I had to shake my head.
The Million-Dollar Man kind of thing that always makes me laugh until I'm about ready to fall off my chair.
There were a few funny bits, and the sardonic banter that occurred between Yoo jin and her younger half-brother was pretty cool.
The background music was AWFUL and didn't fit the storyline or the mood at all.
Very annoying and had me muting most of the time.
So, it's too bad Ji Chang wook took this part because it fell way, too short of his last suspense drama,
Healer.
He's the main reason why I gave this one as high a mark as I did.
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| their expressions sum up the 'romance' in K2 |
