To Watch:
DramaFever
Cast:
Ji Chang Wook as Kim Je Ha
Choi Seung Hoon (최승훈) as child Kim Je Ha
Song Yoon Ah as Choi Yoo Jin
Im Yoon Ah as Go Anna
Lee Yoo Joo (이유주) as child Go Anna
Jo Sung Ha as Jang Se Joon
Kim Gab Soo as Park Kwan Soo
Lee Jung Jin as Choi Sung Won
Shin Dong Mi as Kim Dong Mi
Genre:
Action, Political, Revenge
Plot:
The presidential election is just around the corner and politician Jang Se Joon and his wife Choi Yoo Jin are gunning for the candidacy. Little do we know that Choi Yoo Jin is holding Jang Se Joon’s daughter as a hostage to control her husband.
Kim Je Ha is a soldier abandoned by his country and a mercenary for hire overseas, but due to political conspiracy, is forced to live on the run. He tries to live his life simply but an incident with Jang Se Joon and Park Kwan Soo tosses Je Ha back into a life of danger and revenge.
What will happen when Jang Se Joon’s daughter Go Anna returns to Korea? Will Anna discover the truth behind her real mother’s death? Will Je Ha find his revenge or will he will he choose to protect Anna?
Review:
Recently there has really been a down trend of Korean dramas capturing my interest, but I saw K2 get released on DramaFever and instantly loved it. Okay, I’ll be honest, actually I saw that Im Yoon Ah was casted to play a role and I just had to watch it. I was a huge fan of her in Prime Minister & I and was intrigued and a bit excited by the action/melodramatic premise of the show. I’ve heard great things about Ji Chang Wook lately but I never quite could finish watching his shows: Tornado Girl, Baek Dong Soo, and Smile Dong Hae.
In the end however, it was Song Yoon Ah’s performance as the cruel and calculating Choi Yoo Jin that really captured my attention. Song Yoon Ah played her part perfectly and by the end of the drama we come to see that she is only human, driven to extreme circumstances to protect what she believed most important. The sheer amount of emotion she conveyed in every scene was absolutely amazing. A slight change in her eyes, a subtle curve or tremble in the mouth, these all came together seamlessly. This is not to degrade the performance of the other cast members. Ji Chang Wook, Jo Sung Ha, and also Im Yoon Ah also complemented each other brilliantly. Mad props for Kim Gab Soo who plays the conniving assemblyman. He was by far one of the best politicians I have ever seen in a Korean Drama. His antics always made me chuckle but the best part about it is that it’s not meant to be comedic but rather a more unique and fresh way of portraying his corrupt and two-faced nature.
I couldn’t quite see the character that Im Yoon Ah was supposed to be. Her child hood trauma seemed to play into the story often but I couldn’t quite see it reflected in her character and her behavior. She didn’t seem as socially awkward as someone would have been had they undergone the same experiences she did, but she did play a consistent character at least in the sense of how she wanted to portray Anna. I felt like she was very naive for someone who had been controlled all her life, especially when Choi Yoo Jin’s brother Choi Sung Won tried to use her. By the way all the Choi Yoo Jin and Choi Sung Won scenes were brilliant as well. They made such a great pair of bickering siblings. All their words had deeper meanings and every conversation was like a battle of wits.
The music, action scenes, and overall progress of the drama were well put together, and if you are a fan of any of the cast members, this drama is definitely a sure win. There were indeed many places where I did not enjoy but that was mostly the story development in the final episode, which I explain later but read it only if you don’t mind the spoiler. The drama as a whole keeps you in suspense, and at a certain point, I can’t remember exactly when, but I started to root for Choi Yoo Jin. She became a character we could all relate to in some aspect, and even though she was ruthless she had her reasons.
I think if you just watch the drama for it’s action and superb acting you will enjoy the show immensely, but the overall story had some inconsistencies and annoyances that wanted to make me bang my head on a table.
Spoilers Stop Reading Here & Skip to the Rating
Probably my greatest gripes about this drama is how the show ended and also how Kim Je Ha’s character fell in love with Anna so quickly. Kim Je Ha has sort of a bodyguard complex. He is a protector of the innocent and the weak and has a compassionate heart toward those who are kind to him, but I couldn’t fully believe that he could fall in love with a woman just by watching her in security cameras.
The last episode of the drama almost made it seem like they were trying to create an epic finish but instead failed epically to deliver a believable ending. Just to be clear I will list them out.
1. Why didn’t they just drag out the bomb and dropped it into the elevator?
2. They could have rolled Choi Yoo Jin out of Cloud9 easily.
3. Why didn’t Je Ha bring backup into the underground basement at JSS.
4. Why did Se Joon and the Yoo Jin’s secretary come into Cloud9 without weapons?
So many things just didn’t make sense. I understand the writer has more experience and probably had a reason for doing everything but this is how I would have ended the drama.
1. Drag the bomb into the elevator and drop it down to explode harmlessly underground.
2. Choi Yoo Jin survives and becomes a real mother to Anna, who forgives her.
3. Se Joon becomes president and becomes a wise leader and treats Yoo Jin better.
4. Bring down the JB group.
I didn’t think that Yoo Jin had to die. I think the drama had set her up in a position near the end to redeem herself, and Se Joon too.
Rating:
Episodes 1-15: 4.7/5.0
Episode 16: 2.0/5.0
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