Rugal (2020)

Tell, why show?

Unfortunately, Rugal is a drama that demands you turn off your brain and just go with the flow. I only finished this one because of the world pandemic (unable to go out) coupled with the convenience of airing on Netflix. Unless you're looking for a mindless action-fest, you'd be better off moving to better things.

PLOT: A Plot Hole Fest Served with Bad Writing
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The drama started with some promise, if not originality, but went downhill fast when it began to rely too much on action, eye candy, and special effects to make up for the writer's lack of experience and painfully simplistic narrative. The story really makes no sense and left no impression. Things happened because "reasons", twists were added because "why not?" and characters acted and reacting according to the "rule of cool" rather than logic.

If you are looking for a well-thought-out, or at the very least decent story, this is certainly not it.

CHARACTERS: Simplistic, Inconsistent and Unrelatable
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Rather than go through each character individually, I'll talk about them in general since none of them really stood out. One of the show's biggest flaw is the writer's inability to create complex characters. Consequently, they all feel borderline cartoony. Think shonen anime where the only focus of the writer is to pile love and adoration onto Gang Gi Bum (ML), who I'm almost certain became Do Hyun's (the writer's) self-insert (aka Gary Sue).

Gang Gi Bum quickly becomes the sole focus of the story, the strongest among all the Rugal members, adored by both allies and enemies... he is a walking plot-line -- or rather, a stumbling one. You can connect every story to him in an egotistical way which not only grew old fast, but allowed no room to develop any other characters.

Perhaps the biggest aggrievance of all was the disservice rendered towards the four female characters who appear on more than one episode of this drama --none of which were unfortunately fleshed out or given agency.

The two female "antagonists", for example, were useless. Argo's chairman's treatment was especially jarring. We were often told by other characters that she was cool, that she shouldn't be underestimated, that "you don't know what she's capable of" only to be shown... absolutely nothing. Again, the writer wanted to claim she's strong/cool/influential without actually giving her agency to show those things. And it's the same thing with Susan, the female scientist of the show. Where we're told by other characters all these things about her personality because she doesn't even have enough air time to develop her...

Of course, the most inconsistent was poor Song Mi Na, the lone female member of Rugal. She went from being the second-best of the team to become the weakest link; complete with a few badass in distress scenes --which were promptly excused by the writer though characters exchanging comments regarding "how strong she is" and how "impressed they were with her". In so doing, the Do Hyun created a laughable cop-out for only showing her distress and having all her badassery apparently happen off-screen...

At the end of the day, the lack of depth the entire cast of characters was riddled with meant I couldn't connect, relate, or even care for any of them. I was never rooting for them to succeed. I was also unconcern whenever they were "in danger". They were wrapped in such a thick layer of plot armor, that it stood to reason they would come out victorious in the end. Heck, even the characters seem keenly aware of their plot armor (especially the ML) because they never displayed an ounce of fear, which marks an author as lacking experience and the confidence of putting his beloved characters through the grinder.

Which leads us to the next point.

WRITING: Amature. Tell, why show?
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I could tell right away the writer didn't have experience because he relied a lot on exposition. Meaning he spoon-fed the audience the story through character dialogues rather than having us reach the conclusion he wanted through scene development.

A good writer will show, rather than tell. If he wants us to feel bad for a character, he'll dedicate time to showing how the character suffers rather than having him say "I'm so sad" in a short conversation. Although the process of showing will be longer, the result will be more powerful.

Simply put, if the audience is not moved to tears when a character cries on the screen... then the emotional buildup wasn't done correctly. In this case, telling us what the characters were feeling through dialogues resulted in a sense of disbelief and disconnect, which made me unable to empathize with any of them.

OVERALL [TL;DR]
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Learn from my painful experience and skip this one if you're looking for a good show. The writing is atrocious, the fights grew old fast, the plot is messy and inconsistent, the characters lack complexity... In fact, the only thing Rugal has going for it was the eye candy, which suffered when they went full emo style with the ML. But even these leather-clad men aren't worth muscling through the diary of a fourteen-year-old who self-inserted into a fantasy where he's the center of the universe; men want to be his sidekicks, women want to bed him, enemies fall in love with him and everything happens based only on the "rule of cool".

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Started pretty brilliant, halfway or so through started falling apart

I LOVE the premise of this. God how I love it! Unfortunately, between a director who has, in the works I've seen, been pretty choppy about putting scenes together and a writer with no drama experience on paper, it has seriously fallen apart in ways that make it only watchable for the action and fx... The dialogue became downright "12 year old fanfiction" level corny and the core emotion, as well as the actors depicting it moment to moment, gets rather lost when, you know, you don't put the scenes together logically.

It had massive potential. Japan could seriously take this and do something magnificent, I think. It is YET ANOTHER instance where anything remotely involving sci-fi elements becomes a handicap simply because it's airing in Korea and in turn made by people who grew up with this odd inability to take notes from over 40 years of badass content worldwide. I just want to sigh.

I'm still giving it a 7 because Park Sung Woong and (weird Japanese 90's hair aside) Choi Jin Hyuk and Jo Dong Hyuk all kill their scenes and Park Sun Ho is awfully cute in this... though made a bit of a wimp overall except for one episode he was allowed to be a bit strategic. The worst offense is Bradley: Jang In Seob's character. SO MUCH POTENTIAL and I really like that there's a backdoor to communicate with these people because of their hyperadvanced chips... in the end, though, they really didn't imagine enough for the guy or the genius Susan (Jang Seo Kyung's character) who supposedly gets a slightly sinister smile turning humans into machines, like they took a psycho genius from a mental ward and made her a police agency doctor...

They give SUCH underdeveloped backstories that behold, here is character-as-prop #1... and 2-32 are over there. It's sad. They should've stuck to the characters and honored the talent they hired.

That said, I don't really regret watching if only because hey... they're kinda smoldering hot a lot of the time, not gonna lie. It took me this long to realize that Jo Dong Hyuk (Tae Woong) is who played the super sexy painter in Love Affairs in the Afternoon. I love that the 4 men-Park Sung Woong, Choi Jin Hyuk, Jo Dong Hyuk, and Park Sun Ho (who I'd seen in Best Chicken as the lead but otherwise only in support roles) are all attractive in totally different ways. Bradley (Jang In Seob) is definitely more support material but he looks pretty handsome in this, too... pity there weren't more females, but that's pretty much every OCN story of this kind and really anything revolving around crime and police/detectives/investigators... Guess that's one reason I have so much affection when they DO put females in high positions. At least let us dream of slightly more equal roles. The character of Jung Hye In, Mi Na, is kind of a wimp, too-flexible, yes, but they didn't have her using her different build the way anyone would, well, anyone trying to avoid horrible injuries. Suppose she's not that 'anyone' in this. Her role in Graceful Family-which was much more female-centric-was far more powerful than this where she was literally programmed to be a damsel detecting distress of the one they -really- wanted most of all to be their star case for this.

Good message, carried out a bit... hmm... poorly. I still enjoyed it. The action is generally really fun. It took til 14 and 15 to get my personal "from episode 2 or 3" goal accomplished, but they did it, just slowly so as to frustrate me. The ending was a bit anticlimactic for me, too. That said, though, I'll also say this: they did well w/Park Sung Woong's character, one really marked moment of the finale-well, 2 for many, just one w/him and the head of Argos for me, that showed what perhaps we needed more of-focused energy... but his character was pretty good, mostly (the director-writer-producers-editors just didn't really let things unravel in the right order), but in turn they were lousy about keeping an air of mystery for other characters we shouldn't see through so very plainly... that alone dropped its score but the writing/direction were the main flaws. The acting made up for a pretty decent bit of it, but there are hundreds of shows I'd recommend before this, probably a good 50 action shows I find superior just from SK-add Japan's movies and you will have tons more. Sci-fi is still a weakly executed genre in SK... but they're working on it.

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“ Rugal”? Yes, This Show Will Fold and Twist Your Sanity...

Based upon the webtoon of the same-name, Rugal had all the good selling points of a thrilling drama- macabre, original and intriguing plotline, unique characters, venerable actor Choi Jin- Hyuk taking the lead and of course fairly pioneering and new film studio and Studio Dragon ( same makers as critically- acclaimed dramas such as Children of a Lesser God , Love Alarm and Doctor John) taking creative control of the show, should have easily sealed Rugal’s fate as one of the best Korean dramas of 2020. So naturally this raises the dire question we all want to know ;

“ So what went wrong to make it so bad ?”.

Of course, normally ( regardless of whether I can access the webtoon or not), I like to try and be non-biased and take into account a drama based on a webtoon ( regardless of whether I’ve read it or not) as a standalone story with its own characters, plot and original qualities as it should be assessed as a series in its own right . On the other hand with comparing images and forums of original pans from the webtoon ( which actually seems pretty good) and comments by fans of the Korean version in contrast to the actual dire deliverance of the drama, it is pretty fair to say that the drama writers made the classic mistake of pacing.

To put into refined words, pacing is a classic feature in stories into how quickly the story moves , however, in Korean dramas due to being in a televised or streamed format , it can quite literally make or break the audience and critical response from watchers. There isn’t necessarily a correlation between “ slow” meaning “ no viewers” or “ quick” meaning “ lots of viewers” because at the end of the day, the biggest part to play in any Korean drama is storywriting , however, pacing can affect the quality and deliverance of the story for viewers.

Rugal’s biggest problem, however, isn’t that the storyline isn’t interesting ( quite the opposite in regards to a cop upon death’s door both literally and metaphorically blinded from the truth and being given a new opportunity to take his revenge) , but, there just isn’t enough time for viewers to both catch-up or develop any interests within
the storyline or characters. Jin- Hyuk cannot be faulted for what he was given to work with , however, his character may as well just have moulded together with failed storyboards and scripts for viewers as there quite simply wasn’t enough exposure to his character, Ki- beom as an individual outside of the story.

For most viewers to relate to even the seeming villain of a story, writers often reflect qualities we can see in ourselves, friends and family in a character - traumatic pasts, complicated relationships with the people around us or even just emotions - these are all real qualities most of us know in the real world. Whilst as viewers we do come to understand Ki- beom’s anguish and fury over his wife being taken from him, we don’t really learn why this should be significant for us as viewers either through a sense of normality or love to hit closer to home, or, the actual after affects of losing this normality for Ki-beom.

Even in minor scenes such as Ki-beom walking as a blind man or being able to see for the first time, a moment of weakness by stumbling or having to lie down would’ve allowed us to step back and see Ki-beom as someone who is a relatable hero. Instead the show is too focused on Ki-beom becoming an all-fighting machine to actually consider these fleshed-out moments. ( A classic case of the show doing this is within his former police coworkers happily accepting that their close companion and a man they thought had either been dead or missing for the past several months, could just return all of a sudden without a second thought.)


As you can imagine, whilst the quick pacing allows us to get to the quirky action scenes, Rugal again simply doesn’t give us a chance to know the other characters ; Mi Na ( Jung Hye In), should have easily been one of the most profound considering her past yet was written-off to see her delivering punches throughout the series with her comrades or enemies and Lee Gwang Chul ( Park Sun Ho) had so much potential to be a genuinely enigmatic character, yet the drama wrote him off as a goof for the majority of the drama rather than an individual.

Maybe on one note of praise the show did surprisingly deliver both a good performance by Han Ji Wan and surprisingly intriguing characterisation around one of the show’s antagonists, Choi Ye Won. Although her character should have initially been despicable, her moral grey area around the intrigue of Beom and the horrific actions of the major antagonist Deok Goo ( Park Sung Woong) did add a level of intrigue around her character. It’s just a shame that the writers couldn’t have done the same for the previously mentioned antagonist, who although wanting to be portrayed in a villainous light, had no intriguing motives or features at all as a villain apart from just being a violent menace .


Perhaps the scriptwriters were becoming conscious of how much time they’d wasted seeing characters deck one another twelve times or how we’d spent nearly six episodes watching the characters fight or train without Ki- Beom getting any closer to learning about his wife, as near the ending of the drama, we did see a couple of loose threads attempting to be tied. On the other hand, the problem with this decision lies with the returned problem of pacing. Seeing nearly fifteen episodes of a comedic character such as Gwang Chul suddenly struggling with an inner-battle with himself does not add a level of depth or shock for viewers, it just adds another round of groans and questions due to having no indicators of Gwang Chul struggling in previous episodes. This seems to point out that Rugal’s biggest failure is just not being able to keep up with the right speed of pacing with racing through the story and give us little time as viewers to grow used to the characters or story points. ( As an example of intriguing story pacing consider probably one of the most sensational Korean dramas of the 2010s, Sky Castle - the drama spiked from slow pacing to suddenly quick to back to slow in a matter of episodes yet love or loathe the drama, it was able to keep viewers entertained because viewers could adhere and keep-up with the story because of the pacing-style. Rugal could’ve lived up beyond expectations if it had been given the right pacing, yet the show just fell into its own despair by trying to race to scenes of mindless violence and fighting instead ).

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I've had this account for some time now, but this is my first review for any drama, because I feel like I need to stress about how this show had so much to offer, but it fell through in the end.

WARNING. BIG SPOILERS IN THE REVIEW.

This show includes a dark and mysterious theme, that tells of a powerful organization called Argos that pretty much is a terrorist and crime syndicate that brings havoc and destruction upon South Korean society. Kang Gibeom is a righteous and diligent cop whose partners are killed by Argos, and vows to take them down. Before he can, however, the organization kills his wife and digs his eyes out and plants a pair of scissors in his hand to make it look like he killed his beloved. He gets time in prison, but the top brass of the police decide he's more useful in taking down Argos rather than letting him take the fall for a murder he didn't commit, so they turn him into a cyborg to work with other cyborgs to take down Argos. Meanwhile, The boss of the organization dies mysteriously, so his wife and minions take over, instigating a bloodbath of a power struggle between its leaders. Sound interesting, huh? ultimately, However, there was little depth and development in the plot and the characters. The show's writers put a bunch of plot holes in the story that made us question so many things. Things that made the show much more complicated than it already was.

Choi Jin Hyuk's character started out as tough and straight to the point. He maintained his character throughout the show, which is fine, but the writers decided to let his character just become static- there really wasn't any change. Of course, he was inclined to take down the Argos because they killed so many people, but even after finding out Rugal was responsible for his wife's death and the gouging of his eyes, he still pursued Hwang Deokgoo and had this weak relationship with Argos's incompetent leader, Choi Yewon and didn't do much to purge his former boss at Rugal (Choi Geun Cheol). Don't get me wrong, Choi Jin hyuk is an amazing actor with great visuals. I was already in love with him when I first saw him in The Heirs where he plays as Lee minho's older brother.

Han Tae woong is the team leader of the cyborgs. He's hot. He's serious, and he's out for Argos's blood for killing his sister... Or so we think. He's repsonsible for the Cyborg teams's safety and helps them regardless of the circumstances. His right arm was cut off back in the day when he was with Argos, so he has this robotic arm that makes him incredibly strong. I think he was a pretty good character, but because he isn't the foremost protagonist, his role in the show didn't have much of an impact on the story overall. I think the writers included the fact that he was formerly affiliated with Argos to give some kind of influence, but that really didn't make him seem much more important since Argos's leaders didn't seem to find him much of a threat even before he was part of their organization. I think it would've been interesting if he was one of the top guys of Argos who was ousted by his partners (too bad). He's played by JO Dong-hyuk, who usually plays in action roles. The first time I saw was in late night restaurant when he plays as a boxer.

Lee Gwang Cheol is the third of the cyborgs. He is a seriously sexy ass hunk (sorry can't rein in my hormones for this cutie). I guess he represents the younger generation of our time. He's rash, hes heroic, he's valorous- he saves someone he just meets for the first few days. And... he's got a nice set of washboard abs. ok. ok. I'll stop. I vaguely remember his backstory, but if I remember correctly, his organs are damaged and he was a victim of Argos? He has a battery inside of him to keep him running, but it has to be recharged like any other battery. Can't say much else about him except he's hot af. By the way, he's played by Park Sunho, who was one of Produce X 101's contestants. I've only seen bits and pieces of the Produce shows, but I'm an avid fan of some of the boys.

Finally, the last of the cyborgs, and the only female member, Song Mina, played by Jung Hyein. Now she was an interesting character- she's pretty, she's got attitude, and she worked GIbeom until she gets shot by Deokgoo while protecting a witness. Needless to say, Deokgoo kills the witness, her son, and Mina's partners, and then proceeds to shot her in the head. Surprisingly, she survives, and is saved by Rugal. Motivated by revenge and justice, she joins Rugal. I think she could've been a love potential for Gibeom, but for some reason, the writers left any sort of romance out in the show, which is weird, because almost every drama has a main romance.


I think on the other hand, Hwang Deokgoo, the vice-chariman of Argos was an incredible villain. Park Sung Woong brilliantly displayed his acting talent. He stages an accident for his boss, KO Young deok, and convinces Yondeok's wife, Choi Yewon to kill her husband so they can take over. While he initially succeeds, the distrust and the internal turmoil within Argos weakens their foundation, and in the end, he and Yewon (who's a weak leader) are the only ones left in charge. His downfall is none other than his own. Despite this, Deukgoo is probably the most cruel, relentless, and sadistic psychopath in the history of Korean television dramas. He'll kill you without a reason, he'll laugh at his enemies' deaths, and he wont' hesitate to take grab a knife by its blade if it means to survive. Despite the show's shortcomings, I think we had a shining star here. I wanted time and again for Deukgoo to lose, but he always won throughout the show, from kidnapping, extorting, murdering- he only lost in the end (plot armor). Park Sung Woong never fails to amaze me. I used to think Uhm Ki joon was the best actor when it comes to villainy, but watch out, bro, you've got competition now.

Choi Yewon played by actress Han Jiwan, is extremely beautiful, but offers very little to the story. She's incompetent, as previously mentioned. She's easily shaken. She doesn't know how to plan. She isn't prepared for any sort of dangerous situation, and she doesn't have much allies or even bodyguards around her, despite being Argos's boss biggest boss. She takes over her ex-husband's (Ko Yong Deok) criminal empire after supposedly helping Hwang Deukgoo kill him. We later find out she's in her high and mighty position only because one of Argos's bosses, Jang Mijoo, placed Yewon in Yongdeok's hands to marry him. Of course, when she takes over, it's Hwang Deokgoo who's really in charge and does all the work, while she sits in her dead husband's house to sip on wine and look pretty. Initially, it seemed that Hwang Deokgoo couldnt kill her because she held all the information to Youngdeok's assets and offshore accounts. But eventually, we learn that Deukgoo can't kill her because he has a big crush on her. Pretty dumb, right? There isn't actually any true love or romantic history between the two of them (assumingly because the writers don't show us any), but shes probably the real reason why Deukgoo can't get an iron grip on Argos. He spares her at every turn, but she tries to find ways to kill him at every opportunity- and fails every time (really, how bad can you be at that when you got all the money in the world?). Why would you even like someone like that? Anyways, not that I blame her- If I were in her shoes, Deukgoo would scare the hell outta me every single second I see him. Eventually, after a long struggle, all of her rivals die, and Deukgoo, the guy obsessed with her, is incarcerated. So guess what? She lives in luxury and takes all of Argos's money without conflict. Well, at least until Gibeom calls the cops on her in the end for supposedly killing Ko Yong deok (really Gibeom?). To sum it all up, she's just a pretty face. At the start of the show, she seems reserved and composed, stoic and elegant. But that's all she is. Han Ji wan did a pretty good job portraying herself as her character, but in the end, the writers didn't give her much to do except make phone calls to Gibeom and a few dirty politicians and get bullied by the other leaders in Argos, and get constantly harassed by Hwang Deok goo. Well, lets give her some credit. She kills Madame Jang (Mijoo) for turning on her. Probably the smartest thing she's done. It's sad to see a character with so much potential to be involved with every event in Rugal, but she either gets pushed around or held hostage and gets saved by the main guy. A typical damsel in distress, which isn't something fitting for a leader of a powerful organization such as Argos.

Well that's it guys. I wanted to talk about Rugal's boss, Choi Geun cheol, but while his plotwist role he had the in the story was the plot's entire foundation, he didn't do much either.

I think this show could've been much better if they changed the story. Yewon could've been a good boss- an evil one. gibeom's wife could've lived (We find out she's alive throughout most of the show despite her apparent death in the first episode, only to commit suicide in the end for a dumb reason). Mina should've had a romance with gibeom. I don't think she much of a role to play here. The final showdown between Gibeom and Deukgoo was expected, and it wasn't that epic at all.

Nonetheless, it's whatever. I don't know how much of the webcomic they followed to make an average show such as this, but the plot was bad, and the ending wasn't redeeming either. The acting was great; the music was ok, but I really liked the theme song "Never Cry" by Han Seung hee.

Hoped this helped a bit in our times of a tumultuous world.

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Had a lot of potential but..

Rugal was my first ever Korean drama, as I was scrolling through a site I was able to find it and watch it just as the first episode came out. As a huge fan of action, the plot looked very promising to me, like the first few episodes. I was over the moon because I was finally able to find a show with everything I liked. Or, was I?

Like I mentioned the plot is very promising but it gets tiring and difficult to follow after a while.

1) There was a lot of action. Maybe a little too much. It feels like the writers focused on the action instead of developing the plot nicely. So it became hard to follow, a lot of gaps I couldn't feel because the balance between the action and the development of the plot was lost. The show was fully relying on the fight scenes and, without them, it wouldn't work at all.

2) The characters, none of them really stood out for the sake of making the lead character the hero. Though he was the last one to join the team it felt like he was the most "important" member, soon, everything became about him, the whole plot revolved around him and the characters didn't have time to be developed properly. We have the hero, the tough guy, the tough chick, and the silly guy. It felt cliche and it was written in a way that made me feel like it was a fanfiction.

Overall I wouldn't really recommend it. It was hard for me to finish, I only watched the entire thing for the sake of emptying my to-watch list. If that's your cup of tea then sure, go for it but it was over-all a mediocre drama.

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Should you? Would you? Could you?

You should watch this one (YES! )
You would recommend this to others. (YES!)
You could watch this again. (Not really)

The real hero of this drama is the villain played superbly by “ Park Sung Woong”. Without his powerful presence, I don’t think this drama would be as interesting. I did read the reviews before I watched this one and frankly I don't think it is as bad as it is being portrayed. All the actors played their roles brilliantly. In fact, I have come to the conclusion that Korean actors are really one of the best that I have seen in dramas. They get into their roles seamlessly.
The plot is interesting, the twists and turns are as expected, the tension is aptly placed and the acting is good. All of this combines it into a good fast-paced thriller. Yes, it does tend to drag at times but it recovers soon enough to grab your attention. I love the background score. It’s a definite one time watch.

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Loved this drama!

The story was interesting enough for me to constantly click on the next episode without hesitation. I found it on Netflix and thought I'd try out the first episode but couldn't stop watching after that. The fighting scenes were the best I've ever seen. I will write about three different things in separate paragraphs. First, costumes, relationships between characters, and character development.

I'm really attracted to dramas that incorporate interesting outfits whether that would be that they're color-coordinated or have an intricate design. I'm confident that I could just watch a drama based on the costumes and nothing else. I'm not saying that's all there is to this drama because that would be a lie.

I really liked how the relationships between the characters have evolved. His relationships with his team gradually changed the more they got to know each other. All the members had their own share of hardships. Upon first meeting, they were distant but the more things they learned about each other the closer they became. The only person that the ML knew prior to him joining Rugal was a female colleague from his previous job as a police officer. He thought she had passed away when tracking down a criminal 'gang' but she was actually rescued by the same person that rescued him.

The character development is very apparent throughout the drama. The ML went through several personality changes. First, he's just a cheerful, and kind person with a strong sense of justice. Then, due to an unfortunate event, he becomes determined to find whoever framed him and punish them for what they put him through. When he finds out that everything he knew was a lie, he started to lose himself to anger and became something like a 'killing machine' but he tried to fight against that feeling as to not lose his sense of self. Towards the end when everything was accomplished he regained the same personality as the beginning of the drama but physically and mentally stronger. His colleague also had her own character development. At first, she is seen as a newbie police officer, fighting crime but through the rest of the drama, she is seen as a strong, independent character that doesn't like to show her weakness.

All the characters have overcome their fears at the end of the drama and formed a close bond but went their separate ways to contribute to society and accomplish their own role in life. I liked this drama but I have a feeling it's not over yet...I want a second season :'(

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I read through a few of the reviews on this drama before binge watching it and I realize quite a few of the people who reviewed this drama didn't watch the entire thing. They have questions that were answered - mainly who killed Susan and stole Rugal tech. I'm not sure they could have made it any clearer - so the people who had that question obviously didn't watch all the way or they fast-forwarded through eps.

THIS IS WHY YOU PROBABLY SHOULDN'T GO BY REVIEWS ONLY IN YOUR DECISION TO WATCH A SHOW OR NOT WATCH - just sayin'

Anyway -

RUGAL isn't your typical K-Drama. It has no romance (except for Ki Beom and his wife). It's not your simple love story or mystery so I think people underestimate it.

Someone complained there was too much action - I don't think there is ever such a thing. But let me address that for a second. This drama has been tagged as an action drama. The type of show it is, requires a high level of action. The RUGAL team are technologically altered. What's the point of being enhanced if you can't use the enhancements? The actions sequences are necessary.

The premise was gritty but good. The story flows right and the plot twists were surprising. There was one twist I saw coming but the rest of them had me shook.

I love a good bromance and this drama has that. The group grew together, which was important to me. I loved the way during fight scenes where Tae Woong doesn't even have to turn around to know Ki Beum has his back. It was a beautiful thing. The bromance wasn't instant - it took some building for the two to get along but it was so worth it.

Gwang Chul was the most adorable thing - he is badass but so sweet. Half the time I want to hug him and put him in my pocket and love on him.

Min Na was kick ass. She was a strong woman who takes no prisoners. The one thing I didn't like was she got knocked around a little which was later explained because apparently she wasn't as enhanced like the others. Maybe that was the reason but she managed to get grabbed by the badguys a few times which probably makes no sense. Will rewatch it later and pay closer attention. But I liked her.

The acting was amazing. My heart broke for Ki Beum to lose the love of his life not once but twice. That's something to kill a man. The pain in his face - I cried so hard.

All in all, for an action series, this was amazing. The music I could have done without though. Most of the songs sound like the opening song from a nineteen nineties anime intro.

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After K2, Healer and Black, Rugal is my fourth K-drama thriller with glaring plot issues

Now that I'm on the fourth show of this kind that I really wanted to like, but the writing prevented it AGAIN, I'm slowly at a loss for words.

Some shows like Healer and Black clearly run out of budget or time and have to rush the ending in a messy (& stupid) way.

Other shows like K2 and this just never really have a plot structure to begin with, despite a great premise. Every episode, some evil (or evil-seeming) person does something evil and has to be stopped, or some other challenge is to be overcome. The overall character relations are rather static, with most players looking to take a stab at one of their targets, but this rarely happening in a meaningful way.
After about half of Rugal, it even turns into what feels like endless filler episodes, one more ridiculous in plot than the next. The primary villain of the show is pretty much Chaotic Evil, truly over the top in his atrocities, and most other characters have the chance to end him and spare us the last ~10 hours. Yet they all somehow help him, or even rescue him, and as a result we viewers must endure.

The acting is passable, but most supporting characters are underused and rarely get to shine convincingly.
The music is not that far behind K2's in excitement but is used in comically unexciting situations.
There's a lot of action, yet it's sadly often sprinkled in to cover for the lack of anything else. Random fight scenes with an infinite legion of goons are all too common.

If a plausible plot is not among your requirements, you don't mind violence, and sci-fi tech plus hero vs horde fights sound good, Rugal is likely worth a watch. The same goes if you just really enjoy the kind of villain who could eat up any weaker character.


*SPOILERS FROM HERE ON*

Starting from the very beginning, several characters end up killed, except not actually killed. They resurface perhaps mostly dead, perhaps alive and well. Sometimes they're remote-controlled monsters, but with a bit of good will they can be healed. One has part of his head sucked out, but then he's fully intact later on. It gets so bad that it's actually more surprising when a named character truly stays dead.

Sometimes the antagonist can create incredibly potent living weapons, other times they're just failures of ruthless human experiments. Rules of physics may or may not apply depending on the scene, the current week's horoscope, or who is supposed to look cool at any given moment. There's occasional Wuxia moves, fighters' motions can make robot noises irrespective of them having any biomechanical body parts, and for a police force without the license to kill, Rugal engages in a lot of neck-breaking.
The antagonist's living weapons may be zombies, or have the same abilities as Rugal members.

The plot twists are built for shock value, but usually lack all logic. This includes absurd and implausible suicides.
Supposedly, the Big Bad has an incredibly long-winded plan for world domination, but the film crew obviously never know what it actually is, and so it fizzles away in favour of an obsession with winning the protagonist to his side.


Speaking about said main character, he is given an absurd amount of leeway. For no reason whatsoever, he essentially turns into the most magically powerful one of the four Power Rangers, and everybody else is constantly enchanted by him. He's not even the team leader, but in every group shot walks ahead of the team taking point, and otherwise takes the center of attention. Because he's the actual team leader, Strong Man Tae-Woong also gets to remain relevant throughout the show, while Mi-Na and Gwang-Chul fade away into complete obscurity. To really drive home that they have no meaningful roles, they're given injuries to recuperate from for the finale.
While his artificial eyes 'whisper' to him after a few weeks/months of use, taking control of his actions and eventually subduing his will with pain, he happily murders a bunch of people – some unarmed – in cold blood, but nobody really cares. The AI chip gets replaced with a fresh, untrained one, meaning it only buys time – yet even in the "several years later" epilogue that either never became a problem again or is handwaved away by having another character assist him.


Rugal starts as a somewhat simplistic yet entertaining show, before going all-out Dumb & Dumber. Sad.

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robotic swoosh sounds

(i dont rate rewatch value, neutral)

i need more sh!t like this!! this drama is on the verge of outrageous from the get, and just goes there more and more. transhumanism to 3 varying extremes in 3 of our 4 leading good guys (dont play around with min-a tho, she'll snap you in half either way), zombies, mindcontrolled goons, and an endless barrage of unecessery (sometimes quite shocking) death on the baddie side. every last fight scene is fu€#ing (how wish i could curse here) blockbuster level, with the cheesiest robotic transformers ass sounds behind every swing. 10yr old me was JUMPING the same way anyone infront Gi-Beom or tae woong's punches was when they were sent comically leaping.

on the one hand virtually everything is one-upped, but then when we to the storytelling, they actually choose to tone things down a notch to elevate it in that way. not saying it's not a completely engaging and exciting story, it freaking is, and i love everyone with my whole heart, but they do take a step back compared to shows where theres 10 different plot lines you're anticipating to get resolved. here they purposely limit it to just a few, and take enough time with them that it's only really towards the end when they kick into full effect. most of the journey up to that is just pieces of the puzzle organically being layed out. in that sense they accomplish that rare thing of making every one of the random action scenes count towards a greater goal. we feel Gi-Beom growing stronger. ..we feel his modification growing stronger. and they're challenging one another.

if you like action dramas this is a nobrainer. i'm already a few eps into 'Bad Guys' starring my boy Tae Woong with babyface 😭 but same role 😂

such a wholesome ending too, still brought the laughs with mere minutes left on the clock.

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