ltspada
This review may contain spoilers
All Star Cast, Amazing Acting, Compelling story, some inconsistencies
8/10 is my rating. This is a 2021 South Korean Action and Crime drama with 20, approximately 80 minute episodes.
Park Joo-hyung (Song Joong-ki) grew up in Italy. At eight years old he was adopted and harbors resentment towards his Korean mother who he feels abandoned him. He later becomes part of the Italian mafia and is such an asset the head, Don Fabio, adopts him. As a member of the Cassano family Joo-hyung is renamed Vincenzo Cassano. He becomes a lawyer and utilizes his skill as he works as a representative for his adopted father in mafia dealings. When the father dies, the biological son attempt to kill Vincenzo and, after taking revenge, Vencenzo flees the country back to South Korea.
In Seoul, Vincenzo goes to the the Geumga Plaza which is a site where he helped a Chinese tycoon hide 1.5 tons of gold and install tenants to disguise the real intention of the building.
The Chinese tycooln is dead, and ownership of the gold now falls to the Cassano family, and Vincenzo plans to recover the gold for himself. Of course, the building has been taken over by a South Korean crime organization in the form of a pharmaceudical company, the Babel group. The Babel group has been strong arming the tenants so Vincenzo decides to team up with one of the tenants, a lawyer, to take down the Babel group. The lawyers daughter, Hong Cha-young (Jeno Yeo-been) was originally represting Babel but after her father is murdered by them, joins up with Vincenzo to exact revenge on the Babel Group. Sparks had originally flown between the two but as they unite toward a common purpose those strong feelings evolve to something more.
Overall, I liked this series a lot. All of the actors, and you had a pretty much all star cast with a few exceptions, did an amazing job acting out their characters. The storyline was exciting and the villians were incredibaly villanous. The whole "it takes a villian to catch a villian" axiom was true throughout the series. The chemistry between the two leads was not immediate, which made sense to me because they did not start out liking each other but developed a deep friendship through working to take down a common enemy.
*Spoilers The pros were the incredible acting, great locations and filming, and appropriate but not too invasive musical scores. Who doesn't love Song Joon-ki in action, he is incredibly handsome and charasmatic. The sense of community with the building tenants was both refreshing and engaging. I loved that Cha-young was a tough, no nonsense lawyer with a bit of a dark streak. It made her the perfect pairing for Vincenzo because she did not have an issue, if justice would not be served, with going outside of the law. I loved that there was gold hidden in the building and how disturbed Vincenzo would get whenever someone would pursue his gold. He reminded me, in those cases, of a Leprechaun guarding his gold. One of the most comedic scenes was when he had to pretend to be gay to lure in a bank that was willing to work with Babel. Whether you are gay trying to be heterosexual or heteresexual tying to be gay if you are engaging the sexuality that does not fit - it is cringy. I was laughing, so hard during that part. The funny thing, was he seemed to turn all the guys around him gay. The men seemed to love him as much as the women did. It was like everyone's dark fantasy, apprently, to be in the mob. So there were bromances galore.
The cons were the times that Vincenzo failed to stay true to character. What it seemed, was he was a South Korean child, adopted into the Italian culture but was old enough to remember the language and most of the culture of his original country. His anger at his mother for "abandoning" him, and the death of his foster parents through criminal activity, led him to embrace the dark side for revenge. I got that. Made sense. But, it showed, in so many ways that he was very humane and caring and had conscience and could love and all that - not even a sociopath because he wasn't simply "blending in" his feelings appeared genuine and he underwent an evolution through meeting and falling in love with Cha-young, being mentored and befriended by her father, and just forming so many friendships in South Korea. But then, his mother, who he was on the precipice of a true reunion with, is murdered and it is like it flipped a switch. He backtracked on all the progress he made and the brutal element fully came back in him. The fact that he had flashbacks and nightmares of past incidents clearly showed that he had remorse to that point. But then it was like he became a slightly different person after his mother's death. I thought the way he killed the Babel villians was just a bridge too far. I cannot reconcile burning someone to death with someone who is a good person. Although the chairman was evil and had done horrible things, drilling someone to death is just the next level of brutality. Becoming as evil as the evil you are punishing does not make you a good person. I was disappointed when he blew up Cha-young's father's killer. He broke his word in my opinion. hHe told him once he did this thing the debt was fulfilled and he could go free. It was dishonest and it seemed even Cha-young felt he had gone too far. But she never said that although her response to the news seemed as if it bothered her.
When he killed the female lawyer he broke his morale code which was no women and children. She even said you are going to do this to a woman and he said, basically, you are not a woman, you are a monster. Still, burning her alive was the next level up brutality. It took him from a batman like, superhero justice seeker, to just a murderer little better than the people he was "punishing". I also could not buy that the law enforcement friends in his circle were so okay with him brutally murdering those people. They helped him get away with it and even shook hands with and hugged him when he had the blood on him. It was a bit like "Dexter" in that dark anti hero type persona but I am just not a fan of that level of "eye for an eye" because his treatment of them was even more brutal than the way they treated their victims.
The ending also fell short for me. Perhaps they are setting it up for another season. I did not like the very "Pirates of the Caribbean" end where he can only come back when on a diplomatic mission (diplomatic immunity). It was over obvious in the postcards he sent that he wanted her to come find him - yet she didn't. To me it seemed as though her emotions toward him took a turn. I did not have the sense she would be willing to leave South Korea and go join him on an island off the coast of Malta. I had no care for his Italian family. We never got to know enough of that piece to care that he had reunited and was now ruling that family. And, we were reminded of his brutality when he mentioned the revenge he took on a rival family and that their remains were fertilizing his grapes. They confessed and kissed but then parted ways with a somewhat sad and whistful look in both of their eyes.
His behavior, as other reviewers have pointed out, was not even consistent with what is often the case in organized crime. I knew a situation like that once - one of my best friends in high school let's just say her father was a retired person in a very well known organized criminal entity. In those situations, usually the lawyer is very valuable and also high up in the crime organization. They do not have those folks act as "hit persons" they are too valuable to the organization. And they typically have done their dues and don't want to get their hands dirty that way. Not that they have suddenly grown a conscience, but they just don't do the dirty work anymore. So that did not make sense. He was a lawyer and the second in command - the family would typically not risk such an individual by involving them so intimately. Even if he, himself, wanted to be involved, unless there was a compelling reason he would usually be ordered by "the boss" not to.
That being said - I would still recommend it and might even rewatch it at some point. It is unique and so well acted that the flaws are not a complete deterrant. Others really liked it and did not consider these things flaws. Cha-young had just enough darkness in her to accept a lot of what he did. It was very "Game of Thrones" in the darker elements and how most of the characters were not completely good or completely evil but various mixes thereof. And how you were rooting for anti heroes. The "Queen of Dragons" in Game of Thrones reminded me of Vincenzo in the way their characters evolved and the sudden switch down a much darker path. But I wasn't a fan of how that ended either. I like redemption and character growth. This followed the opposite trajectory. If there were a second season I might watch it. I am extremely disappointed in the brutality of the murders so I can't think of a way back from that but would be interested to see where their relationship evolved.
Park Joo-hyung (Song Joong-ki) grew up in Italy. At eight years old he was adopted and harbors resentment towards his Korean mother who he feels abandoned him. He later becomes part of the Italian mafia and is such an asset the head, Don Fabio, adopts him. As a member of the Cassano family Joo-hyung is renamed Vincenzo Cassano. He becomes a lawyer and utilizes his skill as he works as a representative for his adopted father in mafia dealings. When the father dies, the biological son attempt to kill Vincenzo and, after taking revenge, Vencenzo flees the country back to South Korea.
In Seoul, Vincenzo goes to the the Geumga Plaza which is a site where he helped a Chinese tycoon hide 1.5 tons of gold and install tenants to disguise the real intention of the building.
The Chinese tycooln is dead, and ownership of the gold now falls to the Cassano family, and Vincenzo plans to recover the gold for himself. Of course, the building has been taken over by a South Korean crime organization in the form of a pharmaceudical company, the Babel group. The Babel group has been strong arming the tenants so Vincenzo decides to team up with one of the tenants, a lawyer, to take down the Babel group. The lawyers daughter, Hong Cha-young (Jeno Yeo-been) was originally represting Babel but after her father is murdered by them, joins up with Vincenzo to exact revenge on the Babel Group. Sparks had originally flown between the two but as they unite toward a common purpose those strong feelings evolve to something more.
Overall, I liked this series a lot. All of the actors, and you had a pretty much all star cast with a few exceptions, did an amazing job acting out their characters. The storyline was exciting and the villians were incredibaly villanous. The whole "it takes a villian to catch a villian" axiom was true throughout the series. The chemistry between the two leads was not immediate, which made sense to me because they did not start out liking each other but developed a deep friendship through working to take down a common enemy.
*Spoilers The pros were the incredible acting, great locations and filming, and appropriate but not too invasive musical scores. Who doesn't love Song Joon-ki in action, he is incredibly handsome and charasmatic. The sense of community with the building tenants was both refreshing and engaging. I loved that Cha-young was a tough, no nonsense lawyer with a bit of a dark streak. It made her the perfect pairing for Vincenzo because she did not have an issue, if justice would not be served, with going outside of the law. I loved that there was gold hidden in the building and how disturbed Vincenzo would get whenever someone would pursue his gold. He reminded me, in those cases, of a Leprechaun guarding his gold. One of the most comedic scenes was when he had to pretend to be gay to lure in a bank that was willing to work with Babel. Whether you are gay trying to be heterosexual or heteresexual tying to be gay if you are engaging the sexuality that does not fit - it is cringy. I was laughing, so hard during that part. The funny thing, was he seemed to turn all the guys around him gay. The men seemed to love him as much as the women did. It was like everyone's dark fantasy, apprently, to be in the mob. So there were bromances galore.
The cons were the times that Vincenzo failed to stay true to character. What it seemed, was he was a South Korean child, adopted into the Italian culture but was old enough to remember the language and most of the culture of his original country. His anger at his mother for "abandoning" him, and the death of his foster parents through criminal activity, led him to embrace the dark side for revenge. I got that. Made sense. But, it showed, in so many ways that he was very humane and caring and had conscience and could love and all that - not even a sociopath because he wasn't simply "blending in" his feelings appeared genuine and he underwent an evolution through meeting and falling in love with Cha-young, being mentored and befriended by her father, and just forming so many friendships in South Korea. But then, his mother, who he was on the precipice of a true reunion with, is murdered and it is like it flipped a switch. He backtracked on all the progress he made and the brutal element fully came back in him. The fact that he had flashbacks and nightmares of past incidents clearly showed that he had remorse to that point. But then it was like he became a slightly different person after his mother's death. I thought the way he killed the Babel villians was just a bridge too far. I cannot reconcile burning someone to death with someone who is a good person. Although the chairman was evil and had done horrible things, drilling someone to death is just the next level of brutality. Becoming as evil as the evil you are punishing does not make you a good person. I was disappointed when he blew up Cha-young's father's killer. He broke his word in my opinion. hHe told him once he did this thing the debt was fulfilled and he could go free. It was dishonest and it seemed even Cha-young felt he had gone too far. But she never said that although her response to the news seemed as if it bothered her.
When he killed the female lawyer he broke his morale code which was no women and children. She even said you are going to do this to a woman and he said, basically, you are not a woman, you are a monster. Still, burning her alive was the next level up brutality. It took him from a batman like, superhero justice seeker, to just a murderer little better than the people he was "punishing". I also could not buy that the law enforcement friends in his circle were so okay with him brutally murdering those people. They helped him get away with it and even shook hands with and hugged him when he had the blood on him. It was a bit like "Dexter" in that dark anti hero type persona but I am just not a fan of that level of "eye for an eye" because his treatment of them was even more brutal than the way they treated their victims.
The ending also fell short for me. Perhaps they are setting it up for another season. I did not like the very "Pirates of the Caribbean" end where he can only come back when on a diplomatic mission (diplomatic immunity). It was over obvious in the postcards he sent that he wanted her to come find him - yet she didn't. To me it seemed as though her emotions toward him took a turn. I did not have the sense she would be willing to leave South Korea and go join him on an island off the coast of Malta. I had no care for his Italian family. We never got to know enough of that piece to care that he had reunited and was now ruling that family. And, we were reminded of his brutality when he mentioned the revenge he took on a rival family and that their remains were fertilizing his grapes. They confessed and kissed but then parted ways with a somewhat sad and whistful look in both of their eyes.
His behavior, as other reviewers have pointed out, was not even consistent with what is often the case in organized crime. I knew a situation like that once - one of my best friends in high school let's just say her father was a retired person in a very well known organized criminal entity. In those situations, usually the lawyer is very valuable and also high up in the crime organization. They do not have those folks act as "hit persons" they are too valuable to the organization. And they typically have done their dues and don't want to get their hands dirty that way. Not that they have suddenly grown a conscience, but they just don't do the dirty work anymore. So that did not make sense. He was a lawyer and the second in command - the family would typically not risk such an individual by involving them so intimately. Even if he, himself, wanted to be involved, unless there was a compelling reason he would usually be ordered by "the boss" not to.
That being said - I would still recommend it and might even rewatch it at some point. It is unique and so well acted that the flaws are not a complete deterrant. Others really liked it and did not consider these things flaws. Cha-young had just enough darkness in her to accept a lot of what he did. It was very "Game of Thrones" in the darker elements and how most of the characters were not completely good or completely evil but various mixes thereof. And how you were rooting for anti heroes. The "Queen of Dragons" in Game of Thrones reminded me of Vincenzo in the way their characters evolved and the sudden switch down a much darker path. But I wasn't a fan of how that ended either. I like redemption and character growth. This followed the opposite trajectory. If there were a second season I might watch it. I am extremely disappointed in the brutality of the murders so I can't think of a way back from that but would be interested to see where their relationship evolved.
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