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Cruel City korean drama review
Completed
Cruel City
0 people found this review helpful
by al2000
Sep 7, 2020
20 of 20 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 9.0
Story 7.5
Acting/Cast 9.5
Music 9.0
Rewatch Value 10.0
This review may contain spoilers

An overall great, philosophical crime drama

There is a certain greek tragedy quality to this drama, which offers up one of the most righteous, tortured lead character I've ever seen in a drama. Jung Kyung Ho makes even the most unbelievable gaps of logic or stylized moments feel emotionally resonant and somehow grippingly real. He carries the drama on his back, even though it's filled out by a largely solid cast. Kim Yoo Mi as Lee Jin Sook and Choi Moo Sung as Safari are particularly good, but there are other gems. Even the immature and wooden acting of Nam Guy Ri (Yoon Soo Mi) can't capsize the sheer power of the ensemble cast, or the potency of the story.

Even though this is about cops and criminals and the legal system, it's also more a story of one man trying to find justice in a world that is unjust. Every character is struggling with some great, weighty past that has them in chains, while simultaneously trying to forge some kind of future for themselves and the ones they love. The environment of the show is so precarious and so dangerous that the tension is always high, and characters are walking on a knife edge.

There are problems with the drama. It's not always realistic, there is a somewhat unnecessary love story thrown into the middle of it, and a lot of plot points hinging on coincidences, but ultimately it works. If you stop wanting this to be a documentary style crime drama and look at it more as a stylistic, philosophical rumination on human nature while being set in the criminal underworld, then suddenly nothing bothers you. All the over-the-top story telling choices just feel like poignant, tragic moments in a mythic story.
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