This review may contain spoilers
hong kong express but the plot missed the train
i started hong kong express mainly because of the setting. crime, money, gambling, class difference and especially the fact that they actually shot in hong kong sounded exactly like my thing. so naturally i expected the production to do something with it.
so where did the budget go?
this genuinely looks closer to 1995 than 2005. korean television was already visually behind hong kong and japan in a lot of ways during that period, sure, but by 2005 kdramas had improved A LOT. meanwhile this drama gets to shoot in hong kong and somehow gives me almost none of the atmosphere i expected. barely any interesting lighting, shadows, nightlife, grime, neon, density. hong kong is right there and the cinematography still looks painfully dated.
the first four episodes were also a complete test of patience. i almost never give a drama this long when i’m bored, but the premise was too good to drop. min-soo goes to prison for kang-hyuk, comes back still stuck underneath him, and from there you get class resentment, ambition, revenge and this increasingly messy love square between min-soo, jung-yeon, kang-hyuk and ma-ri. on paper this is literally made for me. somehow it still takes FOREVER to actually become interesting.
cho jae-hyun basically made this drama watchable for me.
he is fucking incredible as min-soo. sometimes it genuinely feels like there is no camera in the room and i’m not watching somebody act. his eyes, his facial expressions, the strange way he laughs, the tiny reactions while other people are talking, none of it feels performed. he just exists as min-soo.
min-soo himself also belongs to this extremely niche early-2000s male lead archetype that basically disappeared afterwards. socially unpolished, impulsive, weirdly childish, almost low-iq at times without actually being stupid, and barely aware of how bizarre or embarrassing he looks to other people. he reminded me so much of go bok-su from ruler of your own world. there is this raw, socially unfinished quality to both of them that i almost never see in kdrama male leads anymore.
his relationship with kang-hyuk is probably the most fascinating part of the drama. kang-hyuk basically tells min-soo that he sees his friends as dogs and that if min-soo wants to stay beside him, he has to become his dog, and min-soo actually accepts it. he sacrifices five years of his life for kang-hyuk and still gets treated like property afterwards. watching that humiliation slowly turn into resentment, ambition and min-soo becoming increasingly unhinged was easily one of the best parts of the drama.
the cast is honestly ridiculous and probably the biggest reason i ended up rating this as high as i did. cho jae-hyun is obviously the standout for me, but cha in-pyo is SO good as kang-hyuk too. kang-hyuk is genuinely insane, possessive, entitled and such a disgusting human being, and cha in-pyo completely sells it. there were moments where i wasn’t thinking “wow, he’s playing an asshole really well,” i just genuinely hated this man. kim hyo-jin is also great as ma-ri and song yoon-ah does everything she can with a character i personally found painfully passive.
jung-yeon unfortunately did almost nothing for me, which hurts because i love song yoon-ah. she is just far too passive for a drama where everyone around her is losing their minds. kang-hyuk lies to her, betrays her, treats people horribly and she spends so much time sitting there looking like a confused owl while two men are apparently destroying their lives over her. i kept waiting for her to actually become an active part of her own story.
ma-ri, meanwhile, immediately made the drama more entertaining.
ma-ri/min-soo were easily my favorite relationship and i genuinely wish they had been endgame. she is spoiled, impulsive, unstable and a little insane, and somehow looks at min-soo at his absolute lowest and decides that is the man she wants. their scenes actually have energy. she gets angry when he humiliates himself, pushes herself into his life and actually brings something out of him.
i desperately wanted min-soo to let go of the sacred tragic-first-love thing with jung-yeon and genuinely fall for his crazy woman instead.
the ending eventually goes full early-2000s melo-makjang, because obviously it does. i can’t even be mad at that part. this is the era. somebody has to lose their mind, somebody has to suffer and somebody’s life has to be ruined dramatically.
my actual problem is that hong kong express has a MUCH better drama hiding inside it. the premise is excellent. min-soo’s humiliation and growing ambition, kang-hyuk’s class superiority and possessiveness, ma-ri being completely unhinged, jung-yeon connecting the two men, money, revenge, resentment. all the ingredients are there.
it just never becomes as vicious or exciting as it promises.
honestly, the acting and this cast carried what could very easily have been a 3/10 drama to a 6.5/10 for me. cho jae-hyun made it watchable, cha in-pyo made kang-hyuk genuinely unbearable in the best way, and kim hyo-jin finally gave the relationship side of the drama some life. the writing never fully delivered on the insane amount of potential it had, but the actors absolutely did.
so where did the budget go?
this genuinely looks closer to 1995 than 2005. korean television was already visually behind hong kong and japan in a lot of ways during that period, sure, but by 2005 kdramas had improved A LOT. meanwhile this drama gets to shoot in hong kong and somehow gives me almost none of the atmosphere i expected. barely any interesting lighting, shadows, nightlife, grime, neon, density. hong kong is right there and the cinematography still looks painfully dated.
the first four episodes were also a complete test of patience. i almost never give a drama this long when i’m bored, but the premise was too good to drop. min-soo goes to prison for kang-hyuk, comes back still stuck underneath him, and from there you get class resentment, ambition, revenge and this increasingly messy love square between min-soo, jung-yeon, kang-hyuk and ma-ri. on paper this is literally made for me. somehow it still takes FOREVER to actually become interesting.
cho jae-hyun basically made this drama watchable for me.
he is fucking incredible as min-soo. sometimes it genuinely feels like there is no camera in the room and i’m not watching somebody act. his eyes, his facial expressions, the strange way he laughs, the tiny reactions while other people are talking, none of it feels performed. he just exists as min-soo.
min-soo himself also belongs to this extremely niche early-2000s male lead archetype that basically disappeared afterwards. socially unpolished, impulsive, weirdly childish, almost low-iq at times without actually being stupid, and barely aware of how bizarre or embarrassing he looks to other people. he reminded me so much of go bok-su from ruler of your own world. there is this raw, socially unfinished quality to both of them that i almost never see in kdrama male leads anymore.
his relationship with kang-hyuk is probably the most fascinating part of the drama. kang-hyuk basically tells min-soo that he sees his friends as dogs and that if min-soo wants to stay beside him, he has to become his dog, and min-soo actually accepts it. he sacrifices five years of his life for kang-hyuk and still gets treated like property afterwards. watching that humiliation slowly turn into resentment, ambition and min-soo becoming increasingly unhinged was easily one of the best parts of the drama.
the cast is honestly ridiculous and probably the biggest reason i ended up rating this as high as i did. cho jae-hyun is obviously the standout for me, but cha in-pyo is SO good as kang-hyuk too. kang-hyuk is genuinely insane, possessive, entitled and such a disgusting human being, and cha in-pyo completely sells it. there were moments where i wasn’t thinking “wow, he’s playing an asshole really well,” i just genuinely hated this man. kim hyo-jin is also great as ma-ri and song yoon-ah does everything she can with a character i personally found painfully passive.
jung-yeon unfortunately did almost nothing for me, which hurts because i love song yoon-ah. she is just far too passive for a drama where everyone around her is losing their minds. kang-hyuk lies to her, betrays her, treats people horribly and she spends so much time sitting there looking like a confused owl while two men are apparently destroying their lives over her. i kept waiting for her to actually become an active part of her own story.
ma-ri, meanwhile, immediately made the drama more entertaining.
ma-ri/min-soo were easily my favorite relationship and i genuinely wish they had been endgame. she is spoiled, impulsive, unstable and a little insane, and somehow looks at min-soo at his absolute lowest and decides that is the man she wants. their scenes actually have energy. she gets angry when he humiliates himself, pushes herself into his life and actually brings something out of him.
i desperately wanted min-soo to let go of the sacred tragic-first-love thing with jung-yeon and genuinely fall for his crazy woman instead.
the ending eventually goes full early-2000s melo-makjang, because obviously it does. i can’t even be mad at that part. this is the era. somebody has to lose their mind, somebody has to suffer and somebody’s life has to be ruined dramatically.
my actual problem is that hong kong express has a MUCH better drama hiding inside it. the premise is excellent. min-soo’s humiliation and growing ambition, kang-hyuk’s class superiority and possessiveness, ma-ri being completely unhinged, jung-yeon connecting the two men, money, revenge, resentment. all the ingredients are there.
it just never becomes as vicious or exciting as it promises.
honestly, the acting and this cast carried what could very easily have been a 3/10 drama to a 6.5/10 for me. cho jae-hyun made it watchable, cha in-pyo made kang-hyuk genuinely unbearable in the best way, and kim hyo-jin finally gave the relationship side of the drama some life. the writing never fully delivered on the insane amount of potential it had, but the actors absolutely did.
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