O K2 (2016)

Style, emotion and amazing stunt choreography

An amazing binge for martial arts lovers. Always in my top ten or twenty best ever thriller/action dramas and good for a rewatch any time. Ji Chan Wook's excellent interpretation of a damaged ex-mercenary with PTSD and a murdered lover in his past, who falls for an emotionally disturbed woman imprisoned by her abusive political family, is classic international noir stuff. It is Korea, so this ML instinctively protects the elderly and seeks emotional refuge with them when wounded. He can break tempered glass with just a chisel and his work boots.

The K2 has the intense emotions and atmospherics and great editing of most k-drama thrillers. The usual brilliant kdrama humanization of villains is complete genius in this show.As always, great supporting characters with enough comic strengths to divert the intensity momentarily. It is a romance, too, but given the genre one expects some twisted perspective and it arrives with a vengeance.

On my third watch I realized how much I utterly love the villains of the piece, almost more than the sweet leads. Their ever-evolving plots involve the explosion and recreation of changing alliances like the huge schools of fish who revolve, collide and coalesce endlessly in the sea.

One of the all time worst (or do I mean best) product placement involves the lovers eating at Subways in a dream sequence within the ML's coma. There is also a marginally more tasteful and very funny naked male group battle scene in the corporate showers.

Mainly the K2 is a piece of masterful stunt artwork played out to 'Dies Irae' while black-suited corporate 'security guards' ballet about with 'body guards' from the opposing faction of an extremely corrupt Presidential election campaign. Ex army members are in cahoots with corrupt ex administration officials.

Watching JCW attack from an aerial 45 degree angle is priceless fun and for me, it doesnt ever get stale. So I call this a show perfect in itself. 2018, 16 eps of std. length. A sophisticated and classy production, with a Nam Hye Seung soundtrack, from Studio Dragon.

On my top ten best ever kdramas list as of 12/24: Goblin, Hwayugi, Because This Is My First Life, Just between Lovers; the K2, Run On, Doom at Your Service; Tomorrow, Alchemy of Souls (earliest to latest) and Mr. Plankton .

ps. I salute the heroic efforts of women in kdrama and film industry to obtain more varied roles in order to develop themselves as artists, to seek better funding for those roles and more directorial support -- all in an atmosphere where part of the audience seems to need to see a lot of damaged or infantile FLs, and where creators therefore indulge them with female characters who are more symbolic than real, embodying the 'soul' psychic energy of the plot.

simultaneously posted on viki

Leia Mais

First and foremost, I enjoyed this drama. It started off strong but soon as K2 and An Na relationship kicked off—it suddenly became that type of drama. It does have some very slow parts.

Apparently, An Na is main FL, but she seems more like a second lead damsel in distress character. I don’t feel like she added much depth to the story. I don’t miss her when she’s absent. In fact, the drama atmosphere appears more mature when An Na is not present.

> Choi Yoo Jin & K2 <
Both are phenomenal, especially Choi Yoo. She is probably the most raw and interesting one of all.

I must say – The thought sharing between Madam Choi and k2 … What are they —Soulmate? It’s apparent every time they look at each other you can feel everything that's transmitting through their eyes. Their relationship is twisted, but even so, they understand each other quite well. K2 knows the way she's program. If Madam Choi said she didn't do something—K2 will believe her.

They would have been freaking HOT as a couple. Damn the writers. They could have put them together (clearly, they had more chemistry. Their interaction feels real and raw) K2 affection for Madam Choi could have been her redemption. But no! They had to take the CLASSIC APPROACH. (Sigh!)

Madam Choi is so gorgeous! I dare say more than An Na, who is also good-looking. But Madam Choi (even with age) is just –wow!

I couldn't stand Madam Choi in the beginning. She is ridiculously crazy, but she grew on me. (Hahahaha) This is the first time I love a villain more than someone who is supposed to be our FL

Leia Mais

My opinion about The K2
Despite a scenario filled with countless stupidities, I really loved this drama. One of my favorite to watch

NEGATIVE POINTS
It's hard to believe that a script so poorly written was produced. The way things are turned make the drama not natural at all. The basic idea and events that occur throughout the drama are absolutely simple. The screenwriter seems to be a beginner. Stakes are big but basic, and all things that take place in the story seem to have arisen from a simple idea, without the screenwriter having taken time to let them mature. However, this is the most important thing to do when writing a screenplay.

Some scenes are a bit long, and some moments are too explained, giving the impression that the screenwriter took the spectators for fools. It's a beginner's mistake again

The action scenes are for the most part forced, and some almost unjustified. Obviously, the screenwriter has forced himself to make an action drama

Everything that happens in the last 10 minutes is totally ridiculous. And Choi Sung Won (Lee Jung Jin) deserved something grander, given his character
(This role is purely Lee Jung Jin !)

GOOD POINTS
What really made me love this drama is the character of Choi Yoo Jin (Song Yoon Ah). She's an incredible actress, she acts perfectly the kind, sweet and adorable woman as well as the merciless ultra devilish witch. She's the best actress I've seen so far. I totally feel all of her emotions, especially the despair and loneliness she feels. She's a strong person but very frail at the same time. I really understand her character, that's why I've always been on her side, without doubting her until the end. I never really considered her to be the "bad one". What I also really appreciated was her story with Kim Je Ha (Ji Chang Wook). We feel that she's attracted to him although we don't really know what she feels, it's really a shame. I would have liked this side to be more highlighted. I loved this "romance". One of my favorite parts
I didn't find Jo Sung Ha (Jang Se Joon) extraordinary, but I could feel during all the drama that there remained a bit of love between him and Choi Yoo Jin. So I bet they are both amazing.

I liked the romances, but it's a shame that it's too fast. But that's one of the best things for me in this drama. I really loved when Je Ha observed Anna (YoonA) through the cameras !

Leia Mais

Here for Ji Chang Wook

I have been putting watching it off for a while mostly because I wasn't that attracted to the lead pairing. And I also read a comment once that the the ML had a better chemistry with the FL's stepmother, which just solidified my opinion on the pairing so I avoided it. I just finished watching "Healer", which was another drama of Ji Chang Wook that I have been putting off. It was kinda meh for me. I liked Park Min Young's character better than Ji Chang Wook's in that one. Anyways so I'm here finally.

Ep 1 to Ep 4: I skipped most of the parts that didn't have K2, Anna, & the team chief. I'm not a fan of J4, she was sitting there in the kitchen bemoaning about the fact that she won't be getting any promotion or would not get the chance to meet a guy and talking shit about Anna, while not even realizing or caring that Anna wouldn't get to experience any of those because of her captivity. The shower scene was so funny. They wouldn't even let him get the soap out of his eyes.
My personal favorite is "Dora the explorer scene", where K2 becomes the child giving instruction to Anna through the scene and is disappointed when she doesn't follow his instructions. That was most of us when Dora acted blind.

Ep 5 to 10: I saw what the commenter was saying with the chemistry with the ML & FL's step mother. She is clearly very attracted to him when he is just probably doing his job. But the ML has this intense look on his face even with Yoo Jin, so its hard to know what he is thinking. But you can clearly see the difference between how he feels with the FL. He is always so excited when he watches the FL. (Seems stalkerish but since he is bodyguard...) I didn't much like him for the FL in the beginning because he left her behind when she was begging him to save her. But seeing that he was also in a predicament at the time, it is understandable. How many times have we gone out of our way to help others? Wow, Yoo Jin is really very pitiful, to be so vile inside to take out your frustration on Anna who she should have treated with care. The poor girl was so damn depressed she didn't need another round of mental beatings from her vile step-mother or so called "father". Yoo Jin & Se Joon both deserve each other.

Ep 11 to 16: A time or two I wondered if Jae Ha was being ignorant of Yoo Jin's feelings for him. But he was very aware, you would have to be blind to not notice, & its hard not to be aware of them when she let so many things slide for him. He pegged her right, she wanted to own him like a slave. I have long gotten over the prejudice I once had about Noona romances. So, I did see that there was indeed chemistry between them, if only Yoo Jin was another person with at least a little empathy I would have shipped them. This could have been a whole other drama. But she acted like a jealous youth even knowing that K2 had feelings for Anna as well. She has continuously mistreated, misused, and abused Anna. Her verbal abuse only increased once K2 came into their life. It was sometimes quite sad and pitiful to watch her make one mistake after another having nary a regret. Even when K2 was injured she went out of way to humiliate Anna. But she was such a complex character, I have to give kudos to the writer for this one. That women had beautiful brain. Liked how it ended. Didn't skip a lot of scenes because things got very intense and interesting.

This was definitely a good watch.

Leia Mais

A Decent Production Heavily Weighed Down by Its Script

This drama has a typical, good production that leads to high quality visuals and music, but unfortunately the show also leans heavily on its script, which is by far its weakest point. Taken together, I thought it was a decidedly average series.

Let's start with the good. This is Ji Chang Wook at everyone's favorite: he plays the suave, caring, handsome action lead that everyone loves him as since his capstone role as the titular character in Healer. The production team was definitely very aware of this fact and there was definitely fan service in the form of shirtless moments and shower scenes. The K2 also highlights what I think is Yoona's greatest strength: since I was a teenage boy, during the time when she first came out in Girls Generation, I've thought that she is one of the prettiest, if not one of the most beautiful girl-next-door-type celebrities. I think the show was also aware of this as they made her character, Anna become a literal runway model, who is always impeccably dressed even when in every day wear.

But unfortunately, visuals and fan service only get us so far. The script is a complete mess -- allies easily turn into enemies and enemies easily turn into allies in the blink of an eye. An epic revenge plot line could be setup as background for a particular character, only for that character to perform a 180 for dubious reasons. The plot is also too convoluted and shows that the showrunners didn't know exactly what they wanted this series to be, so they mixed everything together in an unsatisfying way: sometimes it's a sweet romance. Sometimes it's a thriller. Sometimes it's a Makjang-like revenge story. Sometimes it's an action series. Sometimes, it's trying to be an analogy to Snow White. It doesn't do any of this particularly well, so it just feels jarring and bad. The dialog does not fare much better. I remember one character trying to order another character's death and it went roughly like this: "kill him! And after he's dead, bring me his cell phone!" It's clear that most of the dramatic tension setup is only done to enable action scenes.

Regarding the fight sequences, I thought they were poorly done, due mostly to bad cinematography. A lot of the hand-to-hand brawls look and feel very fake as you see then punching at air at abnormal speeds. I don't know what it is, but I think is very characteristic of action scenes done for Kdramas. If you compare their cohorts, such as beloved Thai action movies, American Hollywood action movies, or even revered Korean movies like Old Boy, you'll find a much higher level of mastery at shooting action sequences. Since the K2 was so heavily focused on action, and in my opinion it was of low quality, this also knocked the show down several pegs in my rating.

I thought the acting was OK, but overshadowed by the poor script. I don't think Im Yoona as an actress is particularly skilled at portraying complex emotions, but at the same time, her character wasn't terribly complex. Anna was a stereotypical sheltered, innocent, and pretty girl. Many praise Song Yoon Ah for her acting, and I can definitely see the skill, but I found her character unlikeable and sometimes inconsistent. At the end of the day, I think the bad script overpowers anything that anyone else involved in the production could have countered.

The OST deserves a special shout out because "Love You" is the most kdrama-y kdrama power ballad I've ever heard. If you have ever seen the Family Guy episode that explores and makes fun of Korean pop culture, then you have seen the part where they call attention to how at the end of many Kdramas, they put on the chorus of some dramatic song. And Love You sounds EXACTLY like a stereotypical song. Don't get me wrong, it's great. It's just so...typical.

I only got through watching the K2 because I really like Yoona and I mostly enjoyed the show Yong Pal, which was penned by the same scriptwriter. But I can't say that this show was anything special. It might help you kill 16 hours of time, but I don't think it's anything to write home about. It is easily skipped in favor of better done action series like Healer or better Makjang/Thriller type stories.

Leia Mais

An innocent grill meets Dae Kay Teu in a forest

The K2 is a story that is gated by budget. It was simply ahead of its time. As a result, the action scenes and cuts suffered greatly. However, these can still be enjoyed in a comedic sense. In general, it was quite solid and enjoyable though.

Good Parts
The acting was quite solid from all the cast, minus some moments such as the mum throwing tantrums. Perhaps they didnt fully know what direction they were going with in the story when making that scene. Most of the side characters were fairly memorable. Not their names but like their general role in the story/world. I only know the main characters names, Anna and Kay Teu.

Music was lowkey kinda peak, with the lyrics being like actually plot heavy and epic. The ost and soundtrack fit really well in general. Some of them being really memorable and hype as well. Theres a song that sounds like they are just chanting Ah Shit. Ah Ah Ah Shit. Ah Ah. which is peak.

K2 had a suspenseful story that was really fun to follow. Although some parts were relatively predictable, there were definitely moments where my expectations were subverted. Very well written. All the budget went into this clearly.
Cuz the action scenes were abit shit

Problems
K2 has a lot of shots/quick cuts and disorienting moments. Sometimes I could get a little dizzy from watching some of those scenes. I imagine that in a perfect world, these cuts wouldnt exist. I really hope that it wasnt some really experienced editor or something like that cuz mfs should really not be editing shows like this in 2016.

Some scenes, there'd be like person A doing something, and then the next scene when we return to it, they'd be doing something else entirely, which is a bit weird once you notice it. And they definitely did it a lot. Probably just cut out a bunch of content from the final edits.

I dont think I could rewatch the entire show, maybe like 60% of it. A good chunk of it might give me a headache from the poor editing and the last few episodes may be kinda tilting to rewatch.

Overall, the ending was pretty fitting. Although some parts felt a bit contrived, it was still pretty solid and much better than I expected it to be. Some parts made alot of sense, some parts didnt, but cant have em all. Majority of the scenes acheive what they set out to do. Some action scenes dont really make sense or some moments in general are abit silly and kinda frustrating. But the show is still enjoyable and I reckon at least a 7.5 if not an 8. Quite enjoyable.

Really enjoyed the subway add right at the end for their happy ending.

Leia Mais

action politicle thriller with a lil bit romance

I really enjoyed this drama for the most part. There was a bit too much politics and scheming for my taste, but it fit the drama and genre perfectly since it's a political thriller with a romance undertone as others have said. I wished that the romance was developed better ....

Pros:

-Ji Chang Wook was perfect as always. The fight scenes were amazing. His warm, intelligent, and naughty eyes were also noted:) His physique was ofc also something to look forward to. I liked his character well (save some minor details)

-Choi Yoo jin (aka stepmom) was a very layered character, honestly probably the most interesting one as well but i just didn't like her at all. Nor did I ever sympathize with her. I understood her pain but that doesn't justify all the heartless things she did especially to an innocent child, aka Anna.

-The catholic Spain aesthetic was also AMAZING since it's rare to see smth like that in drama.

-Anna's cute side and the scenes she had with Jae Ha were also very sweet.

-The casting and acting were great. Everyone acted their character perfectly, if some character didn't stand out as much as others, then it's the writing but the actors really did an exceptional job.

-Jae ha's improving relationship with the guards (bc he deserved it since he is the best and he showed them many times just who's boss, You Go JCW!!)

-the ending! everyone got what they deserved and Jae ha and Anna were so sweet!

cons
- often I thought that the evil stepmom was kinda in love w Jae Ha which immediately made me disgusted for some reason.

-Jae Ha and Anna didn't spend enough time with each other or got to know each other so well to love each other -_-

-Anna's (weak) character, while I understand why she was like this (bc of her upbringing and trauma). I would have preferred if she was a stronger more intelligent person bc she felt more like a side character and a BIG DAMSEL IN DISTRESS. She always cried and trusted everyone way too easily. But I liked her and rooted for her from the start ofc

-The men's loud ass obnoxious laugh. Every time the father or Mr. Park or chairman Choi laughed that annoying af laugh, I had the urge to slap them I mean it was amusing but still showed how bad they are as human beings

-The freaking assistant, need I say more?

-I wanted to know what Jae Ha's freaking REAL NAME is, but they didn't even give up that -____-

Leia Mais

A Drama about Revenge, Politics and a one sided Love.

STORY

A story about a former mercenary soldier (Ji Chang Wook) who is on a run after he is falsely accused of his girlfriend murder when he returns to South Korea his life gets entangled with two women one is the wife of a politician Choi YooJin (Song Yoon -ah) and the illegitimate daughter of the politician Go Anna (Lim Yoona) He Kim Jeha/K2 (Ji Chang Wook) joins hands with Choi YooJin when he sees the person who is responsible for his girlfriend's murder to get his revenge and is appointed as the bodyguard of Go Anna.
A Drama about Kim Jeha revenge and his relationship with those two women.

The best part about this Drama are
~ The Action Scenes
~ Acting of Actors
~ Ji Chang Wook and Song Yoon ah Chemistry
~ Kim Jeha pure and kind heart and his desire to protect.

ACTING
All the Actor and Actress played their role perfectly.
Specially Ji Chang Wook and Song Yoon ah

MUSIC
The Songs and bgm of this Drama was also really good.

CINEMATOGRAPHY
It is Good

Re watch
If you like it I am sure you will want to watch it again.

Leia Mais

I am not a fan of thrillers and do not like to watch violence on screen as entertainment . Too much gore in this film for me and yet I was compelled to watch all of it because of Ji Chang Wook as K2 , knowing that it will come good at the end whatever the story twists and turns of which there are plenty .
As an action film , it is not as good as Healer ( also with Ji Chang Wook in the main role ) . There are fewer bits when you can relax a bit and the romance is not as good either although sweet and moving in parts.
But there are worse and if you are a fan of Ji Chang Wook as I am then it will not be a waste of time to watch the series.

Leia Mais

Ji Chang Wook shower fight scene...your welcome

I had mixed feelings about this drama before I even started it - I was excited to watch it because I LOVE Ji Chang Wook and wanted to see him in an "action" role BUT was also not super excited because my roommate had made it to episode 11 or 12 and completely dropped it. But I ultimately decided to watch it, knowing that I really wanted to watch it for Ji Chang and because over the past year my roommate and I's taste in dramas have totally shifted from one another and we look for different things.

Did I LOVE this drama...nah, but I really enjoy it. Really enjoyed it. I think my ONLY issue was that the plot seemed to be all over the place. It got super confusing, that I couldn't properly binge this drama, and was only able to digest 2 or 3 episodes a day, needing time to stop and think about what was going on before I moved on. I thought that maybe something was wrong with me and my ability to process this storyline.

The things I did love about this drama? Kim Je Ha's character. Which is where my roommate and I start to disagree. Normally, I am not a HUGE advocate of characters in any kind of story who is motivated by revenge, but wildly, I didn't mind Je Ha's character or his reasons. Normally, in these dramas or any story, we need some kind of major character development, so they make the person who is blinded by revenge extremely sloppy. But that wasn't the case, which I extremely appreciated. Je Ha was always on the top of his game and always put his morals before his revenge.

Yes...we get a little of that with Goh Anna, but it was a single slip up in one episode and you can't really blame someone who has been raised by nuns her whole life to have perfect social skills and know when someone is playing her.

Ultimately, it was that slip up that made my roommate drop this. Anna wasn't a stereotypical obvious "strong female lead" like Strong Woman Bong Son who my roommate and I gravitate more towards because of her "girl power" literally. But I believe Anna was strong emotionally vs physically. I think she knew she wasn't strong like Je Ha, or had power like her stepmother, but that didn't stop her from trying to live a normal life and try to reopen her mother's murder case. I think that is what attracted Je Ha to her - in this craziness of a drama, Anna was a breath of fresh air who has also been dragged through the dirt, but it didn't change who she was which was an emotionally strong and caring woman. I think it is endearing.

But I believe my favorite part was that even though they were motivated by revenge at one point or another, they fully embraced a new motivation when they met one another. There was never an issue about them deciding between love and revenge. They still fought for what they believed in, but they both always took the time to step back and reassess what was important and what was needed to be done in order to get that. They weren't one-sided like a lot of the characters who only knew one way of doing something, so they stuck with it even if it stopped working. But I must say, there was only a single time I teared up from this drama....and it was a moment between Anna's stepmother and her father...even though I hated both of their guts. Ultimately, this drama was about people's motivations and what lengths people are willing to go to get what they want or think they want. It was about the evilness in people and the story of how people either live with that evil or trying to fight it.

Leia Mais

decent show

decent show, some violence though
k2 was the first kdrama i watched and although i had some mixed opinions about it as i was watching it, i definitely felt like the show was worth watching.

the storyline is quite unique, along with the male lead and female lead’s lifestyle.

ALSO THEYRE LITERALLY SUCH A CUTE COUPLE like i love their romance because its so sweet.

ive probably watched the k2 about 4-5 times (im not too sure why tbh) but i still enjoyed it everytime for many reasons

im not too sure if i would recommend this show to everyone, feels like the kind of show some people would drop because the story gets a bit slow, but if your into the themes listed in the show, and you like watching kdramas, i would definitely recommend.

Leia Mais