O K2 (2016)

An Action Hero but also establishes the fact that Strong Anti-Hero Females are a lasting trend

I saw some clips and action scenes of ‘The K2’ on YouTube and became interested in the show. I finished the show within a span of 1.5 days with ample sleep ofcourse. I have to say this is the most action packed K-drama I have seen thus far (DOTS, following second).

I wanted to find out why the show is called K2, what is the significance. 15 mins into the drama and there is some punch packed action. My hopes rose, seeing how well it was choreographed. It’s safe to say the action didn’t disappoint and you find it packed around pretty much the whole drama. Although, the excessive pause made it unrealistic to some extent and fast pace of camera sometimes made it hard to follow through. I had to go back a few seconds sometimes to know what happened.

The background music and ending credit song caught my attention from the first go. I searched out for it and found it was the main theme for the drama, furthermore the words that I wasn’t able to grasp (other than all of the dialogues in Korean) were in German. The words had a lot of meaning attached to the story and for a Kdrama having a ost composed in German was much surprising (my initial guess was spanish since that’s where the story began). To tell you the truth, it’s absolutely catchy and is still ringing in my ears. Most of the ost is instrumental and pretty good depicting the mood of the story. Soft for emotional scenes and thriller for suspense or action. Few episodes into it and you could guess with the main theme playing that you will witness some action or dynamic transition in plot.

Coming to the story, it is not something entirely new to the universe. An agent (Kim Jeha) like no other, suffered a tradegy, gone rogue, fighting against the world but still being good and fair to the innocent. He fights for the right, wants revenge and along the way encounters love (Go Anna). However, the intricacies are what makes these stories and characters a bit more unique. It’s always interesting to watch these kinds of stories roll out every time. (Action with a purpose, as I call them are a favorite genre of mine). There are some things I absolutely loved about the drama. If there was a damsel in distress it wasn’t without a strong antagonist and that too a female (Choi Yoo Jin). Not often do we see this gender being given so much authority and control to move the story.

I loved the character of Choi Yoo Jin even though she was evil, very evil but there was something about her that made her vulnerable and deserving of bit sympathy. Amazing acting by Song Yoon-ah, she ruled the show for me. She has so many layers and ultimately turns out to not so bad a character. Infact, she is better off than likes of Mr. Jang (father of Go Anna). I wanted to like this character, giving reasons for his shitty behavior of a playboy or towards his own daughter (he still loves her mother, he is trying to protect his own daughter) but even after his whole sacrifice at the end I haven’t been able to like him. I understand that his political career was the only thing he had left and it was to avenge his love. But you need to draw a line and not hurt and put the only thing you could possibly love through danger and much emotional turmoil again and again.

The character of Go Anna played by Im Yoon-ah is much in controversy. Some say her acting isn’t as strong as her kpop gig, some say she doesn’t compliment well with Ji Chan Wook and there is no chemistry, others say she has improved a lot. Well I have nothing to compare her with, neither her past works nor many actresses. I honestly found her acting well according to the role given to her. I felt the role demanded of her to show less emotions, to act aloof. I felt the sparks between Go Anna and Kim Jeha but I wish they burnt like fire, I wish for more scenes where the chemistry could be explored more. Nevertheless, it
was great.

I also enjoyed the love traingle between Kim Jeha, Go Anna and Choi Yoo Jin. It touched upon a restricted topic of older woman loving a young guy. From the first go I felt that Choi Yoo Jin started liking Kim Jeha but it wasn’t very clear, the show makers deliberately kept it that way I guess and I loved it. The way she should stood strong, caught hold of her feelings amidst her goals and also the way she unfolded and exposed herself to Jeha.

Coming to the titular character, Ji Chang Wook, he has done some amazing work. It was my first drama of Ji Chang Wook. I am completely mesmerised by his ability to induce intensity and comedy equally well into the scene. He has performed some amazing action and was truly the wolf of show. Few of my favourite scenes include the inital fight scene (episode 1), the car chase with Kim Jeha and Yoo Jin (episode 2), bathroom fight (episode 3), taking Anna to infirmary (episode 7), euroem and ding (episode 8), how Kim Jeha looks at Anna through CCTV and then his eye shades episode, all the tiny details make your heart melt, the ending (episode 16) and choi yoo jin’s role in it, she was literally the queen of the forest!

After finishing the show, it was difficult for me to imagine any korean actor that I famously know of other than Ji Chang Wook to play K2. He has done sweet justice to his role. The drama kept me engrossed throughout and due to the suspense attached I was constantly on my feet. The only disappointment I have from the show is not being able to K2’s real name.

The whole soundtrack of the show is so so good it be enough to make you want to watch the show. I love the soundtrack of the show so much that I usually have it playing on repeat. All in all, I love the show a lot and I do keep coming back to it.

Why Watch it?

- If you are looking for an action packed Kdrama
- If you are a Ji Chang Wook fan
- If you are a Im Yoon-ah fan
- If you are a Song Yoon-ah fan, trust me she’s too good in this
- If you like action entangled with romance and suspense
- Amazing Ost
- If you like female anti-heros who move the story forward

Leia Mais

This was the first political/thriller drama I'd watched and therefore with little else in the genre to compare it too this will just be a stand alone review.

I would first like to say I thought the acting in this was mainly phenomenal. JCW delivered brilliantly, the villains were so twisted you can't help but both pity them and hate them. I find sometimes villains don't have a motive other than just being evil but these ones did which combined with great acting made it amazing. My only negative was Yoona's acting BUT I know she hasn't got a lot of experience and luckily the other actors made up for it. As episodes went on, though, her acting improved.

This show is so full of plot twists you'll be dying to see the next episode. Some parts do /drag/ and are overly dramatic. A dark room filled with villains around a desk. Really?

Although not my favourite drama of the year I highly enjoyed this and will be looking into other works of these actors.

Leia Mais

Thanks to Ji Chang Wook I finished this drama. Without him there? Probably would have dropped it.

 Story:
The basic idea of the story is quite nice. Political affairs tight together with family tragedies and everything evil from the financial world. Sounds great, right? But then there is more. A (subtle?) love triangle, unrequited love, a past love that was killed and someone who needs to take revenge for this killing....A daughter taking revenge on the family that abandoned her...another daughter taking revenge on her stepmother (who is the afore mentioned daughter)...a woman taking revenge on her husband who does not love her one bit, but stays with her due to his career. So, as you see, there is a lot of revenge going on. That's already a little confusing, but then there are all these sudden twists and you think "What the heck just happened here? How? What? Why?" I am sure there are some people that like these kinds of twists, but for me it was simply too much and really annoying. Oh, and one other annoying thing: many of the characters acted like spoiled little children whose favorite lollipop has been stolen. Ugh.

Acting/Cast:
JCW (as expected) did a great job here. He did what he was supposed to do, although there were some really absurd parts (like ten men fighting each other under the shower....yaaay no). I've seen him playing better roles!
Song Yoon Ah's acting was also great. I hated her character to the very end (yeah, sorry, no pity from my side), and I believe that's what the character was supposed to be - a total bitch. And although I hated her character, I was still impressed by her acting.
Im Yoon Ah's acting on the other side....well I don't know. She was a naive and dumb little girl. And I also did not like her very much. Question is only, was she supposed to be this naive and dumb or is she just a bad actress? I haven't seen her in any other dramas yet, but I must say that I am not impressed.

Music:
German classics - liked it and it was always fitting. The music gave this whole drama an ominous atmosphere.

Rewatch Value:
Will not rewatch it, as I am not a rewatcher, especially for a drama I wasn't impressed with.

Overall:
MDL suggested a 6, but I think it deserves a 7. As someone already pointed out: it could have been so much more (and so much better)!

Leia Mais

Best fight scenes with perfect OST

From the first to the last episode, the series doesn’t have a dull moment. I was impressed by stunning fight scenes accompanied by perfect music. It was complete harmony.
The fact JCW did his own stunts makes it even better. Story is interesting, keeps you guessing till the end.

Besides stunning Kim Jeha and Yoo Jin, I also loved Se Joon. Not sure why people keep complaining about Anna- she was traumatised girl, being imprisoned her whole life- I am not sure how people expect she should behave or how different Yoona should have portrayed her. To me, it was good enough. The fact that she chose to be good despite all that has happened to her speaks volume.

Would Yoo Jin became same if she had her “Je Ha” besides her? Probably not because her father’s influence was too great.

Besides all this, I absolutely loved the moral story behind, and how Yoo Jin and Se Joon came to realisation of their own faults and accepted the consequences. Along with poetic justice to the main villains- that was great to see.

Leia Mais

In contrast to many of the reviews out here, I found The K2 pretty interesting. Yes, it's a little convoluted and tries too hard, but it was reasonably watchable. It is no masterpiece, but it is still pretty evocative. Sung Yoon Ah's Choi Yoo Jin makes a striking villainess. She is able to portray this truly evil persona all the while bearing her vulnerabilities. Her performance is quite impressive and kept me very intrigued throughout the drama.

I picked this drama up purely for the casting of Ji Chang Wook. His acting will not disappoint. His character, Kim Je Ha is super cool and steamy, and has a fatal flaw as a soldier for hire. I truly think if you are a Ji Chang Wook fan, this is a must-see.

If you are watching this for the romance, I probably wouldn't recommend it. Ji Chang Wook and Im Yoon Ah have some cute scenes together, but the romance seems more like a supplementary after thought.

My interpretation of The K2 is a modern day fairy tale set in the world of politics. It often tries to be overly complicated and political. Everyone is seeking revenge and pushing their own agenda in an amoral political environment. To watch this drama, one has to be very liberal with their willingness to suspend disbelief ... The drama itself is pretty far-fetched ... Everything considered, I'm still glad I watched this drama.

Leia Mais

The movie is great! Lots of action and fighting scenes, the plot is intriguing and full of surprises. I enjoyed watching it a lot. The best part for me is the relationship between Kim Je-Ha and Choi Yoo-Jin as these strong willed characters, full of power and each having its own drive manage to form a strong connection with each other.
The other characters in the drama are also interesting, each having his/her own thing to be remembered with.
I recommend the drama to those who like dramas like City Hunter or The Healer, for me watching this was a really thrilling experience.

Leia Mais

When great cast meets bad writing

The beginning of the drama had really great potential. Ji Chang Wook's character Jeha/K2 and the Song Yoon Ah's Yoo Jin started the drama with immense chemistry that was intriguing to watch. However, the plot slowly started deteriorating in each episode. Jeha's relationship with Anna felt empty, there was little-to-no chemistry between the two. Anna's behavior in public versus in private felt too different, almost like watching two different people, to the point it wasn't even pleasing to the eye. Altogether Anna's character had just a small development which, considering she was the female lead, was very pitiful because we could see both Jeha and especially Yoo Jin develop enormously during the drama.

Overall, it was a watchable drama that highlighted especially Yoon Ah's acting capabilities as well as Chang Wook's. Still on the verge about whether Yoona's character Anna was that badly written or if her portraying the FL was bad.

Leia Mais

Here's the thing - I went into this drama knowing that it was receiving a lot of criticism in regards to the script, so I decided to just shut off my brain and not think too much about the (very obvious) plot holes and the loose writing. I instead focused on the characters (and the acting performances) intead, because that is probably the highlight of this show. However, that doesn't mean that the loose writing was unnoticeable - it just meant that I wasn't as disappointed as I had lowered expectations.

Story:
The premise of this show is really, really good - but somewhere along the way the writer seemed to have forgotten what it is they wanted to tell and tried to do way too much. We never really learned all that much about the title character K2, and there were so many loose ends that weren't properly resolved. Not to mention - in regards to the direction, episode by episode, there wasn't a whole lot of development and value add to the overall storyline - the actors did a phenomenal job in trying to convey the tension and buildup of conflicts, but the pacing of the show never really allowed that to happen in an organic way. The action scenes were well done, but not well shot. I'm all about action scenes (especially ones starring JCW), but when they are repetitive and senseless, it starts hurting your product big-time.

The romance in this was not allowed to develop well - it was essentially forced down our throats, which is a pity, because I do like the idea of the couple. I did find them cute and liked that they brought something different to each other's world - but this was another area that could have been done so much better. I would have also liked to see a little more development on what was going on with Jeha and Yoojin, because oh man did they have good chemistry.

The political machinations were interesting and boring at the same time - I really only cared about what was going on from Choi Yoojin's angle, and found the plot lagging at times when it focused too much on the other shady figures who were trying to manipulate from behind the scenes. The dialogue was actually pretty fascinating, if only because the actors did such a good job delivering their lines that they may have conveyed more depth than the writer had intended.

For a drama that was focused a lot on revenge in the beginning, that part just kind of fizzled out later on. In a way, I do kind of understand why, given the later developments, but it would have been nice to have a little more exploration on that subject (especially if you're going to use it as the main motivation for all the characters early on). It kind of felt like the writer forgot about certain elements and then suddenly remembered them in the last couple of episodes.

Acting/Cast:

The characters were honestly the saving grace of this drama - while the writing wasn't tight at all, the four main characters were given compelling personalities and background stories, and were actually fairly fleshed out (I would have liked to have seen a little more personality exploration of Jeha though - but hey, it's totally okay that we still didn't know very much about him when the show came to an end). And of course, the cast took those characters and brought them to life.

It's been said pretty much everywhere - but Song Yoona was an absolute queen. Her character was complex and had so many different layers, and yet Song Yoona was able to convey each and every one of them perfectly. She was such a cruel and ruthless character, but also had a vulnerability that you couldn't help but sympathize with. The character was written very well, and Song Yoona was outstanding in her portrayal of the bitter and hardened mastermind.

I also think the fact that Yoojin was such a complicated character overshadowed everybody and everything else - this isn't necessarily a bad thing, but when it becomes all about one character (or the writing seems lopsided in character development), it can detract from the overall production.

Jo Sung Ha was so great as the politician who was probably just as ruthless as his wife in some respects, and they were absolutely dynamite as a power couple in politics.

Ji Chang Wook did more with his character than he was given - and while I would have liked him to have been given a meatier role, he was fantastic in his action scenes and gave a little bit more life to the character of Jeha. While his scenes with Yoona were very cute (if a little out of place in an otherwise dark drama), his scenes with Song Yoona were sizzling. It felt like he and Yoona were essentially casted for their popularity/faces, and were basically marketing bait for overseas promotions.

I was intrigued by Yoona's character in the beginning but she had limited scenes in the first half of the drama and was basically a constant damsel in distress in the second half. She has improved as an actress, but this role itself was limited (the character was good - development of that character's story was not) and makes me wonder if the producers were so keen on getting her just for her name alone. She and JCW were very, very pretty together, though, so there's that.

Music:
Basically all choral, all the time, but I actually did like the dramatic effect of the OST. Also, the songs were beautiful.

Overall:
The thing is, I could rewatch this just for the characters and cast alone. Too often, there may be good quality dramas where I'm not emotionally invested because I just don't care for the characters (and this is especially true in melodramas), so the fact that I liked all four of the main characters was a huge plus for me. The weakest link is the writing - which does matter a lot, of course - but at some point the characters do have a life of their own and I think it really does help supplement some of the issues with the plot.

Leia Mais