Thanks to Uhm Tae Goo's swoony and gallant turn as ML in My Sweet Mobster, I decided to check him out in a different gangster role, Night in Paradise, which is decidedly the antithesis of the light-hearted romcom that aired a few months ago.

Don't let the title fool you, there isn't a moment in this drama that could be described as a paradise. Instead, I assume it refers to the darkness and brutal violence that arrives in Jeju Island, a bucolic paradise of peace and tranquility.

Uhm Tae Goo and Jeon Yeo Been are great in this dark and moody crime drama about vengeance and retribution. But the story itself is not especially original and within the first few minutes of the film, it seems quite obvious what will happen, who is behind it, and how everything will play out. But viewers want to keep watching anyway, even as each development unfolds as expected, all the way to the very predictable (yet admittedly quite satisfying) final minutes, thanks to Uhm Tae Good's sympathetic and compelling tragic figure and a script that still manages to create tension and drama.

If you can stomach the brutality and violence often found in these types of K dramas and films, then Night in Paradise is still a pretty decent watch, especially if you want to see Uhm Tae Goo in a much grittier role. My rating falls somewhere between 7.5 and 8.