"Heartless City", you complete me. ((I've always wanted to say that at least once)). Story: Some of you may be wondering why I've given the story an 8 when I just stated that I love this show. That being said, just because I love a certain drama doesn't exactly mean I'm willing to overlook all of it's faults. The faults here were pretty obvious, but they didn't necessarily detract from the overall experience. Originally, this drama was to be titled "Undercover" instead of the more poetic "Heartless City". At first, I assumed the previous title was referring to the main character, Soo Min. After you get about halfway through the drama, you begin to wonder WHO is the main undercover. Seriously. Everyone and their grandmother is undercover. It's like the guy pulling all these strings just decided to shove a whole bunch of undercover agents into the drug business and have them chase each other just to get a laugh out of it. The thing is, you'd expect that after the first few times the viewer would get so desensitized to the whole "undercover" thing that when the next character is revealed to be an undercover agent, the viewer wouldn't even bat an eye. Ha. Nope. Each and every time you're just completely blown away. "Heartless City" also did a really good job with the antagonist reveal. Just when you think that the "good" guys have defeated the "bad" guys, you realize that there's someone else behind them. I'm putting good and bad in quotations because there's not really an easy way to label all these characters. True, a few of them are easy to label, but everyone's relationships and alliances are constantly shifting here. Mortal enemies may wind up as allies and allies may wind up pointing a gun at you. This drama focuses heavily on those relationships between the people of the drug world and the law enforcement trying to capture them. You would think that relationships also translated to the main romance between Soo Min and Shi Hyun, but it's quite the opposite. Their relationship sort of took a back-burner to the rest of the plot. While that did make the story more believable, it also makes it difficult to put a label on what Soo Min and Shi Hyun felt for each other. I can't say it was love, or even like. Maybe lust or passion? Either way, both characters were very believable and well written. While Soo Min may be overly emotional and unprofessional, she was very realistic. She was an untrained girl looking to get revenge on her older sister, and it shows. Shi Hyun is more than just the cold leader of his drug ring, and little tiny bits of vulnerability show through. Acting: Wow. Jung Kyung Ho has quickly become one of my favorite actors. His portrayal of "The Doctor's Son" was perfect and apparently garnered him a ton of critical praise. It's well-deserved, since he was just brilliant here. Kyung Ho pulled off the dangerous and vulnerable Jung Shi Hyun perfectly, and I just can't heap enough superlatives on to him to make you understand how much I loved him here. As far as his chemistry with co-star Nam Gyu Ri went, I think I finally have an actor OTP to rival my ChaeKi ship from "Nice Guy". Which sucks, since that means it'll take a while for me to watch their other stuff without hating the onscreen objects of their affections. Anyway, Nam Gyu Ri's character here is a bit... difficult to connect with. I feel like that's more attributed to Gyu Ri's acting than anything else, since it felt like she was emotionally walled off from me, but she was still pretty good in her role. Lee Jae Won and Kim Yoo Mi were really good here, and I especially loved Yoon Hyun Min's Soo here. Music: God, that OST. It's been a long time since I was so obsessed with a song that I just had to put it on repeat for days on end, and I still don't regret all 300+ plays of Kim Yong Jin's "Hurt". That song was just so perfect for this drama. The instrumentals used to highlight HC's important scenes were perfect too. They felt a bit like something out of a Bond or superhero movie. Dark and broody- perfect for action scenes. Rewatch Value: Once you've seen the whole thing once, I kind of doubt anything here will take you by surprise. That doesn't mean it won't be fun, though. Overall: This drama left me emotionally drained and probably ruined me for other noir dramas to come. I wouldn't recommend this if you're looking for something like "City Hunter", since the two are worlds apart in tone despite their similarities plot-wise. "Heartless City" is a drama that's very unapologetic in whatever it does, and by the end of it you'll probably be sobbing, but I would still recommend watching this.