Drama, Drive and an excellent team of actors My acquaintance with Korean cinema began with serious films and art house, and I considered Korean TV series to be a genre completely unworthy of attention. For a long time I was sure that only romantic melodramas and films for teenage girls were made for television in Korea.
But over time, I wanted to get acquainted with this aspect of the Korean film industry. It was a bit of a fun meeting, because it turned out I didn't know any of the teleicumers. And if a large army of fans of Kim Bom began to watch the series “Undercover” because of him, then I began to watch because of the serious actor Park Son-woo, brilliantly proved himself in real cinema. Plus, I was attracted to the topic – I wanted to watch the action with a detective component.
I had no idea who Kim Bom was.
I liked the series so much that I watched it twice (this is the first series in my life, watched twice).
Fascinating plot, intrigue, drive, scenes of fights and chase, almost complete absence of romantic component, verboseness - in other words, "Korean cinema as we love."
But, in addition, not only the above factors made it so fascinating and memorable. But also the main idea of the film, as well as bright characters.
For this, you can forgive some script sagging, and obvious blunders (and they are, I will not hide, but I do not want to write about them).
Idea. She is not alone, there are several, but the cross-cutting theme of the series is revenge for the evil done.
Good intentions pave the way to hell. Will the noblest idea have unpredictable and dramatic consequences? Will not a high goal turn into evil? And can a person who has a plan in mind and manipulates others to implement it control everything? And where is the line that separates the avenger from the banal killer and the criminal?
Heroes.
I like that none of the special agents are superheroes or superhumans. They are all ordinary people, with their own oddities and shortcomings, with their own dramatic life stories. They have tears and nervous breakdowns. I like these characters because they look like people, not comic book characters.
Park Son-woo, for which I started watching this series, did not fail. Captain Jen is an amazing character. Character, charisma, restraint, equanimity, while he is able to take responsibility and protect his people. Everyone dreams of such a leader.
Kim Bom. Since I had no idea who it was, I decided that Detective Cha Gang Woo was being played by a professional athlete. And this professional athlete impressed me so much in the first series that I decided to see what kind of actor he was. When Google gave me a hundred photos of a cute, smiling young man with teddy bears and flowers in his hands, I thought it was a mistake. You can't have a typical K-Pop guy like that. Turns out he can. And that deserves a lot of respect. How this cutie, “Korea’s most beautiful smile,” could play a broken, gloomy, sociopathic detective who has never smiled in 16 episodes is a mystery. Probably a talent after all. But the character turned out to be strong, causing great empathy. True, I have read a lot of negative reviews from female fans about such a dramatic transformation of Kim Bom, but I think it’s great when an actor is not stuck in one role, but grows and develops.
Lee Won John created the image of a funny man and a balagur. This character is in almost every Korean police movie. But this balagur is able to be very serious and can give battle to the enemy. Amused the passion of this hero for reincarnations and dressing. Lee Won John dilutes the overall gloomy atmosphere of the film and makes all the experiences a little less emotional.
As for actress Yoon Seo-i, she was certainly not very lucky, since female characters in Korean cinema are almost always much weaker than male ones. But I liked her character, Min Joo. A girl with her life drama, with a strong character, combative, but not annoying, a real professional in her field, although female emotionality sometimes interferes with her. Attractive externally, but relies not on female attractiveness, but exclusively on professionalism. Yoon So-yi has blended perfectly into the cast. And it seemed to me that there was a certain chemistry between all the four actors.
Thanks for the excellent soundtrack.
Once again, I want to say that there are script flaws in the series, some plot twists look a little naive, but the pluses are much more. After all, if the characters of any film always acted logically and correctly, then the film would not exist, due to the lack of intrigue.
The sincerity of the actors and the dynamics of action bribe and make “Undercover” a special series.
10 out of 10