Earlier in 2014, I confess to having waded back into watching Kdramas via My Love From Another Star. Then I went through several Jdramas and then, while I was looking for something different from what I’ve seen so far especially in Kdramas, my eyes fell on a promotional poster of BAD GUYS, a production of OCN. Cable television in Korea seem to be stepping up their A-game, so now we see worthwhile dramas from production companies other than KBS, SBS and MBC.
And yay for short dramas! That’s what I like about dramas that are only around 10 to 16 episodes. These mid-length dramas have just the right length, IMO. Add more, and there’s a risk of it being dragged on too long, with one or two episodes doing nothing but acting as unnecessary fillers. Short but sweet; that’s a formula that almost always works.
(Disclaimer: This is, in no way, a professional review. I am no critic, so do not look for highly technical or “deep” critiquing here. And imma try to make reviews a weekly or, at least, bi-weekly thing, posted every Saturday. Depending on my drama-viewing, that is.)
On a SPOILER ALERT scale of 1 to 10, I’m going to give a 6-strong warning. You’ve been warned.
Title: BAD GUYS (OCN)
No. of episodes: 11
Cast: Kim Sang-joong (Oh Gu-tak); Park Hae-jin (Lee Jung-moon); Ma Dong-seok (Park Woong-cheol); Jo Dong-hyuk (Jung Tae-soo); Kang Ye-won (Yoo Mi-young) (Check Wiki page here or the official OCN website here, if you can read Hangul.)
SYNOPSIS: Currently on suspension, Detective Oh Gu-tak (aka “Mad Dog”) was tasked by Police Commissioner Nam to hunt down a serial killer targeting women. Oh Gu-tak agrees, but only if it’s done his way, and his way involves getting together three criminals who are currently in prison to form his personal crime-fighting unit. There’s Park Woong-cheol, a mob boss known for his fists and brute-like strength; Jung Tae-soo, an assassin-for-hire who has superior skills and fighting prowess; and serial killer Lee Jung-moon, a mysterious young man who is a genius, but diagnosed as a psychopath. (~Jeffer)
THE DRAMA:
The start of the drama sounds straightforward. The police are failing dismally, so it’s time to take an unconventional route. When the Police Commissioner’s son (who also happens to be a cop) was murdered by the serial killer being hunted, he decided to call in Oh Gu-tak to do what the police couldn’t.
The unit formed by Gu-tak will fly under the radar. All three criminals will have to suffer having contraptions strapped around their ankles so they can be tracked at all times. They will get out of prison, do the job, catch the culprit (and be rewarded with several years off their sentence), then be brought back in again.
But this is a drama, and there are bound to be complications. We get to know more about these “hardened” criminals: their past and even some people who figured greatly in their lives. Secrets will also slowly rise to the surface as our “good guys” – who also happen to be bad guys – find themselves mere pieces to a bigger puzzle. The question is: who’s playing with the puzzle? And with them?
THOUGHTS:
The question that often popped up was: are criminals beasts? Just because they have committed a crime, don’t they deserve to still be treated as human beings? This show was not short on metaphors, but they all danced around these questions.
The first time I encountered the synopsis, I thought this was a drama about second chances. You have a washed-out detective currently under suspension, and three convicts who have committed more than their fair share of crimes – and they’re not what you’d call petty crimes either. A mob boss, a contract killer, and a psychopath serial killer are probably considered to be the dregs of society.
As they are picked to form this rag-tag unit of crime-fighters, you would think they are in it for the sake of redemption. But no, the reason is far more straight-up than that. For each case they solve (and if they happen to be the one to personally catch the culprit), they get to have a specific number of years shaved off their sentence. Are they seeking forgiveness? Do they want to get back to society? Not necessarily.
They just want freedom.
Of course, as the series goes on and we find out more about the characters and their pasts, some of their deeper motivations will come to the surface.
Oh Gu-tak, the glue that is literally and figuratively bringing them all together is also revealed to have his own reasons. Why did he agree to take up cases that cannot be solved by the police? Why was he suspended? Why was he called a crazy dog? Why did he pick these three individuals in particular?
For the three criminals, being forced (and yes, they were a bit coerced) into forming this unit is bound to change them. They start out not trusting each other. Come to think of it, I don’t think they ever will, not completely. But they still work together. They have to. At the same time, there is a competition going on as to who can make the final “catch” and get years deducted off their sentence.
And it was a treat watching them go about it. They each have their own ways. Woong-cheol uses his fists and barges through everything in his way like the gangster that he is. He also displays his leadership skills as he rounds up thugs to do his bidding. Out of the three, however, he is the marshmallow. And he values loyalty above many things.
Tae-soo, on the other hand, is the more calculating yet deadlier in his methods. He does not waste time on niceties; he wants results, and he does not bat an eyelash on inflicting pain to get it. But everyone is wondering why this contract killer turned himself in.
Meanwhile, Jung-moon uses his brain more than his brawn. He shows excellent profiling skills, and is good at strategizing. He became a legend in his own right for having killed a lot of women within a short period of time, and at a young age, too. The problem? He does not remember committing the murders.
I appreciated how they tackled crimes that on the darker – and gory – side. Serial murder of women, human trafficking, harvesting of organs… It could get really creepy and, except for the parts where they blurred the images of knives and blades, it went all full out. Those with weak stomachs may find it hard to watch some bludgeoning, stabbing and bloodshed going on. (I just thought it was funny how they blurred the blades, but did not have qualms with the rest, not even the torture-interrogation scenes.)
The strength of this drama, in my opinion, lies in its characters. Each of them have their own motivations. Even the main villain, whose identity was revealed in the last two episodes, were given lots of moments to shine. The performance shown by the villain (I won’t tell who) and Kim Sang-joong as the “crazy dog” Oh Gu-tak were probably the best among the cast. He commands every scene, and can easily fool the viewers one way, only to switch the other way.
And that grin. I get chills every single time.
Park Hae-jin as Lee Jung-moon is not far behind. I’ve seen him in a number of dramas and roles, but this is probably the one where I liked him best. He spent most of the episodes broody and looking all passive and stone-faced, but I thought it was actually effective. After all, Lee Jung-moon is supposed to be a character that is difficult to figure out. Even Oh Gu-tak admits that, out of them all, Lee Jung-moon is the one he has difficulty “reading”.
Aside from Lee Jung-moon, one other character that also managed to elicit sympathy from me is Tae-soo, the hardened assassin who can commit murder six (and six hundred) ways from Sunday. He found himself weighed down with the fear that he is alone and no one will remember him. On top of that, he has to deal with the fact that he has developed strong feelings for the wife of his last target. Now ain’t love a b*tch.
In a conversation where the woman tells him that she wants to meet the person who killed her husband…
Tae-soo: “If your meet him, and he apologizes, will you forgive him?”
Sun-jung: “No. An apology is for when a mistake is made. What he did… is not a mistake. It’s a crime. So I will never forgive him.”
Like I said, ain’t love a b*tch.
OVERALL
Sometimes, we become fixated on hating something that we fail to notice that we have turned into exactly the very thing that we hate. Knowing who (and what) you are is probably the driving force behind this drama. There is the obvious case of Lee Jung-moon, who is desperate to find out if he truly killed all those women. Jung Tae-soo spent most of his life as a hardened killer, but one fateful meeting showed him that that is not all he is. Mob boss Woong-cheol also
Funny how, when the mirrors are wiped clean and the gloves have come off, the bad guys turn out to be the good guys.
I totally wouldn’t mind a Season 2 of this one. Bring it!
Rating: 4.4 out of 5 stars
Watch it or not?
If you’re up for something gritty and slightly dark, this is for you.
(Bad Guys is a OCN production, and aired in Japan from October 4 to December 13, 2014.)
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