Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5
Starring: So Ji-sub, Choi Dae-hoon, Yoon Kyung-ho, Joo Sang-uk, Son Na-eun, Seo Su-min, Lee Dong-ha
Where to watch: Netflix (10 episodes, 1 hour each)
To watch or not to watch: Korea’s take on Taken, Korean War geopolitics, inter-personal issues and inter-departmental rivalry. All with great action choreography.

Kim Do-hyeon (So Ji-sub) is a single father to a teenage daughter, Kim Min-ji (Seo Su-min), is going through the motion working a mid-level employee at a bank. He has little motivation in his life, except keeping a low profile and fulfilling his duty as a father. As is the common trope, Hye-ri is being bullied by her classmate named Ju Hye-ri (Yu Ji-ahn), who is the daughter of a powerful owner of a construction company. In an altercation, Min-ji is hurt on the head, presumed dead by Hye-ri, who calls for enforcement to help hide the body. Since her father, Ju Gang-chan (Joo Sang-uk), is a powerful man, he also has a lot of people who are ready to help him, along with some who can use this as an opportunity to show him up. And both kinds of people get involved in a super convoluted course of action, which would require a board with people’s photos and red string connecting them to keep track; it is also unimportant. Suffice it to say that Mr Kim pulls his cloak of low profile off and is revealed to have been trained in the North Korean forces to kill people, had defected to the South and worked with the forces there, and has a kill count more than that of all the serial killers in the world combined. He is convinced by intuition that his daughter is alive and is out for the blood of anyone who stands in his way to find her. He will end Ju Gang-chan too, if the occasion calls for it. He is accompanied by two bosom friends from the South Korean forces, Seong Han-soo (Choi Dae-hoon) and Park Jin-cheol (Yoon Kyung-ho), who served in the forces with him. The trio wreak havoc on the entire gangster world till they find Min-ji, and then continue to do so after that, just because. There are North Koreans after Mr Kim too for various reasons, which add much drama to the story, but little else. And some more people. Not important.

The series is 10 episodes long and could have ended by episode 6, even after keeping all the characters and their story as is. And they still managed to stretch it 40% more. Oh, how could this skill be learned by college students, struggling to write essays.
Business idea: make a course on writing Korean dramas and sell it at the price of gold.
Moving on…
To whoever is looking for something to watch, something which is primary screen friendly, but can be watched brain paused, will thoroughly enjoy this series. It has some of the best action scenes seen, rivaling that of Bourne Identity. So Ji-sub has still got it, and it is thrilling to watch him destroy everything with nothing but sheer single-mindedness. It is thrilling as most of the fights in the initial episodes are hand-to-hand combat, but then it evolves to massive military-grade guns, supposedly to attract Western audiences. And it worked, as it was ranked no 1 on Netflix Global Top 10 Non-English Shows list for three consecutive weeks (according to Forbes).

The series could not escape the many tropes common in Korean dramas, which only work as padding to stretch the dramas for more than necessary runtime. There are multiple displays of the gangsters’ wealth, many sequences to show the formidability of the top honcho, who remains undaunted till the script requires him to fall. And falls he does. But why do we fall, Mr Kim? So that we rise, in this case, weaker than before. Otherwise what’s the right-to-win of the protagonist?
It is fun to make fun, but still this series will be recommended for those looking for something entertaining, but also have exhausted their brain power doing life. You can choose to be hooked on the series and enjoy the death and physics-defying fighting skills of the three men, also chuckle at the funny camaraderie they enjoy. Or you can keep the series running while getting some chores done, and not feel like you need to rewind to catch up. *Shrug*