All Things K, Life
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On K-dramas and City Hunter

I don’t watch a lot of K-dramas, but when I do watch one I make sure it’s good and I make sure it’s Lee Min Ho. The number of K-dramas I’ve seen, I can count with my fingers. Endless Love: Autumn in my Heart (the start of it all), Full House, You’re Beautiful, Personal Taste (which I loved), Oh! My Lady, My Girlfriend is a Nine-tailed Fox, Secret Garden (one of the best) and this one which I recently finished, City Hunter. It is good, it is damn good. I was a bit hesitant because of the action and suspense genre which I tend to stay away from because first of all, I don’t have much knowledge when it comes to the Korean government and secondly, well I really do prefer the romantic drama theme.

The reason why I started City Hunter was not only because people were recommending it to me, but also because it stars Lee Min Ho and I was curious about how he’ll go about pulling off an action role. I didn’t watch him until Personal Taste so didn’t really get the whole craze with him being on Boys Over Flowers. Besides, the Meteor Garden theme was kind of really annoying to me. Lee Min Ho definitely has the acting chops and seeing him jump into this type of genre didn’t go wrong because it fit him. They also made him flawless with the right background to become the kick-ass character he played.

What I loved most about City Hunter is that there were no unnecessary secondary love stories. In the beginning of the drama you’d think that Sae Hee would have feelings for Yoon Sung or Prosecutor Kim Young Joo and Nana would be all  jealous and plot their own rendezvous together but the truth was it wasn’t that way. I also loved how fragile the relationships were being portrayed but we weren’t being robbed off them. Nana and Yoon Sung had their fair share of sweet moments, bickering and drama and Young Joo and Sae Hee’s relationship as an ex married couple was also really portrayed well. You weren’t really sure if they were still in love but they definitely cared enough about each other to maintain that kind of relationship. Of course there was the issue of the “noble idiot” K-drama cliche that in order to protect himself and the girl he loves he must let her go thus sacrificing their relationship altogether. That was sort of an issue, but it wasn’t too glaring for me beneath all the action, the familial entanglements and all the plotting and scheming going on.

My most favorite scenes in the drama always involved scenes between Lee Yoon Sung and Prosecutor Kim Young Joo. Their chemistry whether as comrades or foes were amazing. Not to mention they are both so easy on the eyes.

If there was one consistent thing in this drama, it was Lee Min Ho’s styling. I’m usually at a lack of better words to say when it comes to fashion but it was close to perfect. He usually wore blazers, low hung shirts and slim pants which did wonders to his tall and lean figure. When tall guys are dressed in a preppy manner and given the right fit you generally can’t go wrong with it. I guess you’ll have to watch the drama to know what I mean.

I finished this series within a week and a half, just in time for the holidays. The suspense and “WHAT THE FUCK?!?!” factor it gave me made me really look forward to watching it despite sleeping at 3am (thank goodness it’s the holidays, right?). I’m not sure if I’m going to watch another drama with the same genre as this because it’s going to be pretty hard to top. The producers mentioned that there might be an upcoming sequel in the works or a second season and if that happens and it’s the same characters and story flow, then you can definitely count me in.

2 Comments

  1. I’m so scared to watch a single episode of Korean drama only ’cause I know I will be hooked. My mom’s totally obsessed with these sort of shows. I was checking out to see what she was watching the other day, and I ended up watching a couple of episodes with her.

    Oy, but you know, my only problem with Korean dramas is I can never tell the characters apart. It seems like they all have the same face and hairstyles. Lol.

    • It’s always like that in the beginning! I remember when I started getting into the whole Korean pop/movie/tv culture some 2 years ago I could NOT tell who was who hahaha

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