Once again, as per all drama reviews, I can’t say how coherent the post will be as I’m trying to make sense of my thoughts as well. Thus, I usually take a break after watching a drama before writing the review, especially an impactful drama like The K2. People call this stage, the ‘drama hangover’. Although I took literally a few months to write this post!
Initially I wasn’t planning on watching this drama. Nothing seemed particularly interesting, neither was there any hype creating on it prior to it’s airing, unlike DOTS. As you’ll notice, I’ll be making a lot of references to DOTS as I do see quite a lot of similarities and also because the last drama that left such an impact was DOTS. I only started watching it after watching some of the cuts from episode 12 to 14. I decided to watch a little of episode 14 and the rest is history.
As of now, I’ve watched this drama maybe 2.5 times although I started from episode 14. I lived streamed episode 15 and 16 before starting from episode 1. I went through all the episodes before coming back to watch the key episodes again to get a better understanding of the plot. Those who’ve watched this drama would understand what I mean. Even though I’ve watched it back and forth a few times, there are certain scenes that I’ve just skipped due to the lengthy conversations.
It’s probably going to be a post with lots of words and my thoughts probably scattered everywhere too. Be warned.
Note: This post will contain spoilers so if you have not watched this drama, you may not want to continue reading.
Characters
Kim Je Ha aka K2 is played by handsome actor Ji Chang Wook. He would be the main character of the drama. He basically doesn’t have anywhere to go because he was framed for certain crimes and wanted for them. Apparently, he escaped to Spain from Iraq and then somehow escaped back to Korea. He gets pulled into the story when he witnesses something he shouldn’t see, everyone finds out how awesome he is and he gets hired as a bodyguard. The only reason why he agrees to be a bodyguard is because he wants to get revenge on the politician who killed his then love interest back in Iraq.
Yoona, from Girls’ Generation, plays Go Anna. She's the secret daughter of a politician who is currently running for president. Her mother used to be a model and mistress, thus, her existence has to be kept a secret. She was shipped off to Spain by her stepmother after her mother died and only brought back to Seoul after people started paying attention to her. As a result of witnessing her mother’s death, Anna has trauma related to bright flashes and also stranger anxiety. Although her character is presented as the main character, she appears much later than the other characters.
Choi Yoo Jin, played by Song Yoon A, I would think of this character as the main character along with K2 although the love line doesn’t occur between them. Thus, most people would think of Anna and Je Ha being the main characters but the more I watch, the more I feel Anna’s character isn’t as important as Choi Yoo Jin’s and Choi Yoo Jin definitely has more screen time. Choi Yoo Jin is Anna’s step mother and although she probably married Anna’s father out of love but Anna’s father didn’t really love her but used her for her status.
Choi Yoo Jin is a really complex character. This is probably the first time I’m dedicating two paragraphs to talk about a character but I must say, I’m really quite impressed with Song Yoon A’s acting. She really brought out the evil in Choi Yoo Jin and yet at the same time showed the vulnerability of the character in which she had to rely on K2. Like what most viewers suspected and it was revealed subtly but also made obvious, was Choi Yoo Jin’s feelings towards K2. Maybe just for a moment, they decided to showcase a little of her vulnerability to contrast to her strong character portrayed throughout the drama. But really, Choi Yoo Jin’s character is the spine of the drama and all the events are relate back to her. So is really Anna the main character? I beg to differ. Although Yoona did a good job in this role as well.
Anna’s father Jang Se Joon, played by Cho Seong Ha, is a politician running for president. In my opinion, he’s the cause of everything. There are many instances where if he didn’t do something, something else wouldn’t have occurred. Basically, if he didn’t want to be president or have Anna with a mistress or marry someone for their power, then the whole drama wouldn’t have been around. So although his role isn’t very big, I would say his role in created the mess is huge. It’s really rather complicated the whole political side of the drama that I had to watch a few times to understand. How he makes use of Choi Yoo Jin and how Choi Yoo Jin makes use of him and how Anna is the collateral in this whole war for power.
Plot
Wow, this is going to take some time for me to write. Where do I begin?
Firstly, of course there’s the war between the companies. Basically everyone is vying for power. The presidential candidates as well as the siblings fighting over their inheritance. Everyone is just fighting for power and wanting to acquire everything. In this process for power, it just turns someone evil. It’s really pretty cleverly thought out though, whoever wrote the script. Every character has its place and doesn’t leave viewers with much questions as to who and how each character is related.
K2 is dragged into the fight for power firstly because he witnessed Jang Se Joon’s fling and Choi Yoo Jin tried to get rid of him. He confronts Choi Yoo Jin and Anna appears during that confrontation, which he then recognises her as the girl from Spain. He tries to escape with Choi Yoo Jin as a hostage but somehow ends up saving her life as the car she was driving got hacked. She is indebted to him and offers to help his kill Park Kwan Soo, the other presidential candidate, on his behalf as he too is her enemy. He agrees to work for her only for that reason and because of that, he’s assigned to watch over Anna as a night bodyguard.
Secondly, is the love lines. This is where is gets confusing. There were many contrasts presented and well certain things that I picked up on. I’m not sure if other viewers picked it up too but it bothered me quite a bit. Of course, there’s the relationship between Choi Yoo Jin and K2. As mentioned, there’s something fishy going on between them but it seems to be one sided. K2 only has eyes for Anna which makes me wonder if Choi Yoo Jin’s hatred towards Anna deepened only because of how K2 treasures her. I thought that might be the case as her urge to kill Anna grew because K2 was helping Anna more especially by revealing Anna’s identity, that would just make everything Choi Yoo Jin worked for to be in vain.
Third theme would be the theme on family ties. Anna’s dad is a politician and it would appear that he loves Anna but has a very strange way of showing it. He married Choi Yoo Jin for her connections and yet he allowed her to send Anna away to Spain, claiming that it was the only way of protecting her. Ultimately, does that mean he chose his job over Anna? Although it seemed that his marriage with Choi Yoo Jin was just a on the surface one, he chooses to die with her in the end, trusting K2 to look after Anna. So to conclude, he loved his daughter but just wasn’t a very good dad. Very conflicting. I know.
Ending
I thought the ending wasn’t too bad. It wasn’t exactly a happy ending, neither was it a sad ending. It could’ve been worse so I’ll just settle for this ending. I thought it was sad that Choi Yoo Jin and Anna’s father had to die but nonetheless it was kind of a bittersweet ending.
Despite having to die, Choi Yoo Jin and Anna’s father somewhat found companionship and love with each other and then leaving Anna in the hands of the dependable K2. Sure, it may also seem like a unrealistic ending. Unrealistic or not, at least they wrapped things up nicely without leaving any loose ends.
Although they did leave viewers wondering… What’s K2’s real name?
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