“Bloodhounds” 사냥개들

By Jae-Ha Kim
Substack
June 21, 2023

☆☆☆☆
Kim Geon-woo (played by Woo Do-hwan)
Hong Woo-jin (played by Lee Sang-yi)
↑Note: Korean names denote the surname followed by the given name.

There is so much going on in “Bloodhounds” — an eight-episode series focusing on two boxers. Sweet Geon-woo (Woo Do-hwan) is a mama’s boy. Woo-jin (Lee Sang-yi) is a slightly older and more experienced competitor who is a savvy go getter. After Geon-woo beats Woo-jin in their first and only match, this K-drama could’ve gone the way of Rocky and Drago — where the latter promises to annihilate his opponent (“I must break you“). But instead, it turns into one of the sweetest bromances in the history of bromances, with the two young men bonding over their love of boxing, taking care of those important to them, and their time spent (separately) in the Marines.

In fact, it’s safe to say that the concept of being a Marine is such an important plot element that the Republic of Korea Armed Forces could almost use this series as a recruiting tool. Almost.

Woo-jin may be the older of the pair, but Geon-woo finished his mandatory military duty before him. So the sunbae/hoobae roles are fluid at times, with honorifics being used depending on the context. Their friendship is sealed when Geon-woo offers to buy Woo-jin a conciliatory meal for having beaten him. The former was the victor in the fight, but he’s a good sport.

Watching the early interactions between the two, I was really hoping that the friends wouldn’t end up turning on each other (as in “Weak Hero: Class 1“).

There is a lot of violence in this show. But most of it is the improbable kind. (e.g. A few dozen gangsters attack the boxers one at a time, almost always losing to our likeable heroes.) And because South Korea places heavy restrictions on civilians owning guns, there’s very little gunplay and this is reflected in “Bloodhounds.” The fights in this series are of the hand-to-hand kind, along with some savage slashing and stabbing. Archery is also utilized in the finale and it’s a beautiful thing to behold.

The plot revolves around a truly despicable chaebol-wannabe named Kim Myeon-gil (Park Sung-woong), who’s nothing more than a bloodthirsty money lender. His Smile Capital doesn’t care about happy customers. His team of loan sharks trick small business owners with the promise of low-interest loans that include almost hidden fees that they can’t possibly pay back. One of the victims is Geon-woo’s cafe owner mom, who signs a contract she doesn’t understand. When Geon-woo interferes in Myeon-gil’s corrupt business, the latter takes it out on the hapless mother.

There’s a subplot involving a chaebol scion who is videotaped in a compromising position and becomes an unwilling pawn in Myeon-gil’s game. As played by Super Junior’s Choi Si-won, Min-beom is dismissively despicable, too. But the writing and acting is so good that you feel sorry for him.

It’s obvious that screenwriter/director Jason Kim (aka Kim Ju-hwan) — who had spearheaded the buddy film Midnight Runners — has an affinity for addressing the underdogs and giving them ownership. He did a brilliant job tackling the moral issues of this series.

There are a few elements of this series that I’ll save for the SPOILERS below.

Airdates: Eight episodes dropped on Netflix on June 9, 2023.

Spoiler Alert: There are some things that make no sense about Choi Si-wan’s Min-beom. He is very wealthy and belongs to a powerful chaebol family. There is a scene where he takes his car to an automated car wash and is attacked by Myeon-gil’s goons. OK, what? There is no way that this spoiled, rich man would be at a … car wash! First of all, he’d have his car washed at a high-end premium place that only rich people go to. Second, there’s no way he would even be at a car wash. That’s what his lackeys are for.

Putting all that aside, the thugs beat him, threaten him and force him to take his clothes off before taking nude videos of him. They use these videos to threaten him into submission. He turns to his police officer cousin for help. But after it’s clear that there’s only so much these two can do, wouldn’t it make more sense to tell his father what has happened and ask for help? His father has the political connections and power to get things done.

And if the video was released, I suppose there is a certain sector that would blame him. But it’s also clear in the video that he was beaten and detained against his will. Wouldn’t that get some of the netizens on his side? Maybe they’d even feel a bit of affinity for him.

Moving on to another character… Kim Sae-ron plays the female lead Hyun-joo, who is the adopted granddaughter of Choi Tae-ho (Huh Joon-jo), who used to be an illegal money lender back in the day. Myeon-gil learned all the ins and outs of the business from him. But when Tae-ho decided that he was going to do good with all the wealth he had accumulated by offering zero percent interest loans to those who needed it, Myeon-gil went rogue.

But back to Kim. She was was arrested following a DUI incident and she was either fired or left the show. A new female character joined the Scooby Gang: archer Da-min (Jeong Da-eun). Writer/director Kim Joo-hwan said that it would’ve been too expensive to edit out Kim’s scenes, so he and his team spent a month rewriting the ending with Jeong. Hyun-joo was written out after Tae-ho dies. Overcome with grief, she heads to Italy on a trip she and her grandfather had planned on taking together.

I actually like Da-min better as a character. But I’m not really sure why the creative team did what they did. They made a financial compromise based on ethics, I suppose. But what was the end result? Kim committed a crime. How does cutting her out of the final two episodes solve anything? It would’ve made more sense if they scrapped her role entirely and reshot all her of her scenes with another similar-looking actress. Yes, it would’ve cost money. But that would’ve made sense.

Or, they could’ve left Kim in the series and made a sizeable donation to a charity dedicated to victims of drunk driving. I’m not sure what the best method would’ve been. But as much as I liked Da-min, the switching of the characters was a bit jarring.

Ultimately, it doesn’t seem likely that either boxer will return to the ring. That was a disappointment for me, because I would’ve loved to have seen at least one of the men realize their dream of becoming an elite athlete.

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