Amateur Recommendation Hour: Bad Guys

Today’s recommendation is another one of my personal favorite Korean dramas. While this work definitely has it’s flaws that may drag down the experience for some, beneath it’s surface is a powerful piece that is far more than the sum of it’s parts and delivers a more memorable experience than other like-minded but far less ambitious Korean dramas. Its intensity, poetically verbose dialogue and thematic strengths outweigh the moment to moment narrative problems that it definitely has at times. A thrilling 11 episode ride that stimulates and captivates in equal measure.

Bad Guys, written by Han Jung-hoon and directed by Kim Jung-min, is the story of an off-the-record homicide unit created by and comprised of a detective mourning the loss of his daughter, the police captain of the district looking to deal with the rise in violent crime in his precinct, and three convicted felons of varying skill sets and backgrounds. Oh Gu-tak, the grieving detective brilliantly portrayed by Kim Sang-joong has underlying and specific reasons for choosing each. Jung Tae-soo, played by Jo Dong-hyuk, is a perfectionist hitman, Park Woong-Cheol played by the ever reliable Ma Dong-seok, is a mob boss, and Lee Jung-moon, played by Park Hae-jin, is a genius sociopathic serial killer.

While the premise and some narrative moments may stretch the bounds of believability quite a bit, I found the emotions and themes this work conveys to be unmistakably authentic. Dreary, almost hopeless at times, it travels places I thought a Korean drama would never even consider going. What is considered morally acceptable in criminal justice, redeeming qualities of the perceived irredeemable, discovering worth to a cause greater than oneself are the defining questions this work asks of its viewer. Its color palette is one of cold, grey intensity masking the genuine grief and struggle present throughout its core narrative. These are scary people tasked with stopping the kinds of people they once were and to some extent, still are. Led by a man hell bent on the idea of “by any means necessary.” Its cinematography remarkably understated at times, allowing its camera work to convey tone, character, and depth as much as it’s extremely well written moment to moment dialogue. It knows when to be verbose, when to be raw, authentic, and most importantly it knows when it is overstaying its welcome, and allows its action to provide as much of a clear picture as its words do.

That’s not even mentioning the characters who I believe to be among some of the most memorable I’ve ever seen in the realm Korean drama (most of them at least). Fleshed out backstories, flawed, not particularly “good” people but jaded and sympathetic to tether them to the viewer, undoubtedly the most believable aspect of the show. The hitman, Jung Tae-soo in particular stands out. His guilt when confronted with one of his victim’s grieving widow, her life since his death, and struggle to overcome whilst remaining optimistic is a remarkable juxtaposition to the cold, and calculating line of work he did as well as his work within the Bad Guys squad as a whole. The serial killer, Lee Jung-min whose memory of his crimes is hazy at best, desires a life without the thirst for blood, and in one of my favorite lines of the whole series (I’m paraphrasing): “I want to know if I feel as much joy saving, as I do killing.” Our main character of Oh Gu-tak puts on the facade of a vengeful, spiteful, and morally gray anti-hero, but as we reach back further into his memories, we see a gentler and kinder father whose desires are at believable odds with his means and how he intends to achieve them. Maybe losing the one thing that mattered to him the most, in the most unjust of circumstances clouded his sense of what justice is and how he can truly achieve it.

It really speaks to the importance of tangible characterization. The concept can be as “far-fetched” as possible. If the characters motivations, personality traits, and belief systems are balanced well it can help to maintain the illusion of the world in a more convincing fashion than one might expect. Humans interacting with each other and the world in which they find themselves is, in my opinion, one of the most important tools of storytelling an author has at their disposal. Even if the brutal realism clashes with some of the story’s more outlandish aspects.

My personal interpretation of Bad Guys is that it is about discovering purpose when we feel we have none. We tell ourselves we don’t, society tells us we don’t, but it is a conscious choice we must make to be more than the box that others want to put us in and that we're all too willing to oblige. Rising above these perceptions is not an easy task, but one that will be well worth the effort and energy put into it. We have value beyond that which people can only see on our surface level. Purpose is always possible, when things are going well, in the depths of despair, and everything in between. And it is our multifaceted ways of achieving our means of each of our individual lives that is innately unique to humanity as a whole.

Bad Guys is another one of those “formative” works of art within the medium of Korean drama for me. Not only did it give me more respect for it’s director, Kim Jung-min, who I had become familiar with through their work on “Hidden Identity” it also strengthened my belief in the power of this medium, often known for it’s quantity relative to quality, as well as the power of artistic investment. It is in how we write that earns our love of character, or story, not being told by respective creators: “this is is important because I say it is.” It is how the unknown quantities of art can become hidden gems, best kept secrets, and rise further above our expectations because of it. It is because we care that it it matters.