Cruel City - eps 2-4 and a bit on 10 (after a spoiler break)

Once again, I am mainly on tumblr, but I come back here now and again.



Short version - CC is awesome.



The terrifying, amazing Doctor’s Son carrying out his coup d’etat.






More of the Doctor’s Son in ep 2 of Cruel City. I find his character so fascinating and so far from the usual kdrama protagonist - he is not a good person by any stretch of the imagination (even leaving out the drug dealing, the way he left that woman to die on the floor was chilling - he didn’t know she betrayed Soo but just made a calculation that trying to help her would slow him down in saving Soo), but he is so complex and magnetic and intense, that following him as a character is such a joy. And for those few he trusts, he is incredibly loyal to. I never knew Jung Kyung Ho could be like this, though in retrospect, his tormented Hodong in Ja Myung Go (a criminally underrated drama) showed glimmers of this.











I ship them so hard. That is how I know something horrible will happen.










Cruel City has gorgeous cinematography, a twisty noir plot, complex characters and…oh yeah…this. Jung Kyung Ho, the army has been good to you, dude. Mmmmmm. (I am watching CC very slowly because it’s so layered and narratively dense, that I am savoring. But some scenes I am savoring slowly for other reasons…)







It is troublesome how much I bro!ship Doctor’s Son and Soo - yes, I am all about the bromance of two drug dealers. Ummm. Ummmmmm. I have no excuses. This is sort of like when Kang To and Shunji were still both bad guys in Gaksital.






And speaking of awesome things, I literally screamed when it turned out that Doctor’s Son, Auntie, and Safari knew each other from way when and OMFG Safari was a sort of a big brother figure. !!!!! Oh, and I adore the dynamic between Auntie and chibi!Doctor’s Son. This drama is literally perfect.






So far, Shi Hyun and Soo Min have barely had any interaction, but what is there takes my breath away, and not just because Jung Kyung Ho and Nam Gyuri have amazing chemistry. I mean, take this scene - it packs so much in such a small amount of time - Soo Min’s stubborn recklessness (her refusal to hand money over to a mugger despite his sticking a gun in her face), Shi Hyun’s deeply hidden humanity (he saves her despite being wounded himself - and does it with chilling efficiency - it’s offhand kindness, part good deed and part desire to not be inconvenienced by a mugging, but it’s more than Soo Min normally gets), and her instinctive kindness with supplies for his wound - it’s disinterested - she wants nothing from him - and it’s genuinely understanding (she doesn’t fuss or offer to call the cops). And his reaction to it confirms something we should have realized - genuine kindness is as rare as water in the Sahara, in Shi Hyun’s world. When those two get together, it’s going to be amazing.






Our leading men having the worst day in ep 3. The last time I cringed so much was when LBH fixed himself up in IRIS - the fact that Shi Hyun stitches himself is both badass and profoundly sad. And we learn something about our seemingly good-guy cop - when it gets personal, he loses all control - his shooting the suspect to get info on Kyung Mi’s whereabouts = eeeeek. Badass but eeeek.









One of the things that is so amazing about CC is that it takes the usual kdrama tropes and turns them on the ear. Take here - it gives us the usual childhood loves/friends trope and just when you think the drama will try to go for the usual triangle (with perhaps Shi Hyun allowing Kyung Mi to infiltrate the gang due to feeeelings), the makers yank the rung from us by having a mysterious sniper take her out - and that is it for first loves. It’s senseless and tragic and unexpected and you can feel Shi Hyun’s horror and…I loved Kyung Mi - she was written to be loved - and to have that happen in ep 3, not the grand finale, not taken out by the big bad - it makes you realize nothing is safe in CC.









I have no meta for this because it broke my heart.






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Holy Fuck! I am nowhere near ep 10 but I checked the ep to see I had a good version and OMFG I have no idea how but I SHIP THIS LIKE BURNING OMFGOMFG. I love cable shows - who knew you’d ever see something like this in a kdrama? But you know what really gets me about this scene? It’s not that the scene is risque by Korean TV standards (as in comparison to American shows I watch this is Disney) - no, what gets me is the overwhelming tenderness of the scene. This is a man who can take out a dozen thugs in a few minutes, a man who deals and lives death and darkness, someone whose bleak background has never allowed much room for softer things. And yet this scene is breathtakingly, mindblowingly tender - they really are making love.