10 reasons why everyone should watch Cruel City [NOT SPOILER FREE]
For a long time, Summer has been that part of the year when the lack of good dramas would made me watch and rewatch some classics or popular dramas I didn’t have the chance to catch due to the massive amount of American/Asian shows I usually follow weekly. But this summer has proven me wrong thanks to TvN mostly, even though I ended up dropping High School King of Savvy because of the cringing lack of chemistry between the leads (and considering that Seo In Gook is one of them I guess all the blame is to be put on our lacking heroine). Fated to Love You, Marriage without Dating, High School - Love On… All of them, even the remake, have me so hooked I follow them along my seasonal plate of summer TV shows so it’s actually not easy to pick up a drama to watch on a non-stop marathon that has me bawling and screaming and my TV (the fact that my family is spending almost the whole summer home and I’m the one going back and forth is another problem to follow my routine of drama-marathoning). My usual re-watching routine includes Prosecutor Princess - I can’t go on a year without at least rewatching it once - probably Goong and a couple of unwatched classing dramas - some examples are Winter Sonata and Autumn in My Heart. But this time none of that happened, because of lack of time, lack of TV alone time and lack of motivation.
The biggest diamond I have found this summer, and that has become rewatching material even though the ending should need some revising, is Heartless City, or Cruel City. I could describe Cruel City as the most exciting, thrilling, jaw-dropping gangster drama I have ever watched (I actually could only compare this drama to IRIS/Athena since I haven’t watch that much cop dramas) but I could also describe it as the most beautiful yet angsty portray of a man I have ever watched. Still, I won’t be able to emphasize long enough the number of reasons why I loved this drama to the max and I will probably rewatch it next summer, but I will give you 10 reasons so you won’t try to run away from this.
10. Originality: Not in the genre of course, it’s mostly cliché, but inside the drama frame. I know this one was on JTBC and, as TvN, cable channels has way more freedom for their themes - even though the knife-blurring and the lack of smocking was hilarious - so that’s probably why they were allowed to mix The Godfather with New World and The Man from Nowhere to create this rich and multi-multilayered world where nothing is what it seems, not even when you think you have all the answers.
09. Beautiful: How can this kind of themed drama be beautiful? Because the person behind the photography is a f-artist. I don’t know how he does it, but he does and even the most brutal scenes as well as the most innocent ones have a veil of art that surround everything and makes it way more beautiful. From the close shots of just Jung Shi Hyun’s wounds to the blurry shots of Seoul’s streets, you will feel like screencaping every single second of every episode just to be able to enjoy each frame as an artist’s work.
08. Morals: Nothing is Black or White, that sentence could be the subtitle of this drama. As the plot is being developed you will find it hard to believe in anyone, the bad guys are more than often supposed to be good, and you won’t be able to confirm in which side they are more than a few times, the good guys you have kinda worshipped since the beginning end up being the evil masterminds and in the end you find yourself with a handful of questions and none to answer them. This drama clearly drinks from American fiction and the million shades of gray you can find throughout the entire series will make you doubt your own morals more often than not. And of course, everything is so well done you will end up craving for more.
07. Cliffhangers/jawdropping factor: This is something that will fill every single episode, not only the beginning or the ending but every episode is made to make you question, again, the morality of every character and so often you will proved wrong about your theories. If you check out the plot before you watch this drama you will know that the “main heroine” is in fact the first one to leave the show so you might expect it to happen but the situation is so jawdropping that even if you spend a long time wondering when it’s going to happen when it actually happens you can’t believe it - I actually spent a couple of minutes with the video paused on Jung Kyun Ho’s face and my jaw completely dropped. Every time a new detail is revealed the game changes, the players change sides over and over again and you don’t know who is who even after the ending.
06. Relationships: Not only the love relationships, but every single relationship in this drama is appealing, from the romances that won’t end up well, the one sided loves that span through years, the broken relationships that will be influence, both romantic and parental relationships. The friendships will be proven to be more important that you thought they could be in this type of world, where everything is suspicious and you are supposed to trust none. I have to say that what drove me to watch Cruel City was the summary about a love relationship being developed between the undercover agent and the druggie but once you are done with the whole drama you realize that every relationship was so bright that you were blinded. From the loyalties in Shi Hyun’s family to the loyalties inside Pusan’s organization and the mixed relationships between the police and the Prosecutor office, everyone is tangled with everyone and at some point you don’t know who is who anymore and who is loyal to who… Probably the only clear thing is that all those feelings were too bright for such a shady world.
05. Visuals: I have talked about the beautiful cinematography already, and the hilarious censorship, but I need to emphasize the power of visuals on this drama. Not only it was brutal and beautiful, but the way all the characters were able to portray so much with just their visuals it was amazing, I don’t think I have seen this kind of power before on an Asian drama. Not only our main guy, who could have been a mute and still he would have been the most appealing druggie ever, but every character could describe their insides just with the looks. One of the features that helped them more than anything was the wardrobe. This reminded me a lot of Prosecutor Princess, how the wardrobe helped to show who the character was in that moment. Soo Min would use different wardrobes depending on who she was, Lee Jin Sook’s dongsaeng or Ji Hyung Min’s agent. Jung Shi Hyun had his undercover agent wardrobe and his ring leader wardrobe, his perfect appearance only disturbed by the usual tie, the state of that tie was the first sign of the inner turmoil inside our anti-hero.
04. Villains: What’s a gangster show without unnerving villains? From the poor Scale to the hateful Min Hong Ki, every villain had his function and once it was fulfilled they were free to do whatever they wanted, change sides, disappear - even though only for a couple of episodes since none can step out of that world, not even if you are a cop. The villains were not only the obstacle in our hero’s path, but also the main story-telling force, without them we wouldn’t have a story and even though Shi Hyun’s story was great it was the betrayals and reveals about the villains that made us want to know what was going to happen next. For the first time I was more invested in knowing who the villains were instead of the main leads.
03. Bromance: This made it for me. Not only the Hyun soo - Shi Hyun bromance, which was my favorite relationship in the whole show, but the bromance developed between our cop and our undercover, Hyung Min and Shi Hyun were in the academy together, even though Hyung Min doesn’t remember Shi Hyun, and our hero wonders at times if he would be in Hyung Min’s position if it wasn’t for Min Hong Ki - which is more hurtful considering that Shi Hyun’s lover ended up with Hyung Min after Shi Hyun had to go undercover. The relationship between these two was never easy, Hyung Min was Kyung Mi’s boyfriend and Shi Hyun was supposedly Kyung Mi’s killer but as the action reveals itself they become kind of colleagues. I can totally picture them working together in the interrogation room, Hyung Min losing his nerve, Shi Hyun being the composed police with the icy glare that makes them break… Ice and Fire working together *sobs* PD-Writer! I want a revision!! Even with this, the Soo-Paksa relationship was also amazing and I haven’t cried as much as I did with Hyun Soo’s last scene…you came so far and you were so near…
02. Second leads: In general, all the secondary characters were so perfect and appealing that any of them could be the main character and I wouldn’t complain. From Lee Jin Sook’s maternal-not-so-maternal love, Safari’s duplicity, Soo’s loyalty until the end, Hyung Mi’s blind chase, the special unit team, even with their shades. Even Scale, Kim Pong and Kim Eun Soo were enjoyable and rich, making every scene a pleasure for the viewer. This made every ending so hurtful, it was like losing a friend every time and Shi Hyun’s pain was so raw that I couldn’t help but cry with him every time.
01. Jung Kyung Ho: ‘Nuff said. He is the story, he is the plot and he is the frame. I won’t emphasize enough how every time he was in the room the tension changed, the emotions were all focused on him and every single character rotated around him. His portrayal of Jung Shi Hyun was excellent, not only he did most of the stunts, which made him hurt his back badly by the end of the show, but he also owned every emotional scene with such passion, both in the love and the hate and the pain. He not only made his character flawless within his flaws, but he made also every other character better on those scenes where they were together, Safari, Jin Sook, Soo Min…every one of them changed when they were with Shi Hyun and you could feel that change at the other side of the screen. Anyway, I have to admit that I could have spent 20 hours just looking at his beautiful face, the sentence I repeat the most while watching this drama was “How can he be so damn beautiful?”. I watched Jung Kyung Ho previously on Time Between Dog and Wolf, in which he was also a cop, and I have to say that it was a great change from the slightly goofy cop to the brooding, dramatically angsty undercover agent turned gangster. There’s a couple of scenes that broke my heart, and they all involved Shi Hyun in one form of another, from the moment Jin Sook founds out he is a cop and instead of going all angry she is sorry cause she wants to see him in uniform - she always wanted the best for him and she knew the ring was not his place - to the moment he breaks in from of Hyung Min in the restaurant about Kyung Mi, the moment Hyung Min realizes he really didn’t kill Kyung Mi and instead he knows her. There’s a whole lot more of moments worth recapping but I will leave them for you to find out in case you haven’t watched it, in which case you shouldn’t be reading this cause I just totally ruined it for you. I will definitely follow Jung Kyung Ho more actively from now on and I hope she brings out his Shin Hyun character once again.
The biggest diamond I have found this summer, and that has become rewatching material even though the ending should need some revising, is Heartless City, or Cruel City. I could describe Cruel City as the most exciting, thrilling, jaw-dropping gangster drama I have ever watched (I actually could only compare this drama to IRIS/Athena since I haven’t watch that much cop dramas) but I could also describe it as the most beautiful yet angsty portray of a man I have ever watched. Still, I won’t be able to emphasize long enough the number of reasons why I loved this drama to the max and I will probably rewatch it next summer, but I will give you 10 reasons so you won’t try to run away from this.
10. Originality: Not in the genre of course, it’s mostly cliché, but inside the drama frame. I know this one was on JTBC and, as TvN, cable channels has way more freedom for their themes - even though the knife-blurring and the lack of smocking was hilarious - so that’s probably why they were allowed to mix The Godfather with New World and The Man from Nowhere to create this rich and multi-multilayered world where nothing is what it seems, not even when you think you have all the answers.
09. Beautiful: How can this kind of themed drama be beautiful? Because the person behind the photography is a f-artist. I don’t know how he does it, but he does and even the most brutal scenes as well as the most innocent ones have a veil of art that surround everything and makes it way more beautiful. From the close shots of just Jung Shi Hyun’s wounds to the blurry shots of Seoul’s streets, you will feel like screencaping every single second of every episode just to be able to enjoy each frame as an artist’s work.
08. Morals: Nothing is Black or White, that sentence could be the subtitle of this drama. As the plot is being developed you will find it hard to believe in anyone, the bad guys are more than often supposed to be good, and you won’t be able to confirm in which side they are more than a few times, the good guys you have kinda worshipped since the beginning end up being the evil masterminds and in the end you find yourself with a handful of questions and none to answer them. This drama clearly drinks from American fiction and the million shades of gray you can find throughout the entire series will make you doubt your own morals more often than not. And of course, everything is so well done you will end up craving for more.
07. Cliffhangers/jawdropping factor: This is something that will fill every single episode, not only the beginning or the ending but every episode is made to make you question, again, the morality of every character and so often you will proved wrong about your theories. If you check out the plot before you watch this drama you will know that the “main heroine” is in fact the first one to leave the show so you might expect it to happen but the situation is so jawdropping that even if you spend a long time wondering when it’s going to happen when it actually happens you can’t believe it - I actually spent a couple of minutes with the video paused on Jung Kyun Ho’s face and my jaw completely dropped. Every time a new detail is revealed the game changes, the players change sides over and over again and you don’t know who is who even after the ending.
06. Relationships: Not only the love relationships, but every single relationship in this drama is appealing, from the romances that won’t end up well, the one sided loves that span through years, the broken relationships that will be influence, both romantic and parental relationships. The friendships will be proven to be more important that you thought they could be in this type of world, where everything is suspicious and you are supposed to trust none. I have to say that what drove me to watch Cruel City was the summary about a love relationship being developed between the undercover agent and the druggie but once you are done with the whole drama you realize that every relationship was so bright that you were blinded. From the loyalties in Shi Hyun’s family to the loyalties inside Pusan’s organization and the mixed relationships between the police and the Prosecutor office, everyone is tangled with everyone and at some point you don’t know who is who anymore and who is loyal to who… Probably the only clear thing is that all those feelings were too bright for such a shady world.
05. Visuals: I have talked about the beautiful cinematography already, and the hilarious censorship, but I need to emphasize the power of visuals on this drama. Not only it was brutal and beautiful, but the way all the characters were able to portray so much with just their visuals it was amazing, I don’t think I have seen this kind of power before on an Asian drama. Not only our main guy, who could have been a mute and still he would have been the most appealing druggie ever, but every character could describe their insides just with the looks. One of the features that helped them more than anything was the wardrobe. This reminded me a lot of Prosecutor Princess, how the wardrobe helped to show who the character was in that moment. Soo Min would use different wardrobes depending on who she was, Lee Jin Sook’s dongsaeng or Ji Hyung Min’s agent. Jung Shi Hyun had his undercover agent wardrobe and his ring leader wardrobe, his perfect appearance only disturbed by the usual tie, the state of that tie was the first sign of the inner turmoil inside our anti-hero.
04. Villains: What’s a gangster show without unnerving villains? From the poor Scale to the hateful Min Hong Ki, every villain had his function and once it was fulfilled they were free to do whatever they wanted, change sides, disappear - even though only for a couple of episodes since none can step out of that world, not even if you are a cop. The villains were not only the obstacle in our hero’s path, but also the main story-telling force, without them we wouldn’t have a story and even though Shi Hyun’s story was great it was the betrayals and reveals about the villains that made us want to know what was going to happen next. For the first time I was more invested in knowing who the villains were instead of the main leads.
03. Bromance: This made it for me. Not only the Hyun soo - Shi Hyun bromance, which was my favorite relationship in the whole show, but the bromance developed between our cop and our undercover, Hyung Min and Shi Hyun were in the academy together, even though Hyung Min doesn’t remember Shi Hyun, and our hero wonders at times if he would be in Hyung Min’s position if it wasn’t for Min Hong Ki - which is more hurtful considering that Shi Hyun’s lover ended up with Hyung Min after Shi Hyun had to go undercover. The relationship between these two was never easy, Hyung Min was Kyung Mi’s boyfriend and Shi Hyun was supposedly Kyung Mi’s killer but as the action reveals itself they become kind of colleagues. I can totally picture them working together in the interrogation room, Hyung Min losing his nerve, Shi Hyun being the composed police with the icy glare that makes them break… Ice and Fire working together *sobs* PD-Writer! I want a revision!! Even with this, the Soo-Paksa relationship was also amazing and I haven’t cried as much as I did with Hyun Soo’s last scene…you came so far and you were so near…
02. Second leads: In general, all the secondary characters were so perfect and appealing that any of them could be the main character and I wouldn’t complain. From Lee Jin Sook’s maternal-not-so-maternal love, Safari’s duplicity, Soo’s loyalty until the end, Hyung Mi’s blind chase, the special unit team, even with their shades. Even Scale, Kim Pong and Kim Eun Soo were enjoyable and rich, making every scene a pleasure for the viewer. This made every ending so hurtful, it was like losing a friend every time and Shi Hyun’s pain was so raw that I couldn’t help but cry with him every time.
01. Jung Kyung Ho: ‘Nuff said. He is the story, he is the plot and he is the frame. I won’t emphasize enough how every time he was in the room the tension changed, the emotions were all focused on him and every single character rotated around him. His portrayal of Jung Shi Hyun was excellent, not only he did most of the stunts, which made him hurt his back badly by the end of the show, but he also owned every emotional scene with such passion, both in the love and the hate and the pain. He not only made his character flawless within his flaws, but he made also every other character better on those scenes where they were together, Safari, Jin Sook, Soo Min…every one of them changed when they were with Shi Hyun and you could feel that change at the other side of the screen. Anyway, I have to admit that I could have spent 20 hours just looking at his beautiful face, the sentence I repeat the most while watching this drama was “How can he be so damn beautiful?”. I watched Jung Kyung Ho previously on Time Between Dog and Wolf, in which he was also a cop, and I have to say that it was a great change from the slightly goofy cop to the brooding, dramatically angsty undercover agent turned gangster. There’s a couple of scenes that broke my heart, and they all involved Shi Hyun in one form of another, from the moment Jin Sook founds out he is a cop and instead of going all angry she is sorry cause she wants to see him in uniform - she always wanted the best for him and she knew the ring was not his place - to the moment he breaks in from of Hyung Min in the restaurant about Kyung Mi, the moment Hyung Min realizes he really didn’t kill Kyung Mi and instead he knows her. There’s a whole lot more of moments worth recapping but I will leave them for you to find out in case you haven’t watched it, in which case you shouldn’t be reading this cause I just totally ruined it for you. I will definitely follow Jung Kyung Ho more actively from now on and I hope she brings out his Shin Hyun character once again.