HBO Max K-drama Villains: Yoo Ji-tae leads unconvincing counterfeiting crime thriller
Starring Yoo Ji-tae, Lee Min-jung, Lee Beom-soo and Kwak Do-won, new Korean drama Villains is already in danger of being quickly forgotten
Lead cast: Yoo Ji-tae, Lee Min-jung, Lee Beom-soo, Kwak Do-won
Yoo Ji-tae (Vigilante) stars as a criminal mastermind known only as “J” in the generic eight-part counterfeiting crime thriller Villains.
Just like the fake “supernotes” crafted by its characters, the show bears most of the elements of the genre, while missing the crucial, hard-to-replicate pieces that define it.
Amid his illicit schemes, J tangos with Jang Jung-hyuk (Kwak Do-won, The Wailing), a corrupt detective, and Cha Gi-tae (Lee Beom-soo, Mercy for None), an NIS agent who was demoted years earlier after his plan to arrest J went belly up.
While mostly dominated by gruff, middle-aged men, the world of Villains also finds space for Lee Min-jung – appearing in her first drama since 2020’s Once Again – as counterfeiter Han Su-hyun.
Su-hyun is our entry point, quietly counterfeiting cash at the outset of the series to provide for an ad hoc family consisting of Yang Do-sa (Jung In-gi), the master counterfeiter who taught her everything she knows, and his daughter, who acts as Su-hyun’s little sister.
One day, while depositing her ill-got gains, Su-hyun is targeted in a sting operation. While running away from undercover police officers, she is pulled aside by a tall and strapping man, sporting a painfully unconvincing disguise as a foreigner.
This is J. He coolly guides her away from the police before sitting her down and revealing that he has been scouting her. He proceeds to pitch her a bold scheme that would net them US$30 million. Her guard up, Su-hyun needs some convincing, but J steadily wins her over. It then becomes her turn to persuade Do-sa to go all in on this one-time con that will give them all enough money to walk away from the counterfeiting life forever.
The plan involves counterfeiting 30,000 US$100 bills and gradually exchanging them for real currency at a casino over the course of three years.
Then, on the very night that the last bills are exchanged, Gi-tae and his agents launch a raid on Do-sa’s secret counterfeiting workshop. Before they get there, someone sets fire to the facility, while the money is stolen by Jung-hyuk, marking his first appearance in the show. Do-sa perishes in the blaze, and J disappears into the smoke. All that is left are ashes and Su-hyun’s burning desire for revenge, the embers of which glow for five years until the story picks up again when a man turns up dead with one of the counterfeit US$100 notes stuffed in his mouth. The first episode of the series is all set-up for J and Su-hyun, showing us how brilliant he is and how her life was torn to shreds by his plan. The second episode largely turns its focus on Gi-tae and Jung-hyuk, and the beginnings of a brewing plot that joins all four characters in the present.
While the background is cleanly laid out, none of it is original. More concerning, however, is that it is not very convincing, either. J is the axis upon which the series is supposed to revolve. Su-hyun believes he is to blame for Do-sa’s death, and Gi-tae also has an axe to grind with him. J’s true intentions are shrouded in mystery, and the secrets of what really happened that fiery night five years ago are likely to drive the story going forward. However, Villains fails to anchor this enigma in anything concrete. We are constantly told that J is brilliant, as other characters marvel at his schemes. The problem is that his counterfeiting plan is utterly banal, and nothing else he has done so far in the show merits much admiration.
This weakens the aura of mystery around him. It also has a domino effect as it undermines the credibility of the other characters, all of whom feel one-dimensional.
The male characters are guided by their greed, ambition and revenge, while Su-hyun, perhaps even more disappointingly, is a character whose actions are dictated by her emotions and personal connections. Hanging on unconvincing protagonists and rote crime thriller scenarios, Villains is dangling by a thread. Unless J steps up as a truly compelling puppet master soon, the weight of its banality may consign it to the heap of forgotten K-thrillers.
0 Comments