Vincenzo (2021)

disappointed

I was actually so hyped about this drama because everyone kept talking about it. So I thought this one would be definitely something special. Oh how wrong I was...

The storyline could be actually really interesting. An lawyer who worked for the Italian mafia flees back to Korea and after some incidents he starts to work with another lawyer to win a case against a conglomerate called Babel Group. Sounds pretty good, right? However, they somehow managed to make it a little bit draggy and illogical. Starting with the most annoying thing, the reveal of the villain. I mean yeah, every villain has to be revealed, but here they just made it too soon. I was pretty shocked but after knowing who the real villain was, the whole story started to repeat itself. It was always the fight between the bad ones and the good ones. Then there was one thing I asked myself so often: Where the hell was the government? Like excuse me but it was a drama revolving around law and rights, but the only lawyers, prosecutors,... were people from the firm which was working with the Babel Group and the main leads. Even the police worked with the Babel Group and were shown very incompetent in the drama. Argh, a lot of things just didn't make any sense. Last thing which got really on my nerves was the lack of romance between the main leads. The chemistry was there, I can't deny it, but the poor writing just made the love story between them look so unrealistic. And before I forget, 20 episodes were way too long, I think only 16 would have been better. This drama is full of wasted potential. They could have do something really special out of it.

To the characters... there are a lot. It's not a Penthouse-like drama where all the characters have their own story and are interesting to the viewers because they have to do something with the main plot. No, many of the characters were unnecessary. Especially the people who lived in the plaza resident. There were to many and all of them had exaggerated and/or unrealistic characters. There were also some "bad" guys who wanted the plaza resident acting always really weird. It felt like they've been just there to make things funnier. Then many lawyers, policemen or prosecutors seemed like they hadn't more then three brain cells. Seriously, so many stupid characters were involved in the main plot. The only person who showed how capable he was, was the villain. Omg, I never saw such a villain before. He was such a psychopath and it suited such a drama perfectly! The actor nailed this role. Sadly the drama tried to make things funnier (and I'm not gonna lie some scenes were really funny) but because of this overused comedy the story seemed too unrealistic. The main characters were also wasted potential, especially the main male lead. VC (male lead) is a lawyer who worked for the MAFIA but I never really felt like he was someone dangerous. At the beginning his character was shown as some ruthless guy who flees to his homeland, but later this feeling just disappeared. HCY (female lead) had a pretty interesting character, I don't think I ever saw someone like her, she was a real crackhead. Sometimes it was just too much where the secondhand embarrassment slowly started to show itself, but overall her character was really interesting to watch.

The music wasn't something special for me. I can't even remember the soundtracks.

Overall, the drama was okay. I actually started it because I wanted to watch something more serious, but laughed mostly at the ridiculous scenes. I wouldn't rewatch this drama again, it just didn't left an good impression on me like other dramas.

Leggi di Più

Unexpectedly Refreshing -- Enjoyable Ride

Vincenzo is not what I expected it to be; I'm not even sure what I expected, but when one hears Italy and the mafia, one immediately sets an expectation of mayhem, drugs, and murder. Vincenzo is nothing of the sort, well, at least not yet. It's crazily witty, entertaining, and thrilling all at the same time. I am refreshingly pleased by the writing style, the acting, and the directing. Vincenzo is everything it was hyped up to be and more.

I thought Vincenzo in Italy was brilliant; everything about it was sexy and beautiful, from the people to the buildings but most of all, Song Joong Ki speaking Italian. His subtle yet cutthroat demeanor is enjoyable to watch. But Vincenzo in Korea is where I fell in love with the drama, and the man, especially G Plaza. I can tell the plaza and its quirkily insane tenants (I love them all, even the annoying daughter) will be my favorite place/scenes of this drama. There is a lot of story behind Vincenzo, be it his childhood to what drives him at present, it will all be worth exploring.

Song Joong Ki is fantastic in his role; the last drama I saw him in was in 2016, Descendants of the Sun. It sure is good to have him back. It's also good to see the fine Ok Taec Yeon, the enormously talented Yoo Jae Myung. Despite not being too familiar with Jun Yeo Bin and slightly turned off by her unscrupulousness, I can tell I'm going to like her. I enjoyed her affectionate banter with her father, played by Yoo Jae Young.

Leggi di Più

This rating will definitely go down

The style of this drama was refreshing and not something I'm used to or would like. It did keep me watching till the end, so it was an enjoyable watch. It definitely isn't a 9 rating for me though, many a times the events that take place are just too "convenient". I hate convenience plots. I'm not a fan of this style of comedy, the beginning scene had me thinking it would a really cool vibe of series but it focused much more on the comedy element. I didn't find it too funny, some of the comedy was kind of annoying and eye-rolling. I hated the villains and I loved the male lead so acting was on point. Overall, it is enjoyable and different but definitely not so high up on my favourite dramas list. I feel a lot of reviews have shared the same sentiment as me lately so I think this rating will definitely go down. If it doesn't, then these ratings aren't right.

Leggi di Più

Quel gâchis !

Je dois avouer que mon jugement est assez mitigé (voire mauvais, faut se le dire clairement).
L'idée principale du scénario est bonne, (et les premiers épisodes montrent que la série aurait pu être extraordinaire), avec un casting qui semblait super intéressant.
Malheureusement, après 2 ou 3 épisodes on se fait chier !. Ben oui, en tout cas moi.
La série ne se positionne pas sur une thématique ; est-ce une série action ou est-ce une série comique ? On ne sait pas !.
Cette série essaie de traiter les 2 thématiques en même temps, et là ... ça coinse !
C'est pas toujours drôle (voire même pas du tout), le scénario amène très mal ces scènes comiques qui tombent de nul part et qui font pas rire (en tout cas pas moi), et l'on perd de vue ce côté action du rôle de "consigliere" joué par Song Joon Ki qui ne ressemble plus vraiment a un type de la mafia italienne mais plutôt un clown de mauvaise facture.
Alors même si je suis allé au bout, j'ai eu du mal. Du coup, je trouve la série trop longue, ambigüe, brouillonne, mal écrite, et finalement c'est un énorme potentiel gâché .
Dommage.

Leggi di Più

Just...what?

I know this show was super popular and let be start with the good stuff:

Amazing acting. Seriously...all the actors/actresses are great in their roles and some are playing very different characters than we have seen them in before so that is impressive all on it's own.

The Look - This show looks amazing and was filmed really well.

The not so good stuff:

Story - Interesting at first, but then got super violent and hard to take at times. Started out great, but got really over the top and cheezy a lot of the time. Also it was very hard to watch the villians be so awful. I mean, I know you are supposed to dislike them, but it's really just too much and instead of wanting justice for their crimes, I just didn't care about seeing them at all. And the violence...it's way way too much. Especially in the last episode. That was just a horror show that did not need to be seen. It was awful.

Characters - Disliked literally every character. Even though they were well acted, it was hard to root for the "good guys/gals" and even the side characters were just too over the top most of the time. My friend and I watched this show together and we decided the only "good" character is the pigeon. So there is that. I mean it's hard to cheer for even the "heroes" when they are willing to murder and be awful humans as well. Some of the characters started out likable, but by the end, I was ready to be done with all of them...except the pigeon. Him we could see more of. :-)

So, I can't recommend this drama. It's just extremely violent and hard to take.

Leggi di Più

Slap stick and lame story line

The acting of the ML and FL are just so lame and bad acting. The skinny ML tries to act macho and intelligent which is not convincing at all. Tried to be asian James Bond, but not convicincing at all. The FL is just a annoying character and wish she should be killed right from the start. Cant imagine they are coming back with season 2...what a total waste of people's time .

The whole drama is a total flop and messy. Dont understand why people like this kind of bloody and no story line drama. Highly over rated and it is not appropriate to get such rating....I seriously cant understand why people like this drama.

A mafia guy who killed lots of people and could never face problems, like some super man. We are trying to make such a rotten character a hero? Every episode that I watched, I totally felt so pissed and wasted my time. I continued watching is to assess what is the big deal about this drama. There is total no story line...lame and silly !!!

Leggi di Più

“Annoying Slapstick”

Some described this series as a “dark comedy” but I beg to disagree. By proper definition, a dark comedy is one that makes light of a subject matter that is generally considered taboo or painful to discuss. There was nothing of that sort in this painful to watch drama that was full of annoying slapstick and exaggerated actions specially by the female lead who was supposed to portray a respectable and dignified lawyer. The rest of the cast members were as clumsy and absurd which made it all the more irritating. As for the main man - Song Joong Ki as crime boss adviser Vincenzo - his youthful, good boy appearance was not the sensible representation of someone belonging to the fearsome Mafia hierarchy. Nothing seemed to make sense. A ridiculous waste of $18M budget as well as a regretful waste of 20 hours of my time.

Leggi di Più

PAINFUL

I am a native Italian. I lived in Milan for 18 years. My family happened to be involved in politics and law. One of my aunts, a judge, was a NON-CORRUPTED member that fought and almost got killed because of her involvement in Berlusconi's trial. I do not know who you are or where you are from, but I travel extensively and I know EACH COUNTRY have crime organizations with local names. My country organizational crime is called MAFIA. Now, my blood almost exploded out of my veins when I saw baby face Song Joong Ki acting as mafia lawyer .My biggest fear became reality when girls and young women are raving about Mafia guys with pride and honor. NO SUCH THING. From The Godfather, to the Soprano , ending with Korea....enough is enough. Korea has MASSIVE crime in the form of loan sharks, due to the extreme nepotism and corrupt government. So I watched all these show and though we were very similar. ONE BIG DIFFERENCE: mafia is a PRODOTTO ITALIANO, made in Italy, so don't export slavery, pedophiles, drug dealers and pimps. Korea is producing such high quality shoes: Flower of evil, my mister, Hyena.....Awaken...I mean, I think you can use Mafia only to make fun of it, or to fight it. Not as a show. Grazie.

Leggi di Più

Great cinematography....  but fell short of everything else

From the show page, I've  checked that Vincenzo currently has 159 user reviews and mine would be a review number 160. Why would I want to add another one on top of many ? Because I am hardworking like that and I like to spend my free time doing useless thingy like this. Also I have made a vow to do 1 review per year ,this might be it. So this is an unpopular opinion. My review will be brief and  in point form..

1) Cinematography and visual : Considering this was a high budget show *like TKEM* great visual is a must have . The show never disappoint in that department in fact Vincenzo excel with flying colours.

2) OST : I only like one song which is Adrenaline (Italian version) by Aalia which I wish we could hear it more in later episodes.

3) Acting of other than the main villain : The actors did the best with the materials they were given. Song Joong Ki looked dashing as usual ( like him in Innocent Man) Haa! Jeon Yeo Bin caught my eyes in this. She was stunning and I liked the point of her look, her lipstick. First time seeing her acting here and she was good.

4) Acting of the main villain : The reason I separated this with the others because I want to emphasize my view. I have issues with his acting. It was over the top like they want to make his character a caricature especially in the first 8 episodes. It was cringey like a cheesy pickup line and I hate this type of character :((( I could not take him seriously even when he did serious matter. Thanks god, this caricature acting was toned down in later episodes.

5) Storyline :  Nothing spectacular. Been there done that in countless drama I have seen.But I liked the idea behind the story. '' Solo il male può sconfiggere il male ''. Only evil can defeat evil. It was refreshing to see the evil got their commensurate punishments as it should be. While I low key think the punishment were a bit too much although the villains kinda deserved it ----< this is the angel in me writing.

6) Humor : I was indifferent to it. I found it to be lame and pretentious. Most of the time , it gave me a second-hand embarassment.

7) Just a thing worth to mention. I never know that I could get tired of the word mafia (read in korean slang) until I watch this show. It was like hearing Love is the moment song all over again.Could everyone please just stop.........

That's all. Thank you for reading.

Leggi di Più

watching this because of Song Joong Ki.

Why I even bother with this drama. Song Joong Ki Rise to fame again and back on the map In Hallyu Status thanks to this drama And I'm as a fan feels gratefull to this drama. . I expecting it since the writers is really good generated buzz in his 2 previous drama and Plus It's Song Joong Ki. Though I admit, I didn't expected to generated this much buzz to the point it's one of the most watched on netflix. But because of this, It might be Along wait again until he reach 40 when he pick something more substance. Gosh the struggle being a fan of him is real.

The humor is enjoyable for me. And fit with my tastes. But there is no depth when the lightheart comedy take the center of the plot. And i really confuse in the middle of this drama what it's all about? At first I think this drama is all about a gold and it's connect to the WUsang and Babel group and waiting for the climax to happen. But It's not after all??? And then I though this drama is all about revenge to Babel group, but they switch the topic again, and its about the gold, and then next, it's about Babel Group again. Like They freakin confuse, let alone me. It's so disjointed

The main character has a hint to their past so we can connect to their struggle, past story, but it's nothing, it's just a tease. They seems like invisible character which we can hardly grasp and understand, always one step ahead despite they think they are always at disavantaged, but because they have vincenzo, they almost always win or either lucky.

Funnily, the writers seems write the villain more human and like they are main character by showing their struggle, and dynamics against vincenzo. I end up rooting for them to win. But they are supposed has to take down by our anti hero after all. So who is the main villain here?

Leggi di Più

it could have been so much more than the convoluted mess we got

this drama could have been so good if everything was like the first 15 minutes. The tone and atmopshere is very uneven, jumping to somewhat dark to lame slapstick comedy (that feels a tad too juvenile at times). Here's the thing, I don't give af about the tenants of the building, and their over the top acting pisses me off lmao just throw them all away. Everyone is raving about the chemistry, but the characters aren't developed enough for the relationship to really feel meaningful. I mean I still got to episode 15 and will still keep watching for those little bits of potential I can see that are hidden under layers of unnecessary comedic filler. I think the ml carried this lmao, he was impeccable and I would have been fine if he just yeeted out of Korea and spent the whole drama in Italy cuz that's where shit goes down. Also did I mention he was hot? Because that's also a huge reason I keep watching. I guess a dark noir mafia drama was too much to ask for huh. Basically, like dude should kick ass but he doesn't which pisses me off

OMG EP 16 ROCKED. DUDE this is the scene I have been waiting for dude. OMLOMLLMOMLL. Serious Kaz Brekker vibes and I'm loving it. Okay, the ending was lit and dark, As the show went on, I think I begrudging accepted that this juvenile exaggerated comedy is here to stay (unfortunately), doesn't mean I have to like it though! I remained disinterested in the tenants' storyline to the end. I would have liked to see Vincenzo been challenged more, because he basically never is, and plus that cliche move of making Hong Chayeong a damsel in distress was just not the move bro.

I'm very grateful they didn't shy away from vincenzo's moral greyness though, and didn't try to reform him, so there's that. Also, most people liked Hanseo, I personally find him a bit one-dimensional. Or mb I just don't dig his character lol, Idk anymore. Honestly I feel like there was weak characterization all around, and I didn't feel the chemistry between Vincenzo and Chayeong at all, especially near the end. Ughhh, there's this weird exaggerated tone that the drama has that just throws the whole thing off, which makes the drama feel very cartoony (sitcom-esque), and undermines the somber tone and themes they are trying to establish. It really doesn't mesh well.

I think I can sum this whole drama to two words: wasted potential. Like Peaky blinders was fab can we have more of that in kdramas? Basically, this drama is trying to be two things: a lame ass comedy and an edgy mafia thriller, and fails miserably at both. I mean, I did tune in for this drama each week, so I guess that's sometthing (they are really good with cliffhangers lol, like the whole episode will be filler and in the last 5 mins, something interesting happens and you're like oh shit i need to pay attention now). This is the first k drama I've watched as it aired, and I must say, it's great cuz I haven't lost any sleep over this, on the bright side.

Leggi di Più

overrated ? i dont think so- not for everyone

I tend to get bored easily with long series, but I stayed in suspense throughout all 20 episodes.
One of the excellent things about the series is that the plot only develops and improves from episode to episode and keeps the interest of the viewer.
Another special and amazing thing about this drama is the exact combination of action, sophistication, and humor.
The series has such funny parts, exactly at the right time and in the right dose.
Highly recommend the series!! She is officially one of my favorites, and I will watch her over and over again.
such a refreshing role to the ML not typical like most dramas.
the cast was amazing the chemistry between the main lead was great, even without a full of romance scene.

Leggi di Più