Cruel City (2013)

"IF you cuss the world the world will cuss back at you,but if you smile at the world the world will smile back at you." -DOCTOR SON

This was a beautiful written story that captured my heart. I have never watched a drama again and i don't think i will, but i am glad i got to experience this drama with its breathtaking actors especially doctor son who stole my heart.

In this drama you will smile, scream at the top of your lungs, cry again and again, but you wont regret watching it. This was the best ass kicking drama with action i have ever watch. I LOVED THE STORY AND THE WONDERFUL ACTORS AND ACTRESSES. THE ENDING BROKE MY HEART BUT IT TAUGHT ME A BEAUTIFUL lesson:

"IF you cuss the world the world will cuss back at you,but if you smile at the world the world will smile back at you." -DOCTOR SON

I LOVE THIS DRAMA AND I RECOMMEND IT TO ALL!!!

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This had been on my plan to watch list for a year and I final watched it because of the high ratings and rave reviews here on MDL. Let me just say WOW, it did not disappoint. This was a drama shown on a cable channel so it never had a chance at high viewer ratings, however since it wasn't on a main channel it got to push the envelope. Korean censors did push back by censoring the main actors back tattoo and this knives. (Ironically not the guns.)

The story is well written with so many twist and turns that you just never see it coming episode after episode. This is not one of those dramas that drags in the middle and leaves the action to the end. You are left on the edge of your seat every episode. The story is best described as as onion. Layer upon layers. Every actor has a story and everyone matters. It also challenges to like the characters where all the lines are blurred. If you are looking for some cute, clean, romantic comedy, this one would not be for you. This is dark, gritty, and puts the drama in melodrama.

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I don't know how to say this, but THIS DRAMA IS AMAZING.

Story: I gave the story a 9 because the author gave us a open ended ending, but it's okay because I guess it fits. The pacing could have been a little faster, but it was good enough. In every episode, it was intense, unpredictable, and you never know what is going to occur next.. I was ANXIOUS in every episode honestly. Each episode made me wonder why one character did this and that. I had so many mixed emotions inside of me. One thing though, I'm not usually that big on a lot of romance but surprisingly, I wanted a little more romance-- there was like... nearly none (note: nearly, not completely)

Acting/Cast: I FELL IN LOVE WITH ALL OF THE CHARACTERS. They're just THAT AMAZING! Kyung ho's acting was just WOW... I don't think there was anyone who could rock this role like him.. & the rest were really good too!

Music: Fitting.

Rewatch Value: Simply a big fat YES.

Overall: Don't miss out on this drama! It is a must watch for me. However, if you're HUGE on romance, you might feel a bit empty inside. Still a gem though.

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Hmm...it is no doubt that this drama was a masterpiece. Like many of the reviewers below I found: the story captivating, the actors intriguing, the cliff hangers terrifying, the secrets unbearable...all in all the show was amazing.
The cast was superb, I wouldn't be surprised if they grab up all the awards! I guess I needn't say more regarding the actors/actresses. The music was loveable...it wasn't OTT. It was just right. IDK for others, but to me the OSTs reminded me of The Godfather and James Bond...actually when I come to think about it, CC has both gangsters and double agents (hence the crossover between the songs), however it doesn't reflect America (The Godfather), not England (007)...rather it captures South Kr.perfectly!!
However, I do feel that the ending was a let down...it felt too rushed - but hey-ho, this is my personal opinion regarding C.C.
Anyways, before I'm eaten alive by fans...I did love the show!! I did cry and laugh with the characters!! Heck, I loved them! I truly, and honestly look forward to any of their upcoming dramas/movies.

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One point shy from a Masterpiece!! What can I say about this drama other than the fact, Please jtBC, make more of them!! The acting was superb!! Jung Kyung Ho as Baksa did an excellent, excellent job!! Yoon Hyun Min, don't worry, I will NEVER, NEVER forget your name!! A new love for my drama life!! The ending was even as I expected. Son Chang Min as Min, again I will never forget his portrayal. But let's not forget Kim Yoo Mi as Jin Sook and Choi Moo Sung as Safari. I have never seen either of these actors before but it will be LONG, LONG time before I ever forget them again. The cinematography, while dark a lot of time, really fit the story. And I must give BIG props to the costumers for the men and especially for Jin Sook! I don't think there was even ONE outfit she wore that I DIDN'T wish I could find and where. There were a couple of characters who just dropped off of the screen without any explanation but that would be my only complaint. But let's give a hand to our Nine Lives player, Meth Kim!!

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I have mixed feelings about this drama. As much as I want to give really high rating, I feel reluctant. Probably it's because i felt a bit boring and distract near the mid of the story. But, overall, it was a great story with AMAZING cast and music.

For the story, I am a great fan of noir-genre drama/movies. In this case, it has a great story line; it has revenge, undercover, friendship and love. One thing I disliked was that there were too many boring political dialogue almost in every episodes. But, action scenes were EPIC; I LOVED them.

Acting/Cast: JKH is an amazing actor; he portrayed Doctor's Son/Jung Shi hyun character very well - so dark and mysterious. Nam Gyu Ri was gorgeous and I like her but her acting - I didn't find it impressive. Supporting actors were also good, I would say.

Music: I LOVVVVED the music - "Hurt" and also the last one, "Everyday". And also the instrumentals also helped the drama in perfecting its dark theme.

Rewatch value: Not sure I will rewatch it again.


Overall, a great drama, you should watch it if you wanna take a break from typical melodramas.

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first of all lets start with the ost, "love is at war" is pretty awsome. next is doc......wow daebak i just fell in love with him. havent seen him anywhere else but i would like to get to know him better. his personality fit his face and character, he was perfect role for that. the rest of the cast was great too they all did their parts well. the romance was to die for i rewinded several times coz this man dint smile yet he just bedded her with flying colors. my other favorite character was safari. he was just a busan boy with bad rep. i felt for him by the very end and liked him. the show reminded me of city hunter esp at the shootouts and the end scene.
the reason that it dint get a 10 is coz of the story line with the director min. i mean how many freaking undercover cops were there..it just became overrated and lost marks. it was too much. its a great show with alot of cliffhangers so be prepared for the ride.

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Does the plot of this show make sense? Most of the time, no. Did I understand the characters’ motivations? Only about half of the time. Is this show... good? I honestly wouldn’t recommend it. I think these days we have so many other good crime kdramas that I would recommend first before this one.

Then, you ask, why am I giving this a 7, and not like a lower score? The saving grace of the show is its noir style. Goodness, if this show was just played straight it would be an unbelievable and ridiculous crime show where everyone is terrible at their job and characters keep flip flopping back and forth to the point where you give up trying to understand why anyone is doing what they’re doing and you’d rightfully turn the show off and watch something else. But this show’s soundtrack, lighting, coloring, setting and so on are so entrancing to watch and experience that if you just turn your brain off you’ll have an enjoyable time. It’s great to watch a show where it is apparent how much thought and craft was put into the way it looks and feels. The soundtrack is one of the best I’ve heard in a crime show. The fight scenes are well choreographed and shot well (hey directors, did you know you can shoot a fight scene that is well-lit but still conveys the darkness of the tone?) and are quite memorable. The show is often filmed at night or indoors, so there’s this lack of light and air that adds to the darkness of the tone and the sense of futility.

The main 4 characters (Doctor’s Son, Safari, Soo, and Jin Suk noona) are all such great characters to watch. They’re very unique and I think the noir style of the show is what allows them to have their interesting but complicated relationships. Like everyone else, I love Doctor’s Son and he is an amazing character brought to life by great acting. The costume department gets an A+ for all the great suits they have him wear. Soo Min is great too but less interesting than the other characters. Hyung Min is bad at his job and I hate him. Director Min is the worst and is stupid (he’s portrayed as this puppet master but like... dude he’s terrible at it).

Now that I’ve discussed the strengths of this show, I’ll comment on the problems, which include: everything else about it. The plot gets more and more ridiculous as the show goes along, with constantly shifting allegiances and characters revealing hidden identities to the point that it becomes a bit absurd. I lost track of characters’ agendas because of all these switches. The antagonist keeps changing as people’s hidden identities or allegiances are revealed, so sometimes I was unsure who our “good guys” were going after. The characters continuously make bad decisions that still end up being fine in the long run, like walking into an obvious trap but they escape so it’s fine, or a cop shoots another cop but there ends up being no consequences, etc. The show keeps a lot of characters’ intentions in the dark to the point that it becomes confusing rather than intriguing, so I gave up trying to figure out what people really wanted. Occasionally the editing wasn’t great; for example, I would get confused over how much time had passed between scenes and I think that’s due to the abruptness of some cuts. The end of the show was a bit messy in terms of editing and also just the plot itself. This was actually where the noir style failed a bit to me; noir has a cynical view of the world, but despite the character deaths I thought the show ended on a pretty happy note. It focused more on eliminating a few evil people, rather than the city (you know... the “cruel city”) and its corrupt systems. Also I thought the choice of the characters who died was weighed more heavily on those that would have more emotional impact on the viewer, rather than imparting the sense of loss of innocence and naïveté at the hands of a cruel world.

I’d love it if there were more crime shows that embraced this kind of noir style, so I have a hard time discounting this show because it really does stand out. But I just rewatched it for the first time since 2013 and it unfortunately did not hold up well. I think we’ve been blessed with enough excellent crime shows since then that now I have higher standards (you know... like the plot making sense). I still think very fondly of this show, but I unfortunately think that it’s not as great as I remembered.

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Damn.
It's like a freaking cancer, it sticks to you and doesn't let go. You start watching and you can't stop. As soon as you think you know what's going on the cancer grows and your back to square one.
Cruel City is an amazing drama, however, be prepared for intense feels...many many feels: happy feels, romantic feels, and (of course, cause it's a melodrama) sad feels (lots of them <insert little angry emoji face><but yet again you kinda have to come prepared cause, well, its a melodrama>).

recommendation level: If your considering watching this. Watch it.
(even if you finish it <or not> and decide it wasn't your thing, you won't regret giving it a try)

I gave the story 9.5 points, because the plot twists are never ending and the show keeps you on your toes ALL THE TIME! Although this may seem like a put off, it makes the show. The originality of the plot twists makes you want to keep watching (and marathon all 20 episodes in one night...<yes... I am speaking from experience... it is possible to watch 20 hours worth of drama before you have to get up in the morning>).
The story plays with your emotions, it makes you, not only feel, but WANT to feel, every emotion that freaking exists. The only reasons I took away 1 point was the romance and something else I'm not allowed to talk about (it would be considered spoiling...). I am a HUGEEEEEE fan of melodrama romance and Cruel City was somewhat of a tease. It started the romance, had the romance play a role in the plot, but never really expanded on it which left me wanting more. The piece I'm not allowed to talk about involved a lot of me screaming, very not polite phrases, at my computer screen...
Although it was a tear-jerking drama, it was good because it was a tear-jerking drama. It made it realistic. (Obviously the drama is meant for a more mature audience which allowed it to show the reality of the drug world). Meaning amazing feels, the feels were amazing people.

Acting and Casting well... for one the main actor is INCREDIBLY HOT. Not to mention had amazing acting skills. It's hard for an actor to portray the feelings of a character that tries REALLY hard to hide his feelings , and Jung Kyung Ho did an amazing job. The other actors (also all very attractive) kept up to par, showing a wide range of complex emotions.

Music.... I downloaded the whole OST.
(and for someone who doesn't usually take the time to download music, that's pretty impressive).

Re-watch Value
Usually, I don't really like this factor in reviewing, especially with melo or mystery dramas, because you already know the key to the puzzle. But damn I would so re-watch this with my mom or sister, or any one else who wanted to watch it.

Overall, I will, without a doubt, never ever forget this drama. great story. Many many feels (but who doesn't love the feels), and music and acting were superb. Def. a good watch!
p.s. I would have normally scored it a 9.0 overall (basing mostly on story) but I added .5 points for my personal feelings. I really enjoyed this show and highly encourage others to watch it as well.

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Crime, drug dealers, politicians, cops, corrupt cops, backstabbing, lying, trickery and gangsters - you can guess why this is called 'Cruel/Heartless City' right? ;) It's dark and mysterious and sometimes your mind will shout "yeah right!" "No way!"at some things the people will say or do... It was a good drama, I wouldn't say it was the best I've seen but it's definitely worth watching ;D

Cast: Jung Shi Hyun "doctor's son" (Jung Kyung Ho) a mystery man, during the first few episodes I was wondering how I could possibly like this "drug king" b/c if he is bad I have to hate him right? Well, that all changed by episode 4 - I was like oh DAEBAK now I CAN like him ;D His character was dark, cold, kind, loving, as honest as he could be, he was my favorite out of everyone <3 Han Soo Min (Nam Gyu Ri) is a newbie cop who goes undercover to try and catch &quot;doctor's son&quot; but ends up falling in love with him instead - their romance was sweet <3 Ji Hyung Min (Lee Jae Yoon) a pretty good detective I'd say, I liked him but I also got mad at him a lot b/c of him being so determined to catch "doctor's son" b/c of his own misunderstanding. Kim Hyun Soo "Soo" (Yoon Hyun Min) the "best friend" & "right-hand man" of "doctor's son" - I enjoyed watching "almost" (lol) every scene he was in ;) Lee Jin Sook (Kim Yoo Mi) I didn't really care about her that much, she was "whatever" to me, she played her role well but I was a bit grossed out by her so called "love" for someone whom she practically raised since he was a kid... O.o

Music: "Hurt" by Kim Yong Jin (Bohemian) - Now I first heard this song WAY before I decided to watch this drama - so I already knew this song by heart. But it is my favorite song for this drama - I love it and played it several times before & after finishing this ;)

Re-watch Value: 7.5/10 - It's a good drama that I might re-watch for Jung Kyung Ho's role (I loved his dark eyes & persona in this drama).

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