Once again, we delve into the past this week for another love story amidst violence. It’s an action-melo that’s at times brutal and at times sweet. We spend time with another of our superpowered parent generation as he fights his way through the streets and finds himself at a crossroads. No matter how hard he tries, it’s not easy to start over. But he might just have a real opportunity to turn his life around.
EPISODES 10-11
I expected to continue Doo-shik and Mi-hyun’s story this week, but the drama had other plans. Instead, we switch focus to another couple and their unique tale. We go back to 1990 where Joo-won is a high-ranking member of a local gang in Ulsan. It’s a natural choice given his immense strength and inability to be injured, a skill that earns him the nickname The Monster. Not everyone can just rip those knives out of their own bodies and keep going.
Joo-won might be capable of monstrous violence, but he isn’t someone who enjoys it. He views his role as protector of his gang brothers, so he plows his way through rival gangs when they attack. He’s that quintessential gangster with a heart of gold – like a warrior teddy bear.
His unexpected naivety makes him easy to take advantage of, which is exactly what his boss does. Joo-won may not be in the gang life for the money, but his boss sure is. After a brutal fight that ends with multiple guys on both sides in the hospital, Joo-won is aghast that his boss accepts a merger and kowtows to the new boss.
This new boss hates Joo-won with his natural strength and regeneration that make him impossible to control. He decides to clean house and has both Joo-won and the old boss drugged. Joo-won wakes beside his boss in a car, both tied to their respective seats. They’ve handcuffed Joo-won to the steering wheel as an extra precaution.
Joo-won being Joo-won, he doesn’t beg for his own release but for his boss’s, not realizing that said boss has been playing him for quite some time. He orchestrated that initial fight between the two gangs so that he could offer the merger and rake in more cash. Then, he lied to Joo-won that the other gang started it, knowing he’d come through if he thought his gang family was in trouble. In a betrayal double-whammy, Joo-won then learns that his supposedly loyal gang dongsaeng Min-ki is the one who drugged them and helped orchestrate their deaths.
Done destroying Joo-won’s spirit, the new boss sends the car careening into the ocean. But we know that’s not enough to kill Joo-won who breaks himself out of his restraints and escapes, alone. He then visits Min-ki and the gang brothers who betrayed him and goes on a revenge spree. He lets Min-ki live but leaves him with a nasty scar (slashing his mouth open with a handcuff, yeesh) to remember him by.
If there’s one thing we know, it’s that Deputy Director Min is never far from a superpowered human. He’s been hearing tales of The Monster and hoped to meet him but shows up a hair too late. No worries though – disloyal Min-ki is all too willing to help bring Joo-won back.
Now we jump six months later to Incheon where Joo-won has made his new home. He’s barely scraping by, living in a motel and earning his rent by jumping in front of cars for settlement money. Not exactly on the up and up, but it’s a step in the right direction from gang life.
Joo-won starts taking notice of the tough woman who makes night deliveries for a local coffee shop. Based on her no-nonsense demeanor and natural confidence, HWANG JI-HEE (Kwak Sun-young) must be Hee-soo’s mom. If a nighttime coffee delivery service in 1990 struck you as suspect, that’s because it’s somewhat a front. Yes, the women do deliver coffee, but they also sit and drink with the men who order. And if paid for a “ticket,” they’ll sleep with the customer.
Given their role as discreet prostitutes, men tend to treat them more like objects than people. That makes Joo-won’s gruff yet respectful demeanor stand out all the more to Ji-hee. If that weren’t enough to make her remember him, seeing this grown, gangster-looking man crying in the middle of the street does the trick. He’s been roaming around for hours – he’s terrible with directions – and all he can say is, “I lost my way.” She takes it literally, but it’s clear he’s at his breaking point given all he’s been through.
Thus starts their adorable, unconventional courtship. All Joo-won knows about Ji-hee is that she makes deliveries, so he starts ordering coffee. He gets all spiffy by shaving his face and wearing a polo, and then he anxiously awaits … and deflates when the woman who shows up isn’t her. So he politely drinks the coffee and then makes another order, and then another, and keeps on ordering until Ji-hee arrives.
He’s bashful and awkward, talking to her about his favorite martial arts novels that are actually love stories. And how in wrestling, which he also loves, the good guy always wins. (How can Joo-won be so scary one minute and so harmless the next?) Ji-hee isn’t the romantic type but finds his romanticism amusing. When Ji-hee says she likes The Hulk because he looks like a monster but is a nice guy, Joo-won can barely contain his smile.
Ji-hee is suspicious at first, knowing most men aren’t serious with prostitutes, but it doesn’t take long for her to realize Joo-won is being painfully sincere and likes her. Not many players talk about wrestling to woo the girl. Over the coming weeks, Joo-won keeps ordering coffee and Ji-hee keeps showing up. Every time, he pays for the coffee and nothing more, chatting with her until she chooses to leave.
Meanwhile, Min-ki is still scouring Korea for Joo-won on Deputy Director Min’s behalf, but Joo-won is keeping a low profile. That is, until Ji-hee is put in danger. Joo-won hears her scream from inside one of the motel rooms as a group of men try to assault her. She holds her own by brandishing a broken beer bottle, but it’s her against four men.
Joo-won punches a hole right through the wall, peeking his head in. “It’s the Hulk,” Ji-hee says with an amazed smile. (These two are clearly made for each other.) Like the Hulk, Joo-won bursts into the room through the wall and knocks all the men out.
While he waits for Ji-hee to get out of the hospital, one of the assaulters escapes and brings back a lot of friends. Joo-won is stabbed (as usual), shot with an arrow (!), wacked with crowbars, chopped with an axe, and even has his arm set on fire. But none of that slows him down – he just keeps swinging with one arm ablaze until everyone else is down for the count.
As if that’s not enough, his old gang rolls up, so he has to handle them too. Deputy Director Min uses it as a test, watching from the sidelines (in the safety of his car) as the fight is taken outside where Joo-won is run over a couple times, jumps out of a building, gets stabbed some more, and keeps on trucking.
Ji-hee catches wind of the commotion and goes searching for Joo-won on her delivery bike. She finds him and refuses to leave until he gets on her bike. She drives them away, but they’re hit by a van. Joo-won shields her as they go down and then charges at the van like a boar, busting through the windshield. To make sure the van doesn’t run over the unconscious Ji-hee, he crashes it off a cliff. (Just how many ways can this man not die?)
THEN, Joo-won’s old pal Min-ki tries to finish him off himself now that Joo-won is trapped under a car and almost dead. But before Min-ki can harpoon (yes, literally) Joo-won, Doo-shik flies in to save the day! Deputy Director Min sent him to assess the situation, but we all know Doo-shik doesn’t like to stand around and watch people die for no reason.
Six months later, Joo-won is officially an agent alongside his new partner Doo-shik. Finished with his training period, Joo-won finally returns to Incheon to visit a certain coffee shop. He shows up in his suit looking for Ji-hee who lights up when she sees him. She’s been waiting for him to return and has even been reading the martial arts manga he likes. We end as they share a cup of coffee, ready to start a new chapter.
What a brutal yet sweet set of episodes! I’ve really enjoyed these trips to the past to get to know the parent generation. The characters are all so well-developed, and it’s fun to see the resemblance between the kids and their parents through their reactions and decisions. It’s also a great way to weave in backstory naturally, strengthening the world-building and making the stakes feel even higher.
Not only are the individual characters well-developed, but so are the relationships. Each couple feels so believable and is so easy to root for. I loved that the genre of each romance reflected the personalities of the leads: gritty Joo-won and Ji-hee’s story was action-packed and bloody, whereas spies Mi-hyun and Doo-shik’s was subtle and built on subterfuge. But poor Joo-won really went through the wringer here! You’ve got to appreciate the myriad of would-be fatalities the drama has him survive, and I have a feeling we’ll see several more before the story is done – we’ve still got the present to contend with.