Domangja: Plan B

Fugitive Plan B is a Korean TV series that just plain sucks.

SPOILERS AHEAD!

I don't know why I bothered with this show as I could tell it was going to suck soon after I began watching it, but I finished all of it out somehow!...Please don't watch it...you will regret it if you do. I will now commence with my review of this series, and will consider my worldwide community service done for a little while.

Story; Private Investigator is hired by a young heiress to find out who killed her family. While investigating, they discover her family left behind some hidden gold that an evil organization is trying to find. Meanwhile, there's a cop who's chasing the PI as the PI is apparently also a wanted criminal. There's a bunch of side characters and sub plots tossed in along the way, and everybody involved eventually tries to find the gold while trying to either capture someone, kill someone, or turn someone into the authorities. It can mostly be considered as an Action-Drama.

The main problem with this show is that it is both ill conceived and poorly written. It's basically: plot point, fight scene, plot point, chase scene, plot point, repeat ad nauseam. While this may sound like it might be exciting, it most decidedly is not; in fact, it's downright boring. The majority of the fight and chase scenes don't carry any suspense as no one ever seems to get hurt, and if someone gets caught, they just escape in the very next scene anyway. It appears they only had part time makeup artists on set as well, as half the time everybody escapes from a big fight without a single blemish, but are bleeding profusely from the next big fight at other times.

There are also many attempts at comedy throughout that fall flat unless you're a 6 year old. Contrary to what the writers may think, it's not hilarious to see Rain get his ass stuck in some lady's face during car chase scene # 143. There's also a side character who's another PI in Thailand or the Philippines or somewhere; his name is James Bong (Jeeesh)...he's supposed to be the comic relief I guess, but he's not funny at all, and is one of the most annoying characters you'll ever see on TV, that is until you get a load of his idiotic sidekick.

The actors all seem out of place too, and seem mostly disinterested as the show drags on. Who can blame them really? Rain is your lead actor here as the PI; he gives a gallant effort to play along with all the stupidity, but he mostly comes across as a silly goof ball. Daniel Henney is one of the other 2 male leads. The dialogue he's given to work with is downright painful to listen to, and it's not helped by the fact that he still can't speak Korean. It appears he tries to learn the script in Korean but there apparently wasn't enough time, so he speaks the first few sentences of some conversations in Korean, then he speaks the rest in English. I'm not kidding, that's how ridiculous this show is! The lead actress walks around with an expression on her face that suggests she's wondering how her career sank to this level. I kinda felt bad for the actresses and actors involved, and you can almost tell, at about the midpoint of the show, that they're just clock watching hoping this giant turd they're stuck in will get flushed away soon. The writing and direction teams, however, should all be given a swift kick in the nuts.

I think the show had visions of being a lighthearted version of "Iris" or thereabouts. It's more similar to a lighthearted version of "A Man Called God". That show was awful too, but at least it was outrageously awful. Both shows even include an evil dude in a wheelchair who doesn't need a wheelchair. I can only imagine what a veteran actor must be thinking when he reads the script and learns he's no longer crippled: Veteran Actor: "Ummm, excuse me Mr. Director, I've been in a wheelchair this whole time, and now you want me to get up and just start walking around?" Mr. Director: "Yeah, it'll be great. People will love it." Veteran Actor: "You're an Idiot!"

This show is just a mess. There's very little (if anything) worthwhile here. There's only one character I even remotely liked and that's the cute girl cop who has a crush on her squad leader. Of course, (SPOILERS) they killed her character off in a ham fisted effort to inject some mandatory melodrama into the story.

And, to add insult to injury to every male watching the show (or female if you swing that way), these geniuses decide to (SPOILERS) kill off just about every pretty lady on the show: the cute detective, the hot assistant to Henney's character, the pretty Japanese professor (oh wait, she's not killed, she's just in hiding for a while until she shows back up in what else but a wheelchair. Maybe they only had one wheelchair on set, and that's why the evil dude had to get up out of it, so the professor could sit down), and most egregiously, the PI office assistant with the amazing rack. They don't even bother to kill her, she just completely disappears from the show after a couple episodes without any explanation, and nobody seems to notice or care. I know if I were the PI, I'd be wanting to know where my cleavage bearing assistant is. Look, if they wanted me to watch this pile of garbage, the least they could've done was show me some titties, unfortunately, they couldn't even get that right!

Bottom Line: This show sucked and was a complete waste of time. I suggest you watch something, anything, else instead. You'll thank me for it later!

2 out of 10 stars!

It is really like that, you dig Korean action drama or you don't. If you do, you may actually enjoy it quite a bit. There is not much logic here, true, and reasons for anything are, at the very best, faintly perceptible. But is not really the point. You have plenty of crazy action, sometimes funny, sometimes silly, occasionally a bit sad. What else do you need? Rain (Ninja Assassin) is really good. He steps into the character with ease, playing a rouge, funny, silly and sometimes surprisingly serious PI, in the very best tradition of the original Lupin III manga series. Lee Na-young (Ruler of Your Own World) managed to make her character believable and, trust me, it was not an easy task - see the part about reasons above... :) The supportive crew is really good - Henney being sort of perfect for his character (a dubious honor, but true), and Lee Jung-jin and Yoon Jin-seo complementing each other perfectly. Special prize should go to Seong Dong-il, playing Namkamura Hwang, he is The Nakamura. ;)

Martial arts choreography is impressive, although a little bit too smooth for my taste. Korean directors seem to prefer a dance-like quality in the fighting scenes and it shows - as usual. Yet I cannot honestly say it is some kind of a setback, just part of K-drama experience. ;) I got to really appreciate Lee Na-young performance in fighting scenes. She is not an action heroin and it's well worth seeing the special episode ("21") just to see how much work did she put to make it look like it does.

Good camera work, in some scenes bordering on excellent, music fits the rhythm of action - sometimes vice versa. Seriously, what more could you want? And yes, to be honest, I would say a solid 6 out of 10, but the fact is, I just feel some guys tend to give bad score simply because they don't like K-action drama. So - bear with me and enjoy! :)

Something about action dramas from around early 2010s make them unique for better or worse. The drama started off with a big bang, literally, while shoving in the maximum possible amount of flashy elements. If you watch the very first scene it should give you a good idea. However, just like other ones from around the same time, it gradually began to wither away after 5-6 episodes until it reached a bland conclusion. The male lead doubling his role as a comedic relief was mostly fine, but him flailing his tongue like a dog was a bit too cringe to tolerate. The drama really wanted to include romance because it was the trend back then, that's why we had multiple pairings, most of them were unnecessary or weak. The main antagonist was your generic baddie, the drama didn't even show him a lot until the last few episodes because they didn't want to bother with more writing. The vibes were very similar to 'A Man Called God (2010)' which came out in the same year, except this one was a bit better.