La Traque dans le sang

I mean, if koreans want to do quality you get quality.

This was such a ride. The story and characters hook you from the very beginning and it is so thrilling and upbeat you never get your eyes of the screen ( literally binged it for the whole 8 episodes)

The fighting choreographies are AWESOME and you can tell the immensely amount of work the main leads have put into not only to get in shape but to completely get into the mindset of a boxer and a fighter, they make the characters so believable and genuine.

I have followed Woo Do-hwan for a long time and I just cant get enough of his acting, loved his tender, caring yet fierce character here.

I absolutely loved the two main leads personalities and how well one compensates the other. They have such a strong and beautiful bond and friendship.

If i have to find some faults ( even when this was almost perfect) is maybe the length ( probably 2 episodes too long) and the dragging of the main plot, when the bad guys keep getting away with everything and the good guys make mistakes a bit too obvious, which it gets frustrating at times.

Also I loved the Tempted mini reunion with his old co start and friend Kim Min-jae, shame that they didn't have any scenes together!

Heo Joon Ho needs a special mention as well, as the good guy ( for once!) I love his acting and he manages for me to hate him with passion or love him depending on his role. This guy is absolutely chamaleonic.

Other than that, what an amazing series!!! I really hope it has a second season!

Woo Do-hwan and Lee Sang-yi play amateur boxers who after facing each other in the ring become firm friends. Through family they become embroiled in taking down a ruthless loan shark who kills anybody who gets in his way. Even though they face unbelievable odds against armed gangsters using only their fists they seek to bring down his violent reign. It is a violent, bloody series and the body count is high, well choreographed fight scenes even though they are mostly unrealistic. The story becomes a little disjointed as Kim Sae Ron who plays the daughter of a kind hearted loan shark who was helping them in the earlier episodes was written out due to a D. U. I. Incident. Need to be a fan of the underdog fighting for justice to really enjoy this one.

Honestly, I've seen people calling it unrealistic but it doesn't matter because the drama keeps you hooked. It's a good drama but the problem is in 5-6 episode they removed the nice characters. Even the female lead left after ep 6 which was annoying I expected more from her. I thought she will take a revenge for her grandfather but she was nowhere to be found. Even the nice characters who died, they didn't show any backstory of what happened to them in the end. The ending was good but how they did not cleared it out to the audience was very annoying. I'm mostly disappointed by the female lead leaving the drama in the middle and they also didn't show what happened to the victim's family who were in danger. That thing is going to bother you. Overall it's a good drama the boxing and the stunts were mind blowing. It will keep you hooked. The bromance in the show was really cute. Amazing acting.

I have a love-hate relationship with k-dramas. I like them in general but most times I'm left disappointed.

Usually they start very good. The initial, first second, episodes are really good. Great cinematography, good writing, lots of production value and most of the time a nice concept to build upon. You can always tell that about half or more of the production money went to that one - two episodes. And then....

It all goes downhill. Whatever the initial concept was it will always end up a group of people going against some type of villain. They will sit and talk and eat and plan various unintelligent ways to attack the villain. They will attack but for some reason the villain will escape their grasp. Then the villain will attack and probably kill one or two of them. This back and forth will continue depending on how many episodes the season has and at the end the good guys finally will do what they should have done a dozen episodes back. All the above while the tone of the series will flactuate between very moving scenes and cringy slapstick humor.

This show unfortunately does not escape this pattern. It has its ups and it has its downs.

Special mention to the last two episodes that were awful. It probably would have gotten another star if that wasn't the last taste the show had left me with.

The show is not as simple as you've seen it from the trailer. It has a little bit more complicated stories and characters, but not too far off. It has brotherhood, bloody fight, mukbang, and above all, it's a fast pace show. The choreography of the fights in this show is also well done. It's just as good as another korean show from Netflix, My name. The martial arts or fight actions scenes in modern korean movies and tv shows are arguably better than any other action movies whether it's from hollywood, or outside of hollywood. They has more realistic fights. It's fast and furious literally. They don't have those showy exaggerated moves that look like choreographed dance. Unfortunately, this show also has those typical cliche moments like My Name especially those tear-jerky ones. That's my biggest pet peeve in korean tv shows and movies. Although there's a sudden change of pace (It was quite a ride until episode 6), and the ending is a bit rushed and shortened, overall, the show is quiet entertaining. The fight scenes are worth visit more than once. I give solid 7.5/10.