Quite possibly the best drama of 2011 (if you ignore the last 2 episodes or so).

I loved this drama. This has been the fastest pace I've watched a drama in a while. Everything that has been coming out lately has been mediocre at best. I haven't found anything fantastic as of late. But this. City Hunter was amazing.

The premise of the drama is that Lee Yoon Sung's dad dies in a covert operation against North Korea by being shot by his own country and him and 20 others go down with him. Not. 1 man survives, Lee Jin Pyo and he's hell bent on revenge after seeing his comrades sink down into the watery depths off the shores of Nampo. So he goes and steals Lee Yoon Sung as a 1 month old baby and starts planning out an elaborate revenge, giving Lee Yoon Sung an extremely difficult life growing up. But it's all good. Cause Lee Yoon Sung becomes hellovabadass. And he's sexy. So whatever. And they grow up in Thailand or whatever, and then they go back to Korea super rich and start on their revenge on the group of 5 that orchestrated Operation Clean Sweep. Somewhere down the line Lee Yoon Sung and Lee Jin Pyo become enemies, but that's okay too, because somewhere down the line Lee Yoon Sung meets pretty lady Kim Na Na. And basically the whole plot is the revenge plot and it ends at the end of the revenge.

So the plot line was original enough. I mean it is developed from a manga plot line (except significantly shortened, and had many artistic liberties done to it). But the thing that got me into the drama was the chemistry of the main couple. The MinMin couple, as the Netizens call it. Lee Min Ho and Park Min Young made it EXTREMELY believable for me. From all the hilarity of Kim Na Na continuously slamming a fully able body, and stronger than her Lee Yoon Sung over her back or the oh-no-you-didn't-just-shoot-my-girl scene. I loved it.
In all honesty, even though the plot line was pretty good, the way it was executed was extremely predictable. I guessed the all the secret birth secret plot twists nonsense from the beginning. And as it went on it got more and more obvious and dumb to watch. What was awesome to watch however was the action! Lee Yoon Sung got some pretty kickass fighting all up in there. Kim Na Na was not so bad herself, and made me wish all female Kdrama characters were like this, not useless, perfectly kickass and perfectly capable of taking care of themselves (unless for the much needed skinship scenes).

Much needed skinship. LOLs!

I really loved the majority of the characters, besides the two main leads, I enjoyed all the children actors. A must need for pitiful situations in which the City Hunter must step in and employ justice! Other honorable mentions... Goo Hara! Yes. I am just biased. Yes. It was basically nice just seeing her face. But I did actually enjoy her little cute innocent love sick girl act, although her part was very confined and small it was nice nonetheless. Just cause of my woman crush on her. And who can forget the Shik Joong ajusshi! Another very enjoyable character, with his comic relief and constant TV shopping.

What made this drama amazing were not only the charismatic characters, the plot line, the amazing action scenes, but the fact that although this was a revenge plot drama, it wasn't overly weepy all the time and people didn't die left and right for funsies. So when people actually did die in the drama it did make me cry a bit. [SPOILER] Kim Young Joo [/End Spoiler] Holy crap. I found him to be an annoying character early on, too much of a do-gooder, tree-hugger, uptight, upright, workaholic character. But when he died I realized I didn't hate him so much and felt genuinely sad at the moment the bat contacted his head. It was a tragic moment.

I do feel that the humor however, could have been more humorous. Apart from Shik Joong being hilarious and the main couple humor all the other humor was lost on me. Goo Hara, Shin Eun Ah, Go Ki Joon LOST ON ME. I didn't find any of them funny at all, I found it rather forced and their characters to be quite awkward.

FINALLY for ratings (Enjoyablity/Quality)

10/8 
If this drama didn't fall apart at the end it would have been definitely the best drama of the year and possibly made it up to one of my top 3 dramas. (Yes, that's how good it is). But as it is it sits at a tentative 4th-6th place on my top drama list! Still! A very strong recommendation from me to watch.



Rei ☆




It amazes me that NO one was able to tell Lee Min Ho was in disguise with just glasses... What the... and the mask. Honestly. He wore the same clothes to work the same day. GOSH GUYS. 

Labels: City Hunter, Review