The K2

Once upon a time there was a king married to a witch that kept his daughter locked up. Until an armed wolf arrived and turned the story upside down.

Name: 더 케이투 | The K2

Country: South Korea

Year: 2016

Status: Completed

Episodes: 16

Duration: 60 minutes

Genre: Action, Drama, Politics

Synopsis:

Kim Je Ha is a former soldier, also known as ‘K2’, who is hired as a bodyguard by Choi Yoo Jin. Being the wife of the main candidate to the presidency, Jang Se Joon, Yoo Jin does everything in her power to hide Go Anna, her husband’s illegitimate daughter. However, everyone’s life will be overturned when K2 is assigned to watch over Anna.

Review

Suggested by my cousin, I started watching this drama. Barely did I know that I would completely fall in love with the character Kim Je Ha, and become a fan of the actor that portrays him.

The K2 is a korean drama with a complex plot, full of twists and that leads us to the world of politics. World for which we are not prepared, with all the deception and stratagems employed in order to win.

Ji Chang Wook is the actor that plays Kim Je Ha, a former soldier mercenary known as ‘K2’. Even though at the beginning we understand that he is running away from something, we only discover what it is about and fully comprehend his reasons and persistence in demonstrating coldness. However, K2 is a warming, intelligent and determined character. In Barcelona, Spain, his path crosses with Go Anna (Im Yoon Ah) when she is running away from her captors. At that time, despite her cry for help, K2 chooses not to get involved. Nevertheless, their fates cross again when the protagonist returns to his country, South Korea. K2 is hired as Anna’s bodyguard, by Choi Yoo Jin (Song Yoon Ah), an ambitious and ruthless woman that hides behind the role of perfect wife Jang Se Joon (Jo Sung Ha), candidate to the presidency.

We soon get a glimpse at the spider web that involves Go Anna, Jang Se Joon and Choi Yoo Jin. However, this web thickens as other stories come along, namely K2’s past, the race for the presidency and the control over the companies belonging to Choi Yoo Jin’s family, among others.

In the same way that in real life we are not exclusively good or bad, in this narrative the same thing is applied. It’s impossible to just label Yoo Jin as the villain. In fact, as the story progresses, we get to see Song Yoon Ah’s character as someone with feelings and we even empathize a bit with her. I didn’t knew the actress but I really liked her performance.

Another character that evolves throughout the plt is Go Anna. From a fragile girl, she ends up revealing herself to be a strong woman. I really enjoyed watching that small evolution, showcasing that we do not have to be victims our entire life. Yet, her participation is not as strong as the rest of the characters, which I found to be a pity.

As for the graphical direction, The K2 has good plans, good photography and even excellent special effects. One of my favorite parts was the fights. The bathhouse scene will always be imprinted in my mind.

Another aspect that I liked was the way that they chose to shoot Go Anna’s panic attacks, showcasing a part of how people feel in those moments.

Regarding the soundtrack, korean dramas have the tendency to have good songs and this one is not an exception. The OST of The K2 gives us a lot of instrumental music with a mix of lyrical and sacral music. Absolutely fenomenal! That is another reason that makes the drama so interesting, for the music accompanies every important moment that is told throughout the story.

When I realized that there were a few episodes left until the end, I started to get stressed for there were still a lot of things left to be resolved, but the truth is that when we finnish the last episode, we feel satisfied. Although the last episodes are breathtaking (as well as the rest of the drama), everything ends up being worked out and explained.

Whisper of the Heart

Several subjects are tackled in The K2, and a big portion of them are approached subtly. The world of politics and the schemes used to win the several stages of an election is one of the main themes. This made me think about how much sinister that world is, far more than we can imagine, and that people are not always what they seem to be, as we end up finding out with the couple Choi Yoo Jin and Jang Se Joon. But that is a subject I will approach further down.

“A bullet is not the only thing that can kill a person, did you know that?” (Choi Yoo Jin, The K2)

Another subject is the easiness in which a person can be framed, as well as the amount of soldiers that are betrayed by their own country after fighting for it and having faced difficult times, and the ones we are completely oblivious about until, in the majority of the cases, we find out through a scandal. All of this is surfaced through the protagonist’s story, which is slowly revealed during the drama.

K2’s story also leads us to another issue: the Middle East as the stage for illicit businesses and the consequences that come about for everyone, voluntary or involuntary involved.

And then we have Go Anna, that gets us thinking about how children’s memories can affect the adult life. The fragility of children and the importance of childhood is talked about. It’s true that children deserve protection, in any part of the world, but they can be stronger than we can imagine. And childhood is an important time in the life of a human being, it’s when we learn crucial lessons that help us become good adults. However, it's also when traumas occur, and if they aren’t worked through, they end up tormenting the mind of that person for the rest of her life. Go Anna reveals herself to be a fragile character on the outside, but strong on the inside, that, sadly, becomes an object that it’s thrown from one place to the other throughout the plot. Still, her trauma is approached several times in the story, making us think about the web that has her wrapped up.

And in that web is the couple Choi Yoo Jin and Jang Se Joon, that present themselves as the perfect pair. Although, we quickly discover that that is far from the truth. As I have referred before, Choi Yoo Jin is represented as the story’s villain, but this character has a lot more to offer than that, since we get to know a bit more of her past, we can’t help but feel empathy towards her. And the same thing happens with Jang Se Joon, who is seen as the villain’s ‘poor’ husband, but that ends up becoming a much more complex character than that.

This couple made me think about the amount of times we judge people in a specific way, yet we don’t have any idea of their story or their essence.

To sum it up, The K2 is not only a drama about politics and family issues, It's a narrative that talks about pain and especially about the ability of feeling someone else’s pain as if it was our own. And we are not always capable of doing that, or are we?

“Because you are so sensitive to your own pain, while the pain of others means nothing to you. But you know, other people suffer too, just like you do.” (Kim Je Ha, The K2)

I chose this drama for the topic “A Drama with your favorite OST” for the Ecletic Heart 30 Post Challenge, since, as I have mentioned before, this drama’s OST is phenomenal.

Rating - 🟉🟉🟉🟉🟉🟉🟉🟉🟉🟉 (10)