Remember Taken? The 2008 film featuring Liam Neeson as the show’s protagonist and Maggie Grace as the titular daughter he’s trying to save from scummy human traffickers? I came to the film late and never saw it in the cinemas. When I finally caught it on video, it was easy to see what the fuss was about. The sequels though fun never quite matched the original. Still Taken has become a perennial favourite and I’m the happy owner of the trilogy on Blu Ray.
Stripping away the European backdrop and adding a more South Korean flavour is Agent Kim Reactivated. So Ji-sub whom I’ve never particularly loved, is playing yet another action hero in a Netflix series after the bloody Mercy For None. He’s a fascinating choice because he’s not a likely candidate to play any kind of tough guy. What sells the character here is his signature bewildered tortured look. Despite his hidden abilities, he is, at his core, a father in a state of panic. The opposition is never his primary consideration — they’re merely hurdles that he has to leap over to get to his ultimate goal. As a single dad who solemnly promised his late wife on bended knee to care for their daughter, Kim takes his vow seriously. Except that once she’s a teenager with teenager problems, he’s helplessly out of his depth.
These days it’s not a Korean drama if there’s no mention of school violence. Daughter Min-ji is being bullied in school and that’s where the trouble starts. It’s the usual story. The chief mischief maker of the mean girls is the overindulged daughter of the thuggish CEO Ju Gang-chan (Joo Sang-wook) who oversees a large construction firm with deep pockets. To her credit Min-ji doesn’t take being targeted lying down and pushes back. This causes a ruckus in school which becomes the precursor to a Taken-style hunt.
The baddies are many in this series. Ju Gang-chan surprise surprise isn’t the only or biggest one. Yes, he’s your typical corrupt businessman found too often in K dramas but there are other agendas at play which may or may not work in his interest. The identity of Kim goes deeper than that of a dutiful conscientious white-collar worker. So deep that it leads to unexpected and unwanted ripples in North-South relations.
The set-up is decent enough but the show takes a while to get going. Through flashbacks as well as dad-daughter interactions, the aim is to establish that single-father Kim tries his best but is ill-equipped to deal with an adolescent offspring with growing pains. Children once they start school grow up at breakneck speed and parenting becomes an entirely different game once they enter high school. Good intentions aren’t enough.
Thematically the show is about dads and their daughters. Or more specifically, it is about 2 dads and 2 daughters. It’s another one of those cautionary tales with not-too-subtle points of comparisons. The message is simple in the extreme: Parents reap destruction when they don’t raise their children rightly.
The show finally kicks into gear when Min-ji is “taken”. I imagine it depends on what you think this show is as to whether you think the plot unfolds in the manner that the set-up seems to suggest. It is unquestionably about a dad saving his daughter. It is also about a dad with a past that catches up to him. There’s also an undeniable political dimension that is established from the beginning. Like it or not, a former North Korean operative taking matters into his own hands even to save his daughter is crossing the line into forbidden territory.
The best thing about this drama is the way the antagonists are featured and the turn-taking that is allocated. There are plenty of them and how the plotting weaves them into the narrative elevates the material somewhat. Without the rogue’s gallery the father-daughter storyline can’t hope to go the distance. While antagonists serve as obstacles, they also firm up the parent-child bond that’s been weakening due to largely a lack of communication. Kim seems like the Everyman on the surface but it’s a role he plays willingly because he deems it the best course of action as a dad. But the Agent Kim persona is reactivated when the office worker identity reaches its limits and outlives its usefulness. The goal is the same: Being the best possible father that he can be with the skills he’s kept hidden is the motivation for what comes after.
On some level it’s laughable that Min-ji gets shifted around like a game of passing the parcel. So laugh we must. It is ridiculous that she’s assumed dead but then no one thinks to check properly. On top of that, she somehow manages to survive the ill-treatment as she’s carted from one location to another. It’s almost farcical. Then there’s the reliable albeit goofy sidekicks Seong Han-su (Choi Dae-hoon) and Park Jin-cheol (Yoon Kyung-ho) to bring some levity to a sombre scenario.
The action sequences are good. Humorous even. When Agent Kim is unleashed, bones break and there’s some blood-letting. The types that go after him don’t hold back even when he does. Ju Gang-chan has plenty of money to send minions after him but there’s something satisfying to see his best laid plans get thwarted at every turn. I still have to do a double-take every time Joo Sang-wook makes his appearance. Seeing him as a villain does take a bit of getting used to even if he had a bit of a trial run pretending to be one in Special Affairs Team TEN all those years ago.
Agent Kim Reactivated won’t be everyone’s cup of tea primarily because of the violence. Still it’s not entirely mindless violence either. The lengths that the characters will go to get what they want is also on display here. The stakes are undoubtedly high. Moreover the pacing at the start is certainly not consistent as the show feels the need to back fill all the details of their lives. It’s not always clear if all of it is necessary to the plot and might end up muddying the waters for viewer expectations.
All in all, it’s a good watch and if you don’t mind seeing bad people get their comeuppance in painful but effective ways, it’s not a bad way to while away several hours of your time in some escapist fare.
If you found this helpful please like, leave a comment or share it in your part of the interwebs.