Intro
Bloodhounds, which takes place at the height of the epidemic, examines the dynamics of South Korea’s private loan industry and how it grew in response to the world’s financial problems. The loan sharks moved in to take advantage of the growing unemployment rate by offering rapid loans without collateral. The title of the show is derived from the word for these loan sharks’ goons, whose sole responsibility is to guarantee payback, even if it involves using brutal force.
Plot
Rising professional boxer Kim Gun-woo (Woo Do-hwan) discovers that his mother is one of many individuals who obtained a large loan and were duped into paying large fees. After the loan shark’s goons damage her café because she won’t pay back the money, Gun-woo decides to call it quits on this particular chapter. He is hired by President Choi (Huh Joon-ho), one of the most charitable moneylenders in the district, to serve as his bodyguard and sort of bloodhound. He is joined by Hong Woo-jin (Lee Sang-yi), another professional fighter. Gun-woo soon uses the job he got to pay off his mother’s debt as a way to find the people who injured her. Kim Sae-ron, President Choi’s adopted granddaughter, is spearheading a clandestine effort to apprehend habitual debtors who use identity documents pilfered from the homeless in order to borrow money from several lenders. When the two ex-Marines who are now boxers team up with her to pursue these con artists, they find they have connected with a larger prey: Kim Myeong-gil (Park Sung-woong), the same loan shark who tricked Gun-woo’s mother.
A gripping game of cat and mouse unfolds over the course of eight episodes as Gun-woo rapidly becomes knowledgeable about the nuances of the private money-lending industry.
The first three episodes of the show take a long time to pick up steam. This period is devoted to setting up the personalities and the intricate business they are going to navigate. After it calms down, it completely delves into the thrilling action genre that the viewer was assured would be present. The drama has a lot of action-packed and thrilling narrative progressions, including several high-speed vehicle chases on South Korean roads, lengthy and expertly choreographed combat scenes, and multiple heists (including one from a bookstore).Even though its major defeats are predicted, it nonetheless has a powerful emotional impact.
The show’s overarching thematic framework and characterization are lacking. Much of the show’s humorous, emotional moments revolve around the relationship between Gun-woo and Woo-jin, who hit it off right away because of their shared history as Marines and later boxers. Though comedy breaks up what is otherwise meant to be a sombre crime thriller, the show lacks a more complex narrative because of its moral minimization of its darker elements. Early on, it is abundantly evident that the majority of the loan sharks spinning through the Korean economy are bad, with only a small number of excellent loan sharks offering zero-interest loans. Bloodhounds chooses a black-and-white style, which permeates its characteristics as well, where the protagonists and antagonists function on a one-note identity, in order to avoid any larger story on informal money lending. In addition to the obviously strange decision to replace over half of the main cast, the script suffers from an over-reliance on exposition.
BloodHounds
Director-Kim Joo-hwan
Cast-Woo Do-hwan, Lee Sang-yi, Park Sung-woong, Huh Joon-ho, Kim Sae-ron, and others
Episodes-8
Storyline-Together, two former Marines who are now professional boxers aim to destroy the growing, exploitative unofficial money lending industry.
Rating- 3.5 out of 5
Final Thoughts
Although the drama has been greatly shortened, I still believe that the writing could have been done better. Although I thought the boxing components were fantastic when they first arrived. Like you, I sometimes wish I could just decide to travel to Rome at random, but it seems like she never happens.
Then, because of this, the show’s final storyline actually doesn’t make sense, and they bring back Si-won—who, at the time, we last saw being tortured and assumed to be dead—to have his farewell laugh. Overall, I didn’t think it was the best show, but I did think it had a lot of potential.
By the time we reach episode six, we also lose the great majority of the people, so we pretty much need a new crew for this final journey. It might have used more time to develop the tale and narratives.