City Hunter

One of the high rating TV series in South Korea dubbed in Filipino is currently airing over at ABS CBN.  City Hunter stars the very popular 이민호 ( Lee Min Ho) from the successful Korean version of Japanese manga Boys Over Flower and 박민영 (Park Minyeong) of Sungkyunkwan Scandal.

I have finished watching this drama through an online community that subs Korean dramas.  I love watching Korean dramas. Typically the production set speaks of the quality of the drama.   Judging from the location shoot and the the effects used, it is no doubt that this drama is bragged as one of the most expensive series last year.

A lot of dramas in aired in South Korea and even in Taiwan are either lifted or inspired by Japanese manga (cartoon comics) and City Hunter is no exception.  For the series in Korea, the plot was given a little twist by including events that South Korean audience can relate like the bombing that happened when the South Korean President and his delegates visited Burma, there is really a similar event that happened in the past.  While the manga had a detective playing the City Hunter role, in this series, the City Hunter is more like a vigilante who turns over criminals to the city prosecutor. 

If you read on the history of South Korea they fought poverty with much passion.  They are also guarding their democracy and is in constant fight against graft and corruption.  The story  revolved around the problem in corruption tucked in what we call 'public service' in a democratic government, something that the City Hunter is avenging on.  With this, City Hunter allowed its story to unravel not just as a love story but also something that has social relevance.  A sidelight of relationship realities on trust, loyalty, compassion and love within family and friends are also present.   

What interest me most during the entire series are the showcase of the advancement of South Korea.  From locations, technology, cars, architecture and infrastructure. The locations and interiors of the City Hunter (Lee Yoon Sung played by Lee Min ho) and his father Steve Lee's house are just amazing. The pictures below show show Lee Yoon Sung's living room and his father's office-house.

Although this is of course a fiction, the series also showed how advanced the communications is in South Korea.  In several scenes Olleh, the new lifestyle application born with the merger of KT and KTF telcos in South Korean, has been shown as customer partner with their information need.  Talking about coverage and speed of data, i think the data speed in South Korea is faster.  Last year, it was surprising for me to see commercials of telcos highlighting the difference that LTE brings in your data connection needs. Not to mention how almost everything can be ordered over the phone or online.

I have also noticed that rather than using foreign high end cars (which actually is a status symbol in South Korea if you own one) they have used some of their latest cars from Hyundai and Kia. 

Lastly, what interests most of the viewers (and I am not really an exception to this) is the presence of Lee Min Ho as the City Hunter.  How can a city hunter be as fashionable as he is:

From hairstyle, shoes, jackets and pants, the combination and colors can only be pulled off by someone like  Lee Min Ho.  He just turned face mask into a piece of fashion accessory.

Overall, i think the City Hunter is a good watch.  It definitely will give you some sort of adrenalin rush in most episodes.   I really like the way they have neatly showcased some of the Korea's bests in the story.  This surely will keep the hallyu effect (Korean wave).   I am no movie or drama expert but I typically like feel good stories. Though the ending is a bit hanging, City Hunter kept me glued on my laptop screen from start to finish.