mikchan
Italy
This review may contain spoilers
An Italian point of view
As an Italian, I was curious to see this drama, and also a bit afraid because of the delicate topic they've chosen.
It's not easy to write a story involving Mafia without falling into stereotypes and romanticization. It's something that it's almost never discussed outside of our country, and not many people who talk about Mafia have a real idea of what they are. They aren't the cool and sexy boss who kill just for the pleasure to kill, and that justifies their actions for the sake of "love". They are a plague, a terrific and still existing problem of our country. So many have suffered, especially in the years from the '60 to the '80, but even now in different forms. It's not something to laugh at, something to think as "cool". It's evil and cruel, and I really hope whoever has started this drama had this point really clear.
Now, what about Vincenzo?
The plot itself wasn't that complicated, it's the typical law/criminal kdrama, with our evil guys who kill and don't really care about human life or morals, and we have our heroes, who on the contraries want to bring justice. But here we have someone in the middle. Vincenzo Cassano is "the evil", as he represents himself, but he also works against the even worse evil of the drama, and his purposes are driven by the need to bring justice where the justice system lacks.
The story was nice, a bit slow, and boring in the middle (the whole search for the gold plotline was honestly so annoying!), but it was interesting enough to keep me watching.
Vincenzo's character was generally well written and, despite my worries, he wasn't the romanticized hero of this kind of narrative. I liked how from the beginning he never showed himself as the good guy, he knew who he was, he knew what he did, and what he was planning to do was morally wrong, but in his perspective, it was the only way to bring peace. He was human enough to feel some remorse for his actions, but he was willing to live with those feelings.
In the end, he wasn't really different from the bad big guys and it honestly looked a bit unrealistic how he never suffered from the consequences of his actions. This was the only sign that he was indeed the "good guy" for the drama and for the audience, which was something I didn't really like. Somehow it was strange to see how the people around him worshipped him and his actions... I mean, he helped them a lot, but he was still ruthless and cold-blooded and yet they never criticized him for this.
Also, there were some things that didn't sit well with me. Not particularly with his character, but with the whole Mafia topic. Somehow, especially from the halfway point of the drama, Vincenzo and Hong Cha Young's actions seemed justified just because their enemies were doing something even more wrong and evil. They used some Mafia modus operandi (like the pig blo*d, or even the ending for Myung Hee) as a way to fight their enemies, but they were shown almost like a joke, with funny music in the background and their smiling and satisfied reactions. To be honest, those scenes made me a bit uncomfortable, because it wasn't funny to think about the people who had suffered in the reality.
As for the rest of the characters, they were okay, but nothing remarkable. The big bad guy was the usual big bad guy, crazy, without morals or rules. At least he was handsome.
I really liked Jang Hanseo's character, though. I liked his struggle between the need to stay alive and the desire to be genuinely appreciated by his brother.
And for the Cassano family gang... well they were just the usual comic relief to make the drama less dark and heavy. Funny the first two episodes, then they became overrated. And they were too many, they took so much screen time that could be used to show better the main characters instead of the stupid hunt for the gold (yes, again, I didn't like that part, sorry lol).
The acting.
As always, this part doesn't disappoint. I really appreciated Joongki, more than usual. He worked so hard in learning his parts in Italian and he was also pretty good. I feel sad for those who don't understand the language and have missed all the poetic shadows of his swear words. They were beautiful and perfectly Italian!
Also big shootout to Taekyeon, he's always so expressive when he acts and I really enjoyed his representation.
What else to say?
It wasn't a bad drama, I actually enjoyed it, but I think they could have done better work with the whole Mafia topic. I know I must sound boring, but it's really important. And while they haven't fallen into ugly stereotypes, they still didn't show the reality. The Mafia isn't the "best alternative" to fight the bad enemy, and I wished they hadn't slipped on this part.
I'll probably never rewatch this, though.
It's not easy to write a story involving Mafia without falling into stereotypes and romanticization. It's something that it's almost never discussed outside of our country, and not many people who talk about Mafia have a real idea of what they are. They aren't the cool and sexy boss who kill just for the pleasure to kill, and that justifies their actions for the sake of "love". They are a plague, a terrific and still existing problem of our country. So many have suffered, especially in the years from the '60 to the '80, but even now in different forms. It's not something to laugh at, something to think as "cool". It's evil and cruel, and I really hope whoever has started this drama had this point really clear.
Now, what about Vincenzo?
The plot itself wasn't that complicated, it's the typical law/criminal kdrama, with our evil guys who kill and don't really care about human life or morals, and we have our heroes, who on the contraries want to bring justice. But here we have someone in the middle. Vincenzo Cassano is "the evil", as he represents himself, but he also works against the even worse evil of the drama, and his purposes are driven by the need to bring justice where the justice system lacks.
The story was nice, a bit slow, and boring in the middle (the whole search for the gold plotline was honestly so annoying!), but it was interesting enough to keep me watching.
Vincenzo's character was generally well written and, despite my worries, he wasn't the romanticized hero of this kind of narrative. I liked how from the beginning he never showed himself as the good guy, he knew who he was, he knew what he did, and what he was planning to do was morally wrong, but in his perspective, it was the only way to bring peace. He was human enough to feel some remorse for his actions, but he was willing to live with those feelings.
In the end, he wasn't really different from the bad big guys and it honestly looked a bit unrealistic how he never suffered from the consequences of his actions. This was the only sign that he was indeed the "good guy" for the drama and for the audience, which was something I didn't really like. Somehow it was strange to see how the people around him worshipped him and his actions... I mean, he helped them a lot, but he was still ruthless and cold-blooded and yet they never criticized him for this.
Also, there were some things that didn't sit well with me. Not particularly with his character, but with the whole Mafia topic. Somehow, especially from the halfway point of the drama, Vincenzo and Hong Cha Young's actions seemed justified just because their enemies were doing something even more wrong and evil. They used some Mafia modus operandi (like the pig blo*d, or even the ending for Myung Hee) as a way to fight their enemies, but they were shown almost like a joke, with funny music in the background and their smiling and satisfied reactions. To be honest, those scenes made me a bit uncomfortable, because it wasn't funny to think about the people who had suffered in the reality.
As for the rest of the characters, they were okay, but nothing remarkable. The big bad guy was the usual big bad guy, crazy, without morals or rules. At least he was handsome.
I really liked Jang Hanseo's character, though. I liked his struggle between the need to stay alive and the desire to be genuinely appreciated by his brother.
And for the Cassano family gang... well they were just the usual comic relief to make the drama less dark and heavy. Funny the first two episodes, then they became overrated. And they were too many, they took so much screen time that could be used to show better the main characters instead of the stupid hunt for the gold (yes, again, I didn't like that part, sorry lol).
The acting.
As always, this part doesn't disappoint. I really appreciated Joongki, more than usual. He worked so hard in learning his parts in Italian and he was also pretty good. I feel sad for those who don't understand the language and have missed all the poetic shadows of his swear words. They were beautiful and perfectly Italian!
Also big shootout to Taekyeon, he's always so expressive when he acts and I really enjoyed his representation.
What else to say?
It wasn't a bad drama, I actually enjoyed it, but I think they could have done better work with the whole Mafia topic. I know I must sound boring, but it's really important. And while they haven't fallen into ugly stereotypes, they still didn't show the reality. The Mafia isn't the "best alternative" to fight the bad enemy, and I wished they hadn't slipped on this part.
I'll probably never rewatch this, though.
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