Drama Digest
What happens when an elite and an upright cop gets caught up in his beloved wife’s murder accusations? This situation coupled with the fact that now our cop, Kang Ki Beom is now blind as the assailants of his wife’s murder have disenfranchised him by gorging his eyes out. At the short end of the receiving stick, Beom is approached by a group that uses biotechnology in order to restore his eyesight. With his eyesight back and health fully restored, Beom now vows to avenge his wife’s death by going after the ‘Argos’ ‘Argos’ is the crime syndicate that murdered his wife and has the police under its thumb, united with a group of people whose lives too have been destroyed by this devious syndicate, Beom and his teammates – The Rugal Team go out to avenge the destruction Argos brought forth in their life.
The Feel-Good Part
This is a sci-fi movie with a refreshing premise of using biotechnology and creating a group of Sci=Fi heroes out to avenge their loved ones and or personal reasons. The Rugal Team is brought forth by the NIS. Every person on the team has a shocking and gruesome past which the Argos is responsible for. We have Beom with his wife’s murder, and the leader of the Rugal team- formerly a henchman for the Argos is now looking to avenge his sister’s death. The backstories of each member are extremely gruesome and for the plot that incorporates Sci-Fi, this movie moves incredibly fast throughout and displays amazing action sequences. The characters are amazingly portrayed through powerful, choreographed action scenes. Park Seung Woo as the bad guy was captivating and menacing in his portrayal of the character.
The Disappointing Factor
The plot is very refreshing with amazing actors who pull off their roles to a T. However, it does tend to become very cliché. It’s formulaic in the way it goes around tackling the issues of greed, power, and crime in its plot. This makes this drama very low on the rewatchable index. Storylines at some point struggle to make sense and some characters do act in an extremely inane way despite being of high caliber. The drama however did well since this was adapted from a webtoon by the same name. the makers developed the plot on through action, did not do much work on the characters development or moving the plot through any other means. It’s a drama that you can watch to simply appreciate the action scenes as its plot is sometimes too difficult to follow through or quite senseless
In-Depth Analysis
We see an eclectic mix of individuals chosen together as a group to bring down the Argos. The plot is driven through heavy action and the main character after a second look comes off as boring. This could be the effect of Seung Woo playing the role of the bad guy, who enraptures the audience with how merciless he is. His actions as despicable as they are is what make him such an interesting character. Rugal does give the same vibes as ‘Daredevil’ in the way it goes about at the beginning with the blindness of our main character. But this quickly takes a turn as the NIS turns Beom into a walking killing machine. Also, it is important to point out how the authorities thought he attacked his wife and then gouged his own eyes out. This is probably why the fans lament over the storylines being too nonsensical to sit through.
Star Power
Choi Jin-hyuk played the role of Ki Beom debuted in the Korean film industry in the year 2010. He played a supporting role in the drama ‘Heirs’. Park Seung Woo has acted in the drama ‘Snowdrop’, which was also debut drama for Blackpink’s Jisoo. Amongst these there were other cast members like, Jung Hye In, Han Ji Wan, Kim Min Sang, Jo Dong Hyuk, Park Sun Ho.
Overall Opinion
Kdrama has lost a lot of fans in the sci-fi genre as the quality of dramas in this genre is a let down for the most part. But this adaption of the webtoon left some fans speechless with the quality production and action-driven plot. Most of the actors cast in their roles did a pretty good job of their roles. This drama is for people who enjoy action and powerful fights in a drama. It is devoid of romance so if you want to go in expecting that, it’s going to be a letdown. The background music was okayish, overall, the rewatch value is quite low for this series so if you are an action movie junkie go for it.
