Wanting to show “the shadow of Gangnam,” director Park Noo-ri takes a gritty and brutal approach to showing the popular party district of South Korea in her new Disney+ series ‘Gangnam B-Side.’ The show is an 8-episode mini-series with 2 episodes released every week for 4 weeks. It’s a crime drama that is centered on a woman, Jae-Hee (Kim Hyeong-Seo), who is on the run from the dark underbelly of Gangnam for what she knows about a series of disappearances in the area. On the case is Kang Dong-woo (Jo Woo Jin), a detective who has no friends in the police force after he exposed corrupt police officers a few years prior but has a personal connection to Jae-Hee, as she happens to be friends with his troubled daughter. Adding more chaos to the mix, Jae-Hee’s pimp, Gil-ho (Ji Chan Wook) is trying to protect her by coming after the man who has ordered for her to be found. Rounding up the players is a new young prosecutor (Ha Younkyoung), who appears to be swayed by the politics of corruption in the justice system and Noh Joon-Seo (Jung Ga-Ram), a drug-addicted idol who is connected with the underworld and is after Jae-Hee.
In the first two episodes, Park Noo-ri takes her time to establish the harsh world of secret clubs, heavy drug use, and prostitution. She takes time to deglamorize the party scene of South Korea and is adept at giving us the decadence and brutality of this world. As the show is made and exhibited in Disney+, it’s not afraid to get very violent and very risque, with very overt displays of drug use and heavy implications of sex.
In fact, the more familiar members of the cast – Ji Chan Wook, Ha Younkyoung, and Jung Ga-Ram – take radical transformations to play outside of their type. Ji Chan Wook is menacing as the outlandish street enforcer, Gil-ho. He smokes, he wears fur coats and makes use of his physicality to do some hard-hitting action scenes as he ruthlessly beats up anybody who gets in his way. The usually bubbly and cheerful Ha Younkyoung is the guarded prosecutor with a stern and no non-sense aura. Jung Ga-Ram, on the other hand, is menacing as an idol who may or may not be sober in most of his character’s scenes. This alone brings a lot of excitement to the show as we are watching some of K-Dramas most reliable performers do something outside their wheelhouse.
A lot of K-Dramas in this genre shows us the corruption amongst cops, so this is nothing new. From the way the first two episodes are presented, it seems that Detective Kang Dong-Woo is prepared to face off against the whole force to protect Jae-Hee and the first two episodes tease that maybe we’ll be seeing him teaming up with Gil-Ho in later episodes, which will be quite interesting to see. After all, they are both strong and competent yet opposites of each other in the law, though they both are men of integrity.
What Jae-Hee knows is yet to be revealed and no one knows she has it on record on her phone except for Noh Joon-Seo. This is a crucial plot point that will keep the show thrilling and suspenseful until next week. The loose cannon here is the prosecutor, Min Seo-Jin. She seems tough and a scene plays out where she’s asked to do as she’s told so she can rise in the ranks fast but she’s not afraid to demand that she insists on being properly compensated. The casting of Ha Younkyoung is perfect here because you expect her to be a good guy, and she might still be, but the fact that you aren’t sure yet by the end of the second episode adds to the thrill.
The first two episodes of ‘Gangnam B-Side’ shows off all the strengths of the series. It’s got a great cast, great action scenes, interesting characters, and a thrilling plot. If it maintains this, it’s going to be a fun 4 weeks.
My Rating:
Gangnam B-Side is now streaming on Disney+! Click here to watch it now.
