Three Days is a16 episode KTV drama from early 2014. It's a show that's all action/political espionage/suspense virtually all the time. It's bereft of any humor or playfulness, and it's extremely sparse on the romance & love interests (i.e. there is basically none); there's simply very little time for that stuff, as the top priority here is for bad guys and good guys to continually face off until only one group is left standing. As such, this is probably not a show that most typical K-drama female viewers would likely gravitate to for obvious reasons.
SPOILERS AHEAD!
Story: Someone is trying to assassinate the President of Korea, but why?...(SPOILERS) As it turns out, the President worked for an arms manufacturer in his youth before transitioning into politics. In the past, the future President and several other now politically important and/or rich powerful people had concocted a plan that would make them a lot of money through arms dealing. This plan went awry and everybody involved subsequently covered it up. The President now wants to come clean years later and make amends for his past actions, while everyone else involved (i.e the Bad Guys) wants to keep it a secret, so the President must be silenced no matter what.
Standing in the way of the Bad Guys are the President's Secret Service agents and a few aides & confidants. The Bad Guys, in turn, have an endless amount of henchman, firepower, wealth, informants, tech, political clout, and double agents at their disposal. It becomes increasingly apparent to the President that he can trust almost no one except one Secret Service agent (who is the primary male lead), along with his small town cop sidekick (who's the primary female lead), that saved his ass during an initial assassination attempt.
You figure the trusty Secret Service agent & small town cop are going to be the focal point of this show, and they sort of are; they are played by Park Yoo Chun and Park Ha Sun respectively, and they both do a fine job. This is somewhat of an ensemble piece however; one that sees loads of other characters sharing the limelight, chipping in, and/or playing important roles throughout. The two most prominent of these roles belong to the President himself (played by Son Hyun Joo), and his primary Bad Guy adversary (played by Choi Won Young), and the two of them turn in some impressive K-drama performances as they have a battle of wits and wills to see who will come out on top. They each have their opposing demeanors and styles; Son Hyun Joo generally portrays a very measured and wise & weary older man who's resolve to now do what's right is unwavering, and, Won Young makes for an excellent opponent as his former protégé who has long since devolved into psychopathic lunatic bent on crushing anyone who gets in his way. These two rarely appear on screen together, but their individual actions and reactions to one another are THE highlight of this show.
The storytelling approach is basically as follows: offer up some back story and follow it with an intrigue/suspense scene, action scene, character introspection scene, and an occasional downtime scene. Then, repeat this same formula until the story is resolved. Won Young, and his army of cronies, spies, and foot soldiers continually try to either off or destroy the President, the secret service and the other good guys try to stop them and, and a WHOLE LOT of people die along the way before the show reaches its conclusion.
This show is action packed on numerous occasions, and the action is above average for a KTV show, but it's not anywhere near current Korean movie quality, due to time and budget constraints. Overall, the productions values are more than acceptable. There are some occasional pacing issues, but they aren't glaringly painful. Direction and writing are fairly solid as well (again, from the prospective of this being a K-drama), and both of these departments do effectively bring this show to its eventual climax (which is awesome).
This show could have used some additional trimming (and by that I mean it probably would have been better served as a 12 episode block or thereabouts), but, I say that about virtually every Korean TV drama I watch. There is a lot to like about this show though for what it is; there were several fine performances by some established older actors in their supporting roles, it avoids any silliness that doesn't really belong in a drama of this nature, and (most importantly) the story is fairly tight and efficient. There's also a good deal of melodrama involved (which is a hallmark of these types of shows), the limited implementation of the awkward budding romance between the 2 younger leads is quite sensible in regards to the overall scheme of things, and the Chaebol connection/honor & justice/foreign involvement/etc angles are as equally effective as they are predictable.
Summary: It takes a while for the viewer to really get invested in this show, and I didn't really like it all that much at first. It's certainly not w/o some occasional problems here and there. But, it is quite good overall for an action/suspense K-drama when all is said and done. If you like this genre, stick with it, and you will be rewarded with a right fine KTV show in the end.
Bottom Line: 7.5-8 out of 10 stars. A well recommended K-drama once it hits its stride, but bear in mind that it's mainly geared towards dudes!
SPOILERS AHEAD!
Story: Someone is trying to assassinate the President of Korea, but why?...(SPOILERS) As it turns out, the President worked for an arms manufacturer in his youth before transitioning into politics. In the past, the future President and several other now politically important and/or rich powerful people had concocted a plan that would make them a lot of money through arms dealing. This plan went awry and everybody involved subsequently covered it up. The President now wants to come clean years later and make amends for his past actions, while everyone else involved (i.e the Bad Guys) wants to keep it a secret, so the President must be silenced no matter what.
Standing in the way of the Bad Guys are the President's Secret Service agents and a few aides & confidants. The Bad Guys, in turn, have an endless amount of henchman, firepower, wealth, informants, tech, political clout, and double agents at their disposal. It becomes increasingly apparent to the President that he can trust almost no one except one Secret Service agent (who is the primary male lead), along with his small town cop sidekick (who's the primary female lead), that saved his ass during an initial assassination attempt.
You figure the trusty Secret Service agent & small town cop are going to be the focal point of this show, and they sort of are; they are played by Park Yoo Chun and Park Ha Sun respectively, and they both do a fine job. This is somewhat of an ensemble piece however; one that sees loads of other characters sharing the limelight, chipping in, and/or playing important roles throughout. The two most prominent of these roles belong to the President himself (played by Son Hyun Joo), and his primary Bad Guy adversary (played by Choi Won Young), and the two of them turn in some impressive K-drama performances as they have a battle of wits and wills to see who will come out on top. They each have their opposing demeanors and styles; Son Hyun Joo generally portrays a very measured and wise & weary older man who's resolve to now do what's right is unwavering, and, Won Young makes for an excellent opponent as his former protégé who has long since devolved into psychopathic lunatic bent on crushing anyone who gets in his way. These two rarely appear on screen together, but their individual actions and reactions to one another are THE highlight of this show.
The storytelling approach is basically as follows: offer up some back story and follow it with an intrigue/suspense scene, action scene, character introspection scene, and an occasional downtime scene. Then, repeat this same formula until the story is resolved. Won Young, and his army of cronies, spies, and foot soldiers continually try to either off or destroy the President, the secret service and the other good guys try to stop them and, and a WHOLE LOT of people die along the way before the show reaches its conclusion.
This show is action packed on numerous occasions, and the action is above average for a KTV show, but it's not anywhere near current Korean movie quality, due to time and budget constraints. Overall, the productions values are more than acceptable. There are some occasional pacing issues, but they aren't glaringly painful. Direction and writing are fairly solid as well (again, from the prospective of this being a K-drama), and both of these departments do effectively bring this show to its eventual climax (which is awesome).
This show could have used some additional trimming (and by that I mean it probably would have been better served as a 12 episode block or thereabouts), but, I say that about virtually every Korean TV drama I watch. There is a lot to like about this show though for what it is; there were several fine performances by some established older actors in their supporting roles, it avoids any silliness that doesn't really belong in a drama of this nature, and (most importantly) the story is fairly tight and efficient. There's also a good deal of melodrama involved (which is a hallmark of these types of shows), the limited implementation of the awkward budding romance between the 2 younger leads is quite sensible in regards to the overall scheme of things, and the Chaebol connection/honor & justice/foreign involvement/etc angles are as equally effective as they are predictable.
Summary: It takes a while for the viewer to really get invested in this show, and I didn't really like it all that much at first. It's certainly not w/o some occasional problems here and there. But, it is quite good overall for an action/suspense K-drama when all is said and done. If you like this genre, stick with it, and you will be rewarded with a right fine KTV show in the end.
Bottom Line: 7.5-8 out of 10 stars. A well recommended K-drama once it hits its stride, but bear in mind that it's mainly geared towards dudes!
