It was nice to be reunited with our favorites - Park Seo Joon (a Noona lister) and Han So Hee - in the second installment of their show, Gyeongseong Creature. We enjoyed the first season and we were quite confident that we'll love the second one too. And we were right.
Plot
Gyeongseong Creature 2 takes off several decades after the first one ended. We see present-day versions of our main leads. Yoon Chae Ok (Han So Hee) is now a private investigator taking on projects to find missing persons. She's remained the same. Has not aged at all. And is now equipped with extraordinary powers, thanks to the najin her mom gave her that enabled her to survive what was supposed to be her fatal ending in season 1.
In one of her missions, Chae Ok comes across a guy who looked exactly like Jang Tae Sang (Park Seo Joon). However, the guy does not seem to recognize her. The guy turns out to be Jang Ho Jae, a private investigator himself. But we learn much later that he is actually Tae Sang who was also injected with the najin in the end of season 1 but was recently operated on to have the najin removed. As a result, he lost his special powers and his memory too.
Ho Jae and Chae Ok are forced to work together as they both become suspects in the death of a missing person, a bodyguard at Jeonseung Biotech. The story takes us through how Chae Ok and Tae Sang find their way back into each other's lives, while battling the same but more evil demons they fought together some 70 plus years ago.
Han So Hee as Yoon Chae Ok
I've probably said this before but I'll say it again. The really lovely thing about Han So Hee is how she seems to always choose the right projects, without sacrificing the need for variety. We've seen her in Soundtrack 1, My Name, Nevertheless, and World of the Married. So yep, we've seen her sweet, feisty, sultry, etc. And yet she still manages to surprise us. And we love her each time.
Gyeongseong Creature 2 is no exception. I totally felt her pain and confusion when she met Ho Jae - someone she's been longing for yet he could not recognize her and when she realized that Ho Jae was a victim too and she had to endure seeing him transform right before her eyes.
Han So Hee also delivered in her fight scenes. Chae Ok's confrontations with Kuroko (Lee Moo Saeng of The Glory, Cleaning Up, Thirty-Nine, The Silent Sea, World of the Married, One Spring Night, Something in the Rain, and Prison Playbook) were filled with so much tension that you'll be scared that they'll come after you.
I'm sure I've asked this before too. Is there anything Han So Hee can't do? I truly can't wait for her next drama.
Park Seo Joon as Jang Ho Jae/Tae Sang
Just like Han So Hee, Park Seo Joon is probably one of the few Korean actors who never fails to impress me regardless of what genre he does. We've seen him in different characters in Youn's Stay, Jinny's Kitchen 1 and 2, Parasite, Record of Youth, Itaewon Class, What's Wrong with Secretary Kim, Fight for My Way, and She Was Pretty. And I loved him in all of those shows.
I enjoyed the more chill vibe of Ho Jae as opposed to the flamboyant Tae Sang. I sort of get why his cousin/friend, Yong Gil (Heo Joon Seok of Miracle: Letters to the President, Extreme Job, and Our Beloved Summer), didn't want Ho Jae to go back to being Tae Sang. He was so much more relaxed. Life was better that way for him.
But I admit that I also longed for Ho Jae to finally recognize Chae Ok. Because it was so agonizing to see him not remember her. And how dramatic it was for him to finally regain his memory as she was fighting the strong urge to feed her najin and she was pushing him away. Ah, I prayed so hard that the power of their love can overcome whatever bad and painful memories they had.
Drama might not be one of Park Seo Joon's strengths but he did a good job here especially in that scene when he found his tortured/dead colleagues in the pawnshop and his painful transformation in front of Mrs. Nawol (Kim Hae Sook of Start Up and Hospital Playlist 1 and 2). (I'm curious. Did he actually hurt her?) And that scene where he met Chae Ok after his transformation, only to see that he actually stabbed her.
As expected, Park Seo Joon was brilliant in his fight scenes. I hope to see him in something less gory though.
The Villains
The new villains in season 2 were brilliant.
Kuroko was scary with his dead, emotionless eyes. You can feel nothing but evil whenever he's around.
Bae Hyun Sung was also a revelation as Seung Jo (Akiko's son from season 1 who was also injected with the najin and was adopted by Lady Maeda (Claudia Kim). We've seen him in Our Blues, Dear M, Hospital Playlist 1 and 2, and What's Wrong with Secretary Kim, where he mostly played light roles as the boy-next-door type. But he totally killed his role here as Seung Jo.
Seung Jo took me for a ride. I wondered if he was good or bad. Of course I fell under the trap of thinking that he was good because he helped Ho Jae and Chae Ok escape. I was thinking he was being loyal to Ho Jae as revenge for what Lady Maeda did to his mom. Although I was also scared that he would betray Ho Jae in his desperation to gain Lady Maeda's approval. And true enough, he ended up betraying Ho Jae. I was quite disappointed that Chae Ok trusted him, despite knowing that he killed a lot of innocent people not too long ago. With how things panned out, I seriously wonder if Seung Jo is actually a more dangerous villain than Kuroko because he is so unpredictable and hard to control.
All I can say is that I'm proud to see how Bae Hyun Sung has evolved and I'm excited to see how far he'll go.
Execution
It was totally brilliant for this show to turn the second season into a modern day version of the first one, with the same and/or similar characters and issues, scenes, and locations that seem to mimic those in the first season.
Just like any show that takes a break before the succeeding parts are released, we had a bit of catching up to do with this one. We watched the first season about a year ago so it took some time before we could match the characters and scenes.
But there was absolutely no dull moment here. It was compelling right from the start. The fight scenes remained badass. There were so many interesting twists and turns that you really had to be on your toes all the time.
Like how Ho Jae had informants everywhere and close ties with just about everyone (cleaners, delivery guys, police, etc.). I wondered how he maintained all of those connections, which dated back from his Master Jang days. And how they were all so overprotective of him. (I don't think I got clarification on how exactly Yong Gil came into the picture. Maeda listens to him but he also cares deeply for Ho Jae.).
Jeonseung Biotech was definitely evil. Who were those non-najin possessing creatures/goons that they kept on sending to attack Ho Jae and Chae Ok? Were they altered humans too?
It was interesting to see how Chae Ok managed to manually resist her urges. She drowned herself in water, yes, but she also seemed to have a medicine for it. But what was it? Were the bad najin-infested people medicated so they can be under control? But it obviously didn't work with Seung Jo.
I liked how the show gradually uncovered the different characteristics of the creatures who had najins in their brains. They possessed extreme strength. They had this strong hunger/thirst for blood. They don't age. They're self healing. Once the najin is removed, they lose their memory and they become vulnerable humans again. But they can be injected with the najin again. Ah, so many things to discover.
Just like in season 1, one of the most heartbreaking scenes were those involving the guinea pigs - whether during or after their transformation into the evil creature or whenever they were used to feed the creature for "experiments."
It was nice to see Master Jang's allies from the past momentarily. It was tragic and gory though because we had to see how they were tortured and killed.
Throughout the rollercoaster ride riddled with a lot of mysteries that the show took me through, I couldn't help but wish that Tae Sang and Chae Ok's love for each other would be strong enough to overcome the evil effects of the najin.
I was pleasantly surprised with how the finale was tough yet also dramatic at the same time.
I totally agree with Jang's choice to save his three friends over Chae Ok. Of course, he had the disadvantage of not knowing that Chae Ok's najin was dormant at that time but just the same, I would have trusted Chae Ok's strength and willpower.
Yes, Kuroko was brilliant in letting Jang go because that way, he was able to get rid of Maeda. I highly doubt though that Kuroko really wanted to help Jang. But that's for another season to worry about. The important thing was Maeda was gone. Although it's not that comforting knowing that those left behind (Kuroko and Seung Jo) seemed far worse than Maeda. I liked Maeda's dramatic yet horrific ending in the hands of Seung Jo who has now chosen to be full-on villain.
Park Seo Joon was superb in his final fight scene with the creature. But the most powerful part was when he conquered the creature solely with his fierce stare. It was amazing how Jang managed to do all of those things - fight the creature, help his friends escape, and race to save Chae Ok.
And that magical moment when just before the najin left Chae Ok, she became surrounded by branches, probably to protect her from the precarious situation she was in. I just hope Kuroko does not get Chae Ok's najin.
While it's nice that our main leads survived, it was still a bittersweet ending knowing that Chae Ok lost her najin and her memory, while Jang still has it in him. And she does not remember him. And they're not together. And we don't know how things ended for Jeonseung Biotech. And while there were still open-ended parts, what's sadder is we'll probably not get closure because there seems to be no plans for a third season.
But hey, I trust that Chae Ok and Jang will find their way back to each other. It might take years like how it happened in this season, but their love for each other is so strong that I'm confident that it will happen again.
Oppa says...4.8.
Noona says...4.75.