Background: ‘Vladivostok’ (shot in Latvia) Ladies: Shin Se-kyung, Jung Yoo-jin These details were enough to bring me to the show. ‘Vladivostok’ wins – everything is so dark and dismal. Unfortunately, the female characters weren’t sufficiently well-crafted. It is true that Se-kyung has screen aura and is a visual glow in any scene where she appears (I think it might have been the director who said something along these lines) but Chae Seon-hwa should have been written with more layers. Yoo-jin could also have been used better. Her Agent Im had very limited scope too. Zo In-sung is alright as Zo. Park Jeong-min was the one with depth of character and Park Geon reached those depths! Se-kyung won best supporting actress for this, so I don’t know why he didn’t win best supporting actor. Park Hae-jun (Hwang Chi-Seong) ...
Finally watched it, after thinking about watching it for more than a decade. This was so much fun! There was so much fighting, shooting and killing but one puts up with all that since it is, after all, a ‘secret service’ story. There was way too much of the f word, though, and that was extremely tough to put up with. Oh, my poor ears… do Brits really talk like that all the time?? S tiff upper lip and all? Colin Firth (Galahad/Harry Hart) was the reason why I wanted to watch this and he lives up to every expectation. Charming, understatedly amusing, skilled agent – he was great but I would have preferred him to enunciate a bit more deliberately so that we can hear/understand what he’s saying without having to process the words too much. Taron Egerton (new Galahad/Eggsy) enunciates very clearly! Such a likeable character and I love how his talent and abilities are unravelled over time. Also lo...