We’re back with a new K-drama review, this time we’re taking a closer look at the Netflix series ‘Narco-Saints’.
The six episode series was written by Yoon Jong-bin and Kwon Sung-hui. Yoon also directed the show. The series stars actors Ha Jung-woo, Hwang Jung-min, Park Hae-soo, Jo Woo-jin and Yoo Yeon-seok.
Plot
The story revolves around struggling businessman Kang Ingu, played by Ha Jung-woo. He joins a friend in Suriname to start a company transporting the popular fish skate to Korea. The Surinamese don’t enjoy eating the fish, while in Korea it’s very popular. Kang’s family remains in Korea while he plans to leave for a couple of months.
They two friends have to deal with bribes and threats from all ends as they try to establish their business.
However, after receiving help from Pastor Jeon, portrayed by Hwang Jung-Min, all business has to stop. It seems that kilos of cocaine found themselves between the fish.
While in jail, Kang is contacted by Korean NIS agent Choi (Park Hae-Soo). Choi wants Kang to help join him in investigating pastor Jeon, as he’s a wanted criminal in Korea.
I don’t want to give too much away of the plot, but it’s a lot of back-and-forth, backstabbery and fighting.
Overall
The actors did a fantastic job. There’s a lot of English in the series, as they have to communicate with Chinese expats and several other factions.
Ha Jung-woo especially did great as a charming, innocent businessman who’s being pushed beyond his boundaries.
The pacing of the series was quite nice and the tension was insane!
I do have to say, certain scenes where some of the actors were speaking Dutch were not that great. As someone who is a native Dutch speaker I had to either focus like crazy or just read the subtitles. However, Dutch is a hard language, so I do get that it’s hard to nail the pronunciation. The pronunciation took me out of the story a couple of times though.
If you like action and crime series, this is definitely for you.
Watch the trailer for ‘Narco-Saints’ below.
