Drama Review: 'Vincenzo' (2021)
This drama is included in the list of nominees for the 57th Baeksang Arts Awards
Korean Title: 빈센조
English Title: Vincenzo
Network: tvN (Korea), Netflix (Global)
Episodes: 20 + 1 Special
Broadcast Period: February 20 - May 2, 2021
Genre: Dark Comedy, Law, Crime, Noir
Language(s): Korean, Italian, English
Cast: Song Joong Ki (Arthdal Chronicles), Jeon Yeo Bin (Night In Paradise), Ok Taec Yeon (Let’s Fight, Ghost), Kim Yeo Jin (Extracurricular), Kwak Dong Yeon (My ID is Gangnam Beauty), Jo Han Chul (Once Again)
Directed by: Kim Hee Won (Warm and Cozy)
Written by: Park Jae Bum (Quiz of God)
Vincenzo is a dark comedy/crime/noir drama about Korean-Italian, Park Ju Hyung/Vincenzo Cassano (Song Joong Ki), who was adopted by an Italian couple at eight years old. After his adoptive parents were murdered, he joined the Cassano Family and worked his way to becoming the mafia group’s consigliere (refers to the mafia family’s legal consultant and also the mafia boss’ right-hand man).
Shortly after the death of their boss, his son, Paolo Cassano (Salvatore Alfano) takes over as the new Cassano Family boss. Having pre-existing tension between each other, Vincenzo returns to South Korea to seek refuge from Paolo. In Korea, Vincenzo meets the tenants of Geumga Plaza and forges relationships with them while fighting against Babel Group, a corrupt conglomerate with affiliations to Law Firm Wusang.
The 20-episode + 1 special series aired on tvN and Netflix from February to May 2021, directed by Kim Hee Won, written by Park Jae Bum and produced by Studio Dragon. This drama marks Song Joong Ki’s return to television since Arthdal Chronicles in 2019. To prepare for the role of Vincenzo, he learned Italian and practiced with an Italian coach on a daily basis.
By the end of its stint, Vincenzo managed to become the sixth highest-rating drama in cable channel, tvN’s history. Further, the show is currently nominated under two categories in the upcoming 57th Baeksang Arts Awards for Best Actor in a TV Series (Song Joong Ki) and Best Director for a TV Series (Kim Hee Won).
Story
Park Ju Hyung/Vincenzo Cassano (Song Joong Ki) was taken to Italy after getting adopted by an Italian couple at the age of eight. Since his adoption, Vincenzo has not returned to Korea and grew up to become the consigliere of the Cassano Mafia Family. As the consigliere, Vincenzo is the right-hand man of mafia boss Don Fabio Cassano. After Fabio dies, his son, Paolo Cassano, orders a hit on Vincenzo which causes him to sever ties with the mafia family and leave Italy to settle in Malta permanently.
Prior to moving to Malta, Vincenzo makes a detour to South Korea to retrieve 1.5 tonnes of gold and historical relics buried beneath Geumga Plaza which were previously owned by Chinese tycoon, Wang Shaolin and kept under the supervision of Plaza Manager, Cho Young Woon (Choi Young Joon).
Shortly after Vincenzo’s arrival to South Korea, the Engineering & Construction (E&C) subsidiary of conglomerate, Babel Group manages to take ownership of Geumga Plaza illegally. Vincenzo joins hands with Jipuragi Law Firm, Hong Yu Chan (Yoo Jae Myung) in his fight against Law Firm Wusang, Babel Group’s legal representation to recover the ownership of the building as well as the fortunes buried beneath it.
As Vincenzo learns to assimilate to the South Korean culture he also gets further entangled with the heinous crimes and corruption committed by South Korea’s rich and powerful. To restore peace and order in Geumga Plaza and the areas surrounding it, Vincenzo uses unconventional ways to taunt and threaten the villains of Babel Group with the help of Jipuragi Law Firm and the Geumga Plaza tenants themselves.
The Review
Given the incredible amount of detail incorporated in Vincenzo, I’ve decided to resurrect the Review section for this post. Skip to the next section for The Verdict and Rating.
“Un diavolo scaccia l’altro” - It takes a devil to drive out another devil. That’s the only Italian proverb I know… Remember what I told you before? Only monsters can beat other monsters… It would be nice if a real monster appeared and dealt with all these evil people, whether it’s legal or not… Could you be that monster, perhaps?
Hong Yu Chan to Vincenzo
Leading up to the dialogue above between Hong Cha Young’s (Jeon Yeo Bin) father, Hong Yu Chan (Yoo Jae Myung) and Vincenzo Cassano (Song Joong Ki), Vincenzo does a great job at establishing how undeniably ruthless and evil the villain protagonist, Vincenzo is given his background as a member of the Italian mafia. In addition, the dialogue above solidifies that Vincenzo’s plot is driven by multiple villainous characters - served with fresh and zesty twists with conventional hero characters supporting on the side.
Coupled with stellar acting performances from each cast member, one of best things about Vincenzo is how well-written every single character is - with all their motivations and tendencies neatly incorporated, no matter how minute their role was in the bigger picture. There was no actor in particular that hard-carried the show, because it’s written in such a way that they didn’t have to. In comparison to the Korean dramas that utilize the same plot line, Writer, Park Jae Bum was highly-efficient in the way that a majority of the show doesn’t waste time going into lengths explaining every reason behind the twists, betrayals and deaths.
In addition, Vincenzo was incredibly great at portraying the most extreme of situations without going over-the-top and bizarre about it. Regardless if it was an action scene, or when Vincenzo taunted and threatened his enemies, or even during the vulnerable and emotional scenes, Vincenzo was very good at making audiences feel many emotions while staying very checked-in with reality instead of getting carried away by theatrics or aesthetics which other dramas of the same premise have fallen trap to. Don’t get me wrong, Vincenzo is definitely an aesthetically-pleasing drama, but I really believe that was more so a byproduct of the excellent filmmaking work led by Director, Kim Hee Won.
As such, layered with its impeccable music scoring, much of the enjoyment from Vincenzo comes from its execution of subtle details and implied meanings. There is a long trail of easter eggs for Song Joong Ki/2PM fans and a great line-up of cameo appearances as well - which added a lot of entertainment value for the show.
It’s important to note in this review that the show went on a one-week broadcasting break to fine-tune its writing in between its eighth and ninth weeks (after Episode 16). Therefore, around the Episodes 13-15 mark, I did feel like the show was getting a little sidetracked and carried away with the comedy. I’m not sure if that was intentional or a case of the writer’s block, but the story definitely took a hard detour at multiple points leading up to the break. Plus, in hindsight, Vincenzo had a grand total of seven almost-back-to-back ending scenes involving the usage guns in addition to some questionable product placement scenes throughout the show.
Having said that, there were definitely some odd scenes that didn’t fit quite as seamlessly (among them are the romance scenes between Vincenzo and Cha Young) because of how blatant and off-side they felt in comparison to the rest of the show. While it was excruciating to wait for two whole weeks for a new episode, Episodes 17-20 were very well done so in reality, the break was much needed and absolutely called for.
The Verdict
Overall Rating: 9/10
Vincenzo utilizes well-known anti-hero arcs that are not foreign to Korean drama fans, but its method of execution offers the viewers an incredibly different experience in comparison to dramas of the same premise that came before it.
Given the way the critically acclaimed drama, The Innocent Man shifted the dial in 2012 and set the standard for what a stellar anti-hero should be, I strongly believe there is no one better than Song Joong Ki himself to have portrayed the modern complexities of Vincenzo Cassano.
Similar to That Winter, The Wind Blows (2013) and Goblin’s (2016) contributions to Korean cinematic history, I can’t help but feel like Vincenzo might have unlocked a new turning point in how much boundaries can be further extended in a Korean drama and it’s exciting to see how future productions will learn and build from it.
Finally, because I like to keep it 100% on this blog, I shaved off a point from the overall rating due to the weak points I discussed earlier. But make no mistake, Vincenzo just might be my favourite K-drama this year (or maybe ever) thus far… There are many memorable scenes and because of all the subtle details, the re-watchability rating for this drama is a solid 10 across the board. I found myself watching the episodes over and over through the course of its broadcast and when you line up the episodes to binge-watch, it definitely just feels like an extended feature film in all its quality and glory.
