Vincenzo (2021)

How to ruin a good original story

Let’s start with some of the pros:
- Good original story. It certainly had a ton of potential and was a great idea for a show
- The villains, despite being cliche were well written and the actors playing them held true to their characters
- The main actor is very good looking, so that was certainly a plus for most viewers (including me!)
That’s all of the pros. Now for the reasons which made watching this show a huge mistake for me:
- The Italian. Seriously. If you have an experienced team creating a high budget drama, the least you could do was open “Italian for dummies”. That would’ve told the scriptwriter that mademoiselle is a French word and the main character’s repeated use of it on top of his already horrid pronunciation completely ruined any “Italian” vibe he could’ve had. He neither sounds nor acts as someone raised in Europe and the fact that the team is unaware of this shows how little they cared about researching another culture. If the situation was reversed and someone tried to pass off Japanese words as Korean, you bet all these viewers would be up in arms about it
- The main characters. All of them. These are some of the most poorly written characters I’ve ever seen in any drama. The female main’s over the top ridiculousness undermined her character as a smart, competent attorney. The male main (once you get over his looks) has terrible facial expressions. The supporting cast is mostly shallow and illogical
- The superhero complex in this show is out of control. Everyone, everywhere simply loves and is willing to give up their life for a magical man with extremely good fighting skills and perfectly manicured baby hands. Everyday people apparently have no issue with him murdering his way through a country which does not seem to have an actual justice system. By the end I genuinely couldn’t understand why they loved him so much
- The extremely lazy writing leaves so many plot holes it’s impossible to count them all but I’ll try. The guy they scammed as shamans runs the newspaper. In the earlier episodes, they showed a huge court case where the main couple arrived in a sports car and got tons of media attention. Does the owner never open one of his papers? Has no one seen these people on TV after they constantly posed for cameras?
That’s just one example of a circus full of low IQ characters getting away with senseless actions simply because the writer ‘said so’.
- Honourable mentions: Over the top comedy which ends up being unfunny, the ‘talented tenants’ plot line was just too convenient, the main villain’s reveal was underwhelming, the romance was forced and the mid episodes were slow/draggy where I almost gave up.
Despite all that, I watched till the end mainly for the story which could’ve been amazing without all the pointless comedic elements and moronic characters. And to remind myself to never trust a Kdrama’s rating since all these viewers are apparently 17 (at least mentally) and just wish to see a pretty oppa doing cool things in shiny clothes.

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unbelievable plotlines

I just can't give a high rate to this drama. the acting was great especially that of ok taec yeon, i think so far this is the best i've seen him act. non the less song joong ki's espressions were "impeccabile". it would have been more better if the plot wasn't as exaggerated as it was, the story was just over the top. i mean is great to see the main leads not losing all the time to the villians , but it just has little credibility like giving all the tenant special skills that were always usefull to the lead in every situation, being saved by pigeons from been killed for no reason, and the ML being able to in and out of any building on his own so freely without getting caught not even once on the cctv. but they always had proof of other people's actions.
Personally if i were to choose btw vincenzo and chief kim, i would go for chief kim. for the reasonable plotline and acting and choose vincenzo for the comedy line and goodlooking ML and taec yeon's acting. Mi dispiace.

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disappointed

I was actually so hyped about this drama because everyone kept talking about it. So I thought this one would be definitely something special. Oh how wrong I was...

The storyline could be actually really interesting. An lawyer who worked for the Italian mafia flees back to Korea and after some incidents he starts to work with another lawyer to win a case against a conglomerate called Babel Group. Sounds pretty good, right? However, they somehow managed to make it a little bit draggy and illogical. Starting with the most annoying thing, the reveal of the villain. I mean yeah, every villain has to be revealed, but here they just made it too soon. I was pretty shocked but after knowing who the real villain was, the whole story started to repeat itself. It was always the fight between the bad ones and the good ones. Then there was one thing I asked myself so often: Where the hell was the government? Like excuse me but it was a drama revolving around law and rights, but the only lawyers, prosecutors,... were people from the firm which was working with the Babel Group and the main leads. Even the police worked with the Babel Group and were shown very incompetent in the drama. Argh, a lot of things just didn't make any sense. Last thing which got really on my nerves was the lack of romance between the main leads. The chemistry was there, I can't deny it, but the poor writing just made the love story between them look so unrealistic. And before I forget, 20 episodes were way too long, I think only 16 would have been better. This drama is full of wasted potential. They could have do something really special out of it.

To the characters... there are a lot. It's not a Penthouse-like drama where all the characters have their own story and are interesting to the viewers because they have to do something with the main plot. No, many of the characters were unnecessary. Especially the people who lived in the plaza resident. There were to many and all of them had exaggerated and/or unrealistic characters. There were also some "bad" guys who wanted the plaza resident acting always really weird. It felt like they've been just there to make things funnier. Then many lawyers, policemen or prosecutors seemed like they hadn't more then three brain cells. Seriously, so many stupid characters were involved in the main plot. The only person who showed how capable he was, was the villain. Omg, I never saw such a villain before. He was such a psychopath and it suited such a drama perfectly! The actor nailed this role. Sadly the drama tried to make things funnier (and I'm not gonna lie some scenes were really funny) but because of this overused comedy the story seemed too unrealistic. The main characters were also wasted potential, especially the main male lead. VC (male lead) is a lawyer who worked for the MAFIA but I never really felt like he was someone dangerous. At the beginning his character was shown as some ruthless guy who flees to his homeland, but later this feeling just disappeared. HCY (female lead) had a pretty interesting character, I don't think I ever saw someone like her, she was a real crackhead. Sometimes it was just too much where the secondhand embarrassment slowly started to show itself, but overall her character was really interesting to watch.

The music wasn't something special for me. I can't even remember the soundtracks.

Overall, the drama was okay. I actually started it because I wanted to watch something more serious, but laughed mostly at the ridiculous scenes. I wouldn't rewatch this drama again, it just didn't left an good impression on me like other dramas.

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Unexpectedly Refreshing -- Enjoyable Ride

Vincenzo is not what I expected it to be; I'm not even sure what I expected, but when one hears Italy and the mafia, one immediately sets an expectation of mayhem, drugs, and murder. Vincenzo is nothing of the sort, well, at least not yet. It's crazily witty, entertaining, and thrilling all at the same time. I am refreshingly pleased by the writing style, the acting, and the directing. Vincenzo is everything it was hyped up to be and more.

I thought Vincenzo in Italy was brilliant; everything about it was sexy and beautiful, from the people to the buildings but most of all, Song Joong Ki speaking Italian. His subtle yet cutthroat demeanor is enjoyable to watch. But Vincenzo in Korea is where I fell in love with the drama, and the man, especially G Plaza. I can tell the plaza and its quirkily insane tenants (I love them all, even the annoying daughter) will be my favorite place/scenes of this drama. There is a lot of story behind Vincenzo, be it his childhood to what drives him at present, it will all be worth exploring.

Song Joong Ki is fantastic in his role; the last drama I saw him in was in 2016, Descendants of the Sun. It sure is good to have him back. It's also good to see the fine Ok Taec Yeon, the enormously talented Yoo Jae Myung. Despite not being too familiar with Jun Yeo Bin and slightly turned off by her unscrupulousness, I can tell I'm going to like her. I enjoyed her affectionate banter with her father, played by Yoo Jae Young.

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This rating will definitely go down

The style of this drama was refreshing and not something I'm used to or would like. It did keep me watching till the end, so it was an enjoyable watch. It definitely isn't a 9 rating for me though, many a times the events that take place are just too "convenient". I hate convenience plots. I'm not a fan of this style of comedy, the beginning scene had me thinking it would a really cool vibe of series but it focused much more on the comedy element. I didn't find it too funny, some of the comedy was kind of annoying and eye-rolling. I hated the villains and I loved the male lead so acting was on point. Overall, it is enjoyable and different but definitely not so high up on my favourite dramas list. I feel a lot of reviews have shared the same sentiment as me lately so I think this rating will definitely go down. If it doesn't, then these ratings aren't right.

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Quel gâchis !

Je dois avouer que mon jugement est assez mitigé (voire mauvais, faut se le dire clairement).
L'idée principale du scénario est bonne, (et les premiers épisodes montrent que la série aurait pu être extraordinaire), avec un casting qui semblait super intéressant.
Malheureusement, après 2 ou 3 épisodes on se fait chier !. Ben oui, en tout cas moi.
La série ne se positionne pas sur une thématique ; est-ce une série action ou est-ce une série comique ? On ne sait pas !.
Cette série essaie de traiter les 2 thématiques en même temps, et là ... ça coinse !
C'est pas toujours drôle (voire même pas du tout), le scénario amène très mal ces scènes comiques qui tombent de nul part et qui font pas rire (en tout cas pas moi), et l'on perd de vue ce côté action du rôle de "consigliere" joué par Song Joon Ki qui ne ressemble plus vraiment a un type de la mafia italienne mais plutôt un clown de mauvaise facture.
Alors même si je suis allé au bout, j'ai eu du mal. Du coup, je trouve la série trop longue, ambigüe, brouillonne, mal écrite, et finalement c'est un énorme potentiel gâché .
Dommage.

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Just...what?

I know this show was super popular and let be start with the good stuff:

Amazing acting. Seriously...all the actors/actresses are great in their roles and some are playing very different characters than we have seen them in before so that is impressive all on it's own.

The Look - This show looks amazing and was filmed really well.

The not so good stuff:

Story - Interesting at first, but then got super violent and hard to take at times. Started out great, but got really over the top and cheezy a lot of the time. Also it was very hard to watch the villians be so awful. I mean, I know you are supposed to dislike them, but it's really just too much and instead of wanting justice for their crimes, I just didn't care about seeing them at all. And the violence...it's way way too much. Especially in the last episode. That was just a horror show that did not need to be seen. It was awful.

Characters - Disliked literally every character. Even though they were well acted, it was hard to root for the "good guys/gals" and even the side characters were just too over the top most of the time. My friend and I watched this show together and we decided the only "good" character is the pigeon. So there is that. I mean it's hard to cheer for even the "heroes" when they are willing to murder and be awful humans as well. Some of the characters started out likable, but by the end, I was ready to be done with all of them...except the pigeon. Him we could see more of. :-)

So, I can't recommend this drama. It's just extremely violent and hard to take.

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Slap stick and lame story line

The acting of the ML and FL are just so lame and bad acting. The skinny ML tries to act macho and intelligent which is not convincing at all. Tried to be asian James Bond, but not convicincing at all. The FL is just a annoying character and wish she should be killed right from the start. Cant imagine they are coming back with season 2...what a total waste of people's time .

The whole drama is a total flop and messy. Dont understand why people like this kind of bloody and no story line drama. Highly over rated and it is not appropriate to get such rating....I seriously cant understand why people like this drama.

A mafia guy who killed lots of people and could never face problems, like some super man. We are trying to make such a rotten character a hero? Every episode that I watched, I totally felt so pissed and wasted my time. I continued watching is to assess what is the big deal about this drama. There is total no story line...lame and silly !!!

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“Annoying Slapstick”

Some described this series as a “dark comedy” but I beg to disagree. By proper definition, a dark comedy is one that makes light of a subject matter that is generally considered taboo or painful to discuss. There was nothing of that sort in this painful to watch drama that was full of annoying slapstick and exaggerated actions specially by the female lead who was supposed to portray a respectable and dignified lawyer. The rest of the cast members were as clumsy and absurd which made it all the more irritating. As for the main man - Song Joong Ki as crime boss adviser Vincenzo - his youthful, good boy appearance was not the sensible representation of someone belonging to the fearsome Mafia hierarchy. Nothing seemed to make sense. A ridiculous waste of $18M budget as well as a regretful waste of 20 hours of my time.

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PAINFUL

I am a native Italian. I lived in Milan for 18 years. My family happened to be involved in politics and law. One of my aunts, a judge, was a NON-CORRUPTED member that fought and almost got killed because of her involvement in Berlusconi's trial. I do not know who you are or where you are from, but I travel extensively and I know EACH COUNTRY have crime organizations with local names. My country organizational crime is called MAFIA. Now, my blood almost exploded out of my veins when I saw baby face Song Joong Ki acting as mafia lawyer .My biggest fear became reality when girls and young women are raving about Mafia guys with pride and honor. NO SUCH THING. From The Godfather, to the Soprano , ending with Korea....enough is enough. Korea has MASSIVE crime in the form of loan sharks, due to the extreme nepotism and corrupt government. So I watched all these show and though we were very similar. ONE BIG DIFFERENCE: mafia is a PRODOTTO ITALIANO, made in Italy, so don't export slavery, pedophiles, drug dealers and pimps. Korea is producing such high quality shoes: Flower of evil, my mister, Hyena.....Awaken...I mean, I think you can use Mafia only to make fun of it, or to fight it. Not as a show. Grazie.

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Great cinematography....  but fell short of everything else

From the show page, I've  checked that Vincenzo currently has 159 user reviews and mine would be a review number 160. Why would I want to add another one on top of many ? Because I am hardworking like that and I like to spend my free time doing useless thingy like this. Also I have made a vow to do 1 review per year ,this might be it. So this is an unpopular opinion. My review will be brief and  in point form..

1) Cinematography and visual : Considering this was a high budget show *like TKEM* great visual is a must have . The show never disappoint in that department in fact Vincenzo excel with flying colours.

2) OST : I only like one song which is Adrenaline (Italian version) by Aalia which I wish we could hear it more in later episodes.

3) Acting of other than the main villain : The actors did the best with the materials they were given. Song Joong Ki looked dashing as usual ( like him in Innocent Man) Haa! Jeon Yeo Bin caught my eyes in this. She was stunning and I liked the point of her look, her lipstick. First time seeing her acting here and she was good.

4) Acting of the main villain : The reason I separated this with the others because I want to emphasize my view. I have issues with his acting. It was over the top like they want to make his character a caricature especially in the first 8 episodes. It was cringey like a cheesy pickup line and I hate this type of character :((( I could not take him seriously even when he did serious matter. Thanks god, this caricature acting was toned down in later episodes.

5) Storyline :  Nothing spectacular. Been there done that in countless drama I have seen.But I liked the idea behind the story. '' Solo il male può sconfiggere il male ''. Only evil can defeat evil. It was refreshing to see the evil got their commensurate punishments as it should be. While I low key think the punishment were a bit too much although the villains kinda deserved it ----< this is the angel in me writing.

6) Humor : I was indifferent to it. I found it to be lame and pretentious. Most of the time , it gave me a second-hand embarassment.

7) Just a thing worth to mention. I never know that I could get tired of the word mafia (read in korean slang) until I watch this show. It was like hearing Love is the moment song all over again.Could everyone please just stop.........

That's all. Thank you for reading.

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watching this because of Song Joong Ki.

Why I even bother with this drama. Song Joong Ki Rise to fame again and back on the map In Hallyu Status thanks to this drama And I'm as a fan feels gratefull to this drama. . I expecting it since the writers is really good generated buzz in his 2 previous drama and Plus It's Song Joong Ki. Though I admit, I didn't expected to generated this much buzz to the point it's one of the most watched on netflix. But because of this, It might be Along wait again until he reach 40 when he pick something more substance. Gosh the struggle being a fan of him is real.

The humor is enjoyable for me. And fit with my tastes. But there is no depth when the lightheart comedy take the center of the plot. And i really confuse in the middle of this drama what it's all about? At first I think this drama is all about a gold and it's connect to the WUsang and Babel group and waiting for the climax to happen. But It's not after all??? And then I though this drama is all about revenge to Babel group, but they switch the topic again, and its about the gold, and then next, it's about Babel Group again. Like They freakin confuse, let alone me. It's so disjointed

The main character has a hint to their past so we can connect to their struggle, past story, but it's nothing, it's just a tease. They seems like invisible character which we can hardly grasp and understand, always one step ahead despite they think they are always at disavantaged, but because they have vincenzo, they almost always win or either lucky.

Funnily, the writers seems write the villain more human and like they are main character by showing their struggle, and dynamics against vincenzo. I end up rooting for them to win. But they are supposed has to take down by our anti hero after all. So who is the main villain here?

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