Vincenzo (2021)

"Vincenzo" and Moral Deception: Violence and Murder are Okay if it’s for a Good Cause

They're not.

While I wholly support those who fight for freedom and defend themselves, murder and such violent acts are different. It is about intention. I also recognize that the argument of this show is that Vincenzo is a lesser evil than the main villain and is fighting against evil. However, (and the show notes this) it is still evil against evil which ultimately ruins all the good it builds up at the beginning.

These crucial elements of morality come into play more seriously at the end of the show. Rather than just being simple “Ocean's Eleven” fun and games, the series still puts the anti hero in the spotlight, his actions fully supported by the other "good" players in the show.

In terms of the comedic and often lighter tone of the show, this is comparable to Bong Joon Ho’s “Parasite.” The difference, however, is satire. The audience in “Parasite” is meant to recognize the evil we face in reality and the wrongness of the situation while still depicting it in humorous ways. By the end of “Vincenzo," on the other hand, it is clear that the show is genuine in its attitude on moral grayness.

As a side note, one of the reasons I enjoyed last year's “The Good Detective” so much is because it emphasizes the importance of the law and morality despite the challenges of each.

What is good? What is evil? Where is the line?

"Vincenzo" only scratches the surface of these broad questions. In my opinion, it is because there is no real line drawn here. Perhaps I speak for myself, but I never felt as though Vincenzo was the villain even as he claims to be one. His very being the protagonist affects the viewer’s perspective on the protagonist’s actions, confusing the morality of the show further. The better question then is, “What wouldn’t Vincenzo do for his perceived justice and revenge?”

By the end, it becomes a show where the “good guys” find pleasure in their enemies’ pain. Their enemies certainly needed to pay, but it feels as though the show glorifies such vengeance, turning it into good when, at the end of the day, it is still evil.

The charm the show begins with does not persevere as the later episodes and ending reveal the seriousness of our “good characters’” actions. What could have been used as a shock ploy to persuade viewers and other characters in the show of such seriousness and evil is only accepted and continued to the end of the show. And I will just tell you, many of our main characters have some shocking acts.

This is an interesting point to note because we see do, in fact, see this moral struggle in Vincenzo's character through his nightmares and in Cha Young through her physical aversion to such violence (as opposed to her verbal consent). Had the show then gone the route of exploring these insecurities and drawing a moral line, a powerful lesson could have been found in the story. And, as with the way Vincenzo works, it would have come with a splendid snap and boom.

CONCLUSION

Despite the supposed morally grey characters (whom I argue are still making evil decisions with regards to murder and such cruelty), there is a great deal of meaning to still be found in the show. It is full of strong and richly created characters with believable weaknesses. Plot twists don’t appear out of nowhere and come seamlessly as the show progresses. Comedy and tragedy work in harmony to build this incredible series.

The last couple episodes are outliers for my final grade on the show because I disliked them so much as all my hopes for a meaningful conclusion were wasted. However, with such an enjoyable beginning and middle of the drama, I decided to rest on a well-deserved 8/10.

I would say that it was worth watching because of its clever fun, but if such moral deceptiveness bothers you in a show, I would not recommend it to you. As always, my rewatch value is based on my entertainment value and my music also includes sound. Rarely is it that I give out 10s for sound—the sound and music here was stupendous. I appreciate all the hard work that went into the making of this show and hope this was helpful to someone! Cheers!

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I placed any potential spoilers at the end of this review.

The acting was great and it had wonderful cinematography. However, the story concept was ok. The script started off strong, but it lost steam by the end. I personally think that episode 8 could have been handled differently. The series is also too long. It has 20 episodes and each episode can be over 90 minutes long. This is also why it took me so long to finally commit to watching it. Because of the number of episodes, the series felt repetitive at times. The series could have been 14- or 15-episode series max.



******Potential Spoiler Alert******
I did not like the ending, I wished the character Jang Han-seo lived.

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Throw away the logic, let the pigeons in.

It was refreshing to see how they truly did not give a damn about realism and logic to such a ridiculous extent, but because of that, this drama had no business having 20 episodes, each 1 hour and 20 minutes long.

Realistically speaking, the whole plot would perfectly fit into a 2 hour movie. Instead, we’ve got around 28 hours of Vincenzo being cool finding a way to fight Babel, said “way” getting killed, Vincezno finding another way to fight Babel, that then gets killed… you get the idea. Strangely, even with this painful repetitiveness, I was not exactly bored for most of the watch time. True, I did watch the whole drama at 1.25x speed, but I enjoyed the experience quite a lot.

Surprisingly brutal, a few times reminding me more of a Saw movie, and not a k-drama comedy about a mafia. Not sure how, but this vicious take mixed well with the dumb jokes and plot points. The only time I felt like the show failed at mixing different moods was the way they handled Cha Young’s motivation to join the fight - that bit made me feel slightly uncomfortable and was not the best start to the series.

Song Joong Ki as Vincenzo Cassano was the selling point of the show, and for me, the performance was so strong, I did not even need more from the drama to keep watching. He is just really fine, and when he goes into full boss mode, I could not care less about the plot. Sometimes, this is all I need to keep me entertained.

Then we have Hong Cha Young played by Jeon Yeo Been. Love the actress, struggled with the character, especially in the first half. Her comedic vibe has been just too strong for me to like. Slowly she became less cartoonish, and more like a relatable human being - that’s when I started to appreciate her more.

I am truly not the biggest fan of Ok Taec Yeon as an actor. Has been a fan of his since his debut in 2PM, he is born to be an entertainer, but I was not even once convinced by his acting. Yet, I loved him as Jang Jun Woo. Don’t know if it’s just one lucky role for him, or he is starting to feel more comfortable in his acting, but I bought him as Jun Woo completely.

Some side characters and performances that caught my attention were: Kwak Dong Yeon as Jang Han Seo, Choi Deok Moon as Tak Hong Shik, Kim Yoon Hye as Seo Mi Ri and Im Chul Soo as Ahn Ki Seok. Not to forget Kim Sung Cheol for whom I have quite a soft spot.

I could feel all the money spent on the production leaking through my screen. Top notch might be an understatement. When you know the production team did not shy from spending money? When the soundtrack has 67 tracks - all of extremely high quality.

Still, the writing was just… empty? It serves amazing entertainment, and that’s it. There was no depth, no emotional attachment, no well developed plot. I’m still trying to figure out how the decision to make it into such a long drama was made. I can imagine the writer, director and the production team sitting in the bar, after quite a few bottles, brainstorming with ideas of a similar quality to “but imagine this: lizard people were behind it all along”. Some plot points were so outside of the box I was truly impressed with the creativity.

Overall, perfect brainless drama for some fun, light watch. Watching this as my neurons were being fried by Covid was a perfect choice and I don’t think any other drama could accompany me through that hell as well as Vincenzo did.

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A Writing Masterpiece that is fun to watch

From the moment this drama started I was hooked. Rarely do you find a series that will keep you glued to the screen for 20 episodes, but this one did just that. A drama, suspense, comedy and a touch of romance with superb acting. There were happy moments and extremely sad moments, but there was never a dull moment.

At times it was brutal so don’t watch it you’re squeamish over the sight of blood. A group of misfits come together as a family and stand against every evil you can think of. Don’t pick over the reality of it, don’t question the methods, just sit back and watch a writing masterpiece. It was entertaining and it was captivating so please enjoy what you are about to watch.

The acting was amazing. Song Yoong Ki did a fantastic job with his portrayal of Vincenzo Cassano a member of the Italian mafia. By the time the drama ends you will believe he is the true godfather. Jeon Yeo Bin was great as Hong Cha Young the wild and beautiful lawyer in the group. If you’ve never noticed her before you will after this drama. She was strong, beautiful and right beside Vincenzo with her constant support. On the evil side it will be hard to ever top the pair in this drama. Ok Taec Yeon just ruled as the master villain, the evil Chairman Jang Jun Woo. He changed moods, facial expressions and you never knew what he would do next. Kim Yeo Jin was brilliant in her portrayal of Choi Myung Hee the prosecutor/lawyer for the evil Chairman. I’ve seen her in so many shows but this one was a tribute to her years of acting. When I watched this drama I wasn’t sure which of the two were the most evil. All the support acting was good so there was never any empty time. The drama moves fast considering each episode is over an hour long.

Sometimes when I read other reviews I ask myself, did they watch the same drama? This drama is a masterful comedy mixed into the brutally of competing factions. It takes an amazing writer to pull this off. Watch it and let me know what you think.

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It is always fun when any form of media completely surprises you and sweeps you of your feet, and just exceeds all your expectations. With Vincenzo I was expecting something very melodramatic, boring and quite typical legal drama that I would stop watching for a few episodes because I was dying of boredom but what I got was the exact opposite of that. It was so off-kilter.

The drama actually sounds as crazy as it sounds on paper and yet I don’t think the description does it justice. Usually, I do not like such makjang type dramas or over the top soap opera style shows, but here it is done with so much humor and skill so instead of getting on my nerves I got this weird mix of soap opera, thriller, and comedy and then a group of weird, flawed and morally gray characters. It is a weird mix, but it works surprisingly well together. There is a good balance between all these different factors, and it makes quite a cohesive story.

Despite all the laughs and the absurdity that the drama throws at us, it never seems as if it is mocking the story or this soap opera world that is had crafted around it. It’s more playing with it and really take advantage of it. The show takes itself quite seriously with it tone, and yet it does not because it’s main goal seems to be making the most entertaining story, and achieving that is not easy. It’s shows a certain strength within the story and the vision the people behind it had. And that shines quite clearly within the story and makes Vincenzo quite stylish.

The story goes in circles a bit. Sometimes things just seem to happen just because the story needs them to happen just for it to move forward. Some things feel too convenient but the show seems to be very aware of it that you kinda don’t question it too much. It feels wonderfully self-aware of it’s genre, which also helps you suspend your disbelief and keeps you thoroughly entertained while even the most convenient plot points are happening. The story sort of manages to be logical within this small world it has created.

It plays with the soap opera formula and the clichés that comes with those stories and tales of the mafia, to take the story and comedy to another level, making things more exciting, crazier, without making fun of it. It has all done to entertain us or to provoke sort of reaction out of the audience.

But I think it is the characters that really make this show what it is. They are just so fun or interesting! Every single character, whether they are supporting characters or not, have their own quirks and darker sides, although to varying degrees. They are all quite ridiculous and complex in their own way.

Our hero Vincenzo is more of an anti-hero and even the antagonist gets some nuances and quirks that even if you sort of hated them you also enjoyed watching them. I have personally not enjoyed a villain in a kdrama this much for quite some time. They brought so much tension, drama, and comedy into the show that I was almost more excited to see what they would do more than our protagonist.

The same goes with the supporting cast. I enjoyed every scene, every little side-plot that they had going on, which does not always happen. Sometimes they feel like fillers to extend the story for no good reason, but here the supporting characters get to control both the humor of the episodes but also the heart of the show. They all felt important, flawed, and interesting in their own way. They are not just comic-relief,

The romance in Vincenzo is slow and never takes over much of the story itself, although it is very often lingering in the background and the drama is always alluding to it. However, it is never the center of the drama. It is not the main story or focus, and I have to say for my part I am usually fonder of a slow-burning romance and that really worked well here with everything else going on. I love some good pining and longing because the character does not want to admit that they are in love or have not realized it. And there was more than enough of that in Vincenzo. Both are learning to trust others and become good people. Although no one is really a good person in this show.

Do I feel like the drama could gave allowed Chae Young to save herself a little more instead of always having Vincenzo come and save the day and the drama itself had a tendency to rely a little too much on the charm and the visuals of Song Joongki for my taste. It became a bit too repetitive after a while.

Vincenzo is a style of kdrama that I rarely see. And although it contains many basics of soap opera storytelling and other types of kdramas out there, I feel it does stand out because I have never quite seen this mixture before. No matter what the drama did it was always exciting to see what happened next and it always kept me surprised even though I thought the story went in some circles and brushed over certain things along the way. I never felt like they truly ran out of ideas to entertain me and entertain me it certainly did. It never really dealt all its cards.

Vincenzo is not flawless, but it is a hell of a good time. There is always this tension within it, you kept on wondering what would happen next, what these characters would do. You have no know what is going to happen. There is always a lot going on and so much high drama, such high stakes, yet still always so filled with humor. It was a real roller coaster ride from start to finish.

Vincenzo grabbed me completely and did not want to let me go until the very end. I have not enjoyed a kdrama and the discussions that took place around this much it for some time now. And that is what I will take from it; it was just pure fun. It was pure entertainment for me.

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Trainwreck

After watching episode 18, I'm on the verge of dropping this shitshow. The last few episodes were just pure torment.

What started as a fairly light-hearted and occasionally funny parody of noir/action movies, turned into full-blown soap opera. But it just can't be enjoyed, not even ironically.

5 minutes of FL running into mc's embrace in slow motion, camera shooting from every possible angle. Then nothing happens.
5 minutes of FL waving goodbye to mc on airport, slow motion, camera from every angle possible. He comes back 5 minutes later.

Mc is in trouble at the end of episode, no matter how bad it is, don't worry. He will get out of it at the beginning of next episode in 11 minutes(like in the death of Noh newspaper guy) or 4 minutes(like when he was surrounded by interpol). I was counting time.

How did he survive being surrounded by interpol and aimed at from all sides with rifles? He just took out pistol and threatened them. They conceded and let him go.
How did he survive being framed by the police for crime he didn't commit? He just defeated a bunch of guys with firearms with martial arts. Then mercifully let the policemen go.
How did he survive being captured by Italian mafia, on his knees, with a gun pointed to his head? Suddenly a swarm of pigeons arrived and attacked the bad guys, then vincenzo got up and kicked their asses with martial arts.

In one episode he just went straight to the mansion of the bad guys, beat up like 20 security guys with his bare fists, killed a guy, and then threatened the bad guys not to tell the police about it else...! And they just listened. While making more and more ridiculous plans to take down Vincenzo, all of which failed of course. Mostly due to his plot armor.

In another episode, he set a bomb to public meeting, exploded a guy, and told all the VIPs which included a mayor and high ranking police officer to eat the deals they signed with Babel Industries, then let them out, threatening to kill them all if they tell the police about what happened in basically broad daylight. And they just listened.


Now then, based on all this you may think that Vincenzo is some kind of over the top fun time parody. But it isn't. All these scenes were supposed to be serious and emotional. But how can they be if the main characters have titanium plot armor, basically playing on cheats? You start feeling bad for the villains.

All the villains were well acted and well written. Which can't be said about gary stu Vincenzo with his botox-filled plastic face that can't show any emotions other than gentle smirk, and his worthless yes-(wo)man sidekick FL who might have as well been removed from the story 4 episodes in and nothing would have changed.

This show supposedly had 18million$ budget? Waste of money. Waste of good actors. Waste of good ost. And all because they couldn't look over the script and realize how utterly ridiculous and not in a good way all of this is. And maybe they should have hired some Italian teacher too, because the Italian in the show is just awful.

Also, the glorification of vigilante "justice" is sickening, he even kills his own subordinates if they did something wrong in the past, then cheers and has fun with his friends like it's nothing. But he won't kill himself, possibly because his plot armor bullet deflection field would prevent that.

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Oil and water don't mix

When I started watching this drama, I was so convinced I'd love it. Episode 1 confirmed this intuition : it was impressive, badass, and characters seemed very interesting. Cinematography was sublime, too.

But then, I continued, and I have to say : the mix between comedy and serious crime is not very effective. It's like oil and water, which left me with the feeling that it was either a comedy that took itself too seriously or a thriller that was very badly written.

The plot doesn't make sense , plot armor is way too obvious (pigeons, lol) and I keep wondering why the female lawyer wasn't killed way before. Vincenzo is a mafia consigliere but he cannot protect her 24/7, it's a godly power. Even him could have been killed many times but nevermind.

Also, I have a major issue with the FL. She's absolutely charming and I love her personality, but regarding the plot, she's very useless. She's supposed to be a very skilled lawyer, yet she never did anything valuable for the mission. Everything (including law business, her specialty) was handled by Vincenzo.

Finally, the pacing is a real problem. The plot's too draggy and there are many repetitive storylines, especially ones with huge scenes of Vincenzo walking in slowmotion with impressive music in the background.

That said, there things I liked very much : the characters, the humour (it was actually very funny) and the emotion. I cried several times : when cha young's dad dies, when vincenzo's mother dies, and when the main antagonist's little brother dies too. This death made me cry so much I felt so sorry for him.

My final world is : it's enjoyable if you don't take it too seriously. I won't rewatch but I liked my first trip.

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Quelle déception !

Un consigliere de la mafia italienne qui revient en Corée récupérer un gros magot d’or après voir été abandonné par sa mère accusée de meurtre, ça fait envie hein ?
Cette série est allée de mal en pis.
Ça commençait bien pourtant ! Une histoire intéressante, des personnages... Alors les personnages : l’avocat dans l’immeuble duquel se trouve l’or est adorable. Mais il meurt bien trop vite. Les habitants de l’immeuble, des gentils loufoques, sont assez insupportables. Trop « goofy » à mon goût.
La fille de l’avocat est tout simplement insupportable et a le charisme d’une huitre.
En plus, la série alterne scènes dramatiques avec de trop nombreuses scènes « drôles » ce qui fait qu’on n’y croit pas une seconde.
Et la grande déception : le personnage principal, Vincenzo. Joué par Song Joong-Ki, qui n’est plutôt pas mauvais dans les drama qu’il fait. Son personnage est incisif, touchant - les scènes avec sa mère sont magnifiques ... Mais la drôlerie forcée du personnage ne colle pas du tout avec le fait que c’est avant tout un tueur et un tortionnaire.
On essaie de nous faire nous attacher à un mec qui est un sale type. Les scènes finales où il torture les méchants sont tout simplement immondes.
Vincenzo n’est rien d’autre qu’un tortionnaire qui ne mérite pas d’avoir sa série.

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This is on my top list of best dramas

1. I came expecting nothing, a mafia concierge born in Korea and coming back to korea
2. No romance but a couple fighting crime
3. Didn't know any of Jeon Yeo Bin dramas, and wasnt a fan of Song Joon Ki because I couldn't bear watching DOS
4. comedy, thriller, drama, mafia genres
5. like 2% of romance

Let me tell you
1. The plot is not all that, is more far and beyond
2. Never been a fance of thriller, crimes etc. but romance but I enjoyed every single interaction of the main leads like I was watching a romance drama.
3. After Vincenzo one year later, I still can't let go of my love for this drama and the main leads I became instantly a fan of both Jeonki together or in separate projects (but deep inside i want them to reunite in another project)
4. I never knew they could blend all these genres and make a beautiful drama that will be in my memory forever, they blended all this elements that one minute I was laughing my a..off then i was scared then I was mad Ohh my Gosh all the feelings, I would wake up every Saturday and Monday to watch 1.20 hrs of episode which took me like 3 hours because of the rewatch value, never happened before ever.
5. Yes romance is like very soft, slow born and minimal but every single scene is about them being together sparkling enormous chemistry.

So yes, even me been biased because I love everything about this drama, please don't get fooled by episode 1, I did get hooked since episode one but Ive hear many of my fellow Vincenzo fans took until episode to really kick off on them so yeah give it a try will not dissapoint.

OST-wise they don't have many songs but the few they have are in my mind 24/7 my ringtone is Ill always be by your side and I change it eventually to Adrenaline.

Rewatchable value 100%

BTW, I never give reviews but I thought I needed to for future viewers not that the drama doesn't have a high rating but because is well deserved direction and writing is phenomenal plus the acting of every support cast. Give it a try you won't get dissapointed.

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Glamorous to a fault

Extremely good looking lawyers, fancy cars, shady people, cheesy dialogue against a hue of dramatic music - no this isn't the American show Suits. This is however, a show that favours style over substance. That perhaps should have been clear to me when I saw it was rated 15, meaning the dialogue and action scenes would sometimes be a little more embellished than necessary. Quite often I was cringing whilst watching some scenes. There's a lack of suspense and tension because our lead protagonist, by being a member of the Italian mafia, is endowed with a level of skill and access to fortune that makes you believe he can overcome problems in any scene by the end of that scene. The show rarely builds up conflicts that aren't resolved within that immediate episode. Every bit of tension is quickly fixed with an unexplained resolution or a random character suddenly displaying a new set of skills that were never hinted at before. As the lead female character remarked during one episode, "is everyone here a hidden genius?" it's a funny line that poked at the show's main problems. For all its glamour and sparkle, there was a crippling shallowness to its writing.

The story premise itself is interesting and there are some character dynamics that deserved far greater focus. Every character has some interest family backgrounds and motivations that, had they been fleshed out, would have made the show more enjoyable to watch. When the show did focus on these angles, the storylines were generally of high quality. In particular, episodes 14 to 16 were brilliant because the show knew what to focus on. Mostly this didn't happen for too much of the show. As it was, the show did keep you going through the leading acting duo's chemistry and skills on screen. I thought that Vincenzo Cassano was an excellent character even if it was difficult to believe he was ever in any real danger.

Overall, this show is good to watch but you won't get much out of it. The interesting, and potentially heart-tugging arcs that it had never received enough attention to make the show very memorable.

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not part of vincenzo nation i’m afraid.

i started this right after i finished watching arthdal chronicles (which make me a song joong ki fan) and also hearing all those good praises for this show i decided to watch it, and it started good to be honest, it made me laugh at the beginning and i have always like the “fighting evil with evil” type of stories which is not that typical in kdramas. however afterwards it become so disappointing and very dragging (almost hour and a half per episode!), big flaws really started to show, the whole concept of the story just kinda fell apart and by the time you reach episode 20 you are already tired of it all. it took me almost a year to finish this. it’s sad to think that what i initially enjoyed become so tiresome to watch. this show really had so many potential and it’s completely wasted.

but well;

about song joong ki’s acting though i like it and i kinda accept him playing a mafia character i feel he does a much better job in arthdal chronicles in which he plays *2* different characters (i believe it’s his best work so far), i’m inclining to think the fault is on the script, which just reinforces the missing opportunity of what this show could have been.

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Dissenting opinion here

Please bear in mind that this is ONLY my opinion!

The cinematography in this drama was fabulous, as was the music. Episode 1 started so strongly; I had high hopes for this show. Song Joong Ki and Ok Taec Yeon were both excellent. Plus, there was the advantage of a bunch of actors that I have loved in other works.

For me, this drama had a couple of problems. 1) First, so much bloodshed for the sake of bloodshed. Vincenzo is completely missing a moral compass, which made it hard for me to root for him in any capacity. Then, you have the upright citizens whose moral compasses go on the fritz or something and are willing to do whatever it takes for revenge. 2) The character was just all-around irritating. I kept waiting for her to get better, but no such luck. 3) I didn't feel the chemistry between the ML and FL. They would have been better to stick with the bromance.

But worst of all was the comedy. Don't get me wrong, the comedy was, for the most part, funny, and if the serious parts were less dark and violent, it might have worked well. However, it felt too much like the writers were trying to lighten up the heavy storyline and it felt contrived. The serious parts provided a lot of tension, but I kept being pulled out of the story by the comedy. So often, to me, this felt like a mash up of two diametrically opposed genres.

My review is to remind me of what I watched and what I thought, not to change anyone's mind, so please don't come at me with hate.

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