A Shop for Killers (2024)

Anti hero action drama for an entertaining ride

Likes: The dark anti-hero theme, the growth of the female lead, the fun fight scenes, the distinct characters, the pace of the storytelling (for the most part)

Dislikes: The weird fade to black transitions in editing, the repeat of scenes we've already seen, MinHye's slowness with her action scenes

I think it's fitting that this aired on Disney+, as this reminds me of all the young adult fantasy books that I read where the female protagonist goes through a series of hardships when she was young that prepares her into becoming a kick ass force to be reckoned with as she approaches adulthood. I loved those kinds of stories and I really enjoyed this one too. While Jian is not Katniss or Rose Hathaway, I do see that similar thread of growth and sacrifice that is often reflected in young adult novels and it makes me really excited to see what will happen in the next season (which I assume there will be as the ending made it seem so). Hye Joon did an amazing job playing Jian.

The whole mercenary killer theme was cool and I liked all the high tech gadgets and gunfight scenes. Were some of the characters cliche? Yes, but it didn't really bother me that much because for some reason, the whole story, look, and theme felt refreshing to me. I think it's because these types of stories usually only get depicted with American actors so to see this kind of story with this kind of high quality and with Asian actors made this all the more enjoyable for me.

Lee Dong Wook was great as Jian's uncle and teacher. Jo Han Sun also did a good job playing the psychopath (His eyes creeped the F out of me and that usually never happens). I thought everyone played their role well. I was however a bit disappointed with the character of MinHye and this is no reflection on the actress. While I loved that they showcased a female character as an ultimate threat, I'm afraid the execution didn't follow through. The way the scenes were shot made her physical fight scenes look very slow and a bit weak which makes her character a bit unbelievable as a "high threat" as claimed. This is more a fault with the direction and camera work imo. But this is a minor complaint as I did enjoy most of the series and I think anyone who likes YA female lead stories and action might enjoy this drama as well.

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Fasten your seat belt!

March 2024
Wow. The brilliant Lee Dong Wook has made many action dramas and films over the years, and this is a stonkingly good addition.

From the moment he turns up at his family's home after a long absence, one just feels things might not be quite right.

Another where there is a lot of story, incorporated into a relatively few number of episodes. However, with this drama I didn't feel like there were any gaping holes. There was sufficient depth and character backgrounds (connections, experiences etc), relevant to the plot, to make it feel very solid.

It's an adrenaline, nerve fuelled blast, with totally OTT fight scenes that are off the scale exciting, but very easily bought into. I never found myself thinking 'that's ridiculous'.... far-fetched? Definitely. But totally fitting for a fictional roller coaster that's bang-on entertaining for every single second of exciting, nail-biting, viewing.

Brilliant cast, some very tough and clinically ruthless characters, and some harrowing scenes. Balanced, as I so like it, by laughs and buckets of dark humour, which never detracted from the feelings of threat.

I will definitely watch this again. FAB-U-LOUS. I stayed up all night because I couldn't stop watching and didn'teven feel tired... until after
;~D
That doesn't happen often.

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Really great drama. I loved the uncle

The drama was really good. I enjoyed watching every minute of it. The only thing that pissed me off about the drama was the female lead character. Overall, she did not make any sense to me. How could you let jeongmin fool you do you think the uncle would let some random person live under your house and watch you for 14 years if he didn’t trust him? Instead of asking questions she could’ve killed most of those people when she had a chance but instead she was letting other people make the choices for you and then you get mad when they betray you. She’s the only character I do not like tbh.
My name was way better tbh.

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What more do you need?

This was the single greatest piece of cinematography I have watched since 2024. Ok maybe not to that point but still a great nonetheless. Really loved the way the story was told while we went back and fort from past to present and how throughout the show, the story was being detangled with details.
Something I love about action show is when you have some good fight choreography. The fighting scenes were so delicious and you could see that each punch and throw were put there to tell the story.
Screaming and gagging at the last episode. Best.
Where is the second season?
Where is Lee Dong Wook's Oscar?
Why was So Min Hye such a queen?
Anyways, this is going straight to my favorite list.

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It's a type of drama EVERYONE can watch !!

I have watched many dramas out of all them very few dramas keeps you hooked till the end. It literally kept me on my seat for whole day without fast forwarding a single second. Everyone has done there part so well that it needs an applause. The main female lead performed every aspect of her role well and kept the show interesting. I had a hunch that it will leave us at a cliffhanger for second season but it ended in completing the arc of the story. The second season or the main arc of the story will be worth watching as the first season satisfied me all the way through. If you love a suspenseful and action drama with a bit of comedy and strong male lead you will love this drama I assure you.

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─ a gripping story in a day

Perhaps one of the most unique and intriguing parts of the storyline is that it tells a story that happened in just one day ─ which is not something easy to do. However, they managed to add their twists and made it binge-worthy (of course, by adding enough scenes from the past as well). We saw enough from the past and enough from the present. At the beginning of the story, the audience is just like Jian; lost and confused and later on, slowly discover the real meaning behind the mess. I liked how they connected specific scenes towards the end to reveal the full story.

While the uncle and niece duo was such a great dynamic to watch, you also can't help but think of "what ifs" as you learn the uncle's real story. I enjoyed seeing how grey the character was as he tried his best to train his niece for her to became stronger. You can also see how his military background create stereotype persona in the mind of others when he, himself is struggling with guilt and nightmares. Realistically acted.

The action scenes were great, and side characters added a good colour to the story. Villains were indeed cruel, and it's refreshing to see they didn't give a reason to pity the villain. He was just a bad person without a reason to redeem himself.

You might think "how can a person change in a day" but we actually got a smooth character development as well due to different personas surrounding Jian as some wanted to protect her whereas some were after her life.

Overall, it was a nice watch and recommended to anyone who enjoys watching this genre.

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Another great Disney+ action thriller!

I hadn't heard of this drama before but stumpled upon it while watching "Moving" on Disney+. Very glad I decided to watch, it was just what I needed right now.




What I liked:

-Action is really really REALLY good in this drama. Knife fights, gunfights, drones, machine guns, explosions, murder robots; A shop for killers has it all and the action is mostly very well made and thrilling.

- Pacing is very tight and I wasn't bored at any point when watching the drama. A shop for killers has a quite interesting structure; the main plot in the present day takes place only in one location. However, there's multiplr long flashback sequences used to reveal the characters' backstories. The flashbacks weren't boring or annoying, quite the opposite, they were really interesting.



What I didn't like:

- Writing was quite messy at some points and some of the characters could have been written a lot better. I'm maybe just stupid but there were multiple situations where I had no idea why characters did what they did, the motivations were extremely confusing. The main villain Bale is also just a very onedimensional psychopath killer, and nothing else besides that. Other characters however were memorable and likable. ML and FL were both great and well acted. I really enjoyed Pasin and Minhye too (did she really die :| )

-There were many unanswered questions that definitely need to be addressed in a second season, otherwise this is quite disappointing. The entire Bale vs Jinman storyline wasn't resolved AT ALL. How did Jinman fake his death and why wasn't Bale involved in the present day plot in any way? This definitely needs a second season but I really doubt we are getting one, unfortunately.


- This is a common issue with pretty much all action K-dramas, but almost everything in this drama is extremely unrealistic. Even though the action was mostly great, I just had to laugh at how silly and unrealistic some of the scenes were. The storyline itself is definitely not down-to-earth or realistic either; it's VERY over-the-top almost throughout the drama. Didn't quite get into Vagabond- territory where protagonist survives a 1vs50 gunfight, but this drama was close to that at some point. Overall, these things didn't really annoy me in this drama, but I just wanted to mention them.


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A shop for killers is an excellent addition to Disney+ action K-drama catalogue, alongside "The worst of evil" and "Moving". The drama suffered from weak and messy writing at some points and I wasn't entirely satisfied with the open-ish ending either. However, the memorable characters and thrilling action sequences make this a must watch drama if you enjoy action!

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Alur cerita yang bagus

Alur cerita nya bagus banget.
Banyak yang ga ketebak di dalam drama ini.
Aktingnya ok banget.
Sampai episode 6 masih banyak pertanyaan yang belum bisa dijawab dalam drama ini.
Setiap peran mempunyai karakter yang sangat kuat.
Semua pemain sangat bagus dalam menjalankan perannnya.
Teknik kamera yang digunakan juga oke banget.

Sampai episode 6 ini kita masih dibuat penasaran atas banyak pertanyaan yang belum terjawab ;
1. Kenapa bale bisa hidup, padahal dia terkena luka yang sangat parah ketika berhadaman dengan jeong jiman? Siapa yang menyelamatkan Bale dari ledakan di Laos?
2. Kenapa jeong jiman bunuh diri? Atau apakah jeong jiman benar-benar telah mati?
3. Apa alasana babylon mengejar jeong jian?
4. Apakah warna kode yang dipakai oleh minhye, pasin, dan brother?

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UGH! Can we stop now?!

I'm so sick and tired of these ridiculous action shows. Enough already! I'm so sick of this and I hated watching this and I would've already stopped if Lee Dong Wook wasn't in this but goddammit he's so sexy! UGH! I genuinely just watched this awful show because he's hot. I don't even have an excuse. That was it. I barely took in the plot, mainly because it was jumbled and not very good to begin with so it was very difficult to feign investment in what was happening but also because the main point of this show is to drool over one (1) sexy man and then just...feel dreadful worry for the good guys as these tank-like VILLAINS just piss you off for FOUR HUNDRED AND EIGHT freaking minutes!!!!UGHHHHHHHHHHH

Summary: Hot uncle dies. Niece comes home and then for some reason that gets explained WAY too late into the show, a bunch of psycho murderers start attacking the house, trying to kill her. UGH! WHY?!

Plot: This plot was just mediocre. Was it horrible? No. But it's just not worth all the fuss.

Acting: Actors were very good. Lee Dong Wook is hot... I don't know, that's like 80% of what I registered. Sorry, a bit one-track-minded over here.

Music and production: Again, good production is worth horse dung when the plot is boring.

Rewatch: No...but I'll probably watch season 2! (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

Overall: This was an action show. I don't like this type of show. I just accidentally got attached to the characters and had to finish this.

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An action drama released without a proper story.

The drama is just a bunch of action that makes no progress. From the beginning and as per the details of the drama, it was about a 21 year old FL who is somehow targeted by killers possessing high tech ammunition like machine guns, sniper, drone killing machines, gas grenades, etc. FL is apparently targeted because of her relationship with uncle ML. Her uncle trains her to survive but let me tell you his training isn't really gruesome survival training, it is at most a self defense class that may work on a burglar or a car jack situation, but not on killers who been doing killing as profession with high artillery at their aid. Also during all this training he never tells FL why he is making her do this and what his actual job is. He disguises himself as normal business person while makes FL train for her own protection. And all that time not once FL asks her uncle aka ML what is all this or even get curious about him. Half the brain cells lost there itself

The whole four episodes is all about FL being attacked with no clear explanations other than she is ML's niece and if they kill her they will get money. It also shows ML is rich and very powerful enough but at the same time it doesn't make any sense he leaves her niece all alone on pretext she is code green and a code green will be protected by the ML organization he created but only one woman shows up to protect FL. And this woman only comes to protect FL after hearing killers gun shot instead of being with FL from the beginning when she had chance and also explain why this is happening to her and what is all the killing situation is about.

Nobody till 4th episode (the drama is only 8ep) don't explain to FL why everyone is trying to get her killed. They managed to drag this story till 4th episode. His uncle owns a secret artillery shop, FL should be killed to get money. But why, why must she be killed, why the ML is not around to protect her. Till 4th episode no clarity. Ok maybe I thought they are trying to build suspense, but till 4th episode showing no progress in any other ways is not called suspense. It is more like there isn't much story.

The drama is too slow for an 8 episodes. Only three things happened, ML goes off radar, killers try to kill FL, FL still trying to survive. There is no actual progressive conversation that makes you understand the whole point of this drama and every character action. Even the action scenes are not really well choreographed and planned.

It's almost like writers are thinking if we show an action drama with bunch of big guns, drones and killing machines and have a story that tries makes sense but at same time no actual strong storyline people would just watch because full on guns kind of action dramas are rare. And also ML is a class A actor, so people would definitely watch for him.

As of now when it comes to big action dramas, moving did the best when it comes to making sense of story. I don't understand why people are saying this is good as moving when it is not even close. Moving is very realistic written for a super hero action world and writer clearly shows audience what is going with story, why everything is happening to them. But this doesn't.

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M.A.S.T.E.R.P.I.E.C.E

this drama is a masterpiece, wau lee dong wok is such a talented actor, this role suits him perfectly, I love every single part of his niece, she is also amazing, this drama definitely deserves 10/10, I hope there will be a second season, I watched all of Lee Dong Wok's and I liked them all, he never disappoints with his drama, as a gangster in this drama he showed incredible talent, this is the best thriller, action for me, this year, wow, I'm glad that I watched this drama after a long hesitation, it's the first time I see ye lee dong wok there is none romance, I usually don't watch such dramas without romance, but this one is the best for me, I wish for this kind of season

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