Actors: Ji Chang Wook, Wi Ha Joon, Im Se Mi, Bibi

Plot

This show takes us back to the 90s when there was increase in crime in South Korea. In order to take down a huge drug ring between Korea, Japan and China, Park Jun Mo goes under cover as a thug to join Jung Gi Cheul’s gang to take them all down. His wife’s family are all high level successful police officers and Jun Mo is feeling the pressure. Coming from a poor family with a drug addict father, it was impossible for him to get promoted. He promises to go undercover in exchange for a promotion.

My Review

Kdramas that take place in the 90s like Reply 1994, Twinkling Watermelon, and Twenty Five Twenty One show the cute and nostalgic parts. The OSTs are the first generation Kpop like Kim Gun Mo, Deux, Roo’Ra, FINKL, and H.O.T.

Lately I’ve been feeling the dark and stormy Kdramas and The Worst Evil could not have come at a better time. It’s a combination of two hotties, Ji Chang Wook (good guy) and Wi Ha Joon (bad guy), great character development, and even better action. I feel like Ji Chang Wook broke free from his romantic roles and got to get a solid workout in. I know he has done his own stunts in the past and maybe he did these ones too.

Let’s get into the dark side of the 90s….

If you have ever been to Itaewon in the 90s and early 2000s, it was filled with US GIs and men dressed like 90s gangsters. This was before Itaewon it was trendy and full of cute bars we saw in Itaewon Class. It was a darker part of Seoul and I was told not to go there after sunset.

I don’t know about the drug trends at the time but they sold a lot of high end fake bags. The sketchy looking ajushees will be on the street saying, “Chanel” “Dior” “Louis”. Then they take you up to a dark room and show you a catalogue of all of their fakes. I have not been to Itaewon since it became trendy.

Everyone was smoking indoors. The coffee shops were all the rage. Not the cute ones we see on Instagram but the windowless ones with minimal ventilation and only served instant coffee.

Cops were allowed to hit people and there was no repercussion. The IMF crisis. The collapse of Sangpoong Department Store. There was a spike in gang violence in Korea right after the IMF crisis. People were desperate for money and couldn’t find legitimate work.

Jun Mo and Gi Cheul had similar upbringings with shitty fathers. Gi Cheul’s was abusive and Jun Mo’s was a drug addict. One grew up to become a cop and the other a gangster.

Throughout the episodes you see Jun Mo change into the monster he’s chasing. He needs to embed himself into Gi Cheul’s gang to get the intel. The opposite was happening to Gi Cheul. He wanted to get out of the gang life and become legit. Why? Because he was in love with his childhood crush, Eui Jeong who also happens to be Jun Mo’s wife.

The big fight scene where we see the monster come out of Jun Mo. That scene where he bit a man’s ear off and he’s covered in blood was the turning point and for the first time, Ji Chang Wook gave me nightmares. That man can act.

I won’t give away the ending but it’s not a happy one.

This show is definitely worth watching. It’s a little on the bloody side so if you don’t have the stomach for it, I would either occasionally turn away or stay away.