Fifties Professionals: Episodes 1-2
by lovepark
A mission goes terribly wrong and strands three men on an island for ten years. As they each build new lives as ordinary people, a person from their past comes back, and along with them, a whole slew of other problems pop up. In order to set things right, our trio must tap into their old selves, but after years of hiding their identities and growing old, do they still have the skills to fight?
EPISODES 1-2
A black-ops agent, a North Korean spy, and a gangster get trapped on an island, which sounds like the setup for a joke, but that’s exactly what happens in the premiere week of Fifties Professionals. The story begins in 2016 after a failed mission leaves three agents dead. The National Security Advisor (special appearance by Ahn Nae-sang) has discovered a rat in the National Intelligence Service (NIS), and his name is HAN KYUNG-WOOK (special appearance by Kim Sang-kyung). However, the evidence they need to prosecute him is with the North Korean defector codenamed Black Pearl (special appearance by Kim Jae-hwa), and the only one who can intercept the hand-off between Black Pearl and the Japanese Intelligence Agency is their number one agent: code name SHADOW (Shin Ha-kyun).
Though the top secret mission is kept between the security advisor and NIS Counterintelligence team leader JO SUNG-WON (Kim Sang-ho), Kyung-wook has eyes everywhere and learns about the trade. Using his connections in both the North as well the underground, our traitor sets up a two-pronged operation which brings along North Korea’s top agent code name BULGAE (Oh Jung-se) and Hwasan gang’s greatest muscle KANG BUM-RYONG (Heo Sung-tae). As our three protagonists collide atop the ferry in the middle of a stormy night, no one ends up winning, and for the first time in his life, Shadow fails his mission. His final orders are to lay low on Yeongseon Island, and from there, ten years pass.
As we reconvene with our ahjussis in the present, they are no longer the deadly weapons from that fateful night. Shadow now goes solely by his civilian name JUNG HO-MYUNG and works as a chef at a Chinese restaurant run by his wife KWON OH-RAN (Shin Dong-mi) and father-in-law KWON SEOK-JIN (Lee Han-wi). His current battles mostly consist of his diminishing testosterone levels, dwindling sales, and the local thugs at the casino who refuse to pay their running tab.
Moving onto our deadly North Korean spy, Bulgae is now BONG JAE-SOON, an amnesiac steel factory worker. He gets bossed around by the CEO (special appearance by Park Ji-hwan) and endures all the harassment since people aren’t clamoring to hire a man with no memories or connections. The only clue to his identity is the clothes he was found in (a wig and a woman’s business suit) and the sparse recollections of fanciful dreams where he defuses bombs and takes down seventeen people. He currently lives with his “nephew” HEO NAM-IL (Kim Sung-jung) who constantly reminds Jae-soon that his grandfather might have taken him in but that does not make them family.
Last but not least, our burly gangster Bum-ryong is now the owner of a 24-hour convenience store and cares more about stocking the lunchboxes for his crush, Officer PARK MI-KYUNG (Han Ji-eun), than getting revenge for his boss. Only his underling MA GONG-BOK (Lee Hak-joo) remembers the reason for their undercover ruse and keeps an eye on Ho-myung for any suspicious activities. His surveillance, though, makes him a regular at the restaurant, and Ho-myung’s family nicknames him “Oldboy” on account of his love for fried dumplings.
For the last ten years, things have been quiet on Yeongseon Island until a woman is found dead, presumably suicide. As the new prosecutor KANG YOUNG-AE (Kim Shin-rok) reopens the case, we see that the woman is Black Pearl, and unlike our ahjussi trio, she has never once stopped looking for the missing USB. Alas, a tussle with her upstairs neighbor (special appearance by Go Kyu-pil) caused her identity to be leaked in a viral video, and it seems their enemies got to her first. However, now that Prosecutor Kang is on the case, it won’t be so easy to sweep everything under the rug, and while she pretends to drop the investigation, in reality, she digs even deeper and uncovers the events from ten years ago.
While Ho-myung receives these updates from Sung-won as well, he has more pressing matters at hand that require his attention (a.k.a. his son’s after school tuition fees). Realizing that his family comes first, Ho-myung risks exposing his identity to get what they are owed from the casino loan sharks, and his sudden determination sparks a fire in his eyes that Gong-bok recognizes from the ferry incident. As they make their way over to the casino, Jae-soon is also en route since Nam-il stole the house deed to use as collateral to borrow more money. Our amnesiac spy arrives first, but when he asks the loan shark GEUM KANG-SHIK (Lee Soon-won) for the deed, they beat him up, instead.
As Jae-soon loses consciousness, his true self awakens, and in the blink of an eye, he takes down the entire room. Right then, Ho-myung enters, and the sight of Jae-soon instantly takes him back to the ferry and their fight. Revealing more details of that night, we learn that Jae-soon disguised himself as the female Japanese agent (hence the wig and clothes) and retrieved Black Pearl’s USB and diamonds. However, before he could escape, Ho-myung stopped him, and soon after, Bum-ryong jumped into the fray. As they exchanged blows, Jae-soon got tossed over the boat, and realizing that he could not lift him up, Ho-myung placed a tracker on the spy and let him fall into the ocean.
After all these years, Bulgae is finally back, and something inside Ho-myung wakes up, too. However, before he can confront the spy, the thugs attack him, which gives Nam-il enough time to grab Jae-soon and run. As Ho-myung watches them escape, he manages to catch their license plate number, and with that, tracks them down. Our agent, though, is not the only one chasing after Jae-soon since word of the mysterious fighter reaches the loan shark’s boss YOO IN-GU (Hyun Bong-shik), and things get even more complicated when they recognize Gong-bok from the security footage and assume the groups are working together.
Once again, our three ahjussis are moments away from colliding, and in the midst of all this familiar hullabaloo, Kyung-wook is plotting and scheming his next evil plan. He wants to become mayor and turn Yeongseon Island into a hedonistic paradise devoid of regulations in favor of profit, and the first step involves buying up land and kicking out the residents. That’s where In-gu comes in with his thugs, but unbeknownst to Kyung-wook, his hired hand has started a little side business distributing drugs. Then to really gum up the works, Prosecutor Kang has made the connection to Kyung-wook and even has evidence of his secretary bribing the chief prosecutor.
Meanwhile, Nam-il has become Jae-soon’s biggest fan and shows him the video of the fight. Since Jae-soon still has no memories of who he is or what he did, they decide to recreate his “awakening” by hitting him on the head, but it only knocks him out for real at the worst possible moment. Without spy Jae-soon to protect them, In-gu and his gang kidnap them along with Gong-bok, and then blackmail Bum-ryong to show up and collect his lackeys. Poor Jae-soon and Nam-il are utterly confused as these thugs beat them up (or more accurately, wail on Jae-soon), but Gong-bok receives the brunt of their fury as he weakly claims that his boss will come save him. Then on cue, an ominous thump comes from the hall, and Bum-ryong bursts through the doors, looking very much like his old self and ready to rumble.
The premise for Fifties Professionals is ridiculous, and the show knows it. However, rather than emphasize the absurd nature of this situation, the core conflicts are surprisingly grounded with realistic villains and motivations. Kyung-wook isn’t some indomitable opponent with endless resources but simply a well-connected man who is willing to cheat. He’s ruthless for sure, but his goals are clear and believable. He wants to expand the local casino on Yeongseon Island to line his own pockets, and for the traitorous rat, everything is about power and money. Within this almost comical setup of a black-ops agent, an amnesiac spy, and a retired gangster all within a stone’s throw of each other, there isn’t some bigger conspiracy brewing in the background. By coupling the ridiculous premise with a relatively simple plot, the show does not get bogged down by its own world building, and instead, other areas of the storytelling get to be more complex, particularly characters and relationships.
From the first few scenes, it becomes obvious that the cast is absolutely stacked. Even minor characters with one or two scenes are recognizable faces, and as a result, it fleshes out the world beyond the main trio. Ho-myung, Jae-soon, and Bum-ryong all have their own circles (both in the past and the present), and while it can get confusing remembering all the characters, the show makes it easier for the viewers by keeping everyone in their separate worlds. Thus, even if you can’t remember all their names, the visual cues signal where they belong. In addition, by adding Prosecutor Kang as a new entity to a decade-long conflict, the audience gets to uncover the truth alongside her. She adds a fun and necessary element to the show as an outside catalyst, and I also love how she isn’t your typical, straitlaced prosecutor. She clearly values justice, but she knows her enemies are corrupt and uses their prejudices against them to manipulate their perception of her. If they’re going to see her as the “crazy woman” on the team, then she will put on the whole act while gathering evidence to bring them down.
Surprisingly, I found all three protagonists quite endearing in their own ways, and it was really thanks to the side characters. For Ho-myung, that was his son and the moment we see him not as an agent but a dad. As for Jae-soon, through Nam-il’s eyes we see how the antagonistic spy could be an idolized hero even without regaining his memories, and in a similar yet opposite vein, Gong-bok helps us see Bum-ryong as not just a scary gangster or a bumbling convenience store worker but a boss who is respected and loyal. All three characters have someone looking up to them, and for once, there’s a close personal connection motivating them to become the “heroes” they once were. Despite hiding (or losing in Jae-soon’s case) their identity for ten years, that side of them still exists; it’s just no longer their sole identity. In fact, it seems like who they are now has become an integral part of their characters — not just a ruse or a cover story — and this juxtaposition becomes the crux of the story as we witness them reclaim their glory days as 50-something ahjussis with a little more wrinkles and creaky joints.
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