Fifties Professionals: Episodes 3-4
by lovepark
The villains are making their moves, and it is up to our trio to stop them. However, after sitting on the sidelines for so long, their skills have gotten a bit rusty, and their bodies have a few more aches and creaks to them. The real challenge, though, is balancing their old lives with their new responsibilities as their secret identities threaten to destroy what they have built over the last ten years.
EPISODES 3-4
Fifteen years ago, Bum-ryong saved nightclub server Gong-bok from a rival gang, and like that fateful day, Gong-bok finds himself, once again, as the damsel in distress to Bum-ryong’s knight in shining armor black suit. Despite living as a convenience store owner for the last decade, Bum-ryong proves why he was Hwasan gang’s number two and takes down In-gu’s men single-handedly. However, no one can beat the passage of time, so when In-gu calls in his backup, Bum-ryong finally falls, too exhausted to fight.
Realizing that Bum-ryong might actually die, Gong-bok intervenes and begs In-gu for mercy. As both gangsters try to save the other, In-gu orders them to bark like dogs, so they comply. Their groveling, though, is not enough to appease In-gu, but before he can attack, his police informant calls, warning him about a dispatch on the way. Unbeknownst to the crowd below, Ho-myung tracked the group to the warehouse, and thanks to him notifying the police, the others are spared to live another day.
After returning to their ransacked convenience store, Gong-bok tells Bum-ryong that he will stop pursuing Ho-myung and apologizes for getting them into trouble. However, once alone, Gong-bok dons his gangster attire and sets off to finish what he started. While his boss lives in a rom-com, Gong-bok believes he is in a film noir à la New World and Friend, and corners In-gu in the elevator to deal him his final blow. No one, though, told Gong-bok that this was actually an action-comedy, so before he turns his fantasies into reality, Ho-myung knocks him out with a wrench.
In spite of the years spent together on the island, Ho-myung only recently deduced that Bum-ryong is the third entity from the ferry incident and asks Gong-bok why he has been stalking him. However, even when Gong-bok tells him the truth (“I really like your dumplings!”), the black-ops version of Ho-myung takes over as he sees every coincidence as a connection — plus, those dumplings are factory-made and no one besides Gong-bok likes them. After Ho-myung threatens to inject a faulty truth serum into him, Gong-bok finally talks and explains how their boss sent them to retrieve the item. They assumed the country’s best agent would have a plan, but all they got were front row seats to Ho-myung’s love life. Pfft.
Deeming Gong-bok harmless, Ho-myung adopts him as his new lackey by blackmailing him with the video he took of the gangsters barking. His first assignment is to follow Jae-soon, but the amnesiac spy has been secretly living at work with his nephew ever since the kidnapping incident. As Ho-myung looks at the useless photos of Jae-soon and Nam-il eating ramyun and playing makeshift table tennis, he decides to change tactics and interrogate In-gu first.
With his face hidden behind a mask, Ho-myung infiltrates the casino and attacks In-gu when he is alone in the restroom. The gangster is no match for the seasoned agent, but in spite of the broken fingers and beatings, In-gu refuses to explain why his gang has been stealing land recently. Eventually, In-gu is able to call for his men, and much like Bum-ryong, Ho-myung can easily handle a few gangsters but not a whole army. Their similarities end there, though, since our agent is brighter than our resident gangster and set up an escape plan before entering enemy territory.
Night has fallen by the time Ho-myung returns home sporting fresh cuts and bruises. When asked where he has been and what happened, he comes up with an unconvincing lie, and Oh-ran snaps at him for keeping secrets from his family. He even forgot to pick up their son from school, and Ho-myung looks stricken as he recognizes his failures today, not just as an agent but as a father as well. Seven years ago, Ho-myung told Sung-won about his upcoming nuptials and said that having a family was not an obstacle to his career but a motivation. However, as our agent struggles to juggle both, it seems his words will be put to the test.
Speaking of Sung-won, the NIS agent has been keeping tabs on Prosecutor Kang who continues her investigation into Black Pearl and Kyung-wook. Her probing earns her some unwanted attention — a raided apartment, a knife to her picture, a couple of tails — but nothing stops her from pursuing the truth. She even visits Hwasan gang’s old boss HWANG HWA-SAN (Kim Byung-ok) in prison, and he steers her towards In-gu, the traitor who betrayed the gang to Kyung-wook.
Thanks to their scuffle with Ho-myung, In-gu lies in a hospital bed along with his underlings when Chairman DO HYUN-TAE (special appearance by Kwon Yul) of Heaven Hotel and Casino pops by with a fruit basket. Contrary to his honeyed words of “partnerships” and “working together,” Chairman Do wants to take over In-gu’s side of the business, especially his drug operation, and what better way to bring down your enemy than from inside the gates. Setting his eyes on Kang-shik, the chairman plants the seeds for betrayal with praises and gifts which easily sway the overworked gangster.
While In-gu and Chairman Do have their clandestine meetings, Kyung-wook is preoccupied with his upcoming election. His investors from the Chinese triad and the Japanese yakuza are upset over the delays in construction and question the assemblyman’s abilities to keep his promises considering the fact that his political opponent is less than a percent away in the polls. In most cases, Kyung-wook would have already squashed his opponent using blackmail, but the other candidate is a squeak-clean teacher with an upstanding reputation. The closest thing Kyung-wook can offer as a bribe is funding for the orphanage the candidate’s wife operates, but his opponent refuses the money and firmly states that he cannot allow Kyung-wook to ruin the island.
In the middle of all this subterfuge is our clueless uncle-nephew pair, and as if their luck wasn’t already bad enough, In-gu now thinks Jae-soon is the masked fighter. He sends his goons to capture him, but thanks to his coworker, Manager Lee, Jae-soon is able to run away with Nam-il in tow. However, during their escape, they scratch the CEO’s car, and Manager Lee informs Jae-soon that he is lucky that he was only fired and not sued for damages. With their entire lives stuffed into a bag each, Jae-soon and Nam-il wonder where they will go, so Manager Lee takes some pity on them and reluctantly mentions a job that offers room and board.
As In-gu and his gang continue searching for Jae-soon, they get an unwelcome visit from Prosecutor Kang. She asks if he knows anything about the incident from ten years ago, but In-gu lies, claiming ignorance. Of course, she does not believe him for a second, but what Prosecutor Kang does not know is that In-gu is not working alone. Once Chairman Do hears about her visit, he uses her presence as a trap to get rid of his competitor, and In-gu falls for the chairman’s threat to report this to Kyung-wook unless he handles the situation in a day. Luckily, Sung-won has been keeping an eye on the prosecutor and overhears In-gu’s plan to kill her.
Meanwhile, Bum-ryong receives a new task from his boss to protect Prosecutor Kang and close any of his “side businesses” to focus on clearing his name. Unfortunately for Bum-ryong, this also means his budding relationship with Officer Park will have to end since they exist on opposite sides of the law. Despite making some strides and even setting up a movie date (all thanks to Officer Park’s proactivity since our gangster is as dense as a rock), Bum-ryong does not show up to the theater, and instead, watches her from afar with regret in his eyes.
Also facing relationship problems, Ho-myung follows his six-year-old son’s advice and plans a family outing as an apology to his wife. They even close up the restaurant for the night, and Ho-myung cannot stop smiling as he takes Oh-ran and Ji-woo to see a superhero live action play. Alas, this happens to be the same night as In-gu’s hit on the prosecutor, so when Sung-won calls about the emergency, our agent is forced to choose between family and duty. Understandably, Oh-ran is frustrated with her husband bailing on his apology date, but Ji-woo sticks up for his dad, telling him to go save the day.
As Ho-myung takes off to the last known location of Prosecutor Kang’s whereabouts, he arrives too late. Clear signs of a struggle litter the cafe, and the owner tells him about the thugs chasing after a woman. He hears that they went towards the main road, but when Ho-myung turns around, Bum-ryong stands at the doorway, looking ready for a fight.
The show has a lot of moving pieces thanks to its large cast of characters, and while it would be easy to focus only on the main trio and consolidate certain roles into one, I’m quite enjoying the equal screen time spent on our evildoers and the plethora of side characters. For example, Chairman Do and In-gu could have been one bad guy and Sung-won’s scenes could have been absorbed into Ho-myung’s character, but if the show did that, we wouldn’t have gotten to see our goofy handler’s silly disguises nor the ridiculous banter between our villains. By creating a whole slew of characters, the world is naturally expanded beyond our main protagonists and their immediate circles which gives the show more opportunities to explore different dynamics. It also helps that everyone is doing such an aplomb job with their roles, so watching their interactions is definitely the highlight of the show. While I am excited to see our trio interact more, I’m glad the story is taking its time to establish the core conflicts and stakes before pushing them together and rushing through the plot.
Though Fifties Professionals is marketed as an action-comedy, it’s neither action-heavy nor comedy-focused. Instead, it’s a very human drama steeped in the mundane. Ho-myung is a black-ops agent who can take down an entire (small) room of gangsters, Jae-soon is a spy with the hidden talents to strike fear into his enemies’ hearts, and Bum-ryong is a scary gangster with a punch that can send people flying. However, they are also a family man struggling with two jobs, a homeless and unemployed uncle with a troublesome nephew, and a convenience store owner who works 12-hour shifts. This juxtaposition of their shiny past to their current banality becomes both the basis for the jokes as well as the pathos. The focus is less about them reclaiming their glory days but reconciling with the fact that ten years have passed and they all have changed. Granted, the show is still playful and all sorts of ridiculous, but behind the jokes and wacky setup, there’s a lot of real emotions and strong performances that take a silly show and make it something more.
RELATED POSTS