This review may contain spoilers
Come Spy With Me...?
Adventurous North Korean wannabe secret agent Myung Wol's whirlwind mission to South Korea (Han Ye-seul), amidst capricious Hallyu stars (Eric Mum), spy stories centred around mysterious papers, kidnappings, blackmail, lies and confessions, as well as the discovery of love, with the glittering world of show business providing the backdrop for the whole story...
This dizzying spy-derived rom-com starts off rather well but ends up - unfortunately - deflating a bit like a soufflé. It manages to get a number of cues right, starting with the setting in the gilded and ephemeral world of South Korean showbiz and - as an amusing counterpoint - the impeccable practical military education of their North Korean brothers, filling it all with adequate subplots and good secondary characters, and through a good narrative rhythm that for most of the series keeps the attention threshold quite high...
And there is undoubtedly a certain sympathy for the story, at least at first, only that, once the initial euphoria has passed a little, with the character definitions of the main figures, a certain mechanicalness inevitably takes over, which makes the whole thing get bogged down into a conventional action spy drama that is rather repetitive and even predictable in its conclusions...
Too bad, with the good premise of the first half and a more than successful cast of characterisations as a whole, a shorter running time (why not the classic 16 episodes instead of these 18!?) would certainly have benefited, which would probably have limited so many unnecessary lengthy episodes as well as recurring repetitions, especially in the last episodes of the series.
Was there any need for so many sentimental bounces between the main characters, in addition to the constant reversals of situations linked around the mysterious code!? It triggers a tedious back-and-forth that inevitably loses intensity and bite, with continuous betrayals and rapprochements that in the long run tire without ever really getting to the point, even if, by the way, in the wedding scene some pathos is fortunately recovered, although directing the series towards a clichéd and decidedly half-hearted finale...
Han Ye Seul offers a portrayal that personally reminded me of certain fine characters from 1980s Cold War period cinema, a bit like some James Bond of the Roger Moore era; the transition from the uncompromising North Korean agent, a real fighting machine, to the rising star of South Korean cinema is so dizzying that one cannot help but smile with amusement at so many narrative twists and turns…
Moreover, these junctures allow the stunning model actress to bring out a wide range of nuances of her excellent repertoire, synthesised in the actor's audition scene and, as fortunately happens from time to time, to make us admire her in all her extraordinary beauty (absolutely unforgettable in mini shorts for much of the show!).
Eric Mum has a somewhat peculiar role, in some respects it reminded me of Rain's character in ‘Full House’; all the nervousness and excesses of capricious stars used to bossing everyone around, only to come up against the inevitable reality of feelings, it's a character however not well centred, he has the inevitable trauma related to his father (which will later intertwine with another fundamental juncture of the drama) but personally does not arouse any particular character sympathies in me even though several moments with Ye Seul are undoubtedly intense and beautiful, see the scene in the cave with the ‘advanced survival course’ which is really funny and successful!
Interesting enough are the roles of Lee Jin Wook and Jang Hee Jin, who clearly share a similar fate in terms of overt sentiments, perhaps not sufficiently deepened, she especially deserving of a slightly more ‘’temperamental‘’ part even if her artistic-sentimental outbursts provoke just the right amount of amusement…
The ‘married’ spy couple is very good, with the whole ‘vintage’ secret agent corollary, which, underneath it all, does not deny the comforts of the South, compared to the ‘military greyness’ of the DPRK, and Lee Deok Hwa is perfect as always - priceless in the duets with his niece - who, with that scowl and charisma, can sustain any role!
It would have taken more courage and better synthesising skills to put on a gem of a drama, but even so it is
a series that still provides good entertainment and guaranteed involvement, personally a more than generous
7/10
This dizzying spy-derived rom-com starts off rather well but ends up - unfortunately - deflating a bit like a soufflé. It manages to get a number of cues right, starting with the setting in the gilded and ephemeral world of South Korean showbiz and - as an amusing counterpoint - the impeccable practical military education of their North Korean brothers, filling it all with adequate subplots and good secondary characters, and through a good narrative rhythm that for most of the series keeps the attention threshold quite high...
And there is undoubtedly a certain sympathy for the story, at least at first, only that, once the initial euphoria has passed a little, with the character definitions of the main figures, a certain mechanicalness inevitably takes over, which makes the whole thing get bogged down into a conventional action spy drama that is rather repetitive and even predictable in its conclusions...
Too bad, with the good premise of the first half and a more than successful cast of characterisations as a whole, a shorter running time (why not the classic 16 episodes instead of these 18!?) would certainly have benefited, which would probably have limited so many unnecessary lengthy episodes as well as recurring repetitions, especially in the last episodes of the series.
Was there any need for so many sentimental bounces between the main characters, in addition to the constant reversals of situations linked around the mysterious code!? It triggers a tedious back-and-forth that inevitably loses intensity and bite, with continuous betrayals and rapprochements that in the long run tire without ever really getting to the point, even if, by the way, in the wedding scene some pathos is fortunately recovered, although directing the series towards a clichéd and decidedly half-hearted finale...
Han Ye Seul offers a portrayal that personally reminded me of certain fine characters from 1980s Cold War period cinema, a bit like some James Bond of the Roger Moore era; the transition from the uncompromising North Korean agent, a real fighting machine, to the rising star of South Korean cinema is so dizzying that one cannot help but smile with amusement at so many narrative twists and turns…
Moreover, these junctures allow the stunning model actress to bring out a wide range of nuances of her excellent repertoire, synthesised in the actor's audition scene and, as fortunately happens from time to time, to make us admire her in all her extraordinary beauty (absolutely unforgettable in mini shorts for much of the show!).
Eric Mum has a somewhat peculiar role, in some respects it reminded me of Rain's character in ‘Full House’; all the nervousness and excesses of capricious stars used to bossing everyone around, only to come up against the inevitable reality of feelings, it's a character however not well centred, he has the inevitable trauma related to his father (which will later intertwine with another fundamental juncture of the drama) but personally does not arouse any particular character sympathies in me even though several moments with Ye Seul are undoubtedly intense and beautiful, see the scene in the cave with the ‘advanced survival course’ which is really funny and successful!
Interesting enough are the roles of Lee Jin Wook and Jang Hee Jin, who clearly share a similar fate in terms of overt sentiments, perhaps not sufficiently deepened, she especially deserving of a slightly more ‘’temperamental‘’ part even if her artistic-sentimental outbursts provoke just the right amount of amusement…
The ‘married’ spy couple is very good, with the whole ‘vintage’ secret agent corollary, which, underneath it all, does not deny the comforts of the South, compared to the ‘military greyness’ of the DPRK, and Lee Deok Hwa is perfect as always - priceless in the duets with his niece - who, with that scowl and charisma, can sustain any role!
It would have taken more courage and better synthesising skills to put on a gem of a drama, but even so it is
a series that still provides good entertainment and guaranteed involvement, personally a more than generous
7/10
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