Vincenzo is about Vincenzo Cassano (Song Joongki), a consigliere of an italian mafia family who goes to Korea to retrieve gold hidden in a plaza, and meets another lawyer, Hong Chayoung (Jeon Yeobeen), and through circumstances, start working together to bring down Babel Group.
I picked up Vincenzo because Jeon Yeobeen has a fan for life in me after her stellar performance in Be Melodramatic, which also led me to watch her acclaimed film After My Death. I'm generally not that interested in male leads, but I have to say out of all the popular actors, Song Joongki is one of my faves ever since Innocent Man. I have never watched any of this writer's previous works and didn't know what to expect, so I was kinda shocked at first at how wacky everything was, but once I got used to it, I absolutely fell in love with absurd comedy. I like shows that don't take themselves too seriously (hence why of all the medical dramas, my favourite is this Japanese series called Doctor-X which is absolutely absurd and hilarious), and this show was definitely able to poke fun at every single thing.
Song Joongki was utterly attractive as the titular character, Vincenzo Cassano. From the sweet moments with Chayoung, to the badassery as the consigliere, to the utter rage when his mother was killed and Chayoung was shot, Song Joongki once again proves why he is one of the best actors of his generation.
Hong Chayoung started out as a pretty unlikeable character and many people thought Jeon Yeobeen was overacting but we should have trusted her and the director cos I'm sure everyone fell in love with her by mid series. Honestly my impression of Jeon Yeobeen as the solemn and snarky Eunjung from Be Melodramatic was so strong that I wasn't used to Chayoung at first also but as the character grew, I fell head over heels in love with her. So confident, so straightforward, so strong, so badass. I did feel like her character was slightly wasted in the final arc of the show when Vincenzo went on a killing rampage and she was mostly shielded from it (and thus hardly in the episode) because those are things Chayoung are unable to do and a line she is unwilling to cross. But they brought it back in the last 30min of the show, being the head of the Cassano Geumga family and still being the overdramatic lawyer. On a shallow note, my girl looked SO GOOD in this series and her styling was on point. She's truly a chameleon and has incredible acting range. Seriously, it's hard to believe that Younghee in After My Death or Jaeyeon in Night in Paradise is the same person as Chayoung. So so so looking forward to her next show in Glitch because it's her and Nana, my girl from eternal favourite group After School!
The relationship between the 2 main leads was so well developed, from strangers who dislike each other, to relying on each other after the death of Chayoung's father, to friends and partners, and then finally to lovers. I love slow burn romance and this was done so well. We felt every single skip in heartbeat the 2 of them had for each other. Every look, every touch, every heartfelt conversation. I loved the reference to the Cowherd and Weaver Girl folktale in ep 20, because I grew up hearing about it - on the 7th day of the 7th month, magpies form a bridge for the 2 lovers to meet. So understated but the implications so obvious.
I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised by how well Taecyeon held his own. I have watched a surprisingly large number of his shows (his debut in Cinderella's Sister, Dream High, Save Me) and he was mediocre to bad in all of them so I didn't have much hopes. His cutesy Jang Junwoo was shaky, but his psychopathic Jang Hanseok was hard to fault.
Of course, the 4th lead in the show has to be Kwak Dongyeon, who was phenomenal as Hanseo. He benefited from the good writing of his character which showed so much development, and he did his character absolute justice that Hanseo became a fan favourite. The future is very very bright for him. I still remember watching him in Adolescence Medley many years ago...how is he only 24?!
The rest of the supporting cast, from the baddies especially the detestable zumba snake Choi Myunghee, to the Geumga tenants all were solid as well. Shoutout to the Cassano Geumga family!
The writing was not flawless, but it was solid and I love all the humour injected throughout the show. I loved episode 14 ALOT not because of the kiss, but because the entire fake couple in the gallery part was so so funny. Chayoung trying to pretend to not speak korean and rambling on about hotdogs at the library, and the part where they go to the director's room and Chayoung rushes up to the standing lamp and goes "Wow, fantastic" thinking it's the famed art piece while Vincenzo thought that the real art piece was a doormat. It was the first time I looked forward to Sunday nights.
I really respect the writer for sticking to his guns for the ending which was controversial as heck, but I thought was fitting. The 2 Jang brothers going down the route of Cain and Abel was foreshadowed from the start. Similarly, from the start, Vincenzo was shown to be a criminal with many sins and he obviously couldn't just stay in Korea after all the things he did. Though one thing, I don't understand why Vincenzo had to be a lawyer haha. He could literally be anything else.
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| The yin-yang imagery |
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| The chessboard imagery |
The directing. I have no words for the sheer brilliance of Director Kim Hee Won. From the absurd (hi, Inzaghi) to the heartfelt, every scene was so wonderfully shot and perfectly framed. This show was a clear case of the directing elevating the writing to greater heights. And I love the parallels we got. I loved how after awhile when people started noticing that some scenes were being repeated in a similar yet different way (most famously, the finger flick scene), we started to guess which scenes would be parallel-ed. Some more obvious, some less, but I had fun picking out every single one. I also loved the sound directing, especially the epic one they played during the iconic ending scenes of episode 8 and 10. Just hearing it gives me chills.
It's been a wild ride with Vincenzo, being on board from the very start, and while I think the peak was episodes 4-14, I really enjoyed it from start to end. A genre-bending kdrama that manages to infuse so much fun and humour while tackling societal issues, something I will definitely recommend to everyone. Just get through the first 3 eps and you're in for a good time. On to even greater things, my actress Yeobeenie!
More Cencha/Chacenzo/Chayenzo goodness, cos I can't get enough of them.
