'I'm pretty sure you have designs on my wife... but since you're the megastar, you're going to have to work a lot harder to win her over.' Photos: Handout
The K-drama Red Swan has the makings of a cartoon unfolding in live-action, and if that sounds derisive, rest assured it is not meant that way.
Having some of its characters come close to being caricatures actually gives this revenge drama the right touch of exaggeration to propel it along its tabloidy, twisty narrative.
The series stars megastar Rain in his first small-screen outing since Ghost Doctor, and here he plays taciturn cop-turned-bodyguard Seo Do-yoon.
His protectee is chaebol daughter-in-law Oh Wan-soo (Kim Ha-neul, My Girlfriend Is An Agent), a retired champion golfer who now runs a charitable foundation that's an offshoot of the vast, powerful Hwain Group.
These two characters – who share some simmering but unacted upon romantic tension in the first four (of 10) episodes released at the time of writing – are about as "normal" as you can expect.
It's the people around them who are, shall we say, outside the box in certain aspects.
'When we part ways after this gig, I just want you to promise me one thing... sing a Dolly Parton song in memory of me at the next chaebol karaoke night.' - Photos: Handout
Take Wan-soo's cheating husband, corporate scion Kim Yong-guk (Jung Gyu-woon), seemingly a wastrel who rattles off lines like "I'm not incompetent, I'm irresponsible" with the casual smoulder of Jessica Rabbit's "I'm not bad, I'm just drawn that way".
Or Yong-guk's bossy, entitled mistress Jang Tae-ra (Ki Eun-sae), with whom he has a love child. It's clear that she's not exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer, but when she has to call her mother to find out that Wan-soo has just called her by an insulting name, it might be time to dust off that whetstone.
Taking the cake (in one hearty gulp), however, is Park Mi-ran (Seo Yi-sook, Knight Flower, Empress Ki), Hwain chairman since the death of her husband Chairman Kim (who was the only one in the family who ever showed Wan-soo any real kindness).
Mi-ran is Cruella De Vil without the poliosis, a greedy, mean-spirited harpy with cougar leanings (apparent from her first interaction with Do-yoon) who screeches, hisses and glowers her way through every scene, stopping just short of actually clawing or slapping Wan-soo's face.
It's a hate-it-or-love-it role but Seo fills it with such aplomb that you just want to keep watching for her eventual comeuppance (fingers crossed).
Mi-ran was certain that, with enough fake praise heaped on her by sycophants, her head would eventually grow big enough to fit into MODOK's chair.
Red Swan is not just standard outsider-vs-chaebol-bloodline stuff, though. In the very first globetrotting episode, Wan-soo becomes the target of an assassination attempt and Do-yoon, though still not in her employ at the time, leaps to the rescue.
The show also hints at Hwain's power and influence when the matter is reported as a trivial incident that resulted in minor injuries, even after a hole gets blown in someone's head right in front of Wan-soo's face.
Do-yoon, it turns out, is investigating the murder of a blood brother who was, in turn, looking into Chairman Kim's death – suspecting the patriarch did not die from the "heart attack" he reportedly suffered at home.
Of the two principal characters, Do-yoon has been the more consistent and stable so far, though it could simply be the result of no one latching on to his real purpose for being there.
Wan-soo is occasionally adept at handling (even putting down) her mother-in-law from hell, but at other times just seems to roll over meekly when she could have easily stood her ground like before.
It's this kind of inconsistency that detracts from really getting behind her through all her struggles, and one can only hope it changes once all the motivational groundwork for vengeance has been laid.
So far, it's been mostly that – putting the pieces on the board and establishing their personal stakes, while slowly pulling back the curtain on the larger plot/conspiracy in play. Does it involve money laundering? The group's planned expansion into China? Or is the group in bed with some nasty international criminal organisation?
Series writer Choi Yoon-jung (this appears to be her first gig since writing 120-plus episodes of the 2014 daily drama Only Love) has been carefully releasing just enough of a glimpse at the bigger picture to hold our interest from one episode drop to the next.
And given how protector-client screen relationships have gone from The Bodyguard to... uh, Bodyguard, there's also the hook of waiting to see if that stewing tension between Do-yoon and Wan-soo bubbles over into something that gives them both reason to smile for a change.
It may be OTT, borderline trashy and filled with highly familiar tropes, but Red Swan kept me entertained throughout its first four episodes and achieves something many recent K-dramas couldn't, and that is to keep me on tenterhooks awaiting the next instalment.
Two new episodes of Red Swan arrive every Wednesday on Disney+ Hotstar.
Summary:
I will always love stew
