Starring
- Park Hae Jin as Kim Seol-woo
- Park Sung Woong as Yeo Woon-gwang
- Kim Min Jung as Cha Do-ha
- Chae Jung An as Song Mi-eun
- Yeon Jung Hoon as Mo Seung-jae
- Jeong Man Sik as Lee Dong Hyun
- Jang Hyun Sung as Jang Tae Ho
Acting: 7.5
Storyline: 7
Overall: 7
Grade: B
Man X Man is a drama that debuted with great hype and anticipation since it was Park Hae Jin’s return to the small screen after his troubled times with his previous drama “Cheese in the Trap”. The storyline and list of Hallyu Stars who made special appearances like Song Joong Ki and Nam Goon Min kept many viewers’ interest level on the high.
While many may remember him as the second male lead from “My Love from the Star”, Park Hae Jin has come a long way from 50-episode long serials and also proven that he could assume pretty diverse roles since “Doctor Stranger”, “Bad Guys”, “Cheese in the Trap”. He’s suitable for 亦正亦邪 roles and definitely, one of the most highly anticipated 83-liner actors for his acting.
Moreover, he’s an eye candy who has such a great combination of looks, height and physique that he could easily pass off as a bodyguard. His swift action scenes would also leave in you awe and cold sweat sometimes. Pretty exciting.
I must say, JTBC spent a lot of time, effort and money on the production. There were shoots in Budapest and also a lot of exciting, thrilling, action scenes, car chases and explosions.
Man X Man has an interesting, intertwining story between a black ops agent – K, a Hallyu Star – Yeo Woon Gwang and the Hallyu Star’s fan-turned-manager – Cha Do Ha.
It is about a charismatic black ops agent who is only known to the highest tier of national intelligence, who had to disguise himself as a bodyguard of a Hallyu star to embark on his new mission.
There you will have many scenes of secret agent 007 scenes playing in your head, and also expect some funny BROMANCE scenes and a little bit of romance.
Park Hae Jin mentioned that this is one drama whereby he could act the most comfortably. Though as a pokerface bodyguard, it would be rather challenging for him to act out all the little little emotions that he may be feeling.
We all know how hard it is to bring out your acting when your role needs you to just look so “emotionless” throughout. Luckily the director did give him some other scenes that could show his inner feelings in times of danger or the day-to-day interactions with people around him.
He tried to enhance his acting with some small actions like winking or blinking when he felt embarrassed or awkward. It is some form of “aegyo” for someone with such a complicated background and big responsibility.
Fans of Park Hae Jin can expect many cool scenes where you could swoon over and over again. He has the wits, the 身手, looks, physique and all in the drama but he is also dangerously attractive. There’s no way you would know what his next move is or where he would be next.
I shan’t mention too many details about the plot. It is interesting as you watch how it unfolds.
As a black ops agent, your job is to lie and live in danger everyday and yet, you can trust no one.
What is the most potent to a secret agent?
It is definitely love and friendship.
While the secret agents were trying to uphold justice by putting their lives on the line everyday and having to see through plots and conspiracies, people with power were the ones who misused their authority and caused so much suffering.
There’s always a line between good and bad, ambitious, cunning and greed.
These are some of the things that are still existent in today’s world. People with money and power, are the ones who may rule or also ruin the world.
The so called “good” guys are always the ones who have to go through a hard time and suffer a lot.
How many could pull it through till the very end?
I often wonder how Park Sung Woong can so 放得开 in his acting. If you remember his solemn role in “Remember: War of the Son”, it is like a 180 degrees difference to a Hallyu Star who acts cool but is very soft on the inside and who is so so so funny.
His chemistry with Park Hae Jin was totally so on point and you could even mistake him as having a torch for his bodyguard.
The irony is, despite being the “biggest baddie on screen”, he’s actually a good man off screen and would help to ensure justice is being upheld.
Kim Min Jung was an obsessed fan of Woon Gwang, who became his manager. There would be lots of hilarious scenes whereby she would go all out as his possessive and obsessive manager to ward off all scandals, rumours or actresses who tried to get near her oppa. It is also funny how the superstar would only listen to her obediently.
In such masculine-dominated dramas, Romance would definitely be of the weakest link. The loveline is a little similar to the usual idol dramas whereby the leads would hate each other at first sight but slowly fall in love. Nonetheless, the emphasis was not really on the romance portion. So although Kim Min Jung is also a veteran actress, we can’t feel that very strong chemistry as lovers between them.
It is a lot of 似有若无 between the 2 of them initially. In the name of “恋人作战“, we know K was slowly falling for Do Ha.
I thought it was his way of being sweet by giving her a “coin”, which was a tracking device, so that he would know that she is safe and he could appear in the nick of time. In return, he also allowed her to “track” him while he was on his missions, so that she knew he was safe.
It’s pretty hard not to fall in love with him, yet you could never feel really safe, because you wouldn’t know if he would still be fine the very next minute and it if were all just lies.
In order to prevent female lead being a vase, she was of much help in the series of 作战 but she needed to be a damsel in distress sometimes so that our male lead can show his manliness.
There were 4 kiss scenes, nothing more nothing less. Since they are both of mature actors, we needn’t focus too much on such lovey dovey scenes. The 患难见真情 was enough to see them through the entire drama.
Besides the Bromance between K – Seol Woo and Woong Gwang, there’s also the camaraderie between K and Prosecutor Lee Dong Hyun, who is K’s main contact point. Their interactions could be pretty comical at times and it also showed how 2 grown men cared for each other in times of adversity. The things that they would do for each other would make you feel pretty touched as well. Though agents are not supposed to have feelings for the people around them, it only goes to show that, agents are only human as well.
There’s also a side loveline for Woon-gwang. His ex girlfriend is now a chaebol’s wife but he could not get over the fact that she left him 8 years ago after he got into an accident.
Mo Seung Jae, as the main antagonist of the drama, would stir up a big storm and would stop at nothing in achieving his goals.
It’s a battle of wits and you wouldn’t know who is on which side, till the very end.
Overall, Man X Man did not fall into the very solemn category, with its twists of turns and also some cute interactions between the main leads.
Thanks to the comedic effects, the drama did not become too serious.
But also luckily, the action drama did not fall into the category of a slapstick comedy.
However, as the story went on, sometimes we just did not get why they had to put their lives in danger for certain things.
At the end of the day, I guess it doesn’t matter.
The message is clear that evil cannot triumph over good.
That said, Hope to see Park Hae Jin’s new drama “Four Men” soon where he assumes 4 personalities as quadruplets or, it was just his fake identities as a secret agent? If it is linked to be the prequel to Man X Man, then there’s a high chance it’s all a disguise.
But then again, I hope it’s a totally non-related drama, so that he can showcase his versatility.
Looking forward to how he’s gonna approach this challenging role.
