Shark – The Storm: Episodes 1-6 (Series Review) » Dramabeans
Shark – The Storm: Episodes 1-6 (Series Review)
by starrygazer
If you’re looking for something gritty and utterly watchable Shark – The Storm is worth adding to your watchlist. The series serves as a sequel to the movie Shark – The Beginning and it’s packed with nail-bitingly tense scenarios and life or death stakes. Though the world seems to be against him, our hero keeps moving forward through life like a shark through the ocean.
NOTE: This review contains major spoilers, so proceed with caution.
SERIES REVIEW
For the uninitiated, the series kicks off with a little backstory for those of us who haven’t seen Shark – The Beginning. Our hero, CHA WOO-SOL (Kim Min-seok) was mercilessly bullied when he was younger, and ended up in jail after finally snapping and stabbing his bully in the eye with a pen. (Ouch!) In jail, Woo-sol, met the men who went on to become his closest friends. JUNG DO-HYUN (Wie Ha-joon) is the only one of the group still incarcerated and he was the one who taught Woo-sol how to fight and survive in jail. The mantra of survival that Woo-sol lives by is to be like a shark: never stop moving forward. Woo-sol still visits him and he comes across as sweet and eager to please his friends. After their time together in jail, the group is eager to change their ways and to help guide Woo-sol down the right path.
Society has not been kind to our ex-convicts, but they scrape by and remain close friends even on the outside. Their affection runs deep; they call each other brother and look out for one another. (Which gave me the feels.) HAN SUNG-YONG (Han Jung-hyun) owns a food truck and seems to be doing alright for himself, JUNG SANG-HYUB (Park Jin) works at a gym with Woo-sol. And LEE WON-JOON (Bae Myung-jin) picks up work where he can while studying for the GED with Woo-sol’s friend YOON JI-HEE (Jo Yoon-seo).
But a chance meeting that will change our little circle of friends lives forever takes place at Woo-sol’s gym. While working at the gym, Woo-sol is challenged by a blonde MMA fighter to come and be his “sandbag” in the ring. (I think Blondie meant to ask Woo-sol to spar with him nicely but this dude has an ego the size of a bus and an attitude.) With Woo-sol having kept up the training Do-hyun taught him, he is no easy target, and Blondie ends up with a busted hand. Woops. *Trying not to laugh*.
This is where our villain comes into play, HYUN WOO-YONG (Lee Hyun-wook). He is the narcissistic, bloodthirsty “chairman” of an organized crime syndicate that runs an illegal fighting ring. Blondie was supposed to fight but couldn’t thanks to the injury he sustained against Woo-sol. As payback for costing him money, Woo-yong ruthlessly kills Blondie and his associates. He’s just opened up a vacancy on his fighting roster though, so he orders a background check on Woo-sol. Woo-yong definitely has a god complex; he struts through traffic literally stopping cars to demand Woo-sol work for him as a fighter.
Woo-sol declines the demand/job offer, and Woo-yong decides to retaliate by pulling Woo-sol into playing a nasty game with life and death stakes. Woo-yong sends one of his inner circle, PARK SHI-HYUN (Kim So-ra) to kidnap Ji-hee. Shi-hyun dresses up as a pregnant lady and lures Ji-hee into a trap where a waiting gangster grabs her. When Woo-sol and his friends find out where Ji-hee is being kept, he and Won-joon set off to help her — and fall into yet another trap. This does not end well and eventually the two men get overwhelmed by the volume of gangsters they have to fight.
Three of our crew are being held hostage, but the nightmare has only started. When the abductees regain consciousness, they are all in straight jackets. Woo-yong is obviously a man who doesn’t deal well with rejection and doesn’t hear the word “no” very often. For the crime of having turned down a job offer, Woo-yong tells Woo-sol to choose which of his friends will die. Woo-yong leaves before the choice is made and instructs Shi-hyun to make sure she kills someone as he has a prior engagement — and to keep the camera running. (All I can hear in my head is cuckoo, cuckoo this dude is crazy!) While still being filmed, Shi-hyun stabs Won-joon, just because Woo-sol was panicking asking him what he should do.
Won-joon takes advantage of the stab wound as it loosened his straightjacket and he gains the upper hand long enough to free Woo-sol and Ji-hee. But getting out of this is another matter, the building is completely crawling with gangsters. This kicks off some incredible fight scenes, where you can hear almost every bone break throughout. The battle seems unwinnable and Won-joon tells Woo-sol to get Ji-hee out of there while he holds the gangsters off. Woo-sol and Ji-hee run into yet more thugs on their way out, but thankfully Sung-yong and Sang-hyub arrive and help fight back the tide of bad guys.
The group doesn’t abandon Won-joon though, they successfully rescue him and manage to escape together via Sung-yong’s food truck. Won-joon had held his own throughout all the fighting, but it’s too late. On the way to the hospital, he succumbs to his wounds. The pain everyone feels is palpable. We get snippets of happier times the crew had with Won-joon and those memories make clear why there is only one path left for the friends to choose — revenge.
At Won-joon’s funeral his sister LEE YEON-JIN (Jung Da-eun) is furious and blames Woo-sol. It is heartbreaking to watch Woo-sol sink to his knees and apologize. This is not a situation Woo-sol sought out, but he agrees that Won-joon’s death is all his fault. We see that Won-joon had left Woo-sol with his dying wish. Won-joon wanted to sincerely apologise to everyone he hurt before he went to prison, but since it’s too late for him now, he had asked Woo-sol to seek out all the people he had bullied and apologize on his behalf. This weighs heavily on Woo-sol as a past victim of bullying. 
Despite having orchestrated the murder, Woo-yong uses his connections to pay off the police and make Won-joon’s murder go away. With the lack of police progress, and after overhearing a few choice conversations, Yeon-jin realizes that Woo-sol and the crew weren’t to blame for her brother’s death. Unlike the police, the crew are not going to let Won-joon’s death go unpunished and Yeon-jin wants in on their plan. Woo-sol, Sung-yong and Sang-hyub test Yeon-jin in the ring and she can even hold her own just fine. The plan comes together: Go Woo-yong’s building, face off with the bad guys, and get the recording of Won-joon’s murder.
Yeon-jin kicks off the final, brutal showdown by delivering a package addressed to the broadcasting room in Woo-yong’s building. The package has phones taped to every side and will let our circle of friends locate the broadcasting room and retrieve the footage of Won-joon’s death. The crew blow up Sung-yong’s food truck as an initial distraction, then head inside to distract any henchmen while Woo-sol extracts the footage. The plan falls short — Woo-sol gets to the broadcasting room but the footage has already been removed. Woo-yong is one step ahead and he taunts Woo-sol over the speakers — if Woo-sol wants the footage so badly, he has to face Woo-yong alone.
It’s a bloody finale, with each member of the friend circle facing a formidable enemy. Yeon-jin faces off against her brother’s murderer. Sung-yong and Sang-hyub go head to head with Woo-yong’s strongest men. All of our fighters struggle to hold their own, and while they inflict damage, they do end up with injuries of their own.
The main match though, with Woo-sol versus Woo-yong, is absolutely nail biting. Both men end up bloody messes. Woo-yong is as vicious as ever, but Woo-sol shows mercy even with his life on the line. The fight finally comes to an end with Woo-yong dangling from a window. Woo-sol makes the decision to save his life and pull Woo-yong to safety. Ever the jerk, Woo-yong sneers that Woo-sol will regret his choice to save him.
Woo-sol leaves with the footage and a parting comment: “I’m different to you”. This enrages Woo-yong but he is finished. He’s body’s done and he has a broken arm to boot. (I’ve never been so pleased to hear a bone break. Is that weird?)
At the end we get a glimpse of our circle of friends putting their lives back together. Woo-sol follows through with his promise to go and apologize to Won-joon’s victims. And Woo-yong ends up in jail for murder/illegal fighting rings — the works. But when Woo-yong arrives at the prison his new cell mate just so happens to be… Do-hyun. Does Woo-yong know about Do-hyun’s relationship with the people that finally took him down? Is this ordeal really finished?
As for my final thoughts, I enjoyed this show and I would watch if another series was made. The relationship between our ex-cons gave the show an emotional anchor and a lighter side to the dark elements of the show. Finding solidarity through your desperation and to keep moving forward — like a shark — is something I can definitely relate too. Kim Min-seok did a great job as Woo-sol, I was just a little disappointed that Wie ha-joon wasn’t in it more. If you enjoy a little bare knuckle fighting and characters with heart, this show is one to watch.
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