The K2 ~ I Didn’t Kill My Lover, I am Your Protector
“The K2” is a 2016 Korean drama series, with 16 episodes, categorized as Thriller, Suspense, Action, Romance; and streaming on Viki, Tubi, The Roku Channel, and Amazon Prime Video.
SUMMARY: A former special forces soldier becomes a fugitive after being falsely accused of a crime in Iraq. The Muslim woman he loved is murdered to hide corruption and he was used as the scapegoat. He returned to South Korea and lived quietly under the radar. But because he witnessed an adulterous affair of a high-profile individual, he was targeted for elimination. Ironically, he ended up saving the life of the person who put out a contract for his life. Furthermore, he became the bodyguard for her stepdaughter.
♦ From Special Forces to Fugitive to Bodyguard
In “The K2 “, Kim Je-Ha served in Iraq as a special forces soldier and fell in love with a Muslim girl. He was about to be reassigned and proposed marriage to her so he could take her with him back to South Korea. That dream never happened. His beloved was murdered by a corrupt official because he thought she knew too much. Kim Je-Ha was framed for the crime but managed to escape before he could be put in prison. He made his way back to Seoul, South Korea, but now he’s a fugitive.
When Ko An-Na was young, she walked into a room and saw her mother lying dead on the floor. The trauma caused her to be confused, and she believed she had killed her mother. As she grew older, she began to sort out her memories and realized that her stepmother, Choi Yoo-Jin, was the one behind her mother’s death. After her mother died, she was taken to a convent in Spain where she was supposed to stay … FOREVER!
But once she became a young woman, she escaped, wearing nothing but a flimsy nightgown. She didn’t even have shoes. You can imagine what people thought of her when they saw her on the street. Probably thought she had escaped from a mental hospital. But nobody tried to help her. Nobody except … Kim Je-Ha.
Kim Je-Ha was in Spain at the time, trying to make his way back to South Korea. He and Ko An-Na crossed paths in a subway train station. She was running away from someone, and when she realized he was Korean, she begged him for help. He tried to help, but it turned out the man chasing her was a police officer. That was the last thing Kim Je-Ha needed: people coming after him, a fugitive, because he took down a policeman while trying to help a damsel in distress. Ko An-Na was captured or recaptured, and Kim Je-Ha managed to evade capture.
Several months later, he was living under the radar in Seoul, doing odd jobs to earn enough to feed and clothe himself. He was called back to a company because the banner he hung had fallen. The wind had almost blown it down. It was a banner with the face of Jang Se-Joon, the man who was running for president, the father of Ko An-Na, and the adulterous husband of Choi Yoo-Jin.
It wasn’t a real marriage. It was more like a business partnership, an arrangement they agreed to so that when he became president, she could have access to … almost everything her heart desired. Jang Se-Joon also agreed because Choi Yoo-Jin was holding his daughter hostage. However, if anything happened to Ko An-Na, then everything Choi Yoo-Jin had worked for would be destroyed. He’d make sure of it.
Choi Yoo-Jin owned the building where the banner was hanging and the security company as well. The night Kim Je-Ha came to rehang the banner, he had a clear view into one of the rooms and saw Jang Se-Joon having “fun” with an unidentified woman. But he couldn’t care less. He was just there to do a handyman’s job. Kim Je-Ha did care, however, when he looked into another window and saw the elderly cleaning woman attacked by masked intruders. His military training kicked in. He broke the window, got inside, and started fighting with the masked men.
Even though it was one against many, the men could not subdue him. They ran out of the building because their “operation” failed and they didn’t want to get caught by the company’s security staff or the police.
What operation? The woman in the bedroom with the presidential candidate drugged him, and the plan was to take photos of him in a compromising situation and then blackmail him. His wife goes on television and paints these rosy pictures of marital bliss when their marriage is all thorns, no roses. Choi Yoo-Jin is fully aware of her husband’s infidelity and does an excellent job of constantly covering it up. Nobody ever catches him. But who would want to catch him? His political rival, of course! The other guy who’s running for president.
After the intrusion and failed operation, Kim Je-Ha slipped under the radar again. But this time the fugitive was not being hunted for murder. He needed to be found because, although no photos had been taken, he was an eyewitness who had seen Jang Se-Joon’s face. Choi Yoo-Jin hired a contract killer to eliminate him, but the killer did not succeed. The killer did tell him who hired him, and that’s how Kim Je-Ha came to meet Choi Yoo-Jin face to face. He was bold enough to come to her home, where she had several security guards waiting for him. They were supposed to get rid of him, but they didn’t succeed either.
Kim Je-Ha turned the tables on her and ended up taking Choi Yoo-Jin hostage. They drove off in her car. Choi Yoo-Jin was the driver, and Kim Je-Ha was in the backseat with a gun pointed at her. While they were on the road, all of a sudden two men on a motorcycle appeared and they hacked into her car’s computer system. They were trying to kill Choi Yoo-Jin. Kim Je-Ha’s military training kicked in again. He’s not a cold-blooded killer even though Choi Yoo-Jin had made him angry enough to want her dead. But who are these two guys? They want her dead too!
Kim Je-Ha outsmarted the guys on the motorcycle, but unfortunately, he wrecked the car to do it. Rescuers were able to pull him from the car, and Kim Je-Ha managed to pull Choi Yoo-Jin from the car before it exploded. She was stunned and bewildered. The man she tried to kill had just saved her life. You know that expression “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer”? For sure, Kim Je-Ha was not her friend. But if he was an enemy, he had valuable skills. It was better to keep him alive and close to her. That way she could keep an eye on him. Choi Yoo-Jin hired him to be Ko An-Na’s bodyguard. He was code-named “K2”.
Kim Je-Ha accepted the job, but he had an ulterior motive. He found out that Jang Se-Joon’s political rival was the man who had framed him for murder. No way was he going to let that greedy, corrupt man become the president! Falling in love wasn’t part of the plan. But … love happens!
Main Characters:
- Kim Je-Ha (played by Ji Chang-Wook, “Queen Woo”, “Revolver”, “Gangnam B-Side”, “Welcome to Samdal-ri”, “The Worst of Evil”, “The Sound of Magic”, “Suspicious Partner”, “Healer”, “Empress Ki”)
- Ko An-Na (played by Lim Yoon-A, “Big Mouth”, “King the Land”, “The King Loves”, “Prime Minister and I”)
- Jang Se-Joon (played by Cho Seong-Ha, “Time to Hunt”, “Captivating The King”, “Our Blooming Youth”, “Agency”, “Memorist”, “100 Days My Prince”, “Sungkyunkwan Scandal”)
- Choi Yoo-Jin (played by Song Yoon-A, “Assembly”)
Viewership and Rating:
My personal rating is the same as the Viki viewing audience.
I agree with the Viki rating however, “The K2” gets 10 out of 10 stars for the soundtrack and because the opening scenes of the first episode that introduced the two (2) main characters sucked me right in! It was easy to find reviews of this Korean drama. Probably because of the male lead. Fans of Ji Chang Wook will love this 2016 series. Good guy or bad guy, this awesome South Korean actor was made to be an action star.
There was a review on Quora that perfectly summarized “The K2”:
“The story line was perfectly paced, great soundtrack accompaniment, interesting and dimensional subplots, a romance worth swooning over.”
LINKS OF INTEREST:
Is the Korean drama series “The K2” with Ji Chang Wook binge worthy? | Quora
The K2: Kdrama review | A Life of Story
Korean Drama: The K2 Review | Nishable Blog
The K2 Korean Drama Review | Funcurve
The K2 Finale Review | I Dreamed A Drama
TRAILER/TEASER:
Prime Video Singapore. “The K2.” YouTube, 17 July 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6GELNX7Y94.
♦
