This February 2021, Netflix released a new KDrama (Korean Drama) starring Song Joong-Ki, the actor who is well known for his role in Descendants of the Sun as Captain Yoo Shi-Jin, who popularized the Song-Song Couple together with Song Hye-Kyo who is now his ex-wife. Back to the topic, Vincenzo is a Mafia inspired drama which has been flooding my newsfeed lately. So the lazy ass reviewer in me got a little excited and curious… what is it really about? Is it another Vagabond like series or it’s just one of those dramas that gets the hype because of the actors playing the roles? Well, it’s for me to help you decide coz I’m going to help you understand the bits and pieces of the series.

Disclaimer: If you want some spoiler, go ahead and read but if not, watch it first then come back here after…we will wait for you!

Synopsis

The TV series is focused on a former Italian Mafia lawyer/consiglieri (An adviser of a Mafia Boss) named Vincenzo Cassano played by Song Joong-ki, who flew to South Korea to do one mission only… demolish the Geumga Plaza but little did he know, demolishing the building is the least of his problems; coming back to his hometown is more than taking down a building, it’s also coming back to his past that he’s been longing to fix after so many years.

The Verdict (characters, plot, and other things…)

Let’s start with the Characters. Probably one of the reasons I got curious is because The Song Joong-ki is part of it and I guess we all know that’s a little sign that this is gonna be a hit and I’m not even surprised that Vincenzo blew the internet coz yeah, it’s SJK and All of a sudden, posts about it were all over the newsfeed of most social media sites.

For the role of Hong Cha-young played by Jeon Yeo-been, well, the acting was a little off for me maybe because I didn’t like the comedic approach in the character itself, I felt like it didn’t came naturally. I mean, there’s something missing in the acting. But Jeon Yeo-been is gorgeous, I love her. The tandem was actually great but the chemistry however wasn’t there or maybe it’s because the drama didn’t focus on their possible love-story.

Ok Taecyeon played the villain this time as Kwak Hee Soo, the real CEO of Babel Company which is owned by their family and later transferred to him after his father died. What I like about Ok is he did justice to the character, being a psychopath is never easy of a role. However the relevance of his character doesn’t actually makes sense (in my opinion).

Kwak Dong-yeon who played as the fake CEO of Babel, Jang Han-seo, at first I felt like he’s just an accessory in the kdrama but in the end, I can see why they gave him this character and what hi role’s relevance in the whole series. Nonetheless, I love how he gave worthy of the character even in the final episode.

You know what surprised me? All along I thought Kim Yeo-jin’s character, Ms. Choi Myun-hee, a senior lawyer of the rival law firm, will be the main villain but turns out she isn’t. Her acting is on point however the zumba-lover trait doesn’t add up for me.

Let’s talk about my most favorite character in the series, Ahn Gi-seok played by Im Chulsoo, he’s part of the intelligence whose sole responsibility is to know the purpose of Vincenzo’s come back in the country. I love how he turned out to be the no.1 fan of Vincenzo.

The Plot

I don’t think the story of Vincenzo being a Mafia Consiglieri played part in the series that much. And I’ve read books about mafia and researched about it before and the way the mafia is portrayed in Vincenzo is far enough from what they really are. The whole concept was I guess based on the same perspective of western films when it comes to mafia, that’s maybe the reason why I found the whole drama a little off. The story is a little in cluster, I mean, there’s so much going on in the story that you get bored on every scene because you just wait for something to happen, coz in your head you are expecting more out of it.

Plus, mafia people don’t have glass skin, that’s for sure! SJK is just too good to be true for the role.

Although many people will disagree with me, even Rotten Tomatoes had rated this series 96%. It was good enough yes but compare to Vagabond, Descendant of the Sun, Sisyphus or even W – Two Worlds, I’d re-watch them more than Vincenzo. I guess I have expected more in the Mafia side of it because lately, I’ve been reading about mafia and some novels that involves mafia. So my judgement was clouded by that factor and since I was expecting more, you can never please me anymore if one episode doesn’t make the cut.

All Of The Other Stuff

I can say it was good, plot was executed wisely, the surprises were there, the way they establish how Vincenzo wins every battle, it was okay for me. I just didn’t understand why the public had gone loco about it, as I’ve mentioned in my first paragraph, I guess it’s because the main character was SJK. I guess the bandwagon effect began there. Who doesn’t like SJK, right?

All in all, it’s just too boring for me, I like the story flow but there was too much going on in the story. I was hoping there’s a focus but it turned out Vincenzo was fighting too many battles that most didn’t reflect too much in the character build up that I was expecting. But I will give this an 87% wonderroanne rating, plot wise. But they hype that the social media gave the Vincenzo is not that convincing.