This article contains spoilers.
3/5 stars
Lead cast: Lee Dong-wook, Kim Hye-jun, Seo Hyun-woo, Jo Han-sun
A Shop for Killers seduced us with its stylish opening, but after getting into the Disney+ series and making it all the way to the end, some viewers may now be feeling buyer’s remorse.
Rather than philosophical points to ruminate over, the questions the series has thrown up largely concern lapses in logic – the product of a plot more interested in serving up set pieces than a cohesive narrative.
A Shop for Killers: Lee Dong-wook is a man of mystery in action K-drama
A Shop for Killers: Lee Dong-wook is a man of mystery in action K-drama
John Wick may not be known for its narrative ingenuity, but what it does have is narrative economy. The story that makes up A Shop for Killers is almost as simple, but is twisted into knots through a structure that attempts to make the whole more than the sum of its parts.
The show begins after the death of its main character, Jin-man, and spends a long time showing us how the other main character, Jin-man’s niece Ji-an, played by co-star Kim Hye-jun (Kingdom), learns what we already know – that Jin-man ran an elaborate illegal-weapons business.
What makes this excusable early on is that Ji-an learns all of this through a trial by fire. She is being attacked on all sides by vicious mercenaries intent on taking over the store, and also helped by Jin-man’s associates – characters she does not yet know she can trust.
The first season of this series essentially chronicles the all-day and -night siege of Jin-man’s house and the secret bunker that Ji-an does not know is beneath it. The story takes massive flashback detours to fill in gaps in the story, first Ji-an’s childhood and the death of her parents, and later Jin-man’s past as a mercenary.
Ji-an’s traumatic backstory gives the show a tragic undertone, but rather than leave well alone, A Shop for Killers returns to these flashbacks in a largely superfluous seventh episode, which offers extended versions of what we have already seen.
We see a bit more action but hardly anything new is introduced to the narrative.
In the previous episode, we were taken back to Jin-man’s mercenary days. This shows us why he left the “Babylon” company to set up shop on his own, and sets up all the villains, including fellow company man Lee Seong-jo (Seo Hyun-woo) and the main antagonist Bale (Jo Han-sun), who comes back from the dead minus an eyeball and takes revenge by killing Jin-man’s family.
Bale is set up as a formidable villain who kills civilians for fun, going so far as to throw a grenade into a locked room full of enslaved women. Yet, contrary to our expectations, he does not feature in the finale at all.
Seong-jo and a small army of mercenaries descend on Jin-man’s house and we keep expecting the main villain to finally make his appearance, but he never does. Presumably he will return as the villain if and when Disney+ gives the go-ahead for a second season, but his absence saps a lot of tension from the show’s climax.
5 of the best new Korean drama series to watch in February 2024
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Instead, the show bows out on the reveal that Jin-man is still alive. But is there a single viewer out there who did not see this coming?
A Shop for Killers is not particularly well served by its narrative structure. Truth be told, even without the chronological back and forth, there is still a lot of it that does not make sense. But what the show did deliver in spades was stylish set pieces.
With punchy choreography and clever flourishes in its mise-en-scene, the action for the most part delivered.
Even better were some of the smaller moments dotted throughout that added to the show’s tone.
If there is a season two, let’s hope a smoother narrative will enrich the show’s ample atmospheric attributes.
A Shop for Killers is streaming on Disney+.
