[Spoiler] City Hunter Episode 1 Recap

Episode 1

It is October 9, 1983, as a woman, Lee Kyeong Hee (Kim Mi Sook), struggles to give birth. Meanwhile, another arrival – that of a South Korean diplomatic party – is taking place outside a building set in a remote Burma location. Reporters, Secret Service agents, and military men surround the area, creating a secure fence for the cavalcade of black cars that come sweeping up the drive. Cabinet members stand ready to receive the officials (including the President). In charge of security are agents and best friends Lee Jin Pyo (Kim Sang Joong) and Park Mu Yeol (Park Sang Min).



Unknown to them, however, an unseen hand prepares to press a button that will detonate a bomb under the roof timbers of the house. As soon as the first car pulls up in front of the porch, the bomb erupts, destroying the entire front of the house and killing most of the crowd of people standing in front.



As the nation goes into mourning, a group of politicians hold an emergency meeting. The most influential voice is Choi Eung Chan (Chun Ho Jin), who incites the others to retaliate.



Kyeong Hee finally does succeed in giving birth to a boy, our protagonist. As she cradles the baby, Jin Pyo and Mu Yeol enter the room to give congratulations, and we see that Mu Yeol is the doting father of the boy.



This is a short visit, however, as both men have been recruited by Eung Chan to carry out a retaliation on the North Koreans, with the aim of assassinating one North Korean general for every South Korean killed earlier. Eung Chan assures them that they will all return home.

If you ask me, this is never a good sign…

Jin Pyo and Mu Yeol (who has refused Jin Pyo’s entreaty to stay behind) assemble a team of crack soldiers. The agents (in North Korean uniforms) raid Pyongyang, efficiently infiltrating buildings in teams and killing their targets. Mu Yeol is stabbed; Jin Pyo kills the target and drags Mu Yul with him.

Back in Seoul, however, is another type of danger. The same group of officials (the Korean ambassador to the US, the National Security Minister, the Defense Minister, and the Finance minister) summons Eung Chan to deliver news – the President has forbidden any military aggression against North Korea (for political reasons involving their allies), and they support him. Even though Eung Chan entreats them to think about the men that are risking their lives at the moment, the others are in favor of abandoning them.

Mission completed, the team escapes to the ocean, swimming strongly for an emerging submarine. Jin Pyo lags behind, supporting an injured Mu Yeol over the water as he struggles to keep up. The first of the soldiers finally climbs aboard the submarine – only to be shot by a sniper hidden behind the structure. One by one, the shots continue to pick off the soldiers in the water, even as they swim frantically away.



As the sniper aims at the two, Mu Yeol pushes Jin Pyo down in the water and takes the shot himself. As it calms, Mu Yeol entreats Jin Pyo to take care of his wife and son, and sinks. Jin Pyo, stricken, swims to shore and emerges from the water with revenge in his eyes.



Eung Chan receives the news that all of the men have died; the other officials assure him that all evidence of the raid has been destroyed. Alone in his office Eung Chan looks at an envelope of the men’s dog tags – but suddenly there is a knife at his throat, held by a coldly angry Jin Pyo.


Eung Chan entreats him with the same arguments his colleagues offered, even though his face shows his sorrow. Jin Pyo is not forgetting the betrayal: “Do you know? We can die for our country, but not for political power.” Eung Chan is saved when an aide knocks to give him news; when he turns back, Jin Pyo is gone through the window, leaving a note pinned to the desk with his knife: “The price of those 20 lives – I will come to collect it.”

At home, Kyeong Hee is hanging up laundry when she is startled by the sudden barking of dogs. Coming back into the house, she finds that baby Yun Seong is gone – with a note on his empty blanket. Heartbroken, she runs from the house, screaming for her baby. Hidden in an alley is Jin Pyo, holding the baby. Hearing Kyeong Hee, he thinks : “Mu Yeol is dead. I will take the child and raise it well. Start a new life. You must be happy.”

Revenge or not, taking a woman’s baby is not the best way to make her happy, Jin Pyo. Just so you realize.

On the boat to Thailand, the crying baby is soothed by a women passenger (we learn later her name is Muangsuri). Jin Pyo thinks to Mu Yeol that he is planning the cruelest revenge, which is his reason for living.

Time jumps forward 10 years, and adolescent Yun Seong is now a guerilla-in-training in a Thai drug farm/military training compound, led by Jin Pyo. In addition to being a darn good shot for his age, Yun Seong also appears to believe that Jin Pyo is his father. Jin Pyo, however, takes a harsh approach to parenting/training, gruffly deriding his adopted son’s shooting skills and drilling him in martial arts over and over again in the rain.



He is hardly more caring when he catches Yun Seong with an old photo of Kyeong Hee, Mu Yeol, and Jin Pyo. When the boy asks if Kyeong Hee is his mother, Jin Pyo tells him his mother is dead and rips up the photo.


In tears, Yun Seong runs to Muangsuri’s hut in the forest, where she lives with her son. She holds him just like she does for her boy. Alone, Jin Pyo thinks back to Kyeong Hee’s stricken face when she lost her child, and clutches the remnants of the photo tightly.

Another time jump, ushering in Lee Min Ho as Yun Seong. This Yun Seong is confident and happy as he swaggers through the Thai markets, waving to girls and filching apples from a nearby stall. His training kicks in, however, when he notices, among the hubbub, a Thai gang beating up a Korean man in a nearby building.




Modus operandi: fling apples with deadly force to knock out thugs through the window. Evade more thugs coming at you through the streets, and break into the building. Grab victim and zip off through market streets. (Grin, exhilarated, even as gang members are pounding close behind you). Leap into top floor of another building, using the tree outside the window as a handy escape route. Take over a boat and motor off down the river. Finally, arrive with countryman at hideout and explain presence of both to irate father.



Jin Pyo is not happy that Yun Seong has brought an outsider into their militarized hideout. The man, who says he is Bae Shik Joon (Kim Sang Ho), manages to change this opinion after offering his services as cook. Turns out, he’s a top-notch Korean cook, and he gets to stay. Yun Seong remains at the table stuffing his face after Jin Pyo leaves, but notices a photo that Shik Joon is holding. Not just any photo, but a very pretty girl, which definitely piques Yun Seong’s interest. It’s Kim Na Na (Park Min Young), whom he assumes is Shik Joon's daughter.



The happy mood doesn’t last long, however. At shooting practice, a human target is brought in – Muangsuri. Turns out her husband was caught sneaking drugs out of the compound, and Jin Pyo’s rules do not tolerate traiters and their families. Shocked, Yun Seong pleads with his father to have mercy. Jin Pyo remains firm – he is the leader and any breach of rules will be punished. As Muangsuri pleads for her life, Yun Seong offers a deal: if he hits all of the hanging targets surrounding the stake she’s tied to, she will be freed. Jin Pyo agrees.



Yun Seong loads the semiautomatic and takes aim – one, two, three, each of the gourds hanging close to Muangsuri’s head explode. Yun Seong lets out a breath of relief and tosses down the handgun, and stalks off. He lies on his bed in the room he shares with Shik Joon, and notices Na Na’s picture on the bedside table. Addressing her, he says: “Does it make sense to shoot such an important person?”, then, wistfully, “You must be living well in this place called Seoul”.

Outside, though, the same gang members he encountered earlier today are surrounding the house, climbing over the porch where Muangsuri is folding laundry. Inside, Yun Seong’s ears catch the characteristic click of a gun being loaded, and instantly he springs into action: he grabs Shik Joon and raises the bed as a shield as the attackers blast bullets through the walls.



Some distance outside, Jin Pyo and his team hear the gunfire and race for the house.



Their leader signals for them to infiltrate the house. In a tight sequence, Yun Seong fights off the immediate gang in the room and escapes to the porch.Hemmed in by a line of guns, he takes cover behind a pillar. The gang leader slowly aims his gun, unseen by Yoon Sung, but noticed by Muangsuri. She springs out to warn him, only to take a shot herself. Stunned, Yun Seong leaves his cover and moves toward her body; only Jin Pyo’s arrival saves him as the gang is shot from behind. He doesn’t notice anything but Muangsuri, pleading for her to wake up. As Jin Pyo watches, he lays her body down and picks up the nearby gun, swearing: “I’ll kill all those guys.”


Yun Seong gives chase to the fleeing remnants of the gang, dodging fire. Hell-bent on revenge, he chases them even after one of them gets blown up by a mine – until he steps on one himself.



It looks like the mines are part of the hideout’s defense mechanisms

With an unloaded gun and the remaining two attackers aiming at him, Yun Seong is in trouble. Suddenly, both the attackers are shot – by Jin Pyo. He walks up to Yun Seong and tells him: “When you lose your temper, you can even end up stepping on your own booby traps. If you wanted to destroy that man, you should have taken him out by the roots. If you leave roots behind, you will be the one to die.”



Jin Pyo kneels with his machete, sliding it under Yun Seong’s foot to place pressure on the mine. It dislodges his foot, and the mine senses the release in pressure. In the second before the blast, Jin Pyo holds Yoon Sung against him, shielding him. It costs him a foot, as we see when Yoon Sung piggybacks him back to the house, crying and pleading for him to live. Yun Seong is still distraught after Jin Pyo is lying down indoors, but Jin Pyo tells him: “If I saved you, it was worth it.”



As the doctor and Shik Joon hover, Yun Seong moves to start bandaging the stump to stop blood loss, but Jin Pyo tells him to extract a bullet embedded in his shoulder instead. Yun Seong does so, as Jin Pyo groans in pain.



This looked SO incredibly painful, I could hardly watch.

Jin Pyo says: “Listen to what I’m saying carefully. This is related to your real father.”

Yun Seong: “Dad…what do you mean, my real father?”

Jin Pyo: “17 years ago, we were attacked on a mission and lost 20 lives. That day, in order to save my life, your father took a bullet for me. That bullet went through his heart and hit only my shoulder. The only reason I’m still living is to avenge your father. Yoon Sung-ah…you must live, to avenge your father’s and my deaths.”

Yun Seong, through tears: “Is that why you’ve trained me so hard? To take revenge?”

Jin Pyo has no reply, as he quickly drops unconscious. Yun Seong pleads with the doctor to save his life.

Alone in his room, Yun Seong thinks about Muangsuri and Jin Pyo, his mother and father figures. Likewise, Jin Pyo dreams of Mu Yeol and Kyeong Hee and his promise to them, holding the taped-together photo of them.

Yun Seong now confronts Jin Pyo, asking about his father’s killers. (Interestingly, he still addresses Jin Pyo as "Father".) Jin Pyo replies that there were five of them.

Yun Seong: “So if I kill all five of them, can you and I live in a place nobody knows?” Although Jin Pyo makes no reply, he continues, “My mother…is she alive?” This time Jin Pyo replies in the affirmative.

He walks out of the room into the corridor, still strewn with broken glass, where Shik Joon is tentatively waiting for him. He says, “I will change. That’s my fate.”



Another time jump informs us that it is now 7 years later. Yun Seong, dressed sharply, arrives in Seoul airport from America. He gazes at the city through taxi windows, finally getting a glimpse of his homeland. He answers a phone call from a man, who tells him that his first target is Lee Kyeong Wan; and to never forget his father’s death.



Yun Seong, spying families playing in a public fountain, gets out here and wistfully takes in the scene. A few feet away stands a girl in a bright yellow dress, handing out flyers – Kim Na Na. Both of them gaze at the scene, not noticing the other.



Conclusion

This episode mainly has the job of setting up our hero’s backstory, and the early years that shape him (hence the multiple time jumps). Despite that, I liked it. It was cohesive, gripping in all the right places, and the pacing was fast but not choppy. We have a good idea of Yun Seong’s character and the people he’s dealing with. Lee Min Ho is magnetic and the supporting cast, especially Kim Sang Joong, gives a good performance. And a mention for the music, which is nice and very effective at enhancing the action scenes. The only thing I’m worried about is the introduction of Na Na – how will the writer reconcile the revenge theme with the romance angle? Coming soon in Episode 2 recap.

Posted in: Spoilers