The K2

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The K2
Promotional poster
Genre
Created byJinnie Choi
Studio Dragon
Written byJang Hyuk-rin
Directed by
  • Kwak Jung-hwan
  • Sung Yong-il
Starring
ComposerChoi Cheol-ho
Country of originSouth Korea
Original languageKorean
No. of episodes16
Production
Executive producerPark Ho-sik
ProducersKim Geun-hong
Moon Boo-mi
Production locations
Running time60 mins
Production companyHB Entertainment
Original release
NetworktvN
ReleaseSeptember 23 (2016-09-23) –
November 12, 2016 (2016-11-12)

The K2 (Korean: 더 케이투; RR: Deo Keitu) is a 2016 South Korean television series starring Ji Chang-wook, Song Yoon-ah and Im Yoon-ah. It premiered on tvN every Friday and Saturday at 20:00 (KST) from September 23 to November 12, 2016 for 16 episodes.[1]

Plot[edit]

Kim Je-ha is a former mercenary soldier for the PMC Blackstone. While in Iraq, Je-ha gets framed for the murder of his lover Raniya, a civilian, and becomes a fugitive. Je-ha escapes and returns to South Korea, where he is offered work as a bodyguard by Choi Yoo-jin, the owner of JSS Security Company and wife of presidential candidate Jang Se-joon. Je-ha accepts the job in exchange for resources that he needs to exact revenge on another presidential candidate Park Kwan-soo, who previously ordered Raniya's killing.

Je-ha is assigned to guard Go An-na, Jang Se-joon's secret daughter, as An-na's life is always threatened because of her stepmother Yoo-jin. An-na, who has been a recluse and lonely all her life, starts relying on Je-ha, who shows concern for her and protects her everytime. They slowly fall in love, causing Je-ha to be torn between having to work with his boss Yoo-jin to exact revenge on Park Kwan-soo and protecting An-na against the wishes of Yoo-jin.

Another key figure is Choi Sung-won, Choi Yoo-jin's half brother and the son of her father's mistress and eventual second wife, who is his half-sister's fierce rival. Plotting with Park Kwan-soo, Sung-won eventually causes the deaths of Jang Se-joon and Choi Yoo-jin but later pays for this with his life at the hands of Choi Yoo-jin's devoted assistant Kim Dong-mi. Park hangs himself for his atrocious acts and Je-ha finally proves his innocence and achieves his goal of revenge. Je-ha and An-na leave for a foreign country and embrace each other. An-na asks Je-ha about his real name and Je-ha reveals his name.

Cast[edit]

Main[edit]

The main protagonist of the series. He is a former Blackstone military operative who had been stationed in Iraq until he flees South Korea after being framed for murder. His skills come to the attention of Choi Yoo-jin, who hires him to work for her security agency JSS Security under the codename K2, and is assigned as bodyguard to Go An-na, the secret illegitimate daughter of Choi's husband, Jang Se-joon. The name "Kim Je-ha" is not Je-ha's real name but an alias he uses to conceal his identity while working as An-na's bodyguard; the name actually belongs to a victim of an unsolved missing person case. The real name of the protagonist is unknown throughout the show, except that his real surname is said to be Kim.
She is the wife of Jang Se-joon. The eldest daughter of a chaebol family, she was disinherited from the JB Group conglomerate as her father disapproved of a politician as a son-in-law, although she received control of JSS Security. Ambitious and merciless, her corrupt nature is due to the result of her upbringing. She sets her sights on becoming the First Lady and is willing to manipulate An-na and her husband to further her aims. As the series progresses, she begins to develop feelings for Je-ha after he rescues her from an exploding car.
  • Im Yoon-ah as Go An-na or Anna
    • Lee Yoo-joo as young Go An-na
She is the illegitimate daughter of Jang Se-joon who is kept hidden from the public to protect his political career. After her father's affair was discovered, An-na was exiled from Korea and grew up in Spain at a convent, under the constant surveillance of her cruel stepmother Choi Yoo-jin. An-na has developed a social phobia and experiences panic attacks from flashing lights, a result of PTSD stemming from her past connection to the death of her biological mother. She returns to South Korea from Barcelona and becomes a pawn in her stepmother's plan to control her husband's political career from behind-the-scenes. She later falls in love with Je-ha.
He is a philandering presidential candidate partially responsible for corrupting his wife. He is also An-na's biological father. Because of An-na, whose existence is unknown to the public, he is unwillingly under the control of his corrupt wife, who blackmails him into doing her bidding. Throughout the series, he doesn't seem to show that he cares for his daughter, but later he reveals to Je-ha that he truly loves her and is willing to submit to his wife just to keep An-na safe.
He is Se-joon's political rival and leader of the current ruling party. He is the main antagonist of the series.

Supporting[edit]

Yoo-jin's younger half-brother and the current CEO of the chaebol JB Group. Both he and his sister are at odds for the majority control of both JSS Security and their family company. He also constantly tries to get Je-ha to join him, believing him to be a powerful person, but Je-ha continuously refuses due to his loyalty to Yoo-jin, until Sung-won convinces An-na first.[5]
She is Yoo-jin's personal secretary and right-hand woman. She greatly dislikes Je-ha and attempts to kill him on several occasions.
  • Lee Ye-eun as Jang Mi-ran[7]
She is one of the personal bodyguards working alongside Je-ha to protect An-na, operating under the codename J4. She had a crush on Je-ha at first, but later accepted Sung-gyu's confession of love.
He is one of the personal bodyguards working alongside Je-ha and Mi-ran to protect An-na, operating under the codename K1. He is in love with Mi-ran, who later reciprocated his feelings.
  • Lee Chul-min as Park Kwan-soo's aide
  • Song Kyung-chul as Song Young-chun[8]
  • So Hee-jung as Head of JSS medical team.
  • Jeon Bae-soo as Joo Chul-ho, JH's former commander in Iraq, now JSS mercenary in charge of SJ and YJ's security where he is often known as Chief Joo.

Extended[edit]

  • Park Soon-chun as Choi Sung-won's mother
  • Ko In-beom as Guk Chae-wan
  • Lee Soon-won as JSS body guard team leader
  • Jo Jae-ryong as Secretary Sung
  • Kim Ik-tae as Old man helping Je-ha
  • Kwon Soo-hyun as Bodyguard
  • Jung Ji-young as Noh Ji-yeon
  • Yeom Hye-ran as Housekeeper
  • Park Gun
  • Yoo In-hyuk as Dong-mi's bodyguard and former baseball player.[9]
  • Yoon Joo-bin
  • Oh Sang-hoon as Battalion captain
  • Kim Kyung-ryong as Lee Kyung-jin
  • Ji Yoon-jae as Kwan-soo's bodyguard and detective with scar.[10]
  • Jung Se-hyung as Detective
  • Park Kyun-rak as Prosecutor
  • Kim Hyun as Helper
  • Carson Allen as Raniya

Special appearances[edit]

  • Joo Sae-byuk as Woman having affair with Jang Se-joon (ep. 1)
  • Anupam Tripathi as wounded man (ep.2)
  • Son Tae-young as Uhm Hye-rin, An-na's mother and a former famous star.
  • Jo Hee-bong as Police officer
  • Sung Dong-il as Police officer (ep. 3)
  • Yoo Seung-mok as Congressman Kim (ep. 1, 12)
  • Lee Han-wi as President's secretary (ep. 10)
  • Jo Dong-hyuk as JSS Special Ops captain (ep. 8)[11]
  • Choi Jung-min
  • Park Jung-sang

Production[edit]

The drama is written by scriptwriter Jang Hyuk-rin, who wrote Yong-pal (2015) and directed by Kwak Jung-hwan of Neighborhood Hero (2016).[12][13]

Being depicted with a bodyguard action theme, the drama utilized various fighting techniques including systema, taekwondo, aikido, and jujutsu for its action scenes. It became the first Korean television drama to introduce the Bullet Time effect.[14][15]

The first script reading was held in August 2016 at the CJ E&M Center in Seoul, South Korea.[16] Filming began in September.

Some scenes of the drama, primarily in episodes 1 and 2, were filmed in Catalonia (along the mountain of Montserrat, the Gothic and Baroque Cistercian Monastery of Santes Creus in Aiguamúrcia), followed by various places in Barcelona (center, Old City, etc., as well as various metro / commuter rail stations such as Plaça d'Espanya and Magòria / La Campana), Gaudí's Modernista Colònia Güell Crypt (fashion show party) among other locations in Spain (probably near Almería for the Iraq War desert locations). The closing scene of episode 16 was filmed at Barcelona's Turó de la Rovira hill.[17][18][19][20][21] The rest of the series was apparently filmed in Korea.

The male lead Ji Chang-wook, due to his casting, became the highest-paid actor for a tvN drama.[20] He had special training and performed the action stunts in the drama by himself, without a body double.[21] At the press conference, director Kwak expressed "On top of Ji's splendid action, the drama will tell the story of insatiable desire and political fights between people holding secrets of their own."[15]

Original soundtrack[edit]

The K2
OST
Soundtrack album by
Various Artists
ReleasedNovember 11, 2016
GenreK-pop, soundtrack
LabelCJ E&M Music
The K2 OST
No.TitleArtist(s)Length
1."The K2 Main Theme"Various Artists6:45
2."Today" (오늘도)Kim Bo-hyung3:44
3."Sometimes" (아주 가끔)U Sung-eun3:51
4."Amazing Grace"Yoona2:13
5."Love You"Min Kyung-hoon3:50
6."As Time Stops" (시간이 멈춘듯)Park Kwang-sun4:57
7."Anemone"Jan3:52
8."The Witch and the Girl"Various Artists3:56
9."Mirror Mirror"Yang Sun-mi2:52
10."Wolf Knight"Yang Sun-mi4:44
11."Quando Corpus Morietur"Various Artists5:01
12."Wolf's Song"Yang Sun-mi3:30
13."Serenade"Yang Sun-mi3:38
14."Witching Hour"Various Artists2:40
15."The Witch's Advice"Kim Min-young3:01
16."Der Rosenkavalier"Various Artists4:59
17."Against the Odds"Various Artists3:25
18."A Queen of the Forest"Various Artists4:37
19."Anna's Appassionata"Various Artists3:11
20."Anemone"Yang Sun-mi3:45
Total length:1:18:31

Reception[edit]

The K2 received favorable reviews, topping cable channel viewership ratings throughout its 8-week broadcast.[22][23][24][25] Till 2023, the drama streamed internationally on Netflix with English subtitles and its broadcasting rights were sold to Vietnam, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, China, Thailand, Israel and Greece.[22][26][27][28][29][30][31]

Ratings[edit]

Ep. Original broadcast date Average audience share
Nielsen Korea TNmS
Nationwide Seoul Nationwide
1 September 23, 2016 3.225% 3.257% 4.2%
2 September 24, 2016 3.396% 3.821% 4.9%
3 September 30, 2016 4.390% 4.743% 4.6%
4 October 1, 2016 3.948% 3.936% 5.4%
5 October 7, 2016 4.622% 4.820% 5.2%
6 October 8, 2016 6.636% 8.489% 5.6%
7 October 14, 2016 5.059% 5.343% 6.1%
8 October 15, 2016 5.707% 7.410% 6.4%
9 October 21, 2016 4.849% 5.410% 4.6%
10 October 22, 2016 5.646% 6.688% 5.2%
11 October 28, 2016 4.932% 5.817% 4.5%
12 October 29, 2016 5.369% 5.717% 5.0%
13 November 4, 2016 4.489% 5.210% 4.5%
14 November 5, 2016 4.574% 5.279% 5.4%
15 November 11, 2016 5.523% 6.538% 5.2%
16 November 12, 2016 5.467% 6.537% 5.5%
Average 4.865% 5.563% 5.1%
  • In the table above, the blue numbers represent the lowest ratings and the red numbers represent the highest ratings.
  • This drama airs on a cable channel/pay TV which normally has a relatively smaller audience compared to free-to-air TV/public broadcasters (KBS, SBS, MBC and EBS).

Awards and nominations[edit]

Year Award Category Recipient Result Ref.
2016 Asia Artist Awards Popularity Award Im Yoon-ah Won [32]
Asia Star Award Won
31st Korea's Best Dresser Swan Awards Best Dressed Actress Won [33]
Best Dressed Actor Ji Chang-wook Won
2017 5th Annual DramaFever Awards Best Bad Boy Won
Best Villain
Song Yoon-ah
 Nominated

References[edit]

  1. ^ Cho, Yoon-sun (August 26, 2016). "'THE K2' 측 "지창욱, 몸 사리지 않는 연기에 감탄"". Naver (in Korean). Chosun Ilbo. Retrieved August 26, 2016.
  2. ^ Jin, Min-ji (27 July 2016). "Ji Chang-wook confirms lead in 'K2'". Korea JoongAng Daily. JoongAng Ilbo. Retrieved August 11, 2016.
  3. ^ Ahn, Woorim. "Ji Chang Wook Confirms to Appear in 'K2'". BNT News International. BNT News. Archived from the original on September 19, 2016. Retrieved August 11, 2016.
  4. ^ Jang, Hee-jeong. "tvN 측 "'THE K2' 제작 돌입, 내달 23일 첫방 확정"(공식입장)". Naver (in Korean). News1 Korea. Retrieved August 11, 2016.
  5. ^ Jin Min-ji (July 20, 2016). "Lee Jung-jin confirmed for 'K2'". JoongAng Ilbo. Retrieved August 11, 2016.
  6. ^ Park Soo-in (August 18, 2016). "신동미 'THE K2' 출연 확정, 송윤아와 호흡(공식)". Herald Pop (in Korean). Retrieved August 18, 2016.
  7. ^ "뮤지컬배우 이예은, 'THE K2' 소녀시대 윤아 보디가드 役 낙점". Korea Economic Daily (in Korean). August 31, 2016. Archived from the original on September 1, 2016. Retrieved August 31, 2016.
  8. ^ Hong Se-yeong (August 24, 2016). "송경철, 'THE K2' 출연확정...지창욱과 호흡 [공식입장]". Dong-A Ilbo (in Korean). Retrieved August 24, 2016.
  9. ^ Park Soo-in (August 19, 2016). "신예 유인혁, tvN 'THE K2' 캐스팅..액션 연기 펼친다". Star News (in Korean). Retrieved August 19, 2016.
  10. ^ "tvN 'The K2' 배우 지윤재, 극중 정체 드러내.. 또 다른 흥미요소로". Media&Contents (in Korean). October 5, 2016. Retrieved October 5, 2016.
  11. ^ "조동혁, 'THE K2' 깜짝 등판...JSS 타격대장 役". My Daily (in Korean). October 13, 2016. Retrieved October 14, 2016.
  12. ^ Park, Hyun-min (2016-06-14). "지창욱도 tvN 진출하나...'K2' 주연 물망". OSEN (in Korean). Retrieved August 11, 2016.
  13. ^ Park, Yoon-jin (20 June 2016). "송윤아, 첫 케이블 드라마 진출작? "'K2' 검토 중"". My Daily (in Korean). Retrieved August 11, 2016.
  14. ^ THE K2 더 케이투 비기닝 지창욱,송윤아,윤아의 보디가드 액션 제작 리포트 160923 EP.1 (news program). South Korea: tvN on YouTube / Google Inc. September 14, 2016. Retrieved September 14, 2016.
  15. ^ a b Park Jin-hai (September 21, 2016). "Action drama 'K2' adopts 'Matrix' filming technique". The Korea Times. Retrieved September 21, 2016.
  16. ^ THE K2 (대본리딩)THE K2 다섯자로 말하기 160923 EP.1 (news program). South Korea: tvN on YouTube / Google Inc. August 17, 2016. Retrieved September 8, 2016.
  17. ^ "더 케이투 (Deo Keitu), a.k.a The K2", The Barcelona Film Commission - this page only mentions Barcelona generically. [Consulted 14-07-2020].
  18. ^ Filming Location Listings for "The K2", Korean Dramaland. [Consulted 14-07-2020].
  19. ^ Kaur, Gungeet (September 6, 2016). "Im Yoona's still cuts from her upcoming Korean drama released [Photos]". International Business Times. Retrieved September 6, 2016.
  20. ^ a b "지창욱 측 "tvN 역대 최고 출연료? 해외 인기 고려된 것"". DongA Ilbo. July 27, 2016. Retrieved September 11, 2016.
  21. ^ a b "'THE K2' 지창욱, 고난이도 액션도 대역 없이 OK". 10Asia. The Korea Economic Daily. September 8, 2016. Archived from the original on September 9, 2016. Retrieved September 8, 2016.
  22. ^ a b Rumy Doo (November 13, 2016). "'K2' wraps up with top ratings". The Korea Herald. Retrieved November 14, 2016.
  23. ^ "Girls Generation singer Yoona, Ji Chang Wook drama 'The K2' wins TV ratings race". 2016-11-14.
  24. ^ "The K2 opens to positive reviews". IbTimes. 2016-09-25.
  25. ^ "Korean drama 'The K2' takes over weekend viewer ratings". The Jakarta Post.
  26. ^ Kim Chi (October 7, 2016). "'Mật danh K2' được chiếu online ở Việt Nam" ["The K2" is being broadcast online in Vietnam]. Zing.VN. Retrieved November 11, 2016.
  27. ^ "チ・チャンウク＆少女時代 ユナ出演ドラマ「THE K2」来年1月よりMnetで日本初放送". KStyle (in Japanese). November 22, 2016. Retrieved November 22, 2016.
  28. ^ Foong Woei Wan (October 26, 2016). "TV reviews: Forget Descendants Of The Sun, here comes another Korean action star in The K2". The Straits Times. Retrieved November 14, 2016.
  29. ^ "The K2-电视剧-全集高清正版视频-爱奇艺".
  30. ^ True4U ช่อง24 [@true4utv] (December 14, 2016). "ฟินนนจิกหมอนตลอดปี 2017!! กับขบวน #ซีรีส์เกาหลี เรื่องดัง!! จาก #ทรูโฟร์ยูช่อง24 #เงือกสาวตัวร้ายกับนายต้มตุ๋น…" (Tweet) – via Twitter.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  31. ^ "The K2 – שומר הראש". viva.walla (in Hebrew). 6 March 2017.
  32. ^ "[2016 AAA] 조진웅•엑소, 대상 수상…엑소 5관왕 영예[종합]". TV Report. November 16, 2016. Archived from the original on November 16, 2017. Retrieved November 16, 2016.
  33. ^ Showbiz Korea _ Ji Chang Wook(지창욱) & YoonA(윤아) Selected As Korea Best Dressers Of 2016 (news program). Arirang. South Korea: Youtube. December 20, 2016. Retrieved December 20, 2016.

External links[edit]

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