It’s after a very long time that a drama has taken over my mind to such an extent that I feel affected by it even after it is over. ‘A Love To Kill’ is a Korean drama dealing with love, loss, and revenge. There is a feeling of desolation attached to it from the very first scene of the show. Though a very sad story, it somehow manages to hold your attention and does not bore you. Since it was a revenge melodrama I knew that it will be high in emotional content, what I did not expect was for it to have a lasting impact on me. I did not cry even once during the show, but there is something about it that makes you feel dispirited. The last time I felt like that was after watching the movie ‘Rockstar’. I am not saying that the show was so good that it moved me. I am saying that the story is such that it will, in some way, leave you disheartened.

A Love To Kill (2005)

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Korean show ‘A Love To Kill’ is a 16 episode long television series (each episode about an hour long). It is about an ambitionless K-1 fighter named Kang Bok-gu who fights only to lose. For Bok-gu, his elder brother Kang Min-gu is his life and when he reunites with his long-lost brother after ten years his joys know no bounds. But shortly after meeting his brother, Kang Min-gu tries to commit suicide after learning that the woman he loves is now engaged to another man. Min-gu survives but is reduced to a vegetative state for life. Kang Bok-gu is unable to bear the helpless sight of his brother and decides to punish the girl who broke his brother’s heart. He gets to know that his brother’s former girlfriend Cha Eun-suk, a popular Korean actress, is looking for a bodyguard and wastes no time in taking up the job. An unsuspecting Cha Eun-suk gradually falls for her bodyguard Bok-gu after he saves her life on a few occasions. Bok-gu gets his revenge on Cha Eun-suk but is far from feeling happy and satisfied.

Let’s weigh the A Love To Kill on a beam balance and see if it is worth your time or no.

Good Weights

Soundtrack –The show’s soundtrack manages to invoke the feeling of pain and sadness which is also what the story majorly deals with. It is mostly the music that causes a stir in your heart. The title theme ‘Dream’ by K.Will is the best song of the show as it is heartbreaking yet mysterious. 

You can check the song below.

Love To Kill theme song with English subtitles.

 

Good Performance – Rain (Kang Bok-gu) looks convincing as the rugged fighter and the taut bodyguard. This may not be his best performance but it isn’t his worst either. He does very well in emotional scenes. You can actually feel his anguish and suffering for being tied between family and love. 

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Shin Min-ah (Cha Eun-suk) looks beautiful even when she is crying. She looks every bit of a lonely, distraught actress yearning for love. I simply love the scene where she offers Bok-gu a sip of her drink. She looks like an innocent little kid unaware of any ill in the world.

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Bad Weights

Too Depressing – I understand that it is a revenge drama and Bok-gu has to have some serious motive to ruin a girl’s life but the show gets just too depressing with Eun-suk being at the receiving end of everyone’s selfish motives. Seeing her suffer unreasonably is very agonizing. Why would anyone want to see someone suffer so much for no fault of theirs?

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Bad Ending – I am a typical Bollywood person and totally believe that in the end everything just falls into place and everyone is happy and if that doesn’t happen then the movie isn’t over yet. I also do agree that not all stories have a happy ending but I feel that maybe this story could have had a little less unpleasant ending. I will not go into the details of the climax but I wish they would have ended the show a few scenes before the actual ending.

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Lackluster Supporting Cast – Cha Eun-suk’s fiancé Kim Joon-sung played by Lee Ki-woo is a very good-looking chap but is so weak when it comes to emoting. His expression is the same in every scene. I couldn’t understand when exactly was he angry, when sad and when happy.

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Han Da-Jung played by Kim Sa-rang is OK but I feel she could have done better. The scene where she reveals her identity to Cha Eun-suk was an important scene but she doesn’t look apologetic at all which really irritated me.   

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Loopholes in Story – I found it really weird that Kim Joon-sung took the trouble to find out who Bok-gu’s girlfriend was, but did not bother to check his family background. Also, he took it up to himself to try to eliminate Bok-gu (tried to run him down with his car) when he could have easily hired someone to do a better job. I could not understand what was wrong with Cha Eun-suk’s father. Why does he love his second wife so much? He very ignorantly lets her trouble his daughter with protesting. What kind of a father is he?

 

The show beam balance clearly has too many bad weights than good weights which indicate that, for me, the show had too many bad factors pulling it down. The show’s plot is interesting but the screenplay is what seems lacking. The cinematography is good and I really liked how the few fighting scenes were shown. I completed the series just to know how it concludes but the ending was such a dampener that I felt cheated. However, if you really enjoy sad dramas then you can give it a try. Ignore the first episode (read the written update instead) as it is really boring. You can start with the second episode as that’s where the story actually begins.

I give the show 2.5 out of 5 rating. For me, this was a love to ‘forget’.

 

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