태양을 삼켜라

Jung-woo was abandoned by his birth parents when he was a baby and became friends with Soo-hyun, who became his sweetheart. After rescuing Chairman Jang, he is adopted by him and becomes a bodyguard to the chairman’s son. Jung-woo is reunited with Soo-hyun at Tae-hyuk’s school but even though Soo-hyun loves him, she chooses Tae-hyuk who offers to help her achieve her dream career. So both Tae-hyuk and Soo-hyun go to USA for their studies. Jung-woo is eventually betrayed by Chairman Jang but he is called to Las Vegas by Jackson Lee, a military buddy, who offers him an opportunity to rebuild his life. In Las Vegas, Jung-woo meets Soo-hyun and Tae-hyuk by coincidence. In his line of work as a private bodyguard, Jung-woo saves the life of the king of a small African nation and is asked by the king to rescue his son from the rebels in return for rights to a diamond mine. So Jung-woo heads to Africa, risking his life to claim the mine. Meanwhile, Tae-hyuk and Soo-hyun return to Seogwipo city on Jeju island at Chairman Jang’s request. Tae-hyuk is put in charge of managing a hotel there while Soo-hyun becomes the head of event planning. After gaining control of the diamond mine in African, Jung-woo returns to Jeju and engages in a struggle against chairman Jang and Tae-hyuk… He learns a shocking secret that shakes the foundation of his very existence.

It started off with a bang and kept its tempo up for another 10 episodes before performing the hardest emergency brake pull ever. At least for that portion, this is what modern day parodies would cite mimicking the exaggerated nature of the melo landscape from late 2000s. Lots of abroad filming with the typical Korean lens of foreign lands, loads of shaky action with tons of cuts for every shot that can rival that one Liam Neeson scene jumping over a fence, plenty of exposed skin akin to the usual Korean broadcast ratings, and all kinds of flashy elements that they could through at us as fast as possible. All of that stopped with the brake slam and the drama turned to the usual slow melo of that time, it was around when they moved the setting back to Korea. Although the earlier parts lacked a real sense of focus and were disjointed as hell but at least they weren't as boring as the 2nd half. On another note, the speedy harsh soundtrack got me exhausted after playing for nth time in every episode. The biggest point of comparison between this drama and "All In (2003)" was its insulting transition and disparity between its 1st and 2nd half.