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Pierce Conran

This article contains spoilers.
2.5/5 stars
Lead cast: Ji Chang-wook, Jo Woo-jin, Ha Yoon-kyung, Bibi
Following an explosive and exciting opening dive, the action-crime saga Gangnam B-Side has kept on digging into the seedy underbelly of the Seoul nightlife mecca it is named after.


The story has dug up plenty more shock and scandal, but along the way has revealed something about itself.
Rather than continue as an excoriation of the evils that run amok in society, it has crossed the line into full-on exploitation.
The result is gory and alarming. Ji Chang-wook’s underworld pimp Yoon Gil-ho spends the back half of the show covered in blood, while scantily-clad women have drugs shot into their veins, causing them to vomit blood and smash their heads against the floor.

The series boils down to rage and greed. Gil-ho, Jo Woo-jin’s hard-boiled narcotics detective Kang Dong-woo, and punching doll escort Kim Jae-hee, played by Bibi, represent the former.
Woo-jin wants to stop his daughter from getting into the world of drugs, nightclubs and prostitution. It has long since extinguished the spark from the eyes of Gil-ho and his escort Jae-hee. Their grief over the death of another escort has morphed into an all-consuming desire for revenge.
The figures of this underworld, from the thugs and drug peddlers of the neon-lit clubs to the corrupt prosecutors and shadowy puppet masters, represent human greed.
The only exception is Ha Yoon-kyung’s prosecutor Min Seo-jin, who knowingly works under a corrupt superior. She treads the line between seeking justice and her own advancement in a way that keeps us guessing where her allegiance lies.

However, there’s never really any doubt she is one of the good guys, because the show’s performative feminism makes it clear that all the women are automatically good and/or victims.
Does that mean all the men are bad? Almost, save for our two leads, who spend most of the show punching their way through crowds of villains as they strive to save women who foolishly put themselves in harm’s way.
Jae-hee and Dong-woo’s daughter Kang Ye-seo (Oh Ye-ju) are fearless in their pursuit of justice but fail each time; the men always have to bail them out of trouble.
Jae-hee’s ultimate act of defiance is to kill herself, but even that does not change anything beyond making Gil-ho even sadder and angrier.
Distributor Disney+, production company Sanai Pictures and star Ji have collaborated on a Gangnam-centric crime drama before – 2023’s classic gangster yarn The Worst of Evil.

That show also had little connection to reality, but there were a few crucial differences.
The Worst of Evil was fuelled by classic gangster tropes and succeeded by building on an established formula. Meanwhile, Gangnam B-Side, in its attempt to be edgy and modern, ultimately loses the constant game of one-upmanship it plays with itself.
The two shows’ approaches to characters also differ. The former may not have surprised us, but it respected our need to be invested in its protagonists. We spent time with them until the pressures of the situations building around them forced them to adapt and react.
In Gangnam B-Side, characters certainly react to a constant stream of external stimuli, but what they don’t do is adapt. Little effort is made to establish who they are before things go haywire. It’s hard to imagine that these characters existed before the moment they appeared on screen.

Characters with no backgrounds can’t change and characters who can’t change can’t surprise us.
Filling in for the lack of fleshed-out characters are attempts to shock us. Whether it is faces being graphically sliced, an escort almost strangled to death in a snuff video, or young women lost to drugs in a corridor of glass cages, Gangnam B-Side relies on dark imagery.
However, no matter how dark things get, what does it matter if we don’t care about the people those things are happening to? Can the caricatures that appear in this series even be described as people?
Gangnam B-Side is streaming on Disney+.


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Jo Woo-jin in a still from Gangnam B-Side. Photo: Disney+

Ji Chang-wook as underworld pimp Yoon Gil-ho in a still from Gangnam B-Side. This ultra-violent K-drama overcompensates for its unbelievable characters with blood and gore. Photo: Disney+.

Jo Woo-jin as hard-boiled detective Kang Dong-woo in a still from Gangnam B-Side. Photo: Disney+

Ha Yoon-kyung as prosecutor Min Seo-jin in a still from Gangnam B-Side. Photo: Disney+

Bibi as escort Kim Jae-hee in a still from Gangnam B-Side. Photo: Disney+

Jo Woo-jin as detective Kang Dong-woo in a still from Gangnam B-Side. Photo: Disney+

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Chae Soo-bin as Hong Hee-joo in a still from When the Phone Rings.

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Yoo and Chae in a still from When the Phone Rings.

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Ju Ji-hoon as Seok Ji-won (left) and Jung Yu-mi as Yoon Ji-won in a still from K-drama romcom Love Your Enemy.

Jung Yu-mi as teacher Yoon Ji-won in a still from Love Your Enemy.

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Jung as Yoon Ji-won in a still from Love Your Enemy.

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Ji Chang-wook’s Seoul pimp and Bibi’s escort fail to surprise us in this drama with gratuitous violence inflicted on badly-drawn characters


Ji Chang-wook’s Seoul pimp and Bibi’s escort fail to surprise us in this drama with gratuitous violence inflicted on badly-drawn characters.


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An assessment or critique of a service, product or creative endeavour.  Film reviews, restaurant reviews, reviews of art exhibitions. (Eg. Crazy Rich Asians: an important film, yes, but a good one?)


Review

Review | Disney+ K-drama Gangnam B-Side review: crime thriller chooses gore over good characters

Ji Chang-wook’s Seoul pimp and Bibi’s escort fail to surprise us in this drama with gratuitous violence inflicted on badly-drawn characters