Vincenzo (Review)
Vincenzo was one of the most popular K-Dramas on Netflix in 2021, and one of the most popular shows with Song Joong-ki who is cast in the titular role. It is often classified as a dark comedy, and a mobster show.
The titular Vincenzo Cassano (Song Joong-ki), originally a Korean, was adopted by Italian family at the age of eight. In the show, Cassano Family is one of mafia families in Italy, and Vincenzo was their consigliere. After the death of his adoptive father, Vincenzo leaves Italy and Cassano family for Korea. While serving the mafia he buried an enormous treasure of gold under the building of Geumga Plaza in Seul, and now he wants to reclaim it. However, unaware of the treasure, a corporation known as Babel Group acquired the building, and attempts to remove its tenants and raze it. In an unlikely alliance, Vincenzo joins the fight against Babel Group led by Hong Cha-young (Jeon Yeo-been), a lawyer from Seul. A colorful group of tenants of Geumga Plaza helps Vincenzo and Cha-young.
As expected, Song Joong-ki is the highlight of the series: his magnetic and charismatic personality wins viewer’s heart despite Vincenzo’s often ruthless methods straight from mafia’s playbook. The way his character is written is generally unbelievable, though: Vincenzo has almost no flaws, he is intelligent and smart, always ten moves ahead of his adversaries, he is also a perfect gentleman and martial artist. It would be nice if the show put at least some blemishes on his perfect persona. Nevertheless, this is mostly what viewers expect from characters portrayed by Song Joong-ki, so it works within the context of the show.
Song Joong-ki definitely had some difficulties with mastering Italian for the show: no one who actually listened to real Italians would believe Vincenzo spent most of his life in Italy. But considering how Hollywood makes a parody of Italians in regular films, not comedies (like recently in House of Gucci), we shouldn’t blame Koreans for failing to portray an Italian person realistically. On the other hand, the creators infused the show with many nods to the Italian or European culture. Also, the score includes lots of Italian motifs, quoting classical music, opera, etc. (While the rest of the score is quite engaging electronica composed by Park Sejun, Na Sang Jin, Song Jin Suk and others). So, the creators tried to give the show somewhat of an Italian flavor, and while sometimes it is cheesy and silly, it works for the most part.
Jeon Yeo-been as Hong Cha-young is a co-lead of the show, portraying a capable lawyer and independent woman, maybe not so perfect as Vincenzo, but still his equal partner. Her character is mostly focused on helping Vincenzo to navigate Korean realities and law, and she also often acts as his conscience, although towards the end of the show she is getting used to mafia methods. Her personal arc is dealing with the death of her father, also a lawyer, his legacy, and her transformation from a corporate lawyer to an attorney serving the people of Geumga Plaza. Therefore, Cha-young has some character development in the show, while Vincenzo is rather missing that.
The biggest flaw of the show is its weak villains. Ok Taec-yeon as Jang Jun-woo is the main villain, and he is not on the same level as Song Joong-ki, completely overshadowed by his persona. Not even once during the show we actually believe that Jang Jun-woo stands any chance against Vincenzo. In addition to Jun-woo there is Babel Group puppet chairman (Kwak Dong-yeon as Jang Han-seo), who is portrayed as a complete idiot. We also have lawyers from Wusang Law Firm working for the Babel Group as supporting characters, who mostly look like parodies of lawyers, perhaps for the sake of comedy. Many other comedy K-Dramas succeeded in portraying conglomerates and their lawyers more realistically and made their executives more menacing.
Vincenzo succeeds as a comedy though. The group of tenants of Geumga Plaza is the main comedy crew of the show and introduces us to many funny situations. They slowly become Vincenzo’s new family, supporting him and each other against Babel Group. This group is perhaps the biggest advantage of the show in addition to the relationship between Vincenzo and Cha-young.
In sum, while Vincenzo is not without its flaws, it’s ultimately a funny comedy with interesting premise, standout co-leads, hilarious group of comedic characters, but disappointing villains.
Vincenzo on Wikipedia and MyDramaList
