Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Bloodhounds’ on Netflix, A K-Drama Where Two Pals Put Their Fighting Skills To Use Protecting Seoul From A Loan Shark’s Reach 

Fisticuffs, friendship, and fortitude combine in Bloodhounds (Netflix), an eight-episode, action-forward Korean thriller-drama based on the webtoon Sanyanggaedeul by Jung Chan. When two young boxers bond after facing each other in the ring, they join forces with a kindly benefactor and his adopted granddaughter to battle a ruthless loan shark, who’s preying on the good people of Seoul in the midst of the pandemic. Bloodhounds creator, director, and writer Jason Kim has also written for Barry, Girls, and the Netflix series Love. 

BLOODHOUNDS: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT? 

Opening Shot: Kim Gun-woo (Woo Do-hwan) is shadow boxing in an empty practice gym at night, concentrating hard as he hits a heavy bag even harder. It’s December 2020, and the city of Seoul is in the grip of COVID-19.

The Gist: Gun-woo is a good guy. On the way home from practice, he’s forced to step in when an irate man goes ballistic on a bus driver for being asked to wear a mask. Gun-woo restrains him, but does so with care and respect. Gentle, but firm. And that’s how he boxes, too, as we soon see, when he KO’s a series of opponents on his way to the amateur boxing title fight. There, Gun-woo faces Hong Woo-jin (Lee Sang-yi), and his powerful precision outlasts Woo-jin’s gifts of natural speed and crafty, hotdogging showmanship. After his loss, Woo-jin’s a little humiliated. But he’s also surprised and gracious when Gun-woo’s waiting to take him to dinner, and the two boxers become fast friends, especially when they discover a connection through their military service in the Marines. 

The pandemic’s been hard on regular folks all over the city. Gun-woo’s mom can’t pay the rent on her little cafe, Woo-jin lost his job teaching gym to little kids, and many people have turned Seoul’s spate of high interest loan operations just to stay afloat. And it’s exactly that desperation that’s been driving the low down business practices of Kim Myeong-gil (Park Sung-woong), a rich and powerful loan shark who is using his connections with the city to install a casino in foundering downtown high rise development and sending his underlings into the neighborhoods to sweat small business owners who are financially underwater. Why don’t they shift their loans from the bank to Kim’s company? Sign with Smile Capital, and their cash flow problems are solved. But it’s only when the impossible bill full of hidden fees comes due that they realize Myeong-gil scammed them out of their property. And Gun-woo’s mom’s cafe is his next target. 

There’s at least one lender in Seoul who’s operating in good faith. Along with the eyes and ears of his adopted granddaughter Hyeon-ju (Kim Sae-ron), Mr. Choi (Huh Joon-ho), a billionaire paraplegic, helps those in need without demand for interest. When Choi hears about the strongarm tactics of Kim Myeong-gil, who happens to be his former protege, he worries about Hyeon-ju’s safety out on the streets. And so he calls in a favor to an old Marine buddy – does he know anyone who could provide her with some backup? The new pal twosome of Gun-woo and Woo-jin, ex-Marine boxers looking to make a buck, certainly fit the bill. But first Gun-woo will have to try and protect his mom and the cafe from a scrum of Kim Myeon-gil’s smash-happy thugs.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Both Bloodhounds leads have coverage on Netflix, with Woo Do-hwan co-starring in the splashy K-drama romance King: Eternal Monarch, and Lee Sang-yi appearing in Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha. 

Our Take: It’s obvious from the jump that Bloodhounds has its fight choreography squared away. It opens with a well-choreographed boxing match that expertly establishes the respective skill sets of Kim Gun-woo (Woo Do-hwan) and Hong Woo-jin (Lee Sang-yi), its opponents-turned-pals, and it closes with an absolutely electrifying fight sequence that features Gun-woo seeming to accelerate into the hundreds of lightning fast punches he lands on an attacking phalanx of Kim Myeong-gil’s hired goons. It’s like ten guys on one, but guess who’s left standing. Similarly, Bloodhounds recognizes and emphasizes what it has in Woo and Lee as actors. They build a quick, effortless rapport as two bros thrown together, guys who have more in common than their disparate personalities and fighting styles would suggest, and that bond is bound to serve them well as they become further embroiled in the world of high-level loan shark Kim Myeong-gil and his apparently endless supply of faceless muscle. We want to see how these two regular guys with elevated skills will manage when they tangle with a moneyed power elite, and we’re hoping for more of that lighting quick fight choreo.

Hoping for it, especially, because the mechanical plotting of Bloodhounds doesn’t crackle with nearly as much energy. It’s a story as old as time – a heavy moves in on the weak and defenseless, who turn to their saviors to try and flip the script – and the COVID-era angle isn’t fresh or interesting enough to add much of a wrinkle. (To his credit, Woo Do-hwan does manage to act well with his eyes and intakes of breath from beyond the boundaries of an N-95 mask.) Bloodhounds might run a little thin across its episodic run, but that doesn’t mean its action moments won’t pack a serious punch.       

Sex and Skin: No. But bloodied knuckles? Yes.

Parting Shot: Racing back to the cafe after a frantic phone call from his mom, Gun-woo finds her being physically threatened by Kim Myeong-gil and his slithery crew of minions and muscle. What’s a boxer to do? Ultimately, Gun-woo’s powerful left hook isn’t going to stop a rich dude and his hired army. But that doesn’t mean he isn’t going to try. Bam! Bop! Kapow! 

Sleeper Star: Tae Won-seok doesn’t say much in the early going of Bloodhounds – why should he? His character, Kang In-beom, is a bruising mountain of bulk who at one point uses a flurry of headbutts to temporarily incapacitate Gun-woo. In a series like this, the big bad always requires an enforcer, and there is undoubtedly some visceral throwdown action on tap between Tae Won-seok and Woo Do-hwan.

Most Pilot-y Line: With his tailored suits and insulated luxury vehicle, Kim Myeong-gil acts the picture of sophistication. But underneath the refined surface is a cold-blooded tactician accustomed to positioning for control. “Dirty money doesn’t exist. It may be used for nefarious reasons, but when used for good, that makes it good.” Good for Kim only, that is. 

Our Call: STREAM IT. Bloodhounds is built around some electric fight choreography, which will definitely be its high point as all of the loan shark scheming and bad guy hand wringing plays out across this pandemic-set K-drama.

Johnny Loftus is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift. Follow him on Twitter: @glennganges