If you like Kdramas with bad guys, Golden Cross has an abundance of them. Every bad guy has another bad guy he’s able to manipulate and it seems to fan out in a never-ending web throughout the whole world. No kidding. Even the good guys “bend the law” and the upright pursuit of justice becomes plain old revenge. Murder, deceit, betrayal, blackmail, greed, power… all subjects of this drama.
This show is so tangled you really need to pay attention. In a nutshell, the whole thing is about Kang Do-Yoon (who is on his way to becoming a prosecutor) trying to find the person who killed his sister, framed his father for the murder, and then killed his father before he could say what happened. He discovers who he thinks is the murderer and decides to use the man’s daughter, Seo Yi-Re, (who is the prosecutor in charge of the case) to catch the man. Along the way he falls in love with her which obviously complicates things to the tenth degree.
Kim Kang-Woo, Lee Si-Young, Uhm Ki-Joon, and Jung Bo-Suk all star in Golden Cross. I had never seen Ki-Joon and Bo-Suk act before so my first impression of them is as evil men, and they both played their parts well.
Ki-Joon’s character, Michael Jang, has a constant smirk on his face. I’m not kidding. Sort of like a “cat who ate the canary” kind of look. It’s very unsettling. He’s confident, arrogant, heartless, and only cares about himself and what he can get out of a situation.
Bo-Suk plays Seo Dong-Ha who starts out as greedy and power hungry and turns into a psychotic murderer, void of any conscience, who talks himself into believing he’s done nothing wrong. He’s a coward who hides it well as long as he has the upper hand.
Lee Si-Young is an attractive, young prosecutor named Seo Yi-Re who believes in justice and only wants to keep criminals away from the rest of society. She’s a daddy’s girl and finds it hard to be a good prosecutor and a loving daughter at the same time.
Kang Do-Yoon is played by Kim Kang-Woo. He’s a loving, loyal son and brother who’s life comes to a screeching halt when half of his family is murdered. He is waiting for his appointment as a prosecutor and finds that put on hold because his father is accused of killing his sister. How can the “son of a murderer” be allowed to be a prosecutor? But that’s the least of his worries. What’s most important is clearing his father’s name and finding the killer.
I’m not a fan of near misses, you know, like when person A is looking for person B and just as person A gets to the elevator person B is on, the doors close and person B is out of view. I’m screaming, “Press the button. Hurry!” But person A politely waits for the elevator to come back down and person B gets always, AGAIN! This show is filled, beginning to end, with those kinds of situations and I really don’t handle them well. Inches away from being busted and something happens that helps the “hunted” get away… it’s all over this show!
An ending can make or break a Kdrama and this ending nailed it! Perfect, just perfect. It sets things up for a sequel,if they want one, but still stands very well on its own if they don’t. The writer did a wonderful job!
Golden Cross is one of the lengthier dramas of 20 episodes but it didn’t need to be. I felt several times along the way it could have ended much sooner. Why they drug it out for so long is a mystery to me. Its ratings weren’t fantastic, only going to 12.6% at its highest point and 7.3% at its lowest. It did manage to become the 2nd most watched show when episode 15 aired, though.
There’s quite a lot of action in this show and it’s really very good. Some of it is played out in slow motion to show the audience just how cool the fight actually is. It really looked like Kim Kang-Woo knew what he was doing. I’ll bet all that fighting was really him… at least most of it. There was just enough to stir things up but not so much that I’d classify it as an action drama.
To be honest, what was happening in the show took all my concentration so I really can’t tell you anything about the soundtrack. Sorry. As for scenery, most of the shots are inside so we don’t get to see much of the lovely outdoors. If you’re looking for pretty shots with an ocean background, or billions of lights in a big city, or snow-capped mountains, forget it. This is about the world of big business and politics so it’s mostly filmed indoors.
I’m not really a worldly person so I can’t honestly tell you about the workings of evil humans, but if real life is anything like Golden Cross, I’ve now become wary of rich, powerful people.
Score: 6.5
The Good:
Kim Kang-Woo
Really “good” bad guys
Action scenes
The Bad:
Too long
Too many “so close” parts
Heart and Seoul 