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Uber cute Korean TV Spy comedy/drama has intrigue, suspense and romance that leaves you questioning up till the very end.
On-air: 2005-2006 Current Status: Completed Year of Release: 2006 Country of Production: South Korea Original Network: MBC Korea Distribution: YA Entertainment Language: Korean, English Subtitles: English No. of Discs: 7 Total No. of Episodes: 20 There is something to be said about the popularity wave of Korean TV dramas in North America. Much of its appeal is in its writing and crafting of plot and character driven stories that explore all sides of the human condition. In Sweet Spy, Lee Soon-ae (Nam Sang Mi) becomes a police officer after her police husband dies in a car accident. Her simple life gets turned upside down when she stops Han Yoo-il (Dennis O'Neill) for a traffic violation and unwittingly walks off with his pen. A pen that contains top secret details of national security that include political figures, the CIA and organized criminals across East Asia. Han, is an international spy; multiple passports, flashy cars, 007 kind of spy. Things get even more complicated when Police Captain Kang Joon (Lee Ju-Hyun) reopens the two year old car accident case of Soon-ae's late husband, Kim Min Sook and finds a connection to high-ranking political officials. What happens next is what I found myself calling, "Accidental Alias". Except, instead of an ass-kicking Jennifer Garner, you have a meek, unassuming, often naive Soon-ae played fabulously and with such great heart by Nam. Her endearing portrayal of Soon-ae draws the audience in and really makes you care if she's ever going to see any resolve in this mess. O'Neill, model turned model-actor, mugs his way through the series as if he's on a photo shoot, looking debonair and cool, but not very believable. He often fails at delivering the meaning behind his words making his scenes very overt and fake sounding more like a Californian surfer, than an international spy. It could be that perhaps because his character who spoke mainly in English, may have been written by someone whose first language ISN'T English. In which case, the dialogue comes across very awkward ... oh ... but at least he tries and looks mighty handsome doing it. And perhaps this is the only thing that fails the series apart from the fact that it was shot on what appears to be Betacam video. Primetime TV dramas in Canada, the UK and the US, have a very vibrant and rich cinematography because most are shot on film, or HD. By contrast, because Sweet Spy is shot on video, it doesn't have the visual depth film or HD has and looks very flat. It's similar to watching a daytime soap but with a lot more on location shooting. Still the flatness of video can not hide the multiple dimensions of the rest of the cast who hold their own as collateral victims due to a swiped pen. Lee's Captain Kang keeps us guessing at to what his true motives are in reopening Kim's case file while Sun Yoo's Lieutenant Park is the closest thing to a Sydney Bristow this show gets. She's so cool. It was an enjoyable entertaining series for my first Korean TV drama. Its effort should be commended and duly noted by its talented cast and writers. YA Entertainment releases the 7 disc box set for North American audiences complete with easy-to-read English subtitles of all 20 episodes. Also included on the DVD are 20 minute excerpts of YA Entertainment titles Lawyers and My Love Patzzi. I will now have to rewatch and look to see if the broadcasting mishap (male genitilia was exposed - what's that Janet?) was edited out from the DVD release ... excuse me ...
The copyright of the article Sweet Spy on DVD in TV Show DVDs is owned by Christine Miguel. Permission to republish Sweet Spy on DVD in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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