Vincenzo (2021)

Almost perfect, if it wasn’t for one episode

I went into this show with high expectations - I had heard that this was the best show of 2021 - and for the most part I wasn’t disappointed. The acting, plot and music all go together perfectly and the show doesn’t get boring.

However, I was hugely disappointed by episode 8. I felt like they wanted to have lgbt representation but it came off slightly h*mophobic. The whole thing of manipulating the gay ceo and then using his phobia against him seemed too cruel just for a plot point that doesn’t get mentioned after that much. If it wasn’t for that episode i would have no complaints

Overall, it was an enjoyable series :)

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ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT

There is not one thing about this I did not like. Story of a Korean boy adopted by an Italian mafia family. The ML is perfect for the role. When he speaks Italian (which I read is his voice) it will make you swoon. The FL is gorgeous, funny and quirky. The tenants in the building Vincenzo is trying to save are very interesting and also very funny. The ML bad guy is pure evil and he and Vincenzo make for evenly matched adversaries. Even my husband enjoyed watching it and is the only K drama he watched to the end. The ending makes a Season 2 look possible. Please have a Season 2!!!!!!!!

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Definitely unique

I just finished Vincenzo and going in, I definitely didn't know what I was getting myself into. This drama, for one, is a dark comedy and I didn't even realize that until I started watching. It's a mixture of seriousness with over the top comedy to balance it out. I really liked the cinematography and of course, the visuals of Song Joong Ki and Ok Taec Yeon. Initially, I didn't like Hong Cha Young but she grew on me, she was a fierce independent woman with so much sass and attitude, I loved it! The only about this drama is that it ran long and it had so much to set up so it actually took me a while to get through these episodes. Even though it was entertaining, it didn't hold my attention so much that I would have to binge every episode. I found myself pausing a lot and just doing other stuff. Overall, it's a good, entertaining watch and Song Joong Ki was absolutely gorgeous in it but definitely not one of my top favorite dramas.

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Mi è piaciuto, ma...

Premetto, questo drama l'ho visto perché ero curiosa di capire come in Corea vengono percepite l'Italia e la mafia. Ammetto inoltre che ho ponderato parecchio prima di scrivere una mia recensione.

Storia:
in complessione la storia mi è piaciuta, delle due storyline proposte quella che mi ha intrigato di più è stata quella sul Babel group ed è stato il motivo che mi ha fatto continuare la visione del drama, episodi più corti avrebbero anche facilitato la visione.
L'altra storyline, quella sul perché il personaggio di Vincenzo sia lì in Corea e sia interessato così tanto a quel determinato palazzo, l'ho trovata a tratti abbastanza debole ed utilizzata nettamente come espediente narrativo, a momenti persino fastidiosa. Troppo ridondante la questione sugli inquilini, meno scene avrebbero reso di più, soprattutto nella prima parte dove si sono dilungati sulla presentazione di ogni personaggio secondario.
Come ipotizzavo la percezione che hanno gli altri paesi dell'Italia e della mafia è ancora incatenata al film del Padrino diretto da Coppola. Ho però apprezzato lo sforzo su alcune cose, ma una ricerca più approfondita degli usi e dei costumi italiani avrebbe dato una marcia in più al tutto, soprattutto su alcune scene.

Cast
Il main cast mi è piaciuto, inizialmente ero un po' diffidente perché Song Joong Ki non mi convince mai totalmente e questa cosa me la porto dietro da “Descendants of The Sun”, invece qui l'ho trovato credibile la maggior parte delle volte, Vincenzo non è sicuramente un personaggio positivo, ma ha una sua etica e si confronta anche con quella che chiamerei “mafia” coreana.
Credibile fino a quando non parlava italiano, apprezzo la costanza e lo sforzo dell’attore nell’imparare le battute nella lingua italiana, ma un personaggio che ha vissuto in Italia una vita, dato che è stato adottato all'età di 8 anni, dovrebbe parlarlo correttamente ed essere bilingue. C’erano dei personaggi che parlavano italiano, si poteva tranquillamente doppiare.

Ho trovato interessante l’interpretazione di Jeon Yeo Bin nel ruolo di Hong Cha Young, anche se talvolta ho trovato il personaggio fin troppo sopra le righe in alcune situazioni ed alcune volte poteva essere limitante per l'attrice. Molto buona la chimica tra lei e Son Joong Ki ed ho apprezzato come gli autori abbiamo sviluppato la loro connection amorosa.

Jang Ju Woo rimane il mio personaggio preferito per come l’hanno caratterizzato, su cui non approfondisco più di tanto per non fare spoiler, complice la storyline a lui dedicata e l’ottima interpretazione di Ok Taec Yeon(non sapevo chi fosse, ma andrò a recuperare qualcosa dalla sua filmografia perché ho realmente apprezzato la sua recitazione).
Invece avrei sviluppato di più il personaggio di Jang Han Seo, che comunque ha avuto un bel percorso e una buona evoluzione, ma poteva essere scritto meglio.

Solitamente non faccio rewatch di drama o serie e quando li faccio rivedo solo i miei episodi preferiti, ecco perchè il mio voto è basso.

Conclusione

Per essere una produzione Netflix rimane ad un buon livello. Le idee su carta erano molto buone, ma si sono persi su alcune lungaggini di trama che potevano essere evitate, ho messo 7.5 totali per il buon livello di cast e per la produzione.

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so satisfying!

from the beginning to the end, I enjoyed every minute. there is nothing more to say.
everything was right, everything was fair. I really loved it! I read some people had trouble diving in, I definitely didn't. if the first episode don't catch you, this is not for you.

the story is very hard and violent. but the characters just make jokes about this. this was an adaptation mechanism to survive the violence that happened to them. so the tone might feel odd. some people called this a comedy, because of that. but that's not a comedy. that's a difficult story.

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Not so much Dark Action Series

When you going to watch the drak action crime based series then you already prepared for longer series with good episode length and accepting the fact that story will reveal slowly as it goes. Vincenzo has great story with great cast but there is something which lacks and it is the way story reveals.

I love this drama it has great actors, music, has some comedy, great action and great music. But it has flaws which we can see not do many but have.

I can re-watch this drama it is good and best for binge watching. You cannot relax until you completed.

Also I love the ending

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Missed potential in beautiful package

I think that no drama this year gave me so mixed feelings than Vincenzo. I’ve changed my mind about it multiple times while watching it and I’m still not entirely sure what exactly to think about it. For me this drama was just so uneven that it’s hard to give it just one score. But I’ll go point by point with this and hopefully at the end I’ll have my mind set.

The goodies:

Production
A while ago I’ve said that It’s Okay to Not Be Okay was the most aesthetically pleasing drama that I’ve watched this year. But after a bit of thought, I think that it should be ex aequo with Vincenzo on the first spot. While in It’s Okay to Not Be Okay more care was put towards scenography and costumes, in Vincenzo production itself was top notch. Photography and the way some scenes were shot was just so good that I think it could easily compete with western hight budget series in this category. And let’s talk about scenes that took place in Italy. Because you know what? They weren’t actually shot in Italy or anywhere near Europe. All of them were actually shot on green screen and even some actors weren’t in the same place, but were put together in post production. Which makes those scenes even more impressive.
For those interested, here’s material published by Netflix on their YouTube channel, mind blown, am I right?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eQz7orIi8Q


Acting
I mean, with a cast like that I wouldn’t expect anything less than perfect. And I have to say, all actors deliver. Song Joong Ki had a particular hard job with his character talking a lot of Italian but it worked out better than I thought. I mean, I don’t speak Italian, I’ve watched some analysis of his language skills made by actual Italians and they had rather good opinions of it. And for my ear it actually sounds better than his English from Descendants of the Sun where it sounded like he just got the text written phonetically to memorise. This time it sounds more natural at least on the first glance.
Amongst others I’d have to highlight performances by Ok Taec Yeon (obviously, but I have to say that he’ve done a hell of a job with a character that could otherwise be absolutely ridiculous and exaggerated) and Kim Yeo Jin (the same as with character played by Ok Tae Yeon. I’d say that this drama served a bit too close to comical relief with it’s characters, but was saved by top acting).


Comic relief
About comic relief, but this time the intended one. At some point I was really confused of what this drama is trying to be. Because amongst all those pretty intense mafia scenes we have those little hidden gems of comic relief scenes and characters that actually, after some time, fit perfectly as a bit of pressure valve after some emotional or just simply intensive scenes. I’d say that my favourite comic relief were the tenants of Geumga Plaza, they’re such an amazing blend of personalities that comedic scenes with them were a pure gold for me.

Characters (esp. villain)
There’s a lot of them, which not always is a good thing (about it later) but I have to admit that all characters in this series are very well developed and thought through. There’s basically no weak link here.
And let’s talk about the villain, because that was hands down the best played character here. Ok Taec Yeon done such an amazing job portraying Jang Jun Woo that he basically saved this character that otherwise could be unintended comic relief here. But the way this character progressed being more and more psychopathic was a masterpiece. That ladies and gentlemen is how villains should be written. The way that we know what they could do without them showing it it’s just enough to make us shudder.
About Vincenzo himself. At first I’ve seen him as a bit exaggerated with the notion of him being basically more Italian than pizza itself. But it kind grew on me and the way the character was developed made him more believable with each episode. Finally we have what was promised, a cold blooded mafia guy who’s not afraid to use cruel methods on people who crossed the line, at the same time being composed lawyer choosing peaceful (or semi peaceful) methods first.

Baddies

Pacing
And here we have first problem and the thing that I was most angry about it because it spoiled my fun from watching this series. Pacing. It’s really bad in some episodes. Somewhere in the middle we have situation when in episode we have 90% of nothing happening and one really amazing scene that made me not drop this drama. I’m used to filler episodes, but here they were really bad, especially that there was no point in having them, since we were basically always in the middle of the action. Maybe it was because Vincenzo has 20 episodes, maybe with 16 it would be much better. Luckily, this 10%, this one really amazing scene kind of rewarded us for waiting remaining hour filled with monotonous dialogues.

Plot
Plot was the thing that I’m the most unsure about whether I liked it or not. I think it’s still linked to pacing of the show but at one point I felt that too many things are happening. We had so many side plots that it was hard to tell what’s happening with the main problem. It made the drama look pretty chaotic and watered down. Especially with this amount of characters. Even tough well written the abundance of them made it pretty hard to follow who’s who and what is he/she doing.


So to somehow bring it all together. For me Vincenzo was a bit of wasted potential of being really amazing series. A bit of it was lost because of really slow paced plot but the good things remain underneath it. So maybe it’s not for everyone, maybe you just need patience for it.

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Slow paced drama with okayish acting , average light revenge drama

9 episodes down and I felt Vincenzo is nothing more than an average watch.The storyline is becoming more predictable lacking serious twists and they add all unnecessary details making it so slow paced. Its not easy to get a attachment to characters and doesn't offer a compelling watch.

a)Vincenzo uses a lot of forced comedy scenes which can be really enjoyed by some people but for some it hardly gave any laugh.Coming to episode 5 and 6,the comedy scenes itself became so predictable and then almost the humour tone turns into a substandard one.
b) Some ideas to tackle enemy were brilliant but the show don't show any specific revenge fire,no clever twists.
c) At the same time, some ideas looks really silly like tonsil scenes, a judge who doesn't wipes his after something sticky falls on his face( I think suit was enough to sting )- just for creating comedy.
Tat flower plot scenes was so predictable from the first look.
d) FL acting is average and has got a lot of room for improvement. She started strong but now she turned into an assistant role to hero, total mismatch to her topdog character of a famous law firm- kdrama cliche.

e) Some show off scenes of Song are really good but he is not that good in a dark hero role. Even now, viewers don't know what is in his mind. No emotional attachment.
f) Almost all father daughter scenes were poor and not emotionally or atleast comically involving.
g) FL walking style and dance - really funny
h)I think negative characters are performing good especially the villain and we can easily get that negative vibes from them.
i) Great potential for love angle.
j) leads chemistry also good.

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Overall I think this drama has been really good so far. I love the casting, and all of the actors and actresses have been doing really great. You can truly tell that they put a lot of emotion while acting which made the drama even better. And I think Ok Taec Yeon's acting was Incredible and it played a big part in his character. I do think that it's a bit slow in the beginning but once you get a couple episodes in, the plot story starts moving along. The drama is filled with thrilling episodes, comedy, action, suspense and a tiny bit of romance. I do suggest watching the k-drama Vincenzo if you haven't already. I guarantee you will love it. Enjoy!

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The only kdrama in 2021 where I did not skip or hit the pass forward button

May 6, 2021

Holy shit, it has come to an end for bingeing this series and I am fking dead. Hands down Vincenzo deserves the hype that it has! It is literally the only kdrama released this year where I never found boring. Each 20 episodes were fulfilling and I can tell that the writers put effort into producing such a brilliant series.

First and foremost the CGI, HOLY CRAP. The graphic is just majestic you can clearly tell that the producers and directors put everything they can to fking deliver. I don't care what anyone else says, but many kdramas from late 2020 to early 2021 are full of mediocre plots. A lot of them were very disappointing. I have drop a lot of them or skip until the finale just so I can it was good. I feel like Vincenzo and Penthouse were the well-written ones out here.

As for Vincenzo Cassano himself, I can say that he is majestic. Obviously, we know that he has a past and that he is not really a hero, but he isn't a villain either. He pretty much just trying to live his life. He is so funny and ironic. And his chemistry with Cha Young is off the charts. Well obviously the romance aspect was not really the main focus but it is still pretty well delivered.

Cha young on the other hand is strong female lead who is a badass bitch and intelligent asf. She may have her Damsel in distress moment but overall I love her acting and her character. She is very charismatic and not a nuisance.

HAN SEO, AH MY BELOVED HAN SEO. I am so happy that he was able to find true brotherhood with Vincenzo. I am so sad that things had to end that way with him. I literally fking bawled the fuck out of my eyeballs. Holy crap, how can the writers be so fking cruel. Like goddamn it! TVN U BITCH U ALWAYS WRITE OFF MY FAVOURITE CHARACTERS!!!!!!!

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