City hunter

It is a hybrid of Chinese martial arts genre and a James Bond.

The ethics, to fight for a good cause for the benefit of the general public, and the physical grace is entirely oriental, and yet the charisma is without doubt that of the agent with a licence to kill. Like a master of martial arts, the hero wins just any fights, well, except when his love interest is shooting him; and like the world's most prolific agent, he is always equipped with the most up to date gadgets at the snap of a finger. The only difference is while 007 tends to spill bloods and blow away anything in his way, the city hunter exposes the evils and crime of the public enemy through hacking into their computing system, or installing a spying device at the right place, which proves to be just as lethal as the, well, ordinary explosives and weapons.

And similar to the martial arts master and Jame Bond, the city hunter's strength is in doing what the law promises but fails to execute. And as if this is not clear enough, the city hunter is praised by the prosecutor himself, who has been trying to catch him from early episodes.

Like Queen of Reversals, it is another example of how an old formula that has been repeated in different languages and cultures can still draw thousands of fans. And typical of Korean drama, the hero is extremely young, handsome, affluent, well-educated, athletic, and, adorable, especially when he puts on a pair of grandpa's glasses. I have seen this picture perfect model in three dramas now, but it is here, not in his 'breakout' performance as the lead of F4 in Boys over Flowers, or the lame architect in Personal Preference, that Lee Min-ho proves his star power, to me.

PS: I have always thought that Lee Min-ho looks vaguely familiar whenever he wears a pair of glasses to impersonate some intellectual or top executive. Now I know: though at least two decades younger, he bears striking resemblance to some of my favourite actors such as Francis Ng in Infernal Affairs II as an underworld boss; Raoul Bova in Facing Windows as the love interest of the protagonist; and the late Ulrich Muhe in real life!