Agent Kim Reactivated
Director: Various
Year: 2026
Rating: 8.0
Country: Korea
It isn't
often I put a review for a TV show up here, but I think fans of action or
Korean films will enjoy this one. Is up on Netflix. In both English and Korean.
I stuck with the Korean version.
This Korean 10-episode TV series is a sweet
sentimental tale of two fathers who love their daughter deeply. One father
is willing to kill anyone who stands in the way of his saving his daughter
and the other is willing to kill anyone standing in the way of killing the
other man's daughter in order to save his daughter. A lot of people are going
to die. Though at a high level there is nothing new here; a father who his
daughter thinks is a dud is perhaps the deadliest man on the planet; a retired
secret agent with a whole lot of skills. But it is so much more. It is a
frenetic mix of action, politics, comedy, friendships, betrayals and pure
melodrama. Every episode leaves you wanting to immediately watch the next
one. I hope there is more of Agent Kim to come.
Kim (So Ji-sub) is a respectable salaryman
working as an account manager in a branch bank. Hard working, stoic, polite;
the very model of a middle-aged man with glasses. His pretty co-worker Sang-a
(Son Na-eun) appears to have a crush on him. Kim's wife died giving birth
to Min-ji (Seo Su-min) and he promises his dying wife to look after her.
He does even if more protective than she would like. Now a teenager, she
wants more freedom. His two friends are the dorky Han-soo (Choi Dae-hoon)
and the garrulous Jin-cheol (Yoon Kyung-ho). Life is a strict routine of
going to work, coming home and cooking dinner. The friendly dry cleaner (Park
Jin-woo) tries to engage Kim in conversation but gets little response. This
is all a setup of course in the first episode for what is to come. Be patient.
Jin-cheol gets into a fight while with the
other two. Kim scurries away but not before being caught on film that is
uploaded. All hell breaks out. He was a deadly legendary North Korean agent
before he defected where he became the top South Korean agent. You need someone
killed, you send Kim. You want a platoon killed, you send Kim. The North
Koreans want him eliminated and send their best. The South Koreans want him
disappeared as he is an embarrassment during talks with the North. At the
same time his daughter gets into a fight at school with the daughter of a
very wealthy industrialist. Kim has to get down on his knees and beg forgiveness
and Min-ji is ashamed of him. Dorky dad.
Later the daughter is nearly killed by the
other and thought to be dead. She gets some criminals to take the body away.
They think she is dead. From this point on the series explodes. The two friends
were secret agents as well. One a Taekwondo master. The other a beast. The
three of them team up to find Min-ji and kill anyone who gets in the way.
North Koreans, gang members or minions of the industrialist. Some terrific
action, but it is really the bantering but intensely loyal friendship of
the three and the devotion of the father for his daughter that makes the
show resonate.
