“The Worst of Evil” (최악의 악)

By Jae-Ha Kim
Substack
October 26, 2023

☆☆☆☆
Park Jun-mo (played by Ji Chang-wook)
Jung Gi-cheul (played by Wi Ha-joon)
Yoo Eui-jeong (Im Se-mi)
↑Note: Korean names denote the surname followed by the given name.

After a series of disappointing post-military clunkers, Ji Chang-wook is back with a vengeance! The heartwarming 2022 K-drama “If You Wish Upon Me” got the ball rolling, followed by last year’s “The Worst of Evil” (최악의 악). (His latest, “Welcome to Samdal-ri,” is currently airing). Playing undercover police officer Jun-mo — who hopes that his gig will lead to a promotion — Ji is in his element as an eager cop who infiltrates a drug cartel with ties to China and Japan.

The series starts off with chaotic bloody carnage that makes it difficult to parse out the good guys from the bad. But that’s the point of this show. There are so many morally ambiguous characters doing what they think is right — or what’s right for them — that it’s easy for viewers to get swayed. One of the best scenes occurs in episode 8 when Jun-mo’s wife — also a police officer — looks on in horror as she watches her undercover husband beat rival gang members with the kind of brutality she didn’t know he was capable of.

This isn’t the kind of series with a cutesy second-lead syndrome storyline. With that said, there is a bittersweet love triangle between Jun-mo and Eui-jeong (Im Se-mi), who are married but pretending not to be — and Gi-cheul (Wi Ha-joon), who has loved Eui-jeong since childhood. He wants to be a respectable man for her, but it’s clear that he is in far too deep to pull himself out of the life he’s drowning in.

Airdates: Twelve 50-minute episodes aired on Disney+ from September 27 to October 25, 2023. I watched this on Hulu.

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