ATHENA Episode 1-2: A Brief Introduction

The most anticipated spin-off IRIS has been aired on SBS since last week. Action drama or movie has never been my favourite. However, since this drama has been a hot topic of -probably- this whole year, I think I need to take a look. I’m not gonna recap the episodes, just make a brief introduction and my personal impression in general.

So let’s just get down to the business…

This action drama is so SEXY, that’s my first impression in general. But i’m not sure which part of the drama that make it sensual…i don’t think it’s merely because of the sexy story line or the “unproper-for-under-18” scenes. The whole things in this drama is a sexy package.

Anyway, the first episode was opened by the issue of “saving Dr. Kim Myung Guk”. The president of Republic Korea, Jo Myeong Ho (played by actor Lee Jeong Gil), held an emergency meeting with his staffs considering the nuclear scientist who’d been researching a new type of nuclear energy and spotted by the North Korean for developing their nuclear weapon. Recalling the incident on earlier episode of IRIS where another nuclear scientist was killed by T.O.P character that time, the President was worry if there’s a leak. (there was eventually in IRIS, if i’m not mistaken).

This’s President Jo Myeong Ho:

This man, a senior agent  Kwong Yong Gwan, was ordered to go on a mission of saving Dr. Kim, who was kidnapped by the Russian in Japan. His main job after setting Dr. Kim free was to make sure that scientist could go to South Korea safely. He summoned his team, agents who’re scattered in many places on this planet: Spain, Greece, US, and Korea.

And it’s our hot bad guy: Seon Hyeok (Cha Seung Won), a cool-expressionless agent who worked for Athena, an international organization of terrorism.

I love this opening fight between Cha Seung Won and athlete Choo Seong Hoon who played as one of the summoned agents. It took place in an elaborate male restroom. And I think the fight was sexy   : the way they fought, the way they bled, the way they had an intense talk, the way they hesitated, even the way they ended the fight…both men were badly bleeding

Meet our sexy double agent Yoon Hye In (Soo Ae). She originally worked for Seon Hyeok, but later we found out something else. I like her steady character. She’s plain face, cold-hearted, and sexyly dangerous. I almost forgot that Soo Ae has a melancholy image.

Hye In was ordered to kill the summoned agent in Hawaii. Calmly she tailed the agent to the lift. She acted normal, just like any other attractive woman…until the moment she did her action. She rocks!

This is Dr. Kim Myung Guk, the center of the story in the opening of the drama. He was kidnapped by some Russian while he was in Japan, supposed to attend a seminar. That night, there were two teams trying to get him out: Agent Kwon’s and Seon Hyeok’s.

The two teams competed against the western kidnapper and also against each other. After some one by one fights, hundreds of gun shots, and a building blast, Agent Kwon’s team could take Dr. Kim out. but that’s not long. One by one the NIS team was killed by Seon Hyeok’s men. There’s only one left, and this agent was about to take Dr. Kim to the car when they’re surrounded by Seon Hyeok and the gang in the basement.

Agent Kwon, who had been giving commands  from afar, came for a help. Dr. Kim managed to get to his rescue car, but the agent didn’t survive. He was shot dead, so Agent Kwon left the basement immidiately, making sure Dr. Kim was safe.

Seon Hyeok’s team didn’t let him get away easily. There’s some chasing action on the street. In the end, Dr. Kwon’s car was shot by Hye In and that made it crash turning up side down on the street. Agent Kwon was badly injured, but Dr. Kim was nowhere to be found. His condition was unknown.

Seon Hyeok got Agent Kwon. He tortured Agent Kwon with a painful serum in order to make him speak. But Agent Kwon was determine. He gave Seon Hyeok nothing.

Seon Hyeok received a phonecall from his English-speaking boss. The boss told to eliminate Agent Kwon if he eventually got nothing from him. We heard a couple of gun shots from afar. Hye In heard those bangs and turned around…

…then we flied to the time of three years later.

Now it’s time for our hero to show up. Jeong Woo Seong played as NTS (National anti-Terrorism Service) Agent Lee Jeong Woo. I like the way they make his character to be non-dramatic : a cool and perfect heroic agent. He was quite ordinary in my opinion, not the kind of cold-heartedly plain face and fierce words character. He’s quite simple, but of course still had the quality of a hero: good looking, good shooter, and good fighter.

Lee Jeong Woo’s partner slash sonbae was Agent Park Song Chul. Their partnership a bit reminded me of the pair agents in hollywood’s “Lethal Weapon” (Murtaugh&Riggs) and “Men In Black” (Agent K & Agent J), where an old agent paired with a young-handsome agent. They had a witty relationship.

The two NTS agents were on a mission in the theme park. Nothing happened eventually and they decided to end the mission. Jeong Woo saved a boy from falling of the fence and that led him met this beautiful woman…Hye Jin. Her figure then was more lovelier than three years ago.

Jeong Woo surely had a crush on her. It was a big surprise for Jeong Woo when he went to NIS head quarter. The beautiful woman, Hye In, turned out to be an NIS agent. From then on, he always found an excuse to go to NIS and for “accidently” ran into her. However, her reaction was nothing more than professional communication.

The ex-Athena agent was then an NIS or it had always been NIS from the first time?

Hye In was still in touch with Seon Hyeok. He was safe and sound. Getting to the 2nd episode, we found out that Seon Hyeok was not a cold-hearted man as we might think before. He was cooler than Jeong Woo, but he’s not an iceberg. He did invite Hye In for a business matter. She handed him a cellphone contained important information she had taken from the guy in the theme park. However at the end, Seon Hyeok handed her a birthday present.

It seemed that Hye In had been receiving presents from Seon Hyeok all these times, and she kept them all very well. I assumed their relationship was more than just partners?   Still a mystery.

And here we come to the sexy Italian scene we had seen from the trailer. Jeong Woo was ordered to go to Italy for a mission. His boss said he’s gonna be working with an NIS agent he’s meeting there. And it was too good to be true for him that his NIS agent partner turned out to be Hye In!

Their mission was to take a file from a wealthy Italian man’s hidden safe box. The scenes were very much James Bond. Jeong Woo was in black suits and bowtie with advance gadget and weapon. Let’s say he played as the 007 Agent. Meanwhile Hye In, she was the distraction. She’s the sexy seducive Bond girl who rode a very fancy sports car, backed up her partner and found him a way out.

While Bond always ended up on the bed with his girls, Jeong Woo ended up making out with Hye In on the balcony with the sunrise as the background. Who knew how they really ended it…

…It ended up there. Sorry, but the whole Bond in Italy scenes was Jeong Woo’s nap time dream In the reality, Hye In still played hard on him. ;p

We might have thought Agent Kwon had long dead, killed by Seon Hyeok that night we heard the two gun shots from afar. However, Agent Kwon was safe and sound. He ran a simple life on a rural area.

One fine day, this man was visited by Choi Jin Hee, Presidential Secretary. He told Agent Kwon that the President needed him to be back on the “field”.

Kim Gi Soo (played by Kim Min Jung) was our next character. He was the owner of an underground casino, eventually became a help to Jeong Woo and Song Chul. He was a bad temper man, but not the kind of a fighter. He used to be a top North Korean agent stationed in China, but it seemed that he liked money more than dealing with complicated secret missions. Song Chul and Jeong Woo thought he might be a big help for them since he learnt alot about Russian and China secret information. However, his character was not yet really best describe in episode 2.

Agent Kwon was indeed back as top agent. He inspected NTS since he’d work with them dealing with international terrorism. NTS agents welcomed him nervously.

And there he was, Choi Shi Won. He was a witty young NIS analyst named Agent Kim Joon Ho. Just like Kim Ge Soo, episode 2 hadn’t told about his character very much yet. But i guess he’s gonna be more or less similar to the character of Agent Na from KBS ‘Secret Agent Miss Oh’. He’s young, energetic, witty, and eager to be an elite spy.

Seon Hyeok was then became the Regional Director for Department Intelligence Service stationed in South Korea. Their secret mission was “Finding Dr. Kim Myung Guk’s whereabout”. On the surface, the organization is an international organization dealing with nuclear energy.

Seon Hyeok made a visit to the Blue House where he met Secretary Choi and two others. But a big surprise came when he met a very familiar face. While Seon Hyeok looked a bit shock, Agent Kwon approached him casually as if they hadn’t met before. He even offered a handshake and introduced himself politely.

Jeong Woo and Song Chul out for a mission in Busan, thanks to the info given by Kim Gi Soo. They’re investigating a Russian ship. Jeong Woo tailed quitely a suspicious “sect-weirdo” man, but an open scheme was not avoidable. He almost got caught, but then another team from NIS came…pointing guns at him since he apparently got in the way of their mission. It seemed that the team was European stationed, and among them Jeong Woo found a familiar face:  Han Jae Hee, played by Lee Ji Ah.

From the first time he saw this woman, i knew their relationship was more than just friends. And it turned out to be true…they used to be a happy couple. They had a very serious relationship, but something happened in the middle of the way that made them broke up. I bet they didn’t end it well.

I think this drama had made a good introduction in its two first episodes. Mysteries are still hanging on the air, waiting to be revealed one by one. Dr. Kim Myung Guk’s whereabout is also still a mystery. I like to find how Seon Hyeok deals with Agent Kwon in the next episodes. The romance can also developed into a complicated triangle or quadrangle love relationships.

I don’t really want to compare this with IRIS. But I think this drama is worth watching. As I have said before, action drama is not my favourite. However, Athena has made me sit and watch joyfully for its whole two episodes. So it gotta have something…