City Hunter

 

 

City Hunter is a 2011 South Korean television drama. It is based on the Japanese manga series, written and illustrated by Sukasa Hojo.

PLOT

On May 25, 2011, SBS reported that in 1983, a high-ranking official was killed by a bomb blast by North Korean agents while the South Korean president and his envoys were on their way to Burma. This historic event is also known as the Rangoon Bombing (also known as the Rangoon Incident). To retaliate, five South Korean officers enter North Korea and plan a covert operation codenamed "Operation Clean Sweep" to assassinate several top commanders in the North. Lee Jin-pyo (Kim Sung-jong) and Park Moo-yol (Park Sang-min), two bodyguards of the Presidential Security Service and best friends who participated in the bombing, organize a team of 21 for the operation. Lee Jin-pyo is Lee, the only surviving mission of Clean Sweep, who spends time as the owner of a mediocre drug in the Golden Triangle. Angered, he wants to kill all those who ordered his group to be killed. He pretends to be a Korean-American investor and uses Lee Eun-sung as his revenge agent.
 

However, as the team nears destruction in Pyongyang, the five officers suspend the plan to avert an international crisis if the operation is found. Their main concern is that the United States will withdraw its nuclear defenses if the operation is made public. The operation is successful, but the snipers in the submarine fire at the troops as they swim from Nampo to a ROK Navy submarine assigned for their extraction. Injured Park Lee sacrifices his life to save. Lee swims back to the beach and returns to South Korea, where he learns that the attack team's service and personal records have been deleted. Promising revenge on his brothers and sisters, Jin-pio kidnaps Mu-yol's infant son and names him Lee Yoon-sung (Lee Min-ho). He flees to the Golden Triangle to raise the child on his own and trains the boy to fight hard. After attacking a village where they live, Jin-Pyo confesses to the long-term plan of revenge sung by a young Eun-sung.
 

Nicknamed "City Hunter" by Lee Eun-sung Poochai (Lee Min-ho), Eun-sung's ultimate goal is to avenge his father's assassins. Utilizing the identity of a Korean-American teenager who later died a few years ago, he earned a doctorate from MIT and lives a double life, getting a job at the Presidential Palace in South Korea. It led to a confrontation with Kim Na-na, the presidential bodyguard he loves.

Seven years later,
 After successfully completing his education at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and earning a doctorate in the United States, Yoon-sung returns to South Korea to carry out his adoptive father's revenge plan. He enters the Blue House as an IT specialist under the National Communications Network Team. Jin-pio warns him not to trust anyone and never to fall in love. Doing so will endanger the people around him. While working at the Blue House, Lee meets bodyguard Kim Na-na (Park Min-yang). Eventually Na-na participates in his revenge plan and they discover that they have the same goal in mind. 

Kim Na-na (Min-yang) is an independent and strong woman who was forced to take care of herself at an early age after her mother died in a drunken driving accident and her father fell into a coma. At the end of her exceptional skills in martial arts she gets an assignment with the Presidential Security Service. During her time as a bodyguard, she falls in love with Lee Eun-sung and eventually discovers his true identity. 

Kim Na-na (Min-yang) is an independent and strong woman who was forced to take care of herself at an early age after her mother died in a drunken driving accident and her father fell into a coma. At the end of her exceptional skills in martial arts she gets an assignment with the Presidential Security Service. During her time as a bodyguard, she falls in love with Lee Eun-sung and eventually discovers his true identity.
 
Problems arise when Jin-Pio's plot of revenge unfolds, especially when Lee opposes his surrogate father on several occasions, trying to identify and assassinate officials known as the “Council of Five”. Every member of the Council has had significant wealth and political influence since 1983 and has been involved in various levels of corruption. The confrontation between Jin-pio and Eun-sung arises primarily from Jin-pio's desire to assassinate each officer, and Eun-sung's intent is to teach them a lesson and expose their corruption without killing them. When Yoon-sung reveals the corruption of officials, the citizens of Korea feel an invisible power of justice because they call themselves "City Hunters.
 

The broadcast ended on July 28, 2011.
 
International broadcast
 
Prior to the broadcast, the broadcast rights were exported to several countries, including the United States, Hong Kong, Thailand, Romania, and Vietnam. At the time, countries such as Japan, Taiwan, Bulgaria, the Philippines and Kazakhstan were also actively seeking the rights to broadcast the play. In the United States, the play was aired on Hulu with English subtitles.
 
Philippines: ABS-CBN
Japan: Fuji TV
Malaysia: 8 TV
Singapore: MediaCorp Channel U.
Hong Kong: TVB 2012
Indonesia: Indusar 2012
Algeria: 2015
French: Gong
United Arab Emirates: MBC
Thailand: Channel 7
Vietnam: HTV2 aired under the title Th on Sn Thành Ph and also aired on SET (Saigon Entertainment Television).
Sri Lanka: ITN from December 2015.