Vicenzo: From Drama to Comedy, from Angelic Robot to Klutz in Just One Hour

 I plugged in to Vicenzo on Netflix due to the novelty of seeing an Italian-Korean person (there are less than 5,000 Korean immigrants in Italy). 

Scene 1: I am spellbound.   Vincenzo (Soon Jong Kee) is more than just attractive; he is angelic, like a vision that makes you stop and stare, even after seeing cute guys every day of your life.  

He displays no emotion, adding to his otherworldly quality, as he takes a chauffeured car to a vast mansion  at the Grecco Vinyards in Italy.  He informs Emilio, the gluttonous mafioso in charge, that his recently deceased adopted father's last order was for him to take over the vinyard.   

Emilio refuses,  calls him racial slurs, and ejects him, so Vincenzo, still displaying no emotion, flicks a cigarette.  He has arranged for a cropduster to spray the vinyard with a powder that bursts into flame.  

Is he a robot or an alien?  I wonder.  I check to see if this is science fiction.  No, it's a crime drama.  Who is this otherworldly, angelic sociopath?

Scene 2: Vicenzo returns to a magnificent Italian villa, pays respects to his deceased father in his coffin, and then argues with Paolo, his adopted brother, now his boss.  Burning down the entire vinyard?  "It was Father's last order," he says.

Scene 3:  Night.  Some gunmen break into the villa to get revenge, but Vincenzo is one step ahead of them: his bed is empty.  He rushes from the bathroom, guns ablaze, and kills them.  Still not expressing any emotion.  He's a porcelain doll.  A very violent porcelain doll. 

Meanwhile, Paolo comes home in his fancy sportscar, tosses the keys to the valet -- and the car explodes! Vicenzo calls to tell him that he is leaving Italy forever.   "Do not try to find me, or I will kill you."   On the airplane to Korea, Vicenzo looks at a list of properties at Geunga Plaza, which is set to be destroyed "due to corporate tyranny."

All of the Mafia stuff is over.  We're starting a new story, with Vicenzo as a completely different person.

Scene 1:  Delivery guy Seon-ho unloading boxes.  A girl tries to give him a birthday cake, but he rejects her, so she delivers some plot expositon: "You uncovered illegal practices at Babel Pharmaceuticals, and now they're out for blood!  I'm the only one who cares about you.  As you know, my name is Hong Cha-Young, I'm a major character."  Why do people on tv always get told things they already know?  

The birthday cake turns out to contain thousands of won notes. She's bribing him to recant his testimony!

Scene 2: Cha-Young with a briefcase, waiting for a klutzy guy  to show up on a scooter.  As they rush toward the courthouse, she tells him that his name is  Jiang Jun-Woo (below), and he's her klutzy intern.  

They argue in the lawsuit case against Babel Pharmaceuticals, and demolish the defense.

Later, the heavily humiliated defense attorney sits in the park, criticizing himself.  Cha-Young shows up to criticize his hairstyle and smell.  He helpfully informs her that she is his daughter, gone over to the Dark Side!  "How could you be so proud of destroying the powerless?"  SHe pretends to be worried about his health, and asks him to settle out of court.  He refuses.

Scene 3: A new character, the stunningly angelic Vicenzo, at the airport.  A limo driver tells him that his charge cancelled, so he can drive him into town.  On the way, a radio news report helpfully tells us that robbers are pretending to be limo drivers, drugging their clients, and stealing their stuff.   Vicente drinks some of the water that the driver provides, and passes out.  

You'd expect the guy who planned intricate schemes back in Italy to be more careful.  Wait -- new character.

Meanwhile, Cha-Young and her intern go back to the office to get congratulated on their great job winning for Babel Pharmaceuticals.  The boss gives her a bonus, which she pretends moves her emotionally.

Vincenzo wakes up in a deserted field near the airport, the thieves going through his stuff.  I expect him to kill them, like he did the gunmen back in Italy, but don't forget, he's got a whole new personality.  They beat him up.  He awakens in the field hours later.  

Scene 4: They left him a 50,000 won note (about $40), which he uses to take a bus to Geumga Plaza.  

Flashback to five years ago, when Vincenzo tells his father's business associate about a safe way to hide his gold: buy an old building, install a shop in one of its lots, and build a secret room in the basement to hide the gold.  Use a biometric security system, so only you can open the lock.   Gee, do you think he did that at Geumga Plaza?

Scene 5: In the present: Mr. Cho, the building manager, tells Vicenzo that his apartment is ready, with all the stuff he sent over from Italy.  Babel Corporation has bought up most of the apartments and shops to presure them into selling the building.  Scruffy Guy eavesdrops.

Switch to Scruffy Guy telling some lawyers, including Cha-Young's father, that someone has rented an apartment in the building: "he looked like a handsome movie villain."

Switch to Mr. Cho giving Vincenzo a tour of the remaining shops: a crazy girl playing the piano in the dark; a glaring, aggressive dry cleaner; an Italian restaurant with a glaring, aggressive chef; a screaming guy in a dance studio; a mother beating up her teenage son

Vicenzo wants to see the secret room.  The business over it went bankrupt, and now there's a Buddhist temple in its place.  A monk is meditating directly over the gold.

Scene 6: Vicenzo takes a shower, but the water is either too cold or too hot  (beefcake shot).

Later, he reads a deposition about his birth mother being transferred to Hanju Prison, and flashes back to her murder trial. "But it was self defense.  He was sexually harassing me!"

Hong Cha-Young's Dad will be her new lawyer.    Wait - he does corporate law and criminal law? Maybe in Korea they don't specialize.

Scene 7: A new character, a middle aged women, is acting crazy, dancing at the laundromat.  Two teeangers film her, and she yells at them and threatens to call the police.  

Scene 8: Vicenzo meets with the head of the Babel Development Team.  He won't sell; he's going to demolish the building, build a new one, and give the old tenants their leases back.  Babel guy threatens him. 

Beefcake: Shower scene.

Other Sights: Not after they get to Korea.

Gay Characters:  Nothing specified.  I fast-forwarded through a few episodes.  Girls keep throwing themselves at Vincenzo, but he is oblivious.  In Episode 8, he holds hands with and hugs a guy, but he might be just pretending to be gay for a scam.

Premise Changes  From drama to comedy, from unstopable killing machine to klutz, from Mafia empire to real estate permits.

Will I Keep Watching:  Depends on whether Vicenzo stays a boring klutz or goes back to the angelic robot.