Netflix’s boxing-heavy Bloodhounds is a stealthily visceral crime thriller
If you like boxing, slick crime thrillers, cute boys, watching loan sharks get beat up, or all of the above, then the new Korean show on Netflix, Bloodhounds,is for you.
The boxing-tinged crime seriesdelivers on what it promises from the beginning: cute boys punching… for justice. Kim Geon-woo (Woo Do-hwan) is a quiet sweetheart of a boxing prodigy who would do anything for his mother and is competing in a prestigious amateur boxing tournament. After easily dispatching his first few opponents, he is matched up against showboating Hong Woo-jin (Lee Sang-yi) in the championship bout.
After a great fight, the two go out to dinner together and become fast friends. Their relationship is the anchor of the series, as they quickly go from opponents to ride-or-die buddies who bring out the best in each other, forming an unstoppable team as they help each other out in a punishing world.
Geon-woo’s mother is in dire financial straits, having been conned by a group of sinister loan sharks. So the two new friends set out to make it right, earning money as bodyguards for the one loan organization that does not charge interest, all the while investigating the evil group behind the scheme that nearly ruined Kim’s family.
The narrative is straightforwardly compelling, with easily hateable villains (having characters you really want to see get beat up is a must) and a plot propelled equally by their schemes and our heroes’ desires. The leads’ relationship is great, with both actors effectively evoking purehearted loyalty and sincerity that makes their fast friendship read as true. But it’s Bloodhounds’ action that takes the first episode to the next level.
Woo Do-hwan in particular excels in his boxing motions as Geon-woo, bobbing and
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