Finally! A press conference where the entire cast got a memo and actually followed through on it! Instead of the sprawling cast of IRIS 2 showing up at its press conference looking like extras from the Muppets movie, everyone donned their favorite sleek, chic, black-and-white ensemble to varying degrees of success. Yes, the whole spies and baddies always wear black is beyond clichéd but the visual synchronicity of the monochrome look nevertheless adds to the dangerous and cool factor. Premiering next Wednesday on KBS (going up against That Winter, The Wind Blows and 7th Level Civil Servant), IRIS 2 is the swaggering big kid on the block what with the success of IRIS and the star-packed line up of this direct sequel. Jang Hyuk and Lee Da Hae are NSS agents, Lee Bum Soo is a North Korean spy, Oh Yoon Soo is the head of NSS, Im Soo Hyang is the younger sister of Kim So Yeon’s character from IRIS and also a North Korean agent, Kim Young Chul reprises his role from IRIS as the big bad (with a cameo by Jung Seok Won as his younger self), Yoon So Yi joins as a South Korean-turned-North Korean agent under Lee Bum Soo, and young stars like Yoon Doo Joon, Lee Joon, and Baek Sung Hyun play younger NSS agents.
Whew, even a recitation of the cast is like one huge run-on sentence or trying to talk without taking a breath for 2 minutes. Will this be good? Action sequence wise, likely a yes, since IRIS did up the quality for action K-dramas and IRIS 2 looks to take that even further. Will the acting be good? With Jang Hyuk, Lee Bum Soo, Oh Yoon Soo, and Kim Young Chul around? Oh hells yeah. Will the story be coherent and compelling? That’s the big what-if for me. Lately almost every drama hinges on the narrative as the directing and acting more or less takes a back seat to whether the story flows with purpose and intelligence. IRIS was definitely light years better than the abomination of stupidity that was Athena: Goddess of War, but both eschewed depth for superficial angst and plot twists. All the trailers look fantastic but I still don’t have a sense of what the story is about other than betrayals and plotting galore. Here’s to hoping I can get onboard either IRIS 2 or That Winter, The Wind Blows, because its been months since a Wed-Thurs primetime drama hooked me.
Teaser for episode 1:
Teaser MV from Davichi for “Don’t You Know” – theme song for IRIS 2:
Long trailer:
meh..pass
Wow.. so color coordinated.. but even if it is black and white.. I really wished some of them picked better looking outfits.. I’m not going to name, but I think we can all figure it out.. can’t wait to watch this!
I skipped a few episodes of Iris, dropped Athena early on only to return for Kim So Yeon’s brief appearance, (it was so good but it only made me realize how bad the rest of it was), so I have no idea why I’m so ridiculously excited for this thing. Maybe I’m hoping for a spy drama where the spies are actually, you know, competent. As long as nothing in the preview turns out to be a dream then I think I’m in. (although still slightly bitter that KSY ended up in The Great Seer and not this :p)
Hopefully this drama is not bring the main characters (either one) die by the end otherwise it will be a continue saga…IRIS 3 maybe 🙂
Iris was all polish and no heart for me, but I’m holding out hope that Iris 2 will be worth the watch.. Love Jang Hyuk, & lots of the other actors in this are awesome. Please don’t suck, Show..
I’m not a big fan of Lee Da Hae but this woman is gorgeous! I remember being thoroughly unimpressed by Athena (more a love story than action flick, imho) but maybe with a revamped cast? Can a girl hope? 😀
Lee Da Hae’s face looks so uhmm hard? She’s not even pretty anymore. With that hardened face, does she find it easy to emote? Her cheeks could hardly move.
I agree! I kind of cringe in pain when seeing her face. Too much botox probably hurts you know?
I think everyone looks fabulous. I probably won’t watch it, but they look good.
i’m little bit excited for IRIS 2: because of its cast and I haven’t seen IRIS or Athena 😉
I’m not going to lie, the long trailer looks awesome….. but burned once….
For some reason Jang Hyuk always goes heavy one the fon de taint. Each and every photo of him, his neck and face are completely different colours.
He is actually one of my all time fave actors and despite the fact that I don’t care for LDH that much (My Girl excluded), I’m eager for IRIS II.
Did da Hae fix her face???
Apparently she’s become a big fan of botox which is sad.
will watch this. but I don’t know if I’ll watch it in full. But for sure I’ll check Lee Joon and Doo Joon’s scenes. 🙂
They all look really good. I specially like Lee Da Hae and Im Soo Hyang 🙂
I really can’t wait for 13 Feb to see the drama. The teasers looks all great and I really hope it don’t disappoint ^^