[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Narco-Saints" Episode 1

When In-goo (played by Ha Jung-woo) was still young his parents, a yogurt delivery woman and a truck driver, died on the job. In-goo works shady jobs to try and provide for his younger siblings, who prove so incompetent and keeping the house clean that In-goo very unromantically marries a woman just to deal with that problem. In-goo leverages his way into owning businesses instead of merely receiving a paycheck. But this goes sour when he inevitably runs afoul of a cop.

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Even that's a ways off from explaining how In-goo even arrives in Suriname. "Narco-Saints" is fairly deliberately paced like that. Famed film director Yoon Jong-bin shows impressive confidence in terms of trusting that the premise of "Narco-Saints" is engaging enough that the viewer will sit through all the various domestic moments contextualizing In-goo's life as a comfortable husband and father making a surprisingly sensible sounding business plan to import fish from Suriname.

One interesting flourish of "Narco-Saints" is how little contrast there is between eras. The typical South Korean drama would suggest that there was at least gradual improvement between the dictatorial eighties and the democratic aughts. "Narco-Saints" doesn't do that, because from In-goo's perspective almost nothing has really changed. He still needs money, never has enough money, and is terrified of being one bad day away from leaving his family destitute.

In-goo is an intriguing character because while the premise calls for him being a fish out of water, he immediately catches on to the more corrupt elements of Suriname society, not even flinching at the idea of having to pay bribes. What ends up fomenting the first real conflict is when In-goo is extorted for more money than he can realistically afford to pay. Then there's the constant, overhanging absurdity of all this greed over a fish that's considered so valueless local fishermen normally just throw them away.

As the situation slowly boils over, it's hard to escape the feeling that In-goo's wife was right from the start. The whole skate fish scheme is a big opportunity. But it's loaded with risk. Only In-goo getting bullied by corrupt cops in his own country is sufficient impetus for him to try it anyway. "Narco-Saints" is the slickest, most impressive South Korean Netflix production in quite some time. Director Yoon Jong-bin wasn't joking when he said a person might be inclined to watch the whole thing in a single sitting, especially with the first episode's wild cliffhanger.

Review by William Schwartz

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"Narco-Saints" is directed by Yoon Jong-bin, written by Kwon Seong-hwi, Yoon Jong-bin, and features Ha Jung-woo, Hwang Jung-min, Park Hae-soo, Jo Woo-jin, Yoo Yeon-seok, Choo Ja-hyun. Broadcasting information in Korea: 2022/09/09~Upcoming, Fri on Netflix.