Athena: Goddess of War

아테나: 전쟁의 여신 (Athena: Goddess of War) is a South Korean drama series that aired on SBS from December 13th 2010 to February 21st 2011. The 20 episodes have an average duration of 1 hour and 2 minutes. The series is a spin off of the IRIS series that aired it's first season on 2009.

Story: While planning the reunification of the two Koreas, South Korea is developing a new technology referred to as TWR - a high speed nuclear reactor technology other countries and organisations are also interested in. To prevent terror the NTS (National Anti-Terror Service) is created by the South Korean government.
Lee Jung-woo transfers to the NTS. One day, he's ordered to go to Italy with Kim Ki-soo, a North Korean defector, to track down terrorists. At first they don't know the exact target but soon Jung-woo and Ki-soo figure out that Soo-young, the daughter of the current South Korean president who came to Italy to study architecture, is the target. When she is kidnapped, the South Korean government sends more NTS agents to negotiate but the American DIS, more specifically the East Asian branch, also gets involved in the case. In the aftermath NTS and DIS have to work together which is against the actual rules of the NTS.
Other mysteries occur and it becomes more and more likely that a huge conspiration is behind all of those incidents that involve Jung-woo and other NTS agents as well as Yoon Hye-in who joined the team not too long ago.
Summarizing this whole story is literally impossible. It has various layers from top to bottom regarding the NTS and the government, a love story (of course, what else) about forbidden love, later on a hint of one-sided love.. You have a lot of things in this drama. I personally didn't feel like it was strongly connected to IRIS (since the second season of IRIS wasn't around when Athena was aired I'm going to neglect that part) and you don't need to know IRIS to understand what is happening which is a huge plus (it has been almost 4 years since I watched the first and second season in a row and it's natural I don't remember everything). I personally think that the story is also less complicated because - compared to the parent story - I felt like Athena had a clear goal even though that might have been different from Son Hyuk's.
I quite enjoyed the story line, it was well written in my opinion. I would watch it again for sure.

Cast: Jung Woo-sung as Lee Jung-woo. As an actor, I can't really criticize him. As a character, he certainly did have his strong his points but was a creepy stalker sometime in the beginning and got me literally annoyed. But then again; writing. Jung Woo-sung is still a good actor for sure and this drama suited him well.
Cha Seung-won as Son Hyuk. I honestly love a good villain in its own way and and Cha Seung-won makes an awesome villain! It is a little bit too obvious that he's not the good guy. I really liked his acting though, I totally enjoyed watching him in this drama.
Soo Ae as Yoon Hye-in. The character is badass and I somehow really liked her. As for the acting, I felt like her facial expression was nearly the same so often that I don't really know what to think about Soo Ae as an actress. However, she still pulled off the emotional parts quite well, and the action scenes didn't show her face that much so I would say her acting was okay overall in this drama.
Lee Ji-ah as Han Jae-hee. Another badass female in this drama and I adored her character in some way. As an agent of NTS she for sure has to know how to fight and she does well in this role. As for the acting I really liked Lee Ji-ah as an actress in this drama. I kinda could imagine her to be a real person working for a government agency so she was probably one of my personal favorites in this drama as well.
Kim Min-jong as Kim Ki-soo. Ki-soo is one of the characters I didn't quite like at first but grew on me as the story proceeded and he got to proof why he had such a huge part in the drama. I would say the believable acting was a huge part of what made me like him not only because of sympathy but he was a strong character while Kim Min-jong is a good actor in this series.
Choi Si-won as Kim Joon-ho. Before anyone claims I'm biased - no, I'm not. I'm not a fan of Super Junior nor do I like Siwon. However, I think he was really good in this drama and totally deserves respect for his acting. While some of the scenes made him seem a little bit childish and insecure in my honest opinion this might have been intended (you know the reason when you watch this drama). So thumbs up!
Yoo Dong-geun as Kwon Yong-kwan. The director of the NTS actually shows his full strength at the end of this drama, and so does the actor. He definitely deserved his spot - the actor as well as the character - and I personally think the acting was well done as well. I don't really know what I should say about this but I tried.
This drama also includes two characters of the IRIS seasons: Kim So-yeon makes a cameo in the last few episodes (and I personally think it was more or less pointless to bring the character into this series as it was not really connected to the main plot of Athena) and Kim Seung-woo as Park Cheol-yong, one of the characters that still left a deep impression on me after IRIS and now after Athena as well.
Also, a bunch of idols makes cameos in this drama; Shim Chang-min of TVXQ is in the last episodes, BoA appears in one episode, Onew and Taemin of SHINee are there and Hoon of U-KISS. I wouldn't recommend watching it because of the cameos though as some of them are really short!
Other actors (in bigger roles than cameos) include Lee Jung-kil, Kim Young-ae, Lee Han-wi and Oh Yoon-ah.

Soundtrack: I usually love the soundtracks of actions series and this is not really an exception. The instrumentals fit the atmosphere so well that I really loved the soundtrack a lot. And let's not forget about the OST that includes lots of famous (and great) singers. My personal favorite is most likely 박효신 (Park Hyo-shin), a singer I love to death for his voice, and his song "널 사랑한다 (You Who I Love/I Love You)". The second song I really liked a lot would probably be TVXQ/DBSK's "아테나 (Athena)" for the awesome feeling that it has to it. I know that many people also loved Tae-yeon's song for this OST, "사랑해요 (I Love You)". So to summarize: This OST consists of great names with even greater voices.


8/10
I quite enjoyed this drama, maybe I liked it even more than the first season of IRIS but I know I shouldn't compare the dramas. Still, Athena is a spin-off that could totally stand on its own feet. IRIS tells some background story that was not necessarily necessary and the only clear connection is the government - and Kim So-yeon's cameo that still seemed a little bit forced to me as it didn't belong to the main story. I personally think that the idea of love connecting enemies is way more interesting than a love triangle between agents of the same agency and this drama balanced action, political and romance well enough for me to seriously like it and not skip any scenes.
Recommended to fans of action dramas that include romance and can handle a bit of creepy stalker behavior. Also, if you liked IRIS I think this is a must-watch.

IRIS: The Movie

아이리스 : 더 무비 (IRIS: The Movie) is a Korean movie that basically summarizes the first season of the Korean drama series IRIS. It was released in 2010.

Story: Two close friends, Kim Hyun-joong and Jin Sa-woo, who are actually working for the military in the beginning are brought into a secret organization called NSS. Both of them fall for the analyst Choi Seung-hee. Hyun-joong is brought into a solo mission in Hungary which makes him a culprit so that a lot of people are after him. He then tries to find out who put him in that position and stumbles upon a top secret organization called IRIS and tries to figure out what they actually want.

Cast: The cast is actually incredibly well-known nowadays. The main cast consist of Lee Byung-hun as Kim Hyun-joong. Kim Tae-hee who is known as one of the most beautiful actresses in Korea took the role of the female lead Choi Seung-hee. Jung Joon-ho acted as Jin Sa-woo. Kim Young-chul joined the cast as Baek San whose intentions are a huge mystery to the viewer at first. And please, let's not forget about T.O.P as Vick.

The story is exactly the same. The cast as well. And the OST as well.
But this movie is like.. horrible. My personal rating is 3/10. Why?
The whole plot isn't only extremely shortened - it feels like they just cut some parts together that are important in themselves, yes, but there are parts missing that explain why in the world the things happen. Plus, I've been complaining about the missing balance between the IRIS political story and the annoying love story in the drama before but in this one they just left out things that are important to understand what IRIS actually wants and why in the world the organisation exists. But they had to add a bunch of love scenes. That doesn't even make any sense!
People, I get they had to shorten the drama but it would've made more sense to leave out some unnecessary lovey-dovey stuff and to add the important facts..

IRIS 2

아이리스2 (IRIS 2) also known as IRIS II: New Generation is the second season of IRIS, like the name actually says, and aired from February 13th to April 18th 2013 on KBS2.

Story:The story starts three years after the end of the first season and the death of Kim Hyun-joon. The story tries to reveal what happened in the past while the new agents of the NSS also have to deal with IRIS and the attacks this organization plans. Nothing more to be said about it. If you've watched the first season you'll understand that this is enough to fill the 20 episodes.

Cast: Almost the complete cast changed. The male lead role Jung Yoo-gun was taken by Jang Hyuk. The female lead, Ji Soo-yun, was played by Lee Da-hee. Oh Yun-soo was included in the cast as Choi Min. One of the very few actors also active in the first season is Kim Young-chul as Baek San. And Mr. Black or Yoo Jung-hoon finally has a face more commonly known as Kim Gab-soo. Im Soo-hyang is one of the more important female members of IRIS as Kim Yun-hwa.
There's another person who appeared in the first season: Kim So-yeon has a cameo in episode 20 as Kim Sun-hwa.
As for the reason why this might be a good option for K-Pop fans: There's Yoon Doo-joon of BEAST/B2ST as Seo Hyun-woo included in the main cast. Yoon Shi-hyuk was acted by Lee Joon of MBLAQ (I hated this character deeply after some time). And there's Kim Hyeong-kon of A-JAX as Song Young-min, a rookie agent (and an adorable agent). Last but not least, belonging to the North Korea Party is Park Se-joon of SPEED as Ri Hyuk-soo.
The acting was great after all, I loved this drama to death (and finished it in about three days) and I think that's mainly because all of those people and also the rest of the cast did an amazing job.

Soundtrack: The soundtrack is one of the best soundtracks I've ever listened to. I enjoyed the instrumentals that actually fit the atmosphere almost too well. But there are more treasures.
At first there's Davichi's "모르시나요 (Don't You Know)". I love Davichi's vocals a lot, both of them are great vocalists. My personal favorite track is "Black Paradise" by BEAST (B2ST), it's one of my favorite songs by BEAST and I love this song a lot. It works fine with the drama but is not a typical soundtrack song after all.
And there's one song they reused - originally it was sung by Baek Ji-young, the remake was performed by So Hyang and it's called "잊지말아요 (Don't Forget)". Since this song was basically the most played song in the first season I wasn't really happy about a remake version but they didn't overuse it and So Hyang's vocals are impressive.


Rating this isn't difficult, for me it's a 10/10 and there's no need to discuss the reasons. The soundtrack is amazing, the cast flawless, the acting really good and the story still really interesting and less focused on the love story which makes this season so much better in my opinion. And I do need to mention Baek Sung-hyun. Thanks to this drama I became a huge fan of his though he's not even included in the main cast.
As a K-Pop fan there's one thing that was really too much for me. Hyeong-kon is one of my first bias' ever, I can fangirl way too hard because of him. Also, Doo-joon is my bias in BEAST and I like and respect him a lot. And then there's Park Se-joon who managed to ruin my whole ranking already a long time ago. That's enough to give me a heart attack, alright? Thanks to Lee Joon I've felt my heart breaking from time to time in this drama and got really mad at his character but it's not his fault and I actually like Lee Joon a lot as well.

So, yeah, my ranking is biased - but how is it possible to dislike those cuties?

IRIS

아이리스 (IRIS) is another drama that originally aired in 2009 (and I start to believe I've watched too many dramas that aired then..)
Don't get me wrong, I enjoy love stories but as much as I like romantic comedies I need some more action in my life.
The first season aired from October 14th to December 17th on KBS and has about 20 hours of material to watch. It was also summarized within a movie - creatively called "IRIS: The Movie" but I'll talk about the movie later.

Story: Two close friends, Kim Hyun-joong and Jin Sa-woo, who are actually working for the military in the beginning are brought into a secret organization called NSS. Both of them fall for the analyst Choi Seung-hee. Hyun-joong is brought into a solo mission in Hungary which makes him a culprit so that a lot of people are after him. He then tries to find out who put him in that position and stumbles upon a top secret organization called IRIS and tries to figure out what they actually want.

Cast: The cast is actually incredibly well-known nowadays. The main cast consist of Lee Byung-hun as Kim Hyun-joong. Kim Tae-hee who is known as one of the most beautiful actresses in Korea took the role of the female lead Choi Seung-hee. Jung Joon-ho acted as Jin Sa-woo. Kim Young-chul joined the cast as Baek San whose intentions are a huge mystery to the viewer at first. And please, let's not forget about T.O.P as Vick.

Soundtrack: While after some time some songs might be quite annoying I have to admit that the whole soundtrack is at least alright. Especially the instrumental pieces are quite similar to those you find in action movies. As for the other songs I enjoy "잊지말아요 (Don't Forget)" by Baek Ji-young a lot nowadays but while watching the drama and it was played like every 15 minutes it was way past annoying. However, I am a huge fan of Big Bang's "Hallelujah" and that's pretty surprising since I'm not a huge fan of Big Bang after all.

In the end one could guess that I really liked this drama. Well, I did like it - but sometimes the balance between the love story and the actual political and economic issues is kind of.. weird. The political aspects are complicated enough. And I admit that those love story scenes were really boring compared to the rest so I started to skip it bit by bit. That actually influences the rating a lot. So my personal rating is 6/10.