A Bona fide Killer has emerged as a "killing content," showcasing diverse charms from thrilling action to touching family love.
MBC's Friday-Saturday drama A Bona fide Killer (planned by Kwon Seong-chang, written by Kim Eun-hee, directed by Yoon Jong-ho and Kim Ji-hun) offers a differentiated pleasure from typical genre works through the double life of Yoo Bo-na (Kong Hyojin), an ordinary married woman and a ruthless killer.
In particular, according to FUNdex, the official platform of K-content competitiveness specialist Good Data Corporation, A Bona fide Killer proved its hot popularity by ranking first in the TV-OTT drama news category and first in the TV-OTT drama search response category for the second week of August. The rating for episode 6 also surpassed double digits, recording 10.2% nationwide households according to Nielsen Korea, once again setting a personal highest rating.
The scene in which Lee Dong-jin (Lee Sang Yi) and Beom Seong-hoon (Choi Woo-Sung), who had been lying in wait inside the car, see on the news the Kingfisher's "one shot two kill" report and then head to the scene climbed to a momentary peak rating of 11.8%, conveying viewers' intense interest. We examined the reasons for the popularity of A Bona fide Killer, which is setting new records each episode, and the viewing points for the mid-to-late episodes.
▲ cool killer → ordinary mom, Yoo Bo-na's decisive blow that adds touching family love to genre thrills
When Yoo Bo-na's casino operation to eliminate Tak Jong-gu (Kim Min-jun) did not go as expected, she personally jumped into the scene. Having infiltrated the VIP lounge, Yoo Bo-na put a drug into Tak Jong-gu's water bottle and, despite the ambush by Moon Me-ru (Jo Yoon-su), disguised as a cook, she stood firm and overcame the crisis.
In a joint operation with the regional team, they lured Tak Jong-gu and Cheon Seong-gil (Kim Jong-gu) into one room and completed a thrilling "one shot two kill" by taking out both men with a single bullet from the cable car, delivering intense action pleasure.
However, faced with the family's crisis, she put down her gun and became a desperate mother more than anyone. While struggling over a family-in-law memorial rite, when her daughter Kwon Yul (Hwang Bom-i) suddenly disappeared, Yoo Bo-na searched desperately for her daughter and found Kwon Yul on the apartment rooftop watching a plane.
At the daughter's words, "Because mom is an orphan, I was going to go to heaven and bring mom's mom and dad back," Yoo Bo-na hugged Kwon Yul tightly and cried. Although she is a cold-blooded killer in front of criminals, Yoo Bo-na becomes an endlessly affectionate mother in front of her daughter, and that image added touching family love to the genre thrills, amplifying A Bona fide Killer's unique charm.
▲ tightly woven past and present narrative! the immersion created by the hidden story behind the "refreshing counterattack"
Kwon Tae-seong's (Jung Jun-won) past began to mesh fully with Yoo Bo-na's story. In the past, Kwon Tae-seong watched Tak Jong-gu's not-guilty verdict and felt the limits of the law, and he went to see his then-girlfriend Yoo Bo-na and cried, saying, "Bad people should be punished, but there's nothing I can do."
It was revealed that Kwon Tae-seong, who had continued to cover crime and social injustices, almost lost his life at Kingfisher's sniper scene in the past, drawing attention to the hidden story behind why he stopped covering Kingfisher.
Above all, Yoo Bo-na directly punishes criminals who cleverly escaped the law, and Kwon Tae-seong, as a reporter, uncovers the truth of the case, confronting the same incident in different ways.
To Kwon Tae-seong, Kingfisher remains both the entity that once threatened his life and a case whose truth must be revealed. As such, curiosity grows about what choice he would make if he learned that his beloved wife Yoo Bo-na and the Kingfisher he has long pursued are the same person. With Lee Dong-jin and Beom Seong-hoon's pursuit of Kingfisher intensifying, the tension surrounding Yoo Bo-na's double life is also rising.
▲ A Bona fide Killer heads into the home stretch stronger! viewing points you can't miss
The tension surrounding Yoo Bo-na's double life is expected to grow even stronger in the latter half. In particular, as Kwon Tae-seong begins to approach the truth about Kingfisher, changes in the relationship between the two are also predicted.
Above all, the moment when Yoo Bo-na and Kwon Tae-seong nearly met at the casino had viewers on the edge of their seats. Yoo Bo-na, having entered the casino to avoid Kwon Tae-seong, narrowly brushed past her husband, who was struggling with security guards, and escaped the crisis. But the two met again in the staff elevator, and Kwon Tae-seong, looking at Yoo Bo-na's back, said, "She looks like someone," raising anxiety that her identity could be exposed.
Meanwhile, Yoo Bo-na suggested to Kwon Tae-seong that they spend an ordinary day like the day they first met. But as the process of retracing their first meeting unfolded, it revealed a past in which Yoo Bo-na, dressed as a red demon, had found Kwon Tae-seong collapsing and bleeding, leaving another question.
With curiosity growing about what story lay behind the two's mismatched first meeting, Yoo Bo-na must hide her identity to protect her family, and Kwon Tae-seong is approaching the truth about Kingfisher that he has long pursued. Interest is focused on what will unfold between the two when the truth of the past and the secrets of the present meet.
In this way, A Bona fide Killer does not simply stay with a killer's activities to punish villains, but expands the story by tightly weaving together a person's daily life, family, love and different perspectives on justice. As it continues to set new personal highest ratings each episode and maintain its upward trend, expectations grow for Yoo Bo-na's increasingly fierce actions.
[Photo] MBC A Bona fide Killer broadcast capture
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