Review : 2009 Mercenary Leaguers

[JonDoe]

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Title : 2009 Mercenary Leaguers
Starring :
- Yoon Tae Young as Oh Hye Sung
- Park Sung Min as Ma Dong Tak
- Kim Min Jung as Choi Eum Ji
Synopsis : A mad baseball coach forms an undefeatable mercenary baseball team for hire out of six loser and outcasts.

Review : This much hyped show is a dramatization of a legendary 25-year old baseball manga "The Mercenary Leaguers of Terror" from the 80s, about a six-men "mercenary" baseball team for hire who would play for the highest bidder(similar to present day free-agents but as a group), a team assembled from losers(simply suck at baseball), outcasts(mixed-blood), and disabled(a pitcher with broken shoulder who would never pitch again and a single-armed hitter) who are transformed into "undefeatable" baseball mercenaries by a mad baseball coach through a life-or-death "hellish" training at a no man's island for severeal years. The story follows a love triangle between Oh Hye Sung, a once promising but critically injured underdog pitcher returning to the world of professional baseball as a mercenary player, his rival Ma Dong Tak, an elitist player who looks down on all other players including Oh, and Eum Ji, the girl caught in between two.

Given the massive publicity and brand name associated with this series, the final product is disappointing so far. The series has been put through a "modernization" process and deviates from the plot of original manga by quite a bit, even if the character design is intentionally left old-fashioned. These "modernization" features include characters who were quite toned down from the old manga; gone are the angry, stone-cold, unemotional, bitter, obsessive, twisted and depressed characters of the manga who were such a draw to its audiences, replaced by hardworking "normal" people pursuing their dreams. Lead actor Yoon Tae Young had the face of Oh Hye Sung; not in this series but in his previous series The Chronicle of Four Guardian Gods of The Great King. That angry bitter face of General Yun in the Four Guardian Gods that probably landed his role as Oh is just not here. Maybe the angry bitter face might return after the formation of Mercenary Team, but Oh of the manga was an orphan who was always bitter and angry since his childhood. Likewise lead actress Kim Min Jung feels like a miscast too, her Eum Ji is a happy cheerful girl with her own career ambitions to pursue, unlike the clinically depressed Eum Ji of the manga. Eum Ji's little sister Hyun Ji is now all grown up, jumping into the love triangle of manga to turn it into a love quadrangle. What? Oh Hye Sung's heart in conflict and having to choose between Eum Ji and Hyun Ji? Unthinkable!(Heck, the most famous line from the manga was Oh's pledge to Eum Ji that "I can do anything you want" which he keeps to the tragic end) Only Oh's perpetual rival Ma Dong Tak resembles the character portrayal of the manga. Blame these drastic changes on the script writer, a female manga artist(not the usual drama writer for some odd reason) known for her shojo-style manga. The writer tried to apply a feminine touch of "emotional colors" onto original twisted characters to make them more modern and realistic, but it just isn't working out, especially when everyone's expecting to see twisted characters jumping out of manga's pages.

Even the shocking tragic ending of Oh Hye Sung being hit in the head by Ma Dong Tak's ball and going blind and Eum Ji going insane after witnessing the consequence of her passionate plea to Oh Hye Sung(She begged Oh to lose the last game on purpose to save her marriage to Ma Dong Tak) was sad to have been changed, because the original ending was sort of like "The bad guy wins and heroes destroyed" and considered unacceptable.

So what stayed the same to the original manga? Well, you have the title and the "undefeatable" mercenary team part. A lot of fans, mostly men, to the original manga are complaining about these "modernization" changes and much dreaded "feminine" touch that is so prevalent in present day Korean dramas. Unfortunately, it is the women who write these shows and hold TV remote, not men.

In spite of these criticisms originating from unexpected changes, that doesn't mean this show itself is bad or anything, it just doesn't live up to the hardcore and dramatic reputation of classical manga, at least not in the eyes of manga fans. For those who haven't read the manga, you can enjoy this show as a nicely-done baseball-themed show and this show still ranks well above usual Korean shows.

[Suet Seung]

JonDoe: Can you post your reviews on SPCNET's reviews section too?

[JonDoe]

Ha Ha Ha, this ultra-draggy show just passed the half-way mark and there is a major plot twist; Eum Ji had Oh Hae Sung's baby before Oh's departure to the no man's island for mercenary training and Ma Dong Tak marries pregnant Eum Ji, pledging to protect her and the baby to the end and giving up his own chance to make it big in the Japanese league as a free agent!

But this basically changes what Ma Dong Tak of manga was all about, a cold-blooded elitest who married Eum Ji as a vengeance to Oh!!!