What Is the Story About?
The series follows a web of lies, political and geo-political conspiracies surrounding Yoon Ja Yoo, CEO of BF aka Blood Free – the biotechnology company that now leads the genetically cultured meat market. The show is centered around Yoon Ja Yoo and her new bodyguard Chae-woon, a former soldier who graduated from Naval Academy. Who is Chae-woon? What is his history with Ja Yoo? Why does he want to be her bodyguard? How is he coincidentally around everytime Ja Yoo is in trouble? Who is he spying for? The series addresses all of these questions.
Performances?
Blood Free boasts of a stacked cast with some of the most popular names from South Korean television.
Ju Ji-hoon plays Woo Chae-woon, an ex-soldier with a mission and purpose of his own. He is guarded, laid-back, smart and also suffers from PTSD from an explosion incident back during his Navy days. He plans to become BF CEO’s Ja Yoo bodyguard owing to increasing life-threats. The actor exudes the mystery of a spy as well as the reclusive-ness of a man with a traumatic history effectively.
Han Hyo-joo stuns in a completely different avatar after her stunning turn in Disney+ original ‘Moving’. She has the attitude of a picky billionaire CEO, as well as the look of a woman who has hidden a world of tragedy behind her eyes. Her chemistry with Ju Ji-hoon would be so interesting to see in upcoming episodes.
Lee Moo-saeng plays On-san, a co-founding member of BF group like a man with doubtworthy secrets and suspicious intentions. Other actors like Kim Sang-ho, Jeon seok-ho and Park Ji-yeon seems to have promising parts in the episodes that follow.
Analysis
Written by Lee Soo-yeon and directed by Park Chul-hwan, Blood Free is a thriller drama series streaming on Disney+Hotstar that follows a meticulous billionaire and her bodyguard’s tryst with political conspiracies, death-threats and geo-political threats as her genetically cultured meat company rises upwards and becomes the leader of the market causing uproars within and outside.
Blood Free starts with a press conference from BF company’s CEO Yoon Ja Yoo as she gives a presentation on meat consumption, animal killings and relevance of Blood Free genetically cultured meat from BF that has revolutionised the market. She introduces BF’s new product – Cultured sea-food and makes further claims regarding genetically cultured food-crops as well.
As she gives her presentation, a guarded mysterious man (name revealed as Woo Chae-woon later) observes her. He gets frequent war-flashbacks and decides to secretly follow Ms. Ja Yoo post the conference. However, Ms. Ja Yoo becomes target to protests from primary industry beneficiaries (fishermen, farmers etc) and a man commits suicide by falling on her car.
A bewildered and injured Ja Yoo faces another shocker when her office systems get hacked by an infamous ransomware. She tries to find ways to nail the hackers, while Chae Woon (the mystery man from earlier) reveals himself to be an ex-soldier closely working with South Korea’s ex-president to find the culprit behind a deadly terror attack that destroyed his limbs, a year ago.
The ex-president suspects Ja Yoo to be one of the main moles/brains behind the terror attack and wants Chae Woon to infiltrate into her circle for investigation. Artificially curated coincidences lead Chae Woon directly to Ja Yoo who hires him as her bodyguard after death-threats across borders.
A determined Ja Yoo with the help of Chae Woon hatches a plan to nail the hackers after transferring bitcoins and realises that she was cheated from within. With fake news regarding the quality of BF meat culture liquids, looming death-threats, falling stocks, protests from primary industry beneficiaries and suspicious moles in her own company, Ja Yoo becomes increasingly dependent onto Chae Woon (just like his plan).
Blood Free begins its pilot episodes on a very promising and engaging note. The episodes are tightly edited with not one loose end, continuously keeping the audience engaged. The viewer doesn’t know much about Ja Yoo or Chae Woon and it would be interesting to know about the duo and their shared history (if any) in the upcoming episodes.
For now, Blood Free is a drama, also a taut thriller that might have underlying notes of revenge, deception, romance, tension and political conspiracies with the tip-toed intrigue of a spy-thriller. With a very talented duo playing principle (grey) roles and a stellar supporting cast, Blood Free for sure comes with a lot of promise and entertainment in the episodes to follow.
However, the similarities of Blood Free with the British show Bodyguard is hard to ignore. While it might not be a thorough inspiration or even remotely similar story-wise, the way the main characters are presented in the first two episodes surely called for a call-back. All said and done, Blood Free is a show that begins on a very promising note. If the upcoming episodes also retain this level of intrigue and has rewarding pay-offs, the show is bound to be a good binge-watch.
Music and Other Departments?
The first two episodes of Blood Free are taut and tightly edited. It doesn’t waste time and gets straight to the point without beating around the bush. Kim Jun-seok & Jeong Se-rin’s score (so far) and credit songs have been good, but where the music goes from here is yet to be seen. The colour grading and cinematography of Blood Free is accurate for the genre it belongs.
Highlights?
Han Hyo-joo & Ju Ji-hoon
Supporting Cast
Futuristic Premise
Intriguing Narrative
Drawbacks?
Nothing noteworthy in the first two episodes
Did I Enjoy It?
Yes
Will You Recommend It?
Yes. If you’re looking for a thrilling Kdrama to start watching, you might want to try this one.
Blood Free Series Review by Binged Bureau