YAAAY such an old drama, but so good! <3

bromance ftw ;)

thanks
might watch it cuz I'm starting to like *love* Lee Jun ki

I love that Dramabeans is posting these reviews of older shows or dramas that aren't currently being featured with recaps—very horizon-broadening!

It's funny how different people take to different dramas, though. I felt the exact opposite about City Hunter and Time between Dog and Wolf. To me, City Hunter was simplistic to the point of being laughable, while TbDW felt better plotted and much, much more involving.

LJK at his hottest!

NoOOOOOOOOO!! No, why did you do it?! I didn't want to know.. T.T
How could you? one of my favorite kdrama ever with Resurection! I'm so sad now that you made me opened my eyes on its flaws, were they so many? really? It's crazy how some stuff are better left as memory..
Thanks for the review :) I enjoyed it!

Ps. Did you like IRIS so much more? I'm asking because I couldn't bring myself to watch it ^^

Where can I watch this one online? I can't seem to find it.

wow, you perfectly described my feelings about the pacing and ridicoulousness of this show, right down to the lull between eps 5 and 13 when the boys were apart and the cycle of confusion whenever new discovery was made.

despite all the craziness, I do have a soft spot for this show because it was a major crack drama for me when I watched it, even as I scratched my head and screamed "just DO something already!!"

thanks for taking the time to review this, kaedejun. it was fun revisiting the memories of this crazy ride. : )

(My dad and) I loved this drama back when I watched it a few years ago that I bought the dvd. lol. It was my first time watching Lee Jun Ki in a drama and he was awesome, revenge and all.

Maybe if I re-watch it again now I might think there are loopholes in plot like you said, but from my memories of my last watch (which was a few years back), it was one show that stayed well with me. Very memorable. Love it!

I really like this drama, don't care about its flaws, Lee Jun ki being cool is all that interests me! :)

Thank you, kaedejun! I'm sure there are many people out there with Lee Jun-ki withdrawals at the moment, so this comes just in time :)

Like you and some other commenters, I gave this drama a chance a few years ago, but dropped it somewhere around episode 6. Since, I've been keeping it in the drawer. In case Jun-ki doesn't pick a new project soon (or in case it's a movie! God forbid) I might take it out. Or I might just leave it there - the simple knowledge that I could watch some awesome Jun-ki if I only wanted to gives me comfort of sorts.

hey, I just started this drama, I'm only on Ep2. What a coincidink! Hahaha. Almost gave up due to the drama being hard to find, most the links I found are dead. I will read this after I finished watching.

The year 2007, for me, was the very best year for dramas! After only five years has passed, I guess it doesn't take very long for the cliche'd quote "old school" to get bandied around, huh? ;)

O!M!G!
I just watched TODAW this morning!
Dramabeans you sure love me! <3 <3 <3
Thank you very very very much for this post kaede! :D

I watched this drama coz of Junki only.
I agree with you that the lead actress was so annoying.

as far as i remember from the time i was hit with the Leejunki craze and went over ALL his works in less than a month, they did conduct a DNAtest when he was first arrested and that NIS chief (whom i badly despised from the very first eps) manipulated the results somehow to hide his real identity! or im mistaken...?!

Really a coincidence. With the end of AATM, started looking for other Lee Jun Ki dramas. Just finished watching the whole episode of TBWAD now on the 5th ep of Iljimae. Cant get over Lee Jun Ki. Whether its good or bad I'll still watch LJK dramas.

Thanks for the recap...and your critique. I was curious about this drama, but never watched it. To me, it's always a question of whether I really want to invest 16 hours of my time (Dr Jin is my exception...I watched it for laughs and the great recaps and comments). Think I will pass on this one.

It was the very first action kdrama that I ever watched, and one I got to see quite early on, at the beginning of my drama adventure. As something else than fluffy romcoms and teary melos, it was a welcome change. After over three years I am sure I did enjoy it, don't know what I would say if I watched it today. Plotwise, because it is a top notch Lee Junki feast anyway.
Another advantage of TBDAW were its secondary characters. Especially the mysteriously silent GiRapeu the Giraffe.

I watched this after finishing Iljimae, was on LJK crack back then. Hunted down every drama he acted, even movies. Gawd I even youtubed his cameo roles. Yeah was that nutty that.

Still love him till this day. I didn't care about the loopholes then guess I was too blinded my my LJK fangirlishness. Haha. TBDAW was a favourite of mine, not sure if it would withstand the test of time - but I loved it then.

This is one of my favorite drama of all time.. I bought a dvd eventhough i watched it a lot of times online!

I love this. One of the best revenge drama.

And one of the best bromance as well. Watched this for Lee Jun Ki at first, but Jung Kyung Ho owned me here.

Sometimes (I say sometimes) great chemistry between actors, solid acting can cover up the plot holes flaw or ridiculous premise. Did I say sometimes ?
Me in this case will just enjoy Lee Jun Ki's hotness ^___,^

Wow now I feel totally discouraged. I've downloaded up to epsiode 5 since I was planning on watching all Jun Ki stuff just coz I ended being pulled like a magnet to his character in Arang. Should I watch this or not?

I watched this back in the day.... and wow was 2007 really that long ago? Feels like ages.....

SPOILER ALERT:

I think i stopped watching it when he just regained his memory after trying kill the girls step father ..... did it get better?? should i finish it?

This is one of my all time favourites. Loved it. Loved it. LOVED IT.

This was actually one of my favorite dramas (of that time period in kdramaland) but I will admit that I watched it when I was relatively new to kdramas and paid less attention to plot holes etc. Both then and now I skip over the childhood back story because it's that kdrama element that becomes tiring quickly. Kyung Ho's character was the best of the story. JunKi did overact many times but I found some of his subdued reactions (after his big breakdown) were good. Although Nam SangMi's character did get in the way often, I liked that at least she was able to put 2 and 2 together. I didn't like the ending then and still don't like it now which is unfortunate because, as 1 of my first few dramas, I was more forgiving.

Wah, an old drama! This used to be one of my favourite and I was a fan of Lee JunKi, hehehe. Well, I know that this drama has many many flaws. But, I can still undestand bcoz, well once again, this is an old drama. I wont compare this with any recent action dramas coz the writers and PDs must have learned much compared with when they were in 2007, so that they are able to make much-less-cliche dramas with more logical plot. For and old drama like that, it's understandable.

Still, despite the flaws, I like LJK's acting and the tension of the drama. The scene where he was shocked after meeting Mao in the restaurant was very good.

This was one of the dramas on my list. I almost bought it at Hanbooks yesterday but decided to hold off. Reading your review makes me wonder if I did the right thing. ;)
It also makes me wonder what you're doing in my head since this was seriously one of the older dramas I've been meaning to watch but hadn't been able to find good reviews on it.
Guess I'll catch it on Dramacrazy when I get my new laptop since I can't install Adobe Flash on my iPad. Sigh.

(And yes, I guess I could watch it on the desktop, but I'd rather relax on the couch while watching my KDramas..lol)

I love the drama but had to quit it about three episodes before the end. I just couldn't take any more of it.

I loved the cast, but the lead actress, my god. She certainly seems intelligent enough, and she's good enough to deliver lines with enough sincerity that you believe she believes what she's saying. The problem is that the lines she had to deliver were so damn STUPID that I started wondering if between takes she hid in the bathroom and banged her head against the wall to get into character. Like the pivotal argument when she tells Soo Hyun that if he doesn't quit being undercover, she'll go to her father... and tell him that Soo Hyun is undercover. IOW, she'll get him KILLED. His lines weren't exactly stellar, either, but the logic they gave her to say was just so non-logic it made my head hurt.

And that was after at least five episodes of her always calling out his real name, and always where someone from the mob could overhear. The stupid was handed around in equal doses, it seemed, for various nefarious types to be all, "what? what name? what was that she called him?" And so on. I mean, it's not like she didn't know what he did for a living, who he (and his brother) worked for. If I were him, I would've run to five countries away to get away from her, given the number of times she put his life in danger just by calling his name. Sheesh. They say you only hurt the ones you love, but the story made her more than a little ridiculous about it.

(The one detail I could forgive, easily, was the amnesia! But then I'm familiar with people going deep undercover, playing a role. There's a reason -- at least in the US -- you're required to have contacts and time off, even in deep undercover. Otherwise, the mental and emotional damage to play someone who is a murdering drug dealer is brutal, and there is a risk the person will start to slip into their role a little too deeply. There have been cases of supervisors reporting their own undercover cops simply didn't seem to recognize them on the street, being "in role" and shunting the "knowing the good guys" part of their brain to the back.)

Then again, the story's entire present-day premise (in terms of angst for all supporting characters) hinges on having someone go undercover... by pretending to be DEAD. It's not like that's not done, in rare cases, but the immediate family (and this would usually include fiancees) does know. You don't leave them in the dark, or you do get stupid reactions like, well, all of their reactions.

Actually, the character I ended up liking the most was the father/mob boss. He didn't appear to be a big name actor but he just played his role with a great deal of humanity and strength of will, such that it was obvious why people followed him and how he got to the top. I liked the bromance well enough, but what I really wanted was for Soo Hyun to come clean and admit to his mob/quasi-father who he really was. He was such a puppy around the mob boss, like his inner little kid was dying for a father-figure. Sigh.

This was one of the first Kdramas I saw that was not rom com,
so I was interested. I skipped the 1st ep and FF till it got good.
Had not seen LJK before, but I loved his performance in the context of the whole over- the- top- ness of the entire drama.
I remember not liking the girlfriend tho.

I watched this drama years ago and I LOVED it! This recap brings back so many good memories :D

Thanks for the review!

When I was new to the Kdrama world, back in maybe 2008, I tried to watch this drama too; so I was really interested to read about what happened without actually watching it. I made it about 5 episodes back then, before the love triangle bored me to tears and I decided I didn't love Lee Jun-ki enough to suffer for him. Lol. It's not just you that was turned off by the female lead.

I agree with what you said about it being stuck in 2007. I think I only made it through the 5 episodes that I did because I was new to the drama world and didn't know the melodramatic cliches of the Kdrama world. I've never been able to handle the makjang, lol.

Lee jun ki is the son of the gangster leader,am I right?And the hero -heroine are half brotger-sister!!!And at last our second lead hero get married to the woman who works with him in office & loves him & finally have child..Am I correct??Last 5/10 minutes of scenes I honestly didnt understand!!

wait, whaa? this is the same kaedejun who watches and enjoyes all the crappy series, right?(i noticed in the last few years, all the good series go to dramabeans and girlfriday, and all the crappy ones to kaedejun). so he/she enjoyes all the crappy ones, but all of the sudden she delves into proper analyses, i never saw that one coming. but the thing is, time between dog and wolf is actually a masterpiece, so the irony is big :D.

Your review is pretty spot on. My thoughts exactly echoed yours when I first watched it back in 2007. However, due to it's larger fan base I started to doubt my view and kept quiet. It's funny initially this drama was scheduled for 20 episodes, and the plot had all three of them being agents (if you look at their initial promo pictures all of them wearing black suits). But later they changed the plot where they made Ji Woo this annoying useless wench that I just wanted to make her go away (I had same feelings for the female leads in return of iljimae and resurrection).

Speaking of revenge dramas, could you do a review on The Devil/Mawang. IMO it is the most underrated gem of revenge drama out there. People compare it to Resurrection (done by same team) but the devil was executed so much better (and there's no horrible whiny female lead).

TBDAW is LJK's best action drama ever!!! I'm not blind to some plot holes but LJK's acting in this drama made me one of his fans. I love the OST too but not it's meaning. It was a good thing I don't understand the song because it will just ruin the song for me. I keep my DVD copy in a safe location. Oh how I miss this drama.

Hi guys..

Just wanna add my opinion on this being in 2007 compared to other series. Coffee Prince, for example. Many people still like Coffee Prince. I think, it is understandable bcoz Coffee Prince is a romantic drama. It is a common theme that have been created many years. TbDaW is a different genre. It is an action drama, a theme which is not commonly used a long time ago. So, the writers and PDs should have more experience in creating romantic drama than an action drama, so the quality of the result should also be different. In my case, I want to compare TBDaW with other series with the same genre, in order to make a fair comparison. And, yes.. I think, for a Korean action drama created in 2007, it has it's own charm.