In The Tyrant, now streaming on Hulu, a mysterious biological substance is a hot potato getting tossed between South Korean and US intelligence agencies and various competing groups of opportunistic killers. Written and directed by Park Hoon-jung (I Saw the Devil, New World), Tyrant began life as a feature film before hitting streaming as a four-episode limited series, which might account for its lack of letting the audience know what exactly is going on, at least as its early moments unfold. But we’re gonna stick with it, because this thing looks really cool, has many deadly edges, and mean people to root for. The Tyrant stars Cha Seung-won, Jo Yoon-su, Kim Seon-ho, Kim Joo-hun, and Kim Kang-woo.
THE TYRANT: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: In a rainy Seoul market closed down for the night, Madam Hwan (Jang Young-nam) greets Director Choe (Kim Seon-ho). “If they went so far as to sacrifice themselves for you, they must have had a good reason.”
The Gist: We’d like to tell you more about this meeting, but its specifics are couched in intrigue, and besides, it ends quickly after Hwan and Choe’s rival groups of bodyguards attack each other with short blades. But Madam Hwan did turn over a set of schematics to Director Choe, who seems to be in charge of a super-secret group that operates independently of South Korea’s main intelligence agency. The plans are for a high-end safe, and it’s nearly impossible to crack, though through his proxies, Choe has found the right criminal for the job. Chae Ja-gyeong (Jo Yoon-su) says very little. It’s like she lets her prominent neck tattoo do the talking, as she focuses on violently eliminating any opposition to the task at hand.
What’s in the safe? Well, a substance. It swirls around inside a medically-sealed cylinder, crackling with unpredictability, like a thunderstorm in miniature. We’ve already learned that Choe will stop at nothing to locate it, and keep it under his control. Director Sa (Kim Joo-hun), Choe’s intelligence world counterpart, also wants it, because he has a pushy politician expecting him to succeed. And Ja-gyeong, who recently lost her master criminal father, understands that everyone wants what only she can get at, leverage she’ll use to make a better deal for herself. She’ll also kill you with an improvised weapon if you try to stop her, and has what Madam Hwan calls “dissociative identity disorder.” Basically, an alternate personality. But it’s just as violent and feared as her main one.
It is this substance that is the titular Tyrant. And it’s a substance with untold power, but it’s also severely unstable, and what Ja-gyeong has been asked to steal could be its last usable sample. Can this substance make human beings super-strong? It certainly seems like that could be the case. But if we’re talking about biological additives with unclear provenance, it also seems quite possible it could destroy everything it touches.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The way people in The Tyrant talk about it, the unstable stuff at the center of the limited series reminds us of Compound V from The Boys. And Jo Yoon-su, who stars here as the deadly Chae Ja-gyeong, also appeared in Juvenile Justice, which streams on Netflix.
Our Take: Call us confused enough to be totally on board and completely intrigued. The Tyrant is one of those limited series that begins with its characters’ motivations already in progress, so we played catch-up for most of its early going, trying to piece together who’s working for whom and why. (This was made a little more difficult by these disparate groups’ willingness to murder each other at the drop of a hat.) But while The Tyrant is so far stingy on storytelling facts, it’s immediately rich in visual aesthetics – tons of moody atmosphere, rain-slicked shootouts, killers smoking sinister cigarettes, and interesting locations in South Korea and the Philippines – and what is made quite clear is that Chae Ja-gyeong is one to root for. Sure, she’s a cold-blooded killer. But through brief bits of voiceover, we’ve also learned a little about her life, and how she’s not nearly the most despicable thing in it. Even more of a hook is the fact of Ja-gyeong’s alternate personalities. The first time she speaks as her twin brother is straight-up chilling.
At only four episodes, The Tyrant is bound to clear up some of its murkiness as it rolls along, and we’re on board, since what it’s setting up – something people in power wish to control, because it has the ability to grant enhanced abilities, if only it can be found and stabilized – feels like an angle writer-director Park Hoon-jung could explore in further installments.
Sex and Skin: Nothing in the first episode, anyway.
Parting Shot: “To Korea! Gotta go clean up their mess…” Paul (Kim Kang-woo) is introduced while he’s casually torturing somebody, so whatever he gets up to in South Korea, it’ll probably add to body count in The Tyrant, which is already quite high.
Sleeper Star: Jo Yoon-su is an immediate standout in The Tyrant as Chae Ja-gyeong. She says very little, but everyone in her orbit is afraid of her, and then there’s the little matter of her split personality. “You stay put, brother. I’ll do it…”
Most Pilot-y Line: “We think what’s being developed in Korea is closer to a virus than an ordinary serum.” The quick visuals surrounding this statement that we do see – somebody in an observation tank, screaming and bleeding, a series of classified files marked ‘Tyrant’ – make us want to learn more.
Our Call: STREAM IT. The Tyrant is moody, violent, and hiding quite a bit of exposition up its sleeve as the limited series begins. But what we do know – everybody wants this mysterious substance, and they’ll kill anybody to get it – makes for reason enough to get on board and see where it goes.
Johnny Loftus (@glennganges) is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift.
- Hulu
- I Saw the Devil
- Park Hoon-jung
- Stream It Or Skip It
- Tyrant
