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Pierce Conran

2.5/5 stars
Lead cast: So Ji-sub, Heo Joon-ho, Gong Myung, Ahn Kil-kang
Mercy for None, Netflix Korea’s latest gritty genre original out of South Korea, is a show about a man who destroys himself to seek justice for his dead brother. It is also about fathers blinded by their love for their sons. But most of all it’s a show about men beating the living hell out of each other.
The man who does most of that beating is the hulking Nam Gi-hun, played by broad-shouldered bruiser So Ji-sub (Doctor Lawyer).


Gi-hun used to be a top lieutenant in the Bongsan Gang, led by Gu Bong-san (Ahn Kil-kang, A Shop for Killers), which is closely affiliated with the Joowon Gang, led by Lee Joo-woon (Heo Joon-ho, Buried Hearts).
He left the gang world 11 years ago when he took it upon himself to do something necessary to ensure the survival of both gangs.
This came with a cost, so in addition to severing ties, Gi-hun also severed his own Achilles tendon, the price he paid to leave the life. He also did so to ensure the safety of his brother Nam Gi-seok (Lee Joon-hyuk, Love Scout), who works under Joo-won – or so he thought.
After running a peaceful camping site for the past 11 years, Gi-hun is compelled to return to the gangs he left behind when Gi-seok winds up dead.

The finger seems to point to Bong-san’s wild-eyed son Joon-mo (Gong Myung, Way Back Love), and since Gi-hun believes in Old Testament retribution, Bong-san tries to put as many bodies in between his son and his former soldier before more family blood is spilled.
Gi-hun may be the man forced to hulk around with a limp, but it becomes clear soon enough that it may have been the Bongsan and Joowoon gangs who lost their Achilles’ heel when he left the life all those years ago.
Mercy for None is a very literal show, filled with extensive beatdowns, double-crosses and legions of scowling men out for blood, but it occasionally indulges in this kind of loaded symbolism.
After felling the first footmen in his revenge rampage, Gi-hun steps out of a building into the night air and limps his way down into the inky black of an underpass. The implication is clear – he has set himself on a path of no return and there will be no light at the end of his journey.

Though he has played many roles in an almost 30-year career, So is often known for playing stoic pugilists. These include a romantic boxer (Always), a gangster consulting on a film set (Rough Cut), or a guilt-stricken assassin who goes against his “company” (A Company Man).
The common feature between all these fighters is the faraway look in his deep-set eyes, hinting at an emotional depth behind his swings. So’s characters may not get physically hurt very often, but each swing they take seems to take an emotional toll on them.
This makes So the ideal choice to play the duty-bound Gi-hun, an angel of retribution who comes after the many demons within the Bongsan and Joowon gangs looking tired and sad rather than angry and focused.
However, this character trait may be Mercy for None’s Achilles’ heel. Despite being an action-heavy show, where it struggles is in creating convincing opponents for Gi-hun, who immediately comes off as invincible.

That works well when he viciously ploughs through a gang of snotty-eyed kids in an internet cafe – the show’s best sequence, appearing all too early in the first episode – but it makes the increasingly long and repetitive showdowns with “real men” that follow a bit of a slog.
There’s the occasional major villain who rises up to challenge him, including a champion boxer and a Japanese-Korean assassin, but none of them feels like a remotely credible threat.
Gi-hun lumbers around, never seeming to get injured or having to overexert himself even when facing down dozens of knife-wielding killers. Where’s the fun and tension in that?
Mercy for None, based on the webtoon Plaza Wars, is unabashedly generic pulp, seeking to serve a fix for stylish bravado.

Macho posturing is the order of the day and women have no place in this world. Despite the importance of family ties, there are no wives, mothers, sisters or girlfriends.
The only female speaking part of any note goes to a detective played by Lee Sang-hee (Daily Dose of Sunshine), who is very quickly relegated to the background.
While the show gets off to a decent start, its main dish – the action sequences – provides diminishing returns as the story devolves into a tired tangle of treachery.
Thankfully this isn’t a very long show, but this is a clear case in the streaming era of a property that would have been markedly punchier as a feature film.
Mercy for None is streaming on Netflix.


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A former crime gang member returns seeking vengeance in Mercy for None, a hyper-masculine show that is little more than a series of fights


A former crime gang member returns seeking vengeance in Mercy for None, a hyper-masculine show that is little more than a series of fights.


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.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}A former crime gang member returns seeking vengeance in Mercy for None, a hyper-masculine show that is little more than a series of fights

A former crime gang member returns seeking vengeance in Mercy for None, a hyper-masculine show that is little more than a series of fights