‘Narco-Saints’ (Season 1) Review: An Explosive Series that Deserves Recognition
Netflix’s Narco-Saints follows a Korean businessman as he tries to survive a drug trade led by a priest. An entertaining and partially original take on the mafia drama. The title of this series is similar to Narcos and Narcos: Mexico, but don’t let that fool you because it’s a thrilling and explosive ride that gets better with each episode.
The series follows Kang In-gu (Ha Jung-woo), who sits at the back of the truck with a group of people as it drives through the jungle. He narrates and explains his life story to the audience. During the Vietnam war, his father enlisted to fight and when he came back, he worked multiple jobs and his mother died shortly after. To support the family, In-gu’s father worked himself to death and eventually, he had to quit school to find a job to support his brothers. When his life becomes uncontrollable, he decides to get married to the first person who agrees to it and after they settle down in their tiny basement, they have kids. While working multiple jobs, just like his father, In-gu buys various businesses and eventually becomes the owner of a karaoke bar. Despite working these jobs, In-gu and his family can barely make ends meet.
When his best friend, Park Eung-soo (Hyun Bong Shik), returns from Brazil, he proposes a supposedly foolproof plan to get them enough money to keep their families afloat. A business opportunity where In-gu and Eung-soo export and sell skate fish from Suriname, a tiny fishing community that doesn’t eat it, to Korea. In-gu’s wife disagrees with the plan but he convinces her that this will be the only opportunity they have for their kids’ future. The two best friends arrive at Suriname and help his best friend, now business partner, solve problems and deal with a dangerous Chinese gangster, Chen Zhen (Chang Chen). But when their troubles with Chen Zhen put them in physical harm, a Korean pastor, Jeon Yo-hwan (Hwang Jung-min), helps them to de-escalate the situation. But In-gu and Eung-soo’s lives change when they find cocaine in their shipments and get wrapped up in Pastor Jeon’s secret drugs trade.
Even if Narco-Saints is based on true events, the absurdity of In-gu’s situation is entertaining. He gets sent to prison after Pastor Jeon betrays his trust and tries to sell cocaine through his export business. In prison, Choi Changho (Park Hae-soo, Squid Game) of the National Intelligence Service recruits him to work as a double agent and work alongside Pastor Jeon and help the organisation arrest him. When he meets Pastor Jeon, In-gu’s charisma, clever negotiation skills, decision making, and ability to kick someone’s ass. These qualities are impressive to Pastor Jeon, so he trusts In-gu more and more and eventually takes his advice. Changho and In-gu concoct a plan to arrest the drug lord. A lot of planning and tension-building progresses as the story moves forward. But the conclusion to the series is worth the many setbacks in Changho and In-gu’s plans.
Narco-Saints may not be as popular as the synonymous titles, but it deserves recognition. A series that doesn’t necessarily integrate religion and faith into the narrative. Pastor Jeon uses it as a means to convince followers to follow him. In other words, he uses religious verses to justify the drug trade and portray himself as someone holier than anybody else — an untouchable man. Even though Narco-Saints doesn’t take itself too seriously, there are betrayals on both sides, tensions that build to show shootouts and murders, and corruption inside the Suriname government.
