A girl must take care of herself and try to survive after her uncle dies. It turns out the uncle had a lot of deadly secrets, and his past is coming back to kill the girl.
A Shop for Killers consists of eight episodes. This is an entertaining action series that takes its time to build up the characters. The series spends a considerable amount of time in the past, where we are introduced to the most important characters. In the present, the girl is at her uncle’s place, and there she will find out the truth about her uncle and what kind of business he ran before he died.
And who can she trust when a lot of hired soldiers are coming to kill her?
What I enjoyed about A Shop for Killers is that it has a lot of mystery and strange characters, and that the protagonist can’t trust anybody in this universe because the people she has to deal with are, for the most part, killers, which helps build up the suspense. The girl is innocent, and you don’t feel she stands a chance against all of the hired soldiers coming to kill her. But she will also get help from her uncle’s old friends.
The cinematography is excellent, and I can’t say I expected the series to be so great in that department when you look at the directors behind it. I almost thought it was directed by one of my favorite directors of all time, when he was in his prime, Kim Jee-woon. The camera work is excellent, the action choreography is fun, and there’s also a lot of variety during the action scenes.
A Shop for Killers spends more time in the past than in the present. It has to do that because the girl is stuck in one location at her uncle’s place, and even though the place has a lot of secrets, it’s not enough to keep the viewers engaged. For the most part, the episodes take place in the past so the series can build up the characters, and we get to know them better.
I’m not interested in spoiling too much of the plot, but there has to be a second season because the story isn’t over yet. And the surprise at the end in the last scene didn’t surprise me at all because I never bought that outcome. Again, I can’t say much more than that.
I have to praise Lee Dong-wook, whom I first discovered in Strangers from Hell, also known as Hell Is Other People. He plays the uncle, and it was so interesting to see him in a more—what can I say—normal role after playing the leader of the serial killers in Strangers from Hell. He looked like a vampire in that series; in A Shop for Killers, he looks like a normal human being. He has so much charisma, and there’s something special about his way of acting. He feels so calm, but at the same time intense.
The other actors are also great, but there is one character I didn’t quite like, and that is the main villain of the series. I liked that he’s a messed-up person, but he’s just messed up and doesn’t have any sort of human traits. He’s like an evil, cold Terminator, and I didn’t like that portrayal of the character. I would have found him more interesting if he had more character depth. Then I would have liked him more as the main villain.
If you like South Korean action thrillers—the good ones, they made many years ago—then you should check out A Shop for Killers. It’s a short but very fun and entertaining series you should watch if you like hard-hitting action scenes, some cool characters, great acting, great cinematography, and a pulse that beats in every episode, so you can’t wait to see the next one.