Jun 3, 2022
Manager Kim is the fifth entry in Taejun Park's literary universe and stars several minor characters from some of its bigger titles, such as Lookism and Viral Hit (also known as How to Fight). The titular character, Mr. Kim, must save his daughter who is abducted and presumed dead. He's also a former black ops officer and this whole situation makes him very, very angry.
You might think this premise sounds a lot like that movie franchise, Taken. You might even recall the particular dialogue from the first movie that became so iconic: "I have a very particular set of skills, skills I have acquired over
...
a very long career, skills that make me a nightmare for people like you", etc. Indeed, that describes Manager Kim perfectly. This is Taken again, but with even less plot per se, and more Bourne / John Wick / Nobody type of rapid-fire martial-arts-infused, bone-breaking, skull-shattering, mindless power fantasy wish fulfillment goodness. Kim and his buddy Hansu Seong (the Taekwondo teacher from Viral Hit, father of Taehoon) overcome every obstacle with overwhelming force, moving like a hot knife through butter. Whether they will defeat the enemy is not a question but a certainty; the question is how they will go about it.
While that is the comic's only real allure, it is also its main—and glaring—problem. The plot only exists to ensure that our resident human weapon beats as many bad guys as possible moving from point A to point B to point C, always in a hurry but just late enough to miss the primary target. It knows it doesn't have to make a lot of sense for a story like this, so it doesn't even try to pretend that it does, and plays all of its well-trodden tropes straight. Characterization is likewise only deep enough to show who the bad guys are and sort them into imaginary threat level bins which dictate how much effort and creativity Kim and Seong must show when the fight inevitably happens. The martial arts themselves—especially if you come here from Viral Hit which can be outstandingly insightful and grounded about their real-world usage—don't have the kinetic detail and impact they deserve in a work like this. They get the point across but with nowhere near enough meat on the bones to satisfy a real action aficionado. Similarly, there are no clever jokes or witty dialogue to latch onto if you aren't satisfied with the fighting action alone. The whole thing only works to scratch a very specific itch and forget about it afterwards.
There isn't really much else to say about Manager Kim. It's literally an unkillable dude destroying other dudes with no real stakes or quality writing involved. If you come here *only* for the action, sure, it'll go with some snacks and probably alcohol. If you come here for anything *other* than action, don't waste your valuable time and try something else entirely.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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