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IRIS

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Details

  • Title: 아이리스 / Airiseu / IRIS
  • Previously known as: 쉬리 / Shiri
  • Genre: Action, mystery, thriller, romance
  • Related TV shows: Athena: Goddess of War (SBS, 2010)

Season 1

IRIS
  • Episodes: 20
  • Broadcast network: KBS2
  • Broadcast period: 2009-Oct-14 to 2009-Dec-17
  • Air time: Wednesday & Thursday 21:55
  • Original Soundtrack: IRIS OST

Plot

Lifelong friends Kim Hyun-Jun (Lee Byung-hun) and Jin Sa-woo (Jung Joon-ho), two Special Forces soldiers under the South Korean army's 707th Special Mission Battalion, each independently come into contact with an alluring woman by the name of Choi Seung-hee (Kim Tae-hee). The pair do not at first realize they have fallen for the same woman and continue to aim for her affections. Soon afterward, they are ushered from their military base to a secret compound in the middle of the night.

There, they are subjected to extensive torture as a means of gauging their worth under the most extreme of conditions. After successfully completing the test, Hyun-Jun and Sa-Woo are introduced to the standing head of the National Security Service, Baek San (Kim Yeong-cheol). He informs them that the NSS is a secret organization tasked with preempting foreign threats and protecting the country's interests through wetwork operations including assassination of anyone who could be a threat to South Korean national security. Since its founding in 1976 during the rule of Park Chung-hee, the agency's very existence has remained a state secret from everyone, including the President.

Upon being initiated into the NSS, the pair learned individually that they had been head-hunted by Seung-Hee. Stirred by her deceit, Hyun-jun compliments her skills as an actress with resentment, while Sa-Woo takes the news less bitterly. During a team celebration at dinner, Hyun-Jun confronted her alone and challenged her findings about him as a expert profiler about him. She berated him for his ego and he forcefully kissed her. Although she resisted, she caved in and embraced the passion they have for one another. Eventually, the two engaged in subtle work-time flirting, trading small glances, foot rubbing, and keeping their smiles from being noticed by their colleagues.

In a defining moment to bring NSS to prominence. Hyun-Jun's and his team foiled an assassination attempt on the leading presidential candidate. Hyun-Jun and Sa-Woo were later invited to the Blue House and to be personally thanked by the president. There, Hyun-Jun experiences déjà vu, believing that he had stood in that very spot many years earlier. After performing such a great service, Hyun-Jun, Sa-Woo, and Seung-Hee were granted vacation time as a reward for their hard work.

Hyun-Jun and Seung-Hee took the opportunity to secret fly off Akita-Japan for a romantic winter escape. From there, the two would spend several romantic days together, solidifying their love for one another. While spending time at the hot springs, the couple befriended a young teen, Yuki. Yuki was smitten with Hyun-Jun at first sight and would often spend time with the couple to be with Hyun-Jun. In between this time, an elite assassin by the name of Vic (T.O.P) appears at a high-rise hotel in Shanghai to eliminate a figure of political importance. After his bodyguards are disposed of, the man is killed and the assassin mentions his intention to move to the next and final target: Hong Seung-ryong, a defector from North Korea and the scientist heading their nuclear arms program.

As their personal relationships develop in unexpected ways, Hyun-Jun, Sa-Woo, and Seung-Hee are soon sent to Budapest to secure Hong Seung-Ryong while the Blue House decides whether to grant him asylum. Despite interference, they manage to deliver the defector to fellow agents tasked with escorting him to the South. Before relieving Hong Seung-Ryong to support agents, he gave Hyun-Jun a metal cross necklace, telling him to live life as if there was a god. Unknown to him, Hyun-Jun just got the USB Vic had been searching for. Not long after, Hong Seung-Ryong was killed along with his handlers by Vic. Hyun-Jun is given an independent assignment that will alter the course of history and change his life forever: assassinate the North Korean Minister Yoon.

Hyun-Jun succeeded his mission, but it incurred the wrath of North Korean agents. Agents Seon-Hwa and Chul-Young hunted for Hyun-Jun and Hyun-Jun got shot by Chul-Young during his escape. Hyun-Jun managed to escape capture and requested for assistance, but Baek-San decided to cut him loose by having Sa-Woo silence him. To Hyun-Jun's surprise, Sa-woo complied with his orders to terminate him. Fortunately, North Korean (NK) agents intervened to stop Sa-Woo. After dodging both sides for several days, Hyun-Jun was found by North Korean agents, but he escaped. He later reunited with Seung-Hee and the two agreed to run away from both sides to be free together, but that was dashed when Seung-Hee's car exploded at the train station. Hyun-Jun thought she died and had little time for grief as NK agents found him again and he had to out run them. Even though he escaped, Sa-Woo found him. In a showdown between Sa-Woo and Hyun-Jun; Hyun-Jun tried to escape by plane, but Sa-Woo shot his plane down and everyone presumed he died. Because of their failure to capture Hyun-Jun, NK agent Seon-Hwa was stripped of her title and thrown into jail

Hyun-Jun succeeded his mission, but it incurred the wrath of North Korean agents. Agents Seon-hwa and Chul Young hunted for Hyun-jun and Hyun-Jun got shot by Chul-Young during his escape. Hyun-Jun managed to escape capture and requested for assistance, but Baek San decided to cut him loose by having Sa-woo silence him. To Hyun-Jun's surprise, Sa-Woo complied with his orders to terminate him. Fortunately, North Korean (NK) agents intervened to stop Sa-Woo. After dodging both sides for several days, Hyun-Jun was found by North Korean agents, but he escaped. He later reunited with Seung-Hee and the two agreed to run away from both sides to be free together, but that was dashed when Seung-Hee's car exploded at the train station. Hyun-Jun thought she died and had little time for grief as NK agents found him again and he had to outrun them. Even though he escaped, Sa-Woo found him. In a showdown between Sa-woo and Hyun-jun, Hyun-Jjun tried to escape by plane, but Sa-woo shot his plane down and everyone presumed he died. Because of their failure to capture Hyun-Jun, NK agent Seon-Hwa was stripped of her title and thrown into jail.

Both Hyun-jun and Seung-hee survived their ordeal, each believing that the other was KIA. Seung-Hee left the car when it exploded and Hyun-Jun was rescued by a mysterious benefactor. The mysterious man warned him of a war profiteering organization known as IRIS, a force that had long existed to create political turmoil to profit from a country's strife. Not willing to help a person that doesn't identify himself, he escaped Europe. He wasn't able to return to South Korea (SK) as he's branded a traitor; he took refuge back at Akita-Japan with Yuki's family.

It was during this time, NK intelligence found out Hyun-Jun lives and gave Seon-hwa a final chance to kill Hyun-Jun for redemption. The job failed as Seon-hwa was captured by Hyun-Jun. Seon-hwa pleaded for death since she failed and Hyun-Jun said he would grant her wish after he completes his quest. Seon-hwa actually believed him and was eventually integrated herself with Yuki's family as well. Over time together, Seon-hwa developed a deep respect for Hyun-Jun and eventually falls in love with him. In between this time, Seung-Hee grieved deeply for Hyun-Jun, always having trouble accepting his death; both Baek-San and Sa-woo manipulates her by convincing her he's really dead.

Not long, Baek San and Sa-Woo found Jeong Hoon. They used NSS resources to track and hunt him down. Before Jeong Hoon died, he activated a video feed to record his final moments for Hyun-Jun to see. The video was meant to be part evidence and also a clue for Hyun-Jun to continue his mission. The clue led him to meet SK's secretary and he took him to see the President of South Korea. In a private meeting, Hyun-Jun finally had a chance to explain his side of the story is now a double-agent between both sides to stop the nuke from going off.

Around the same time, NK agent Cheol-young, discovered his own commanding officer, Gi Hoon is part of a coup to overthrow the current NK administration. Not only does he intend to stop the reunification of Korea, but manipulate the world's military to strategically neutralize NK for his regime to step in as the new power of NK. Because Cheol-Young never wanted war, he secretly aided Hyun-Jun and the SK president in hopes to stop Gi Hoon's scheme. However, the plan is even larger than that. IRIS intends to start a civil war and take control both sides of Korea under their unified control.

Time was running out. The NK infiltration team left Hyun-Jun and Seon-Jun behind as they didn't trust the duo. The duo themselves were too late when they finally located their secret bomb assembly lab. However, Hyun-Jun finally had a proper reunion with Seung-Hee as they accidentally ran into each other during their own investigation. Seung-Hee finally learned about what happened with Hyun-Jun during his mission at Budapest and Sa-Woo's actions during that time. It was also the first time she learned about IRIS; however, there wasn't enough time as Sa-Woo himself had come with his NSS team. To stall time for Hyun-Jun's escape, she fired several shots to gain Sa-Woo's attention. While she peacefully surrendered to NSS custody, Seung-Hee revealed how much she knows now and her unwillingness to forgive Sa-Woo for trying to kill his own best friend. SK President is now impatient, as they have lost all their leads and the NK Director Gi Hoon is their only hope. With the help of Cheol-Young, Gi-Hoon was arrested, but it was short lived. Before he could be transfer over to SK agents, Vic arrived and killed Gi-Hoon to silence him. Because the President is aware of Sa-Woo's and Baek-San's insurrection, he had Head of National Security, Yoo Kwang Ho, perform a hostile takeover on NSS and arrest the two. Both Sa-Woo and Baek-San intentionally stalled time before finally surrendering to Yoo Kwang Ho's men.

At D-Day, the president's official announcement of reunification, Hyun-Jun and Seon-Hwa continue their investigation. They found clues left behind from the NK infiltration team earlier and tried to understand where the nuke could be. During this time, Cheol-Young had returned to NK and gained the trust of their leader to root out IRIS agents within their ranks. It was through his interrogations that he reported to the duo that IRIS had targeted the Federal Building Complex, the U.S. Embassy, and the Blue House. From there, they got a good approximate location of where they could find the bomb. At the city looking for clues to where the bomb was hidden, Hyun-Jun used his memory to recall that the notes they found earlier corresponded to a particular bus route and figured it out that they placed it in a tour bus. In the meantime, NSS used a jamming device to dampen the effect of remote devices to stall time for the duo to find the nuke.

Both Hyun-Jun and Seon-Hwa successfully located the nuke behind the tour bus, but Kang and his NK squad arrived to finish the fight. Seung-Hee also joined the fray and the trio had a mass gun fight in the middle of the busiest intersection in Seoul. Hyun-Jun and his group won the battle after killing the last members with several grenades. With the nuke neutralized and all enemy forces defeated, the President personally thanked Hyun-Jun in his role during the crisis and became the president's most trusted agent, much to Yoo Kwang Ho's dismay.

Peace had finally come and Hyun-Jun felt at peace and slept off his stress for 33 hrs. Aftewards, Hyun-Jun took the time to bid farewell to Seon-Hwa. Even though Hyun-Jun got presidential permission to allow Seon-Hwa live in SK, she couldn't handle the pain as she didn't have Hyun-Jun's heart. However, Hyun-Jun at least embraced her and thanked for going all the way for him during his most difficult times. When Seon-Hwa returned to NK, she requested to lead a civilian life and become possibly a farmer or teacher for the future, but Cheol-Young wanted her to recover and think things over before making such a major change in career. However, she would later return to SK with the Cheol-Young when she realized Seung-Hee's profile was within the IRIS database and wanted to warn Hyun-Jun of the potential danger.

During around those events, Mi Jung, an NSS hacker was duped into a romantic relationship with Vic, the IRIS assassin. He managed to convince her to steal access codes to NSS servers to know when Sa-Woo and Baek-San will be released. After he recovered the data, he killed her and reported in to Mr. Black, his boss, to dispatch an armed recovery team for Baek-San and Sa-Woo.

Hyun-Jun later headed off to Jeju Island to spend some quality time with Seung-Hee and recover from his PTSD. It was there that Seung-Hee mysteriously disappeared for several days. Hyun-Jun couldn't prioritize looking for her as he was just called back to Seoul due to the IRIS jailbreak with Sa-Woo and Baek-San. She would later confess that she met up with Baek-San as he tried to recruit her into IRIS. She explained that her father was the founder of NSS and when he died, Baek-San helped her family survive and was a father-figure in her life. She didn't want to talk about it due to strong personal conflicts within herself, but Hyun-Jun sympathized and forgave her.

At NSS, their investigative team found Mi-Jung dead and hacked into her blog to discover that Vic was the killer. During this time, Baek-San had pushed Sa-Woo as his second-hand-man. While heading to intercept Secretary Jung, Vic rigged and killed Jung with a car bomb. Hyun-Jun and Seon-Hwa gave chase and tailed Vic to his apartment. Hyun-Jun had Vic badly beaten for the deaths of the Jung, Yuki, and Yuki's parents. He demanded to know where Baek-San and Sa-Woo had hidden, but he refused to answer. Ultimately, Hyun-Jun killed Vic in self-defense after he tried to shoot him in the back.

Through NSS investigations, they found out that Vic's favorite wine came from a golf club, where the IRIS crew is based. Hyun-Jun infiltrated and attacked the golf club house to arrest Baek-San and Sa-Woo, but Sa-Woo had already escaped. Baek-San remained to buy them time while the surviving IRIS team completed their mission: to prevent the reunification of Korea. When Hyun-Jun and Baek-San finally met, Hyun-Jun demanded Baek-San to ask for forgiveness, but Baek-San couldn't help laugh at the matter. Hyun-Jun was highly tempted to shoot him, but he let him live to be arrested by NSS agents.

The IRIS agents later attacked a local mall. They intend to blackmail both sides of the Korean government to release their IRIS agents and to make SK's president announce their political stand to not unit Korea as one. Hyun-Jun became the negotiator for the president for the hostages' release, but he was really there to appeal to Sa-Woo's conscience. Things fell apart when the IRIS agents refuse to deal with Hyun-Jun as they had direct orders from Mr. Black to kill all the hostages. Hyun-Jun and Sa-Woo were forced to team up again and kill all the IRIS agents. While victorious, Sa-Woo was badly injured and dying. Before he died, he was with Hyun-Jun and Seung-Hee in his final moments. He apologized and was forgiven before he passed away. With all things hindering the reunification process gone, the peace talks resumed.

At the reunification summit, the president personally requested Hyun-Jun to be at his side during the summit. It was also at this time that NSS agents realized they've been duped. The bodies that were thought to be IRIS agents were actually hostages. The true IRIS agents escaped during the hostage crisis as civilians and has now infiltrated the summit to kill the politicians at the summit. They killed several of the security guards and replaced them with their own men in a surprise attack. Unfortunately, it failed with Seung-Hee's interference. Not believing the crisis was over, she herself disguised as a SWAT sniper and killed the IRIS snipers. This created mass panic as the IRIS agents were forced to engage all security forces in a shootout. Ultimately, the SK president and NK forces survived the assault and Hyun-Jun saved the day again.

During the gunfight, Seon-Hwa took a bullet for Hyun-Jun and was treated at a local hospital. Unable to think of something great to show his gratitude, he showed up with only flowers and a "thank you," but he promised to think something far more substantial to thank her in the future. With everything finally over, both Hyun-Jun and Seung-Hee left NSS to lead a civilian life. While Seung-Hee waited at a lighthouse for Hyun-Jun, he was driving to meet her with a wedding ring; he was going to propose to her. However, during the car ride, Hyun-Jun was shot to death in the head by an IRIS agent. As Seung-Hee waited for Hyun-Jun, he is tearfully convulsing while seeing her at a distance. In the aftermath, Hyun-Jun’s life and death were later classified, Baek-San was sent to a “black prison,” and IRIS receded for three years until they regained their strength to take on the world once again.

Cast

NSS
IRIS
South Korea's Blue House
North Korea Party
Other people

Production Credits

Recognitions

  • 2010 3rd Korea Drama Awards: Best Producer Award (Jung Tae Won)
  • 2010 5th Seoul International Drama Awards: Outstanding Korean Drama - Best Actor (Lee Byung Hun)
  • 2010 46th Baeksang Arts Awards: Best TV Drama
  • 2010 46th Baeksang Arts Awards: Best TV Drama Actor (Lee Byung Hun)
  • 2009 KBS Drama Awards: Daesang (Grand Prize) (Lee Byung Hun)
  • 2009 KBS Drama Awards: Excellence Award, Novella Drama - Actress (Kim Tae Hee)
  • 2009 KBS Drama Awards: Excellence Award, Novella Drama - Actor (Jung Joon Ho and Kim Seung Woo)
  • 2009 KBS Drama Awards: Best Supporting Actor Award (Yoon Joo Sang)
  • 2009 KBS Drama Awards: Best Couple Award (Lee Byung Hun and Kim Tae Hee)
  • 2009 KBS Drama Awards: Popularity Award (Kim So Yun)
  • 2009 KBS Drama Awards: Netizen Popularity Award (Lee Byung Hun)

Notes

  • Filming sites include Russia, Japan, China and the U.S.
  • The production cost for this drama is estimated to be around 20 million dollars.
  • This drama is somewhat based on the film Shiri.
  • Plans have been made for a season 2 of IRIS. However actor Lee Byung Hun will be unable to participate in as he has other commitments.

Episode Ratings

See IRIS/Episode Ratings

External Links


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KBS2
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Take Care of the Young Lady
Wednesday & Thursday 21:55
Chuno

Season 2

This drama is currently airing.
Some information on this page may be incomplete, missing or even wrong.
IRIS II
  • Title: 아이리스 II / Airiseu II / IRIS II
  • Also known as: 아이리스2 (IRIS 2) / 아이리스 시즌2 (IRIS Season 2)
  • Episodes: 20
  • Broadcast network: KBS2
  • Broadcast period: 2013-Feb-13 to 2013-Apr-18
  • Air time: Wednesday & Thursday 22:00
  • Original Soundtrack: IRIS II OST

Synopsis

The story take place three years after the the death of Hyun Joon. It will reveal mystery surrounding Hyun Joon's death and Baek San, who has been arrested for being active in the secret organization IRIS. Will also outline the story of Mister Black, who controlled everything through Baek San.

Cast

Main Cast
NSS
North Korea Party
IRIS
  • ?? as Mr. Black
  • David McInnis as Ray (IRIS Operations Team Leader)
Other

Production Credits

Episode Ratings

See IRIS II/Episode Ratings

External Links


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KBS2
Next
Jeon Woo Chi
Wednesday & Thursday 22:00
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