I came to know about this drama because of the news that Lee Sun-kyun quit before the filming started due to the drug case allegations surrounding him last year. After Lee quit, this then led to Cho Jin-woong stepping in to fill the lead role. As such, considering what happened to the late Lee due to that case, it was conflicting for me to be reminded about the what-ifs assuming Lee had taken up the lead role and I didn't want to keep comparing him and Cho despite the fact that I also like Cho as an actor.
Then, I saw the No Way Out episode on "Chattering with Nah".
It was such a fun episode to watch because of the cast especially some of them were already acquainted with PD Na or had worked with him in variety shows. What also came across very strongly was how much they loved working on this drama and praised one another for their breakthrough performances. To be honest, this promotion was very effective, at least for me because it convinced me to reconsider watching this drama. And besides, it was just 8 episodes so the hurdle to entry was significantly lesser than watching a full 16 episodes.
What was very special about this story was that none of the 8 key characters can be said to be "white" i.e. good. They are all "grey" with some being of a darker shade closer to black. In a way, this is reflective of reality where nobody can claim to be perfect and there are always conflicting sides in everyone - just that of differing degrees and types. As such, this actually made the characters a lot more believable and realistic. The downside to this though was that their behaviours may be a lot more difficult to understand and empathise with since it can be really extreme. Plus, the violence and gore can be a bit hard to stomach towards the end.
And true to its title, some of these characters really had "no way out" (or so it seems) thus giving birth to the desperation that drove them to do what they did. For example, the stigma that stuck with being the son of a serial rapist and killer even though the son did nothing wrong - how could you ever shed that label stuck on you if the cause of that stigma was still around to create havoc? Or how can you battle that greed for a quick solution to your financial problems even though you are supposed to be righteous? When faced with having to stick to your morals vs. chucking aside your values in order to survive, what would you choose then? Seeing how these characters had to make a choice which may not be acceptable based on mainstream "correct" values, you also start thinking if you can still do the right thing when you see no way out of the situation like them.
However, the quality of the episodes was not so ideal with some moving along fast enough and being so engaging to watch that the airtime passed by so quickly but others were just passable. In particular, I felt that the ending was somewhat sloppy and the pastor's story could have been expanded a bit more. I wanted to see how he managed to execute his perfect revenge but that's probably not going to happen unless there's a sequel. In addition, the Mask Man's style and image bring back memories of "Squid Game" so I would have preferred a bit more originality in that sense in order to reduce or remove that kind of implied association (intended or not) with that Netflix series.
And regarding the ending, my take on it is that you can see it in two ways - either a sequel is coming or it reflects the fact that "no way out" situations will never go away. Even if the story seems like it had a resolution, it actually is no more than a passing point and the struggles in life will still continue.
As for the cast, Yoo and Lee's characters stood out the most with their portrayals of hardcore villains. Yoo's character was such a tough nut to crack - simply refused to die despite the multiple attempts to kill him and the craziness in his warped mind really riled me up at times. Lee on the other hand, had a very strong comedic image due to his variety shows so it was such a mind-blowing experience to see him play this mad guy which filled me with so much disgust and made me wince at the same time. On the other hand, while Cho's performance as the police officer who succumbed to a moment of greed was good as usual, his image this time kept bringing back memories of his character in "Signal" to me for some strange reason. Greg Hsu's character Mr. Smile was somewhat lacking in the charisma part for me - I think the character needs more polished sleekness to match the assassin image better. Yum Jung-ah's selfish politician role was very different from her usual image but the story did not explain properly what happened to her in the end - makes no sense that the police wouldn't do anything to her for being associated with what happened at the villa.
To sum it up, the story's concept was brilliant. The acting was really good with some of the actors delivering jaw-dropping performances. However, the execution wasn't that consistent so that was a huge pity which could have made a difference in evaluating this drama.
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