Vincenzo

Synopsis

At the age of eight, Park Joo-hyung is adopted by an Italian family, but the family later dies tragically in an accident. Joo-hyung joins the mafia and is adopted by Don Fabio, the head of the Cassano Family who treats him like a son. Renamed as "Vincenzo Cassano", he becomes a lawyer, a consigliere for the mafia, and Don Fabio's right-hand man. After Fabio died, Paolo, Fabio's biological son and the new leader of the Cassano Family, attempts to kill his adoptive brother out of jealousy as Fabio favoured Vincenzo over himself.

Vincenzo flees to Seoul and sets out to recover a gold bullion worth ₩150 billion ($110 million) that he helped his business partner (a recently dead Chinese tycoon) secretly stash within a hidden basement under Geumga Plaza, a commercial building in South Korea. During an inspection of the building, he discovers that he needs to demolish the place to retrieve the buried gold. However, a subsidiary of a large pharmaceutical corporation Babel Group has illegally taken ownership of the building with the intention of demolishing it to build a business building. Unwilling to let the gold to fall into the hands of Babel Group, Vincenzo must use his skills to reclaim the building and recover his fortune.

Among the quirky tenants at Geumga Plaza is the Jipuragi Law Firm run by Hong Yoo-chan, in which Vincenzo finds he has aligned interests. At first he comes into conflict with Hong Yoo-chan's daughter, Hong Cha-young, an attorney for a rival firm, Wusang, that defends Babel Group. Under the orders of Babel's top legal advisor, Hong Yoo-chan is murdered in the middle of the street. Enraged, Cha-young angrily resigns from her firm and takes over Jipuragi and teams up with Vincenzo to take down Babel. It is revealed that Hong Yoo-chan is killed because he managed to discover that Babel Group is a shell company for a drug cartel and left some clues for his daughter and Vincenzo to find.

When Vincenzo finds himself getting entangled in a bigger issue with Babel internally, he realizes that conventional legal method cannot do anything against a powerful corporation like Babel, and uses skills he learned in the mafia to fight the corporation, including kidnapping and torturing Babel employees for intel, as well as recruiting the tenants from Geumga Plaza to help him. He also starts persuading mistreated employees of Babel to be their allies to destroy the Corporation from within. Eventually, Vincenzo manages to find a way into the gold vault underneath the building without having to demolish it. Aside from the gold, he stumbles upon a USB left behind by his deceased business partner called the Guillotine file containing incriminating pieces of evidence against Korean politicians, civil servants, and the Babel Group. As both the corrupt politicians and Babel Group find out about the Guillotine file, they seek to obtain and destroy it while Vincenzo dodges their attacks by staying several steps ahead of them.

Cast

Main

Song Joong-ki as Vincenzo Cassano / Park Joo-hyung

Kim Si-woo as young Vincenzo

An Italian lawyer and mafia consigliere of Korean descent, Vincenzo is the adopted son of the late boss of the Cassano family and the true owner of Geumga Plaza. He becomes an advisor and foreign legal counsel at Jipuragi Law Firm, working with Hong Cha-young to destroy the Babel Group and reclaim the gold hidden in Geumga Plaza.Hong Cha-young's love interest.

Jeon Yeo-been as Hong Cha-young

A lawyer who is an associate for the Wusang Law Firm and Hong Yoo-chan's daughter. Cha-young is energetic and tends to overreact. She later replaces her father as CEO of Jipuragi Law Firm and joins Vincenzo in his revenge against Babel. Vincenzo's love interest.

Ok Taec-yeon as Jang Jun-woo / Jang Han-seok

Moon Seong-hyun as young Jang Han-seok

An intern in Wusang Law Firm working under Hong Cha-young as her paralegal/assistant, and the real Chairman of Babel Group. He puts on a front as a happy-go-lucky, dumb, and naive man. However, he is revealed as the true power behind Babel Group.

Kim Yeo-jin as Choi Myung-hee

A former prosecutor who quits the prosecutor's office to join Wusang Law Firm as its new Senior Partner, and in the process becomes the corporate fixer and attorney of Babel Group. She appears to good-natured and enjoys Zumba dancing. but in reality is that she is extremely corrupt and is Jang Jun-woo's accomplice in his schemes. She is responsible for ordering the death of Cha-young's father.

Kwak Dong-yeon as Jang Han-seo

Jang Jun-woo's half-brother and the previous chairman's illegitimate son who publicly acts as the owner of Babel Group in his brother's place. He appears to be rude, cocky and pretentious, but he is actually more morally equipped than his brother.

Supporting

Wusang Law Firm

Jo Han-chul as Han Seung-hyuk

The CEO of Wusang Law Firm who recruits Choi Myung-hee into the group. He eventually becomes the Chief of the Seoul Southeast District Prosecutors' Office.

Geumga Plaza

Yoon Byung-hee as Nam Joo-sung

A paralegal working at Jipuragi Law Firm under lawyer Hong Yoo-chan and later Hong Cha-young. He is a former special effect make-up artist. After Hong Yoo-chan's death, he joins Vincenzo and Hong Cha-young in destroying the Babel Group.

Choi Young-joon as Cho Young-woon

The manager of Geumga Plaza. His name is used in Geumga Plaza's deed. Vincenzo once saved his life back in Milan, and is thus indebted to Vincenzo. It is later revealed that he is an undercover agent of the International Security Intelligence Service, but he remains as an ally to Vincenzo.

Choi Deok-moon as Tak Hong-shik

A laundromat owner. He purposely ruins Vincenzo's limited edition bespoke suit because he thought that Vincenzo wants to evict him and the other tenants. He was a former gang member and uses scissors as his weapon.

Kim Hyung-mook as Toto

An Italian restaurant owner in Geumga Plaza and former wrestler. He pretends to have studied in Italy to be a chef and feels threatened by Vincenzo who easily learns his secret.

Lee Hang-na as Kwak Hee-soo

A snack bar owner in Geumga Plaza and former boxer. She regularly beats her teenage son who secretly smokes.

Special appearances

Jin Seon-kyu as an unnamed robber #1 (ep. 1)

Acting as a limousine taxi driver.

Lee Hee-joon as an unnamed robber #2 (ep. 1)

Jung Soon-won as an airport police (ep. 1)

Yoo Jae-myung as Hong Yoo-chan (eps. 1-3)

A lawyer who was the CEO of the Jipuragi Law Firm and Chairman of the Development Opposition Committee for Geumga Plaza, Yoo-chan is Cha-young's father. He believes that justice is above all else and would never compromise his principles, and he was a mentor-like figure to Vincenzo. He was later killed under Choi Myung-hee's orders, inspiring his daughter Hong Cha-young to take revenge against the Babel Group.

Kim Jin-yi as a past client (eps. 4–5)

Shin Seung-hwan as So Hyun-woo (ep. 5)

A corrupt attorney on Wusang Law Firm's payroll.

Jeong Yeong-ju as a lady driving out of the court (ep. 5)

Cha Soon-bae as Judge Heo (ep. 6)

Ahn Chang-hwan as Gilbeot

A homeless man staying outside Geumga Plaza. Misunderstood by everyone as "Gilbert", he tries to correct his name to clarify them. He tells Vincenzo that Gilbeot means "a friend on the road." (eps. 6–7, 12)

Yoo Yeon as Kim Yeo-won (ep. 7)

Gil Jong-moon's wife and the head of Sungwon University Hospital's Pediatric Cancer Center.

Production

In May 2020, director Kim Hee-won and screenwriter Park Jae-bum teamed up for Vincenzo. In July 2020, it was reported that Song Joong-ki and Jeon Yeo-been are considering the offer to star in the series; while Ok Taec-yeon was confirmed for the cast. Song and Jeon confirmed their appearance in the following month. The first script reading took place on January 5, 2021.

The series was planned to be partially shot in Italy but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, related scenes were augmented with CGI.

Episodes 17 and 18 were delayed one week due to the production team wanting to "improve the quality" of the episodes.

Original soundtrack

Vincenzo (Original Television Soundtrack)

Tracklist

Singles

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Reception

Viewership

A 7.7% average viewership rating was recorded nationwide for the series' first episode, at the time making it the third-highest premiere rating of any weekend drama of the network and fourth-highest premiere rating overall, bested by Mr. Sunshine, Encounter and Mr. Queen.

The drama is currently the eighteenth highest-rated drama in Korean cable television history.

Awards and nominations