Athena: Goddess of War
Athena: Goddess of War (
Hangul:
아테나: 전쟁의 여신) is a
South Korean espionage television drama series broadcast by
SBS in 2010 and a
spin-off of 2009's
Iris. After having been budgeted at 20 billion
won ($17 million
USD) like its predecessor, the two series have become the most expensive Korean dramas ever produced.
[1][2]
Starring
Jung Woo-sung,
Cha Seung-won,
Soo Ae, and
Lee Ji-ah, the series premiered in December 2010 after filming in a number of overseas locations, including
Italy,
New Zealand,
Japan, and the
United States. The series is set in the same
universe as its predecessor, allowing for select characters from
Iris to reprise their roles throughout the story.
Plot
The story begins around the same time as
Iris, when Kim Hyun-jun is being hunted down by
North Korean agents and branded a
traitor while in
Budapest.
South Korean President Cho Myung-ho (
Lee Jung-gil)
expressed interest in advancing nuclear technology to lead the world
with the most advanced and cost effective energy source of the century.
To do this, he enlisted Dr. Kwon (a
black-ops agent) to help retrieve a
defecting North Korean scientist, Dr. Kim Myeong-guk.
Dr. Kwon accepted the mission, but it was nearly ruined by an Athena team, led by Son Hyeok (
Cha Seung-won). Ultimately, Dr. Kwon managed to secured Dr. Kim's retrieval, but he was caught himself by Son Hyeok and
tortured
for information. Son Hyeok was supposed to kill Dr. Kwon, but he let
him live out of momentary mercy. Three years after those events,
President Cho re-enlisted Dr. Kwon to serve as the director of the new
counter-terrorism
task force, NTS (National Anti-Terror Service), to protect South
Korea's future from aggressive foreign enemies trying to steal Dr. Kim's
nuclear technology.
After Dr. Kwon arrived to be part of NTS, his old rival, Son Hyeok,
had returned to South Korea as the new director of DIS (an American
intelligence agency). At the same time, SK NIS (National Intelligence Service) agent Lee Jung-woo (
Jung Woo-Sung) recently transferred to NTS to become their top agent. Unknown to everyone, Son Hyeok is a
double-agent
between DIS and Athena, an organization of influential people that
controls the world's resources for their fortunes. With the help of
another Athena double-agent, Yoon Hye-in (
Soo Ae),
she infiltrated NTS and supplied Son-Hyeok with inside information
about their activities. In a major grab for Dr. Kim's technology, both
NTS and Athena had thwarted and countered each other in a high-stakes
game of controlling the next great power resource.
Willing to do anything to gain the upper-hand for Athena, Son Hyeok had President Cho's daughter, Soo-young (
Lee Bo-young),
kidnapped in
Italy
and used her as ransom to gain Dr. Kim. However, Jung-woo rescued
Soo-young. To throw off Athena, Jung-woo helped fake Dr. Kim's death to
prevent them from trying any further, but that deception was exposed.
Athena recovered Dr. Kim and forced him to complete his project for
Athena instead.
NTS later found out Dr. Kim was kept in a secret facility in
Japan. To avoid making their intel known, Jung-woo was dispatched under false pretenses as a body guard for
pop star,
BoA,
to make it seem their cover wasn't exposed. In NTS's quest to find Dr.
Kim, they failed to rescue him, but NTS managed to recover a crucial
component to Dr. Kim's technology and Athena wants it back. Using
Jung-woo's feelings for Hye-In against him, Athena faked a hostage
situation that blackmailed Jung-woo to return the component for Hye-in.
However, that was thwarted as well, but at the price of Dr. Kim's life.
Fortunately, Dr. Kim managed to complete enough of his work that
other scientists could complete it without him. Before he died though,
he also secretly left a code that revealed North Korea's full nuclear
capabilities; it prompted President Cho to speed-up peace negotiations
between North Korea, but it was a rough process as North Korea found out
they harbored Dr. Kim and they intervened against both sides. During
this time, all the things Hye-In had done for Athena created a crisis of
loyalty and ethics for Hye-in. She is loyal to Son Hyeok, but also
developed feelings for Jung-woo. With Athena's new goal of destroying
the nuclear project before completion, Hye-in struggles to balance
between orders from Athena and keeping Jung-woo alive.
After Son Hyeok's Athena affiliations was exposed, he was arrested by
NTS for questioning. However, Athena agents recovered him and he's now
planning to kill President Cho. During this time, Jung-woo figured out
Hye-in is an agent for Athena, but due to his love for her, he allowed
her to escape NTS. However, because of her activities related to Son
Hyeok, she was implicated along with his actions. Because Athena
questions Hye-in's loyalties, she was confined, but she managed to
inform Jung-woo of President Cho's impending danger. Later Hye-in gets
arrested is and held inside NTS. She eventually chose to defect from
Athena and aided NTS to stop Son Hyeok.
With so many failures, Son Hyeok was stripped of his rank in Athena
and his men replaced with a new team. Athena is aware of the problems
Hye-in caused; she was also marked for death. Unwilling to allow Hye-in
to die, Son Hyeok and his team killed their replacements and gone rogue.
Driven by his hatred, he sees NTS (especially Jung-woo) as destroyers
of his ambitions for power and taking away Hye-in; he used all his
abilities to destroy them all.
In a final endgame mission, Son Hyeok and his rogue team infiltrated NTS. They disabled the facility using an
EMP
device and tried to kill as many NTS agents as possible. Although many
NTS agents were killed, Jung-woo, Director Kwon, and Hye-in managed to
defeat them. In a showdown between Son Hyeok and Jung-woo, Jung-woo was
proven the better fighter, but Son Hyeok stopped him at gun point.
Hye-in intervened to stop Son Hyeok, but he couldn't stop. Therefore,
Hye-in shoots Son Hyeok. Hye-in tried to
kill herself
to end the madness, but Son Hyeok wanted her to live. Soon, Son Hyeok
died while Hye-in survives. After recovering from her injuries, Hye-in
was given amnesty and she left South Korea. One year later, Jung-woo
left NTS to be with Hye-in in New Zealand. He found and surprised her in
Auckland, where he hopes to start a happy chapter with her. The drama ends with the main couple smiling at each other.
Cast
Jung Woo-sung as Lee Jung-woo
Cha Seung-won as Son Hyeok
Soo Ae as Yoon Hye-in
Lee Ji-ah as Han Jae-hui
Kim Min-jong as Kim Gi-soo
Choi Si-won as Kim Jun-ho
Kim Seung-woo as Park Cheol-young
Kim So-yeon as Kim Seon-hwa
