In 1983, a covert mission involving 21 South Korean special agents ends in tragedy when the operatives are betrayed and killed by their own government officials following a successful operation. Only two men survive: Lee Jin-pyo, who is left for dead, and his best friend Park Moo-yul, who sacrifices himself to save Jin-pyo. Driven by vengeance, Jin-pyo kidnaps Moo-yul’s infant son, Lee Yoon-sung, and raises him in a brutal environment, training him in combat and marksmanship for a single purpose: to destroy the five high-ranking politicians who orchestrated the massacre.

Twenty-eight years later, Lee Yoon-sung is a brilliant MIT graduate who secures a position as an IT expert in the Blue House, South Korea’s presidential office. Posing as a reserved communications officer, he operates under the secret identity of City Hunter, a masked vigilante who systematically targets the five corrupt officials. His goal is not merely to kill them but to expose their crimes to the public, stripping them of their power and reputation before they fall. As he methodically takes down his targets, he gains a reputation among citizens as a hero of justice, though the police hunt him as a dangerous criminal.

Yoon-sung’s mission is complicated by two figures. The first is Kim Na-na, a skilled and principled presidential bodyguard who becomes his love interest. She is fiercely dedicated to protecting others, including her father, who lies in a coma. Initially suspicious of Yoon-sung, she eventually discovers his double life and struggles to reconcile her duty to the law with her feelings for the vigilante. The second is Kim Young-ju, an honest and relentless prosecutor whose father is one of the five men on Yoon-sung’s list. Young-ju seeks to capture City Hunter for violating the law, unaware of his own family’s dark secrets.

Throughout the 20-episode season, notable narrative arcs include the takedown of each target, which forces Yoon-sung to confront the moral costs of his revenge. His adoptive father, Lee Jin-pyo, grows increasingly unhinged, willing to sacrifice anyone, including innocent people and eventually Yoon-sung himself, to complete the vendetta. This creates a central conflict where Yoon-sung must break free from his father’s control and choose his own path, one that values justice over vengeance. The final arc centers on the fifth target, the President of South Korea, who is revealed to be Yoon-sung’s biological father. Rather than killing him as Jin-pyo demands, Yoon-sung protects the president, leading to a climactic confrontation where Jin-pyo takes the blame for the City Hunter’s actions to save the son he raised. Set in modern-day Seoul, the series blends action, political intrigue, and romance, shifting the original manga’s comedic and private-detective tone into a gritty story of corruption and redemption.