We’re back with a new K-drama Review, this time we’re taking a closer look at the heavily anticipated ‘Money Heist: Korea – Joint Economic Area’.
The series is a spin-off of the original ‘La Casa de Papel’ which is a Spanish series from 2017 that became a massive hit on Netflix. ‘Money Heist: Korea – Joint Economic Area’ was directed by Kim Hong-sun and written by Ryu Yong-jae. Kim Hong-sun also directed series like ‘Voice’ season 1 and ‘The Guest’. Ryu Yong-jae has written ‘Psychopath Diary’ and ‘My Holo Love’.
If you don’t know the original series, here’s a brief recap. A team of criminals and specialists team up to print money at the Mint while also holding people hostage. There’s quite a bit of overlap between the original version and the Korean version, but I won’t keep comparing them.
The story of ‘Money Heist: Korea’ happens in a world where North and South Korea have created a joint economic area in the Korean peninsula.
Characters
Yoo Ji-Tae plays the role of the Professor. He’s the creator of the plan and organises the full thing.
The first person he recruits is played by Jun Jong-Seo. She names herself Tokyo. You might recognize her from the 2021 thriller ‘The Call’. She’s from North Korea and because of the migration during the very beginning of the economic reforms she ended up in a very sticky situation. The Professor convinces her to join his team.
The character of Berlin is played by Park Hae-Soo who was also in ‘Squid Game’. He’s a former prisoner from North Korea and is ruthless and calculating.
Lee Won-jong and Kim Ji-Hoon play the father-son duo Moscow and Denver. Moscow is a former miner and has been in and out of prison. Denver is his son and an underground fighter.
There’s also the hacker Rio who is the maknae of the group. He is portrayed by Lee Hyun-Woo. He has a troubled relationship with his parents and a med school drop out.
Nairobi is played by Jang Yoon-Ju. She’s a con-artist and mostly oversees the printing of the money.
Lastly there are two brothers in the group. Oslo (Lee Kyu-Ho) and Helsinki (Kim Ji-Hoon) are two former members of a gang.
Overall
Those are just the characters of the heist team. We also get to know a whole bunch of characters from the police team who are sent to deal with the hostage situation and the actual hostages.
Holding a whole bunch of hostages and printing a bunch of money and dealing with the police aren’t exactly easy. There is also tension between the heist members. So there are quite a lot of struggles and intrigues.
During the six episodes we get to know the characters a little bit and we see how both the police and the heist team try to trick each other.
It’s a fun watch, filled with tension and great performances. The acting especially was phenomenal with lots of great chemistry. I’m hoping we get to know the backgrounds of certain characters more in the next seasons.
Sadly there’s no official date announced yet for the second season.
Watch the trailer below.
