Review | Netflix K-drama review: Money Heist: Korea – Joint Economic Area Part 1 gives a slick geopolitical makeover to hit Spanish thriller series
- The storyline is largely the same, with criminal mastermind the Professor assembling a break-in gang to steal money, but the setting is a newly unified Korea
- With an ensemble cast that includes Jeon Jong-seo, Jang Yoon-ju and Yoo Ji-tae, and the same red uniforms and masks, the Netflix series opens fluently
3.5/5 stars
The über-successful Spanish drama series sensation Money Heist gets a makeover for Netflix’s hottest market in Money Heist: Korea – Joint Economic Area, which drops its first six episodes on June 24 with another batch to come.
The characters, set-up and broad story beats remain the same in this update, but the background against which the action plays out gets a unique spin. In the near future, North and South Korea have unified and the heart of this geopolitical entity is the Joint Economic Area on what used to be their border – a play on the existing Joint Security Area between the two.
At the heart of this Joint Economic Area is the mint that produces the unified Korea’s currency. This is the target of the criminal mastermind who calls himself “the Professor” and his band of criminals with global cities as their code names.
Over the past few years, Netflix Korea has become a one-stop shop for breathless dystopian tales that are as socially conscious as they are stylised. With bigger budgets than Korean series have previously enjoyed, and high-concept thrills, these shows have broken new ground for Korean drama.
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In her darkest moment she is saved by the tall, dark and handsome Professor (Yoo Ji-tae), who gives her new purpose in life when he recruits her for his grand scheme.
Over time we discover how the Professor recruited the other members of his team, who include the dangerous North Korean prison camp survivor Berlin (Squid Game’s Park Hae-soo), the silver-tongued confidence artist Nairobi (Jang Yoon-ju), the cheeky hacker Rio (Lee Hyun-woo), the father-and-son duo of grizzled digger Moscow (Lee Won-jong) and his devil-may-care street fighter son Denver (Kim Ji-hoon), and the meathead muscle tag team of Oslo (Lee Kyu-ho) and Helsinki (played by a different Kim Ji-hoon).
Each episode begins with a brief flashback about how these different characters came to be under the Professor’s wing. But the main point of interest is the heist, which begins early in the first episode.
The gang’s plan is to steal 4 trillion won from the mint, which they enter wearing uniform red jumpsuits and white Salvador Dali masks. Eight thieves take the mint workers and a group of touring students hostage, while the Professor watches from his base.
Police set up a joint investigation team to handle the heist, led by the former South Korea’s top negotiator Sun Woojin (Kim Yunjin), who is forced to assert her cool-headed authority over her trigger-happy former North Korean cohort.
Still, such comparisons are somewhat beside the point – the purpose of Money Heist is to entertain rather than educate, and entertain it does with a story that hums along with all the thrills and twists required of a well-planned and inventively thwarted heist narrative.
The brilliant criminal versus moral negotiator dynamic, which worked so well in films like The Negotiator and Inside Man, also gets a fun twist here.
In between their many breathless moments, Money Heist: Korea’s opening episodes do have spells where not much happens, as the scriptwriters look for ways to keep all its characters active.
This isn’t always a problem, especially in the case of Park Hae-soo’s threatening Berlin and the conflicted Denver, who is played with gusto by Kim Ji-hoon. A 20-year veteran of the screen, this role will likely raise his profile – in fact, he’ll be seen again opposite Jeon Jong-seo in the upcoming Netflix film Ballerina, from The Call director Lee Chung-hyeon.
Part 1 of Money Heist: Korea doesn’t end on the most thrilling of notes. But with the conclusion to the daring heist still ahead of us, there’s plenty to look forward to when Netflix drops the second part of the show’s first season.
Money Heist: Korea – Joint Economic Area is streaming on Netflix.
