Disney+ K-drama The Golden Spoon: fantasy high-school drama explores rich-poor divide
- Yook Sung-jae plays Lee Seung-cheon, who works two part-time jobs while attending a school full of rich kids
- He’s bullied by some of the richer students, until he buys a magic golden spoon from an old lady
This article contains mild spoilers.
In many corners of the world, the chasm separating the rich and poor has never been as wide as it is today.
With its corporate dynasties growing fat in the global tech era, South Korea is no exception. For years many of the most relatable screen narratives have involved powerless characters being used and abused by those born into the higher classes.
Lee Seung-cheon (Yook Sung-jae) lays this all out in the voice-over that opens the new MBC fantasy high-school drama The Golden Spoon. He outlines the hierarchy of the land, aided by images on screen of the poorest sectors of society.
For Lee, the son of a poor family who works as a delivery boy and convenience store clerk, despite attending school full-time, this stark divide is inescapable. He happens to attend Seoul’s Jeil High School, which counts among its students the progeny of some of the richest tycoons of the country.
The students all wear the same uniform, but they could not be any more different. Lee is mercilessly abused by a gang of bullies, each of them the son of a millionaire. The richer the father, the more power they have, which makes Park Jang-gun (Kim Kang-min) the head honcho of the gang.
9 new Korean drama series to look out for in October 2022
But above them all is Hwang Jae-yong (Lee Jong-won), the disaffected son of the all-powerful billionaire Hwang Hyun-do (Choi Won-young). The younger Hwang is so far up the food chain that he has no insecurities about his position. He does not need to be a bully to flaunt his status.
Lee’s woes are suddenly replaced by despair when a friend and fellow classmate dies along with his poor parents in a desperate suicide. Their classmates attend the funeral, only to keep bullying Lee.
Among Lee’s indignities is getting paid to complete Park’s assignments. One fateful day, on his way to drop off one of these assignments to Park, who is hanging out at Hwang’s mansion, Lee comes across an old woman selling trinkets.
A golden spoon jumps out to him, and the woman claims it is solid gold, though it only costs 30,000 won. He buys it, and the woman adds that it could change his life. If he eats with it three times at someone’s home, he will swap places with them.
He shrugs off the ridiculous claim and continues up the hill to Hwang’s house. Lee is once more berated by Park and his cronies, but to everyone’s surprise, including his materialistic stepmother Seo Young-sin (Son Yeo-eun), Hwang invites him to stay for lunch.
Park objects when a server tries to place a gold spoon and chopstick set by Lee’s side. Remembering what he just bought, Lee proceeds to eat with his own golden spoon.
Much like the expression “to be born with a silver spoon in one’s mouth”, in this show a golden spoon is meant to symbolise being a member of the aristocracy.
Park cannot expel Hwang’s guest, but the sight of a lower-class citizen being offered a golden spoon is too much for him.
Lee can never be allowed to think that he could ever belong. That would upset a system that is designed to keep the rich rich and the poor poor.
Though he scoffs at the idea that he possesses a magical spoon, Lee nevertheless draws closer to Hwang after this event. He starts to help him out on the reports he has to provide for his father.
When those impress his hard-to-please father, Hwang is delighted with Lee and treats him like a friend, which naturally means he gets invited over again. From there it should be no great hassle to use the spoon two more times, but just like Park, Hwang’s father Hyun-do is incensed by the presence of his son’s poor classmate in his pristine home.
The exceedingly elitist Hyun-do does not stop there. Once he discovers that Lee has been helping his son with his reports, he turns the school board against him. Hwang is conflicted but is unable to go against his domineering father, the only person he fears.
This leads to a scuffle by the harbour and Hwang accidentally pushes Lee into the water. If Lee had any doubts about trying to use the spoon, they fade away after the abasement he’s received at the hands of Hyun-do and Hwang.
Lifting himself out of the water, he forces his way into Hyun-do’s home, sopping wet, and demands a meal, promising in return that it’ll be the last time he ever sees him. The irony is that from now on, Hyun-do will see Lee every day, but think that he is Hwang.
Lee and Hwang don’t switch bodies. Instead, the world changes around them and it is now Lee who is the prince to Hwang’s pauper.
But as the saying goes, be careful what you wish for. Someone filmed his altercation with Hwang earlier and he’s now in danger of being charged with the crime that was committed against him.
What’s more, he has to deal with his conscience, as Hwang is now stuck with the life that he used to lead.
The Golden Spoon is streaming on Disney+.
