Amazon K-drama Payback: Money and Power – Parasite’s Lee Sun-kyun on form in spirited crime thriller
- Lee Sun-kyun plays Eun Yong, who goes from wayward orphan to criminal enforcer to eccentric financial wizard living peacefully in a yurt in Mongolia
- That changes when nephew Jang Tae-chun (Kang You-seok), an ambitious prosecutor, tracks him down to ask for help finding out about a crooked investment adviser
This article contains mild spoilers.
It provides a visually arresting start to the drama, made by South Korean broadcaster SBS and streaming globally on Amazon Prime, which has so far proved an enjoyable tale of good versus evil set in the murky world of law and corporate finance.
Lee plays Eun Yong, a wayward and orphaned youth turned financial mastermind who rises through the ranks of the criminal world before breaking off and becoming an eccentric financial wizard living in exile on the plains of Central Asia.
Yong’s ability to handle numbers and handle himself using his fists first garners him attention while in juvenile detention (at which point he’s played by Yoon Jung-il). Upon his release, he is immediately scouted by a mid-level gang boss running a shady construction company.