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Pierce Conran

3/5 stars
Lead cast: Choi Woo-sik, Son Suk-ku, Lee Hee-joon
As Netflix’s latest Korean series A Killer Paradox begins, you could be forgiven for thinking you have mistakenly stuck on the Oscar-winning Parasite again.
Both begin with Choi Woo-shik as a bored youth chatting with his sister in their humble family home, the siblings soon joined by their parents. However, although the similarities don’t quite stop there, this webtoon adaptation soon turns out to be an altogether different kettle of fish.


It also resembles the Disney+ series Vigilante, particularly since both of them are strongly indebted to Batman.
However, where Vigilante explored the different faces that justice can take, A Killer Paradox eschews moral introspection in favour of something more troubling. This is a show about a layabout male youth of questionable character, whose violent urges are forgiven thanks to the story’s fantastical conceit.
5 of the best new Korean drama series to watch in February 2024
If Joker didn’t already exist, it would be apt to describe this as an incel version of Batman. Yet, just like the hit DC Comics villain origin story, this new series is very stylish and frequently entertaining.
Choi plays Lee Tang, a college student who never follows through on his ideas. His current one is to go to Canada on a work abroad programme and visit the Rocky Mountains.
He works in a convenience store, drinks a lot with his foul-mouthed friend, and is the kind of guy who cheats on his girlfriend before starting his military service.
During a night shift at the store he is forced to deal with some drunk middle-aged customers. The altercation continues outside and, after being attacked by one of the men, Tang suddenly bludgeons him to death with a hammer.

Any guilt that feels is short-lived: it is soon revealed that the dead man is actually a serial killer who was never caught.
Assigned to the case is detective Jang Nan-gam (Son Suk-ku, My Liberation Notes) – a very unusual name since it also means “toy” in Korean. With his scraggly beard, piercing glare and bubblegum habit, Nan-gam is the perfect caricature of a homicide detective who listens to his gut and no one else.
Tang’s good fortune continues when the murder weapon he left at the scene disappears, but the secret behind that only leads him to his next deadly encounter: he kills a young, partially sighted woman who is blackmailing him, not out of self-defence this time but purely out of self-preservation.

Yet Tang is once again morally let off the hook after this woman is also revealed to be a killer.
The protagonist comes to realise that he has a special ability to sense when he’s around people who, theoretically, deserve to die. As Nan-gam gets closer to catching him he is forced to go on the run and, with the help of another character, he becomes a K-drama mash-up of Batman and Dexter – a serial killer who kills serial killers.
Nan-gam’s antics during his investigation get him into trouble but he remains doggedly on Tang’s trail and, before long Song Chon, another violent character, played by Lee Hee-joon (Mouse), also begins to pursue the murderous vigilante for his own reasons.

Much like last year’s Netflix series Mask Girl, A Killer Paradox is the kind of show that favours style over substance and evolves with each episode as it pushes into new territory and largely abandons what came before.
Directed by Lee Chang-hee, who previously made the film The Vanished and the series Strangers from Hell, the show goes all in on its visuals. Some tricks are clearly favoured over others, such as the match cuts between similarly shaped objects connecting scenes and the use of extreme slow motion during the majority of the fight scenes.
After spiralling out in different directions, the narrative does eventually settle on a destination, but once we arrive, there isn’t much to see. Just like Mask Girl, the ideas came thick and fast, but the conclusion is missing.

Then again, given the dark wish fulfilment on display, perhaps it is for the best that the show doesn’t have a clear or consistent thematic through line. Unlike Dexter, which makes an effort to justify the existence of its serial-killer-killing protagonist, A Killer Paradox takes the easy way out with its fantastical conceit.
What that leaves us with is a fitfully entertaining male fantasy with colourful lead performances that just about justifies its existence. Just don’t stop to think too hard about it – you may not like what you find buried underneath its superficial thrills.
A Killer Paradox is streaming on Netflix.


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Netflix K-drama review: A Killer Paradox – Choi Woo-shik embraces his dark side in stylish vigilante thriller with a hokey twist

Choi Woo-shik as Lee Tang in a still from A Killer Paradox. Photo: Song Kyoung Sub/Netflix

Choi Woo-shik as Lee Tang in a still from A Killer Paradox. Son Suk-ku and Lee Hee-joon co-star. Photo: Song Kyoung Sub/Netflix

Son Suk-ku as detective Jang Nan-gam in a still from A Killer Paradox. Photo: Song Kyoung Sub/Netflix

Lee Hee-joon as Song Chon in a still from A Killer Paradox. Photo: Song Kyoung Sub/Netflix

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In this Netflix Korean drama, Choi Woo-shik plays Lee Tang, a lazy youth with violent urges who kills a man who turns out to be a serial killer
Then Tang kills a young woman who is blackmailing him – she is revealed as a killer, too – and he realises he can spot people who ‘deserve’ to die


This Netflix Korean drama follows Lee Tang (played by Choi Woo-sik), a violent layabout who kills two people who turn out to be serial killers, and becomes a kind of serial-killer vigilante.


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An assessment or critique of a service, product or creative endeavour.  Film reviews, restaurant reviews, reviews of art exhibitions. (Eg. Crazy Rich Asians: an important film, yes, but a good one?)


Review

Review | Netflix K-drama review: A Killer Paradox – Choi Woo-shik embraces his dark side in stylish vigilante thriller with a hokey twist

In this Netflix Korean drama, Choi Woo-shik plays Lee Tang, a lazy youth with violent urges who kills a man who turns out to be a serial killer Then Tang kills a young woman who is blackmailing him – she is revealed as a killer, too – and he realises he can spot people who ‘deserve’ to die

In this Netflix Korean drama, Choi Woo-shik plays Lee Tang, a lazy youth with violent urges who kills a man who turns out to be a serial killer

Then Tang kills a young woman who is blackmailing him – she is revealed as a killer, too – and he realises he can spot people who ‘deserve’ to die