Georae (2023)

The writer made a conscious effort to avoid standard tropes. Great filmmaking.

Intelligently written fresh material from the mind of a great filmmaker.


The Deal Crime Thriller Mystery

Great acting, inventive and realistically raw story about two childhood friends who on a whim kidnaps another childhood friend, who is the son of a Chaebol. Everything goes downhill after that. The drama has great information about life in Korea as a male, after leaving a mandatory stint in the Military. This ordinary life is contrasted with the life led by the rich son of a Chaebol, whom the youths kidnap. In addition, The Deal Korean Drama explores the struggles of the poor youthful friends who feel forced to commit a crime.

The Deal is on the order of the great Korean Crime SyFy Drama ‘Signal’ and the Crime Thriller ‘Through the Darkness’. The Deal engages the brain to contemplate what is moral behavior? Does the quest for money allow you to forego acting with human kindness? Does criminality only reach into the neighborhood of the disenfranchised uneducated poor? My brain did not stop working from start to well after I finished viewing.

Off the bat, the writer of The Deal made a conscious effort to make this drama (The Deal) trope free. Miraculously and remarkably, you will be hard pressed to find one trope. This in and of itself sets this Korean Drama ‘The Deal’ above the crowd of Korean Drama usuals. Besides having poor youths and a son of a rich Chaebol, the action tries hard to avoid tropes by making different choices in the action outcomes, the backgrounds of its characters, how woman deal with bad situations, and who gets their just deserts in the end. It would take its own post to explain it all. The scripted material is fresh and thought provoking. The scriptwriter for The Deal is award winning and prolific filmmaker Hong Sang-soo, who is a writer and Director. There is some cursing and some violence in this drama.

I had thought that The Deal Korean drama would be a comedy, but this drama is serious filmmaking. The Deal is a Crime Thriller Mystery. The kidnappers keep making one bad choice after another. What is the right choice to resolve this dilemma and why does greed stand in the way? As a side matter, one thing that The Deal Korean Drama makes apparent is that all who think that they have privacy in this world are sadly mistaken.

The Deal stars two accomplished young actors, Baeksang Arts nominee Kim Dong-hwi (In Our Prime) and Grand Bell Awards winner Yeo Sung Ho. The drama also stars Yoo Su-bin (DP 2). The drama is listed as PG 14. At times, there is strong language and two violent scenes that push the boundaries of PG 14.


Intelligently written fresh material from the mind of a great filmmaker.

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Exactly up my alley

I can't be remotely objective about this show because it had two of my favorite things:

1) Kidnapping--my favorite trope of all time! I love how this show portrays the difficulties of actually holding someone captive when you don't really have the resources for such a task. This isn't the story of some serial killer with a murder basement; our protagonists only have a closet, and very nosy neighbors, and very thin walls! And I loved watching our kidnapping victim going through it. His moods veer from defiant to desperately pleading to so exhausted he can't even bother fighting back... but is he really resigned or is he still secretly plotting? Not that ANYONE'S plans in this drama ever seem to go right lols, kidnapper or kidnappee or attempted rescuer. NO ONE'S. It's a mess!

2) Toxic friendship--Specifically Jun-seong and Jae-hyo absolutely make each other worse. In particular, Jun-seong would never have thought of going into a kidnapping scheme without Jae-hyo coming up with the idea first. But having an accomplice is what allows Jae-hyo to go through with that brainstorm, and when it comes down to it, Jun-seong is usually willing to back him up even with his more questionable and messed up ideas. So throughout the drama, you're constantly questioning how far these two are willing to go together, whether they can trust each other, etc etc. Of course, for Min-woo's purposes, the more unified they are, the worse.

Apart from these elements--the neighbor subplot is not incredible, as other reviewers have noted, but it does add tension. The pacing is fast (we only have 6 episodes, after all!) and the acting is great (especially Yoon Seung-ho <3). Would definitely recommend if, like me, you enjoy these tropes.

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Both a chill series to watch and got me hooked at the same time !

I will talk more about the characters in this review but you have to know a few things about this series !
First, don’t be fooled by the ´little ´ amount of episodes (8) or the short duration (40-50mn) compared to regular dramas because you won’t even notice. It’s very complete from the beggining to the end.
Eventhough I was watching while crocheting and embroidering, it got me really invested in. I went through so many emotions ! Mostly hate towards two or three characters especially so as to say that fake and psycho friend of junseong, director hwang and that neighbor. I loved the neighbor at the beggining for feeling something was off as well as her boyfriend and for trying to help min woo but she quickly started acting stupid. I mean why writers made her follow the at some point to just film and not call the police ?? She could has started by calling the police before taking the proof. But I appreciated her help to minwoo afterwards. Actually we didn’t get to have a closure for her and her family so this would be the only bad point for me.
Throughout the whole show, the real villain was all along jaehyo ! He was so inhumane ! First he came up with the twisted plan, dragged his supposedly best friend junseong in it, kept torturing min woo and tried so many time to kill him…
The OST are in point but like not memorable to put in my playlist for example but both the intros were so accurate and high-budget, I loved it !!

Then before we get down to get the characters, let me tell you the cast, the acting were just pure délice ! 😭✨I already knew some actors (junseong, minwoo and minwoo’s mom) so they proved their talent again but I got to discover others like Jaehyo and the two reapers.


NOW WHAT YOU ALL WAITED FOR : The characters !

Minwoo is such a freaking good character and very complex. I love him so much. He went through a lot and people were always taking advantage of him for being rich even from childhood… But he kept trusting the world around him 😭. He is so wholesome but I know he will have severe sequels afterwards and definetely trust issues and he doesn’t deserve that ! His reactions as a human were really accurate, as he was always doubting they would let him go alive and tried to save himself multiple times. In this situation everyone who got abducted by their so-said friend(s) would have the same reaction. He gave both of them the right punishment they deserved !!

Before we get to his mother, kudos to the reaper who from the beggining always respected her and even disobeyed his boss because he saw and admired how strong her maternal love was and how strong she was always !

Then minwoo’s mom is litteraly my second fave!
Even if everything was being way too overwhelming, she managed to think rationally. An example would be when she tested the echo when she was supposed to meet (….) *censored* to try to locate where they were. Another example was when she revealed her plan at the end of last episode, how she took advantage of the disadvantageous situation she was in and turned it to something incredible. I loved the moment she told the secretary to ask minwoo what he wanted to do with (….) *censored again*

The end was so satisfying to watch and very smart. Many things were well-thought of and really interesting ! The symbolic with Jaehyo’s voice talking to junseong at the end and him not turning back was so strong…😭❤️
To end this review, keep in mind this is CRIMINALLY UNDERRATED !!

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Why Jae-Hyo is the Perfect Villian and How Poverty can make Individuals into villians

I enjoyed this drama more than I expected, what made this show so entertaining was how serious the tone was and how desperate the main characters were. I liked the pacing of the plot: where we go from 'let's just pretend to kidnap' to 'let's kill our friend' to 'I'm going to be the only one left alive'.

I read a lot of criticism about Song Jae-Hyo's character and that his backstory wasn't powerful enough to make him the villain that he was, however, I completely disagree with that take and think the writers did a fantastic job with both Jae-Hyo and Jun-Song. I'll explain why. Typically, the audience would think that Jun-Song, with debt collectors after him and his family, would turn to crime, however, it's actually Jae-Hyo, whose motivations come from being expelled from his medical school, that does.

Jae-Hyo is the perfect archetype, a villain who thinks that the whole world is against him and that he has 'no other choice' when in reality he's put himself into his own situation and cannot deal with accepting his wrongdoings. The difference between Jae-Hyo and Jun-Seong is that one shows remorse for their misdeeds while the other does not. Jaehyo's lack of drive is exactly what makes him the perfect villain, we as the audience can understand that he actually does have other choices but he himself cannot see beyond the 'injustice' of his life. It was his fault, for creating a cheating ring, that he got expelled. It was indeed unfair that only he got caught, but again he did the scheme himself. His life WAS NOT over because of his expulsion, but he was so blinded by his own 'values' and his own definition of 'ethics' that he made everything ethical in his eyes, repeating over and over again that 'he has no other choice'.

What makes Jaehyo become my favourite villain, from a drama, is the final episode where he evens sells out his friend, paying off the debt collectors to kill him, all because his friend suggested they had to leave the country. It's ridiculous, from the audience's perspective, but of course, to Jaehyo it's extremely plausible. He sees no wrong in what he does because he, for his actions to make sense, has to accept that he has no other choice-when indeed he does. He's such a deeply crafted character and people saying he's poorly written are really missing the depth of his character.

Then we see Jun-sung, the character who I had sympathy for, all along he is pressured to go through with this plan, and while yes he is also an accomplice, the way he's written really shows how desperate a human being can be. What else is he to do, except turn to crime? Owning half a million to debt collectors and having his organs donated if he didn't pay, his father even tried to pay off his son's debt by secretly donating his organs, but it didn't stop them. He truly, I feel, has no other choice. Jun Seong is someone who truly was a victim of a lack of resources in society. He even admits that it was his fault, for gambling, but that there is no way to go back in time and correct his wrongs. He made a mistake and doesn't deserve to lose his life for it.

The juxtaposition of Junseong, who has remorse but no other choice, and Jae-hyo, who has no remorse and another choice, pairs perfectly with the plot. My theory is that, no matter what position Jae-hyo was in, he would always turn to crime and would always victimize himself believing that he had no other choice. Had he become a doctor he would have found a way to make more money, illegally, to cheat. He never would've been happy. Whereas Junseong, had he not gambled, would've been a positive influence in society and would've lived an ethical life.

The drama isn't at all trying to glorify crime or to say that crime is acceptable when one is desperate, but it gives an insight into the reality of poverty and how, for some, this may be something they think about because they have no other means of living.

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