story: i'm very interested in global media, but i pretty much only exclusively watch kdramas while i do watch a lot of global cinema. so, as a...radical (i would say..) woman, i especially love to learn about the perception of justice and capital in the world, but particularly SK especially as an american and the very close (but imo tense and power imbalanced and wrong imperialist) relationship...

i read up on this a lot when i started. the writers/crew were very adamant about attacking capitalism and the idea of winners/losers and what poverty means. the IMF crisis seems to live in a vacuum here, as if the IMF and world bank arent specifically interested in lining their pockets. the show narrowly addresses it by being shrouded in complex theory (which is fine whatever. i just had to learn more hhahah) and making economic decisions and crises the fault of like 1 or 5 instead of the world and system.

the IMF crisis happened because rich people dont give a fuck and it has a huge to-do with colonialism. it emerged at an incredibly specific time and IMF, essentially, makes countries indebted to it for neo-colonial and imperial gain. "IMF Report Admits IMF's Obsession with Capitalism Is Killing Prosperity" (a literal piece btw) so i'm sad the inciting incident was literally heo jae being unhinged and murdering someone. it should have been a red flag but i thought it would be more of a personification of capital as evil then a ridiculous revenge plot.

i really should have stopped when the introduction of wall street as an official player came in. honestly this is one of the most confusing and stupid plots i think i've seen. the tone of the show makes it seem as if it's serious but you cannot tell me a man who is an economist and believes in more control of the government wants to make things so bad they get better that he does a deal with fucking wall street and expected them to KEEP THEIR WORD? and there is no way that economists whether pro or anti capital do not understand, at the very least MINIMALLY, the social position and the ways colonialism, slavery, imperialism and capitalism have played into forming our modern (global) society. i'm actually mad that happened so i think this is one of the show's biggest flaws lol

i can't really comment on the women of the story or the heart of it. i liked hye joo and ma ri a lot together but since the show couldn't find its emotional beats it always seemed off. the glumness was part of why it seemed like it was so long.

acting/cast: sung min is a really good actor. eun kyung did a good job. go soo had some pretty interesting ways to express himself with his features (i personally liked some of the acting bc of this)....yoo teo....needs voice lessons. badly. like his english accent erodes his acting abilities because he isn't voicing himself properly. it's easier to watch him speak in korean (but i've seen him in that movie the moment or whatever and he isnt actually too bad so it's half the dialogue) but his character is a baby lmao. everyone else is fine

music: i dont remember....it's ok idk im nto rly a fan of OSTs lol

rewatch value: i guess if...you....are into it? i dont know. i think my idea of the show and attraction to it is different than some others.

overall: it's a weird show. i give it a 5 out of generosity but honestly i just feel 'eh' about it and then 'lol' about the message and politics; half bc it doesnt have a message and the other half bc it's diluted capitalism to one on one interactions lol

i absolutely do think the camera crew did a GREAT job though, those closeups are fantastic truly (imo) like just a really good idea esp to show heo jae

i guess the biggest thing for me is that it approached this situation as "why" it happened and seemed to really want to attack what we've built up as a world system but made it so clinical and individualized that it did nothing. and with either solutions, the decision fucked up the citizens and the economy. and that's exactly the problem. the idea was that money is this thing that's a game, right but what ABOUT IT? besides /saying/ the stakes were high, were the stakes high? one day changing the value happened and it was illegal. the consequences? were they really /shown/? so what did these decisions really change? wasn't this always going to happen? and how could these "very intelligent" people not foresee it? i know more now and lots of economists are stupid so maybe i'm overrating their abilities. i'd argue that being in hye joo's line of work, there is no way you will receive a moral and ethical outcome anyway. why was everyone so shocked? maybe it's the idea that people on the inside could really change and want the best for people but it couldn't even demonstrate that effectively. it wasn't even good at circulating the feelings needed for us to just go on vibes instead of story and logic.

on top of that how in the interim between the IMF crisis and the show's timeline were people living? clearly things are very hard. i'd argue...probably got a bit worse...

and it's even sadder when you realize that although people in the world aren't materially equal, their decisions had the same weight in the show. tit for tat; both sides. how the story about the uncle managed to basically only vocalize the problems instead of show them via the production and then the attempt to show how disproportionate life is by putting him in jail and having his family mad at him was hilarious. because it's a callback to yi hyun's dad being emotionally absent and a capitalist that ruined things. lmao

everything just happened and that's the way it was, that's it. and all their solutions couldn't imagine anything revolutionary, and when a revolutionary solution came up it's seen as an extremely dirty word. wanting to go the neoliberal third way. and well in a way the prophecy of our current world was well kept i guess. the idea of winners and losers will never change, huh. even in a fictional story with a world of possibilities it's still the same.