I have heard and seen a lot of good reviews of the original series La casa de papel. I have never seen it, but I think I almost have to see it at this point because I quite liked the Korean remake. The Money Heist: Korea – Joint Economic Area has only released 6 episodes and I am desperate to know how the first season ends. Edit: I have started on the original and there are a lot of different things between the two, so it is not certain that they will have the same ending.
Genre: Action, Crime, Mystery, Drama
Episodes: 6
Written by: Ryoo Yong-jae
Directed by: Kim Hong-sun
Cast: Yoo Ji-tae, Kim Yun-jin, Jun Jong-seo, Park Hae-soo
Synopsis: A prolific professor has gathered a team together to perform a huge and historical heist in the newly reunified Korea. The robbers have nothing to lose and are willing to go a long way to accomplish the professor’s masterful plan. Tensions rise as things don’t go exactly like the plan and the robbers start to disagree on how to successfully execute the professor’s plan.
Story: 4 ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Characters: 4 ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Acting: 4 ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Cinematography: 4 ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Overall: 4 ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Usually I am the type to think about the direction and what is going to happen moving forward in movies and series, but during this series I was enjoying the journey so every twist and turn had me more excited than usual. It might have to do something about great pacing where you do not have too much time to reflect and that the scenes just do not jump from the previous to the next. Every episode is packed with new tensions, new conflicts, new character arcs, and it did not solely rely on cliffhangers for people to continue to watch. During and after those 6 episodes there are a lot that have not been revealed which makes me desperate for the remaining 6 episodes to be released. Truthfully I was not super optimistic going into the series, but the more I watched the more I got invested into the story.
I love that they chose to reunite South and North-Korea, which created even more tension between hostages and inside the police force. It also created very interesting characters in my opinion. My favorite character is definitely the storyteller/main character Tokyo played by Jun Jong-seo, who also played in one of my favorite movies Burning. She does overall an exceptional actress job, and her character is intriguing and mysterious. I still do not know why she is so convinced by the Professor’s plan and shares the same mindset as him, which makes me super excited for part two. I especially enjoyed the slow burn between Tokyo and Rio, and it makes me even more excited to find how it ends.
There are of course some minor stuff that does not make 100% sense, like the ridiculous small number of guards guarding the joint mint between South and North-Korea and etc, but overall it is a great Korean drama remake of the Spanish original La casa de papel and is great to watch if you like Korean screenwriting and directing, and it might not be so great for people that like and come from western movies and series.
