At the climax of the celebration bloodbath in Bong Joon-ho’s movie Parasite, we see Mr. Kim’s face up shut, in the meanwhile when resentment erupts into murderous rage. The Kim household has suffered indignities and degradations all through the movie. And but it’s only when the rich Mr. Park conspicuously holds his nostril—recoiling from the odor of the indebted man who had been hiding away in his basement—that the Kim household patriarch snaps, grabs a knife, and takes his revenge.
Revenge in its purest kind—distilled right down to chilly, primal, retributive fury—is without doubt one of the signature themes of South Korean media. 20 years in the past, Park Chan-wook’s Vengeance Trilogy set the tone. However within the intervening years, the revenge style has exponentially expanded past movie and settled into tv, the place it’s proper at residence: tailored for each streaming providers (with fewer constraints on specific content material) and TV networks (the usual Ok-drama format, with its sensational plot twists, retains audiences in place for his or her eight-week runs).
However the place to begin and what to observe? These are all the time the questions—which we reply right here with a listing of seven dramas, showcasing the style at each its darkest and its most hilarious.
Korean dramas writ giant have dominated the streaming period. As portals and platforms have proliferated, so too has the worldwide marketplace for Ok-drama radically expanded. And the revenge style specifically could be discovered in all places, and in plentiful provide, on each home channel and each world platform.
It’s particularly prevalent on Disney+ and Netflix, the place the style “Ok-dramas” is itself a menu choice. The format ranges from restricted internet collection to a 100-episode each day drama (KBS’s Miss Monte-Cristo); and it continues to attract high-profile expertise, from Hallyu stars like Music Joong-ki to writers like Kim Eun-sook and Kim Eun-hee. The recognition of revenge narratives is empirically supported by a tally of the exhibits which have emerged within the streaming, or over-the-top (OTT), period—and in addition by viewer and subscriber numbers, social media metrics, and, extra typically, memeification, whether or not via parody movies or memes themselves.
What retains the audiences for up to date Korean revenge dramas captivated, so unable to show away, is that the dramas, and the characters in them, are all the time just a bit unhinged. The unhinged, after all, is to be anticipated within the style: pushed to existential despair and desperation, pushed by spite, avengers are usually not typically recognized for his or her stability and restraint. However what makes Korean revenge dramas distinct is that they provide the cathartic spectacle of unbridled fury, after which pull it again, whether or not via laughter or romance. Their characters are additionally remarkably constant in seeing issues via to the tip, in going past retaliation to complete destruction. For audiences, the discharge is achieved via purgative vengeance offset by visible and narrative pleasures. As Shin Hye-sun’s character in Mr. Queen smugly observes, whereas admiring her pre-battle makeover: revenge is finest served flamboyantly, with glamour.
Whereas watching these dramas, we’re going to be taken to the sting repeatedly—witness to overwhelming disgrace, humiliation, betrayal, and violence—however then introduced again by somebody’s antic disposition or a touch of sexual stress between the leads. The character of Moon Dong-eun in The Glory, for instance, seeks a type of absolute revenge for her victimization: a punishment that annihilates moderately than restores. “There might be no forgiveness,” she declares. The traditional regulation of retaliation, eye for an eye fixed: “that sounds too truthful to me.” The scales are balanced differently for viewers: horrific scenes of the younger Dong-eun’s torture in highschool, on the one hand, and the visuals of Music Hye-kyo and Jung Sung-il, on the opposite. Likewise, considered one of Dong-eun’s abusers is going to be buried alive in concrete, however solely after he has delivered a few of the drama’s finest comedian traces.
Fan and business compilations of essentially the most satisfying bits—the slaps, huge reveals, and verbal shivs—could be discovered in all places on-line they usually show the mutually constitutive relations between producers and audiences. An organization resembling Netflix or TVING invests in unique content material, and social media practices (e.g., response and fan-made movies) drive, in flip, subscriptions and promoting income. The revenge narratives specifically are nice enjoyable, as they all the time are, due to the suave villainy and spectacular comeuppance; retribution, when it comes, is extremely stylized and transmutes horror into vicarious pleasure, ripe for sampling and remixing.
However there’s something else occurring in these dramas. It’s not merely the tropological construction, black hat/white hat, that now facilitates viewer investments. A part of the attraction is that the style’s frequent themes of sophistication entitlement, predatory debt, college bullying, exploitation, and sexual assault embed and activate, within the double sense, social commentary. However extra broadly, revenge dramas are enjoying on, and enjoying out, a fantasy construction that takes a knife to the center of all these whose crimes, huge and small, have induced hurt.
Simply as the worldwide zeitgeist turns towards the correction of historic wrongs, these dramas float idealized notions of belated punishment and vindication, of redress and restore, and of a enjoying discipline made degree. These notions are after all themselves fantasy, as Park Yeon-jin, maybe the best villain in our record of dramas, sneers to Dong-eun: “Why do the poor all the time consider in issues like poetic justice or karma?”
For true narrative satisfaction, then, the tip recreation can’t merely be authorized and even financial recompense. Such a decision could be too simple, “too truthful,” and too reliant on establishments which have been bent to serve the pursuits of energy. Therefore the dramatic attract of the tough justice of vigilantism or, higher but, of watching the victims and the downtrodden choose up the knife themselves.
It’s all payback, on a regular basis—and audiences are right here for it.
A variety from what’s now a protracted record would possibly seem like arbitrary however there’s an underlying coherence not solely to the revenge style itself as now we have instructed, but in addition to our chosen seven. Our curation has been knowledgeable by each our subjective preferences and our data of the sphere: these are current dramas which have held us enthralled, and we are able to advocate them as exemplary for each new and seasoned Ok-drama viewers alike.
Ordering is chronological, from the beginning of the pandemic, when world audiences for Ok-dramas exponentially elevated. Ought to the necessity for quarantine come up once more, a number of of those will allow you to get via it. (Platforms for every are famous.)
Itaewon Class (January–March 2020; 16 eps; JTBC, Netflix)
Based mostly on a webtoon of the identical title, aired concurrently on each home tv and Netflix worldwide, and remade for TV Asahi in Japan as Roppongi Class, Itaewon Class encapsulates the brand new artistic ecosystem’s mannequin of artistic manufacturing: one-source, multi-use (OSMU). It additionally demonstrates, and did a bit of bit to stimulate, the worldwide urge for food for Ok-culture.
The district of Itaewon in Seoul was cool earlier than Itaewon Class, however the Halloween festivities within the drama’s second episode need to be seen in relation to the horrific crowd surge there in 2022. The broader phenomenon of the advertising and marketing of Seoul via tradition has been nicely documented. Nonetheless, it’s placing that overseas vacationers who skilled the tragedy spoke of visiting the filming location as a result of they wished to expertise the competition in Itaewon as this drama offered it.
It was not simply overseas viewers, nonetheless, who embraced the drama Itaewon Class was additionally wildly widespread amongst home audiences. Winner within the Greatest Drama Collection class on the twenty fifth Asian Tv Awards (2021), it’s considered one of JTBC’s highest-rated exhibits, with an viewers share of 16% for the ultimate episode, when the protagonist Park Saeroyi will get his revenge. It partly resonated with audiences as a result of it brings acquainted tropes (unhealthy chaebol conduct and piggyback rides) updated with a give attention to discrimination in opposition to LGBTQ folks and foreigners.
It’s a by-the-book story of revenge however, on the identical time, it poses a extra elementary query for a youthful technology: Can one construct a principled life in an unfair world? Park Saeroyi holds the road, skirting each nihilism and defeatism; consequently, his foes are vanquished in the long run and he will get his long-overdue apology, his love, and the company. As cliched because it sounds, the drama works exactly as a result of almost all its strikes are anticipated, in addition to due to the charisma of all of its leads.
The World of the Married (march–might 2020; 16 eps; jtbc, disney+)
The World of the Married is a circus of a melodrama wrapped inside a practice wreck. Viewers, in different phrases, couldn’t look away.
The World of the Married relies on the BBC drama Physician Foster—itself impressed by the story of Medea—so you possibly can guess on the primary narrative arc: hell hath no fury (however the son lives). The idealized household portrait rigorously hung within the opening scene is the ironic inform. The portrait will come down, however the fallout from the adulterous affair, which after all contains being pregnant, is nearly too chaotic to map.
It’s a textbook makjang—a Ok-drama subgenre akin to cleaning soap opera—however nicely crafted and significantly nicely acted. Kim Hee-ae captures each nuance and inflection of rage, significantly throughout an epic confrontation over dinner, and Han So-hee performs the position of shameless mistress so nicely that audiences confused the individual for the position. (Each actors notably lead two different revenge Ok-dramas on Netflix: Kim Hee-ae battling the corrupt chaebol household in Queenmaker and Han So-hee avenging the homicide of her father in My Identify.)
At present, the collection’ iconic standing is secured by steady citation, allusion, and appropriation. JTBC produced its personal promotional parody, however, as was the case, the perfect jokes had been on Twitter. The drama might have induced many a stress headache, however audiences fell in love nonetheless—and there’s nothing improper with falling in love!
Taxi Driver (S1, April–Might 2021; S2, February–April 2023; 32 eps; SBS, Viki)
Taxi Driver: “Don’t kill your self. Take revenge. We’ll do it for you.”
Even now it’s uncommon for a Ok-drama to enter a second season, but right here we’re with a third season for Taxi Driver confirmed. Based mostly on a webtoon of the identical title, this procedural drama has a setup conducive to extension: a taxi firm is a entrance for a shadow squad of vigilantes, whose particular person traumatic histories compel them to realize extra-institutional justice for victims which have reached the purpose of complete despair.
Pushed to an edge by, for instance, organ traffickers, indentured servitude, or a cult that preys upon the fatally unwell, victims encounter the yellow sticker promoting the Rainbow Taxi Revenge Service, precisely the place and when their want is most acute. A cellphone name connects them to a deluxe taxi driver who listens to their tales and takes them to an arcade recreation narrated by, sure, the actor who stars in Park Chan-wook’s Girl Vengeance. They’re given a selection: Do you wish to punish those that have tormented you? If sure, the decision goes via to a motley crew working in a secret lair under the taxi firm and a revenge marketing campaign begins (an inevitable spotlight of which is Lee Je-hoon going undercover).
If not for the satisfaction of seeing the tidy decision of against the law or social problem on the middle of public debate in Korea, viewers are turning out in droves for the immersive storytelling (21% for the ultimate episode of season two). An added bonus is the extradiegetic recreation, spot-the-reference to the vengeance trilogy. (The Vivaldi concerto used as background music was additionally utilized in Outdated Boy; a combat scene with dumbbells echoes the well-known hammer combat in that movie, and so forth.)
What makes Korean revenge dramas distinct is that they provide the cathartic spectacle of unbridled fury, after which pull it again, whether or not via laughter or romance.
Reborn Wealthy (November–December 2022; 16 eps; JTBC, Viki)
The second highest-rated present on Korean tv (coming in slightly below The World of the Married) is Reborn Wealthy. Based mostly on an online novel and subsequently tailored as a webtoon, the collection enacts, once more within the double sense, the story of the emergence of Korea as a world cultural energy.
Reborn Wealthy is a physique swap, time journey fantasy, the fictionality of which is underscored by the disclaimer at first of each episode. We’re not meant to see the connections to precise folks and occasions, however after all we do. It’s not likely the story of Samsung founder Lee Byung-chul and his son, with a bit of Hyundai on the facet, however the parallels are there. Alongside the best way, the collection does transfer into pretty uncharted waters in its incisive portrayal of the dynamics of chaebol households.
Music Joong-ki performs a loyal secretary in present-day Korea, betrayed by the household he serves; subsequently reincarnated as that household’s grandson again in 1987, he units out to destroy all of them. Armed with the foreknowledge from the long run, he is aware of easy methods to amass the requisite fortune for a hostile takeover of the household’s firm (undoubtedly put money into Amazon), however his hardest job is convincing his incredulous enterprise associate to place cash in Korean leisure and a digital media metropolis as a result of the day will come when the “world goes loopy over Korean songs, films, and dramas.” His associate’s skeptical query—“In Korea, which doesn’t communicate English and has lower than 50 million folks?”—could also be the perfect joke within the collection as a result of, certainly, that is going to occur.
The Glory (Half 1, December 2022; Half 2, March 2023; 16 eps; Netflix)
The Glory: “You’re so cool, Yeon-jin.”
The worldwide recognition of Squid Sport barely perplexed Korean audiences. However The Glory—with its excessive manufacturing values, virtuosic appearing, and complex narrative construction (full with Easter eggs and refined symmetries)—made a definitive case for the artistic potential of streaming collection. The Glory captured the Greatest Drama prize on the 2023 Baeksang, Blue Dragon, and Asian Academy Inventive Awards ceremonies; and, certainly, if pressed to advocate simply one of many dramas on our record, we might vote for this one.
Netflix experimented with the format for this drama, releasing it in two components with the intention to preserve viewers on the hook for 3 months. Hooked they had been: held not solely by the story itself but in addition by the entire paratextual equipment that grew up round it, from a midterm lecture and comedy sketches to infinite memes. (Due to you, Yeon-jin, we weren’t shocked by this case.) It was enjoyable to play with the language; and Music Hye-kyo’s Baeksang acceptance speech thanking “Yeon-jin” after successful the perfect actress award was perhaps the funniest play of all. However, nonetheless, the drama is definitely fairly brutal, portraying not solely college bullying, the central focus, but in addition class warfare.
On the coronary heart of the story are Moon Dong-eun’s deep wounds. In highschool she is horribly abused by a gang led by the rich princess, Park Yeon-jin. Compelled to drop out by a corrupt instructor, she is additional betrayed within the course of by her already neglectful mom and left to fend for herself. Dong-eun claws her manner again, working in a manufacturing unit through the day and learning at evening, and, after survival, revenge turns into her main drive. Fueled by an unabating fury, she spends 18 years planning the marketing campaign that (spoiler!) culminates within the crushing humiliation, social ostracization, imprisonment, or loss of life of each final considered one of her abusers.
Baduk (Go) constructions the narrative however the sharper motif is that of the mangnani (the Joseon-era executioner). Lee Do-hyun performs this position in season one, on the finish of which he and Music Hye-kyo set off to avenge the homicide of his father, the possible narrative arc of season two.
Celeb (June 2023; 12 eps; Netflix)
One of many extra placing elements of Dong-eun’s revenge in The Glory is that, other than the aforementioned burial in concrete, it’s virtually fully reputational and relational. The lesson of this, as for Celeb, is that social foreign money backed by greed is remarkably unstable, all of the extra so when these available in the market search primarily to protect their very own picture and follower rely.
Celeb is a very darkish, but nonetheless pleasurable, illustration of social media dynamics, extra particularly of influencers and attendant methods of mobilizing viewer impacts. With episode titles within the type of hashtags, “actual” celeb cameos, a visible body that blends with Instagram’s person interface in key moments, and recognizable luxurious manufacturers so far as the attention can see, Celeb is a spectacle about spectacle.
On the floor, it’s a riches-rags-riches story. Web optimization A-ri, performed by Park Gyu-young, learns the method for buying social media fame and quickly transforms herself from a cosmetics vendor into a star. However—stay by the sword; die by the sword—she is herself subjected to nameless trolling, and all of it comes crashing down. The twist is that Web optimization A-ri’s revenge in opposition to her haters might be carried out via a set of alliances with family and friends. Thus, for all the romance of wealth on show, the true fantasy of Celeb is that significant social networks can simply materialize on demand.
Revenant (June–July 2023; 12 eps; SBS, Disney+/Hulu)
A literal translation of Revenant’s Korean title is “evil spirit.” However, on this uncommon occasion, “revenant” works equally nicely, as a result of the vengeful ghost on the middle of the drama encapsulates the bloody capitalist historical past that has returned to hang-out the current.
Within the position of Korean folklore professor Yeom Hae-sang, Oh Jung-se gives this framing to his college students: historical past is the story of these in energy; folklore is the story of the folks. The grandson of a household whose wealth exponentially grew within the late Nineteen Fifties, he’s utilizing each his encyclopedic data of the occult and his appreciable assets to trace down the evil ghost, a taejagwi, who killed his mom. Mentioned ghost has newly possessed the general public prosecutor/part-time supply employee Gu San-yeong (in a jaw-dropping efficiency by Kim Tae-ri); the physique rely grows; and a divided San-yeong groups up with the professor and sympathetic detectives to unravel the thriller.
As Hae-sang will be taught to his horror, the ghost was really created within the post-war interval by his grandparents, who exploited a desperately poor household and conspired with a shaman and a village with the intention to procure a younger lady for a ritualistic sacrifice. And, lest viewers ought to have missed the overarching level, one other plotline is devoted to 2 agwi, or ravenous ghosts, born from people’ insatiable want for materials possessions. Don’t open the door should you don’t know who or what’s knocking: that is ostensibly the takeaway, however the true message of the story is that greed is evil.
There’s an apparent irony in a world media business promoting the concepts of fairness and sophistication consciousness. And but, maybe this business can be, nontrivially, serving to to form a brand new consensus. In any case, the drama concludes with Hae-sang giving his household’s a refund to society and San-yeong selecting to make use of her inheritance stargazing on the grass. Don’t you wish to attempt different concepts, her good friend asks, like a staycation at a five-star resort? “Be quiet,” San-yeong replies. “Don’t smash this temper for me.” 
This text was commissioned by Sarah Kessler.
Featured picture: A nonetheless from The World of the Married, that includes Kim Hee-ae as Ji Seon-u.
