The paper house: Korea is mind blowing

The paper house

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A Korean version of the Spanish La casa de papel has the aura of an operation with a striking outcome: a sensational success or an epic fail. The paper house: Korea (international title Money Heist: Korea - Joint Economic Area), an Asian remake of one of the most viewed titles in Netflix's history, lands on the platform on June 24 with the first part in six episodes, produced by that country , South Korea, which has churned out the most famous k-drama in the world, produced by the streaming giant, Squid Game. Any doubts of the writer were dispelled last June 3 - after having devoured the season granted in preview - by the commendable work of conceptual reworking of the specificity of the original by the screenwriter and director. Ryoo Yong-jae, author of the recent horror Monstrous and the sci-fi My Holo Love, and Kim Hong-sun of the disturbing L.U.C.A .: The Beginning, The Guest, Black and Voice have created a seductive work, the fruit of a starting idea brilliant linked to the uniqueness of Korean culture and history, a balanced development between styles of social criticism and the heist movie, and a register that manages to amalgamate melodramatic and tension moments.

Money Heist Korea: JEA Kim Yunjin as Seon Woojin in episode # 1 of Money Heist Korea: JEA. Cr. Jung Jaegu / Netflix © 2021 Jung Jaegu / Netflix Let's take a step back, starting with the narrative device. After decades of separation, the two Koreas are finally about to reunite. The Joint Security Area, the area that geographically and militarily divides North Korea and South Korea, becomes the virtual space renamed the Joint Economic Area, the place devoted to the minting of a single currency, the first real step towards imminent reunification. For the citizens of the North, the tempting promised land south of the 38th parallel becomes an opportunity to rebuild a free life and remove the specter of poverty. Tokyo, a young North Korean immigrant, and Berlin, a survivor of the harshest gulag in the North, join a handful of South Koreans and Yanbian Chinese Koreans to carry out the robbery of the century: rob the newborn mint. They are led by the Professor, a calm strategist who has devised a theoretically perfect plan by taking into account all possible scenarios in order to appropriate a loot worth four billion won (about 2,900,000,000 euros). Also in the gang are the young hacker Rio, the guards Oslo and Helsinki, the scammer Nairobi, the burglar Moscow and his son Denver.

Money Heist Korea: JEA Park Hae-soo as Berlin in episode # 1 of Money Heist Korea: JEA. Cr. Jung Jaegu / Netflix © 2021 Jung Jaegu / Netflix Against them, the shrewd South Korean negotiation expert Seon Yoo-jin and the less diplomatic North Korean captain Cha Moo-hyuk. The cast includes veterans of the small screen of undoubted talent such as Kim Yun-jin of Lost in the role of the pragmatic Woo-jin, Park Hae-soo of Squid Game in those of the psychopath Berlin, Yoo Ji-tae of Svaha in those of the Professor and Kim Sung-ho of Bittersweet Life in those of Captain Cha. In a series that owes much of its charm to the refinement of the psychological investigation of its characters, their interpretations raise the bar of quality to a higher level. Their characters are the most ambiguous and elusive, the most inscrutable and double-dealing, and their interpretations are essential to make the incredible challenge of intelligences at stake plausible. However, a couple of relatively new faces are mesmerized: Burning's up-and-coming Jun Jong-seo as honest Tokyo and Flower of Evil's Kim Ji-hoon as naive and handsome Denver, who - we bet - they are destined to become the sex symbols of the show.

Money Heist Korea: JEA Kim Ji-hun as Denver in episode # 1 of Money Heist Korea: JEA. Cr. Jung Jaegu / Netflix © 2021 Jung Jaegu / Netflix The first six episodes are narrated by the idealist and disillusioned Tokyo, divided between an exhaustive premise that introduces the foreign viewer to the peculiar Korean political situation, then presents the characters involved in the plan of "Gyosu ”(The Professor) and immerses himself in the following, very tense episodes that constitute the chronicle of the delicate coexistence between the members of the gang and the hostages, coming from both sides of the border. Alternating contingent events and flashbacks on the past of some characters, the remake in many ways recalls the European original, but never loses its independence and cultural uniqueness also expressed in the relational dynamics dictated by mistrust and prejudices between north and south.

Money Heist Korea: JEA Yoo Ji-tae as Professor in episode # 1 of Money Heist Korea: JEA. Cr. Jung Jaegu / Netflix © 2021 Jung Jaegu / Netflix How the masks that robbers wear refer to traditional Korean theater - the Hahoe mask they wear is the one that designates the character of the rich and stupid - even some secondary figures refer to the stereotypes of the k -drama: the petty and exploitative cap, the corrupt and lying politician, the obtuse military man and so on. Yet, in its typically Korean being, Money Heist: JEA, like Squid Game, is not a typical k-drama: it is a Netflix original series which, unlike the majority on the platform, develops without the collaboration of local networks , thus eluding the system and the stylistic features that characterize the k-dramas. He is not forced into the codes, rules and censorship that limit the representation of content forbidden to minors (he had never seen a male nude in a Korean series!) At home and this, while on the one hand can disturb the followers of the series. from this country, on the other hand, makes La casa di carta: Korea an excellent product that can also be easily used by the international public.