“Payback” (법쩐)

By Jae-Ha Kim
Substack
February 20, 2023

Eun Yong (played by Lee Sun-kyung)
Park Joon-kyung (played by Moon Chae-won)
Jang Tae-chun (Kang Yoo-seok)
↑Note: Korean names denote the surname followed by the given name.

The early episodes of “Payback” held promise for a truly compelling thriller with the always great Lee Sun-kyung in the lead role. But the storylines get progressively more convoluted as the show progresses.

Lee plays Eung Yong, an ambitious man with a photographic memory when it comes to numbers. He can read an entire ledger and correctly recall everything in it.

After a stint in juvenile detention where his physical prowess served him well, Eun Yong vows to never end up behind bars again. But when you’re poor and uneducated, with no parents to support you and an older sister and nephew who are financially struggling, the options are minimal.

He chooses to work for Myung In-joo (Kim Hong-pa), who operates a lucrative and illegal money-lending business. When Myung’s clients can’t pay him back on time — which he’s counting on — his thugs violently assault them before forcing them to immediately sign over their businesses to him.

At first a foot soldier for Myung, Yong’s savvy aptitude for numbers gets him promoted to a higher position with Myung. And it’s not long before the student becomes the teacher … and enemy. Yong leaves South Korea for a decade or so, building even more wealth overseas and spending his time making deals in Mongolia. When he returns to South Korea, it’s with a portfolio of millions (maybe billions?) and a detailed plan to get revenge on everyone responsible for killing his surrogate mother Yoon Hye-rin (played by Kim Mi-sook, who was so good in last year’s “Little Women“) and disguising her death as a suicide.

Hye-rin’s daughter, Joon-kyung, is a former prosecutor and a military judicial officer. She and Yong met in their teens when they stood up against a gang of men sexually harassing a woman on the train. Sent to jail, she was expeditiously bailed out by her mother, who then insisted on becoming Yong’s guardian. The three quickly became a de facto family, with Hye-rin knowing the boy is involved in illegal activity, but not interfering with his actions.

The series loses momentum as Yong and Myung (and his corrupt prosecutor son in law Hwang Ki-seok (Park Hoon) play cat and mouse games for the duration of the K-drama. Yong has a brilliant plan mapped out, gets the right people to double cross Myung and Co. … and ultimately ends up with the plan blowing up in his face. One time, this was fine. Twice, OK. But after the third time, viewers may be left wondering how bright this numbers genius actually is.

Actually, many of the cast members appear to be lacking in brain power. When Ki-seok creates a suicide note — for someone who doesn’t realize he’ll be killed — he wears gloves so he doesn’t get his own fingerprints on the paper, folds it up and seals it in an envelope. OK. But wouldn’t even a forensic novice wonder, “Hey, how come there are no fingerprints at all on this letter?!”

One of my favorite story arcs dealt with Yong and his childhood friend, whom he met when they were locked up in juvenile detention. Jin-ho (Won Hyun-joon) is the one who got Yong into Myung’s gang. But lacking the smarts that Yong has, he never progresses beyond being a lackey who beats up whoever Myung tells him to.

Yong’s nephew, Tae-chun, is also involved in his uncle’s plans. He graduated from a smaller law school outside of Seoul, so he has been automatically ruled out as someone who can move up the ranks at the prosecutor’s office. We’re never quite sure how dirty he’s willing to get and how much Yong will use him to get what he wants. And that’s where some of the best dramatic moments occurred.

Airdates: Twelve hour-long episodes aired on SBS from January 6 to February 11, 2023. I watched this on Prime Video.

Spoiler Alert: As it turns out, Yong had everything planned out from the get go. All the times it seemed like he had been outmaneuvered by Myung and Ki-seok was part of his plan.

There is a scene when Myung orders Jin-ho to capture and kill Yong. We all know that Jin-ho is not going to kill his friend. He sends Myung a video of Yong being covered with dirt, implying that he is as good as dead and buried. But surprise, he’s alive! When this becomes clear, why did Myung allow Jin-ho to live? It’s not like Jin-ho was irreplaceable.

Also, the entire series is full of people who have admitted to prosecutors and the press that they have committed serious crimes. Perjury. Money laundering. Involvement in the deaths of others. And yet … they are allowed to go back to their prior positions. Hello? Do they not know how how petty netizens are? Korean antifans stalked a celebrity for years because they didn’t believe he had graduated from Stanford University. We’re actually to believe that citizens are A-OK with Ki-seok’s admissions of guilt and his reinstatement as a prosecutor? Not only that, but he has political ambitions, with the Blue House (i.e. the presidency) as his goal. And no one thinks that having a criminal father in law would hinder his chances? Hello?

Even Joon-kyung, who had admitted to falsifying documents under Ki-seok’s order, is allowed to return as a prosecutor. Yes, we like her. But ultimately she had a choice and she chose to lie in order to help her mother. (FWIW, I’m not blaming her on a personal level. But legally, she committed an egregious crime.)

Everyone who should’ve ended up in prison ended up there, thanks to Yong, Joon-kyung and Tae-chun, who played by the books and was able to help his uncle get justice.

© 2023 JAE-HA KIM | All Rights Reserved