Made in Korea

Rated TV-MA • Streaming

Against the countless rom-coms among Korean dramas, crime thriller Made in Korea is a refreshing series set in the 1970s that draws in viewers with its suave protagonist played by Hyun Bin, who starred in the 2020 global hit Crash Landing on You.

Made in Korea begins in Tokyo with Hyun Bin’s character, Matsuda Kenji, receiving orders to deliver a briefcase to someone in the southern Japanese city of Fukuoka. Kenji, dressed in a sleek suit with his hair smoothed back, boards a plane for what he calls a business trip. But soon after takeoff, radical Japanese communists hijack the plane with over 100 passengers and crew onboard and demand they fly to North Korea instead.

As the sword-wielding hijackers are about to kill one of the passengers, Kenji intervenes with his swift moves and sharp wit, taking control of the situation even when the plane lands in Seoul, which sparks a diplomatic crisis between Japan and South Korea. Kenji turns out to be Baek Kitae, a high-ranking South Korean intelligence official, and his so-called work trip was to traffic meth.

The series’ first season unfolds during a time when South Korea is ruled by a president who seized power in a military coup, the Korean Central Intelligence Agency does the president’s bidding, and corruption is rampant in the upper echelons of government.

To Kitae, trafficking meth made in Korea to Japan is not just a way to gain money and power. It’s “patriotic work,” he tells his younger sister, roping her in to help with meth production. To South Korean prosecutor Jang Geonyoung, played by renowned actor Jung Woo-sung, patriotism is catching guys like Kitae. Geonyoung, in his oversized aviator glasses and oversized jacket, relentlessly pursues Kitae in their cat-and-mouse game.

Reflecting the political darkness of the time, many scenes—including the interiors of offices, homes, and a church—are shot so dimly that I had to turn up my screen’s brightness to see more clearly. The show is also heavy on coarse language and violence and contains a fleeting glimpse of sex and nudity.

Moral ambiguity abounds in this series featuring a charming criminal protagonist. And while the show deals with the weighty issues of drugs and corruption, it also includes some comic relief, such as Japanese and Korean officials’ frustration when discussing the hijacking and Geonyoung’s female subordinate flirting with him.

The second season is slated for release later this year.