The notion of a “regular family” laundering cartel money in the middle of the woods is a tantalizing prospect for Netflix, especially as the family goes deeper into their hole while still trying to get out of it. A new Korean series takes a similar scenario and pushes it much further.
The first shot is of folks in the woods. One of them has a sack over his head. “War, sickness, mishaps… These things kill a lot of people. However, money kills far more people.” The man in the bag is forced into the hole made by the other men, and dirt is dumped on top of him.
The Plot:
Park Dung-ha (Jung Woo) is an adjunct professor at a small university, and to gain a tenured position, he pays off a professor with money set aside for his young son Hyun-woo (Seok Min-gi) to receive a heart transplant.
Hyun-woo (Seok Min-gi), his wife, is preparing to divorce him. And the professor he bought off was recently arrested, so the money he needed for his son is no longer available.
As he goes home from work, he is rear-ended by a van while talking on the phone with his kid. When he returns to the vehicle, he finds not just two dead bodies, but also a sack full of money. While Dung-ha is aware that the money is most likely tainted, he devises a scheme to keep it.
This includes returning the dead to his house and burying them in the yard, as well as cleaning and abandoning the van. He doesn’t bargain for DUI stops and buried cell phones that keep his adolescent daughter Yeon-woo (Shin Eun-soo) awake.
Meanwhile, a cartel strongman named Gwang-cheol (Park Hee-soon) is on the hunt for the van and the men and money it contains. When Joo-Hyun (Park Ji-Yeon), another cartel operator who was watching the van, alerts him, he orders his men to try to figure out where the van has gone. Their investigation takes them to Dung-ha’s area.
What shows will it make you think of? :
A Model Family feels like a Korean take on Ozark, given the cartel and likely money laundering component.
Our Opinion:
A Model Family, written by Lee Jae-gon and directed by Kim Jin-woo, sets up a fairly familiar setting — note the Ozark reference above — but with its own unique twists and turns. Unlike in Ozark, where the main character was already laundering money and needed a lower-profile location to do it, Dung-ja enters into the laundering business out of despair and greed.
He’s at his lowest moment when that automobile with the bodies and cash rear-ends him. So he doesn’t seem to mind collecting this blood-splattered money if it means something positive, like a new heart for his son.
Do we want to know more about what he had to do to get to the position where he had to bribe the detained professor? Sure, but Jung Woo does an excellent job of depicting Dung-ja’s melancholy, followed by his frenzied determination to cover things up to keep the money.
We’re sure things will get worse for him; after all, he’s the man in the hood who’s being buried alive. We still need to see more of the events leading up to that point, as well as the transaction he has to make to save his skin.
Also read: The Wailing: the most disturbing Korean horror film in recent memory
We also need to learn more about some of the key cartel figures, as well as Dung-ja’s family. However, the series is off to a rapid start, with strong performances and a plot that foreshadows more twists and turns.\
Parting Shot:
As he sneaks out and drives away with the now-unburied phone — Hyun-woo witnesses him getting in the car late at night — he goes to the middle of nowhere to get rid of it. The phone rings, and it’s Eun-Joo (Yoon Jin-Seo) phoning for the hundredth time.
Sleeper Star:
Park Ji-Yeon is intriguing as Joo-Hyun; we’re not sure what her cartel job is, but it allows her to freelance a little. She’s unquestionably a wild card.
Most Pilot-y Line:
According to a lackey of Gwang-cheol’s boss, Gwang-cheol is the best at discovering people. When Gwang-cheol looks at him, he exclaims, “You seem frightening.” Why are you staring at me so intently? What? Is that what I said? We’re not related. I’m afraid I can’t call you my brother.” Nothing makes sense in that sequence, but we’re looking for further clarification later in the season.
