Does Money Heist: Korea Capture the Magic of the Original?
Money Heist: Korea showcases this sentiment more overtly. There’s a new dynamic tension between the North Koreans and South Koreans. North Korea is communist while South Korea is capitalist making the imagined creation of the common currency hinge delicately upon economic politics. After the robbers capture the Mint, they divide the hostages into Northern and Southern camps. They threaten to punish the northerners if the southerners try to sabotage the heist and vice versa, forcing the hostages to spy on one another. And within the police responders, there is tension between the South Korean negotiator, Seon Woo-jin (Kim Yun-jin) and the militant North Korean Captain Cha Moo-hyuk (Kim Sung-oh).
Being from the north or the south is a defining aspect of each character. Tokyo (Jeon Jong-seo) is a North Korean immigrant who arrives in South Korea only to find her promised housing and job were a scam (which should sound familiar to Squid Game viewers). After she’s forced into working as club hostess, she murders her boss to thwart him from raping her. After that, Tokyo begins robbing any gangsters who take advantage of North Korean immigrants as an act of revenge. But her partner is killed, and she is identified. She goes on the run, bottoms out and is at the brink of suicide when the Professor (Yoo Ji-Tae) recruits her.
Berlin (Park Hae-soo) is also a northerner. His mother was shot and killed right in front of him when he was a child when they tried to cross the border to the south. As an orphan and a defector, he is raised in a forced labor gulag, which contributes to his psychopathology. Where Money Heist revealed character backstories with efficient flashbacks, Money Heist: Korea dwells excessively on those backstories to fill out their characters.
After the original series became a banner for the resistance, Money Heist: Korea is more self-aware of its potential as a protest parable, but that nearly undoes its effectiveness here. Despite the undisguised communism versus capitalism themes (and it’s important here to remember that Money Heist: Korea is produced in South Korea) the show lacks the subversiveness of original had with its political commentary. While Money Heist didn’t overtly preach about the perils of the growing global economic divide, its rebel spirit was clear on an emotional level. It didn’t seek to change minds but instead, to touch hearts. This makes the signature Dali mask an ironic yet powerful symbol of the resistance.
The Dali mask captures the surrealistic aspect of Money Heist. The storyline is completely absurd on so many levels, yet despite its ridiculous twists, it still works. Perhaps it works because of those twists. There’s a sense of humor to Money Heist that emerges in the first episode when Rio (Miguel Herrán), Denver (Jaime Lorente), Moscow (Paco Tous), and Berlin (Pedro Alonso) discuss if the Dali mask is scary enough. That dry wit sets up a tone of comic relief throughout the show. The Dali masks keep it tongue in cheek, giving the audience more latitude to accept the surreal. What’s more, Dali is also a world-famous Spaniard, the source of great national pride, and Money Heist is a very Spanish show.
Money Heist: Korea swaps Dali for their own national pride symbol – a traditional Korean folk mask known as Hahoetal. Hahoetal masks are used in rituals dating back to the twelfth century and are treasured by South Koreans as representative of Korean culture. There are twelve traditional Hahoetal masks, each representing a specific theatrical role. The one used by the robbers is called Yangban or ‘the aristocrat.’ Like the Howells in Gilligan’s Island, the Yangban is painfully entitled and consequently the brunt of mockery. It’s a time-honored skewering of the economic divide from an ancient ritual, updated as sly criticism of capitalism by Money Heist: Korea. However, like the north versus south politics of Korea, these cultural aspects will be lost in translation outside of Asia.
