The first six episodes of Money Heist: Korea – Joint Economic Area debuted this past June on Netflix, marking the first appearance of this sequel to the Spanish Netflix hit Money Heist in its franchise form. It’s 2025, and North and South Korea are undergoing unification. But the Professor and his handpicked gang of thieves have been inserted into what was already a tense situation, taking hostages and making moves on the millions of won that’s up for grabs in the JEA’s Mint. Let’s rejoin the heist, already in progress…
Opening Shot: “During the Korean War days,” as our faithful narrator Tokyo (Jeon Jong-seo) tells us in a flashback, “Cha Moo-hyuk (Kim Song-oh) was considered a Grim Reaper to the double agents.” The guy in a backpack walking like he’s worried about getting jumped certainly learns about Cha’s reputation the hard way.
The Gist: In the present, Cha has tracked who he now believes is the mastermind of this Money Heist to Bella Ciao, the cafe operated by “Park Sun-ho,” who we know as the Professor (Yoo Ji-tae). Gaining entry to the building, Cha also does some snooping, and manages to lift an X-acto knife for fingerprinting. The inspector might have been left out in the cold after unification robbed him of his old job. But he’s also operating solo, and on thin ice with the hostage negotiation task force.
At the Mint, in the police task force tent outside, there are still arguments over command structure, as well as just what’s happening inside the building. And inside, amongst themselves, the hostages have lots of questions, too, whether it’s the tunnel teams or the dining staff or the young women who whisper class insults at Anne (Lee Si-woo). About escape. About motive. Even about factions within their improvised and red-smocked groups. And when a mysterious someone in a Money Heist mask manages to lure the ambassador’s daughter to the mint’s basement, where a bomb subsequently detonates in the vault, the heisters and the Professor, communicating with them from his wire-in layer above the the cafe, have questions of their own. They can’t even track the interloper, who cleverly utilized security camera blind spots. And that means it’s even more likely that, as Woo-jin told the Professor over their secure line, “There’s a traitor amongst your robbers.”
The robbers, from Japan to Rio (Lee Hyun-woo) and Moscow (Lee Won-jong) are eyeing each other warily. Berlin (Park Hae-soo) is eyeing the hypodermic needle kit secreted away in a hollowed-out book. And the hostages have generated a newfound sense of solidarity. “We should work together, not be divided based on which Korea we’re from. Now’s not the time. The police are more interested in ending the situation than our safety.” Anne, during her time in the basement, also learned a few answers to the hostage contingent’s questions.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The Money Heist mothership is alive and well, of course. With the formula of the original Spanish version translating so effortlessly to Korea, it’s interesting to think about what locale or context might influence the next spinoff. And in Park Hae-soo, who plays Berlin here, there’s also a direct connection into the thriving Netflix ecosystem of Squid Game, where he plays Cho Sang-woo.
Our Take: There are lots of disconnected groups in Money Heist: Korea – Joint Economic Area, groups who are extremely interested and/or worried about what the others are doing, so that the whole affair can feel stratified across all of the different scenes of people learning information through telephone calls, huddled around computer screens, or in the case of the heisters, challenging one another within the tenuous hierarchy of power established by the Professor. All of that separation makes it easy to pick your favorites – Inspector Woo-jin not taking any crap from the other investigators in the negotiation tent, Rio standing up to the more aggressive Berlin – but it can also disturb the continuity of the narrative. It’s like we’re piggybacking on the chess pieces being moved around on the big board by the Professor – in his case, that also includes his paradoxical and increasingly problematic romantic relationship with Woo-jin – or even by sinister types like Sangman, who sees all of this through the prism of greedy political outcomes.
Structurally, all of this makes it easier for the Money Heist: Korea writers to keep us constantly guessing. We’re only shown pieces of what’s developing, and the relevance of what we are shown might be in question later. Remember the polar bear on Lost, wandering around aimlessly in the woods, looking for a place to insert himself into the storyline? It’s like that with Money Heist sometimes, as we consider along with the characters who’s going to matter in the long run.
Sex and Skin: Nothing in the first episode, anyway.
Parting Shot: Suspicion between the robbers is becoming like poison. The guys locked up in the basement aren’t out of the game entirely. And the Professor is trying to navigate the sliver of reality between his personal and criminal worlds. At the Mint, it’s only then that Woo-jin deploys her newest tactic.
Sleeper Star: “Isn’t it time you tell me what you’re really after?” Whether she’s jockeying with the Professor for usable information, or confronting her ex-husband Sangman over his interference and trucking with his threats to her personal life, Seon Woo-Jin is the character working many of the most intriguing angles on Money Heist: Korea, and Kim Yun-jin plays her with a rewarding blend of intuition and determination.
Most Pilot-y Line: “It’s not just a couple bucks,” Woo-jin tells Sangman of the robbers’ counterfeiting scheme during a bitter meeting between the inspector and politician and former spouses. “Four trillion won with unknown serial numbers is allotted for reunification funds, not distribution. Those bastards can still print money as they please. But you knew that. That’s why you kept interfering.”
Our Call: Stream It. For the established Money Heist and Money Heist – Korea heads, It’s been a six-month wait for part 2 of Joint Economic Area. And now that it’s here, the classic heist movie components are all swirling on the big board.
Johnny Loftus is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift. Follow him on Twitter: @glennganges
