In part 2 of Money Heist: Korea – Joint Economic Area, the gang carries out the business end of the plan as they face new obstacles along the way. The episodes are now streaming on Netflix.
Story
The gang continues the print money within the mint but they face pushback from the hostages and congressman Kim Sang-man who is trying to hide his true corrupt intentions.
Nairobi’s son is kidnapped, Tokyo goes out of the mint and then returns, their communications are destroyed and Woojin and Moo-hyuk find out who the Professor is and where their hideout is.
A lot of information is revealed about everyone’s past as Berlin and the Professor turn out to be brothers and their goal is to reveal how the rich and powerful take advantage of the general public.
The gang has to navigate all the wrenches that are thrown into their plan and find a way to successfully come out on top.
Performances
The cast does their best to embody these previously established characters while adding their own little spin to them but it does not amount to much.
Yoo Ji-tae and Jeon Jong-seo play the Professor and Tokyo respectively and those characters served as the emotional cruxes originally but here they are just more wheels in the cog. There isn’t a lot in their work to endear them to the audience.
Park Hae-soo , Lee Hyun-woo, Lee Won-jong, Kim Ji-hoon, Kim Ji-hun and Lee Kyu-ho make up the rest of the gang that play their parts faithfully with unimpressive results.
Positives
There are a couple of dynamic camera shots during certain fight sequences that are quite impressive and add a layer of intensity to those set pieces.
The changes forced onto the story due to the setting are adapted well and there is a genuine effort to configure these story beats into the narrative and make them interesting.
Negatives
It’s hard to get emotionally invested in a story that has been told before with such success once before. This is different from a reboot or a sequel which is why just following the same structure as the original is hurtful to the quality.
The episodes are just too long and slow that getting through even 6 episodes at a stretch feels incredibly tedious. So much is covered during each episode and yet, it doesn’t add too much value to the narrative.
The character’s backstories are slightly different from the original but there doesn’t seem to be enough effort put into it. The Professor and Berlin’s relationship doesn’t have the required impact and the Professor’s role in designing the economic plan is poorly explored.
The characters are lazily written and feel like subdued knock offs of the originals.
Verdict
Money Heist: Korea – Joint Economic Area part 2 continues on just like the first half in that apart from a couple of alterations, it travels a similar path to the original. Watching the same story yet again with a slightly different setting doesn’t exactly inspire excitement and the predictability of this series drives home that point.
Money Heist: Korea - Joint Economic Area part 2
Director: Kim Hong-sun
Date Created: 2022-12-09 13:30
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Also Read: Money Heist: Korea part 2 ending explained: Does the gang escape with the money?