[Drama 2023] Payback/Law Money, 법쩐

[sweetroad]

Episode 9

 

Spoiler

I'm heartbroken over Jin Ho's death. I love that he redeemed himself, but if we think about it, he was addicted to drugs, kidnapped and held captive, told that the drugs were poison, then he went in to the gambling den and died a lonely, violent death. His final months and days were so sad!! Guess the show made it easier by showing him getting sick and realizing he didn't have much time left, but it was sad that he and Eun Yong didn't have a final scene together.

 

Jin Ho saying, "I need to repay my debts," echoes Eun Yong saying it earlier on. It will be interesting to see how the show continues to play with that theme.

 

Kim Sung Tae's death in prison was also unjust and tragic. I hate that Myung takes people out so easily and readily.

 

14 hours ago, widala said:

Love EY for profiting from Banwoo situation!

But EY and JTC relationship is strained because JTC found out about it.

 

I still need to watch episode 10, but I was curious if there really was a Singaporean fund or if Ha Na and Eun Yong just fabricated that fund for the tabloids and Myung. I couldn't tell if EY was telling the truth to Myung or not.

 

14 hours ago, widala said:

We're also got many EY and PJK scenes! Yay!

 

It was nice to see them spend more time together. They keep playing with the will-they won't-they thing, though, by having Jin Ho pointedly ask what's going on between PJK and EY. Her saying "We're family" made me roll my eyes a bit. The show is playing it coy for now.

 

 

So with Jang Tae Chun sticking to his ideals and integrity and asking Eun Yong not to involve him any further, EY has that great line that JTC will no longer be his weakness, and that JTC will be the final blow. In my mind that means that JTC will be the righteous prosecutor who finally brings down everyone rotten, as far as the law is concerned.

[lila21]

6 hours ago, Shimmery-summer said:

. I am more embarassed I never knew that an announcement, a company has stopped repurchasing it's own stocks means something bad and that it's a common knowledge.

it is not common knowledge actually unless one is into in the wall street market, but people  don't do due diligence into what they are into that is why they get sucked in and don't know they are being played the shell game until it is too late. There are true to life good movies about greed in Wall Street such as "the Wolf of Wall Street", The Big Short and these are real life stories. Maybe PJK and Ey will be in action this time. I am going to watch 9 later.

[backstreetboysfan]

Here are the ratings for Episode 10! .

 

 

“Agency,” “Red Balloon,” And “Crash Course In Romance” All Earn Their Highest Saturday Ratings Yet

The weekend drama ratings battle remains as fierce as ever!

 

Over in the public broadcast network realm, SBS’s “Payback”—which has just two episodes left to go—dipped to a nationwide average of 9.5 percent ahead of its final week.

 

https://www.soompi.com/article/1565357wpp/agency-red-balloon-and-crash-course-in-romance-all-earn-their-highest-saturday-ratings-yet

 

[lila21]

Whoa.... episode 10 is much much better, it took the 10th episode to get what we expected, action. Huh, HKS realized that all that power he had influenced by bribing from father in law's money will not work when Myung loses influence because his main opponent has more money and therefore more influence than him and shorted the funds in the shell company in Singapore. LOL, Myung Se Hee realized that daddy Myung will not support her ambition to get her hubby to the Blue House so she went to Eun Yong who happily gave his support but with conditions, that KS will fight his FIL. When wifey told KS about it  he lost appetite for the food he prepared for her. But he had no choice since he was treated like a slave by his FIL and lost influence on all the "friends" he had in the justice department. That was humbling but to realize the person he thought as his enemy will be his saving grace, he might just end up in the Blue House as his wife wanted, if he cooperated. That was fun though, everytime MSH wanted to influence someone, she would invite them to eat her "special lunch" lol. How she talked to someone on the phone about the money gotten from Singapore then left the envelope on the table while she left the room so the guest can take a peek, LOL. I love that PJK s now into the action. I do hope that the developer will work again with PJK to bring back the products of the Blue Net.

On 2/4/2023 at 2:35 PM, the_sweetroad said:

 with Jang Tae Chun sticking to his ideals and integrity and asking Eun Yong not to involve him any further, EY has that great line that JTC will no longer be his weakness, and that JTC will be the final blow. In my mind that means that JTC will be the righteous prosecutor who finally brings down everyone rotten, as far as the law is concerned.

I also thought that was what he meant, that JTC will be the final blow and EY will loosen his watch on his nephew, let him be the prosecutor that he wants to be. I think though that JTC can still learn a few tricks about sting operations from uncle Yong.

I guess this is where the real battle begins since Myung has lost his "Consigliere" Lee and his son in law. His friends in the justice dept know about the stashed money in Singapore and the head of justice dept Lee wants share of it or else. Myung will be like the wild dog boxed in the corner. He gave up the strongest card he had the recording that PJK had of her mom's bogus arrest but he sold it back to Yong for a share in the profit of the Singapore short.

[sweetroad]

12 hours ago, lila21 said:

When wifey told KS about it  he lost appetite for the food he prepared for her. But he had no choice since he was treated like a slave by his FIL and lost influence on all the "friends" he had in the justice department.

 

I really enjoyed this episode for its exploration of these emotional dynamics. I feel like this episode had a bit more heart than some of the others, though it was more focused on Hwang Ki Seok than on Eun Yong and PJK. To watch HKS try to reach out to his prosecutor friends and his prosecutor right-hand man and get rebuffed was rough. He seemed more human in those scenes.

 

I was a bit disappointed to see PJK have so little to do at the press conference though. She said one line and then it was all about HKS. I feel like the writers don't necessarily know what to do with her. Even Prosecutor Ham Jin has a meatier role in the story. And PJK's interactions with EY, while one-on-one, are pretty stiff and serious even though they're trying to be like family. I like seeing them together but I wish there was more overall, in regards to their friendship/relationship and their story.

 

OK. Enough complaining :).

 

I am really enjoying all of LSK and Park Hoon's outfits in this show.

 

12 hours ago, lila21 said:

I think though that JTC can still learn a few tricks about sting operations from uncle Yong.

 

If I were JTC it would take me a while to get over the fact that my uncle screwed me over and took my suspect! It's interesting that the show is playing up Eun Yong as an antagonist to JTC, instead of as a supportive helper behind-the-scenes. Hopefully this doesn't break their relationship.

 

12 hours ago, lila21 said:

He gave up the strongest card he had the recording that PJK had of her mom's bogus arrest but he sold it back to Yong for a share in the profit of the Singapore short.

 

Ah, is this what was happening? I didn't catch all the details of precisely what was going on, but your description makes sense. So the Singaporean fund is legitimate and real then.

 

[lila21]

5 hours ago, the_sweetroad said:

So the Singaporean fund is legitimate and real then.

 

I guess that was where stolen money from the fund was hidden. Hide the money overseas except Yong knew about it so he shorted it.

[widala]

On 2/6/2023 at 7:57 AM, lila21 said:

LOL, Myung Se Hee realized that daddy Myung will not support her ambition to get her hubby to the Blue House so she went to Eun Yong who happily gave his support but with conditions, that KS will fight his FIL. When wifey told KS about it  he lost appetite for the food he prepared for her.

 

I love MSH's smirk when HKS sulk when she told him to work with EY instead of her father. Like she knows in the end HKS will choose EY.

This part shows the dynamics between the couple.

 

23 hours ago, the_sweetroad said:

 

I was a bit disappointed to see PJK have so little to do at the press conference though. She said one line and then it was all about HKS. I feel like the writers don't necessarily know what to do with her. Even Prosecutor Ham Jin has a meatier role in the story. And PJK's interactions with EY, while one-on-one, are pretty stiff and serious even though they're trying to be like family. I like seeing them together but I wish there was more overall, in regards to their friendship/relationship and their story.

 

OK. Enough complaining :).

 

Don't get me started on how this show did PJK's character dirty or we'll be here all day.

Besides the writing, I also blame the directing on how stiff PJK sometimes. We can all see that MCW is good doing even the miniscule expressions, so I think it's easy for her to show more emotions if the directing allowed her to.

I don't know if this has to do with the fact that this director is rarely work with actresses (he said so in press conference).

 

Just wanna add another rant 

I think that 5 minutes flashbacks of Myung and Lee Su Dong in the beginning of episode 9 is unnecessary. But if they must, I wish they made it shorter and delve more into PJK's or Jinho's past instead. 

[widala]

11 hours ago, the_sweetroad said:

 

I am really enjoying all of LSK and Park Hoon's outfits in this show.

 

Me too!

The wardrobes in this drama are gorgeous!

PJK's and Hong's are sooo pretty 

 

Can't believe Payback is ending this week 

 

 

 

[widala]

 

 

 

 

 

[Shimmery-summer]

Very lazy writing. Just saw episode 9 and am speechless. All characters seem to be suffering from short term memory loss. Pjk is the most crappy character written and the fact actress playing it always has one miserable constipated expression on her face and always says her lines like reading news, just her alone drops the energy levels of show by 80pc. I don't think anything in this episide was more annoying than her running out of car all dressed up in best formal wear and with that stupid metal rod to run after jin ho after he had been stabbed. So she effs up her mom now she gets jinho killed who was an important person to eun young.

 

Then her dialogues about mocking law in interrogation room when in ep 2 she herself loses it so badly, when taechun tells her the evidence she has is illegally acquired, that she almost barks at him over his poor morals and finding loopholes in laws, now she is telling him law doesn't work.....!

 

Taechun's flipping over at the end of episode with those morals talk was ....epic, guy also has short term memory issues. Like all his life your uncle earned illegally and now you woke up.

 

 

Eunyoung the less said the better, so the guy one day wakes up and says he wants to remove corrupt so he's doing all this, next morning he says he wants revenge for yoon, third day again it's for family, fourth day again back to removing illegal stuff...and when you ask, how do you earn? He gives a broad smile because he also earns illegally and prolly launders out his money too.

On 2/6/2023 at 10:09 PM, lila21 said:

I guess that was where stolen money from the fund was hidden. Hide the money overseas except Yong knew about it so he shorted it.

I had thought it just meant he had short sold banwoo's shares in bulk as he was aware the fund would crash as also he was the one bringing it to the point of crashing. Didn't investigator say that the investors are very angry and want a ban on short selling, prolly noone expected banwoo would come down.

[widala]

Finally they post this content, but not full yet 

 

 

 

 

[sweetroad]

6 hours ago, widala said:

Finally they post this content, but not full yet 

Any idea what the Korean notes on the relationship chart say? It looks like they all wrote on it themselves. 

[widala]

9 hours ago, the_sweetroad said:

Any idea what the Korean notes on the relationship chart say? It looks like they all wrote on it themselves. 

 

More or less like what the official chart says... It's kind of hard to translate because of the handwriting 

 

 

Oh no! Will HGS betrayed EY?

Although if he does, I'm not too surprised. You can't really trust anyone here.

[backstreetboysfan]

Here are the ratings for Episode 11! .

 

 

“Payback” Heads Into Finale On Its Highest Ratings Yet + “Kokdu: Season Of Deity” Rises

SBS’s “Payback” is winding to a close!

 

On February 10, the revenge drama starring Lee Sun Gyun and Moon Chae Won achieved its highest viewership ratings yet ahead of its series finale. According to Nielsen Korea, the penultimate episode of “Payback” earned an average nationwide rating of 11.4 percent, marking a new all-time high for the show.

 

https://www.soompi.com/article/1566342wpp/payback-heads-into-finale-on-its-highest-ratings-yet-kokdu-season-of-deity-rises

[agenth]

 Celebrate Valentine's by diving into these passionate kdramas that range from betrayal to healing.

Vote for the Best Revenge, Cheating and Second Chances / Healing dramas. 

 

 

Your Event Organizers,

@partyon @Sleepy Owl @agenth @confusedheart

 

 

 

[backstreetboysfan]

Here are the ratings for Episode 12! *Last episode* .

 

 

“Red Balloon” Ratings Climb To All-Time High + “Crash Course In Romance” Hits New Saturday Peak

SBS’s “Payback,” which aired its final episode last night, ended steady on an average nationwide rating of 11.1 percent for its series finale.

 

https://www.soompi.com/article/1566400wpp/red-balloon-ratings-climb-to-new-all-time-high-crash-course-in-romance-hits-new-saturday-peak

 

[larus]

Payback: Episodes 11-12 (Final)

by SugarSnow

Making it to the finish line, we see our conflict come to a close. After an expected betrayal, our heroes set their final masterplan in motion to put all of the evil behind bars for good.

 
EPISODES 11-12

 

Running full speed into our last week, we’re brought back to the confrontation between Tae-choon and Yong as Ki-seok speaks at the press conference. Tae-choon, frustrated that Yong would even think to work with Ki-seok, lets Yong know that even though he is his uncle, he is still willing to arrest him if he has to. At the press conference, Ki-seok is put in a tight spot as one of the reporters ties him in with Myung considering he is his son-in-law, claiming he is at the storm’s epicenter. Ki-seok thinks quickly and says that he holds the evidence needed to put the bad people behind bars as it was given to him from Su-dong – lying through his teeth as he was given no such evidence from Su-dong.

Ki-seok lights the internet on fire after his appearance and statements made at the assemblyman’s press conference, gluing all eyes on him. The prosecution, spearheaded by Chief Prosecutor LEE YOUNG-JIN (Park Jung-pyo) attempts to indirectly attack him by going after his wife. The Chief Prosecutor was once Ki-seok’s right-hand man, but now he’s heartlessly willing to dispose of Ki-seok. Myung also attempts to close the door on Yong’s plan by sending men to follow him to hopefully find Su-dong. Yong has taken a significant upper hand in this fight and now everyone is looking to take them down from all sides.

 

At a meeting for all of the investors who lost money because of Myung, Yong introduces himself and successfully makes a good impression on the skeptical people there – one of them being the developer that Jun-kyung met with last week. He agrees to work with them as Hye-rin’s business model and Yong’s sincerity were able to turn him in favor of supporting the company.

Yong gathers Ki-seok and other prosecutors to get them to join his side, turning them into a special task force with Ki-seok as their leader. Now that he has a team and ground to stand on, Ki-seok’s first move is to arrest all of the top brass that are in cahoots with Myung. Su-dong shows up with Jun-kyung to turn himself in while also bringing documentation of bribes taken by a chief in the prosecution. After arresting the chief, Ki-seok takes over and is reinstated.

Ki-seok instantly goes to work on taking out Myung’s connections. Myung is arrested, and as the names that tie back to him grow in number, so do the charges against him. With the help of Yong, Assemblyman Sohn is able to pull away with a win in his district. After these big developments, the tide fully turns in Yong’s favor when he and Ki-seok find all of Myung’s borrowed name accounts, leaving him with nothing left. His money, which was once his power supply, has finally been stripped from him.

 

With everything going according to plan, and Ki-seok amassing power and influence rapidly, Yong knows to watch Ki-seok closely in preparation for his inevitable backstabbing. Yong gets a call from Jun-kyung telling him that Ki-seok is advancing as Han-na was falsely arrested. Right after Yong hangs up, Ki-seok struts into Yong’s penthouse with search and seizure papers. Thinking he’s got Yong beat with a checkmate, Ki-seok makes a cold remark about Hye-rin. Yong puts his hands on him and is pulled off by the other prosecutors. This moment marks when Yong begins to dismantle the world he just put back together for Ki-seok. Ki-seok just made the biggest mistake of his life.

After the slight altercation between the two, Yong and Ki-seok have a drink together – quite an unusual time and place for this, especially after the words that just came out of Ki-seok’s mouth. Ki-seok offers to open up Yong’s travel bans so he can just leave the country, and Yong brazenly tells him he doesn’t want to just settle and leave – he’s going to tear Ki-seok’s world down.

 

more https://www.dramabeans.com/2023/02/payback-episodes-11-12-final/

[Shimmery-summer]

Never seen a character as badly written as park jeong kyung- she had short term memory issues, would shame others for not following law then do illegal things and would tell others how useless law is and they should join her and then in the end someone as corrupt as her is inducted back to prosecution and on top of it she is now lecturing tae chun on the morals of prosecutors. the actress playing it had one stern expression throughout like she is sitting on a chair with nails sticking out, on top of it what's worst she would talk to every character so rudely and arrogantly like they are her servants, like her both convos with the developer and specially in 2nd meeting when she asks him you don't wanna join us, she said that so rudely, like he is some sort of a servant or stuff, in real life seeing her manners  noone would work with someone like that. If actress is not interested in working in a drama why take a role and ruin it, let others take it and do a fair job.

[sweetroad]

Finally got to watch the final two episodes. Overall it was an entertaining show, and with my Marvel-movie viewing lens firmly on I could enjoy it even more.

 

The ending was satisfying in many ways. None of the top baddies lost their lives but they'll be in jail for a long time. Tae Chun showed his strength and integrity and became a prosecutor to be proud of, and Investigator Nam got to help solve this last complicated case and get a well-earned retirement. (By the way, it was hilarious to see them chuckle at Eun Yong's beer-pouring skills at the final party in his penthouse. It seemed like an ad-lib call-out to the My Mister beer controversy. ) Bluenet was revived, and PJK was a prosecutor again. I wonder what happened to Hwang Ki Seok's wife?

 

The one thing I scratched my head at was Eun Yong going back to Mongolia. It was weird to see him be so close and connected to Ha Na, PJK, and JTC during the storyline, with daily interactions, and then see him tear himself away from them again. I feel like it would have made more sense for him to still be involved in their lives, like if he could split his time between Korea and Mongolia, in order to continue the relationships he was building with them. Otherwise, their involvement with each other was really all about revenge and solving these crimes, and not about being family to each other for the long-term. And that felt a bit shallow to me.

 

BUT I guess that's how families are, too - sometimes people just go their separate ways for their everyday lives but can be there for each other during the intense, significant moments. But to be honest something about him being/ choosing to be isolated and remote again felt off to me. Who knows, though, with EY being the CEO of Bluenet - maybe he'll come back to Korea more often.

 

My favorite scenes from the show were:

- Jin Ho sacrificing himself to get the ledger

- Hwang Ki Seok facing the rejection of his colleagues

- Chief Prosecutor Lee Young Jin struggling with whether to take on HKS's sins, and later whether he would confess to participating in CEO Oh's death

- LSK's elevator fight scene (it reminded me of Captain America's elevator fight scene against members of Hydra)

 

In short, I loved it when the show explored the characters being human, with real emotions. (Plus elevator fight scenes.)

 

One thing I wished we could have seen toward the end was the actual climax of some of the scenes. For example, Chief Prosecutor Lee struggled a bunch in the interrogation room over whether to confess, and then they cut to PJK announcing to Myung that Lee had confessed. We didn't actually get the payoff of Lee's emotional angst, just an announcement of the result. I think things like that happened a couple times, where we got a voiceover or a flash to the next scene. It would have upped the dramatic tension and catharsis to have actually seen some of the scenes to the end.

 

I did get goosebumps when Eun Yong said, "The prisoner's dilemma is always between prisoners," and not between a prisoner and a non-prisoner. Brilliant! His genius mind was thrilling to watch and get to know.

 

All in all it was a fun ride. Congratulations to PDnim on his first TV drama, and congrats to all the cast and crew for a decent story, good action scenes, and shooting locations that were beautiful, austere, or gritty depending on the moment in the story.

 

[Shimmery-summer]

The show had it's lows and poor depiction of mongolia and specially the wild rat remark on a cusinie dish, and female lead being a pathetic character enacted very disinterestedly, but lsk l shone, nephew shone, myung shone and almost everyone in the cast. It was a fun show, quality drops around ep 2 or 3 then picks up ep 6, it gets complicated a lot without any explanation lot of times, last episode felt rushed, and in one scene it felt editing wasn't correct when tae chun says,'I was the only one who didn't know about evidence'. What it meant. Pjk's return to prosecution was not cool.

 

But all in all fun show. Watch it you would love it. But did they come back to 2022 timeline or they were still in 2014. If it's still 2014 then expect season 2. Don't want pjk and hwang to be back. Hwang was the lamsest villain ever though actor was amazing but he was so lame

 

 

@lila21 did you finish? How did you like it? My final thought is it was well made and can be recommended to others if they want a prosecution and financial crimes show. Writing got more complicated and more interesting in the last few episodes, for which I give writer credit.

On 2/15/2023 at 2:47 AM, the_sweetroad said:

But to be honest something about him being/ choosing to be isolated and remote again felt off to me.

Like he didn't even reply to her emails, rhe pjk's, he was in touch with his immediate family I think but not them. That was very weak writing. It looked like as if they had parted on bad note so he cut off contact but that wasn't the case.

Do you expect 2nd season. It would be good but it should on a bigger and better scale like against some chaebol company or something like reborn rich scale.