By Jae-Ha Kim
jaehakim.com
December 26, 2022
Jin Do-joon / Yoon Hyun-woo (played by Song Joong-ki)
Jin Yang-chul (played by Lee Sung-min)
Seo Min-young (played by Shin Hyun-been)
Rachel (played by Tiffany Young)
↑Note: Korean names denote the surname followed by the given name.
Describing “Reborn Rich” is tricky without giving away the ending. Is this K-drama a time-traveling thriller? Or a revenge series with the poor battling the obscenely wealthy? Maybe it’s a tale of repentance?
The answer is: It’s all that and more. And if more episodes had been released before I had to file my best K-dramas of 2022 list, it definitely would’ve been one of my picks for this year. Smart and calculated without resorting to tired tropes, “Reborn Rich” offers powerhouse performances by Song Joong-ki (in two roles) and master actor Lee Sung-min (“Misaeng“), who at just 54, convincingly portrays the former’s mercurial-tempered grandfather.
When we first meet Hyun-woo, he is the perfect employee. Smart (but poor and uneducated), he is made to believe he is lucky to have a corporate job at Soonyang, one of South Korea’s most powerful companies. As he advises an underling, his job is to complete any and all orders from his superiors without question. This includes everything from swapping out a hotel toilet seat for the wife of the chairman’s eldest son, to traveling overseas to reclaim the company’s slush funds.
This isn’t much of a spoiler since it is advertised in the series synopsis, but still … stop reading if you don’t want to know more. (I’ll write about the major spoilers beneath the trailer below.)
During this trip, he is set up, shot and falls from a cliff. The knowledge he possesses about the family’s dirty deeds have been protected by his death.
In the next vignette, we meet Do-joon, the youngest grandson of the Soonyang Group family. (The literal translation of the Korean series title 재벌집 막내아들 is The Youngest Son of a Chaebol House.) He is about 10 years old and confused. Because Hyun-woo’s spirit and mind are now in the little boy’s body.
From that point on, Hyun-woo begins to plot his revenge. But as is pointed out in the series, revenge isn’t for those who have been wronged. Only those with power can truly get retribution in any meaningful way. So he carefully plots out his future, knowing what he knows from having lived it and from having read his grandfather’s biography (which hasn’t been published yet in the era he’s currently living).
His goal is to find the Soonyang member who ordered his death, take control over the conglomerate and make sure that the family members are punished for their wrongdoings. But in the 15 or so years he lives as Do-joon, he grows to love and respect his grandfather Yang-chul — the family patriarch who is well aware that his obsequious and duplicitous sons and daughter aren’t qualified to take over his business. Using his knowledge of what will happen in the future, Do-joon makes bold predictions that prove to be lucrative. And there’s no better way to win over Yang-chul than to make his company even more successful.
He also makes enemies of his uncles and aunt who view him as an unqualified threat — not because he’s not bright, but because Do-joon’s father isn’t their real brother, but merely a half brother.
Song Joong-ki’s love interest here is a prosecutor (played by Shin Hyun-been of “Hospital Playlist“). But the series is driven not by the promise of romance, but by the cat-and-mouse relationship between Do-joon and Lee Sung-min’s Yang-chul. It’s a battle of wits between two cunning men who are too pragmatic to wholly trust each other.
Acting aside, “Reborn Rich” is a fascinating look at South Korea’s modern history, when South Korean cars were viewed as cheap automobiles that could never enter the international market. And its electronics and goods weren’t of comparable quality to products made in the United States, Germany or Japan. It deals with the ramifications of the IMF crisis, when leaders were asking its citizens to donate all their gold jewelry (including wedding bands and babies’ dol rings and bracelets) for the good of the nation. And in Episode 13, there’s a fun reminder of how well South Korea performed two decades ago at the 2002 World Cup, before eventually losing to Germany (1-0) in the semi-finals.
I have seen a few things on social media where fans are upset at the finale. For me, it was a satisfying end to a well-crafted show that felt natural and hopeful. Surviving is an act of courage in and of itself. While it’s not a sexy happily ever after, there is definitive closure and repentance.
Meta Moments: Girls’ Generation’s Tiffany Young has a nice co-starring role here as a finance expert who works with Do-joon. And ATEEZ‘s Jong Ho shows off his powerhouse vocals in “Gravity,” which is featured prominently in the K-drama’s OST.
Airdates: Sixteen episodes — ranging from 60- to 75-minutes each— aired on JTBC from November 18 to December 25, 2022.
Spoiler Alert: In the finale, Hyun-woo realizes that what happened to him wasn’t a fluke: “I finally know now that this wasn’t about possession or time traveling. It was repentance — my repentance for Jin Do-joon and for me, Yoon Hyun-woo.”
Hyun-woo was left for dead in the first episode. But a savvy prosecutor who had been keeping tabs on the Soonyang family had a NIS team following him. He hadn’t died. He was rescued.
In Episode 12, we learned that the person behind the murder attempt of Yang-chul and Do-joon — who she didn’t realize would be traveling with his grandfather — was … Yang-chul’s wife. When she saw that her husband was favoring Do-joon over their own children, she wanted her husband knocked off. She resented him and hated Do-joon for standing in the way of her kids.
In one of the small story arcs that ticked me off, Do-joon helped his grandmother flee overseas so that she won’t be imprisoned. Do-joon’s dad sees her off, and forgives her, saying that he understood what she must have went through, raising a boy (him) who had a different mother. WHAT? She. Not. Only. Tried. To. Kill. Your. Father. She. Almost. Killed. Your. SON! I could never.
We saw at the end of Episode 1 that Hyun-woo was betrayed by his underling Gyeong-min (portrayed by Park Jin-young). In the finale, we find out that the person who ordered the murder of Do-joon was his oldest uncle, who wanted to ensure that the chairman position would be passed down to him and then eventually his son.
At that time, Hyun-woo was working as a laborer for the Soonyang Group. His assignment that day was to drive a small truck to a destination that didn’t seem to exist. He got out of his car to call his boss for clarification. A semi truck came barreling down the road, hitting his truck, which rammed into the sedan in front of him. Do-joon was a passenger in the car and died in the crash. And had Hyun-woo made the call from within his car, his life would’ve been over as well.
I don’t think Hyun-woo realized at the time that the chaebol family was aware that he could die (and they didn’t care). His options are to go to the police and report the crime. Or, to accept the white-collar position to work at the company. He chose the latter.
The one plot point I found unbelievable (even for a fictional show) is that when he finds himself living as Do-joon, he has no memory of the man. Only later does he realize that he was the youngest grandson who had died tragically. Given that he was at the scene of the crime, wouldn’t Hyun-woo realize that he had been a party (unwittingly) to his murder?
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Just a quick response to Hyun-woo’s not remembering that he had been at the scene of Do-joon’s death. There are a couple of moments early on after HW has been “reborn” that tell us he has no memory of 4-2 and when he attempts to remember anything it results in pain in his head. He only remembers 4-2 is deceased as the first car “accident” is happening and even then assumes in that moment that that is when he will die. Given that he sees his own face when he looks in mirrors or at photos and not DJ’S (cos they cannot look the same to other people or there’s a whole other issue that needs unpacking), it maybe impossible for him to make any connection to the man whose death he was used to cause back in his life as HW.
Excellent review, btw. Agree wholeheartedly with how great a show this was – it’s in my “would watch again even knowing the twists” list.
HI Emma Jane, great points! But remember when they showed a flashback (I think) of Hyun-woo going to his cubicle and looking at Do-joon (4-2) on his cork board and noticing that he had died decades ago? It just seemed that Hyun-woo was so detailed oriented when it came to the Sangwoon Group that he would’ve remembered Do-joon’s features. I don’t know. It was just one small aspect that bothered me.
And I agree. I would definitely rewatch this and look for the early clues that I may have missed the first time around. Thanks for sharing your comments! Happy holidays!
How I explain it, and I could be wrong, is that him “not knowing Do Joon” comes about when he’s “Do Joon.” Do Joon isn’t referenced at all when he’s Hyun-woo. I don’t know what state he is in when he is Do Joon (props to the show for keeping this part vague), but I rationalize it that his guilt had traumatized him to the point where he blocked out that part. If he was in a coma/unconscious state, his mind would have given him a break while he tried to work everything out. I too had a what?! moment when that family tree scene played out, but I think that was his brain reminding him his “reality” at that point.
I too LOVED this show! It’s easily in my top shows for the year.