Money Heist: Korea - Joint Economic Area

As someone who watched and loved the original Money Heist (La Casa De Papel), this review will be based on both similarities and differences between the two.

The beginning of the series, Tokyo's backstory, is captivating and original yet takes elements from the Spanish (og) version. It was nice to see the screenwriters take on a more Korean style while sticking to the original story. It was fast-paced and not much of the story before the heist was shown which was slightly different from the original series but it's understandable considering the writers tried to squeeze as much of the original story for the first heist in 12 episodes (as the original version had 23 episodes meant for the first heist).

I do wish the remake showed a more original and unique approach as the show was mostly very similar to identical to the original.

The acting was, in my honest opinion, average. There were moments and actors that I adored like Park Hae Soo as Berlin or Lee Joo Bin as Yun Mi Seon (OG Monica/Stockholm) and her chemistry with Kim Hi Joon aka Denver. However, the acting didn't exceed my expectations. I still enjoyed the first half of the show that aired so far.

The cinematography and directing style was something that I truly enjoyed. The shots weren't necessarily long (most of the time) and the brightness and coloring of the show were pretty to watch.

In the end, I will say that the original version is better than this remake but it still is enjoyable to watch.

I watched original version when it was out. I think i watched first 2 seasons. It was quite a long ago so i dont remember all the details. So i enjoyed this korean remake with their geopolitical twist. So far it was interesting. Not sure i will watch more than 2 seasons tho.

It's not even copy and paste because it's worse.

"Mom, can we have Money Heist at home?"

"We already have Money Heist at home"

*Money Heist at home:

To be brief, i think the acting on the korean one was better, also they didnt drag the plot as much as the spanish one (spanish series tend to do that). I wasnt really a fan of the original one to begin with so this version seems just as okay to me. If you are planning on watching it just know is the exact thing with better acting, in my opinion. I dont think it deserves a rating as low as 1, it cant be worse if its the same.

Of course nothing ever beats the original. But I appreciate the Korean cinematography, culture, politics and corruption infused with the story, especially the characters having their own different backstory in their own way. It's clever. Its objective is definitely not to replace the original but to give tribute to it. However, just expect the excitement to decline a little bit since the very basic story is known. You will expect the expected basically. But Korean culture and their own style of filmmaking has definitely made this different and worthwhile to watch. It's definitely still worth watching.