In Korean film Money, a newbie stock broker Jo Il-hyun (Ryu Jun-yeol) rise through the ranks to become one of the top stock brokers of the firm, earning millions of dollars in commission, but his illegal ways of earning an income have dire consequences.
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In the world of stockbroking, every broker hopes to achieve financial freedom by earning big bucks through buying and selling of stocks. In Korean film Money, a newbie stock broker Jo Il-hyun (Ryu Jun-yeol) rise through the ranks to become one of the top stock brokers of the firm, earning millions of dollars in commission, but his illegal ways of earning an income have dire consequences.
Jo Il-hyun joins a stockbroking firm but his first sale caused his team to repay his client with their bonuses. One of his colleagues introduced him to “Ticket”, a corrupt fund manager who lures Jo into the world of stock market manipulation. With this first successful $50 million trade that puts him at the top of his team’s league table, Jo’s newfound attention, earnings and fame quickly lead him into an unstoppable spiral of disaster.
With his commission growing bigger with each illegal transaction, Jo becomes complacent of his skills but is wary of Han Ji Chul (Jo Woo-jin), a relentless securities investigator who will do anything and everything to catch the mastermind.
While the story, as a whole, gives you a glimpse of how a financial fraud takes place in the world of stockbroking, as well as how easily the stock market can be manipulated, a general audience member who is not savvy with how stock broking works, may still be a tad lost when it comes to the financial jargon used in the movie.
The transformation of its main character, Il-hyun - from an air-headed pauper to a confident and wealthy bachelor - depicts quite the typical change of one who becomes a millionaire overnight. The physical transformation (such as his dressing, his hair and branded accessories) helped in giving audiences a visual cue, it is much to the credit of Ryu, who gave quite a spectacular performance throughout. Not only does he perfectly depicts the switch of ‘before-and-after’ sequences, but the last scene at the train station was also one of the highlights of the film where Ryu was truly fantastic.
Director Park Noo-ri makes his directing debut with this financial crime drama, who had served as an assistant director on Ryu Seung-wan’s thrillers “The Unjust” and “The Berlin File”. With Money, he manages to bring out the greed of money in humans, as well as the power that comes with it, but in terms of the financial elements that wrap around the story, it could be explored further to help ease the understanding of the jargons. The other characters who were once brokers of the “Ticket Man”, were also not told explored deeply enough that it confuses the audience when names of these people were mentioned, without having the visual cue to note who they were or how they were related to the present case.
In all, action-thriller, Money is Korea’s take on ‘Wall Street’, giving us a glimpse into the world of stockbroking and how the industry is easily manipulated by rich individuals or companies.
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