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Pierce Conran

Lead cast: Kim Myung-soo, Choi Jin-hyuk, Choi Min-soo, Yeonwoo
Latest Nielsen rating: 4 per cent
Numbers, the latest Korean drama to dig its heels into corporate corruption, explores a new cog in the murky machine of financial wrongdoing. Rather than conglomerates or law firms, this show is set in the world of accounting firms.
In his first role since being discharged from his mandatory service in South Korea’s armed forces, Kim Myung-soo of the K-pop band Infinite plays a principled young buck who rises up the ranks of the Taeil Accounting Firm under the watchful eye – or should we say perpetually arched eyebrow – of Choi Jin-hyuk’s senior manager.


One of South Korea’s top four accounting firms, Taeil has the power to make or break the country’s powerful companies thanks to the influence of its audits.
For Taeil’s top accountants, the pen is truly mightier than the sword, but with bribes and favours within their grasp in exchange for favourable audits, who among them are the corruptible and the incorruptible?
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By tapping into the currents of discontent and feelings of being hard done by that pervade society, Korean drama writers are supremely concerned with systemic unfairness.
The average Joe may not often think about accounting firms when stewing over their misfortune, but as it starts out, Numbers has the good sense to connect its world of bookkeeping power brokers to one that everyone understands – real estate.
As a child, Ho-woo was found by the warm-hearted Jang In-ho (Nam Myung-ryul) on a construction site. After trying in vain to track down his parents, In-ho adopts the child, who, years later, has grown to become the forthright teenager Jang Ho-woo (Kim Myung-soo).

Ho-woo is the type of young man who will leap into the fray, vastly outnumbered, to help his bullied friends. He does the same thing after In-ho’s modest construction company is suddenly earmarked for liquidation.
Black-clad, weapon-wielding thugs throng its construction site, pushing back protesting workers. Ho-woo leaps in and tries to take them all down single-handedly until Han Seung-jo (Choi Jin-hyuk) struts onto the scene.
Seung-jo is from the Taeil Accounting Firm and explains to Ho-woo in harsh – and rather over-expository – terms that his company has the power to save or destroy companies and that their situation is a done deal: there is nothing left to fight for.

A dismayed In-ho wires his remaining cash to his workers before stepping off the top floor of his company’s last unfinished building.
A shell-shocked Ho-woo vows revenge. He had been preparing to enter the police force, but now he makes a sudden pivot to accounting.
Cue the necessary rose-tinted study montage of the determined Ho-woo pursuing his necessary qualifications. Then the story goes fast forward to the present, and his first day at Taeil.
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If his sudden presence there seems a little surprising to us, it is even more befuddling for his new colleagues – he is the first employee without a university degree to be hired.
Shunned by other recruits, Ho-woo is left to twiddle his fingers. No one will give him any work. To his surprise, the person who inspires him to make himself noticed is Seung-jo, who he first meets on the firm’s roof.
Seung-jo explains that he is not being discriminated against because of his educational background. Rather, managers are wary of adding him to their teams, worried that he would drag down their productivity. If that is not educational discrimination, this writer wonders, then what exactly is?

Ho-woo does make him useful, first by cleaning, then, through other menial tasks, helping everyone be more efficient. He truly proves himself when he volunteers to go to a provincial community bank to secure a signed document necessary for a merger where other, more experienced accountants have failed.
Needless to say, he succeeds thanks to his youthful gumption and lands his first team assignment.
Seung-jo is a little miffed by this steadfast young man, who refused an invitation to join his team. He shows a lot of interest in this new employee, and so he should, since he was the one who secretly hired him. But why?

Last seen – though mostly heard – as the voice inside the head of Mr. Queen’s titular character, Choi Jin-hyuk sows a mixture of doubt and arrogance into the mien of Seung-jo, who grew up privileged and whose father, Han Je-kyun, played by veteran actor Choi Min-soo, is the vice-president of Taeil.
Je-kyun is clearly more interested in lining his pockets than playing fair, but the jury’s out on Seung-jo. He seems uncertain about where his moral compass is pointing, but Ho-woo may be exerting a positive influence on him.
If you can swallow the dense financial jargon, Numbers adds up to a reasonably diverting spin on the typical financial drama.
Numbers is streaming on Viu.


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K-drama Numbers: Kim Myung-soo, Choi Jin-hyuk balance the books in story set in the world of accounting

Kim Myung-soo as Ho-woo in a still from “Numbers”.

Kim Myung-soo as Ho-woo in a still from K-drama “Numbers”. Ho-woo joins an accounting firm to exact revenge for the death of his adoptive father.

Choi Jin-hyuk as accountant Han Seung-jo in a still from “Numbers”.

Choi Min-soo as Taeil vice-president Han Je-kyun in a still from “Numbers”.

Choi Jin-hyuk as Seung-jo in a still from “Numbers”.

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Kim Tae-ri in a still from Revenant. The actress has so far brought her signature intensity to her role in  Disney+’s occult drama, which has been slow to start but is well poised to be terrifying going forward.

Kim Tae-ri in a still from “Revenant”. The actress has so far brought her signature intensity to her role in  Disney+’s occult drama, which has been slow to start but is well poised to be terrifying going forward.

Oh Jung-se as Yeom Hae-sang in a still from “Revenant”.

Oh Jung-se (left) and Kim Tae-ri in a still from “Revenant”.

Hong Kyung as cutthroat detective Lee Hong-sae in a still from “Revenant”.

Kim Tae-ri as Gu San-yeong in a still from “Revenant”.

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Kim Sung-oh (left) and Kim Tae-hee as husband and wife Jae-ho and Joo-ran in a still from “Lies Hidden in My Garden”, an Amazon Prime K-drama.

Lim Ji-yeon is housewife Sang-eun in a still from “Lies Hidden in My Garden”.

Choi Jae-rim (left) as abusive husband Yoon-beom and Lim Ji-yeon as his wife, Sang-eun, in a still from “Lies Hidden in My Garden”.

Kim Tae-hee as main character Joo-ran in a still from “Lies Hidden in My Garden”.

Lim Ji-yeon as Sang-eun in a still from “Lies Hidden in My Garden”.

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Im Yoon-ah in a still from “King the Land”.

Im Yoon-ah as hotel employee Chun Sa-rang in a still from “King the Land”, a tacky, dated and unimaginative K-drama romcom co-starring Lee Jun-ho of the boy band 2PM that is streaming on Netflix.

(From left) Kim Ga-eun as duty-free-shop sales agent Gang Da-eul, Im as Chun Sa-rang and Go Won-hee as flight attendant Oh Pyeong-hwa in a still from “King the Land”.

An Se-ha (left) as intern No Sang-sik and Lee Jun-ho as Gu Won in a still from “King the Land”.

Lee Jun-ho as Gu Won in a still from “King the Land”.

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Han Suk-kyu as top surgeon Master Kim in a still from “Dr. Romantic” season three, the end of which sees fan favourites from previous seasons return, possibly opening the door to a fourth season of the Disney+ medical K-drama series. 

Yoo Yeon-seok as returning surgeon Kang Dong-joo in a still from “Dr. Romantic” season three.

Lee Sung-kyung (right) as Master Kim protégé Cha Eun-jae and Ahn Hyo-seop as star surgeon, and Cha’s girlfriend, Seo Woo-jin in a still from “Dr. Romantic” season three.

Jin Kyung (left) as head nurse Oh Myung-sim and Han Suk-kyu as Master Kim in a still from “Dr. Romantic” season three.

Han Suk-kyu (left) and Yoo Yeon-seok as Kang Dong-joo in a still from “Dr. Romantic” season three.

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K-Pop

An accounting firm takes centre stage in Numbers, with Kim Myung-soo of K-pop band Infinite starring as a man out to avenge the death of his adoptive father
The series is a diverting spin on the typical K-drama that digs into the nitty-gritty of corporate corruption – if you can take the technical financial jargon


Kim Myung-soo of K-pop band Infinite and Choi Jin-hyuk star in Numbers, a drama series set in a Korean accounting firm in which Kim plays a man out avenge his adoptive father’s death.
