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Pierce Conran

Lead cast: Um Ki-joon, Hwang Jung-eum, Lee Joon, Lee Yu-bi, Shin Eun-kyung, Yoon Jong-hoon
Latest Nielsen rating: 6.1 per cent
The creators of The Penthouse are back with a new prime-time soap opera, and they have brought several familiar faces along with them for what promises to be a fast-paced tale of secret desires and back-stabbing.
Writer Kim Sun-ok and director Joo Dong-min team up once more on The Escape of the Seven, the story of seven high-society miscreants who find themselves in hot water following the disappearance of a teenage girl.


Among those seven are The Penthouse alumni such as Shin Eun-kyung, Yoon Jong-hoon and Um Ki-joon, although the latter does not make an appearance straight away.
While the collection of characters is a little broader this time around – they do not all live in the same high-rise – the show begins in similar vein, by introducing us to a sweet and innocent young girl whose life will soon be torn to shreds by the greed of those around her.
8 of the best new Korean drama series to look out for in September 2023
That girl is high-schooler Bang Da-mi (Jung Lael). Da-mi lives with her doting adoptive parents in the countryside but, after being reunited with her long-lost mother, Geum La-hui (Hwang Jung-eum), she packs up for the big city, where she moves into La-hui’s ritzy town house in the shadow of Seoul’s gleaming Lotte World Tower.
La-hui soon reveals that, rather than maternal instinct, the real reason behind her approaching Da-mi is more sinister. Her production company is invested in a lavish drama project but funds are running short. The only way she can get them is through Bang Chil-sung (Lee Deok-hwa), the rich father of her late husband.
As his sole descendant, Da-mi is merely a tool to extract money from him. Also trying to squeeze money out of Chil-sung is his live-in girlfriend, Cha Ju-ran (Shin), who is not at all happy to meet Da-mi.

One of the reasons La-hui is having money troubles is because her lead actress has bumped up her fee thanks to her conniving agent Yang Jin-mo (Yoon).
Jin-mo has also used former gangster Min Do-hyeok (Lee Joon) to frame a rival in a power play, but rather than pay up he betrays him and Do-hyeok is forced to go on the run.
Meanwhile, at her new school in Seoul’s Gangnam district, Da-mi is befriended by school belle and K-pop aspirant Han Mone (Lee Yu-bi), who hides many secrets behind her perfect exterior and plans to use Da-mi in a merciless way.

Also not in Da-mi’s corner is art teacher Go Myung-ji (Jo Yoon-hee), who has her own reasons to use the victimised teenager.
Things quickly escalate between all these characters, and bearing the brunt of everyone’s scheming is the poor Da-mi, who clearly does not belong in this world. But she can no longer return to her adoptive parents, as La-hui holds the key to their financial ruin – they had to spend a fortune on repeated heart surgery for Da-mi.
Although it features similar scenarios, characters with the same motivations, and shares some of same locations as The Penthouse, the opening episodes of The Escape of the Seven lack the cohesiveness of that series. However, Da-mi’s disappearance will surely achieve that.

Before long, the seven will literally find themselves in the same boat, battling mysterious foes and surely themselves.
Writer Kim and director Joo replicate the intense soapy tone that served them so well in The Penthouse and Da-mi, following her brief rise at the show’s outset, crashes in such spectacular fashion it creates a vortex that sucks the other characters around her into the story – and grips viewers at home.
The narrative’s frequent big swings require a rather elastic imagination. One lithe and athletic teenager manages to successfully conceal a pregnancy until she gives birth. It is best not to think too seriously about how or why things happen, but to allow yourself to be swept up by the energy and scandal of it all.

It is still too early to say whether this show will match the highs of its predecessor, but for now the madcap makjang (soap opera) atmosphere is enjoyably familiar. This type of melodrama hits a certain despicable sweet spot, just like the mother in the show who punches her daughter in the face.
The Escape of the Seven is streaming on Viu.


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K-drama The Escape of the Seven: The Penthouse team return with another gleefully over-the-top high-society melodrama

Hwang Jung-eum (left) and Jung Lael as drama production company CEO Geum La-hui and her high-schooler daughter Bang Da-mi in a still from “The Escape of the Seven”, a gleefully over-the-top Korean high-society melodrama.

Yoon Jong-hoon as talent agent Yang Jin-mo in a still from “The Escape of the Seven”.

Lee Yu-bi as K-pop aspirant Han Mone in a still from “The Escape of the Seven”.

Lee Joon as former gangster Min Do-hyeok in a still from “The Escape of the Seven”.

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The creators of soapy K-drama series The Penthouse are back with a new show that promises to be a fast-paced tale of secret desires and back-stabbing
Seven high-society miscreants find themselves in hot water following the disappearance of a teenage girl – but who is to blame?


The team behind The Penthouse return with K-drama The Escape of the Seven, a gleefully over-the-top high- society melodrama that follows seven miscreants after the disappearance of a teenage girl.


K-drama The Escape of the Seven: The Penthouse team return with another gleefully over-the-top high-society melodrama

The creators of soapy K-drama series The Penthouse are back with a new show that promises to be a fast-paced tale of secret desires and back-stabbing Seven high-society miscreants find themselves in hot water following the disappearance of a teenage girl – but who is to blame?

The creators of soapy K-drama series The Penthouse are back with a new show that promises to be a fast-paced tale of secret desires and back-stabbing

Seven high-society miscreants find themselves in hot water following the disappearance of a teenage girl – but who is to blame?