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Good Manager korean drama review
Completed
Good Manager
1 people found this review helpful
by EarlofCruiseGW
Oct 3, 2023
20 of 20 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 9.5
Story 10.0
Acting/Cast 9.5
Music 9.0
Rewatch Value 9.5
This review may contain spoilers

Good Manager (2017) - Corporated greed and corruption

The Korean society must have quite a big number of issues ... especially with hirarchy, based in the old feudal structure of the Korean society which seem ro be manifested till today and despite a functional democracy.

The story evolves around the TQ Group and its corrupt and power and money greedy CEO.

Namkoong Min as Kim Sung Ryong paired with Nam Sang Mi as female counterpart Yoon Ha Kyung and Lee Jun Ho as capitalistic sociaphat Seo Yool and Jung Hye Sung as enthusiastic undercover agent Hong Ga Eun give a wonderful set of characters which develop quite well in the story line and acring their alias.

Accounting is the key to uncover even most creative strategies and placing numbers in imaginairy companies/accounts. Slush founds/black money and labour rights and abuse of employees is the theme in this white colar crime story.

Sung Ryong and Sang Mi seemed to be the love affair of this story ... with Seo Yool as the rival? ... but arn´t. But sparks flew. Even with their counterpart Seo Yool ... incl. homoerotic flashes acted against a bit homophobic, taking in accounting the ridiculous anti LGBTQIA+ attitude and lack of womensrights in ultraconservative Korean society. Jokes made on the back of LGBTQIA+ is still not to accept and won´t!
Sang Mi distrusted Sung Ryong but got convinced by his fight for what is right, as she herself cna´t stand injustice, especially done by her company she is working for.
The back and forth bewtween Sung Ryong and Seo Yool is one of the highlights in this show for sure

Some bosses for real think they are the masters of desasters, or better a godlike given entity to whom everybody has to obey and bow.

Decisions are made ... with an good end the revenue is privatized and if its going wrong ... the result is socialized and empolyees are "set free", succed out and spewed out like waste. the Financial Crisis of 2007/08, in which we still are, has shown this drastically and paved the way for the far right poppolists (populists) which fish/ed among the vast numbers of losers. Which by far did not drink too much latte ...

The show shows us protesting employees for beeing succed out and lousy paid for and other employees even not paid. And the reaction of the boss? Angry and still sitting on its slush fonds, which ruined not only one of the subsidiaries.
The reations Sang Mi gets from the rivaling department and the ladies fight in the canteen but pictures too the disrespect of women as equal to men ... and the sispite 2017 when staged.

The film is a loud cry against corporations behavior and missing respect for their employees who create the lavish lifestyle of the chaebols and their family.
Here the son (Dong Ha Park Myung Seok) and heir is going a similar way as the main male heros Sung Ryong and Seo Yool from prick and sociophat to getting a social concience. His arrogance is based as usual on missing education and here accounting in special. Tzhe brat got his lecturwer in Sung Ryong. He ends as the key figure for saving his mother´s corporation.

When the guys in the cellar and Seo Yool unite their forces the team of not so white knights start to walk the winners lane ... and its a fun to see them acting one step ahead of the bosses blended by their greed in incompetence.

Only one couple does found itself as a sideline during the fierce battles ... but okay. GOOD MANAGER is not a love show.

The original CEO is ending with his croonies in front of the bar and is sentenced and even then can´t see and accept his guilt ... like so many CEOs and company owners when going down the gurgler because of fraud, shitty decisions. We can use their cases as tapestry for our homes.

Therefore we need more and stricter control mechanisms to prevent cases like pictured in GOOD MANAGER and strong and effective unions for employees.

The show staged 10 years after the ww Financial Crisis, starting 2006 with the Subprime Crisis and collapse of LEHMAN BROS. in 2007 calls for regulations of corporations. Not only for their employees, but for the nations economy and with that the ww economy.
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