Seven Escape (2023)

unfathomable beastliness down to the blood. a search for the good guys could very well be in vain

You better be aware, it can always become more monstrous. For the audience, the first episodes of “The Escape of the Seven” are already quite inhospitable. Surely, among the protagonists one is worse than the other. We immerse ourselves in an unscrupulous world full of greed and devoid of any... …actually, I wanted to write "humanity", but then people also have a bitterly cruel and evil side, which is unfortunately also so very human in all its abysmal facets that it is painfully hurting and we'd rather not see it or let alone experience it... That's what "The Escape of the Seven" is about: The potency of human unscrupulousness... It couldn´t be more repulsive. (Could it?)

Crass, brutal and soulless, but everything beautifully polished in HD – this is how the 'beautiful', (one would normally consider) ´desirable´ life of the "Seven" is displayed here. However, soon enough the limits of what is bearable are strained. Admittedly, at first I had to avert my gaze with a shudder. Pretty quickly I dropped this KDrama.

However, the job as a subtitler had me open up for a second attempt. Meanwhile – if I accept the premise: it's about a group of people who are entangled in their unscrupulousness, who are united in their monstrosity not least by their excessive greed and a disgusting obsession with money, power, prestige, rank and influence – I reconsider this KDrama quite original by now. Surely, there are lots of unsympathetic (and shockingly convincing so!) protagonists - that's downright provocative for a TV series entertainment mission. Nevertheless, eventually from the 5th episode onwards, the KDrama is unabashedly still gearing up. It´s like the point of no return. By then there´s no more escaping from “The Escape of the Seven”... You´re on the hook. Because you actually start hoping…(for ´the good´ to finally become true.)

The plot turns out to be a revenge mission cleverly disguised in several respects. AI and deepfakes on the one hand, tried-and-tested Makjang on the other inspire the psychopathic composition of a jungle full of fatal, dramaturgical entanglements. Intelligent, exciting, disturbing – more than once we might think we know what's going on and yet we're wrong. Ruthlessness is certainly one of the leitmotifs in this KDrama.

I only recommend "The Escape of the Seven" if the mood is right - one that demands unfathomable beastliness down to the blood. If we get involved in this KDrama, then we will uncompromisingly be catapulted into a world in which a search for the good guys could very well be in vain...

And there is a second season, too…

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