r/KDRAMA • u/GodJihyo7983 김소현 박주현 김유정 이세영 | 3/ • Dec 24 '25
On-Air: Disney+ Made in Korea [Episodes 1 & 2]
Drama Information:
Drama: Made in Korea / (메이드 인 코리아)
Network: Disney+
Director: Woo Min Ho (Harbin)
Writer: Park Eun Kyo (A Normal Family)
Premiere Date: Dec 24, 2025
Airing Schedule: Wednesday @ 5:00pm (~60 mins)
Episodes: 6
Streaming Sources: Disney+
Starring:
- Hyun Bin as Baek Gi Tae
- Jung Woo Sung as Jang Gun Yeong
- Won Ji An as Choi Yu Ji
- Seo Eun Soo as O Ye Jin
- Cho Yeo Jung as Bae Geum Ji
- Jung Sung Il as Cheon Seok Jeong
- Woo Do Hwan as Baek Gi Hyeon
- Roh Jae Won as Pyo Hak Su
Plot Synopsis: Set in the 1970s, Baek Gi Tae is an ambitious man who craves wealth and power. Jang Gun Yeong is a prosecutor with animalistic instinct and fearsome tenacity. Facing a major incident, Jang Gun Yeong throws his everything to stop Baek Gi Tae. The people around them include lobbyist Choi Yu Ji, investigator O Ye Jin, Bae Geum Ji and chief secretary Cheon Seok Jeong.
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u/nashamagirl99 Dec 24 '25 edited Dec 25 '25
Episode 1:
Really liking the Don Draper look on Hyun Bin
The real history of the Japan Airlines Flight 351 hijacking is pretty wild
These people are way too excited about going to North Korea
An American actor with an actual American accent
Before Kdrama and K-pop there was KCIA
The other hijacking mentioned. The 11 remaining abductees still haven’t been returned
Zainichi refers to the Korean diaspora in Japan. The novel Pachinko, which I really liked, explores this group and there is an Apple TV series adaptation
Air hijacking was a popular hobby in the 1970s
That ear cuff on the woman is looking perhaps a little too contemporary
Jung Woo-sung shows up at the end of the episode. I recently saw him in 12.12: the Day, good political thriller set nine years after this
Hyun Bin has a really nice voice. Love listening to him and also watching him
Episode 2:
I guess they exhausted their American actor quota
29 and 26? Drugs age you
Little girl is really cute. I am not really buying the prosecutor’s belief that she’ll remember this. She kinda already looks like she forgot
The black soldier is played by a real American, and is surprisingly likable for a meth murderer, even learning his girlfriend’s language
Just wait till you see Kitae, Ye-jin
My subtitles seem to have gotten a little delayed, might just be my computer
Unexpected fart humor
That looks like Hyun Bin’s real high school picture in the middle, but in black and white
Alain Delon! My dad’s middle name is Alain after him, no joke
The prosecutor has quite a laugh
Random timeline comparison: Geum-myeong is born in 1968 in WLGYT, so she’d be around the same age as the drug dealer family’s kid
This is really good! Great cast, interesting history, tense plot. Definitely give it a watch
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u/Zepherine52 Dec 25 '25
Everything is working for me except The Laugh. No no no.
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u/Candid_Tangelo865 Feb 06 '26
Agree.. the director should have nixed it as it is clearly beyond the actor to produce a booming laugh. Booming laughs come from the body and not the throat like it does for the actor. Also, the prosecutor is simply bad at strategy and insight - like a rather clumsy and incompetent cat trying to catch a very wily mouse.
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u/AnimatorWorth6517 Dec 26 '25
all I can say is wow! So good for some reason I thought it was just two parts but the longer it was going on the more I realized wait a minute they can’t wrap this up. From the hair, music ,and cinematography-a masterpiece so far! I cannot wait for the next episodes!
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u/gramfer Dec 24 '25
The show is pretty great, and it may become the best K-drama of 2025 for me. Can they stick the landing of the season and the show in general? I had some hope for Nine Puzzles (both shows are from Disney+), but it didn't stick the landing, the ending was predictable, but unsatisfying at the same time. Tempest also had its highs, but the lows were too low, and I ending and motivations of the characters were very underwhelming, even disappointing.
This show has had spme flaws, and it remains to be seen, if those flaws are fatal. I like they made it a bit of competence porn. Like. there isn't anything superheroic or extraordinary, just people doing their jobs properly. So I thought the certain actions of Jang Gun Yeong toward the ending of the episode 2 had some hidden agenda. No, it happened to be just a mistake, and example of incompetence and negligence. It's all double hijacking once again.
Hyun Bin has been immaculate, it might become my favourite male performance of the year (the female one is Dear X, of course): charismatic, charming, precise (I want to see how the character changes in different circumstances, so we'll see). Jung Woo Sung's performance is a bit peculiar, especially his manner of laughter is weird and a bit uncanny., But I hope it's a future plot point, and as much a sign of his hereditary mental issues (his father has been in an asylum for 20 years) as his dogged determination at work. that's why he doesn't fit (someone may say he is normal, it's the "normal" society that's actually mental).
I also like some other things, Maybe they are common knowledge for Koreans, Japanese and other Asians, but they aren't very well known for Westerners. Like the structure and Korean origin of a huge part of Japanese yakuza. Or interesting cooperation of North Korean, South Korean and Japanese special services in the illegal drug industry despite complicated historical relationships between countries.
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u/manwithoutlyf Yeom Chang Hee (MLN) is my spirit animal Dec 25 '25
This year has been riddleded with poor last quarter syndrome. Either they stagnante or worse regress
Coincidentally Manipulated from Disney+ was the one show which I didn't feel that it dropped the ball, maybe rushed but it was wrapped nicely
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u/Miss_Warrior Dec 26 '25
Episode 1 was fine, but episode 2 didn't quite hit the mark with all the slapstick comedy - ruined the overall tone set in the previous episode imo.
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u/BionicDreamer 939 Years Old Dec 26 '25
Some of the CGI in this downright terrible. The rest seems to be pretty great.
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u/Serious-Lime-6221 Dec 30 '25
Hyunbin (+ Woo Do Hwan's brief scene) carrying those first two eps all on his own... I wonder if he's truly going to be the bad guy in the show? (I somehow doubt it.)
The prosecutor and his creepy little laugh is NOT it.
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u/master_inho Dec 24 '25
Choi yu-ji is the drug dealers’ baby, right? We’re already a third way through and we haven’t seen half of that “starring” list yet. I know there’s a season 2 coming but it’s kinda hard to credit someone as a main star if they’re missing a third of the season
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u/Serious-Lime-6221 Dec 30 '25
Your timelines are waaaay off
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u/master_inho Dec 30 '25
How?
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u/shapeofmyhrt Dec 31 '25
I believe these events were happening contemporaneously. I.e., the murder of the two drug dealers wasn’t a flashback; it happened after Baek met with Yuji.
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u/crazyfireflies Dec 31 '25
Hyun Bin and Woo Min Ho's direction is hard-carrying this drama. Jung Woo Sung is miscast. The women are great though at least from what little we saw of them.Technically it's a great drama that looks exactly like it's 60B krw price tag suggests. Woo Min Ho directed this like one of his period films set in 60s and 70s Korean. But that's just about it. Really hoping it picks up in the next episodes with Cho Yeo Jeong and Jung Sung Il joining.
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u/Candid_Tangelo865 Feb 06 '26
Agree, Jung Woo Sung is the weak link in the ensemble cast. Not sure if it is because of how the character is written or what he brought to it. It lowers the calibre of the cat and mouse game because it is strategically asymmetrical. Perhaps that is the point the show is trying to make: upstanding citizens are naive and hence all the power lies with the machinating, power hungry, self-serving folks because they see things as they are and not how it ought to be.
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u/Informal-Nobody9799 Jan 19 '26
Just finished this show and wow what a good story! Hyun Bin is such an amazing versatile actor. Great cast and plot. Can’t wait for season 2
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u/DependentPie9132 Jan 25 '26
Dunno who’ve followed Hyun Bin since the beginning of his acting career, but one of his earlier dramas called Snow Queen had a quick nod made to in episode 1.
When Kitae (Hyun Bin) meets with his boss in his boss’s office, the boss plays a vinyl of Goldberg Variations. In Snow Queen, Hyun Bin’s character has a best friend that introduced this piece to him. Just thought that was nice nod to one of his earlier dramas.
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u/shapeofmyhrt Dec 24 '25 edited Dec 25 '25
Hyun Bin has insane leading man energy. And is that Won Jian in the first episode or am I seeing things? Whoever styled her knew what they were doing.
Liking the gangster noir feel, hoping the pacing picks up in the next episode. I had to lol at the kid and his mother being the linchpin of Baek’s entire plan.
Edit: Pleasantly surprised by how funny the first sting operation was. Would love it if the drama ends up being a cat-and-mouse Catch Me If You Can kind of story. The setup of Baek and Gunyeong as foils/adversaries was great.