The new K-drama Low Life marks something of a comeback for actor Yang Se-Jong. I suppose he's always been a bit picky about his roles and doesn't appear as often as other actors of his generation. Anyway, Low Life tells the story of a group of men who band together to find a precious treasure at the bottom of the ocean, lost in 1323, after a merchant ship sank off the coast of Sinan with a crew of 100, 20,000 pieces of pottery, and 8 million coins from the Song and Yuan dynasties. In 1977, a team is formed to recover as much pottery as possible from this shipwreck. Episodes 1-3 cover the formation of the team, the reasons for it, and how there's a competition to get to the treasure. Essentially, whoever gets it first wins. With that said, let's move on to the recap of episodes 1, 2, and 3.
Episode 1 of Low Life begins with the details of the ship's sinking. We then move to 1962, where a mother and son struggle to prove to the police that they've done nothing wrong. However, the man who shows up to help them isn't the boy's father. It's his uncle, his father's twin brother. Shortly after resolving the matter with the police, a sort of new team is formed between Gwan-Seok, the uncle, and Hee-Dong, the nephew.
Stars: Ryu Seung-ryong, Yang Se-jong, Lim Soo-jung
Gwan-Seok is a petty thief who steals anything that helps him and records all his exploits in a notebook. Suddenly, a few years have passed, and Hee-Dong is now an adult, but both are arrested for all their thefts, and Gwan-Seok's notebook is key evidence. In prison, Hee-Dong, now a melancholic man who seems carefree about everything, stops some thugs from beating up an elderly man. This man is Song Ki-Taek, and he is Gwan-Seok's friend. Hee-Dong dreams of marrying his girlfriend after prison, but his misfortune is that she's already outgrown her life and engaged to someone else.
She tells him to get well, but instead, he decides to join his uncle in the next big heist Song wants to organize. Song offers the boys 400,000 won (a fortune at the time, I suppose) to recover pottery from the bottom of the ocean. I suppose the only good thing is that Gwan-Seok wants his boys to do well in life, but his yelling isn't helping anyone, and Hee-Dong knows it. Gwan-Seok hatches a new plan with Hee-Dong. If Song is offering that much money, it must be something valuable they're supposed to get, so he suggests they keep some of the merchandise, and no one will find out. So, Hee-Dong travels to Mokpo to find out if there are any rumors about this treasure. It seems it's no secret, and even the government has tried to search for it.
Hee-Dong already has a love interest, who seems to have fallen in love at first sight with a girl named Seon-Ja. She is the daughter of a coffee shop owner, Gwan-Seok's distant relative, Madam Jang. Now, Gwan-Seok secretly pursues Song to find out the real story and discovers she's meeting with a bigwig named Chairman Cheon. This is his chance to make so much money that it will secure his future. He renegotiates the deal with Song. Song himself plans to swindle Cheon; that's how this game works. Everyone tries to get the biggest haul, so he creates imitation ceramics to sell to Cheon as a lie. After receiving one million won from Song, Gwan-Seok and Hee-Dong's team grows because Song sends his own man, Dae-Sik, with them. He's a skinny guy who doesn't seem to fit in well, but they just have to hire him.
Cheon is married to a woman named Jung-Sook. She's a brilliant woman with a knack for numbers, and she's his second wife. The president himself built a huge legacy despite being illiterate. He built everything from hotels to schools, and now plans to create a museum with the ceramics as a bonus. Finally, at the end of the first episode, Jung-Sook's right-hand man, Jeon-Chul, also joins the group because of Cheon. However, Jung-Sook complains about losing his best man. The men are ordered not to fight, but the excitement is already evident in their eyes. At the end of episode 1, they cause a huge ruckus on the train.
Episode 2 of Low Life begins with the shocking revelation that Jung-Sook was married to Jeon-Chul before he reportedly drowned at sea in 1964 while she was working. Many years later, she is already married to the president and receives a phone call at night. Jeon-Chul suddenly appears before her, safe and sound, but she's already remarried and moved on. So, as the wife of a president, the best thing she can do is get her ex-husband to work for her. Wow!
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