Reborn Rich

"I have three extra things in my heart... greed, suspicion and betrayal.”

Reborn Rich is a social satire of the upper class with a satisfying regression and makjang twist. It has quickly become one of the highest-rated dramas in South Korean cable history, alongside Sky Castle and The World of the Married.

PLOT & CHARACTERS:

Yoon Hyun Woon is a high school graduate who's forced to become the loyal dog that handles the dirty deeds for the Soonyang conglomerate to climb the corporate ladder. He's then murdered and reincarnated as the youngest grandson, Jin Do Joon, of the very same family that enslaved him. Rather than placating his newfound rich grandfather for a meager share of the inheritance, he holds the ambition of buying out Soonyang as revenge. What ensues is a thrilling and intense battle of wits as Doo Joon entraps his relatives by using their own insatiable greed and ulterior motives against them.

Through the ruthless succession conflicts, we not only see the degradation of society but also the salvaged shreds of humanity that are left. While Do Joon has to master the art of "greed, suspicion and betrayal" in his quest for vengeance, he still maintains a bottom line to protect the interests of those he cares about. He's not exactly the hero type, but he can get the job done in the most spectacular (and unconventional) way without resorting to illegal means. Each episode is filled with unexpected plot twists and crazy cliffhangers that keep you on the edge of your seat. It's interesting how there's no singular villain since every member of the Jin family is a culpable suspect.

However, my favourite part has to be Do Joon's relationship with his grandfather. Jin Yang Cheol is a complex character that's hard to love, or hate. He's a shrewd and cynical businessman who's built his empire upon draconian and often unethical practices. Yet he's hit with a dilemma, whether to pass his entire fortune to his oldest son's line or the one who resembles him and can make Soonyang grows the most. On the surface, Do Joon is his head-on rival. But at a much deeper level, Yang Cheol regards him as his favourite grandson, someone who genuinely cares about his welfare and business ideology.

CAST & PRODUCTION:

Behind every great show is a spectacular cast, and this is no different. Song Joong Ki is a surprising yet very fitting choice for the lead role. I love how he can quickly switch from the playful college student into the cut-throat gangster when he's about to 'negotiate' a deal. I guess it's a great balance between his character in Vincenzo and Descendants of the Sun. Plus, the turtleneck and baggy jeans definitely add to the Steve-Job entrepreneur vibe as well. I really like his chemistry with Shin Hyun Bin who plays the female lead. She certainly has a makeover from the sleep-deprived surgeon in Hospital Playlist into a feisty and stylish prosecutor.

Lee Sung Min is definitely a force to reckon with. As a veteran actor, he pulls off the mean and hard-to-please expression of Jin Yang Cheol extremely well. As the powerful head of the Soonyang Corporation and Jin family, he's supposed to be the most commanding presence in the room. It's not until the later episodes that we get to see glimpses of a softer and perhaps more vulnerable Jin Yang Cheol when he's with Do Joon, his favourite grandson. The rest of the Jin family is very well cast. They're each greedy, entitled and scandalous in their own way.

OVERALL:

While the plot and characters have been exaggerated for entertainment purposes, the drama still contains many real-life events that make it quite a nostalgic watch, especially for South Koreans. It's refreshing to see Do Joon walking us through the IMF Crisis, the South Korean team in the 2002 World Cup quarterfinals, Seo Taiji and Boys' disbandment, and the list goes on. There have also been suggestions that the drama also drew inspiration from the current political landscape in South Korea, with the omnipotent status of conglomerates and 'chaebols'.

Reborn Rich is a masterpiece in its own right. It's a perfect combination of fantasy, business, family and revenge themes that somehow has a duality to it. Dramatic and shocking yet still very humane.

FAVOURITE QUOTES:

“I guess I’m like you [his grandfather]. I have three extra things in [my heart]. They’re full of greed, suspicion, and betrayal.” Jin Do Joon

“When you bring up a servant, you mustn’t give him great housing and a full stomach... Because he’ll begin to think that he’s the master… Righteous management? To me, money is righteousness.” Jin Yang Cheol

“The day that he defies me, it won’t matter if he’s my family or not.” Jin Yang Cheol

“The two things a fighter has no use for are his appendix and compassion. Sympathy! You cannot afford to drag such useless emotions to war. It’ll only weigh you down. ” Jin Yang Cheol

“I know he wouldn’t hesitate to sell me if he could buy Soonyang. If he tramples all over me to go forward, there will be nothing he can’t do. Only then can he protect Soonyang.” Jin Yang Cheol

“Being born a servant was not my choice. But I could choose the owner to serve.” Jin Yang Cheol's secretary

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Complicated with good moments and plotholes

I wish I could say I was enthralled with this series like so many others but something kept me from falling in love with it. One of the main reasons was not being able to understand every single business/political element to the story and there is plenty of it which is what adds to the thrill. So if you cannot completely comprehend some of those "wins", it gives a very dull effect. Something the writers should have considered and tried to explain or simplify. You can still enjoy the show. Just not to the full effect.

Best moments:
1. There are many shocking moments and revelations that you can't anticipate and were enjoyable.
2. The fantasy element that adds a twist and is a major part of the story.
3. The relationship between Do Jun and his grandfather were truly some of the best moments.
4. The way Do Jun makes his way through the hurdles armed with the knowledge of his past life.
5. Seeing the Jin family fail and fight amongst themselves was amusing.

Not so great moments:
1. No one noticing that Yoon Hyun Woo and Jin Do Jun look EXACTLY alike.
2. Not being able to understand some of the "lingo" fully.
3. Do Jin ignoring his family after his real mother's death even when he could have.
4. The romance is practically non-existent and although I would not care otherwise, it feels like they built up a story for no reason.
5. The conclusion. Part of it does not make sense. You are rooting for a character and in the end, everything feels a bit bland and unsatisfactory.

Up until the 14th episode my rating was 8.5 for this show. I'm changing that now to a 7.5 based on the last episode. I am not likely to rewatch this show but it's a decent show. There are plenty of good reasons to watch it.

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You won’t be disappointed!

This was an excellent drama. It was both well written and executed. Let me explain why I say this.

The premise was intriguing: it was a revenge plot, but with a time travel supernatural twist. I’m already drawn to revenge dramas, and this new twist made it irresistible.

The pace was smooth. There seemed to be no draggy saggy middles or in betweens. It was very engaging, and kept you wanting more, like a book you can’t put down.

The story was enjoyable. There were funny parts, and yes, some unbelievable parts also; sometimes I did feel like the supporting characters were over the top, but it wasn’t enough to detract from the story. The chemistry between the grandfather and the main character was very nuanced: often charming, but guarded and adversarial at times. There were also compelling sad parts, that made you feel so sympathetic and indignant right along with the characters. The story was also cohesive and flowed nicely. It wasn’t predictable either, and made you think.

The characters were varied and interesting. I enjoyed getting to know each of the characters, and the writers delivered a satisfying “biography” for each of the main characters. This wasn’t a drama that suffered from too many main characters that are never fully developed and leave you in confusion.

The main characters were fully developed, and that is what makes a drama for me! I love characters that are fully fleshed out and three dimensional. I loved our main guy, in both his lives. His relationships were so rich. I loved how he interacted with the female lead, and I really enjoyed her character also! It wasn’t overly romantic, but had enough to give you something to root for. Mr. Oh was also a great character, he brought both adventure and gravity to the table. My favorite character, besides Song Joon Ki’s was Grandpa! He was intriguing, and incredibly nuanced.

The cast was top notch. Their acting was outstanding, and they worked so well together. So I guess this also means that the directing was great too!

Try this drama! You won’t be disappointed!

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At the end, the fantasy element disappeared.

[Spoilers ahead] The drama started off well with a compelling story and amazing acting from the actors. A hardworking servant (ML) who simply follows conglomerate family orders without questioning them.

In a turn of event, murder attempt was made against the ML who went to withdraw money from foreign account. that is when the fantasy kicked in and the same employee(ML) was born as the "Youngest Son of the Conglomerate".

In an attempt to take revenge for his death ML decided to take over("buy") the Sunyang Group and punish whoever tried to murder him.

The Story progressed well until the 15th episode. But in the Last episode everything changed. The Fantasy element vanished into thin air. ML wakes up as an same old, hardworking employee who blindly follows orders and decides to fight for justice.

A number of loopholes exist in the story.

1. The money was donated to the public before Do Jun died. Then why was the money still available for the ML to withdraw as an employee of Sonyoung?
2. Was ML just imagining being the youngest grandson of a conglomerate? So where is fantasy?
3. "Survivor of car accident" is more believable than "survivor of head shots and falling off cliffs to sea". (is that was the Fantasy? not sure 😊)

Pros:

+ Amazing cinematography and acting.
+ The drama reminds many of significant moments in history such as Korea's football victory, Y2K, the terrorist attack on the US, and the incident involving the IMF.
+ Except for the last episode, good story and execution.
+ Do Jun and His Grandfather Duo was Great.
+ Grandfather's acting was top notch and some scenes were emotional.

Cons
- The romance was not well suited to the storyline.
- FL was boring and sometimes annoying.
- The ending was not satisfactory.
- Title "Reborn Rich" didn't make any sense after completing drama.

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The best K drama of this genre ever seen

I mean what's not to like from casting to acting to the story it was so awesome I mean I seeing the main leads shows from decendents of the sun and he has knack of choosing so good scripts which are based on the personality of the character and can be perfect if a good actor is choosen I mean whenever the ML won something I also laughed evily with him I like these types where you have so much twist and turns that laugh in shock that how did it Changed like this 😂 in the most episodes i was laughing like that. But the ending was not satisfying as I expected I mean it did justice and solved all the mysteries there were but it's just cliche of me thinking as a typical k drama where the ML gets everything and his love 💕

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What a surprise that was!

Will start with the story
Very gripping and new to me (and I’m a filmoman!) - and surprisingly, it felt fresh and new. I didn’t see the twist with the second car crash coming. The way the story came together in ep15 was brilliant.
Slightly cheesy romantic end, but they made it very quick and lasted the only 5mins at the end of ep16, so easily digestible.
Acting -absolutely fabulous! Tight, on point and beautiful delivered. I’d have loved to see more behind the scenes and enjoy the process!
I hope all of them are paid well - some supporting actors played the same charecters I’ve seen them play before , but as the back line was so busy, this didn’t spoil the joy of watching.
If there is something that annoyed me, was the SJK outfits - I mean who was in charge of these??
Apart from that, concentrating on their faces, and you will be taken for a great ride!

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Episode 1 to 15 is rated 10/10 but Episode 16 is 1/10

This drama is great. Very exciting and compelling from episode 1 to 15 you will get hooked until the last episode that ruin everything. They should have made the Hyun Woo suffer the consequence in the end. That Do Joo, what a poor guy. He did nothing wrong but still die in the end, while Hyun Woo run free, without consequence. And why they are look alike, not explained properly.

I was planning to rewatch it after last episode but after watching the last episode, ahh nevermind. there are other upcoming and ongoing dramas that is good also. I just have to ask, why why why is the ending like that. I felt rob on my time and effort watching this. Well at least I had to commend the acting and music which are all great, 10/10 infact. And as I said its 10/10 from episode 1 to 15. I will never forget this drama because of the ending LOL

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The Ending is Understandable but Underwhelming

Overall, it was a solid drama. I think the only reason why I was a bit underwhelmed by the ending was that the build-up throughout the drama was crazy. I loved the first 12 episodes so so much. I was hooked because I am a b**** for anti-hero plots. I love any story where the main character gets their revenge on the people that looked down on them, and this was exactly the drama that hit those points.

I also love the transmigration genre. I love reading transmigration manhwas, so seeing how this genre was made into a drama with Song Joong Ki... I was sold.

Song Joong Ki sure knows how to pick a good drama. His acting in this one is phenomenal as per usual. He is so expressive and eloquent, which makes every scene so much better. His chemistry with Lee Sung Min was also amazing. They were such a powerful grandfather-grandson duo.

The romance for a bit unnecessary to be honest. This is coming from a person that watches 90% romance dramas. I feel like Do Jun would have been better(?) off focusing on revenge rather than love. This was the one criticism I had with this drama.

As stated in the title of this review, the ending was understandable. I actually did get goosebumps when I finally realized the truth behind the drama and the Hyun Woo/Do Jun situation. I just feel like for how powerful the plot was in the beginning and middle-- the ending was a mood-dropper. Not in a bad way, but it just felt out of place. However, I do hope that people who were disappointed with the ending understand why everything happened the way it did (refer back to Hyun Woo's revelation in the last episode).

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I Hate-Love it

This drama had it all but then blew it at the same time. Everyone had an issue with the ending but for me it was everything else but the ending. There are so many loopholes that made my brain hurt. Whereas the ending I thought was apt for this drama and did justice to the one who needed it the most. Jin Do Jun.


I thought of dropping this drama at episode 10 and checked all the comments here and saw how most of them was angry about the ending. I saw the spoilers and reading from them I had the anger was justifiable. I still went ahead thinking I don't want to quit at episode 10 and see it to the end and but once I was done with this drama I realized this ending was what would have made sense for every other loopholes and unexplained incidents this drama had throughout.

It makes perfect sense that Hyeon Woo ended up in Do Jun's body. HW had the front row seat of having to relive Do Jun's entire life, full fill his dream of being a CEO and fall in love, for all of it to be destroyed by his real self. So it was fated for and karma for Hyeon Woo to feel that angst and loss... and then to wake up to realizes what he had been a part of. This drama was never about Hyeon Woo embarking on revenge for the betrayal but rather for Jin Do Jun getting his justice after 20 years.

And it also made perfect sense that Hyeon Woo never ending up with Min Young or disclosing his secret because as he said to her when he was Do Jun, he never deserved her and he knows that he never will. So I am glad that they never gave them the happily ever after.

This drama would have been amazing if it was a tight script but that is wishful thinking in dramaland. I really enjoyed the Lee Seung Min's performance as Chairman Jin... Song Joong Ki and him was a treat to watch onscreen and that was what made me get through this drama. His characters death did make me give it up but just had to see the infamous ending.

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review that has to be 500 words

A wonderful and exciting series and song joongki did a amazing job at playing his role and all of the cast as well did an amazing job but the ending is questionable and thus the reason why overall I gave it a 9.5. There was many moments that just made my heart break and there’s not that much shows that can do that. But once again, I must say that the ending is definitely a ending that’s very controversial.

The writers definitely had guts to finish the show with such an ending. But nevertheless, you should watch the show as the cast work very hard to make the storyline come to life and it was a very fun experience watching and waiting for each episode to come out

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Started off strong and left me with a meh feeling, but overall, okay.

I picked up Reborn Rich because of Song Joong Ki, I loved him in Vincenzo and I will admit the trailer is pretty good. I should preface and say that I’m usually a rom-com kind of gal or a romance melo-drama. I don’t usually pick up dramas that are theme around scheming, taking-down-the-“man” or rich verse poor kind of storyline, but I do watch those shows depending on the casting (i.e. Itaewon class).

I’m glad I watched this drama as it aired because after the first 6 episodes, I’m not sure I could binge watch Reborn Rich. The show is very intense, a lot of up and downs.

The casting was on-point for the drama. It’s a large cast, but everyone played their role very well and you kind of needed all the husbands / wives, aunties / uncles and cousins. It really gave the storyline some depth and a lot of characters to play with.

I liked that it was a historical kind of show, set in the 90’s. I’m 100% the target audience for this drama (late 30 year old). I understood all the major events that took place and I’m a finance major, so the financial part of the drama was my jam and I really enjoyed watching those parts.

I liked the relationship between the Jin Do Joon (ML) and Jin Yang Cheol (the grandfather) the best! Those were probably the best moments of the show. I also liked that the cover focused on these two characters because it truly was the heart of the show.

The romance aspect of the show is (I’m afraid to say) a major joke and shouldn’t have been written in. It was very awkward and cringy, which is sad to say because I love romance dramas.

I found the beginning a little intense and over-the-top, but I get it, it sets the stage on how awful the family is. Once the ML got into his role and the story began, I really enjoyed it. It felt like the underdog was going to get his day and each episode was another obstacle the ML was going to overcome.

Towards the end, I felt like the show was dragging a bit and a lot of things unraveling became tiresome to watch. It felt like there wasn’t any movement and the ML was just hitting brick wall after brick wall, let’s just say a lot of actors were yelling in their scenes.

And then you get the ending, where you will read A LOT of mixed reviews. I will say, this show is artsy and I understand why the actor picked this script, on paper, it sounds really interesting and cool, but to me, it felt a little anti-climatic and you wondered, was the drama worth watching?

I can’t answer that. I gave the drama a 9 rating, because, I did overall, liked most of the drama. I enjoyed the casting and the sets and costumes were really cool. I loved that it took place in the past and the storyline was centered around finances. I’m just not sure how the drama concluded everything, it was a little lack-luster in my opinion.

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