A Killer Paradox<\/span>, Netflix<\/a>\u2018s first big K-drama release of 2024, starts with the kind of annoying interaction that anyone who\u2019s ever worked in customer service can relate to.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n What should have been a quiet night shift at a local corner shop turns into an actual nightmare when a rude old man starts making ridiculous demands of Lee Tang (Choi Woo-shik), a regular uni student who\u2019s just trying to get by. <\/span><\/p>\n Thankfully, a colleague shows up to defuse the situation, except a new argument then erupts between him and Lee after the old man\u2019s gone home. It\u2019s during the heat of this exchange that Lee suddenly loses it and hits him in the head with a hammer.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n OK, maybe not <\/span>everyone<\/span><\/i> who\u2019s ever worked in customer service can relate, but you can see where we\u2019re coming from.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Wracked with guilt over the man\u2019s death, Lee considers turning himself in and even taking his own life until a news report reveals that his victim was actually a dangerous serial killer who arguably deserved everything he got.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n That\u2019s just the start of it, though. A witness shows up, demanding money or she\u2019ll go to the police, which is far from ideal because a relentless detective named Jang Nan-gam is on the case, and he has no plans to let this go until the person behind the murder is brought to justice.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n So begins a cat-and-mouse chase between Lee and Jang that takes you to some truly wild places that you\u2019d genuinely never expect \u2014 that is, unless you\u2019ve read the award-winning Naver webtoon the show is based on.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Read more:<\/strong><\/p>\n To bring Kkomabi\u2019s darkly comic story to life, Netflix enlisted screenwriter Kim Da-min and director Lee Chang-Hee, a filmmaker best known for a movie named The Vanished, and an equally intense series called Hell is Other People. <\/span><\/p>\n Those projects are in good company with A Killer Paradox, which goes to some pretty dark places, too, as the body count begins to rack up.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Bloody, gory moments are interspersed throughout in a realistic manner, yet it\u2019s the more surreal, dream-like scenes that will chill viewers most. <\/span><\/p>\n Chang-Hee makes creative use of Lee\u2019s nightmares and hallucinations, alternating between disturbing imagery and sunny, well-lit daytime scenarios that reimagine each murder from our so-called hero\u2019s perspective.<\/span><\/p> These sequences in particular really stand out in a genre that\u2019s overcrowded with plenty of far less imaginative takes on murder, especially from a visual standpoint.<\/span><\/p>\n Narratively speaking, A Killer Paradox plays with genre, too, by shifting into another beast entirely at the halfway mark, four episodes in. <\/span><\/p>\n To say much more here would be to spoil quite how unhinged this show becomes, but just know that Lee\u2019s initial guilt over these seemingly random murders transforms into something else entirely, bringing elements of noir, comedy and even fantasy into what starts off as just a (somewhat unconventional) psychological thriller.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Twists like this live or die on the cast\u2019s ability to keep up and make us believe in the ride they\u2019ve been asked to take us on. Thankfully, Woo-shik excels in the starring role of Lee, who\u2019s just as convincing as a student slacker as he is a tortured hero or hardened vigilante, no matter where Da-min\u2019s script takes him. <\/span><\/p>\n Following parts in Train to Busan, Okja and the Oscar-winning Parasite, A Killer Paradox will further cement Woo-shik\u2019s international career beyond his native Korean borders.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Lee\u2019s nemesis, Detective Nan-gam, is played by Son Suk-ku, who viewers might recognise from Netflix\u2019s Sense8, DP and Designated Survivor: 60 Days. His character is haunted by death as well, but in a very different way to Lee, and his charm plays well on the mirrored cat-and-mouse dynamic that serial killer stories like this love to channel.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n
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