K-drama Decoy: Jang Keun-suk, Squid Game’s Heo Sung-tae star in sombre but unconvincing mash-up of con artist and murder thrillers
- Heo Sung-tae, in his first leading role following his appearance in Squid Game, stars in Decoy as a con man and Jang Keun-suk is the detective on his case
- The series by Kim Hong-sun is cleanly put together but unremarkable; Jang’s character is thinly sketched and some plays at eliciting audience sympathy are crude
The emotional devastation of scams and the rush of the serial killer thriller combine in K-drama Decoy – formerly known as The Bait.
Like many Korean thrillers, Decoy – available to stream on Viu – begins with a stylised nighttime sequence as a voice-over gives us the lay of the land. The voice-over tells us that 200,000 cases of fraud, involving over three trillion won (US$2.4 billion) in stolen funds, are recorded every year in South Korea.
Heo, in his first leading role following his appearance in Squid Game, plays No Sang-cheon, a swindler who has amassed a fortune by promising untold riches to investors through his Bigs Network, a gigantic Ponzi scheme.
He first appears, in a flashy suit and with slicked-back hair, on stage during a presentation that is designed to whip his audience of investors into a frenzy.
