How much of life is defined by either choice or fate?
It is one of entertainment’s most enduring questions that creatives have tackled since time immemorial. We’d all like to believe that we have complete control over everything we say or do. And yet, the idea that some aspects of our lives are pre-destined adds mystery, wonder, and even terror into the mix that breaks up the day-to-day monotony.
The terror stemming from fate versus choice is one of the thematic drivers of A Bloody Lucky Day, a South Korean limited series that recently premiered on Paramount+ in the United States. The series follows Oh Taek (Lee Sung-min), a struggling taxi driver whose abnormally lucky day is disrupted when he inadvertently picks up a serial killer, Geum Hyeok-soo (Yoo Yeon-seok). Geum seems friendly enough, and the length of the trip would mean a massive payday for Oh Taek. Oh Taek eventually discovers Geum’s true identity as they drive, leaving the driver trapped in a tense, psychological battle for survival.
“We all make big and small choices every day,” said director Pil Gam-Sung in an interview with Geek Vibes Nation. “I wanted to ask the question: in this age where we are increasingly forced to choose evil, what kind of choices are we making? Are we making good choices?”
The tension between good and bad choices is central to Oh Taek and Geum’s unexpected and fraught dynamic. Several twists and turns come from Oh Taek’s ability to be quick on his feet against a ruthless killer and his willingness to be ruthless.
Gam-sung relates Oh Taek and Geum’s relationship to that of a dealer and player in a casino, albeit with some key differences. “The difference is that Geum Hyuk-soo acts as if he knows what hand Oh Taek will play, but the player who thought he was naive gradually starts to play a hand that the dealer did not predict.”
Gam-sung hopes that unpredictability will keep audiences on their toes. However, Gam-sung understood that his series needed balance in an impossibly fragmented entertainment landscape to achieve its near-limitless global potential.
“‘A Bloody Lucky Day’ is a suspenseful drama, but the writing team and I didn’t want to make the audience too tense and exhausted,” Gam-sung said. When structuring the series, he and his team “wanted to build up the mood with a psychological thriller, and then have a nice rhythm to it with sharp, intense bursts of action.” Also threading through the series is plenty of dark humor to counterbalance the explosive action and heady mind games. “The writing team and I both love comedy, so we tried to incorporate some black humor that didn’t clash with the show’s tone and manner.”
The complex mixing of genre and tone allows A Bloody Lucky Day, a story of “prediction and betrayal,” as Gam-sung puts it, to explore difficult questions about the human condition while entertaining audiences worldwide.
A Bloody Lucky Day is currently streaming on Paramount+.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7CoDdHtrNc]
A late-stage millennial lover of most things related to pop culture. Becomes irrationally irritated by Oscar predictions that don’t come true.
