A Really Bad Girl

Programs

If you're looking for a Korean musical with a thought-provoking theme, check out A Really Bad Girl, written and directed by Jung Gu-jin, who also wrote and directed Hangover. The latter is a comic detective thriller that premiered in 2014 and has been a steady seller ever since.
A Really Bad Girl is a crime thriller with zero “comedy.” The story begins when Lee Mu-gil, a suspect in the murder of famous actress Hwang Ji-hee, meets Kim An-na, a cold-blooded lawyer with a 100%-win rate. He threatens her to prove his innocence by telling her that he kidnapped her daughter, Kim Yo-ah. But after he is acquitted in the first trial, the story becomes more and more labyrinthine as Yo-ah's hidden history is revealed.
Mu-gil and An-na, her daughter Yo-ah, and Hwang Ji-hee, and a boy rapper who loves Yo-ah. Which of these five characters is telling the truth? How evil and despicable are people when it comes to lust and greed? Some of the scenes contain triggering elements such as profanity, drugs, and gaslighting to take a serious look at human nature. Unlike the play that premiered in 2022, the 2024 version has been reimagined as a musical. The musical numbers that tell the story of the main characters are another attraction of the production.