Honestly I'm quite surprised by the implication that so many Koreans feel that Samsung's corporate history IS Korea's history. That this is it. The country is Samsung and any tour through the country's modern history is entirely the story of this one corporation.

@leetennant

Samsung's corporate history IS Korea's history.

Gaus Electronics neatly parodied this worshipful view of conglomerate origins. I'm sure Samsung's corporate masters and their apologists would love to sell the idea that corporation = country and both deserve uncritical loyalty, just as Ford, General Electric, and IBM did in the US at various times. I'm equally sure there are plenty of Koreans who aren't buying it.

Samsung is the most widely held stock by South Koreans.

The Korea Herald reported that the number of South Koreans who are 19 and below and hold shares in Samsung Electronics reached 358,257 in December 2021, a record high, according to the Korea Securities Depository.

That number accounts for 7.07 percent of all shareholders and 0.25 percent of the total shares the tech giant has issued. The shares the teenagers held at the time amounted to 1.1 trillion won ($891 million).

I admit that I had not thought that Soonyang was a one to one analogue for Samsung, and that part of the appeal of the show would be picking out who was supposed to be who, although I figured that Lee Sung-min was playing a version of Lee Byung-chul. But are the others in the family actually representative of Samsung heirs/heiresses? I guess I'm arguing they are caricatures of themselves, then!

Regardless, I return to my original point that everyone loves epic stories of the rich and powerful but usually more for the dynamics of relationships and ego, whereas this show really does seem to be more about whether our hero can remember which dot com went bust at what time and at what share price. It is a pretty impressive ability he has to recall these details, though, so maybe the show is pulling in an audience of day traders!

I think some of the appeal might lie not in just watching the financial matters but in comparing those issues with the real-life events.

There's an article from The Korea Herald that points out some similarities between the financial choices made by Soonyang and Samsung. Some parts of the story pan out just as they did in history while some are wish-fulfilment (like the success of Soonyang Motors).

Here for reference - https://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20221213000573

They even have an actress marrying into the family. I thought of Go Hyun-jung when they introduced Do Jun's mother.

Thanks @miso2019 and @kiara, this was very interesting and informative!

I am avidly watching this not because of the hero's ability to "predict the future". It was after all the plot premise already so what is the surprise about that? I am definitely entertained by the comeuppance theme and I applaud the performance of the veteran actors here. Interestingly, a month before this show started, I stumbled upon a video essay on YT headlined as South Korea: Republic of Samsung. That video was not a favorable view of Samsung but it did help me connect with the so-called parallels in RR.

Good point about how the 'son" is likely to react. He also has his 'adoptive' mom to rely upon as well.

I doubt that Sorim would restrain her guy- remember that she is the ultimate UnCandy- restraint is the one thing she does not do. I see her joining in with him: He can turn one wheel of the rack while she turns the other (after all, they are soulmates you know). This could be really fun. Maybe his friend- our ML's aunt- could step in to keep this pair from actually murdering the Ex.

🤣That is so true I totally forgot she was fighting with her current sister in law, her brother’s ex and her own sister at various times in the drama.