Capital Ratio
Back for its follow-up episode, this financially charged drama returns with a deeper plot and cracks beginning to form in Heo’s character. Although the show suffers from some really slow pacing and the opening 20 minutes do little to really drive this one forward, the tense finish is just enough to keep you coming back for more. Much like fellow TvN drama Black Dog, Money Game feels in danger of meandering through its plot and losing viewers if it keeps up this slow pacing. Episode 2 of Money Game begins with Yi-Hun heading into work while Heo scrambles away from the park and begins walking down the street while researching Byung-Hak online and seeing what the news have to say about him. He then heads out for dinner where he eats broth and thinks over what happened. Meanwhile, the FSC arrive at the bank, keeping everyone on their toes. Yi-Hun receives a text from the police though and hurries off to answer it. As he does, he rushes to the morgue where he sees the dead body of Byung-Hak and questions what happened, given the story of him falling to his death. As a sign of respect, he puts his sock on the body of his Father and weeps. Soon after, the University honour his memory too including Hae who has a cut across his hand that concerns Yi-Hun. For now though, they both bow for one another infront of the flowers before Heo covers his cut hand and tells him he didn’t know Byung-Hak was his Father. Maxed out from bank loans and contemplating a new business venture, Jin Soo-Ho discusses borrowing money from a loan shark with Nam-Jin. Unfortunately Hye-Joon becomes wise to what’s going on and offers financial advise to her Aunt who sobs and cries as she learns she’s broke. Back home she and Soo-Ho get into a fight over their debt. Meanwhile at the Ministry Of Economics, the group discuss the upcoming FOMC meeting. They talk about the fluctuating interest rates and try to find a solution to make more money and stabilize themselves. Given the foreign exchange market, Hye-Joon pipes up and suggests trading with England given the pound has stabilized after the Brexit issue in 2016. After some heated debate, Hye-Joon tells them she can draw up a report in 2 days with the benefits of going ahead with this. However, she’s called into a meeting afterwards and berated for her behaviour and talking back to a superior. Meanwhile at the Financial Services Commission, Chairman Heo looks over a file discussing future plans of the bank before sitting with him in his office. He immediately asks about the professor though and after learning they didn’t have a close relationship, he tells Yi-Hun about the plans surrounding foreign banks and bending the law. While a secret meeting with Shannon takes place, Hye-Joon’s hard work in creating the report about the currency swap results in nothing as she finds it screwed up and thrown in the bin. The next day, Yi-Hun tries to find Chairman Heo and messages him, asking if he’s looked over the revised plans yet. When he doesn’t receive an answer, he goes looking while learning a press conference is about to begin with the General Director. Having a bad feeling, Yi-Hun asks to check the capital ratio reports as he suspects foul play, especially after his words about potentially fabricating facts. Hye-Joon is given the cold shoulder at work until her boss receives an urgent call and asks her for the report again. The press conference begins and the director talks about selling the bank and how the stock transaction will have to stop immediately. To add to the drama they learn the buyer may be a domestic or international entity. As he mentions the capital ratio, Yi-Hun interjects and gives them the real figures that causes anarchy to descend on the press as they gasp and try to make sense of what’s happening. Director Na allows Hye-Joon to send the report over but as she looks over the file on his computer she sees the name has been changed. Hye-Joon scoffs and quickly changes the name back until she remembers what she heard about water flowing from her superior. Sighing, she regretfully keeps it at the incorrect name. As she sends it over, she noticed a file about the capital ratio and immediately looks through the figures, where she sees it’s at 9.3% and prints the file out. As she does, Heo tells Yu-Hin not to challenge him and as they talk, the discussion becomes incredibly heated, leading to Heo telling Yu-Hin to stand down. He looks him square in the face and tells him he won’t do it as the episode comes to a close. For anyone interested in finances or country economics, Money Game is well worth checking out. There’s a lot of interesting content here regarding banks and interest rates but unless you’re fully invested in this industry, there isn’t a whole lot else here to recommend. The contrived drama surrounding Chae Byung-Hak feels like a superficial way to build the rivalry between Heo and Yu-Hin and it’s a blemish on an otherwise organic rivalry brewing between the two. Of course, Hye-Joon is the wildcard here and will undoubtedly cause chaos going forward but there just isn’t a whole lot else here worth getting excited about. This could be a sleeper hit though and potentially explode into life later on but right now the slow pacing is hurting the prospects of this one.
