‘A Bloody Lucky Day’ is a twisting game of cat and mouse

A cheerful Korean cab driver picks up his last fare for the night, unaware that his new passenger just might be his final fare ever.

Yoo Yeon-seok (left) and Lee Sung-min in 'A Bloody Lucky Day'. Credit: Paramount

Oh Taek (Lee Sung-min) is convinced that today is shaping up to be a good day. His morning might have begun with a surreal nightmare involving faceless policemen and a stampede of pigs, but he believes if you look beyond the dream’s surface – which is that he lost his family, faced some serious court charges, and basically had his life ruined – you’ll find the real meaning: pigs are lucky. Time to buy a lotto ticket!

Sadly, for him at least, A Bloody Lucky Day is not a series about the day a cab driver won the lottery. In fact, his luck has just run out, though it takes a while for the true nature of what he’s about to face to make itself known. What is clear right from the start is that Oh Taek is, and let’s be honest here, a bit of a chump.

He’s good natured for sure, and as he races around town he clearly works hard. But people take advantage of him – the driver he shares the cab with always turns up late, cutting into his driving time – and after being scammed at his last job he’s got a massive debt to pay back. His wife has moved back to her family home, his two kids either refuse his calls or only ask for money to pay off their own debts, and when he gets a TV star in his back seat to film a segment, his sad sack story means it almost certainly won’t make it to air.

Things are about to get interesting for driver Oh Taek (Lee Sung-min). Credit: Paramount

Still, it could be worse. He’s having a busy day, so he’s making money. His wife is in town, and his attempts to show he’s changed are getting some traction with her. And it’s not like he’s picked up a serial killer who decides to tell his extremely bloody life story life story to him, with the promise that if Oh Taek tries to escape, his family will die in a very horrific fashion, right?

Uh oh.

At first Geum Hyuk-Soo (Yoo Yeon-seok) seems like a regular doctor who needs a long-distance ride and is happy to pay extra. It’s not until he’s in the cab and they’re on their way that he reveals the gory truth. The more he talks, the scarier he gets: after suffering a brain accident years ago, he no longer feels pain or fear. Which means he doesn’t have any of those pesky emotions to slow him down when it’s time to kill off someone that Oh Taek might be trying to get help from. Or anyone else that gets in his way.

Korean television has a knack for piling on the twists, and disposing of characters in surprising and often bloody fashion. So calling A Bloody Lucky Day just a thriller is a lot like calling Squid Game just a game show. Even if you think you know the broad strokes of where the series is heading, there’s a lot of developments you’re not going to see coming.

It’s not only that the plot is full of twists, though there are plenty of them and they’re all plotted out meticulously. There’s a strong supporting cast here too, notably Hwang Soon-kyoo (Parasite's Lee Jung-eun), a woman committed to tracking down her son’s killer (no surprise who that is), while as the story progresses we learn more about Oh Taek’s work buddy Go Joo-hwan (Choi Deok-moon) and meet Kim Joong-min (Jeong Man-sik), a detective determined to bring the killing spree to an end.

Lee Jung-eun plays a mother out to find her son's killer. Credit: Paramount

But this is the story of the struggle between Oh Taek and Geum Hyuk-Soo, and it’s no spoiler to reveal their cab ride develops into a game of cat and mouse that becomes a surprisingly epic and nuanced struggle between good and evil. What makes this more than a twisty clash of cliches isn’t just excellent performances from Yoo Yeon-seok and Lee Sung-min (though the chemistry between them definitely doesn’t hurt). It’s the way the series constantly digs deeper into both characters, revealing new facets of Geum Hyuk-Soo’s past even as the present is turning Oh Taek into someone he might not want to be.

The killer in his cab doesn’t just want to gloat, or skip town before the police grab him. He’s a master of traps and deception, always one step ahead when it comes to new ways to kill and torture. Being drawn into his world is being drawn into a nightmare, and for the gentle, warm-hearted Oh Taek, what he’s about to endure is likely to change him forever.

Physically, he might be able to find a way out of this hell. But the gentle, good-natured Oh Taek who bought a lottery ticket this morning out of hope for a better future? This may be a cab ride he’s never coming back from.

A Bloody Lucky Day is streaming at SBS On Demand.