[비즈한국] 'You Killed Him' has reached No. 1 on Netflix globally. Since its release on November 7, its ranking climbed steadily, and as of the 11th, it hit the top spot in 21 countries (based on the OTT ranking aggregation site FlixPatrol). It is not new for a Korean Netflix original series to receive global acclaim. However, it is worth examining why this particular work captured the world's interest. 'You Killed Him' is a crime thriller about domestic violence and the solidarity of women. While one might wonder why a story about domestic violence is relevant in 2025, it struck a chord.
There is a daughter who grew up watching her father commit domestic violence for years while her mother endured the abuse. Whenever the violence erupted, the young daughter would grab her younger sibling's hand and hide in the closet. Even after the daughter becomes an adult, her mother continues to live with the abuse, while the daughter remains paralyzed by long-standing guilt and helplessness, unable to take proper action. Jo Eun-soo (Jeon So-nee), a VIP service employee at a department store, has lived exactly like that. Although she learns jiu-jitsu to firmly respond to someone's violence, she has never actually put it into practice.
Jo Hee-soo (Lee You-mi) is the friend who stood by Eun-soo’s side when she was suffering from trauma related to domestic violence during their school days. When Eun-soo caused a scene at school after witnessing a sight similar to her mother’s attempted suicide by a fluttering curtained window, it was Hee-soo who gave her a warm embrace. As an adult, Hee-soo became a children’s book author and a full-time housewife after marrying No Jin-pyo (Jang Seung-jo), a capable husband who rose to the position of assistant branch manager at an investment brokerage firm. Her mother-in-law is Go Jeong-sook (Kim Mi-sook), a socially prominent feminist scholar, and her sister-in-law, No Jin-young (Lee Ho-jung), is a promising police officer slated for a deployment to the Blue House. Yet, Hee-soo is unhappy. Every night, she lives while being terribly abused by her husband.
Why does Hee-soo stay and endure the abuse? As a children’s book author, she was once promising enough to attend the Bologna Children's Book Fair. Even if she weren't an author, isn't this a world where one could at least make a living working part-time at a convenience store? However, Hee-soo’s reality is not that simple. When she decides to run away abroad, her husband, Jin-pyo, finds her mother, whom he had stashed away in a nursing home, and pressures her to return by inflicting brutal violence. With her mother being used as a hostage, what can she do? She tried to report it to the police, but her sister-in-law, Jin-young, whom she happened to encounter, subtly threatened her by telling her to pretend she didn't know anything, saying, "If you handle domestic violence wrong, you could be sued for false accusation." Before long, for Hee-soo, the only thing that mattered was not getting beaten tonight, or at least getting beaten one less time. It is perfect gaslighting.
Once Eun-soo discovers Hee-soo’s situation, she steps in. Eun-soo is already filled with guilt for ignoring a department store VIP client who committed suicide after suffering from domestic violence. With a word from Jin So-baek (Lee Moo-saeng), the representative of Jin-gang Trading who became close to her by chance, she makes a decision: to kill Hee-soo’s husband together. By chance or sheer luck, they meet Jang-gang (Jang Seung-jo, dual role), an illegal immigrant who looks exactly like No Jin-pyo, at Jin So-baek’s trading company. They hatch a plan to manipulate him into pretending to be No Jin-pyo and leaving for China, while they kill the real No Jin-pyo and dispose of him without anyone knowing.
The drama shows with nail-biting tension how Eun-soo and Hee-soo’s plans—which seem perfect but are actually riddled with flaws—fail and take unexpected turns. However, evaluating 'You Killed Him' as a thriller, it is hard to give it a high score. The plot is clumsy, the probability is low, and the character relationships are questionable. In particular, it is difficult to understand why Jo Eun-soo, who contemplates murder for a friend, ignores her own mother, and the relationship between Jo Eun-soo and Jin So-baek is also baffling.
Nevertheless, if there is an interesting part of this drama, it lies in Hee-soo’s in-laws: her mother-in-law, Go Jeong-sook, and sister-in-law, No Jin-young. No Jin-young is a character who not only ignores the fact that her sister-in-law is being abused but actively covers it up, fearing that her brother’s marital issues might harm her own career. For Jin-young, who aims to become the Commissioner General of the Korean National Police Agency after graduating from the National Police University, what matters most is her imminent entry into the Blue House as a secretary. She is a person who wouldn't care even if her brother died as long as she successfully enters the Blue House; her cold demeanor in the beginning of the drama as she threatens Hee-soo while stating reality is chilling because it feels like there are many people in real life who would say such things.
Go Jeong-sook is even more terrible in a different sense. Popular socially, having held over 1,000 lectures, Go Jeong-sook tells victims of domestic violence in her lectures to find courage. Yet, whenever she sees her daughter-in-law covered in bruises, she asks if she fell again, completely ignoring the truth. The way she even implies that abused women are somewhat responsible is the typical look of a "misogynist woman." When her son goes missing, she is frantic and pressures her daughter-in-law, but when she sees Hee-soo appear with a bandage on her forehead and beams with joy asking if her son has returned, you realize there is no greater devil than her.
One might wonder about the existence of domestic violence in 2025, but if you think about it, the reality is still a gutter. Just look at the news about women being beaten and murdered in what is commonly called "dating violence." The number of reports on dating violence and stalking is increasing every year. Even when a victim bravely reports it, the process until the perpetrator is punished is grueling, and in the meantime, the victim often suffers secondary victimization from society questioning whether they were a "real victim." If the response to violence is so defenseless even between strangers before marriage, what would it be like once they are bound together under the name of family? Just like No Jin-young says in the drama, there is so much tacit pressure that "family matters should be handled within the family." Even according to the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family’s 2022 'Study on the Actual State of Domestic Violence,' 19.6% of respondents answered "somewhat" or "very much" to the item, "Domestic violence is partly the victim's responsibility."
'You Killed Him' is based on the novel 'Naomi and Kanako' by Hideo Okuda. The original work, which well displays Okuda’s signature cynical humor, was published in 2015. It is sad that the reality it depicts remains just as valid 10 years later, even when adapted into a drama. It is worth reflecting on whether society is responsible for the murder committed by Eun-soo and Hee-soo, and whether our indifferent gaze is responsible for the domestic violence happening in reality right now. Perhaps the reason this drama reached No. 1 globally is because of that sense of responsibility we all share.
Star Rating ★★☆
The message in the title is piercing, but the thrill of a thriller drama is missing.
Who is the writer, Jung Soo-jin?
I have covered and written about films, travel, and pop culture across various magazines. I don't want to fall behind trends, but I have become an "old person" who watches the latest dramas only to predict the obvious clichés in the next scene. While drifting through the vast world of OTT, I am trying to recover my lost intuition, and my only wish right now is for an integrated OTT subscription plan.