A Model Family is a South Korean thriller series directed by Kim Jin-woo. It depicts the story of the Park family, whose frantic search for safety and survival attracts the interest of a drug dealer. A mild-mannered assistant professor named Park Dong-ha (Woo Jung) sacrifices the funds his family had established for his son’s medical expenses in order to get a full-time teaching position. Dong-ha is about to go bankrupt. His wife is willing to leave him, severing the relationship with her family forever. On his way home one night, he comes across a truck loaded with two dead bodies and a large sum of cash. Dong-ha then hides the cash, buries the victims in his yard, and abandons the truck. However, because he is not a career criminal, his actions quickly attract criminals and police to his area.
Although “A Model Family” is mostly about the parks, it also provides an honest portrait of Seoul’s seedy underbelly. If you’re wondering if the events of “A Model Family” are based on real events, don’t worry; we have you covered.
No, the plot of “A Model Family” is not based on a true story. Lee Jae’s writing served as the basis for the creation of the television series. The purpose of the series, according to Kim Jin-woo, is to challenge the idea of the ideal family. At the JW Marriott Dongdaemun Square Seoul in eastern Seoul, he said in an interview with the Korea JoongAng Daily: “The meaning of the word ‘model’ is provided by others based solely on its external appearances. People frequently use the word to characterize people without really understanding their most intimate feelings or situations. The word is irresponsible in certain respects.
Families serve as a microcosmic representation of our society in the minds of humans due to our hardwired nature. As a result, the idea is glorified even though we are aware from personal experience that every family experiences sadness, trauma, and sometimes even dark secrets. We cannot be preformed or know in advance how to create a family; it’s something we’re inherently born into, Kim continued. In particular, our local culture has a distinctive social stigma about what constitutes a family and the characteristics of an ideal family. He hoped that seeing the narrative of the Dong family, people from Ha would consider how those two words can actually be defined.
A Model Family’s premise, if not its execution, is similar to that of Netflix’s crime drama series “Ozark,” starring Jason Bateman and Laura Linney and produced by Bill Dubuque and Mark Williams. Both shows feature an affair of the wife and a story involving the drug and money laundering industries.
Kim carefully avoided watching the other Netflix show because she knew people were comparing the script for “A Model Family” to the other show. Although I think the two series use comparable concepts, I haven’t watched the series until I heard those comments, she added. “I heard from people who read the script that [it is similar to] ‘Ozarks,’” he said. Then, because I thought it might have an unintended impact on me, I deliberately chose not to watch the series. It is obvious that “A model family” is not based on a real event. It is, however, quite understandable if someone thinks it is.