The Killer’s Shopping List: Crime and Mystery Korean Drama

“The Killer’s Shopping List” is a crime and mystery Korean drama series released in 2022. It has 8 episodes. Episode 1 is slow-moving, so a viewer without patience would probably not continue watching it. But if you continue, the action picks up and the next 7 episodes keep your attention. This K-drama series is Thriller and Suspense, along with Crime and Mystery, with some threads of Comedy and Romance woven into the storyline.

PLOT SUMMARY: 

“The Killer’s Shopping List” can be summarized with just one line: Killers are people like everybody else and they go grocery shopping too!

A Genius Kid Catches a Counterfeiter

A man walks into a Dae-Sung Mart and tries to purchase goods with a counterfeit bill. Ahn Dae-Sung has an excellent memory and points out that several bills have the same serial numbers. He locks the man in the grocery store with his mother and runs to get the police. He wasn’t really thinking when he locked his mother inside the store with a criminal. Fortunately, his mother could take care of herself. By the time the police arrived, she had pretty much subdued the criminal. The counterfeiter goes to jail and everyone praises Ahn Dae-Sung for having such an excellent memory and calls him a genius.

The Counterfeiter Returns

After he was released from prison, the counterfeiter returned to take revenge. Even though he was a criminal and in the wrong, he blamed Ahn Dae-Sung and his mother for ruining his life. Ahn Dae-Sung walked into the store one night and caught the man trying to kill his mother. To defend her, he hit the man in the head and knocked him out. Both Ahn Dae-Sung and his mother panicked because they thought the man had died. The police officer on the scene found the man, injured but still alive, The officer did nothing to help the man and thought that maybe he should leave him to die.

The counterfeiter did not die. However, for years, Ahn Dae-Sung believed that he had killed a man. Yes, he was defending his mother but he was still traumatized. When he grew up and became an adult he could never pass the civil service exams. He was smart enough, but he just could not concentrate because his mind would keep reliving the night of the trauma and believed that he was a killer. He ended up working at the grocery store with his mom.

The Counterfeiter Returns Again!

Dae-Sung’s mother renamed her grocery store to MS Mart and continued on with business as usual. Murders of young women who lived alone had occurred in the neighborhood. Some of the evidence linked to the crimes were goods that had been purchased at MS Mart. The counterfeiter was still determined to get his revenge but this time he took a different approach. He tried to frame Ahn Dae-Sung for murder.

The police investigators were not easily deceived. Ahn Dae-Sung was not charged with the murders based on the counterfeiter’s word as a witness. However, the police did become suspicious and started following Ahn Dae-Sung around. For some reason, he always seemed to show up at the crime scenes. It was clear that the killer had purchased items from MS Mart. The killer had a shopping list, so Ahn Dae-Sung began analyzing the shopping lists of not only the customers but the employees as well. One of them had to be the killer. Trying to conduct his own investigation was kind of complicated because:

• the counterfeiter kept trying to frame him for the crimes, and
• the police considered him the main suspect and kept following him.

Ahn Dae-Sung knew he was not the killer. But who was the killer? The main clue is The Killer’s Shopping List.

Main Characters:

• Ahn Dae-Sung played by Lee Kwang-Soo (“Dong Yi”)
• Do A-Hee played by Seol Hyun (“My Country: The New Age”)
• Han Myung-Sook played by Jin Hee-Kyung
• Seo Yool played by Ahn Se-Bin (“Narco Saints”; “Unlock My Boss”)
• Oh Cheon-Won played by Jang Won-Young

Where to Watch

Viewership and Rating:

• IMDb Rating: 7 out of 10 stars
• My Drama List: 8.1 out of 10 stars
• Drama Beans: 7.3 out of 10 stars
• Viki viewers rated this series 9.3 out of 10 stars

I agree with the Viki rating. Some K-drama viewers complain that writers stretch the storyline by including “fillers” that are unnecessary. They do it to stretch out the series to include more episodes, but most of those scenes could be eliminated. Viewers can’t complain like that about “The Killer’s Shopping List”. The scriptwriters packed a lot of stuff into just 8 short episodes and touched on a variety of social issues, societal problems, and prejudice. Also, the cast of characters were perfect for the roles they played.

Links of Interest:

• “The Killer’s Shopping List” Ends On Its Highest Ratings Yet … | Soompi
• Lee Kwang Soo Positively Considering to Join the Star Studded K-Drama “Open Murder Contract” | MyDramaList

TRAILERS/TEASERS:

CJ ENM Global. “The Killer’s Shopping List | Official Trailer | CJ ENM.” YouTube, 19 Aug. 2023, www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Rq8lPwGpX4. ‌