“Tracer” ~ Committing Financial Fraud is Super Easy!

“Tracer” is a 2022 Korean drama series, with 2 seasons, 8 episodes per season, and can be categorized as Crime and Mystery, Legal and Revenge Drama.

♦ Why Did My Dad Do It?

In “Tracer”, the year is 2017, and Hwang Dong-Ju is a young boy sitting in the courtroom when his father is tried and sentenced for financial crimes. He does not understand why his father chose to put him and his mother through such misery. His father worked for a conglomerate, PQ Group, and it seems he reached a point where enough was enough. The father came forward by shining a spotlight on the conglomerate’s fraud and financial misdeeds. In the process, he sacrificed his family. At least, that’s how his actions looked to Hwang Dong-Ju who was angry and found it hard to forgive him.

When Hwang Dong-Ju grew up, he became an “accountant par excellence”. He was good, really good. He confronted his father and demanded to know why he couldn’t do the same thing. It was so easy to cover up fraud, illegal inheritances, and other financial crimes. He was creative in coming up with ways to bury the data. He learned all the “ins and outs” of burying and masking financial transactions. When his father had been released from prison, he confronted him again, asking why couldn’t he just keep his job and support his family. If Hwang Dong-Ju had only known those would be his last words to his father. The next thing he knew rescuers were lifting his father’s car out of the water and his father’s death was written off as a suicide.

♦ Time to Work For the Government

At the funeral, a young woman approached Hwang Dong-Ju and confessed that she should have spoken up but she looked out for herself instead. She had information that could have helped his father. The police gave him his father’s belongings and mentioned that something was “missing”. It was a key document and Hwang Dong-Ju realized that someone had used the National Tax Service, not to audit the business, but to try to find a particular document. He did not believe his father’s death was a suicide, but rather his death and the missing document were connected.

I guess Hwang Dong-Ju reached the same point his father reached and decided that enough was enough. He handed in his letter of resignation and said to his boss: “I am replaying your kindness and support with ingratitude.” Bye-bye!  Hwang Dong-Ju left the ruthless corporate business world to work for the National Tax Service. His first assignment was to collect $2 million in unpaid taxes owed by a celebrity athlete who was trying to leave the country. Hwang Dong-Ju told his new boss that he could easily collect the overdue taxes. So she sent him out among the wolves. That was cool. Hwang Dong-Ju had gained a lot of experience working among wolves and being a wolf. Collecting the overdue taxes was easy-peasy. For him, exposing fraud was just as easy as covering up fraud because he knew all the “dirty tricks”. You could say that h was an expert in catching those guilty of tax evasion.

Welcome to Bureau 5

After Hwang Dong-Ju successfully collected the $2 million in overdue taxes, his reward was a transfer to Bureau 5, the “official ‘unofficial’ office for pushovers of the NTS”. That’s where they send employees to “disappear”. Bureau 5 staff are assigned the impossible tax cases that will likely never be completed. Awesome!! That’s just where Hwang Dong-Ju wanted to go anyway. But first, he had to make a name for himself by collecting the $2 million in taxes from the celebrity athlete. That way the higher-ups would take notice and take immediate action by sending him to Bureau 5. No doubt, they hoped that he would vanish! But Hwang Dong-Ju had other plans. He had a goal.

He purposely got a job at the National Tax Service to achieve that “goal”.  Whatever his goal, he would be working with Seo Hye-Young and the manager, Oh Young. One of the higher-ups was In Tae-Joon who made sure he was transferred to Bureau 5. He did not instantly trust Hwang Dong-Ju and wondered about his true motives when he came to work for NTS. In Tae-Joon knew his father and it’s possible he had a secret that he didn’t want Hwang Dong-Ju to find out. Hwang Dong-Ju knew that In Tae-Joon was ambitious and wanted an even higher position. So he promised to help him achieve his career goals, while also accomplishing his own goal. In Tae-Joon wondered what this young upstart’s true goal was; so he watched the young man very closely. Hwang Dong-Ju kept an eye on him as well. They both had plans for each other.

Main Characters:

• Hwang Dong-Ju (played by Yim Si-Wan, “The King Loves”, “Unlocked”, “Emergency Declaration”, “Strangers From Hell”)
• Seo Hye-Young (played by Ko Ah-Sung, “The Host”)
• In Tae-Joon (played by Son Hyun-Joo, “Your Honor”, “Secretly, Greatly”)
• Oh Young (played by Son Hyun-Joo, “Spiritwalker”)

Where to Watch

Viewership and Rating:

• IMDb: 7.4 out of 10 stars
• MyDramaList: 7.9 out of 10 stars
• Dramabeans: 9.4 out of 10 stars
• Viki viewers rated both seasons 9.5 out of 10 stars

My personal rating is the same as the Viki viewers.

I like Korean dramas that deal with “bean counters”, “financial examiners”, and “number crunchers”, i.e. accountants, auditors, and people who deal with the financial records of businesses. Lots of people hide dirt in business records and documents, especially to avoid paying taxes and it’s great when it gets exposed. I had a lot of sympathy for the male lead because of what happened to his father and thought his approach to getting payback was “fair”. Also, he didn’t quite know the truth about what happened to his dad, and this was his way of digging out what had been buried. His quest for truth and justice kept me fully engaged.

I like this statement in a review published by Kdrama and Ramen:

• “Tracer” is a smart and incredibly complex revenge drama. The complicated financial concepts and ever-changing list of suspects will require more than just passing attention.

Yep. That sums it up!

Quote Worth Remembering from “Tracer”.  During his interview to work for the NTS, Hwang Dong-Ju quoted the advice his father had given him:

• “Just because you make good money, that doesn’t mean you’re living well. You must keep at least one goal in your heart.”

LINKS OF INTEREST:

Tracer Season 1 & 2 – Full Review | kdramaandramen

Im Siwan And Go Ah Sung Shake Up The National Tax Service In Stills For New Drama | Soompi

K-Pop Stars Promote South Korean Tax Compliance | Forbes

TRAILERS/TEASERS:

GodMovies4u. “Tracer Eng Sub Trailer | Tracer Korean Drama Trailer | Tracer Kdrama | New Korean Drama | New Kdrama.” YouTube Video. YouTube, January 25, 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqbbpbksOYM.‌