Mad Concrete Dreams: We’re the Architects of Our Own Downfall

How far is an Everyman willing to go to have a building under his name? How far is he willing to go to feed his bank account hefty sums of money every month? What is he willing to sacrifice?

The protagonist of tvN’s black comedy Mad Concrete Dreams discovers that he can very well sell his own conscience and sanity to get his lusted-after building and elusive riches. Through a 12-episode journey that often feels like a dire fever dream, Mad Concrete Dreams explores South Korea’s obsession with real estate, the mirage of social mobility, and the all-consuming delusions born of human desire.

This review is spoiler-free, but if you’re in a rush, why don’t you pin it for later? Our pin is at the bottom!

One Step and You’re Past the Point of No Return

Directed by Im Pil-sung and Kim Sang-hoo, and written by novelist Oh Han-ki, Mad Concrete Dreams introduces us to Ki Su-jong (Ha Jung-woo) as he stuffs his face with seaweed soup on his wife Kim Seon’s (Lim Soo-jung) birthday. Over breakfast, they discuss their current financial situation, which Su-jong doesn’t seem to be particularly on top of. They own a building, but they are having trouble meeting their mortgage payments and finding new tenants for its offices.

To make ends meet and send his daughter Da-rae (Park Seo-kyung) to university abroad, Su-jong is working all kinds of side gigs — in secret, of course. Since he has earned the coveted title of “building owner”, Su-jong is pretty much a lazy millionaire who shouldn’t have a single care for the rest of his life in the eyes of the world.

Reality is a lot grimmer, but Su-jong wouldn’t dare to share his struggles with anyone else. From the very beginning, Mad Concrete Dreams is an ironic play-pretend in which its happy-go-lucky participants are constantly hiding an ocean of darkness underneath their polite remarks and cheerful exchanges.

Our protagonist couple then celebrates Seon’s birthday with their best friends, Su-jong’s long-time friend Min Hwal-seong (Kim Jun-han) and his wife, the wealthy Jeon I-gyeong (Krystal Jung). It’s all about eating, drinking, and being merry, but you can feel tension bubbling beneath the surface as talk of a redevelopment project in the area comes to light. Every single conversation is about money. Money is the be-all and end-all of their lives.

We soon realise Su-jong is drowning in debt, a ticking bomb that becomes a lot louder when everyone he owes money to suddenly sells their loans to a shady corporation called Real Capital. Su-jong now owes a considerable figure to Real Capital, whose psychopathic representative, Yo Na (Shim Eun-kyung), coldly gives him an ultimatum: he either pays off his debt in the next few days or they will repossess his building.

Hopeless and without anyone to turn to, Su-jong has no idea what to do next. That is, until fate intervenes with a twisted little joke: he catches Hwal-seong staging a fake kidnapping in the basement of his building. Hwal-seong asks for his help in exchange for a percentage of the ransom money, which would allow him to liquidate his loan to Real Capital. Could this be the lucky break he’s been looking for?

Well, Su-jong decides that yes, that’s definitely it. From here onwards, Mad Concrete Dreams becomes a train wreck you simply can’t look away from, perpetually pushing its characters to the extremes of morality to reveal how greed can drive one absolutely insane.

Snowballing Chaos in Mad Concrete Dreams

Mad Concrete Dreams is a comedy of errors, a darkly humorous narrative composed of a string of wrong choices, selfish attitudes, and desperate reactions. These characters continually devise their own doom, resulting in a story of snowballing chaos and absurd scenarios.

And that’s exactly how Su-jong’s journey is bound to be: bizarre. We are talking about a universe in which everyone is corrupt. Because our characters’ values (or lack thereof) are volatile, fluctuating according to their whims and desires, their chosen solution is always morally questionable — if not completely unacceptable.

Their desire starts and ends with money, which Mad Concrete Dreams allows to be an incredibly evasive concept. In the end, is money what these characters truly want? But… how much money? How much money is enough to make them feel happy and fulfilled? The illusion of riches shimmers at the end of a very dark and cold tunnel, which Su-jong heavily treads throughout the series. He keeps on pushing the limits of his own sanity, of his own morals, for something that he can’t even define. He keeps on moving towards a mere glimmer that he can barely see, but that he believes will be waiting for him if only he lies one more time, he kidnaps one more time, he gets rid of one more hurdle.

But what makes the world go round in a capitalist society is that dissatisfaction and greed. It’s the misbelief that Su-jong — as a barely middle-class Everyman — will eventually become filthy rich and influential that allows the machine to keep creating profit for those whose faces Su-jong will never even see. He never realises he’s a mere pawn in a game much bigger and more powerful than him, so that hallucination keeps on driving him, and he risks losing himself in the process.

Or does he? In Mad Concrete Dreams, human beings are naturally self-serving, hypocritical, and petty. This is a tale of anti-heroes who embark on a corruption arc which transforms bad-ish into bad, then bad into worse, and then worse into unforgivable. While the idea of family, especially the presence of the pure-hearted Da-rae, makes these people a tad more humane, it’s complete havoc from the very beginning. They were never truly good in the first place, so there isn’t much to be “lost”.

It’s the opposite, actually: there are only traits to be “found” here. That aloofness, egoism, and immorality were always within, and the current circumstances only allowed these characteristics to manifest themselves fully.

Over and Over Again: Narrative Structure & Performances

To fuel this quick-paced descent into chaos, Mad Concrete Dreams refuses to drag on its conflicts. Issues have to be handled promptly for the next ones to pop up, ensuring this psychotic sequence of events never loses steam. However, in trying to focus on its characters’ corruption, the series loses track of its many questions, motivations, and devices, which means that not all dots connect as they should. Events won’t always be completely sound, even within the flexible boundaries of this narrative’s universe.

Mad Concrete Dreams was clearly inspired by Park Chan-wook’s and Bong Joon-ho’s oeuvre, but it surely lacks their elegance in its approach or sharp wit in its humour. It feels rough around the edges, a story that could’ve been a tad more refined to deliver an even harder punch. Characters in Mad Concrete Dreams lack a bit of internal conflict — they’re never seen truly fighting an ethical battle within themselves, even as they commit the most awful of crimes. Exploring their internal clashes and contradictions would have created a more well-rounded cast and even helped us recognise ourselves more in these people.

The script also falters in its structure, which often relies on repetition. A lot of time is spent going over the same events from diverse perspectives, an interesting proposition that could’ve been handled differently. That also leads to a second half that feels much more melodramatic than the first, almost fully replacing the show’s black comedy with a dramatic thriller. The madness that blends overwhelming awkwardness and ridiculous tension earlier on gives room for a collection of emotional scenes that feel jarring and out of place, considering the overall tone of Su-jong’s tale.

Direction, photography, and editing all work well to establish the universe of Mad Concrete Dreams, but the show’s undeniable highlight is the performances. Ha Jung-woo and Lim Soo-jung are exceptional as a nonsensical couple who embrace crime as second nature. Kim Jun-han and Krystal Jung offer beautifully nuanced deliveries, too. But our superstar definitely is the remarkable Shim Eun-kyung, who becomes unrecognisable as Yo Na. She’s terrifying, disturbing, and subtly funny — an absolute scene-stealer every time she’s on screen.

Should You Watch Mad Concrete Dreams?

In Mad Concrete Dreams, we’re the architects of our own downfall, foolish beings who become so consumed by greed and despair that morality ceases to exist. The line between ambition and avarice becomes so blurred that each and every one of us can define what is acceptable or not as we chase limitless amounts of money and property. We’re free to sell our conscience to the highest bidder, after all.

If you are looking for an insane exploration of the darkest corners of human nature, Mad Concrete Dreams is a mostly effective and superbly performed black comedy that will surely make you reflect on your own desires and principles in a world that often begs us to subvert them.

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