The Taste of Money is a 2012 South Korean Drama directed by Im Sang-soo. It explores the depths of a wealthy family who possess a considerable amount of privilege, yet are confined within a world of emotional vacuity, ethical predicaments, and multilayered personal issues.
The film is first and foremost a family drama, but it is also a piece of understated social critique. While the film captures a certain degree of financial prosperity, it exposes the sheer futility of such a pursuit in the quest for inner peace and heartfelt joy.
Set in a mansion on the outskirts of Seoul, the story follows the Yoon family, one of the largest and most powerful families in South Korea. They are wealthy, powerful, and very respected. It is only with the passage of the film that the dramatic structure reveals their complex familial system of control and the underlying currents of hopelessness and quiet distress that surrounds it.
Chairman Yoon is the family’s public personality and the family’s business empire’s figurehead. His spouse, Baek Geum-ok, is the less wealthy spouse and comes from an even more powerful family. While her husband seems to wield nominal authority, she is the one who calls the shots and controls the family dynamics, both at the emotional and financial level.
The Yoon family consists of two children—daughter Na-mi, who has a strong moral compass, and Chul, a son who grapples with responsibility and with overshadowing the family empire. Also part of this intricate web is Joo Young-jak, the family’s assistant. Young-jak is well-educated and has been with the family long enough to establish a rapport, trust, and the bonding intrinsic to his position.
Although Young-jak has come to know the inner workings of the elite classes, his upbringing remains humble. With trust come the confident handling of delicate issues and the increasing blurring of moral lines. The escalating proximity to the family subjects him to a new order of ethical complications disguised as “service.”
Conflicting emotions and ethical rot within the family structure compromise Young-jak’s sense of loyalty. He is sidelined in a world that is gaining increasing dysfunction and moral decay. To counter this dysfunction, Na-mi serves as a quiet voice of reason. She observes the family and is appalled both by their moral decline and the extent of their dysfunctional choices.
As the narrative unfolds, the family experiences increasingly desperate situations. The chairman, once perceived as dominant and in control, retreats into himself, feeling the consequences of his decisions. Although powerful, Geum-ok’s isolation continues. Young-jak, entangled in the family’s problems, must confront the most fundamental issue of his life and the values he will live by.
Young-jak experiences the most powerful change in the film. He recognizes the need to stop working for a morally corrupt institution and, in a powerful gesture, departs from the estate, choosing a life of quiet and simplicity over one of silence and privilege. Na-mi chooses to leave with him, as a form of protest against the ideals her family has instilled in her.
Main Characters
Joo Young-jak
Young-jak is a key character and a highly integrated figure in the story. He is a reflective, observing character who works as a loyal assistant but eventually serves the world he questions. He is the moral voice of the film as well as the conscience reflecting the film’s central message as he turns and walks away from all the moral corruption.
Baek Geum-ok
Geum-ok is the matriarch of the Yoon family. She is the most commanding and strategic member of the family. She manages (so it appears) every detail of every life in the family. When it comes to power in the family, Geum-ok showcases the narcissism of the control that comes with wealth, but also the loneliness of a life that is entirely controlled.
Chairman Yoon
Chairman Yoon makes the most public family business appearances, yet he struggles with the relentless public’s expectations and control. He is described as a man with a strong exterior, but he is shattered internally and is caught between personal disappointments and the public’s expectations of a flawless performance.
Yoon Na-mi
Na-mi, the daughter, is the most morally grounded member of the family. Also, Na-mi is described as the intelligent, quietly brave, and aware member of the family. She grows immensely uncomfortable with the path her family is taking, and she seeks to change it by joining Young-jak and choosing a path of defiance.
Themes
- The Illusion of Wealth
The film defines wealth not as a solution to life’s problems, but as a more complex problems. The characters live in an excess world, yet unfulfilled emotionally. The contrast of grand homes and unfulfilled lives spawn sub problems of dissatisfaction.
- Power and Control
The concept of control permeates the narrative. Geum-ok exerts her control by enforcing order within the family, although order sometimes results in desolation. The family learns that control in the absence of sensitivity results in greater disarray.
- Morality vs. Loyalty
The central conflict in Young-jak’s story is the friction between the claims of family loyalty and the demands of his personal conscience. His narrative captures the dilemmas of numerous individuals who find themselves within institutions that are at odds with their own moral order.
- Freedom Through Letting Go
Young-jak and Na-mi ultimately come to the understanding that real freedom is the ability to make autonomous choices that align with one’s values. Their departure is, of course, a physical one, and it is also a symbolic departure in the sense of a public resignation of their ideals in order to attain personal peace.
Visual Style and Atmosphere
The Taste of Money is visually stunning. Yoon’s modern household architecture and the luxury it offers the family is a backdrop to the characters emotional distance. The beauty of distant emotional coldness is expressed through wide open spaces, calm surfaces of reflective materials, and elegant lighting.
The pacing is intentionally thoughtful, with the inclusion of silence and reflection, to deepen the emotional impact of the narrative. The film does not depend on action or spectacle, but on stillness and quiet dialogue to reveal the core feelings.
Reception and Impact
The film’s audience response was polarized. Some praised the absence of distraction as well as the boldness of the film’s themes, while others criticized the film for being too slow. However, the film’s viewers were unanimous in their praise for the depth brought to the performances, especially those of Young-jak and Geum-ok.
Critics highlighted the film’s treatment of moral issues and its critique of the lack of fulfillment that can accompany material success. The film is not a traditional drama, but it presents the difficult question of what constitutes a meaningful life in a manner that is thoughtful and, at times, provocative.
Conclusion
The core question posed by The Taste of Money is not how the rich live, but what the costs are of such a life. The film’s methodical pacing coupled with strong acting performances, yet profound thematic preoccupations, made the film highly contemplative. Captured within the stillness of the film is a meditation on the enormous error of equating a wealthy life with a happy life, and the profound folly of seeking everything one has ever wished for.
Considering divisions of the world as the wealthy and the poor, films of this kind are highly uncommon. The focus of the film on the inner life of a person, and not the structure of a globalized world, renders this film highly original.
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