Bargain is the disturbing new Korean drama that is set to give Squid Game a run for its money

Bargain is the dark new Korean drama that will have you thinking Squid Game, who?

Directed by Lee Chung-hyun, the intense new series already made a global impact as it became the first drama to scoop up a coveted Best Screenplay gong at the annual Canneseries Festival. I mean, it was bound to happen as the series is an expansion of the 2015 short film of the same name, which also won supreme at South Korea’s Mise-en-scène Short Film Festival and Busan International Short Film Festival, to name a few.

So, with Bargain having now reached international shores, what exactly do we need to know about the series that has been heralded as the unpredictable and unmissable new watch? Well, the show centres sees Noh Hyung-soo (played by Jin Sun-kyu), who believes he is meeting high school student Park Joo Young (Jeon Jong-Seo) for sex at a remote hotel in the mountains. However, he has unwittingly found himself amid an organ-harvesting ring. Soon, he’s strapped to a gurney while a group of strangers bid on his kidneys…

The official synopsis for the series reads: “In BARGAIN, men are lured to a remote hotel under the guise of sexual encounters only to be caught in a trafficking ring where their organs are auctioned off to the highest bidder. After a catastrophic earthquake, the victims, traffickers and buyers all are trapped inside the crumbling building. Cut off from the outside world, they must fight to survive the aftermath at any cost.”

So, for all you fans of Squid Game, OldBoy, and Parasite, it’s basically a mix of all three, with its central themes being morality, punishment, desperation and basically, everything involving the worst of humanity.

To get a further feel of the series, catch the trailer below.