"God has found a way to directly show you what Hell is like. He's telling us to be more righteous."
— Jeong Jin-soo
Hellbound (지옥 Revised Romanization: Jiok) is a 2021 South Korean dark fantasy/drama thriller series directed by Yeon Sang-ho, based on his webtoon of the same name. Consisting of six episodes in one season, it was first made available for streaming on Netflix worldwide on November 19, 2021. A second season has been confirmed.
Taking place in Seoul, South Korea, on an alternative Earth, the show depicts a world in which supernatural beings can appear to individual humans, declaring them to be "bound for hell" and decreeing the time in which they are fated to die. When the person's time has elapsed, brutish demons appear from thin air to bestow a terrible punishment and then send their victim's soul to hell.
It doesn't take long for these terrifying events to allow for the rise of a new, extremist religious movement, The New Truth, lead by the mysterious and charismatic attorney, Jeong Jin-soo, which claims that the supernatural creatures were sent by God to punish "sinners", and that the only way to avoid being sent to hell is to follow their interpretation of God's will. Meanwhile, The New Truth appears to be working in tandem with Arrowhead, a gang-like vigilante organisation consisting of young fanatics, who are willing to carry out a much more violent version of The New Truth's doctrine.
Meanwhile, the police of Seoul is at loss at how to explain the seemingly supernatural events. The official stance is to attempt to investigate the killing of the marked "sinners" as murders, which is hard as the demons never seem to leave behind any physical evidence but the body of their victims. Among the detectives working on the task is Jin Kyeong-hoon, who soon finds the case taking on a personal dimension, when his daughter admits to being interested in joining The New Truth. Also trying to stem the tide is the idealistic attorney, Min Hye-jin, who throws herself into defending the rights of the "hell-bound", seeing how no one else will.
Hellbound contains examples of:
- Action Girl: Lawyer Min Hye-jin was left for dead by Arrowhead. Years later, she's become an action hero and can fight her way through mobs of Arrowhead cultists with her fists, an extendable baton and sometimes a taser.
- Aerith and Bob: In a series with normal Korean names, the baby that had been condemned is named Toughie.
- Affably Evil: Despite being the leader of an extremist cult, Chairman Jeong Jin-soo is soft-spoken, humble and polite even to those who oppose him and his followers. His successor, by contrast, is a complete psychopath.
- All Crimes Are Equal: The sins of the condemned range from relatively minor offenses such as petty theft and tax evasion to much more serious crimes like rape and murder, but the verdict is always the same: a brutal death at the hands of the demon trio, followed by an eternity in hell. Ultimately subverted when it turns out that the condemnations are completely random.
- Ambiguous Situation: Young-jae and So-hyun sacrifice themselves to ensure their baby isn't killed and sent to hell. It's unclear if they were only burnt alive or were sent to hell instead, as their bodies were burnt to a crisp but mostly left in tact. Previous victims have only had their ribcages and a few bones that connect those to their skulls remain. When staging the deaths of their enemies, the New Truth went out of their way to make sure the remains looked like that too.
- Back from the Dead: It's unknown how or why but Park Jeong-Ja has been returned to Earth from Hell in a Body Horror scene of regenerating from her charred remains.
- Bittersweet Ending: Season 1 ends with the fact that a literal baby can be targeted, and that it is also possible to avoid getting dragged to hell being revealed to the public. The streamer who helped found Arrowhead is then dragged to hell. The crowd who witnessed and filmed the whole scene refuse to let the New Truth officials who arrive get to Min Hyejin, and the police even arrest a deacon who assaults a man who calls them out on being liars. A random taxi driver even helps Min Hyejin escape. The implication is that society at large is going to become more willing to stand up to the New Truth. While the framing and music makes it hard to tell if this is a good or bad thing, but we also see Park Jeong-Ja coming back to life, meaning that it's possible for the fully condemned to escape hell.
- Cosmic Horror: An irrestible supernatural force randomly appears to condemn a person for unknown reasons and then a trio of Eldritch Abominations come to beat the victim to death and take them to Hell. Despite what the New Truth and Arrowhead say, there's no rhyme or reason for why this happens, making the forces at play increasingly unknowable and so far there's no stopping these beings. In a Bustle interview, Yeon himself says the series is Cosmic Horror.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: The three demons sent to collect the souls of the condemned brutally beat and mutilate their targets before sending them to hell.
- Cult: The New Truth and its more extremist spin-off Arrowhead are "End Times" Christian-based new religions that pronounce that what's happening is because God is angry at sinners, but they're wrong and the leadership knows it.
- The Determinator: It doesn't matter how far a person will run or where they are; the three demons will find their target and make sure they get a brutal beating before being sent to hell. Not even suicide will spare you from their wrath, as they are shown kicking the shit out of the soul of a businessman that ended his life early to escape his judgment. The only person to ever defy the decree is a baby whose parents sacrificed themselves.
- Dragged Off to Hell: An "angel" randomly appears before a person and pronounces doom on them. At the appointed time, three hellish beings give the victim a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown before taking them to Hell.
- Eldritch Abomination: The three demons that beat decreed souls within an inch of their lives. They look VERY otherworldly, including black mist, demonic faces, and sinew appearing on its body.
- Establishing Series Moment: The coffee shop massacre. It's the catalyst that start's the series events.
- Expository Hairstyle Change : Min Hyejin wears her hair long from the start of the series. When the Time Skip comes in, she later wears her hair short showing that she went from being a Crusading Lawyer to a Rebel Leader.
- Go Mad from the Revelation: Skull Face, the leader of Arrowhead, was never too sane. But he really goes nuts when he finds out that he's been sentenced by the "angel" to death and damnation in 4 years time, even though he believes himself to free of sin according to New Truth doctrine.
- Hellfire: The demons burn their victims with a glaringly bright fire that reduces the bodies to charred skeletons in mere seconds.
- Heroic Sacrifice: In the season one finale, Young-jae and So-hyun sacrifice their lives to protect their baby from the demons by shielding the child with their own bodies. Both are burnt to death by the demons, but the baby survives unharmed.
- I'm Not Afraid of You: By the end of the first season, people finally begin to openly defy the New Truth after witnessing Young-jae and So-hyun's sacrifice and the miraculous survival of their baby, which exposes the New Truth's doctrine as a lie and proves that damnation can be avoided. When Deacon Yuji beats up an old man who called him a liar and a hypocrite, he is arrested for assault by the police, showing that the rule of law has been restored to some extent.
- Mundanger: While there is an explicitly supernatural threat in the form of the angel of death and its three demonic executioners, some of the series' most horrifying scenes involve acts of violence and religious fanaticism committed by ordinary humans.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Some of the people who die in this show absolutely have it coming.
- The murderer who killed Jin Kyeong-hoon's wife and got off with a light sentence is murdered by the detective's daughter and the chairman by being burnt alive and having his murder staged to look like he was dragged to hell.
- Part of the way that the New Truth gets popular is that they heavily promote cases of people who committed serious crimes getting condemned.
- It's hard not to view the chairman's death and being sent to hell as deserved given the fact that he didn't just lie about the demons to trick everyone into being better people, but also left his religious organization in the hands of a murderous, egotistical lunatic and did absolutely nothing to stop the Arrowhead's formation and eventual unification with the New Truth.
- The streamer who helped found the Arrowhead is the last person we see killed by the demons in season one.
- Live-Action Adaptation: The show is based on the webtoon of the same name by Yeon Sang-ho
. - Naked on Revival: In the Season Finale, Jeong-ja is mysteriously resurrected on the same spot where she was killed by the three demons and returns nude. Justified since when people are burned to death by the three demons, their clothes burn with them .
- Now What?: Despite the New Truth and Arrowhead's popularity taking a massive blow by the end of the first season, Yeon Sang-ho doesn't have the second season fully laid out yet (it's also worth noting that most South Korean shows are only a single season). Although Yeon has not ruled out doing a Season 2, thinking of having it properly laid out and planned once more of the webcomic is released.
- On that topic, what becomes of the New Truth, Arrowhead, the 'angel', and the Executioners of Hell remains to be seen.
- Pragmatic Villainy:
- The Chairman founded the New Truth in order to trick people into being less sinful and prevent the civil unrest that would come with people knowing it's totally random and can happen to anyone.
- The New Truth initially try to conceal the condemnation of a baby — not because of any ethical concerns, but because it damages their narrative that only sinners are sent to hell.
- Riddle for the Ages: Why are these people being targeted to be sent to hell? So far it's been totally random and can happen to anyone despite their morality, and even suicide cannot prevent them from taking you.
- Sadistic Choice: At the end of episode 3, Kyeong-hoon is given the choice of either revealing that there is no justice behind the condemnations and exposing the New Truth as frauds, which would likely cause a global panic and alienate him from his daughter (who has been inodctrinated into the New Truth's faith), or preserving the established social order and his personal life by remaining silent, despite knowing that it's all based on a monstrous lie. He chooses the latter.
- Scars Are Forever: Min Hye-jin survived her No-Holds-Barred Beatdown by Arrowhead, but she now has a large scar on her forehead as a result.
- Sequel Hook: At the end of episode 6, Park Jeong-ja is somehow brought back to life at the place of her execution (that had been turned into a museum by the New Truth) for an unknown reason, setting up the second season.
- Social Media Is Bad: The New Truth makes extensive use of social media to spread its influence, and one of the Arrowhead's leading members is a streamer who incites his followers to commit acts of brutal violence against alleged sinners.
- Teens Are Monsters: Many members of the Arrowhead, the more radical branch of the New Truth that actively seeks out and terrorizes suspected sinners and their families, are teenagers or very young adults.
- Time Skip: Halfway through the series, episode 4-6 skips to 4-5 years after Jeong Jin-soo's death where Young-jae becomes the main focus of the show.
- Together in Death: Both Young-jae and So-hyun died protecting their newborn child from three demons by shielding him/her as their charred bodies in hugging positions while still holding their child.
- 20 Minutes into the Future: The series first half takes place in 2023, while 4 years have past in the time skip so it's 2027 and the only difference is that South Korea has become a theocracy.
- Would Hurt a Child: The "angel" and the three demons have no problem with sentencing a newborn child to hell.
- Your Days Are Numbered: The condemned are told by the angel of death how much time they have left until they will be taken to hell, adding psychological torment to the physical pain of their inevitable death. The time span between the announcement and the eventual execution seems completely arbitrary, ranging from decades to mere days or, in one notable case, 30 seconds.
