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Karma (South Korean TV series)

Karma (Korean: 악연) is a 2025 South Korean crime thriller television series written and directed by Lee Il-hyung, and starring Park Hae-soo, Shin Min-a, Lee Hee-joon, Kim Sung-kyun, Lee Kwang-soo, and Gong Seung-yeon. Based on the Kakao webtoon of the same name by Choi Hee-seon, the series is about people who are entangled in an unexpected ill-fated relationship and destroy each other while pursuing their own desires. It was released on Netflix on April 4, 2025.

Plot
Park Jae-young has heavy debts with a loan shark. He hires Korean Chinese coworker Jang Gil-ryong to kill his father, Park Dong-sik, in hopes of getting the life insurance payout. Gil-ryong murders Dong-sik, but has to dispose the body elsewhere instead of staging a hit-and-run. Traditional medicine doctor Han Sang-hun and girlfriend Lee Yu-jeong are driving home after a romantic getaway, when Sang-hun hits Dong-sik's body with his car. Sang-hun believes he killed Dong-sik, and he almost kills Kim Beom-jun, a nearby witness. Sang-hun has Beom-jun help him bury Dong-sik in the mountainside and pays Beom-jun for his silence. Dong-sik's body is found by a hiker, but Jae-yeong fails to get the insurance payout as the investigation is ongoing. Gil-ryong threatens Jae-yeong with violence, demanding payment immediately as he needs to flee the country since he was seen at the scene of the crime and killed a police officer who was following him. Sang-hun checks his car's dashcam and discovers that Beom-jun staged the accident. He informs Yu-jeong, who turns out to be working a con with Beom-jun. Yu-jeong and Beom-jun kidnap Sang-hun, and Sang-hun kills Yu-jeong before Beom-jun kills Sang-hun. The murders are photographed by the employees of private detective Hwang Cheol-mok, who had been hired by Sang-hun's wife to find evidence of his infidelity. Cheol-mok reports the murders and a manhunt starts for Beom-jun. Beom-jun has also been working with Gil-ryong, his friend from prison. Beom-jun helped Gil-ryong murder Dong-sik in return for part of the payout, and took the body away for the con with Sang-hun. Jae-yeong arranges to meet Gil-ryong, intending to murder him. Beom-jun follows them, but realizes at a police checkpoint that he is wanted for murder. Jae-yeong takes Gil-ryong to an abandoned building and attacks him, but Gil-ryong overpowers him. Beom-jun arrives and decides to take Jae-yeong's identity. Beom-jun kills Gil-ryong and Jae-yeong and sets the building on fire. A severely burned Beom-jun is brought to the hospital, where he claims to be Jae-yeong and tells the police that he was kidnapped. He is tended to by Dr. Lee Ju-yeon, who was gang raped by Jae-yeong and other boys when they were teenagers. Ju-yeon follows Beom-jun when he leaves the hospital, intending to kill him, but her fiancé Dr. Yoon stops her by asking her not to throw her life away. Beom-jun later remembers Ju-yeon from school; he was friends with Yu-jeong, who hated Ju-yeon, and he suggested that Yu-jeong arrange the gang rape. The police realize that Beom-jun's statement doesn't match the crime scene. Beom-jun tries to flee, but is picked up by the loan shark who's looking for Jae-yeong. Yoon is the surgeon working for the loan shark to harvest organs, and he starts work on Beom-jun, ignoring his claims of mistaken identity. Cheol-mok visits Ju-yeon to tell her an update about Jae-yeong, but Ju-yeon decides she does not need to know, as she has let go of the past. == Cast and characters ==
Cast and characters
Main Park Hae-soo as Kim Beom-jun • Shin Min-a as Yoon Jeong-min • Park Ho-san as Hwang Cheol-mok • Park Bo-yeon as Sang-hoon's wife == Episodes ==
Production
Development In July 2023, it was reported that the Kakao Webtoon Ill-fated Relationship by Choi Hee-seon, which was serialized in 2019, would be made into a drama with six episodes and is directed and written by Lee Il-hyung, who helmed A Violent Prosecutor (2016) and Remember (2022). Moonlight Film, Baram Pictures, and Kakao Entertainment managed the production. Casting In August 2023, Star News reported that both Shin Min-a and Park Hae-soo would be starring in the series. In response to the report, both agencies of Shin and Park stated that they were positively reviewing the offer. A month later, Netflix confirmed the ensemble cast of the crime thriller series with Park, Shin, Lee Hee-joon, Kim Sung-kyun, Lee Kwang-soo, and Gong Seung-yeon. == Release ==
Release
Karma was released exclusively on Netflix on April 4, 2025. == Reception ==
Reception
Critical response Joel Keller of Decider recommended the series, praising its potential for "intertwining plots" while noting that its effectiveness would depend on the pacing of their development. Accolades == References ==
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