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The Taste of Money
Movie

The Taste of Money

2012 • Unknown

Woke Score
6
out of 10

Plot

The assistant of a wealthy socialite reveals her husband's salacious affair. The fallout entangles him in a web of sex, love and deceit that could threaten his life and career.

Overall Series Review

The film plunges into the ultra-opulent and morally bankrupt world of a South Korean chaebol family, seen through the eyes of their young, ambitious assistant, Young-jak. It is a sleek, black-humored portrait of a dynasty where money is the only source of power and morality is completely absent. The family's wealthy foundation is built on corruption, greed, and a web of illicit sexual and financial affairs. The ensuing fallout from a sensational affair, a power struggle between the family matriarch and her husband, and political bribery reveals a social structure where the super-rich are rotten to the core. The narrative focuses on how absolute wealth contaminates everyone it touches, leaving no character uncompromised by their desire for 'the taste of money.'

Categorical Breakdown

Identity Politics4/10

The core conflict revolves around class and economic privilege within Korean society, not race as the primary lens. The vilification is aimed squarely at the super-rich chaebol class, who are nearly all ethnically Korean. A power dynamic based on race/nationality is present through the exploitation of a Filipino maid by the wealthy Korean husband and wife, introducing an intersectional element of class and ethnicity as a form of critique.

Oikophobia8/10

The film functions as an unsubtle, acidic critique of South Korea's highest echelons of society. The wealthy family and their corporate institutions are depicted as fundamentally corrupt, immoral, and detached from the rest of the nation. The story frames the institutions of national power, particularly the corporate elite, as intrinsically rotten, reflecting a deep lack of admiration for the country's leaders.

Feminism7/10

Gender roles are inverted, and the male figures are largely weak, morally compromised, or emasculated victims of circumstances. The family matriarch is the most powerful figure, a 'tough-as-nails' and 'demonic' leader who controls the entire corrupt enterprise and subordinates the men around her. The focus on female dominance and male weakness pushes the score higher, even though the powerful female character is a symbol of corruption, not a heroic one.

LGBTQ+1/10

The narrative centers on explicit heterosexual infidelity, sex, and power struggles within the traditional, albeit dysfunctional, nuclear family structure. There is no centering of alternative sexual identities, queer theory, or promotion of gender ideology.

Anti-Theism9/10

The entire film operates in a world of pure amoral materialism, where the driving force of every action is 'morality-free greed' and the pursuit of money. The story offers no hint of a higher moral law, faith, or spiritual transcendence; money is the substitute god. The movie’s central thesis demonstrates how morality is entirely subjective, dictated by the 'power dynamics' of the super-rich class.