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How a '10 million won chicken' inspired original 'The 8 Show' webtoon

Published: 19 Apr. 2025, 07:00 Updated: 20 Apr. 2025, 20:24

YOON SO-YEON
[email protected]

A scene from the “Money Game” (2018-2020) webtoon series by webtoonist Bae Jin-soo in its English version [SCREEN CAPTURE]

You’re stuck in a building with seven other complete strangers. The longer you stay, the more money you win. All you have to do is stay alive.

But there’s a catch: Everything you need to live — even things like going to the toilet or bathing — has to be paid for with the time that the gang has to collectively work for, but at a cost 100 times higher than in the real world. Making matters worse is that food and water are only given to one person, who is free to choose whether or not to share that ration with the rest of the group.

To what ends will a group of society’s most desperate people go to win money? How would you, if you took part, play the game?

The most cruel and satirical take on capitalism was depicted in 2024 black comedy-slash-horror Netflix series “The 8 Show,” storming the world with its bloody sarcasm played by a star-studded lineup of actors including Ryu Jun-yeol, Chun Woo-hee and Park Jeong-min. The show topped the non-English TV show list in Korea, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Vietnam and sat on the top 10 list of shows in 68 countries.

The inspiration for the capitalist battle royale came quite randomly for the author of the original Naver Webtoon series “Money Game” (2018-2020), Bae Jin-soo. One day, he was eating chicken with his friends when he wondered, what would happen if one chicken cost 10 million won ($7,000)?

“I thought, if there was a total amount that a group has to share and it costs 10 million won to eat chicken and 100,000 won to drink water, how much will they hate each other?” Bae said.

Webtoonist Bae Jin-soo, the creator of Naver Webtoon's ″Money Game″ (2018-2020) series [NAVER WEBTOON]

“Will they try to control each other’s choices? But what if someone needs to buy medicine for their disease? I imagined a situation where people would fight over a set amount of money for the whole group and started from there.”

Born in 1978, Bae was a latecomer to the webtoon scene who started his first official series on Naver Webtoon with “Friday: Forbidden Tales” (2012-14) at the age of 34. He began flaunting his dark sense of humor with slice-of-life-gone-darker series “3-Second Strip” (2014-2018) which saw its full swing with the “Money Game,” “Pie Game” (2020-21) and “Funny Game” (2022-24) series — the base of Netflix’s “The 8 Show.”

Those who saw the Netflix version first and then went back to “Money Game” would notice the most striking difference in the color scheme. While “The 8 Show” is overly colorful, perhaps to highlight the hysterical mania of the nonsensical situation, “Money Game” is stingy with the colors — even almost black and white, except for the emphasis of the red of the alarm board or blood.

Another contrast is that “The 8 Show” is quite theatrical while the webtoon is ironically more cinematic. If some readers caught the mise-en-scène of some famed thriller films of Park Chan-wook or other criminal movies, they’re not wrong.

A still from Netflix original series ″The 8 Show″ (2024) [NETFLIX]

“I started as a story writer with ‘Friday: Forbidden Tales’ and I actually tried to look for an illustrator for ‘Money Game,’” Bae said. “Long story short, we couldn’t get one so I just remembered the whole bunch of movies that I had watched in the past — which I did a lot, fortunately. I imagined that I was depicting a movie scene and thought of myself looking through a camera lens, and that thankfully worked.”

Currently working on a new series, Bae sat down for an interview with the Korea JoongAng Daily to talk more on being a webtoon creator in the age of online streaming platforms and the already-imminent AI era. Following are edited excerpts from the interview, edited for length and clarity.

You said that you never properly learned to draw. Then how do you think the “Money Game” series became so popular?

The only reason the “Money Game” series was so popular with my illustration is because it helps express deeper things. In my work, you don’t see the typical cuts you see in other webtoons. It’s just a scene, narration, monologues and other simple scenes — much like Park Chan-wook’s film “Oldboy” (2003). I actually wanted to be a film scriptwriter and tried writing a couple when I was younger. I didn’t win any submissions though (laughs).

My style of writing fortunately fit my style of illustrations. Some people will like my style but it might become some sort of restraint for me, because I know that I wouldn’t be able to draw in-your-face heroic action genres. But for the “Money Game” series, it had the upper hand in being dramatized because sometime it seems like it’s difficult to express all the fancy illustrations into real-life videos for things like romance or fantasy.

A scene from the “Money Game” (2018-2020) webtoon series by webtoonist Bae Jin-soo in its English version [SCREEN CAPTURE]

A still from Netflix original series ″The 8 Show″ (2024) [NETFLIX]

How did you feel when you were first offered to turn “Money Game” into a drama series?

In the past, cartoonists used to wish for a paper, hard copy book in our name — just one book. But when I was working on “Money Game,” the tide had turned to having our works turned into a videos, preferably a series. It was like this shiniest medal that we could have as an author. So yes, I was more than thrilled.

I was told that “Money Game” was the fastest drama offer a webtoon series ever got. I got my first offer just a month after I started the series. I’m not sure it’s the same now. Anyway, I was thankfully given a lot of offers from everywhere, especially because it was made into YouTube content once. I signed with director Han Jae-rim (of “The 8 Show”) because he got me really quickly.

Did you watch “The 8 Show?”

I watched the whole series in one sitting. I was so amazed at how faithful he kept to the original. I imagined that a great director like himself wouldn’t have to keep to my work. But it felt so grateful because I thought it meant that he really enjoyed my work, my webtoon. He had told me that he liked it before, but it felt like I was seeing it with my own eyes.

There were parts where the director interpreted some characters differently than I did, or parts where he mixed some actions by different characters into one. But overall, I felt like all the alterations he made were to make the series more enticing for the viewers, and in a way, more realistic. While my work had one villain set from the beginning, Han’s rendition seemed more like, “Aren’t we all villains to each other in the real world?”

But I told him from the very beginning that I am the original author, but the original is only “the original.” I told him that I would not make one single comment because there are things that we’re all good at and having someone boss you around makes it worse. We promised to keep to what we were each good at, and I think that’s what made it turn out so good.

A still from Netflix original series ″The 8 Show″ (2024) [NETFLIX]

As the original author, if someone only watched “The 8 Show” and not “Money Game,” would you still consider that person as having read your own story, too?

That’s a very interesting question. In my personal experience, it felt like I was watching an entirely different thing when I read the “Jurassic Park” (1990) book first and then watched the movie. It feels completely different because text and video are two completely different communication tools, right?

But at the same time, you know that you’re watching the same thing when you watch something after reading the original book or story. So as the original storywriter, I would highly recommend reading my original. But yes, if someone watched “The 8 Show,” then they would have read my story.

Personally, I don’t carry a strong sense of auteurism. I believe a story is all about being enjoyed by anyone who reads it. You can’t force someone to read it a certain way. I would actually prefer people to enjoy it more lightly than dig deep into it.

Then what did you think when fans of your original work made complaints about the choice of actors to play the characters?

I think it’s all part of the fun for the readers. I’ll go back to the “Jurassic Park” example. There’s a character named Dr. Malcolm. Fans thought that actor Morgan Freeman would be the best fit and some people said that Michael Bay should have directed it. It’s just always been like this since the beginning of time.

I rather see it as an expression of love. Of course it becomes a problem if it gets too severe, but I’ve had my share of fun and if people share their thoughts through YouTube and comments, then I’m satisfied.

Poster image of ″The 8 Show,″ a Netflix original series adapated from Naver Webtoon's ″Money Game″ (2018-2020) series [NETFLIX]

Would you say that now that turning webtoons into a series or film has become quite common, it’s led to harsher competition in the webtoon industry?

Yes, but I believe that competition has to get tougher — any market that doesn’t is a dying one. We’re getting new things come up in the webtoon scene like getting it filmed or making a voice book. Whatever it is, it’s an additional value added to the market. It’s actually evidence that we’re growing as a field.

And having your webtoon turned into something else really is a big feat. It might be different for some people, like getting an award or even buying a building. But for me, it was my biggest dream to have my work turned into a series and make a living out of it. I was fortunate enough to see it come true.

At the end of the day, pop art — which webtoons obviously are — are stuck right next to the readers. We’re very close to the readers but I’m getting older from the major consumers of the field. So just the fact that some people want to read or watch my work is enough for me.

Will you be searching for an illustrator for your new work?

If I can find someone I click with, or a good studio, then yes. But that’s because I have so much to tell. Working for all these years, I’ve been piling up stories that I want to tell, like a truckload of them. I know that I won’t be able to get through them alone so if I can find a way to bring them to life, I’m open to finding that out.

I have something in line with the “Money Game” series and something entirely new. I will always show people the deep, dark things that people didn’t want to know and that will always be true about my works.

But right now, I’m getting ready for a web novel series because I seriously don’t want to draw (laughs).

BY YOON SO-YEON [[email protected]]