South Korea Synopsis
불한당: 나쁜 놈들의 세상
“Careful who you trust.”
Jae-ho, who aims to become the number one in a crime organization, gets to build up trust with Hyun-su, an ambitious newbie in the prison. While they try to take over the organization after the prison release, their ulterior motives starts to emerge.
Titles With Overlapping Themes
Films and series that share thematic tags with The Merciless. Number on each card indicates how many keywords overlap.
Other Titles From CJ Entertainment
Action + Crime in South Korea
77 South Korea titles in our catalog blend the Action and Crime genres. Below: the top-rated of them (excluding The Merciless itself).
The 2016–2018 South Korea Window
The Merciless holds position #127 of 268 South Korea films in the 2016–2018 window, below highlighted by audience rating.
The 2010s South Korea Landscape
Catalog density by release year across the 2010s in South Korea, 719 titles in total. Highlighted year (yellow) is when The Merciless premiered alongside 88 others.
Position in Catalog
Released alongside 88 other South Korea films in 2017.
The 862nd South Korea title from South Korea we index (earliest catalogued entry: 1955).
Our South Korea catalog contains 1,397 titles in total (931 films).
Audience Engagement
109 audience reviews — more than 84% of South Korea films in our index.
Popularity sits at the 87th percentile among South Korea films.
Thematic Fingerprint
Tags on The Merciless, grouped by how common each theme is across the full Asian catalog. Rare tags are more distinctive signals.
- prison release · 2
- gang · 26
- neo-noir · 17
- undercover cop · 15
- undercover · 13
- bromance · 13
- prison · 32
Reception Benchmarks
Ranked #583 of 1,397 South Korea films indexed here (58th percentile by TMDB audience score).
Rating is +0.2 points above the South Korea average of 6.9/10.
Among South Korea Action productions specifically: #102 of 266 (top 38%).
Production Details
| Primary Country | South Korea |
|---|---|
| Original Language | Korean |
| Production Companies | CJ Entertainment, Barunson |
| Runtime | 2h 0m |
| Release Date | May 17, 2017 |
| IMDb | tt6777370 |