“Politics is a deal with the devil; to gain power, you have to sell your soul.” This quote from The Devil’s Deal (2023) sums up the film’s theme. It’s a political thriller that portrays the dark side of politics. Everything is beyond life and death itself. The film has exciting twists. We have some action scenes along with political mind games. It’s a story of how one politician was backstabbed and how he sold his soul to gain revenge and power. This article contains spoilers.
The Devil’s Deal (2023) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:
The movie begins with a betrayal. Jeon Hae-woong (Jo Jin Woong) was running for elections in the Busan district but, at the last minute, was kicked out of the nominations. He had loaned some money for the elections but was in a pickle after being kicked out. Hae-woong was replaced by an unknown person in the political field as he could be used as a puppet.
Hae-woong was waging a battle between life and death as he had to repay the loan he had taken from Kim Pil Do (Kim Mu Yeol), a gangster. Pil Do was threatening Hae-Woong to repay the money. Hae-woong confronts and begs Kwon Soon Tae (Lee Sung Min), who had betrayed Hae-woong, but Soon Tae makes excuses and leaves Hae-woong on his own. Soon Tae is the mastermind behind the political game. Hae-woong, in desperation, is hell-bent on taking revenge.
He takes a confidential copy of the residential plan of the area and makes a deal with Pil Do, and promises him 10 times the amount after he gets elected. Pil Do introduces him to Jang-ho (Kim Min-Jae), and Hae-woong also makes a deal with him. Hae-woong starts to infiltrate Soon Tae’s inner circle. Hae-woong starts preparing for the elections with the help of Pil Do and Jang-ho. Initially, it looked like Hae-wrong would win, but ultimately, he lost the election. In fact, Soon Tae played a significant role in Hae-woong’s defeat. Soon Tae threatened one man to get the elector’s details. After receiving the copy, he kills the man.
After Hae-woong’s defeat, Jang-ho is furious as he has bought property trusting Hae-woong. Soon Tae made one of the other politicians change the residential plan and announce the revised version. After seeing these new changes, Jang-ho threatens Hae-woong to pay him back the money the next day. As Hae-woong could not, Jang-ho goes to a prosecutor to reveal the crimes committed by Hae-woong. Hae-woong asks Pil-do to find Jang-ho and stop him; meanwhile, Hae-woong reaches out to a senior prosecutor to stop the junior from taking Jang-ho’s case. Hae-woong is successful. Pil-do attacks Jang-ho and pushes alcohol down his throat, and leaves him to die.
Hae-woong takes the help of the reporter Sang-mi (Son Yeo-Eun) to publish an article regarding the confidential residential copy that was changed at the last moment. Things get heated as Soon Tae realizes Hae-woong is behind this. Soon Tae comes up with a plan to put Hae-woong and Pil Do behind bars. He asks his prosecutor to create a story about Jang-ho’s death framing Pil Do and Hae-woong. Both of them are brought to custody separately. Hae-woong maintains his politician demeanor and says that the cops should be finding the rival gang as it might have been a case of a job gone wrong or money fights. Pil Do refuses to admit that he had committed any such crime.
Soon Tae tackles Pil Do. Soon Tae made sure he had recorded Hae-woong’s conversation with the prosecutor. He plays that for Pil Do to hear as Hae-Woong talks about the rival gangs. Soon Tae tells Pil Do that this was a case of loyalty between morons. He strikes a nerve with Pil Do. Hae-woong threatens the senior prosecutor and asks him to let Pil Do go. Pil Do is released, and Hae-woong assures him he is safe and has nothing to worry about.
Sang Mi receives a call from the man who was supposed to be dead. The same man Soon Tae had threatened and killed was, in fact, still alive. He reveals to Sang Mi and Hae-woong what happened.
They take this opportunity to take down Soon Tae. They decide to hold a press conference and put Soon Tae behind bars. On the press conference day, we see Sang Mi waiting for Hae-woong and that man to arrive, but Pil Do kidnap them. Pil Do kills that man and is about to kill Hae-woong as well. We see a flashback here when Hae-woong and Soon Tae meet. Soon Tae tells him that Pil Do has spilled the beans and informs him that Jang-ho is alive. In the present day, Pil Do is about to kill Hae-woong, and Jang-ho attacks him from behind. A few months later, Soon Tae and Hae-woong are together, and Hae-woong is now part of the inner circle in politics.
The Devil’s Deal (2023) Movie Ending Explained:
The movie ends with Hae-woong and Soon Tae back together again. But in the end, we see Hae-woong feeling out of place even though, at the beginning of the film, he wanted to be a prominent politician. Hae-woong, after the betrayal, had gone through a journey. He never wanted to be a killer, but to survive, he joined hands with gangs and learned how to threaten and play dirty politics to stay ahead of the game. There is no turning back now; he has completely lost his innocence. As Soon Tae mentions in the film joining politics is making a deal with the devil, and Hae-woong learned it the hard way.
The Devil’s Deal (2023) Themes Analyzed:
Power:
One of the film’s highlights is power’s influence on each character. We see immense power struggles between the characters as well. Soon Tae always wanted to be the one running the show, which comes with power. At the beginning of the film, Hae-woong loses his power; because of that, he has to seek revenge as he could not be powerless. Pil Do was the gang leader with his own powers, using and abusing them as he saw fit.
Corruption:
The concepts of corruption and power go hand in hand. Politics generally has a bad reputation for being corrupt, and this film builds more on that concept. The politicians in this film took to corruption as they wanted to be in power and be decision-makers. That one tiny step of corruption led to disastrous ends. Corruption eventually led to violence.
Revenge:
A man who wanted to do well for his people succumbed to the idea of revenge, and the reason was betrayal. Hae-woong was struggling with a life-and-death scenario; all he could do was find ways to get back at Soon Tae. To get revenge, there was corruption and violence involved. Eventually, he got what he desired but remained confused and unsure about himself at the film’s end.
