Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Uncle Samsik’ On Hulu, Where A Corrupt Fixer And An Idealistic Young Politician Team Up In Postwar South Korea

Most US film and TV fans know Song Kang-ho was in the 2019 Oscar-winning film Parasite, but he’s been an A-list movie star in South Korea for decades. Now, like many movie stars, he’s starring in a prestige TV series, about an uneasy political partnership in the tumultuous post-Korean War period of the late-’50s/early-’60s.

UNCLE SAMSIK: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Park Doo-chil (Song Kang-ho), a South Korean businessman, talks about how “out of love and respect,” people call him “Uncle Samsik” or some variation of it, and he loves it.

The Gist: In an unknown location in South Korea in 1960, a man named Kim San (Byun Yo-han) is questioned about Park; he explains what the nickname “Samsik” means: “Sam” is “three” and “Sik” is “food.” He made sure people had three meals a day, even during the war.

November, 1959 in Seoul. Two men who are part of a gang that got caught stealing oil from US troops come to Uncle Samsik to get their guys out of lockup. One of the two men coming to Samsik refuses to call him by that nickname. Samsik wants them to do him a favor first: Break the legs of a rival gang leader, who happens to be part of the Liberal Party. Samsik promises the two men the rival’s turf if they do it.

In the meantime, Kim San is going to work as a middle manager in the Ministry of Home Affairs. He studied economics in the US on an Albright scholarship, and he certainly has higher ambitions than his current position; he gets frustrated when his presentation to the home minister about steps to convert South Korea from a agricultural economy to an industrial one is interrupted when the minister is called away by President Rhee.

The president has taken his name out of reelection consideration, but there are protests demanding he jump back into the race. Kim is supporting Joo In-tae (Oh Kwang-rok), a candidate that not only eventually wants reunification but shares Kim’s view that the country needs to attract industry to survive. He’s going to a big speech Joo is making, at the invitation of his daughter, Joo Yeo-jin (Jin Ki-joo).

Samsik thinks he’s made a deal to acquire shares of an oil company and has entered into a partnership to develop waterfront property. He definitely thinks it’ll get him elected to the Cheongwoo Federation. He talks to one of the federation members about his experience eating pizza and how they can eat pizza when they’re flush with industrial money. But that deal might fall through, due to the American companies’ insistence on more control.

A young Liberal Party assemblyman comes to Samsik and asks him to kill the same rival whose legs Samsik wants broken. He’s already got a plan in place for the gang he brought on to take care of the rival’s gang during a speech by Joo In-tae.

During that speech, a melee predictably breaks out between the rival gangs, and Joo In-tae is escorted out. But in his stead, Kim gets up on stage and defends the candidate when one assemblyman in the crowd calls Joo a “commie.” When Kim mentions eating pizza when he studied in the US, he gets Samsik’s attention.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Uncle Samsik is somewhat of a Korean House Of Cards, where uneasy political alliances are made in order to further careers and business interests.

Our Take: Most people in the U.S. know Song Kang-ho for his role in the Oscar-winning film Parasite, and his performance is the centerpiece of Uncle Samsik. Park Doo-chil is a very pragmatic businessman; he knows what needs to be done in order to advance his interests. And when he talks about pizza with one of his fellow industrialists, he does so in a way that shows he’s got a vision and a dream about what he thinks postwar South Korea should be. If he has to break some legs — or worse — to do it, so be it.

But we also appreciated Byun Yo-han’s restrained but powerful turn as Kim San. He knows that there’s more in store for him than just being a paper pusher in the home ministry office. He’s going to put all of his skills and ability behind Joo In-tae’s candidacy, but Samsik certainly sees something in Kim, and the partnership between the two of them will be fascinating to watch, mainly because Kim seems to be a pretty ethical person when Park/Samsik is anything but.

However, sometimes opposites make for great partners. And the push and pull between the two as Samsik takes Kim under his wing will certainly be the driver of this series’ drama.

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: Samsik pays close attention to Kim’s defense of Joo In-tae.

Sleeper Star: Joo Yeo-jin, played by Jin Ki-joo, will have a lot of influence over Kim San, and we wonder how that influence will affect Kim’s partnership with Samsik.

Most Pilot-y Line: During his speech about pizza, Samsik talks to his business associate about the ingredients, then realizes that his associate has never heard of cheese before.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Two fine lead performances drive the drama in Uncle Samsik, as does the fictionalized world that is postwar South Korea.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.