General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

No Mercy (단죄)

No Mercy (단죄; also romanized Danjoe, literally "Condemnation") is a 2025 South Korean crime thriller drama in which an unknown actress whose parents die through voice phishing infiltrates the criminal organization responsible and takes revenge using deepfake technology. It ran for eight episodes on the streaming service Wavve and the cable channel Dramax from September 24 to October 16, 2025, and was released on Netflix on December 31, 2025.¹^•²

Key fact	Detail
Original title	단죄 (Danjoe); English title No Mercy, also known as Condemnation or Conviction¹
Format	8 episodes, about 47 to 50 minutes each, aired Wednesdays and Thursdays at 21:30 on Wavve and 21:40 on Dramax¹^•³
Broadcast period	September 24 to October 16, 2025¹
Production	Directed by Choi Hyeong-jun, written by Kim Dan-bi, produced by Tiger Studio and eds Channel⁴^•⁵
Main cast	Lee Joo-young as Ha So-min, Ji Seung-hyun as Ma Seok-gu, Koo Jun-hoe as Park Jeong-hun¹
Original ratings	Debut episode rated 0.2%, staying in the 0% range throughout the original run⁶
Netflix release	December 31, 2025, about three months after the Wavve premiere; the series then entered the domestic top 10²^•⁷
Viewer scores	TMDB 7.0/10, MyDramaList 7.2/10, IMDb 5.6/10⁸^•⁹^•³

Spoilers

Premise and plot

The story follows Ha So-min (Lee Joo-young), a woman who dropped out of the police university to pursue acting. On the day she invites her parents to her stage performance, her mother is killed in a hit-and-run accident caused by Ma Seok-gu (Ji Seung-hyun), the head of the drug and voice-phishing organization Ilsung, as he flees a police checkpoint. Her father, searching for his missing wife, is deceived by a deepfake voice-phishing scam and takes his own life after severe shock.⁴^•¹⁰

Five years later, So-min uses deepfake technology, which manipulates or synthesizes a person's face, voice, and behavior with artificial intelligence, to infiltrate the Ilsung organization and dismantle it from within. She is assisted by Park Jeong-hun (Koo Jun-hoe), a detective and her former classmate at the police university.⁴^•² The organization's members include Kim Du-shik (Sung Ki-yoon), Mr. Kim (Choi Moo-in), and the Yanbian-born woman In Ye-hyang (Nam Kwon-ah), whose internal conflicts drive part of the plot.¹^•⁷

In the finale, aired October 16, 2025, So-min is on the brink of death when a surprise attack by Jeong-hoon, the police, and the Public Security Bureau turns the tables; Seok-gu is stabbed to death after a fierce confrontation with So-min, and the Ilsung organization is destroyed.¹¹

Production and release

The series was a co-production of Dramax and Wavve, produced by Tiger Studio and eds Channel, with Choi Hyeong-jun making his drama directing debut and Kim Dan-bi writing the screenplay.¹⁰^•¹² It was positioned as a "21st-century thriller" addressing voice phishing and AI-based crime, social issues that had grown increasingly severe in South Korea.¹³ The music director was Lee Bu-mi, and an original soundtrack was released in six parts between September 23 and November 12, 2025, published by Genie Music, beginning with the single "I'm Toxic" by Jun So Min.¹⁴

Reception and the Netflix reversal

Weak original run. The drama premiered to a 0.2% rating and remained in the 0% range throughout its broadcast on Dramax and Wavve, a level generally considered very low for Korean cable television.⁶ One retrospective account puts its average rating at around 0.4% during the original run.⁷

Netflix reversal. Producer Tiger Studio announced on December 29, 2025 that the series would be released on Netflix on December 31, an unusual move coming seven months after its Wavve debut.² After the Netflix release, the series reversed its fortunes and entered South Korea's top 10, and word of mouth continued into 2026.⁷^•¹⁵

Critical scores. Aggregated viewer ratings differ by platform: TMDB lists 7.0/10 and MyDramaList 7.2/10, while IMDb shows 5.6/10 from 176 votes.⁸^•⁹^•³ Korean-language commentary praised the topical subject matter of deepfake and voice-phishing crime while some reviews noted uneven execution.¹⁶ Commentators also read the series as more than a simple revenge story, framing it around the boundary between inequality and justice, and around the limits of the law against digital crime.⁷^•¹⁷

Cast

Lee Joo-young as Ha So-min, an unknown actress and former police university student who infiltrates Ilsung¹
Ji Seung-hyun as Ma Seok-gu, the cold, charismatic leader of the Ilsung organization¹^•¹⁵
Koo Jun-hoe as Park Jeong-hun, an elite detective and So-min's police academy classmate¹
Lee Ji-ha as Kim Mi-yang, So-min's mother, a figure at the center of the drama's tragedy¹⁸
Seo Jin-won as Ha Hyun-jin, Min Hye-su as Ryu Hye-dam, and Sung Ki-yoon as Kim Du-shik in supporting roles⁴

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › International serial drama and telenovelas › East Asian drama series › Korean contemporary drama › Thriller, crime, and mystery series › Crime and mystery thrillers

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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