General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Villains (빌런즈)

Villains (빌런즈) is a South Korean crime drama series broadcast on the streaming service TVING, in which criminals, corrupt police, and intelligence officers fight over an ultra-precise counterfeit banknote known as the "Supernote". It ran for eight episodes from December 18, 2025 to January 8, 2026, and stars Yoo Ji-tae, Kwak Do-won, Lee Beom-soo, and Lee Min-jung.¹^•²

Key fact	Detail
Format	8-episode TVING original crime drama, rated 19+, episodes of roughly 44 to 45 minutes¹^•³
Run	Premiered December 18, 2025 (CJ ENM lists December 17); final episode January 8, 2026¹^•⁴^•²
Central premise	Criminals clash over "Supernotes", flawless counterfeit bills; the scheme involves printing 500 billion won and laundering it through a casino⁴
Main cast	Yoo Ji-tae as J, Kwak Do-won as Jang Joong-hyuk, Lee Beom-soo as Cha Ki-tae, Lee Min-jung as Han Su-hyun¹
Creative team	Directed by Jin Hyuk and Park Jin-young; written by Kim Hyung-jun⁴
Production	Planned by CJ ENM, produced by Taewon Entertainment⁵
International release	HBO Max in 17 Asia-Pacific countries and regions; Disney+ in Japan⁵

Spoilers

Premise and characters

The story begins when a mysterious figure called J approaches Soo-hyun, described by distributor CJ ENM as a master artist in counterfeiting. Introducing himself as a criminal mastermind, J offers a deal she cannot refuse: print 500 billion won worth of flawless counterfeit bills, the "Supernotes", and launder them as real currency through a casino. Soo-hyun accepts and spends several years successfully laundering the money, but an unexpected incident leads her to swear revenge as buried truths and tangled motives surface.⁴

The AsianWiki synopsis gives the four leads sharper definitions. J (Yoo Ji-tae) is a veiled criminal planner with a 100% winning rate in his crimes, who calls each one a masterpiece. Jang Jung-hyuk (Kwak Do-won) is a corrupt detective obsessed with money, who takes bribes and snatches money from thieves. Cha Gi-tae (Lee Beom-soo) once headed a financial crime team at the National Intelligence Service (NIS); a crime J planned five years earlier wrecked his life, and he now hunts J. Han Su-hyun (Lee Min-jung) was also ruined by that crime, learned counterfeiting from Master Yang, and became the best counterfeit bill artist while waiting for her chance at revenge.¹

The plot engine is a money-laundering game rather than a police procedural. In the first two episodes, J's plan to swap counterfeit bills for real money at a casino succeeds, but he disappears with all the cash and the death of Yang Do Sa delivers a twist; five years later J reemerges alongside a murder case while Han Soo Hyun seeks protection from the NIS.⁶ Later episodes follow a 500-billion-won distribution plan, a swap-day chase, and an undercover operation, with episode titles such as "Operation: The ₩500 Billion Circulation Plan" and "The Last Card: A World of Reversed Truths".⁷

Production and the three-year delay

Filming was completed in 2022, but the premiere was postponed indefinitely. According to Soompi, the series was originally scheduled for 2023, and the delay followed Kwak Do Won being booked on charges of drunk driving in September 2022, shortly after filming wrapped. When TVING confirmed the December 18, 2025 release in November 2025, a representative declined to say whether Kwak's scenes had been edited, citing potential spoilers.⁸ A Korean-language fan summary likewise records that filming finished in 2022 and the release was confirmed about three years later, on December 18, 2025.⁹

The delay was not the only dispute. In October 2022, YTN reported that the production company Taewon Entertainment said it would seek an amicable settlement after being served with a broadcast-injunction lawsuit; a media outlet had also reported that IOK Company and Supernote side had filed a copyright-violation complaint against screenwriter Kim Hyung-jun with the Seoul Gangnam Police.¹⁰^•¹¹

Release and reception

TVING released the series weekly on Thursdays, with the finale on January 8, 2026.² Internationally, it streamed on HBO Max in 17 countries and regions across the Asia-Pacific and on Disney+ in Japan, alongside Wavve in South Korea.⁵^•¹²

Reception was mixed to negative. The South China Morning Post's review, headlined "Yoo Ji-tae leads unconvincing counterfeiting crime thriller", judged that the show, despite its star power, was "already in danger of being quickly forgotten", and compared it to the fake supernotes themselves: it bore most elements of the genre while missing the pieces that define it.¹³ On IMDb it holds a 5.2/10 rating from 125 users.¹⁴ Korean user reviews on Kinolights averaged 1.5 out of 5 across 11 reviews, with complaints about disjointed storytelling and weak character construction.¹⁵ AsianWiki users, by contrast, rated it 85/100 from 62 votes.¹

Context in Korean crime drama

Villains belongs to a crowded field of Korean crime and revenge series built around morally compromised leads, a genre in which critics note that male villains tend to be defined by the crimes they commit.¹⁶ Its distinguishing device is the Supernote itself, a counterfeit so precise that real and fake become indistinguishable, which supplies both the heist mechanics and the theme of reversed truth announced in the finale's title.⁴^•⁷ The title should not be confused with Villains Everywhere (빌런의 나라), a KBS2 family sitcom that aired in early 2025.¹⁷

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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