|Kave Magazine=Choi Jae-hyuk Late at night in Yeouido, in the middle of the square in front of the National Assembly, young men are tangled in a fight. A steel pipe slices through the air and crashes down, and on the asphalt mixed with blood and rainwater, only two people remain standing. The two legends, Gi-soon and Gi-seok, who would later divide the power dynamics of the Seoul underworld.
Naver Webtoon 'Plaza' opens with the return of a man who had already become a legend, skipping 15 years while holding the memory of this bloody scene. The man who cut his own Achilles' heel and left the peak of the organisation, now returned as a limping middle-aged man, is Gi-soon. Like Odysseus returning home in rags, but instead of a bow, he holds his fists.
The Return of the Legend "What can that old man do?"
To the casual observer, Gi-soon appears to be just a limping old man. In shabby clothes, with dirty sneakers and an uncomfortable gait. The young thugs in the organisation openly disregard him. The look of "What can that old man do?" floats in the air like a ghost. Like an old Bruce Wayne standing before Bane in The Dark Knight Rises. But the old bosses and elders know. This man was once the protagonist of the fight that split the Seoul underworld in half, and the peace they enjoy now is actually standing on the balance he built with blood. So the boss makes one last request to Gi-soon. He asks him to take a look at his friend's restaurant, where he wants to make a living without violence, just once.
The younger brother, Gi-seok, who received that request, heads to the restaurant. The shop run by the third-generation owner smells of money but is a mess in terms of business. Hygiene, flow, staff management, and customer service are all the worst. Gi-seok, with his 'field sense' honed in the organisation, is determined to overhaul the place. He points out everything from the menu composition to lighting and table arrangement, and even the staff's tone and eye contact, telling the owner that 'human laundry' comes first. Like Gordon Ramsay filming Kitchen Nightmares, but instead of swearing, fists are the backdrop. He practices making the owner bow and apologise in front of customers and pushes him hard to let go of his petty pride. His tone is rough, but in terms of actions, it is very close to realistic management consulting.
The problem is that this owner is not someone who can accept such reality. Having grown up surrounded by money and power since childhood, he has never faced serious restraint from anyone. Like the joker said, "a guy who has never been hit in his life." He takes Gi-seok's advice not as counsel but as an insult. Especially the moment he feels his face has been lost in front of customers and staff, his gaze completely flips. After several rounds of psychological warfare, the owner ultimately instructs to hire an outside thug to deal with Gi-seok. "Get rid of that guy." In this world, that one phrase can change the lives of too many people.
The Beginning of Revenge... The Moment Silence Ends
While walking through the night streets, Gi-seok is ambushed. Surrounded by several people in a dark alley, he is mercilessly beaten. In terms of fighting skills, he is not someone who would easily fall, but the numbers, the ambush, and the betrayal working from behind quickly neutralise all his abilities. Like Sonny Corleone in The Godfather being taken down at the toll booth. Ultimately, Gi-seok meets a tragic end, and this incident is treated as just an 'accident' within the organisation. His death is summarised with the words, "He was just unlucky," and from the moment his brother is erased, the real story of 'Plaza' begins.
In front of his brother's corpse, Gi-soon stands silently. On the surface, he shows no significant reaction. He neither cries nor shouts. However, the reader can feel within a few panels that something is slowly boiling inside this man. Like Beatrix Kiddo waking up in a hospital bed in Kill Bill. Gi-soon begins to map out the relationships in his head before his emotions explode. The boss's friend, that friend's son, the action leaders and staff surrounding him. He identifies where the hand that killed his brother started and what interests are entangled above it, one by one. And he quietly resolves, "It’s time to turn the tables once again."
The Strategist Who Dismantles Structures, Memories of That Day 15 Years Ago
Gi-soon's method is not simple revenge. Instead of seeking personal retribution, he begins to shake the surrounding structures. The flow of funds surrounding the restaurant, the protection fee structure, the commercial district layout, and the lines of the organisation that ride on top of it to reap profits. It is literally a project to dismantle the castle built in the middle of the city square from the ground up. Like Omar from The Wire cleaning the streets, but with fists and strategy instead of guns. His legs may not move as quickly as before, but his head and hands are still precise. When necessary, he does not hesitate to bring out the violence that once made his name a legend. However, now his fists move not for self-glorification but based on cold calculations.
In this process, the flashback to the fight in Yeouido 'Plaza' 15 years ago forms an important axis. On that day, when two organisations clashed head-on in front of the National Assembly over the supremacy of Seoul, Gi-soon was not just a thug throwing punches. He was a strategist designing who should stand where, when to push, and how to catch the opponent off guard. Like Leonidas from 300 choosing the Thermopylae pass. After surviving that fight and becoming a legend, he cuts his own Achilles' heel and withdraws from the brutal world. He believed that only by leaving could his brother and juniors live with less bloodshed. However, his brother's death brutally proves that his sacrifices and compromises were never enough.
As the current Gi-soon begins to move, the entire organisation starts to stir. The young action leaders boast, "Isn't he just a limping old man now?" but the old powers feel a chilling fear. Those who once stood in the plaza with Gi-soon cannot sleep at the news of his return to the game. Because the memories of that terrifying night and the choices they made resurface. Like the fear that spread when the rumour that John Wick had picked up a gun again circulated. The webtoon alternates between fragments of the past and present, gradually illustrating how one man's revenge shakes the order of a city.
At the same time, 'Plaza' intricately captures the lives of those around Gi-soon. The family members who must continue their daily lives after losing a brother, the juniors who make a living while watching the organisation's dynamics, and the mid-bosses who devise their own survival strategies within the tangled power structure. No one is completely good, nor completely evil. Everyone compromises for their own reasons, turns a blind eye, and sometimes gets their hands dirty to survive. Gi-soon's revenge constantly raises the question of "Where does justice end and where does another form of violence begin?" in this world.
The Outstanding Directing of a K-Webtoon Writer
The first pillar supporting the completeness of the work is its direction. Genre-wise, it is a typical organisational action noir, but the writer takes a significantly different path in pacing. From the beginning, there are bloody brawls and refreshing revenge, but at the same time, a considerable number of panels are devoted to explaining relationships and psychological portrayals. By the time Gi-soon throws a punch, the reader has already seen enough of his past, the story of his brother and the boss, and the interests of the mid-bosses. Like Scorsese spending most of the time building characters and then exploding at the end. Thus, each punch carries the weight of emotion, and the fight scenes feel less like mere spectacles and more like moments of settling long-overdue bills.
The character design also shows clear signs of effort. Gi-soon fits the mold of a typical munchkin protagonist, but he bears that strength as a responsibility rather than flaunting it. He has the power to take down anyone at any time, but every time he resorts to violence, he first calculates the blood and backlash that will follow. Like Logan thinking twice before unsheathing his claws. Therefore, the reader cannot be intoxicated solely by his fists. The discomfort of "Is it really necessary to go that far?" clashes with the agreement of "But it has to be done to change things," creating a unique addictive tension.
Supporting characters are not consumed as mere decorations. Gi-seok, the brother who dies in the first episode, continues to follow Gi-soon like a shadow in every decision he makes, and the action leaders and survivors of the plaza fight 15 years ago, as well as the mid-bosses of each organisation, come to life in just a few panels. The young forces who openly disregarded Gi-soon slowly change their attitudes as they learn about his past, demonstrating that the name 'legend' can become a greater fear than actual violence. This webtoon relentlessly digs into the fact that people fear the image constructed by stories more than the power in front of them.
The artwork and action direction are also strengths. The brawls occurring in confined spaces like narrow alleys, restaurants, motels, and construction sites are clear due to panel division and perspective handling. It naturally connects where the characters fly and where they land in the next panel, allowing the reader to replay the scenes in their minds without interruption. Like the violent scenes seen in films by Lee Chang-dong or Na Hong-jin, they are not flashy but heavy and realistic. The colour palette of blood and neon signs, with only the headlights of cars shining against the dark tone of the city, gives the impression of transporting the atmosphere of 90s Korean noir films into the webtoon format.
A Man's Bloody Struggle
Ultimately, 'Plaza' is less a story of someone winning by beating someone up and more about a man's bloody struggle to push through a wrongly set game to the end. Therefore, there is certainly a reader I would recommend this webtoon to.
Those who loved the atmosphere of Korean-style organisational noir. If you want to taste the lonely emotions that old gangster films used to provide, with a much more intricate narrative and rhythmic action, 'Plaza' is almost the optimal choice. A must-read for fans of Friends, the Depraved Streets, and New Worlds.
For readers who want to see beyond the simple wish that "the one who deserves to be hit should be hit" to what remains at the end of violence and revenge. Following Gi-soon's journey brings a simultaneous rush of catharsis and fatigue, exhilaration and bitterness. What lingers when the last page is turned is not a triumphant applause but a question of "If the world is such that one must go that far to improve, where did it all go wrong in the first place?"
For those looking for a work that touches on long-suppressed anger and regret, 'Plaza' is a fitting choice. The scenes will linger in your mind for days after reading. The sound of rain in Yeouido Plaza and the figure of Gi-soon limping away will continue to follow you.
And you will find yourself murmuring, "The real fear is not the fist, but the structure that makes one have to use their fists." If that realisation weighs on your heart, it is worth investing time in the webtoon named Plaza.
