|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 landscape 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 Achilles' heel and left the peak of the organization, 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 guy do?"
On the surface, the current Gi-soon is just a limping old man. Dressed in shabby clothes, with dirty sneakers, and an uncomfortable gait. The young thugs in the organization openly disregard him. The look of "What can that guy 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 built by this man’s 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 now wants to make a living through business instead of 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 business. Hygiene, flow, staff management, and customer service are all the worst. Gi-seok, with his 'field sense' honed in the organization, sets out to completely overhaul the shop. He points out everything from menu composition to lighting and table arrangement, staff tone, and eye contact, and tells the owner that 'human laundry' comes first. Like Gordon Ramsay filming Kitchen Nightmares, but instead of curses, fists are the background. He practices bowing and apologizing in front of customers and pushes hard to let go of his petty pride. His tone is rough, but looking at his actions, it’s 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 received 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 is crumpled in front of customers and staff, his gaze completely flips. After several rounds of psychological warfare, the owner eventually orders to hire an outside thug to take care of Gi-seok. "Get rid of that guy." In this world, that one sentence 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 brutally beaten. In terms of fighting skills, he is not someone who would easily fall, but the numbers, ambush, and the hands of betrayal operating from behind quickly neutralize 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 organization. His death is summarized with a single phrase, "He was just unlucky," and from the moment his younger 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 feels 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 first draws a relationship map in his head before an emotional explosion. The boss's friend, that friend's son, the action leaders and staff surrounding him. He picks apart where the hand that killed his brother started and what interests are entangled above it. And he quietly resolves, "It’s time to turn the tables once again."
A 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 organization that ride on top to reap profits. It is literally a project to dismantle the castle built in the middle of the city square from the foundation. 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 organizations 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 organization slowly stirs. 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 just from the news that he has reappeared on the scene. Because the memories of that terrifying night and the choices they made resurface. Like the fear when rumors spread that John Wick has picked up a gun again. The webtoon alternates pieces of the past and present, gradually clarifying how one man's revenge shakes the order of a city.
At the same time, 'Plaza' intricately captures the lives of the characters around Gi-soon. The family that must continue their daily lives despite losing a brother, the juniors who make a living while watching the organization inside and out, 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 K-Webtoon Authors
The first pillar supporting the completeness of the work is its direction. Genre-wise, it is a typical organized action noir, but the author takes a significantly different path in pacing. From the beginning, bloody brawls and refreshing revenge appear, but at the same time, a considerable number of panels are devoted to explaining relationships and psychological depictions. By the time Gi-soon swings his fist once, 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 uses 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 "Do I really have to go that far?" clashes with the agreement of "But that much is necessary for change," creating a unique addictive tension.
Supporting characters are not consumed as mere decorations. Gi-seok, the younger 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 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, showing that the name 'legend' can become a greater fear than actual violence. This webtoon persistently digs into the fact that people fear the image layered 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 color scheme of blood and neon signs flashing against the dark tone of the city gives the impression of transporting the atmosphere of 90s Korean noir films into the webtoon format.
A Bloody Struggle of a Man
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 board to the end. Therefore, there is certainly a reader I would recommend this webtoon to.
Those who loved the atmosphere of Korean organized noir. If you want to taste the lonely emotions that old gangster movies 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, treacherous streets, and new worlds.
For readers who want to see what remains at the end of violence and revenge beyond the simple wish that "the one who deserves to be hit should be hit." Following Gi-soon’s journey brings a simultaneous rush of catharsis and fatigue, exhilaration and bitterness. What remains when you close the last page is not a triumphant applause but a question closer to, "If the world only gets better by going that far, 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 muttering, "The real fear is not the fist, but the structure that makes you have to use the fist." If that realization weighs on your heart, it is worth investing time in the webtoon named Plaza.
