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This drama has two versions: (1) The Coupang Play version with six episodes, and (2) the Extended Version aka Director’s Cut with eight episodes. The two versions came about because of the conflict between streaming platform Coupang Play and this drama’s writer-director. The Coupang Play version is action oriented, while the Extended Version is a slow burn, character-driven drama.
From Wikipedia: “Anna” is a South Korean web series, written and directed by Lee Joo-young, and starring Bae Suzy in the title role, along with Jung Eun-chae, Kim Jun-han, and Park Ye-young. It premiered on Coupang Play, on June 24, 2022.
Genre: psychological thriller.
From Soompi: [“Anna”] is written and helmed by director Lee Joo Young of the film “A Single Rider.” Veteran production team members including camera director Lee Eui Tae and editing director Kim Jung Hoon, who won awards at the 42nd Blue Dragon Film Awards for their work on “The Book of Fish,” and music director Mowg, who worked on “Masquerade,” “Miss Granny,” and “Deliver Us From Evil,” have also joined forces for “Anna.”
The drama’s cast has received nominations and awards from the APAN Star Awards, 2022: Top Excellence Award, Actress in an OTT Drama, Bae Suzy, nominated; Excellence Award, Actress in an OTT Drama, Jung Eun-chae, nominated: Best Supporting Actress, Baek Ji-won, won.
Controversy that brought about the two versions (Wikipedia):
On August 2, 2022, director Lee Joo-young accused Coupang Play of making major edits to the series without her consent.Though the final version of the series submitted by Lee consisted of 8 episodes (45–61 minutes per episode), the series which premiered on July 24 consisted of 6 episodes (45–63 minutes per episode). Lee had requested to remove her name in the credits for director and screenplay, but that was ignored.
In a statement a day later, Coupang Play explained that they found that the director’s editing was significantly different from what was initially agreed with them but when they requested multiple times to edit according to what was agreed, director refused it. Hence Coupang Play edited the work to match the original production intent, with the consent of the producer and in accordance with the rights stipulated in the contract. However, director Lee’s side stated that she neither received request for corrections nor has she refused to do so. Furthermore, both Lee and editor Kim Jung-hoon claimed that they never received any opinions regarding editing from Coupang Play.
Previously on July 8, Coupang Play had announced to release a extended version of the series in August. Amidst the controversy, it was revealed to be the director’s cut which consists of 8 episodes. It was released on August 12.
How I wrote these episode summaries with no spoilers
1. I assumed that you will be reading these summaries and watching the videos chronologically.
2. I narrated some of the main actions in each episode without revealing the plot’s twists and turns.
3. At the beginning of each summary starting with Episode 2, I placed in a table a recap of the major twists and turns of the previous episode. But because you have already watched the video of the previous episode, they aren’t spoilers anymore.
4. I followed this structure all throughout, except for Ep. 8 (Finale) where I included spoilers. Reason — most people want to know if the drama has a good/happy ending or a sad ending before they invest the time in watching it.
Episode 1
1968 ... Lee Yu-mi is the six-year old daughter of a mute mother and a struggling tailor. The wife of an American military officer takes Yu-mi under her wings after seeing her printout of a piano keyboard. For the next two years, she teaches Yu-mi English, social graces, piano, drawing, and ballet. During that time, she also cautions Yu-mi to focus and to never to let anyone read her mind.
1994 ... Despite her family’s financial difficulties, Yu-mi joins the regional ballet competition.
1999 ... Yu-mi plans to go to college and major in arts; she’s also in a serious romantic relationship.
As Yu-mi transfers to a school in Seoul with only four months left in the school year, the guidance counselor tells her not to make friends and just focus on her studies.
2000 ... Yu-mi fails the entrance exams but lies to her parents about being admitted into a prestigious college.
Episode 2
| Ep. 1 recap:
The school authorities find out about Yu-mi’s romantic relationship with her music teacher. Her teacher is merely suspended after claiming that she seduced him; on the other hand, she’s forced to transfer to another school. Yu-mi enrolls in an academy to prepare for retaking the college entrance exams again. But she meets Han Ji-won, who lives in the same boarding house and attends the Ehyeon Womans University where she misled her parents into thinking she was admitted into. During lunch with Ji-won and her fellow student-writers, she lies about having lived in America. Accepted into Ji-won’s Editorial Club, Yu-mi joins the club’s activities and meets Kang Jae-ho, with whom she starts a relationship. But she fails the entrance exams again. Yu-mi lies to her parents again about being given the opportunity to study English in the USA and pleads with her father to support her financially. But at the airport, Jae-ho finds from his mother that Yu-mi is a fake student at Ehyeon Womans University. |
After her father dies, Yu-mi begins working at several part-time jobs to support herself and her mother.
2007 ... Yu-mi gets a job at Marais Home & Living, a family-owned company that sells luxury home furnishings; it’s run by Designer Lee, his wife (nicknamed “Big Director”), and his daughter Hyun-joo, who has just returned to Korea after studying at prestigious art schools in the US.
Hyun-joo’s mother tries to arrange her marriage to a doctor whose father owns a hospital and whose mother owns a gallery. But Hyun-joo isn’t interested in the doctor because he looks like a dork.
2010 ... Yu-mi continues working for Marais, doing odd jobs and taking care of Hyun-joo’s every need. Hyun-joo, however, is generous with her, giving her a luxury watch from Switzerland.
Yu-mi brings Hyun-joo’s documents such as school records and family relation certificate to Director Song, the doctor’s mother.
While driving Hyun-joo home after her get-together with her friends from the US, Yu-mi finds out that she’ll lose her job once Hyun-joo gets married.
Episode 3
| Ep. 2 recap:
Although Marais does import luxury home furnishings, it also passes off locally made items as being imported and sells them at exorbitant prices. Still a bit tipsy, Hyun-joo teases Yu-mi that she can obtain a loan for herself because she knows her credit card password and has her bank certificate. Indeed, Yu-mi becomes tempted and uses Hyun-joo’s credit card to buy an expensive shawl. Yu-mi walks out on the manager of her boarding house who tries to seduce her with fancy promises. Designer Lee becomes angry and denies Yu-mi’s request for a day off to visit her mother; he also calls her and the other staff stupid and lazy. Later, Hyun-joo humiliates Yu-mi by dropping her passport to the floor and ordering her to expedite its renewal. During a get-together with the rest of the staff on New Year’s Eve, Yu-mi tells them that she doesn’t want to continue living the way they have been living with Designer Lee and his family. She says that she wants people to fear her. After stealing all the money from Marais’ cash register and Hyun-joo’s passport, Yu-mi goes to visit her mother. As she meets her old friend Ji-won at a chicken restaurant later on, she lies about having been in the USA and studying there all these years. On the other hand, Ji-won says that she’s a struggling journalist at a small newspaper. In applying as a part-time art teacher in a “hagwon” (academy) that was recommended by Ji-won, Yu-mi fakes her academic credentials by using Hyun-joo’s school records. |
Dressed fashionably and acting and speaking humbly, Anna (Yu-mi) gets accepted as a part-time teacher in the academy. At a store later on, she finds out that the Swiss watch that Hyun-joo gave her is fake.
Yu-mi explains to Ji-won that Anna was the name that she used as a student in the US.
At the academy, Anna meets Professor Yoon So-young, an alumna of Yale University which she claimed to have graduated from. After she leaves, Professor Yoon So-young tells the academy owner that the rumors about Anna (aka “Unicorn”) are that she’s very rich and aloof, refuses to join the college reunions, and sticks closely to her own circle of friends.
Anna goes back to her childhood town after getting the news that her father’s tailoring shop will be bought out because of the redevelopment project in the area. She finds out that her mother’s dementia has gotten worse and agrees with her aunt to bring her mother to a nursing home.
2012 ... Professor Yoon So-young offers a teaching position to Anna at the Lifelong Education Institute; she says that the position is highly coveted and usually goes to the person because of the right connections.
Episode 4
| Ep. 3 recap:
Anna (Yu-mi) gets her fashionable clothes and accessories from a luxury goods consignment dealer. With the money from the sale of her father’s tailoring shop, Anna rents an apartment in Seoul with a nice view of Gyeongbokgung Palace. At a restaurant with her mother, Anna meets one of her friends from ballet class. Later, she has drinks with Ji-won, who says that she’ll be going to Shanghai on assignment. Ji-won also says that her newspaper promises to appoint her as a political journalist after completing her assignment. After bringing the drunken Ji-won to her house, Anna sees how small and drab the house is. 2013 ... Anna becomes a lecturer at the Lifelong Education Institute and is given the honorary title of "professor." 2014 ... Anna gains Professor Yoon So-young’s favor by buying her a luxury bag. She also becomes popular among the institute’s students for her youth and beauty. Through one of the older professors, Anna gets to meet Choi Ji-hoon, CEO of IT Solid, an up and rising company. She challenges Ji-hoon’s ego by saying that all the furniture in his company’s lounge are imitation. Anna and Ji-hoon spend time skiing. Later, as she takes care of her mother at the nursing station, she says that she’s getting married. |
Ji-hoon and his father say that they will take care of all the expenses for a grand wedding; in exchange, Ji-hoon’s father wants Anna to give him a Mercedes Benz.
During the pictorial of the bride and groom with their parents, Anna is surprised when Ji-hoon’s father asks a young boy named Min-jae to join them.
For the first time, Anna joins the reunion of the Yale University graduates from Korea.
2016 ... Anna begins teaching an undergraduate course in Asian Art History at Dongjin University.
During dinner at an expensive restaurant, Anna tells Ji-won that she really doesn’t want Ji-hoon to seek political office. When Ji-won asks her what’s the best thing about being rich, she says that it’s being able to live without asking for favors.
Going home after the scholarship-granting ceremony for gifted art students, Anna is stunned when Hyun-joo steps into the elevator she’s in and recognizes her as Yu-mi.
Episode 5
| Ep. 4 recap:
Anna hires two people to pretend that they’re her parents. Anna surprises Ji-hoon and everybody else at the scholarship-granting ceremony when she interprets for a scholarship recipient who’s deaf-mute. While filling in for another reporter in an interview, Ji-won meets Jae-ho, Yu-mi’s former boyfriend. Anna finds out from her former co-worker in Marais that the company is about to go bankrupt and that Hyun-joo, heavily in debt, came back to Korea to get a divorce. Anna strikes a bargain with Ji-hoon in exchange for getting Ji-won a job at a prestigious newspaper. On her way to an event with Ji-hoon, Anna is shocked to see Big Director (Hyun-joo’s mother) inside the elevator. At the parking garage, she becomes even more shocked when Ji-hoon physically abuses his tardy chauffeur, fires him, and drives away leaving without her. To avoid meeting Hyun-joo, Anna uses the stairs instead of the elevator to get to her 23rd floor unit. But one day, she meets Hyun-joo, who shows her a letter addressed to “Lee Anna” from the Yale alumni association in Korea. |
Flashback ... Hyun-joo studies violin in the UK.
Hyun-joo threatens to expose Anna unless she gives her three billion won [about 2.2 million US dollars] by the end of the month.
At a billiards hall, Ji-hoon’s political advisers tell him that he should capitalize on Anna’s popularity with disadvantaged groups by running a school or a scholarship foundation. Meanwhile, over drinks at a small restaurant, Ji-won endures bullying from the senior reporters at Bokuk Daily.
While thinking about Hyun-joo’s demand, Anna gets a call from the parking garage attendant that Ji-hoon has fallen asleep inside his car. When she goes to the parking garage and opens the car door, she sees a woman who’s also asleep inside the car. Walking away, she calls the police to report a drunk driver.
Hyun-joo gets into a fight with her mother over the loan she obtained using their building as collateral. Meanwhile, pressured at work by Professor Yoon So-young, Anna blows up at her housekeeper, not realizing that Ji-hoon’s female secretary is watching them.
While Ji-hoon and Anna are entertaining some party officials at a restaurant, Ji-hoon’s secretary gets a call from Hyun-joo asking to speak to Ji-hoon.
Episode 6
| Ep. 5 recap:
The senior reporters bully Ji-won because she got into Bokuk Daily through her friendship with Anna and Ji-hoon. But she denies personally knowing Ji-hoon. Ji-hoon’s personal secretary is Cho Yu-mi; having failed the civil service exams five times, she began working as a personal secretary-driver-gofer. In the parking garage, Hyun-joo mocks Anna, who tries to run her down with her car but backs down at the last moment. Before leaving Korea, Jae-ho reveals to Ji-won that “Anna Lee” is actually “Lee Yu-mi” and that she didn’t attend Ehyeon Womans University. Ji-won visits the landlady of the boarding house where she and Yu-mi lived and finds out that Yu-mi suddenly left the boarding house without paying the two months’ back rental fees; she also finds out Yu-mi and her family lived in Hongseong. Ji-hoon establishes a scholarship foundation with Anna as the patron. |
Flashback, 1999 ... Ji-won is physically abused by her high school teacher after she reported that the teachers pocketed the money meant for their field trip’s expenses.
Ji-won asks her friend, the academy owner, about Anna’s performance as a teacher and if she found anything weird with her. Later, she goes to Hongseong, Yu-mi’s hometown. While visiting Yu-mi’s high school, her boss calls her and tells her to meet Ji-hoon that night.
As the elections come nearer, Anna makes haste in raising the three billion won [about 2.2 million US dollars] that Hyun-joo demanded from her.
Hyun-joo’s husband arrives in Korea for the mediation stage of their divorce proceedings; he brings along with him their young daughter Stella for the custody hearings.
At her office, Ji-won receives an email from Yale University confirming that Anna Lee graduated there with an Arts degree.
Episode 7
| Ep. 6 recap:
Anna uses the foundation to raise the three billion won through the bribes given to her. Ji-won finds out from her boss that Ji-hoon recommended her for her present job in Bokuk Daily. Later, Ji-hoon mocks Ji-won when she hesitates to follow his order to publish a derogatory article about his political rival. Based on a suggestion from her “sunbae” at Bokuk Daily, Ji-won plans to buy old yearbooks of Yale University to continue her background investigation into Yu-mi/Lee Anna. Ji-hoon wins his party’s nomination as candidate for Seoul mayor. Anna sees on the TV a news story about a certain “Ms. Lee” who took her own life because of the stock market crash and marital problems; when she passes by the old Marais office, she sees police officers there. But she can’t believe that Hyun-joo took her own life. |
Flashback, 1996 ... Ji-hoon returns home from his mandatory military service; after finding out that his mother is seriously sick, he borrows money from a friend whose family is involved in construction.
Ji-won contacts a Korean woman who was in Lee Anna’s graduating class in Yale University; she finds out that Lee Anna’s Korean name is Hyun-joo and that there was something wrong with her college degree.
Anna signs the application form for her leave of absence from the university. During lunchtime, she tells a flustered Cho Yu-mi that she will get an apartment unit for her in Seoul so that she wouldn’t have to travel far everyday in getting to work. She also asks Yu-mi to get the address of the chauffeur who was abused and fired by Ji-hoon.
At a private room, Ji-hoon meets the mayor of Busan and the Public Prosecutor General. Meanwhile, at the basement elevator on her way to her condo unit, Anna sees Big Director (Hyun-joo’s mother) and Stella.
Upon arriving at the Bokuk Daily office, Ji-won sees and hears a flurry of activities among the reporters; her sunbae tells her that another newspaper has scooped them on derogatory information about Ji-hoon.
Episode 8, Finale (with spoilers)
| Ep. 7 recap:
The man from whom Ji-hoon borrowed the money for his mother’s medical expenses is now the mayor of Busan. Ji-won finds out from the Yale University graduate that Lee Anna paid someone to write her thesis. Anna meets the chauffeur who was physically abused and fired by Ji-hoon. She asks him to tell her everything about Ji-hoon and IT Solid, but he refuses, saying that he signed a non-disclosure agreement. The news explodes that Ji-hoon has a common law wife and an autistic child, who are living in the USA. But Ji-won is disappointed that the public doesn’t seem to mind the news against Ji-hoon. During Ji-hoon’s campaign rally at a market, Anna sees her former co-worker in Marais. She discreetly calls him up on her phone; when the co-worker loudly acknowledges her by calling her “Yu-mi,” Cho Yu-mi, who’s on her way to buy coffee, hears him. While Ji-hoon is berating his staff, he finds out that news has broken out about Anna having paid someone to write her thesis for her. His campaign team, however, contains the fallout by arranging for the alleged ghostwriter to deny everything. Anna finds out that Ji-hoon knows that she’s actually Lee Yu-mi because he met Hyun-joo. She realizes that it was Ji-hoon who killed Hyun-joo. Cho Yu-mi gives Anna a USB drive containing IT Solid’s tax files. In a dreamy haze, Anna sees and hears Hyun-joo tell her that her hell has just begun. Later, she visits Ji-won. |
Ji-hoon tells Anna to say during her scheduled interview with Bokuk Daily that she knew all along about his autistic son. Later, while waiting for the Secretary of Political Affairs, he strangles her when she questions why he had to kill Hyun-joo.
After finding out that Anna has collected nearly 2.7 billion won from various people, Ji-hoon calls up a certain doctor telling her that they should postpone confining Anna to an institution after the election.
Flashback ... Anna gives Ji-won the USB drive. She tells her to write the truth about her and to inform the Prosecutors’ Office about everything — who killed Hyun-joo, IT Solid’s tax evasion, and the bribes that she collected.
Anna visits her mother at the nursing home; afterwards, she asks Cho Yu-mi to take care of “that patient” if anything happens to her.
After the victory celebration, Anna tells Ji-hoon that she has to go and visit her mother who’s on her death bed. But Ji-hoon refuses to let her go. Later on, while on their flight to the USA to fetch Ji-hoon’s son, Anna finds out from Cho Yu-mi that her mother has died.
As they’re driving on the desert, Anna realizes that Ji-hoon brought her there to have her institutionalized. When Ji-hoon swerves the car to avoid hitting a deer, Anna pulls on the hand brake, and their car crashes into a utility pole.
Anna walks away from the car, with Ji-hoon trapped inside it. After reading a text message from Ji-won saying that the Prosecutors’ Office refuses to investigate Ji-hoon and IT Solid, she burns up the car with Ji-hoon still trapped inside it.
Historical /cultural backgrounders and other information
A. “Anna” is based on the 2007-2008 scandal on fake academic credentials that started with Shin Jeong-ah (an art history professor at Dongguk University, the top Buddhist university in Korea) and soon involved “a movie director, a renowned architect, the head of a performing arts center, a popular comic book writer, a celebrity chef, actors and actresses, and a former TV news anchor.”
From “Revelations of False Credentials Shake South Korea” (New York Times, 2007):
In July, reports emerged that Shin Jeong-ah, an art history professor who had risen quickly in the art world, had faked her credentials. Allegations and confessions followed across South Korea.
After a news agency reported in July that an important art historian had faked her credentials, a nationwide wave of allegations and confessions followed that has so far swept up a movie director, a renowned architect, the head of a performing arts center, a popular comic book writer, a celebrity chef, actors and actresses, a former TV news anchor and now the Venerable Jigwang.
South Korea has been shaken as one prominent person after another has been exposed as having exaggerated, or fabricated, academic accomplishments.
The exposés have prompted prosecutors, the police, the Education Ministry and regional education authorities to announce plans to combat academic record fraud. Legislators have introduced a bill calling for a verification system.
Despite the weight assigned to academic degrees, South Korean companies have never systematically verified them, a task more difficult with foreign degrees.
From “Scandal Widens Over False Academic Credentials” (The Korea Times, 2007):
When it was revealed last month that Shin Jeong-ah, then an art history professor at Dongguk University, fabricated her academic credentials, the nation was shocked at how she was allowed go so far in her career without being caught.
Now a month later, false academic credentials among cultural figures has become a trend.
Since just Friday, three more names have been added to the growing list; actress Jang Mi-hee; Ven. Jigwang, a Buddhist monk; and actress Oh Mi-hee.
From “Former art professor sentenced to jail for faking degree” (Yonhap News Agency, 2008):
A Seoul court Monday sentenced a former art professor to one and a half years in prison and convicted her of falsifying her academic credentials while suspending a jail term for an ex-presidential secretary who abused his power to sponsor her.
The Seoul Western District Court convicted Shin Jeong-ah, 36, of falsifying a doctoral degree from Yale University and bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Kansas and embezzling museum funds.
From “Shin found guilty of faking doctorate” (Yale Daily News, 2008):
In the latest development in the international Shingate scandal, disgraced art-history professor Shin Jeong-ah was convicted Monday by a Korean court for forging a doctorate degree from Yale.
Shin, whose scandal spurred a $50 million federal lawsuit against the University for not catching the fake degree when asked to verify it by Shin’s employer, will serve 18 months in prison. Shin was also found to have embezzled money from an art museum that she used to curate.
The 36-year-old Shin had been a rising star in the Korean art world, with prestigious positions on the faculty of Dongguk University and as the curator of one of the country’s most prestigious art exhibits. She claimed to have degrees from Yale and the University of Kansas — neither of which she ever actually attended.
But for two years, Shin had convinced the world otherwise. In 2005, she faked a letter from an official in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences that documented her degree; when asked at the time by Dongguk officials to confirm the authenticity of that letter, Yale officials mistakenly did so.
B. In the Ep. 8 dream sequence, Hyun-joo tells Yu-mi that she stopped using the name Anna when she learned about “Anna Anderson.”
