Seven people, one secret, one surivor.
A Korean Manhwa by Ko Ya Sung, Redrum 327 (usually read as three two seven) deals with what happens when what should be a normal weekend getaway rapidly descends into a night of murder, as a dark past comes to haunt our seven protagonists. Worse yet, this is nothing supernatural, but a work of human hands.The story starts with a somewhat unstable combination of the following seven characters, headed off to a remote holiday house far away fom the city (pictured right).
- Gahui - The Naïve Newcomer with a dark past which has been blocked out of her memory. Said lost memory, however, contributes to her Claustrophobia.
- Gihu Lee - A nice and shy guy, who is the adopted son of a director in a leading company.
- Ha Park - A moody lead singer in a band, who has a past relationship with Jueun.
- Hyeri - An energetic girl, who has an obvious crush on Taien, who she's notably shy around.
- Jeongun - A rude fashion-obsessed man.
- Jueun - The Ice Queen
- Taien - All round nice guy that attempts to reconcile the difference between the group and Gahui.
It received an English translation by Tokyopop and published in three volumes.
Tropes in this work:
- Abusive Parents: Gihu's mother tried to kill him as a child, which is why he was adopted.
- Alpha Bitch: Jueun.
- Anguished Declaration of Love: Gihu’s final words to Taien was his love for Gahui before the former’s death.
- Arranged Marriage: Ha and Jueun. Both are conflicted on how they feel about it. Ha plays around with girls, all of whom annoy him, and he wants some form of relationship with Jueun, who turned into an Ice Queen due to him never trying to accept her as a possible girlfriend.
- Asshole Victim: Everyone except for Gahui (and arguably Gihu) richly deserve what's coming to them.
- Beware the Quiet Ones: Gihu.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Hyeri can be as unstable as a time-bomb if you dare approach her love interest Taien.
- Bound and Gagged: Volume One ends with Hyeri being tied up in a giant freezer, left to die.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Hyeri.
- Closed Circle
- Contrived Clumsiness: Gihu does this throughout the entire manhwa until he reveals he's killing everybody.
- Contrived Coincidence: Notably Gahui just happens to join the group of friends when none of them remember who she is.
- Coughing Up Blood: Jeongun does this violently before he dies. Gihu also does this after he's stabbed.
- Creepy Child: Hyeri as a child was incredibly creepy.
- Cruel Mercy: Taien survives the ordeal, but he has to live with what he's done.
- Cut Phone Lines: Revealed when Gihu tries to call the police (and there's no signal).
- Dark and Troubled Past: Gahui. It's a central plot point. That besides, her horrific experience in kids are cruel resulted in her suffering from Schizophrenia.
- Deadly Nosebleed: Jeongun gets one when he's poisoned and dies.
- Death by Falling Over: After attacking Gahui, Jueun is pushed by Gihu and is sent flying off the first floor.
- Developing Doomed Characters
- Driven to Suicide: Guilty over Gihu murdering everybody for her sake, Gahui kills herself.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Ha and Jueun are more outright jerks than evil, but they clearly have feelings for each and their final thoughts before their deaths were each other.
- Hyeri obviously has a thing for Taein, even if it means getting rid of someone getting closed to him...
- Faint in Shock: Jueun faints when they find Jeongun's bloodied corpse.
- Fingore: The vague flashbacks to Gahui's past involve her hands being bloodied and bandaged. She had tried to escape the safe she had been locked in for six days, tearing her finger nails off.
- Forgotten Birthday: Gahui forgets her birthday, as everybody else planned a party for her. Turns out it wasn't her birthday.
- Kids Are Cruel: Hyeri, in order to eliminate competition, decided that the best way to deal with Gahui is to gather Jeongun, Ha Park and Jueun to lock Gahui up in an abandoned safe in the middle of a forest, where Gahui ended up being trapped for six days, with two of those days raining. How old were they when this happened, you ask? They were only eight years old!
- Lampshaded.
Gihu: "There is nothing more dangerous than a child's mind." - Karma Houdini: Played straight initially, later subverted. If Gihu did not go all knight templar on the rest of the group for what they did to Gahui this would have been played straight. Arguably also deconstructed, because despite not being punished by the law that secret left a huge scar on the group's personality.
- Karmic Death: Hyeri is left bound in a freezer, a direct reflection on her locking Gahui in a safe as a child.
- Knight Templar: It seemed unlikely for anyone to be so. It's later revealed to be Gihu.
- Literary Allusion Title: To Stephen King's The Shining.
- Locked in a Freezer: Hyeri.
- Love Triangle:
- Hyeri -> Taien <-> Gahui <- Gihu
- Jueun -> Ha -> Various girls
- Missing Mom: Gahui states early on she has no mother. While this is true, she was referring to how she was adopted by her uncle with no aunt.
- Oblivious to Love: Taien is oblivious to Hyeri's crush on him and Gahui is oblivious to Gihu's crush on her.
- Parental Abandonment:
- Gihu is an orphan, who got adopted.
- Gahui was also an orphan, who got adopted by her uncle.
- Revenge
- Self-Harm: Gahui starts cutting herself near the end, as Gihu explains to Taien why he's doing what he's doing.
- Shout-Out: The title is a shout out to Stephen King's The Shining.
- Sole Survivor: Only Taien made it out alive in the end...
- Together in Death: Gihu positions Jueun and Ha together on the bed.
- Gihu, himself, eventually joins Gahui after she killed herself near the end.
- True Companions: Barring Gahui, the other six characters start off as this.
- What You Are in the Dark: Taien finds out when he could choose between his best friends and freeing Gahui from a locked safe in the middle of an abandoned forest. He chose his best friends... and gets hit by Laser-Guided Karma for it years later.
- Yandere: Hyeri.
