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An Yo-Han is the main antagonist of the 2025 Korean Thriller Drama, The Manipulated. He is a psychopathic and manipulative criminal mastermind with bloated sense of superiority that specializing in fabricating crime scenes and evidences to frame random innocent people for the crimes committed by his rich clients.
He also organizes death race for people whom he frames to participate for his own amusement and kills them after that.
He is the arch-nemesis of the florist and deliveryman Park Tae-Joong for framing him for a murder of an innocent woman committed by the son of one of his clients and for killing his younger brother. Eventually, it would not take long for his own sadism to bite back hard at him.
He is based on Min Cheon-sang from Fabricated City and Warden Claire Hennessey from Death Race.
He was portrayed by Do Kyung-Soo.
Biography[]
An Yo-Han was an illegitimate child of maid and a business tycoon. Throughout his life, he was looked down due to his status as bastard child of a servant. Eventually, at the age of 16, he snaped and caused the death of both his birth father and his wife by stabbing them 130 times after his father cut him out of the will and decides to donate his entire assets to charity. He then framed an escaped convict for the crime and the convict was shot death by the police. This incident gave him an idea of the crime fabrication business, which rich clients can pay him handsomely to frame innocent people for their crimes.
He also blinded his own mother with mercury to express his love for her and the twisted woman accepted it gracefull. Eventually, both mother and son opened and operated the crime fabrication business together for many years. After each successful jobs, he would commemorate his success by creating macabre statues that representing his victims and using them to launder dirty money from his dirty business through auction.
The Manipulated[]
The son of assemblyman Baek Sang-man, Baek Do-Kyung killed a prostitute by accident after being high on drug. Sang-man enlists Yo-Han to save his son and frame it one someone else. Yo-Han uses his advanced A.I. and randomly target an individual to be framed and the computer targets Park Tae-Joong.
Park Tae-Joong is an ordinary and hardworking food delivery man who tries to earn enough money to become a florist with his own flower shop alongside his girlfriend Song Su-Ji. He also spend most of his earning to fund the education of his younger brother, Park Tae-Jin.
During one delivery, he notices a ringing smartphone lying on the street. He listens to the call on the smartphone, which a woman calls him to return her phone to a designated location with a promise of a huge reward of 300,000 Won. The designated location turned out to be a tunnel and the woman asks him to leave the smartphone in the emergency phone box and collect his reward. Despite being suspicious of the event, the huge money reward prevents him from questioning further.
The next day, the cops rush at his home and arrest him for the murder of a young woman whose body was found in the same tunnel, he returned the smartphone. Despite proclaiming his innocence and stating that he did not even know the murdered woman, the cops present damming evidence that he committed the crime, much to his horror. Tae-Jin and Tae-Joong's friends try to find alibi for Tae-Joong to clear his name to no prevail as new evidences strongly suggests that he committed the crime. Eventually, he is sentenced to life in prison with Tae-Jin and his friends give up on him due to the influence of the new evidence, which makes them actually believe that he was the culprit.
In prison, Tae-Joong is brutalized by a gang leader named Yeo Deok-Su due to his hatred toward people like Tae-Joong since his sister was raped and murdered by a rapist. One day, a public attorney Kim Sang-Rak offers to defend Tae-Joong, which he asks Tae-Joong about the critical evidence that condemned him in the first place, which is his bracelet that was presented in the crime scene. Tae-Joong reveals that the bracelet at the crime scene is not his since he left it at his brother's house and he tells Sang-Rak the address of his brother's house so Sang-Rak can retrieve the evidence to prove his innocent. However, Sang-Rak murders Tae-Jin instead and makes it look like he hanged himself to torment Tae-Joong into committing suicide to tie off loose ends. Tae-Joong tries to end his life three times but is always being saved by the prison staffs. A hardened prison priest Noh Yong-Sik encourages Tae-Joong to keep on living no matter how bleak his life turns out. Heeding this advice, Tae-Joong trains himself physically and mentally to survive the prison, which eventually causing him to become stronger and no longer a meek florist like he used to be. As the result, Deok-Su's torment becomes less and less effective on Tae-Joong as time passes. During this time, Tae-Joong earns multiple technical degrees in mechanicals and construction.
After 5 years in prison, Tae-Joong replaces Yong-sik as the new prison priest as Yong-sik is released after serving his sentences. He encounters a new inmate, Kim Jin-Hun who is also being framed in the same way much like him and Yong-Rak also offers to be his attorney. Furthermore, it is also revealed that Jin-Hun's mother also died the same way Tae-Jin died. This causes Tae-Joong to realize that someone is deliberately framed him for the crime 5 years ago and Yong-rak is in cohort with this mastermind. After Jin-Hun committed suicide, Tae-Joong lures Yong-rak to the prison by pretending to know more evidences of his case to question him. Sensing Yong-rak's indifferences toward Jin-Hun's death, Tae-Joong angrily attacks Yong-rak and questions whether he killed Tae-Jin. In his arrogance, Yong-rak shamelessly does not deny it and even provoking Tae-Joong to kill himself like Tae-Jin, making Tae-Joong swears revenge against him. Yong-rak then contacts Yo-Han to send hitman to silent Tae-Joong to tie off loose ends.
In the mean time, An Yo-Ha threatens his latest client Shin Myung-Ho to outbid him in auction for a prized macabre work of art for 6 billions Won as payment for his service in framing Jin-Hun for the killing committed by Myung-Ho's son.
Tae-Joong makes plan to break out prison by studying the prison and creating a duplicate key while enlisting the help of Yong-Sik as his getaway driver. However, at the same day, a vaccination program takes place in the prison and a hitman sent by Yo-Ha named Woo Min-hyung disguised as a doctor comes to kill Tae-Joong. Tae-Joong is saved from getting killed by the hitman after the prison superintendent makes him to participate in a prison fight and demands that he is not vaccinated since the vaccine might effect his senses. Unfortunately, even after winning the fight, Tae-Joong is injected with the poison anyway disguised as vaccinations. Tae-Joong forces himself to escape the prison as the poison kicks in. However, he eventually succumbs to the poison and falls unconscious in the middle of the street before he can reach Yong-sik. Miraculously, when he survives and the prison doctor reveals that the large amount of vitamin K he consumes on daily basis has enabled his body to resist the poison long enough for the antidote to be administrated. Yang Cheol-Hwan, the head jailer discovers Tae-Joong's attempt prison break but choose not to report it as he realizes someone tries to kill Tae-Joong.
Yo-Han approaches the prison warden Park to propose a labour program for environmental project but in truth, he wants to organize a death race for his own amusement with the inmates as the participants. He blackmails the prison warden with the evidence of his embezzlement of public funds that the warden invested in scammed crypto investment. The warden entitles all the jailers to participate in the scheme with a promise of huge payday and they select 12 most hardened prisons to participate in the dead games by force, Tae-Joong is one of them for being one of the toughest and resilient inmate.
At Yo-Han death game arena, Yo-han reveals that all the 12 inmates will participate in a death race with 5 billions Won reward for the winner. The team can modify the cars they receive as much as they want with no restrictions. However, they are given random cars ranging from civilian to sport cars to make the race interesting. One of the inmates refuse to participate and is shot dead. Baek Do-Kyung and another chaebol heir come to see the death game for their own sick amusement and reveals that this is not the first time, Do-Kyung has killed people and uses Yo-Han to frame it on somebody else as he has killed three people with three innocent individuals become scapegoat with Tae-Joong being the latest one. Yo-Han reveals that he intends to build a business surrounding this death race with Baek Do-Kyung and the other cheabol heir as co-founders and plans for global expansion in the long term. One of the inmates, gang boss Do Gang-Jae tries to cozy up to Yo-han for a chance of lucrative partnership.
Tae-Joong teams up with another inmate Gu Ji-Yong to win the race. However, as they prepare their car, inmates from the opposite team attack their garage to steal their sport car to gain the upper hand and there is no rule against it. Tae-Joong and Ji-Young are then forced to drive the car out to the race, making all inmates to participate in the race unexpectedly. However, the guards stop them before it is escalating but Tae-Joong and Ji-Young's car is destroyed. In the moment of despair, Tae-Joong notices a high slope that leads outside the arena and plans his escape during the race. Tae-Joong demands to see Yo-Ha in the watchtower as a ruse to study the layout of the arena from above. Using his mechanical skills, Tae-Joong modifies his car for the escape in the race.
During the race, Yo-Han finds out Tae-Joong's true identity and orders Do Gang-Jae to kill him to prevent Tae-Joong from potentially going after him. However, Tae-Joong swaps car with Ji-Young to fool Gang-Jae and steals a motorbike to escape. Gang-Jae uses a Glock 17 provided by Yo-Han to kill Tae-Joong but Tae-Joong ties a gas tank to a chain behind his motorbike and uses it as a makeshift's flail to cause Gang-Jae's car to flip as the gas tank hits the tires, mortally injured Gang-Jae. Yo-Han orders all inmates to kill Tae-Joong but he fends them all off. Impatient, Yoo-Han whips out a sniper rifle to kill Tae-Joong himself. Tae-Joong then creates a smoke screen by exploding a gas tank and running his motorbike toward the high slope into the river below just as Yo-Han attempts to shoot him. However, Yo-Han misses the shot and Tae-Joong survives the ordeal. Tae-Joong then comes to Yong-sik's electronic store for help and Yong-sik nurses him back to health.
Tae-Joong tracks down Sang-rak and brutally tortures him for information, which Sang-rak reveals all the fabrication schemes of Yo-Han's syndicate. Suddenly, Woo Min-hyung comes to rescue Sang-Rak but Tae-Joong successfully fight back. Sang-Rak tries to kill Tae-Joong only to get stabbed in the face with a pen by Tae-Joong. Min-hyung throws a bomb to kill both Tae-Joong and Sang-Rak to tie off loose ends but Tae-Joong successfully grabs the file of the next victim from Sang-Rak and jumps out of the window as the bomb explodes, eviscerating Sang-Rak.
Yo-Han kills Min-hyung for his failure and enlists a dirty cop Hwang Il-Guk to track down and eliminate Tae-Joong by promising to make his bribery charges disappear. Cheol-Hwan is enlisted by Il-Guk in his search but Cheol-Hwan knows Il-Guk is up to no good. His next target for defamation is So Hyun-jung, an owner of a hair salon whose daughter suffers asthma for a murder of a well-known pianist. Tae-Jong with Yong-Sik's supports secretly protect Hyun-Jung from Yo-Han's latest scheme and sabotages his operations. At the same time, Tae-Jong bumps into Yong-Sik's prodigal and tough-as-nail daughter Eun-Bi.
Yo-Han replaces Min-Hyung with a new Chinese hitwoman named Ching-Li and he orders her to kill one of his subordinates for letting Tae-Joong sabotages the operation. Tae-Joong infiltrates a textile factory that serves as a cover for Yo-Han's evidence and crime scene fabrication facility where his men collect the victim's belongings and biological samples to fabricate evidences to frame them. As Yo-Han is recording the process, Yong-Sik calls him to help Hyun-Jung as Ching-Li is coming to murder her, forcing Tae-Joong to fight his way out to reach the salon. After chasing Ching-Li out of the saloon, Hyun-Jung and her daughter are taken into hiding by Tae-Joong and Yong-Sik. Yo-Han is deeply amused at Tae-Joong's tenacity, despite the failure of the operation. At the same time, Baek Sang-man and Baek Do-Kyung confront Yo-Han for failing to dispose Tae-Joong and gives him a deadline to clean it up. Baek Do-Kyung belittles Yo-Han as his errand boy, much to Yo-Han's rage. Sang-man then orders Do-Kyung to leave for the US until things die down. Yo-Han decides to get rid of Sang-Man and Do-Kyung out of spite.
Eun-bi learns everything from Tae-Joong and her father and agree to help them. Tae-Joong comes back to the textile factory to resume his evidence gathering but only to find out that Yo-Han has Ching-Li massacred all the employees there as cover-up. Tae-Joong then finds the severed head of Min-Hyung with files in it mouth, which reveals that Do-Kyung's crime is what led him to be framed in the first place. Yo-Han then provokes Tae-Joong to come after Do-Kyung for revenge by providing him tons of personal information of Do-Kyung, which Yo-Han snatches from his social media account. Tae-Joong decides to head to Busan to hunt down Do-Kyung but not before contacting Cheol-Hwan to let him know that he was framed.
In Busan, Do-Kyung enlists the help of a mob boss Yoo Seon-Gyu. At the anniversary of the death of Yo-han's father and his wife, his greedy half-aunt and other relatives demands him to give them some shares of the corporation left behind to him by his father. In retaliation Yo-han orders Ching-Li to massacre all his family members with Yo-Han's mother murders the greedy half-aunt.
Tae-Joong tracks down Do-Kyung to a private yacht and takes advantages of Do-Kyung's drug-filled conditions to bait him to gloat all his crimes as he records the confession. However, Do-Kyung orders Yoo Seon-Gyu and his men to take down Tae-Joong with Tae-Joong gets knock unconscious by Seon-Gyu. Do-Kyung berates Yo-Han for failing his task and demands a refund. Hwang Il-Guk summons the cops to the yacht to capture Tae-Joong. Yong-sik helps Tae-Joong escape and the two bump into Cheol-Hwan who reveals that he has learned everything and oppose Tae-Joong's reckless methods to clear his name. Hwang Il-Guk comes and corners them but Eun-Bi uses a fire extinguisher to stun both Il-Guk and Cheol-Hwan to buy time for Tae-Joong and Yong-Sik to escape. Before escaping, it is revealed that Tae-Joong leaves behind documents about Do-Kyung's crime for Cheol-Hwan. To be more prepared in the future, Tae-Joong builds himself a powerful nail gun as his gun.
Yo-Han threatens Sang-Man to give in to him more to save his son from Tae-Joong but the assemblyman does not budge and chides him for being a "lousy cleaner". Realizing that Yo-Han has become a liability, Sang-Man hires a hit squad to kill him but Yo-han dispatches the entire hit squad with his extraordinary Kendo skill.
Yong-Sik reveals to Tae-Joong that the reason for his imprisonment was because he accidentally incinerated his own wife during a drunkard night in the past and this is why Eun-Bi acts so harshly toward him as she blames him for her mother's death. Yo-Han comes at Yong-Sik and Eun-Bi and questions why the two willingly sacrifice themselves for a lowly killer like Tae-Joong but not before beating them up as he leaves the two.
Do-Kyung provokes Tae-Joong to a meeting place to settle the score, leading to a fight, which Tae-Joong finally defeats Seon-Gyu. Do-Kyung tries to escape in his car and a car chase ensures between Do-Kyung, Tae-Joong and Seon-Gyu and his gang. Tae-Joong rams his motorbike into the back of Seon-Gyu's gang van and shoots Seon-Gyu dead with a pistol snatched from a nearby gang member while throwing all the gang members of the car in the highway. The car chases end with Do-Kyung's car rammed by a truck. Tae-Joong forces the critically injured Do-Kyung out of the car and makes him confess but Do-Kyung succumbs to his wound and dies. Yo-han then calls Tae-Joong and congratulates him for getting rid of Do-Kyung for him and avenging his false imprisonment. He then reveals that he was behind everything so far and offers Tae-Joong, a lucrative job working under his crime fabricate syndicate and even promising to erase all his criminal records. However, Tae-Joong angrily refuses since no amount of money can buy back his dead brother as well as 5 years of his life in prison and swears to make Yo-Han pays for everything. Yo-Han then dares Tae-Joong to try.
Yo-han then comes at Sang-Man's mansion and murders both him and his wife while telling the dying politician of his life story. He then frames Yong-sik for this crime to provoke Tae-Joong. Yo-Han makes Tae-Joong to choose between sacrificing himself to save Yong-sik or accepting huge money to make things go away. However, Tae-Joong choose to surrender himself to the cops much to Yo-Han's bewilderment and Tae-Joong mocks him for being an immature sick bastard who have no ideas what love truly means. Yo-Han then orders the prison warden to murder Tae-Joong for good in prison.
Cheol-Hwan helps Tae-Joong escapes during the prison transfer and Tae-Joong reunites with Yong-Sik and Eun-Bi. Cheol-Hwan then confronts the Prison Warden Park and reveals that he is going to be dismissed for bribery charges as he has submitted evidence of Park to the inspection board. However, with Yo-Han's intervention, Cheol-Hwan is framed for the warden crime instead.
During the latest auction to launder his money, Yo-han shockingly discovers that Do-Kyung is still alive and the cops bang in to arrest him for murder conspiracy of Sang-Man and his wife. It is turned out that after being barely alive after the accident, Tae-Joong came to Do-Kyung to ask him to join force to take down Yo-Han to avenge his parent death. Do-Kyung willingly accept his sentences for all his murder to bring down Yo-Han for good as he has nothing left to live for after his powerful father no longer there to protect him. Despite this, since Yo-Han's crime fabrication business is so essential in the dirty political and business games, Tae-Joong and Yong-sik realize that they have to take down Yo-Ha for good before any powerful figures can pull strings to get him out of prison. With the help of his friends, Tae-Joong manages to steal a truck containing Yo-han's statue to sneak in his compound.
Yo-Han calls Deok-Su and his gangs to break him out of prison and disposes Hwang Il-Guk after he outlives his usefulness. He then orders Ching-Li to kill both Yong-sik and Eun-bi with Eun-bi being captured. Yo-han sneaks in the hospital and strangles Do-Kyung to dead. Meanwhile, Yo-ha infiltrates Yo-Han's compound and extracts the hard-drive from the central computer as damning evidences of Yo-Ha's crime. Deok-Su and his gangs ambush Tae-Joong and the fierce fight occurs leading to Tae-Joong fatally stabs Deok-Su. Yo-Han comes and reveals that the hard drive in Tae-Joong's hands will automatically wipe out all the memory upon extraction. He then further reveals that the data of Yo-Ha's entire business is in the master USB hid under the hilt of a Katana. Ching-Li then brings Eun-Bi in as hostage and Yo-Han forces Tae-Joong to finish off Deok-Su but Tae-Joong refuses, leading to Yo-Han stabs Deok-Su to dead instead.
Yo-Han then proclaims that after killing Tae-Joong, Eun-Bi will take the blame. A fight then ensures with Tae-Joong emerges victorious and Eun-bi knocks out Ching-Li. Yo-Han then opens the recording of the day Tae-Jin was murdered to torment him, causing Tae-Joong to use Yo-han's own Katana to impale him through his shoulder and pin him on the screen of the master computer. Yo-han in his madness and bloodlust egg Tae-Joong to finish him off to complete his vengeance but he just knocks Yo-han's unconscious instead and takes the master USB. Due to the damages caused by all the fighting, a huge short-circuitry in the computer room causes the whole compound to be engulfed in flame, causing Yo-han and Ching-Li to be immolated, ending his reign of terror for good.
With the master USB, Tae-Joong is finally vindicated of all his crimes and Yo-han's crimes are completely exposed to the public, leading to multiple arrests of Yo-han's clients and vindicating multiple innocent people who were scapegoated. This also leads to passing of a new transparency law in Korea to prevent anymore crime fabrication operations to occur anymore in the future.
Six months after the downfall of Yo-ha and his crime syndicate, Tae-Joong successfully opens his flower shop with his friend, Yong-sik and Eun-Bi by his side. Cheol-Hwan is also cleared of his defamation as Warden Park is correct arrested this time instead.
However, despite all of this, it is then revealed that a mysterious person has become Yo-Ha's successor in his crime fabrication business, leading to potentially more innocent people to be framed in the future.
Trivia[]
- Despite being based on Min Cheon-sang from Fabricated City and Warden Claire Hennessey from Death Race, he is acts more like Warden Hennessey since he both fabricates crime scenes to frame innocent people and make one of them participate in his death race by force.
- The death race has Squid Game elements in it since the inmates can steal and sabotage each others to get ahead much like players killing each other for higher prized money in Squid Game.
- It is possible that the mysterious person that succeed Yo-Han is his own mother as she manages to evade the authority in the end.
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