On TV CHOSUN‘s ‘Survival King: Tribal War’, the ‘national team’ Park Tae-hwan X Jung Dae-se X Kim Min-ji fought until the end, but regrettably, the first team was eliminated.

On the TV CHOSUN jungle survival entertainment ‘Survival King: Tribal War’ (hereafter ‘Survival King’) that aired on Monday the 4th, the day of the final match of the 1st round that took place in the Saba Jungle dawned. The ‘Jungle Team’ Kim Byung-man X Jung Ji-hyun X Kim Dong-jun, who were released into an unknown jungle, suffered from the cold and couldn’t sleep due to the rain that fell all night, but they returned home in glory by obtaining a flag as a benefit in a cave with hundreds of bats. The jungle team took first place with 5 flags, the military team and national team with 4, and the physical team with 2. The jungle team, which automatically advanced to Round 2, left for the next survival site first.

The remaining military team X national team X physical team started the ‘Flag War’, the last match of Round 1, where the team that burns the other team‘s flag in the watchtower furnace first wins. In this match, each player is given a flag, and if that flag is stolen, they are immediately eliminated and cannot participate in the war. While everyone was tense, the physical team, which was in last place and desperate for first place, made a plan to attack with all members. The national team and military team also expected that the physical team would 100% leave the survival site and attack. In response, the military team led by Seunggi Lee recruited the national team, saying, “Let’s raid an empty house together”. That‘s how the joint operation began, but in fact, the military team was planning a strategy to catch the physical team and betray the national team to achieve victory.

While the national team Park Tae-hwan X Jung Dae-se and the military team Kang Min-ho infiltrated the physical team’s survival site along the waterway according to the military team‘s strategy, the military team’s Amotsi, who was waiting for the right moment to betray, quickly snatched Kim Min-ji‘s flag. Kim Min-ji, who was lost in despair, soon came to her senses and asked Park Tae-hwan to “kill me!” and take revenge on the military team. In the end, the alliance collapsed and Kang Min-ho and Park Tae-hwan were eliminated one after another. Amotsi ran to the watchtower holding the national team’s flag. However, Choo Sung-hoon X Kim Dong-hyun X Park Ha-yan were waiting at the watchtower. Jung Dae-se allied with the physical team, saying that he had been betrayed by the military team, and following Lee Seung-gi, Amotsi was also eliminated after losing his individual flag.



Now, the lonely fight between the physical team and Jung Dae-se began. Jung Tae-se provoked ‘fighter’ Choo Sung-hoon’ by saying, “Let‘s do it 1-on-1”.” Park Tae-hwan was worried, saying, “Don’t hurt me”,” but ‘fighter’ Jung Tae-se said, “No! It would be rude to give in to your opponent”, signaling that he would give it his all. Choo Sung-hoon, who accepted the offer, admitted to Jung Tae-se, whose eyes suddenly changed before the match, “I should have done martial arts instead of soccer”.” Even after the match began, the two kept their distance and looked for an opening. After a surprise jump attack and a fierce fight, Choo Sung-hoon subdued Jung Tae-se with one hand and took the flag. Jung Tae-se also accepted the result without regret, saying, “This is enough”.

The physical team, which won first place for the first time, burned two national team flags. The 1st round ended with 5 jungle team flags, 4 military team flags, and 2 national team and physical team flags.

The 2nd round started on an uninhabited island with a beautiful emerald sea, but it was wild itself. Before the full-fledged 2nd round began, the deathmatch game ‘Coconut Smashing’ was held to select the first team to be eliminated from the national team and the physical team that finished last in the 1st round. The national team took the lead with ‘Marine Boy’ Park Tae-hwan‘s performance of moving an entire boat floating in the sea, but ‘Handball expert’ Park Ha-yan followed closely with her ‘No Look Pass’ performance of putting coconuts in the target as soon as they were thrown. In a situation where they had to crack coconuts and collect coconut water in a tank, ‘Fighter Duo’ Choo Sung-hoon & Kim Dong-hyun showed off a shocking performance(?) of tearing a coconut with their bare hands. After a series of close matches, the physical team won by a narrow margin. In the end, national team members Park Tae-hwan X Jung Dae-se X Kim Min-ji left the deserted island in the frustration and regret of defeat.

The surviving jungle team X military team X physical team advanced to the 2nd round, where each team was given 3 flags and the rankings went back to where they started. However, there was a new rule: If a team doesn’t get 1st place, its flag will disappear. Lee Seung-gi, the leader of the military team who had always gotten 2nd place, foreshadowed that he would get 1st place, saying, “I‘m going to write a drama for the first time. A sub-male lead beats the main character...” Also, the jungle team chose the survival site at the back of the island, the military team chose the center of the island, and the physical team chose a survival site similar to the 1st round where they had to cross water, and they each began their survival on the deserted island.

TV CHOSUN’s new entertainment show ‘Survival King: Tribal War’, which determines the best survival king in Korea, airs every Monday at 10 p.m. It is also released every Tuesday on the global OTT Netflix.

Choi Yoon-na, Donga.com reporter yyynnn@donga.com