7 Prison-themed K-dramas (+ 1 Film)
Reviews of: ONE ORDINARY DAY | PRISON PLAYBOOK | BIG MOUTH | MOVE TO HEAVEN | ITAEWON CLASS | JUVENILE JUSTICE | PAYBACK | WAY BACK HOME
Heyyyy! Daylight savings was last week (for U.S. residents) and Iโm kinda sorta accustomed to spring ahead time now. And โฆ the weekend is finally here. So, in my world, that means deciding what K-dramas my family will watch this weekend. Are you doing the same?
For this newsletter, I am reviewing K-dramas that reflect on characters who have (or had) been โฆ imprisoned. (And please note that not all of these are suitable for young children.) I promise you that theyโre not as depressing as the subject matter might suggest. (Although, that said, some of them actually are.) So here we go:
๐บ Big Mouth (๋น
๋ง์ฐ์ค) โโโ
๐บ Itaewon Class (์ดํ์ ํด๋ผ์ฐ) โโโ
๐บ Juvenile Justice (์๋
์ฌํ) โโโ
๐บ Move to Heaven (๋ฌด๋ธ ํฌ ํค๋ธ: ๋๋ ์ ํ์ ๋ฆฌ์ฌ์
๋๋ค) โโโยฝ
๐บ One Ordinary Day (์ด๋ ๋ ) โโโยฝ
๐บ Payback (๋ฒ์ฉ) โโยฝ
๐บ Prison Playbook (๊ด์ฐฎ์, ์ฌ๋์ด์ผ) โโโ
๐ฝ๏ธย Way Back Home (์ง์ผ๋ก ๊ฐ๋ ๊ธธ) โโ
Anchor links have been added for those of you who read my work via the app. (Sorry, but Substack doesnโt allow this option on the emailed newsletters.)
As always, Iโve rated these shows on a โโโโ scale. Let me know if youโve seen any of these K-dramas (and film). Iโd love to read your comments, regardless of whether you liked (or disliked) what you watched!
โOne Ordinary Dayโ
โโโยฝ
Kim Hyun-soo (played by Kim Soo-hyun)
Shin Joong-han (played by Cha Seung-won)
โNote: Korean names denote the surname followed by the given name.
The entire premise of this series centers on a murder. Since this show has been out for four years already, and since itโs based on a well-known 2008 British series (โCriminal Justiceโ) with the same plot, Iโm going to tell you about the event that starts this gripping series. If you donโt want to know, I advise you come back to read this after youโve watched the show. Regardless, I highly recommend this K-drama, which had my stomach in knots for much of the eight episodes.
Hyun-soo (Kim Soo-hyun) is a college student in his early 20s. Heโs cute, asthmatic and isnโt a loner. When his friends invite him to a party that will be full of pretty girls, Hyun-soo declines, because he has to take part in a study group. When the latter is canceled, Hyun-soo excitedly tells his friends to count him in. Unfortunately, he canโt catch a ride with them or pay for the $100 cab fare it would cost.
So instead, he borrows his fatherโs taxi. Stopped at a light and trying to figure out how to turn off the โfor hireโ sign, heโs surprised when a beautiful woman about his age gets into his cab. Though he tries to convince her to leave the cab, she wears him down with her forthright persistence (and aforementioned beauty).ย Gook-hwa (Hwang Se-on) asks him to take her to the Han River, where they enjoy ice cream (that she encouraged him to steal) and beers.
And then she invites him into her beautiful and expensive home.
There, Gook-hwa offers him tequila and drugs โ which he takes โ and she initiates a game of Knife, where one person lays their hand down on the table and hopes the knife-wielding person doesnโt stab them. She expertly misses his fingers and tells him to do the same to her. He accidentally stabs her hand, which elicits a surprising reaction. She is turned on.ย And though this should have been his first clue that he should just go back home, he and she head upstairs and have sex. (Make no mistake about it. While Gook-hwa may be a bad influence, Hyun-soo wasnโt forced to do anything he didnโt want to do.)
Much later, Hyun-soo wakes up downstairs, helps himself to some water, gets dressed and heads back upstairs to say goodbye to Gook-hwa. But she is lying in pool of blood on her bed. She is dead.
Hell begins here for Hyun-soo. Prosecutors and the police say that the actions he took after finding her stabbed to death proves he is the murderer. Hyun-soo freaked the fuck out and panicked. Instead of calling the police or an ambulance, he runs out to his car to escape. But his car keys are inside his jacket, which is still inside the house. He breaks a window to let himself in, grabs his jacket and notices the knife they used to play Knife. He takes that. And knowing how devastating the scenario makes him look, he sloppily cleans up some of the incriminating DNA on the counter as well. And as he speeds and swerves on his way home, he is stopped by a police officer who is doing random DUI tests.
Most of this happens within the first 20 minutes of the premiere episode. The truly stressful element about this series is that he could have done everything he was supposed to have done, but no one wouldโve presumed he was innocent. His DNA was everywhere. There were signs of a struggle (even though it was just two horny people knocking things over in a hurry to get to the bedroom).
The part of the series that bothered me was how haphazard the investigation was, because I know things like this happen in real life. As one of the prisoners he will later meet tells him, people like them with no money or prestigious family connections are never given the benefit of the doubt. They arenโt presumed innocent until found guilty. Theyโre presumed guilty from the start.
But there were some frustrating oversights that even a rookie attorney or police officer wouldโve noticed. Hyun-soo is left handed. His lawyer Joong-han (Cha Seung-won) doesnโt question the prosecutionโs forensics team about which hand was likely used to kill the woman. Only later does Joong-hanโs ex-wife, Jeong-ah (Kim Young-ah)โ who works at the National Forensic Service โ deduce that the murderer was right handed. Therefore Hyun-soo most likely wasnโt the culprit.
The maddening thing is that though thereย are other suspects, no one except Hyun-sooโs defense attorney bothered to check into their alibis. Why did no one question Hyun-sooโs friends, who he was headed to meet? While not an alibi during the time of the murder, they couldโve confirmed that yes, he was on his way to join them at a party. And while he technically did take his fatherโs cab without permission, his dad never pressed charges. So was it legally a theft? Or a son borrowing his parentsโ car without authorization?
While Joong-han is trying to prove his clientโs innocence, Hyun-soo is taken under Ji-taeโs wing in prison. The alpha prisoner who is feared by everyone, Ji-tae is tough and pragmatic, but most definitely not a good guy. Everyone has a purpose and he sees potential in Hyun-soo to be beneficial to him. Played by Kim Sung-kyu (โKingdomโ), Ji-tae is smoking hot in the same way that Park Hee-Soon was in โMy Name.โ
Hyun-sooโs nemesis in prison is a repeat offender played by Yang Kyung-won, who was so lovably weird in โCrash Landing on Youโ and โVincenzo.โ He is chilling here. (You can also catch him in this yearโs โBig Mouth,โ where he plays another character of dubious morals.)
โOne Ordinary Dayโ reminds me a bit of โMouse,โ where you donโt know who the killer is. Hyun-soo wasnโt completely innocent: he willingly got drunk, took illegal drugs and ran from the scene of a crime without calling for help. While he has no memory of killing Gook-hwa, he also has no memory of not killing her.
As Hyun-soo, Kim Soo-hyun is superb in a difficult role where he has to be sympathetic, but also could be a cold-blooded and manipulative killer. He is required to cry in a manner that allows viewers to feel his panic and fears. And Kim comes through again with his nuanced acting, proving he is one of the best actors of his generation.
Korean vs. International Age: Itโs mentioned several times that Hyun-soo is a 25-year old college student, which sounds old, right? A few things about that. Of course there are some students older than the norm. Some may have had to take time off to save up for tuition. Some young men fulfill their mandatory military duty right after high school or after completing a year or two of college. However, in both the dialogue (and the correct subtitles), they are referring to Hyun-sooโs Korean age. On one of his legal documents, viewers can see that he was born in August 1997. And in Episode 8, we see that part of his trial is taking place in May 2021. So he is actually only 23 years old at the time he was arrested for murder and put on trial. (For a more elaborate explanation of Korean vs. International Age, read my โTwenty-Five Twenty-Oneโ essay.)
Cliffhanger:ย The ending includes a cameo appearance by Kimโs โMoon That Embraces the Sunโ co-star Kim Yoo-jung, setting up the possibility of a second season focusing on a new lead actor and the crime sheโs accused of committing.
Not suitable for young children: There is a lot of violence, drug useย and minimal nudity (female breasts, male backside). I would say that itโs suitable for children 16 and older.
Airdates: Eight hour-long episodes aired on Coupang Play from November 27 to December 19, 2021.
Spoiler Alert:ย Hyun-soo didnโt commit the murder. The victimโs former lover โ a drug rehabilitation doctor โ also supplied her with opioids like fentanyl. He killed her after she found out he was married and broke up with him. When caught, he confessed.
We see that Hyun-soo is now out of prison, but he is not a free man by any means. After having been described as a murderer on the news for months, thatโs how people view him. Neighbors graffiti his parentsโ home and some passerby recoil at the sight of him. The last we see of him is on top of a high-rise building, smoking a cigarette. He throws his cigarette butt off the roof and looks down. The viewers are left wondering whether he is contemplating to die by suicide or will survive this trauma.
Also, I was truly surprised when another prisoner killed Ji-tae, who seemed invincible until the very end.
โPrison Playbookโ
โโโ
Kim Je-Hyukย (played by Park Hae-Soo)
Lee Joon-Hoย (played by Jung Kyung-Ho)
โNote: Korean names denote the surname followed by the given name.
The premise of โPrison Playbookโ didnโt interest me initially, which is why I waited to watch it. But Iโm glad I did. This dramedy had so many moments that made me sad, angry and ridiculously happy.
Je-Hyuk (Park Hae-Soo) is South Koreaโs most famous baseball player and is headed to the U.S. to play in the MLB. One night, he goes to check on his younger sister and hears her screaming. She is being attacked by a rapist. In the ensuing struggle, Je-Hyuk beats him unconscious.
It seems like a no-brainer: His sister was being attacked. He ran after, caught and fought the attacker. The rapist did all he could to pummel Je-Hyuk as well. But the court system deemed that his reaction of grabbing a trophy and hitting the man on the headย in self defense was โฆ too much. He is sentenced to a year in prison.
Excuse me?
Never mind that I donโt think thatโs how the ruling would have gone in real life for a squeaky clean athlete, who had never caused any trouble on or off the pitching mound. But this sets the premise for how he survives โ and even grows to thrive โ in prison.
Brought to you by the same showrunners responsible for the superb โReplyโ trilogy, as well as the smash hitย โHospital Playlist,โ โPrison Playbookโ shares many of the same actors and idiosyncrasies. Instead of a goat โฆ or was it a sheep? โฆ bleating as in the โReplyโ series, we hear a small whistle. But the most important thing it shares is the storytelling.
MILD SPOILER ALERT: The kindly prison guard (Sung Dong-Il) who seems to be in Je-Hyukโs corner is really just a criminal blackmailing prisoners for money; the helpful prisoner (Joo Seok-Tae) who seems in awe of his celebrity is a rapist whose ultimate goal is Je-Hyukโs body. And the hardened lifers (Choi Moo-Sung; and the actor who played the elderly man who was in charge of the incinerator โ I canโt find his name! Argh!) who others view as trash show more morality than the righteous do-gooders.
Itโs no spoiler to point out that Je-Hyukโs guardian angel is prison guard Joon-Ho (Jung Kyung-Ho), a childhood friend who excelled at baseball, but gave up that dream.
As Ji-Ho โ his former coachโs daughter who is now his ex-girlfriend โ Krystal Jung balances the right amount of nuance as a strong-minded college student who wants to pave her own way into the future, with or without Je-Hyuk. And honestly, the way he behaved to her โ not calling for days when his team lost, being clueless about so many things, and being a man-child all too often โ Je-Hyuk wasnโt exactly great boyfriend material.
There are so many stories going on here and just about all of them are strong enough to have been the central plot: a military officer (Jung Hae-In) accused to assaulting an underling so severely the latter died; a drug addict (Lee Kyu-hyung) who is in and out of prison, rather than a drug intervention program that could be more helpful.
Though this series doesnโt shy away from showing the brutal side of prison, in many ways it was like โHoganโs Heroes,โ which depicted dense, but non-threatening prison guards. For most of the series, the prisonโs warden (played by Ahn Kyung-Chan) seemed like an overgrown child, whose biggest joy in life was being positively portrayed in the press. But when push comes to shove by his underling, he shows that behind his clueless Baby Huey demeanor lies a man who knows exactly whatโs going on and how he wants to run his prison.
As for the prison itself, itโs about the cleanest facility Iโve ever seen, with prisoners who have their own privacy toilets in their cells. They are also served food that looks quite delicious. Thatโs when you know this is really a work of fiction.
No โฆ This couldnโt possibly happen: With dramas, viewers often have to go with the flow and not think too much about reality. Or your fun will just be inevitably spoiled. But Je-Hyukโs one request for signing with a baseball team once heโs released from prison has nothing to do with money and a multi-year contract. Rather, he said he will sign with the team that can control the media andย not write about his sister in any articles about him. I know that many celebrities worldwide want to control the press. But there is no baseball team in the world that could do that, especially initially when heโs making his comeback. His story was too well known not to mention why he was in prison.
Meta Moment: Thereโs a tongue-in-cheek reference to Park Bo-Gum. When Choi Moo-Sung, who played Parkโs father in โReply 1988,โ brags to his fellow inmates that he used to look like Park when he was younger, they stare at him incredulously. ใ ใ
Airdates:ย Sixteen 90-minute episodes aired on tvN from November 22, 2017 to January 18, 2018.
Spoiler Alert: The series ends with Je-Hyuk returning to his team as a baseball pitcher. We see him on the mound, with the crowd roaring its approval. But his team lost. I was so happy that the show didnโt create him as being back to his pre-prison form right off the bat. But it showed that he had already won over the public โฆ and Ji-Ho.
โPaybackโ
โโยฝ
Eun Yong (played by Lee Sun-kyung)
Park Joon-kyungย (played by Moon Chae-won)
Jang Tae-chunย (Kang Yoo-seok)
โNote: Korean names denote the surname followed by the given name.
The early episodes of โPaybackโ held promise for a truly compelling thriller with the always great Lee Sun-kyung in the lead role. But the storylines get progressively more convoluted as the show progresses.
Lee plays Eung Yong, an ambitious man with a photographic memory when it comes to numbers. He can read an entire ledger and correctly recall everything in it.
After a stint in juvenile detention where his physical prowess served him well, Eun Yong vows to never end up behind bars again. But when youโre poor and uneducated, with no parents to support you and an older sister and nephew who are financially struggling, the options are minimal.
He chooses to work for Myung In-joo (Kim Hong-pa), who operates a lucrative and illegal money-lending business. When Myungโs clients canโt pay him back on time โ which heโs counting on โ his thugs violently assault them before forcing them to immediately sign over their businesses to him. (This storyline is also represented in โBloodhounds.โ)
At first a foot soldier for Myung, Yongโs savvy aptitude for numbers gets him promoted to a higher position with Myung. And itโs not long before the student becomes the teacher โฆ and enemy. Yong leaves South Korea for a decade or so, building even more wealth overseas and spending his time making deals in Mongolia. When he returns to South Korea, itโs with a portfolio of millions (maybe billions?) and a detailed plan to get revenge on everyone responsible for killing his surrogate mother Yoon Hye-rin (played by Kim Mi-sook, who was so good in last yearโs โLittle Womenโ) and disguising her death as a suicide.
Hye-rinโs daughter, Joon-kyung (Moon Chae-won), is a former prosecutor and a military judicial officer. She and Yong met in their teens when they stood up against a gang of men sexually harassing a woman on the train. Sent to jail, she was expeditiously bailed out by her mother, who then insisted on becoming Yongโs guardian. The three quickly became a de facto family, with Hye-rin knowing the boy is involved in illegal activity, but not interfering with his actions.
The series loses momentum as Yong and Myung (and his corrupt prosecutor son-in-law Hwang Ki-seok (Park Hoon) play cat and mouse games for the duration of the K-drama. Yong has a brilliant plan mapped out, gets the right people to double cross Myung and Co. โฆ and ultimately ends up with the plan blowing up in his face. One time, this was fine. Twice, OK. But after the third time, viewers may be left wondering how bright this numbers genius actually is.
Actually, many of the cast members appear to be lacking in brain power. When Ki-seok creates a suicide note โ for someone who doesnโt realize heโll be killed โ he wears gloves so he doesnโt get his own fingerprints on the paper, folds it up and seals it in an envelope. OK. But wouldnโt even a forensic novice wonder, โHey, how come there are no fingerprints at all on this letter?!โ
One of my favorite story arcs dealt with Yong and his childhood friend, whom he met when they were locked up in juvenile detention. Jin-ho (Won Hyun-joon) is the one who got Yong into Myungโs gang. But lacking the smarts that Yong has, he never progresses beyond being a lackey who beats up whoever Myung tells him to.
Yongโs nephew, Tae-chun (Kang Yoo-seok), is also involved in his uncleโs plans. He graduated from a smaller law school outside of Seoul, so he has been automatically ruled out as someone who can move up the ranks at the prosecutorโs office. Weโre never quite sure how dirty heโs willing to get and how much Yong will use him to get what he wants. And thatโs where some of the best dramatic moments occurred.
Airdates:ย Twelve hour-long episodes aired on SBS from January 6 to February 11, 2023. I watched this on Prime Video.
Spoiler Alert: As it turns out, Yong had everything planned out from the get go. All the times it seemed like he had been outmaneuvered by Myung and Ki-seok was part of his plan.
There is a scene when Myung orders Jin-ho to capture and kill Yong. We all know that Jin-ho is not going to kill his friend. He sends Myung a video of Yong being covered with dirt, implying that he is as good as dead and buried. But surprise, heโs alive! When this becomes clear, why did Myung allow Jin-ho to live? Itโs not like Jin-ho was irreplaceable.
Also, the entire series is full of people who have admitted to prosecutors and the press that they have committed serious crimes. Perjury. Money laundering. Involvement in the deaths of others. And yet โฆ they are allowed to go back to their prior positions.ย Hello? Do they not know how how petty netizens are? Korean antifans stalked a celebrity for years because they didnโt believe he had graduated from Stanford University. Weโre actually to believe that citizens are A-OK with Ki-seokโs admissions of guilt and his reinstatement as a prosecutor? Not only that, but he has political ambitions, with the Blue House (i.e. the presidency) as his goal. And no one thinks that having a criminal father in law would hinder his chances? Hello?
Even Joon-kyung, who had admitted to falsifying documents under Ki-seokโs order, is allowed to return as a prosecutor. Yes, we like her. But ultimately she had a choice and she chose to lie in order to help her mother. (FWIW, Iโm not blaming her on a personal level. But legally, she committed an egregious crime.)
Everyone who shouldโve ended up in prison ended up there, thanks to Yong, Joon-kyung and Tae-chun, who played by the books and was able to help his uncle get justice.
โMove to Heavenโ
โโโยฝ
Sang-Guย (played by Lee Je-Hoon)
Geu-Ruย (played by Tang Joon-Sang)
โNote: Korean names denote the surname followed by the given name.
Former firefighter Jeong-Woo (Ji Jin-Hee) and his son, Geu-Ru (Tang Joon-Sang), run a business called Move to Heaven. They are known as trauma cleaners and they are called in to deal with the after effects of death. A young man injured on the job โ but not having the money to go to the hospital โ bleeds out and dies in a dingy room that needs to be stripped clean before it can be rented out again. An elderly woman dies alone in squalor. Meanwhile, her adult son who had neglected her in her old age is eager to gain control of all her assets. And in one of the more gut-wrenching vignettes, a Korean adoptee is deported to Korea after committing a petty crime in the United States.
With his meticulous eye for detail and inability to give up, Geu-Ru is like a young detective, whose brilliant mind allows him to solve puzzles that others canโt see.
After Jeong-Woo dies, 19-year-old Geu-Ru is now an orphan. He is left in the care of his gruff, estranged uncle, Sang-Gu (Lee Je-Hoon), who doesnโt know what to make of him. Geu-Ru, who has Aspergerโs Syndrome, is a perfectionist who doesnโt like to deviate from his routine. He sits in the same spot for breakfast every morning and gets agitated if his sunnyside up egg yolk isnโt perfect. Sang-Gu is rough around the edges with a chip on his shoulder. Though flashbacks will show him in a loving relationship with his elder half brother, he has nothing but contempt now for Jeong-Woo, who he believes failed in protecting him (and their mother) from his abusive father.
Bloodline has an interesting place in this K-drama. Though Sang-Gu had spent time in jail, he is considered the best guardian for Geu-Ru, because he is the young manโs only living relative. (Geu-Ruโs mother died when he was young.)ย But in the story arc involving the adoptee Mattthew Green (played by Kevin Oh), his having been adopted seems to wipe out his Koreanness.
With no skills other than fighting, Sang-Gu takes part in illegal, underground boxing/MMA matches, where the only rule is to survive. The matches are run by a woman, who this series sets up as the bad guy. And she is a horrible person. But in reality, most of the men who participate in these fight clubs do so because they want (what they think is) an easy way to earn a lot of money fast. And she gives them the forum.
One of the highlights of this series is a backstory that shows Sang-Gu mentoring a high school student who had been bullied. Soo-Cheol (Lee Jae-Wook) ends up in a coma that Sang-Gu feels responsible for. And this is one reason why he almost doesnโt want to improve his life. Living a miserable life makes him feel less guilty about Soo-Cheol.
As the uncle and nephew, Lee Je-Hoon and Tang Joon-Sang (โRacket Boys,โ โCrash Landing on Youโ), respectively, are superb. Lee plays his brutal and slovenly character with charm and humor, while Tang articulates with his movements and voice what Geu-Ru is going through. I watched this series around the same time as โRacket Boys,โ where Tang plays a brash character, whose confidence was equaled only by his ability to deliver what he bragged about. Just 17, he is such a talented actor, with an incredible range.
Ultimately, Geu-Ru is able to get closure on his fatherโs death, which gives him peace of mind.
โMove to Heavenโ is a beautiful and at times cruel series that tells so many different stories, but each is told with care. This K-drama also shows how you donโt need things to remember a person. But having a few treasured mementos can help the survivors go on with life. The way Jeong-Woo โ and later Geu-Ru โ picked the most important items and fit them into a box about the size of a milk crate was commendable and incredibly touching. When I think of what Iโd want my family to have to remember me by, itโs not any furniture or a car. Rather, itโs photos and ticket stubs from things we shared together that are most meaningful, to me.
Airdates:ย Ten episodes were released on Netflix on May 14, 2021. Each episode was between 45- to 60-minutes long.
Spoiler Alert:ย Sang-Gu and Jeong-Woo are half brothers, who had the same mother. While in high school, Jeong-Woo tried to protect their mother and Sang-Gu from the latterโs abusive father. After both of Sang-Guโs parents die, Jeong-Woo promises to raise him so that the child isnโt sent to an orphanage. They arrange a day and time to meet. But Jeong-Woo never arrives. Unbeknownst to Sang-Gu, the older brother had gone to a department store to buy the little boy Nike shoes for his birthday. When the building collapsed, he was trapped in the rubble. And by the time he was rescued and recovered, Sang-Gu had been taken to an orphanage. After Jeong-Wooโs death, Sang-Gu discovers what had happened to his brother, and finds dozens of new Nike shoes โ each a little bigger than the previous yearโs โ that Jeong-Woo had bought every year for his birthday. There are also stacks of flyers from when he was desperately trying to find his brother.
The Matthew Green storyline seems to have been based on the recent cases of Korean adoptees who have been deported to Korea, because their irresponsible adoptive parents never bothered to do all the paperwork to finalize their U.S. citizenship. Most Korean adoptees who are adopted internationally are not raised to speak Korean. So itโs particularly cruel to return a person to a country where they know no one, arenโt familiar with the culture and canโt speak the language.
The series finale was perplexing. A high school girl walks up to Geu-Reu to hire Move to Heavenโฆfor herself. There is no explanation. Does she plan to die by suicide? Is she terminally ill and wants to spare her family? The girl looks peaceful and content, while Geu-Reu looks uncomfortable and confused, much like I was.
โBig Mouthโ
โโโ
Park Chang-ho (played by Lee Jong-suk)
Ko Mi-ho (played by Im Yoon-ah)
โNote: Korean names denote the surname followed by the given name.
Let me start this review by noting how perfect the cast was for this series, especially the lead actors Lee Jong-suk (as a lawyer on a losing streak) and Girlsโ Generationโs Im Yoon-ah as his pragmatic wife (whoโs a skilled nurse). There was not a moment where I didnโt believe that this couple was besotted with each other. Even when they argued, it was obvious that they cared so very much about each other.
At the start of this series, Chang-ho is a lawyer famous for losing most of his cases. He earns the nickname of Big Mouth, because he isnโt afraid to voice his opinions, even if theyโre not fully developed at the time he speaks. Hired by the mayor of Gucheon, the case seems too good to be true. Choi Do-ha (Kim Joo-hun) wants him to defend three of his frenemies (a surgeon, the son of a hospital chaebol and the hospitalโs attorney), who may or may not have killed the man found in the trunk of their car. The key to the murder is an elusive study done by the deceased, which could incriminate the men, as well as the elite hierarchy to which theyโre tied.
The powerful trio already has the trial planned and the appropriate people bribed and in their pockets. Chang-ho was essentially hired to be an obedient frontman who only has to do what he is told. His payoff will be enough money to not only pay off his debts, but to have a nice little nest egg left over for his family, which includes his doting father-in-law Gi-kwang (portrayed by the always magnificent Lee Ki-young).
Chang-ho knows that the case he has accepted isnโt on the up and up. Everyone involved is at best suspicious, and at worst depraved. But the money is too good to turn down.
What happens from here on out is a thrilling spiral of events that includes Chang-ho being mistaken for an elusive crime boss called Big Mouse, his being imprisoned in a brutal prison, so many double crosses that youโll need a spreadsheet to keep track, and an ending that ties everything together โ albeit sadly, and a bit too rushed.
Amidst all the drama in this series, there are some lighter moments, especially when Chang-ho and his father-in-law team up against Mi-hoโs more stringent nature. But what the series drills home is the differences between the haves and the have nots. Criminals with money and power get VIP treatment in prison, while the rest are given sub-human treatment. (That theme is also explored in โOne Ordinary Day,โ another K-drama I watched around the same time.)
Like Kim Soo-hyun, Lee made his post-military debut with a cameo appearance before starring in a critically-acclaimed K-drama. Kim made a much-talked about appearance in IUโs โHotel del Luna,โ before tackling โItโs Okay to Not Be Okay.โ Likewise, after Lee finished his mandatory military duty on January 2, 2021, he made a special appearance in the film โThe Witch: Part 2. The Other One,โ before signing up for โBig Mouth.โ
Airdates: Twelve hour-long episodes aired on MBC TV from July 29 to September 17, 2022.
Spoiler Alert:
We know early on that Chang-ho and Mi-ho are married. But after Mi-ho is exposed to contaminated toxic waste that a company is illegally dumping, she dies of lymphatic cancer. Honestly? The ending was so sad that I need to share this photo of the couple in their happier, more hopeful days.
โJuvenile Justiceโ
โโโ
Shim Eun-seok (played by Kim Hye-soo)
Cha Tae-joo (played by Kim Mu-yeol)
โNote: Korean names denote the surname followed by the given name.
There has been much debate in South Korea about how to punish and rehabilitate underage criminals. โJuvenile Justiceโ deals with these issues in a taut manner, using the law to mete out judicial revenge.
Shim Eun-seok is a tough judge working in the juvenile court system. She makes no bones about the fact that she despises juvenile offenders. To her gentler colleague, Cha Tae-joo, she at first appears unreasonable and unwilling to see the potential in children.
In a different series, the characters wouldโve been reversed, with the hard-nosed role going to the man and the more vulnerable part going to the woman. But this K-drama works precisely because Kim Hye-sooโs portrayal goes against the grain of societyโs expectations for how women are supposed to behave and be.
โJuvenile Justiceโ begins with a horrifying case. A young teenager shows up bloodied at a police station and confesses that he has killed a younger neighbor who lives in his apartment complex. He also mutilated the childโs body. Though the police find it odd that a self-proclaimed murderer comes forward, they also donโt see a reason not to take the boy at his word. But because the child is under 14 โ the age where criminals can be sentenced to prison โ he will not serve any jail time.
This is the loophole that Eun-seok (Kim Hye-soo) finds reprehensible and wants changed. How can society allow a murderer to go free, even if they are underage?
The teens and tweens who appear in her court range from privileged students whose parents paid big bucks for them to enter the Descartes program (which provides answers to tests); to runaways who prostitute each other; to teens who assault a classmate โ who had been convicted of committing crimes when he was younger โ who is trying to live a better life.
Near the end, Eun-seok gets into an improbable fight with a young thug that is satisfying, but also over-the-top weird.
As I was preparing to write this, I was reminded that while the cases presented in this series are fictional, theyโre not much worse than whatโs happening in reality. I read about tweens in Indiana who lured a 12-year-old for a sleepover for the purposes of torturing her. In a world like this, how do you balance justice with the fate of children who may be too young to understand the depravity of their actions?
Airdates: Eight hour-long episodes dropped on Netflix on February 25, 2022.
Spoiler Alert: About five years ago, a pair of elementary school students dropped bricks from high atop a building to see what would happen. One of the bricks hit and killed Eun-seokโs kindergarten-age son. The childrenโs age got them therapy. But instead of being rehabilitated, their depravity increased. They grew up to be rapists who filmed girls being brutally assaulted. They saw nothing wrong in making money off of the bodies of their victims.
Tae-joo (Kim Mu-yeol) has a secret of his own. When he was a child, he committed petty crimes. But a judge (Lee Sung-min from โMisaengโ) gave him hope. Tae-joo became a judge because of him and would later work for him. Because he was rehabilitated, he believes that other children โ no matter how horrible their actions are โ can change for the better as well.
Lee Sung-minโs character was slated to become a politician, until his elder son gets caught up in the Descartesย scandal. (His wife had signed their child up, against his wishes.) When heโs forced to resign, a new judge (played by Lee Jung-eun from โParasiteโ) takes over.
โItaewon Classโ
โโโ
Saeroyiย (played by Park Seo-Joon)
Soo-Ah (played by Kwon Nara)
Yi-Seo (played by Kim Dam-Mi)
โNote: Korean names denote the surname followed by the given name.
Here are a few of my observations about โItaewon Classโ:
โฆ The ending of Episode 1 is a mothereffing cliffhanger that is shocking and a revelation. Watch Episode 2 immediately afterwards.
โฆ Loyalty only gets you so far in life, even for the best of friends. If your friend is treating you as less than because he has acquired power โ at your expense โ you are no longer friends, but employer and employee.
โฆ While I liked the two female leads as characters, I didnโt like either of them as love interests for the series protagonist, Saeroyi (Park Seo-Joon). Many people disliked Soo-Ah (Kwon Nara), because she went to work for Saeroyiโs enemy. But I understood why. It was self preservation. At the time, Saeroyi had no future to provide for himself, much less her. As an orphan with no family ties, she would have limited options for good careers in South Korea. When she saw an opportunity โ even knowing that she was being used to emotionally get back at Saeroyi โ she still had to go for it.
โฆ As for Yi-Seo (Kim Dam-Mi), she was one of those characters I never warmed up to. In a cast of unbelievable characters, I found her storyline the most difficult to accept. She had some great moments, but my distaste began when she tutored two male colleagues to pick up women at clubs by using pickup techniques that bordered on harassment. When she refused to accept that a bi-racial Korean man (played by Chris Lyon) could indeed be Korean, I wanted nothing more to do with her. (Her character was young and was meant to reflect the ugly side of Korean society that needs to work on racist views. But I still disliked her.)
โฆ As much as I love Park Seo-Joon, my favorites in this series were two of his co-stars. Lee Joo-Young was brilliant portraying a transgender woman. And Ryu Kyung-Soo was a scene stealer in his depiction of a former convict, whose use of brute force sometimes was a necessity.
โฆ If this series does anything, it hammers home the point that having goals and determination is one thing. But having a vendetta only eats away at your soul, no matter how successful you become as a businessman.
WTF Moment: There is a flash forward that jumps forward four years. Itโs supposed to show how well Saeroyi and his crew have flourished. But I kept wondering: โWhy is everyoneโs wig so stupid looking?โ
Airdates: Premiering on JTBC on January 31, 2020, the 16-episode series โ each running about 70-minutes long โ had its finale on March 21, 2020.
Spoiler Alert: As for Saeroyi, his life became hell after he beat up the school bully (a blond Ahn Bo-hyun), for picking on other students. The bullyโs father is the powerful head of a food conglomerate โ and a former friend of Saeroyiโs dad, who now works for him. Much of Saeroyiโs life couldโve been on a different trajectory if he had made more mature choices. (I know, not easy to do when youโre 18.) Rules are different for the rich and the poor, the powerful and the powerless. As much as it wouldโve killed him to bow down to the immoral chaebol and apologize for beating his good-for-nothing son, he couldโve still had his revenge without being sent to jail and being pegged as a convict for the rest of his life. And that act wouldโve kept his father alive. Yes, his father was proud of him for standing up to the man. But for people without power, that act of defiance can literally take away much of their future.
After spurning Saeroyiย for about 15 years, Soo-Ah finally is ready to forge a romance with him. But itโs too late. He chooses Yi-Seo. Donโt feel too bad for Soo-Ah, though. She ends up opening her own restaurant and the chef she hires is played by โฆ Park Bo-Gum. Sometimes, itโs better to let go of the past and start anew without all the baggage that comes from first loves and childhood traumas.
โWay Back Homeโ
โโ
Jeong-Yeon (played by Jeon Do-yeon)
Jong-Bae (played by Go Soo)
โNote: Korean names denote the surname followed by the given name.
โWay Back Homeโ is based on the real-life case ofย Jang Mi-Jeong, a South Korean national who was arrested for smuggling almost 40 pounds of cocaine into France.
Jang maintained that she agreed to help out a family friend by carrying gemstones โ not drugs. She was arrested and served time in Martinique, with little access to her family back home. In the aftermath of her arrest and eventual release from prison, Koreaโs Ministry of Foreign Affairs was heavily criticized for โdiplomatic negligenceโ in not helping their citizen.
Jeong-Yeon (Jeon Do-yeon) is the fictionalized version of Jang Mi-Jeong. Happily married to Jong-Bae (Go Soo), Jeong-Yeon dotes on their young child and the cozy life theyโve carved out for themselves. But after one of Jong-Baeโs friends dies by suicide to escape his debts, they face financial ruin. As the co-signer on the friendโs loan, Jong-Bae and his wife now are responsible for paying off the dead friendโs debts.
Unable to handle the added financial burden and worried about the toll it is taking on her husband, Jeong-Yeon agrees to deliver diamonds from France to Korea for a sleazy friend, who guarantees her that the money sheโll earn for doing this will more than pay off their debts.
Of course, she is apprehended in Paris and jailed.
Iโm not clear as to why she was transferred to a prison in Martinique. But there, unable to communicate with anyone, she is imprisoned for two years without having her day in court.
Knowing that she is poor, without any connections to a tony family, the Korean diplomats who should be advocating for her release view her and her husband as inconvenient burdens, who get in the way of their fine dining and relatively easy lives.
The first Korean film to be shot in the Caribbean, โWay Back Homeโ was shot in a real womenโs prison, with some of the actual guards and detainees serving as background characters. The filmmakers clearly believe that while Jang Mi-Jeong (the woman on whom the movie is based) may have been guilty, her crime was less egregious than the way theย Ministry of Foreign Affairs handled her case.
Release date:ย December 11, 2013. It placed second in box-office sales on its opening weekend.
Running time:ย 107 minutes.
What Iโve Been Up To:
โข TWICE Opens Up on Mental Health, Sisterhood, New Album (TODAY)
โข American Melancholy: The Real Loss in "Past Lives" isn't love (Salon)
โข Chung Ha Shares the Next Step in Her Evolution (Rolling Stone)
โข Go Away With โฆ Raymond Lee of โQuantum Leapโ (Chicago Tribune)
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(Tone: Grateful) As always Iโm super grateful for your insightful takeaways! ๐๐๐คโ๐ผ