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Review: The Devil Judge (악마판사) (2021)
This drama was good. It had compelling characters and some very thrilling writing. There were times when it fell back on cliches/tropes which was slightly disappointing because this drama shone when it was completely off the rails.
Still, I think a lot of people would really enjoy this drama. It was well made and well acted.
Messy write up ahead, with spoilers~
Story
This story obviously showed a very sensationalized interpretation of the law, with this being fictional and set in a dystopia. The overarching story included a revenge plot line (for Yo-han, and a mini revenge plotline for Ga-on too), and a political corruption plot line.
Though the writing was senationalized, that wasn't the part of the drama that bothered me. Rather, I was just a bit bothered by some of the cliched writing. As a story, this is nothing new, but I felt like at times, the drama felt like it had to follow cliches to a tee in order to reach various story beats.
Basically, I think this drama worked best when it was not trying to fit in the box, when it went totally off the rails with an insane live court show, or when Yo-han did whatever he wanted. It shone the best when it showed Yo-han as a truly morally gray hero, and how he contrasted with someone like Ga-on. Where it went cliched was in instances such as the romantic plot line between Ga-on and Soohyun. The romantic plot line progressed at a very strange pace, to the point that I felt like the writers ahd just stuffed it in to fulfill the romance quota, when the story would have worked perfectly fine as a platonic relationship.
So the story and writing had strengths and weaknesses, and I preferred when they were more creative with the writing. As well, the ending to this drama didn't lose steam like I've seen for other dramas. The story stuck to what it had set out to do, and for the most part was able to wrap out most of the story lines with enough attention. The inclusion of the pandemic story line was a bit strange, but at least it didn't just disappear, and was dealt with logically.
Production
The production value was generally very good. I have no complaints about the set design. Yo-han's house had a very Western style, while a lot of the city had a more "futuristic gotham" style, both which contributed to the distinct look and feel of the drama.
The acting in this drama was very kdrama-like, very cliched. The thing is, people would get angry but in the exact same way, regardless of the character and the situation. For example, many of the men would get angry by raising their voices, even when it didn't really match the situation.
Characters
Kang Yo-han
Yo-han was the bastard child of a rich/powerful man. His older brother and sister-in-law were killed in a fire, and part of the drama was about him seeking revenge for the brother that he respected so much and the niece who was his only living family in the world.
Yo-han was so chaotic. He was the judge of a live court show, but over the course of the show, we saw that he would basically manipulate every part of the court case to get the result that he wanted, as long as it looked good on camera, because the support of the common people was extremely powerful.
If it were up to him, I think Yo-han would've become a rogue vigilante, but he didn't want these corrupt officials to die, he wanted them to suffer first, which was why he needed to use the law to get to them.
Yo-han as a person was extremely focused on revenge, to the point that it was his personality. The whole process of Yo-han bringing Ga-on onto his side was so surreal. It was clear that he was manipulating Ga-on, that he wasn't doing good by the victims for the sake of doing good, but for the sake of winning over Ga-on, and yet, that would probably be considered sincere by Yo-han's standards.
At the end of the drama, Yo-han got his revenge by unmasking the corrupt politicians in front of live TV and detonating a bomb to kill them and himself. But it was revealed that he had actually faked his death, and he fled Korea, going to Switzerland with Elijah to a facility that would help her rehabilitate her legs. He returned to Korea to see Ga-on briefly, and they shared a smile, but he left once again. I think it was a happy ending for him, finally leaving the corrupt political system that he despised so much. As one person, he cannot change it, and for his own sanity, he needed to leave.
Kim Ga-on
Ga-on was a judge who was working alongside Yo-han. Originally, he was just meant to be a sort of spy, but as we saw, he was later won over by Yo-han.
Ga-on was a man who was easily led, which unfortunately made him an easy victim to manipulation. Though he was smart, he was surrounded by people who were slyer than him and he would fall into their traps because he was so easy to read and predict. Unfortunately, one of the people who were closest to him, Min Jung-ho was one of the people who were manipulating him.
During the drama, Ga-on flip-flopped between whether he was on Yo-han's side or not. He sympathized with Yo-han's suffering, but he would constantly come across situations that would make him question whether Yo-han had killed his own family.
At the end, Ga-on realized he'd been manipulated by Sun-ah, and he dove head first into helping Yo-han by gathering evidence on the corrupt politicians.
During Yo-han's final showdown with the corrupt politicians, Ga-on tried to appeal to Yo-han's emotional side, pleading with him not to kill himself, but he was pushed out of the room.
Yo-han had spoken with the authorities about his thoughts on the legal system, but he looked very exasperated when he saw that the authorities weren't really listening to his point of view, about how the law has to be reformed to serve the people and not the other way around.
Oh Jin-joo
Jin-joo was the other judge that was working with Yo-han on the live court show. At first, she was kind of a Yo-han fangirl. As Yo-han later recounted, she had initially said that she was simply happy for the opportunity to work alongside him.
Sun-ah tried to get Jin-joo on her side, by whispering in her ear and encouraging her career ambitions. However, while working on the show, Jin-joo had also developed more of a professional pride, and I think she realized she cared more about doing the right thing, rather than climbing up the career ladder. While both she and Sun-ah came from poverty, they differed in this regard.
By the end, Jin-joo was firmly on Yo-han and Ga-on's side, and she helped Yo-han and Ga-on in their plans.
Elijah
Elijah was Yo-han's niece, the daughter of his older brother Isaac. There was tension between Elijah and Yo-han, because Yo-han had implied that he was responsible for the fire, though it was later revealed that he had just done so to give her a reason to live.
Isaac had the same face as Ga-on, so at first, she was rather wary of Ga-on. But Ga-on was able to win her over by treating her like a normal kid instead of Yo-han, who had no idea how to treat kids and teenagers lol.
Elijah was wheelchair-bound, so she mostly stayed in the house, but she did attend Stanford University online, majority in computer programming. So she was a genius, but had no friends. Ga-on introduced her to Soo-hyun in an attempt to get her female friends lol. Basically, Ga-on injected love in her life, both by introducing her to new people, but also by mending the relationships in the family.
It was later revealed that as a child, Elijah had accidentally knocked down a candle in the church where she and her family had attended the donation event. Yo-han had pushed all the blame onto himself so that she would not blame herself.
At the end of the drama, she left for Switzerland with Yo-han, to a facility that could help with rehabilitating the use of her legs.
I thought Elijah was a cute character. She was a character with a personality, but she also acted like a teenager, with mood swings and such.
Ji Young-ok
Ms. Ji was the housekeeper in the Kang family. She had raised Yo-han, but they did not have a good relationship. Her perception of him was mostly through observation and it seemed like they didn't interact much.
Later on, as Ga-on started getting friendly with the family, they still did not interact so much, but I think it was implied that they were at least cordial with each other.
And in the last episode, I thought it was sweet when she instinctively hugged Yo-han because she was so relieved that he was alive. Yo-han released Ms. Ji from his service, since he was going to leave with Elijah. Ms. Ji stayed in the house, at least until Ga-on came by. I bet Ms. Ji is going to stay in the house, for some sense of familiarity.
K
K was Yo-han's assistant, but he was really more of a plot device. All we knew about him was that he was a victim of Cha Kyung-hee's corruption, and because he wanted to get back at her, he basically gave his life to Yo-han to use as he needed. He really was just a convenience character to show us how Yo-han could get information in grittier places. I felt like it was a waste to leave him so unexplored as a character.
Yoon Soo-hyun
Soo-hyun was Ga-on's childhood friend and a police officer.
She had romantic feelings for Gao-on, but Ga-on had always rejected them. He later confessed to her, and told her that he would always reject her because he was afraid of ruining what they had.
Soo-hyun was extremely loyal to Ga-on. She was often seen dropping everything to meet him or to gather information for him.
When Ga-on and Yo-han were caught at the scene of Cha Kyung-hee's death, Soo-hyun was put in a tough position, because she definitely would have had to arrest them, but instead, she let them go and destroyed evidence. Of course, it angered her quite a bit, and that was the first time she had ever shown anger at Ga-on. But she had come to Ga-on's rescue when he was attacked by Juk-chang's crew. Afterwards, Ga-on confessed, and they were fine, until her death.
I did feel injustice on Soo-hyun's behalf, to be honest. She always laid down her life for Ga-on and I felt like Ga-on took her for granted, pushing her further and further, and when he pushed her over the edge, he didn't even do that much to beg for forgiveness, sigh.
She was killed by an assassin who was hired by Sun-ah but was made to look like he was hired by Yo-han, in order to manipulate Ga-on.
Min Jung-ho
Min Jung-ho was head of the Supreme Court (I think). He was Ga-on's mentor figure, and he was the one who'd arranged for Ga-on to work with Yo-han, to keep an eye on him. He was meant to appeal to Ga-on's law-abiding side, in contrast with Yo-han who was always breaking the rules.
I started noticing that he was often specifically contradicting Yo-han, rather than encouraging Ga-on to evaluate things for himself, and by the end of the drama, we saw that he'd actually been bought out by Sun-ah. Ga-on confronted Min Jung-ho with a BOMB, but was stopped by Yo-han. But the damage was done, and their relationship was finished.
Jung Sun-ah
Jung-ah was a very interesting character. I didn't think she was a perfectly executed character, but there was a lot about her that was thought provoking.
How do you write a villain for a protagonist who's morally gray? In this drama, the answer is to write a someone who is equally as unhinged as him, but operates by a completely different set of rules.
Jung-ah came from a very unfortunate background, having an abusive family and coming from poverty. Unfortunately, to keep up with the system, she had to turn bad herself, because she would not have been given the leeway to do whatever she wanted like Yo-han would have as a rich man, and one who was loved by many due to the live court show.
Because she knew that her persona as a former maid would be looked down upon, she was always working in the shadows. Actually, she hated it when people would point out the fact that she used to be a maid. I found it really interesting when Yo-han told her to her face that she didn't have the courage to take the power that she had amassed. Even though she had effectively taken control of the government, she was still mostly working in the shadows. I know Yo-han was just taking advantage of her securities, but I think he did have a point. Sun-ah basically had some internalized prejudices against herself, that she could not get rid of because she had to believe it in order to hide herself so well. She did entertain the idea of becoming president, but we didn't really get to explore that thought because Sun-ah didn't do much at the final showdown.
Sun-ah had also had a crush on Yo-han since they were kids, when she was still working as a maid in Yo-han's home. Their dynamic as kids and as adults was totally different though. As kids, she was totally at Yo-han's mercy, since he was the young master, and she was a maid who had a crush on him. As an adult, she had amassed much power of her own, and the power imbalance between them was much smaller. Her continuing to call Yo-han Young Master was really out of respect/nostalgia/playfulness.
That being said, at times, I felt like Sun-ah's crush on Yo-han was somewhat unnecessary. I don't love the idea that all women need to be in love with someone. In the adult timeline, I actually didn't think that Sun-ah was really in love with Yo-han. I felt like she was just acting affectionate towards him because she liked the idea of having someone to love.
There was a part in the show where Sun-ah invited Jae-hee to drink with her, and Jae-hee joked that Sun-ah must have her own friends to drink with, but the truth was that she didn't. She was so focused on her dream of gaining power that she couldn't stop to make friends, much like how Yo-han himself didn't make friends except to help him with his journey on revenge.
In the end, Sun-ah shot herself when her crimes were revealed on the court show. I didn't expect her to do that. Considering all of the power she had amassed on her own, I would have expected her to find a way out of this situation, or to at least die fighting. Instead, it seemed that she felt cornered and saw no way out but death. This might have been a mindset that befitted a Sun-ah of the past, who had been beaten down by those in power again and again. But it didn't make as much sense for a Sun-ah of the present to think that way.
My initial concern with Sun-ah was that I felt her styling didn't match the actress that well. Something about the hair didn't seem to match her that well. And at times during the drama, I felt like she Sun-ah's character was overacted. She did have very cutesy and feminine mannerisms, but at times they just felt forced with the actress that we saw. I would still say that the actress did a great job, I just felt like she didn't suit the role perfectly and had to do extra work to portray Sun-ah well.
Jae-hee
Jae-hee was Sun-ah's assistant. She acted both as Jae-hee's hired muscle as well as her secretary. They had a relatively good relationship, but Jae-hee did also fear Sun-ah. However, that fear was only showed very briefly, which kind of disappointed me. After showing a bit of fear, Jae-hee was back to being the happiest henchwoman ever.
Cha Kyung-hee
Cha Kyung-hee was the Minister of Justice. Yo-han and Ga-on had a few grudges against her. For one, Kyung-hee was in the church fire where Isaac and his wife perished. In a flashback, we saw that her actions had caused Elijah to break her legs. K's father committed suicide after being falsely accused by her. And she'd also wronged Ga-on by accepting a bribe from the conman who'd forced his parents to commit suicide, so that he would be able to live in hiding.
Sun-ah helped Yo-han take down Kyung-hee, mostly because they were a thorn in each other's side. Kyung-hee had clued into Sun-ah's past, and would purposely use it against her to hurt her pride.
Early on, her son was shown to have been very physically abusive and rude to people around him, and had been put on trial and received corporal punishment. Kyung-hee had a chance to save her son by revealing her past wrongdoing, but she'd refused, condemning her son to punishment, which shows what kind of woman she was.
Sun-ah and Yo-han launched a coordinated attack to take her down, which was very satisfying to watch. She ended up committing suicide.
Seo Jeong-hak
Seo Jeong-hak was the head of the Social Responsibility Foundation, but he was really a puppet for Jung Sun-ah. I think it was implied that he probably tried to sexually harass her, and she used it against him. We later saw in the drama that she was completely in control of Seo Jeong-hak.
I think Seo Jeong-hak did try to get Jung Sun-ah off his back, but he was unsuccessful, and he was killed by Jung Sun-ah in order to take the fall for the corruption for the Dream House proposal.
Heo Joong-se
Heo Joong-se was the president and one of the main villains. As a villain, he was a bit cartoonish, but not in the smart way.
If I remember correctly, he was a former actor, so maybe he wasn't the most qualified. But we also saw that he had quite extremist policies, and towards the end, I felt like he had turned into a caricature of what people envision a bad politician to be.
He was shot by Jung Sun-ah as he tried to plead with Yo-han to let him go when he'd trapped them in the room with the bomb.
Min Yong-shik & Park Du-man
Min Yong-shik and Park Du-man were two other villains, but they had a smaller role compared to Jung Sun-ah and Heo Joong-se. We saw that they would switch their allegiences from one person to another and though they themselves didn't do much that was important, the presence or absence of their support did a lot to elevate Jung Sun-ah or Heo Joong-se. So they were powerful just by existing.
Yo-han had convinced Min Yong-shik to gather the corrupt clique in the court room for a party, which of course angered the others. But in any case, both politicians and their wives (as well as Heo Joong-se's wife) died in the bomb.
Themes
Law vs. morals
This was probably the overarching theme of the drama. The law is supposed to reflect public morality as much as possible, but obviously it's not perfect.
I think Yo-han gained popularity because he gave off the appearance of listening to the people, even though in reality he was manipulating them (by posing questions in a rather manipulative way, etc.). Nonetheless, he'd gained popularity when forced to resign, because he even if he circumvented the law, the people felt that he had given the defendants a sentence befitting of their crimes.
The closing message was that the law was meant to mirror the feelings of the people, and that if they did not align, that's when people would act out.
Class differences and the system
"The system" is related to the last point in that laws are part of the system. But the system is not made equal, and of course, the rich and the powerful always get off more easily.
I think that is why Yo-han saw the system as a nuisance, nothing but a suggestion. He was always working "around" the law during the show. Partially because he knew how corrupt politicians were, but also because due to his rich background, he could afford to ignore them and break rules without fearing for his life.
Meanwhile, Sun-ah came from an abusive household. The law had never worked in her favour, even when she was wronged. So she learned to bend the system. She was never going to be free of it, whether it was because of class differences, or whether because of sexism. She could only get her way by brute forcing it, through threats or bribery.
I don't think this drama intended to state whether one approach was correct over the other. I think instead that it opted to show us people on both sides of the spectrum.
Overall
This was an interesting drama. The story was good for the most part, but at times it did fall back on cliches, or weird leaps in logic/common sense to get to the next part of the story. But overall I would say that it was compelling.
Still, I think a lot of people would really enjoy this drama. It was well made and well acted.
Messy write up ahead, with spoilers~
Story
This story obviously showed a very sensationalized interpretation of the law, with this being fictional and set in a dystopia. The overarching story included a revenge plot line (for Yo-han, and a mini revenge plotline for Ga-on too), and a political corruption plot line.
Though the writing was senationalized, that wasn't the part of the drama that bothered me. Rather, I was just a bit bothered by some of the cliched writing. As a story, this is nothing new, but I felt like at times, the drama felt like it had to follow cliches to a tee in order to reach various story beats.
Basically, I think this drama worked best when it was not trying to fit in the box, when it went totally off the rails with an insane live court show, or when Yo-han did whatever he wanted. It shone the best when it showed Yo-han as a truly morally gray hero, and how he contrasted with someone like Ga-on. Where it went cliched was in instances such as the romantic plot line between Ga-on and Soohyun. The romantic plot line progressed at a very strange pace, to the point that I felt like the writers ahd just stuffed it in to fulfill the romance quota, when the story would have worked perfectly fine as a platonic relationship.
So the story and writing had strengths and weaknesses, and I preferred when they were more creative with the writing. As well, the ending to this drama didn't lose steam like I've seen for other dramas. The story stuck to what it had set out to do, and for the most part was able to wrap out most of the story lines with enough attention. The inclusion of the pandemic story line was a bit strange, but at least it didn't just disappear, and was dealt with logically.
Production
The production value was generally very good. I have no complaints about the set design. Yo-han's house had a very Western style, while a lot of the city had a more "futuristic gotham" style, both which contributed to the distinct look and feel of the drama.
The acting in this drama was very kdrama-like, very cliched. The thing is, people would get angry but in the exact same way, regardless of the character and the situation. For example, many of the men would get angry by raising their voices, even when it didn't really match the situation.
Characters
Kang Yo-han
Yo-han was the bastard child of a rich/powerful man. His older brother and sister-in-law were killed in a fire, and part of the drama was about him seeking revenge for the brother that he respected so much and the niece who was his only living family in the world.
Yo-han was so chaotic. He was the judge of a live court show, but over the course of the show, we saw that he would basically manipulate every part of the court case to get the result that he wanted, as long as it looked good on camera, because the support of the common people was extremely powerful.
If it were up to him, I think Yo-han would've become a rogue vigilante, but he didn't want these corrupt officials to die, he wanted them to suffer first, which was why he needed to use the law to get to them.
Yo-han as a person was extremely focused on revenge, to the point that it was his personality. The whole process of Yo-han bringing Ga-on onto his side was so surreal. It was clear that he was manipulating Ga-on, that he wasn't doing good by the victims for the sake of doing good, but for the sake of winning over Ga-on, and yet, that would probably be considered sincere by Yo-han's standards.
At the end of the drama, Yo-han got his revenge by unmasking the corrupt politicians in front of live TV and detonating a bomb to kill them and himself. But it was revealed that he had actually faked his death, and he fled Korea, going to Switzerland with Elijah to a facility that would help her rehabilitate her legs. He returned to Korea to see Ga-on briefly, and they shared a smile, but he left once again. I think it was a happy ending for him, finally leaving the corrupt political system that he despised so much. As one person, he cannot change it, and for his own sanity, he needed to leave.
Kim Ga-on
Ga-on was a judge who was working alongside Yo-han. Originally, he was just meant to be a sort of spy, but as we saw, he was later won over by Yo-han.
Ga-on was a man who was easily led, which unfortunately made him an easy victim to manipulation. Though he was smart, he was surrounded by people who were slyer than him and he would fall into their traps because he was so easy to read and predict. Unfortunately, one of the people who were closest to him, Min Jung-ho was one of the people who were manipulating him.
During the drama, Ga-on flip-flopped between whether he was on Yo-han's side or not. He sympathized with Yo-han's suffering, but he would constantly come across situations that would make him question whether Yo-han had killed his own family.
At the end, Ga-on realized he'd been manipulated by Sun-ah, and he dove head first into helping Yo-han by gathering evidence on the corrupt politicians.
During Yo-han's final showdown with the corrupt politicians, Ga-on tried to appeal to Yo-han's emotional side, pleading with him not to kill himself, but he was pushed out of the room.
Yo-han had spoken with the authorities about his thoughts on the legal system, but he looked very exasperated when he saw that the authorities weren't really listening to his point of view, about how the law has to be reformed to serve the people and not the other way around.
Oh Jin-joo
Jin-joo was the other judge that was working with Yo-han on the live court show. At first, she was kind of a Yo-han fangirl. As Yo-han later recounted, she had initially said that she was simply happy for the opportunity to work alongside him.
Sun-ah tried to get Jin-joo on her side, by whispering in her ear and encouraging her career ambitions. However, while working on the show, Jin-joo had also developed more of a professional pride, and I think she realized she cared more about doing the right thing, rather than climbing up the career ladder. While both she and Sun-ah came from poverty, they differed in this regard.
By the end, Jin-joo was firmly on Yo-han and Ga-on's side, and she helped Yo-han and Ga-on in their plans.
Elijah
Elijah was Yo-han's niece, the daughter of his older brother Isaac. There was tension between Elijah and Yo-han, because Yo-han had implied that he was responsible for the fire, though it was later revealed that he had just done so to give her a reason to live.
Isaac had the same face as Ga-on, so at first, she was rather wary of Ga-on. But Ga-on was able to win her over by treating her like a normal kid instead of Yo-han, who had no idea how to treat kids and teenagers lol.
Elijah was wheelchair-bound, so she mostly stayed in the house, but she did attend Stanford University online, majority in computer programming. So she was a genius, but had no friends. Ga-on introduced her to Soo-hyun in an attempt to get her female friends lol. Basically, Ga-on injected love in her life, both by introducing her to new people, but also by mending the relationships in the family.
It was later revealed that as a child, Elijah had accidentally knocked down a candle in the church where she and her family had attended the donation event. Yo-han had pushed all the blame onto himself so that she would not blame herself.
At the end of the drama, she left for Switzerland with Yo-han, to a facility that could help with rehabilitating the use of her legs.
I thought Elijah was a cute character. She was a character with a personality, but she also acted like a teenager, with mood swings and such.
Ji Young-ok
Ms. Ji was the housekeeper in the Kang family. She had raised Yo-han, but they did not have a good relationship. Her perception of him was mostly through observation and it seemed like they didn't interact much.
Later on, as Ga-on started getting friendly with the family, they still did not interact so much, but I think it was implied that they were at least cordial with each other.
And in the last episode, I thought it was sweet when she instinctively hugged Yo-han because she was so relieved that he was alive. Yo-han released Ms. Ji from his service, since he was going to leave with Elijah. Ms. Ji stayed in the house, at least until Ga-on came by. I bet Ms. Ji is going to stay in the house, for some sense of familiarity.
K
K was Yo-han's assistant, but he was really more of a plot device. All we knew about him was that he was a victim of Cha Kyung-hee's corruption, and because he wanted to get back at her, he basically gave his life to Yo-han to use as he needed. He really was just a convenience character to show us how Yo-han could get information in grittier places. I felt like it was a waste to leave him so unexplored as a character.
Yoon Soo-hyun
Soo-hyun was Ga-on's childhood friend and a police officer.
She had romantic feelings for Gao-on, but Ga-on had always rejected them. He later confessed to her, and told her that he would always reject her because he was afraid of ruining what they had.
Soo-hyun was extremely loyal to Ga-on. She was often seen dropping everything to meet him or to gather information for him.
When Ga-on and Yo-han were caught at the scene of Cha Kyung-hee's death, Soo-hyun was put in a tough position, because she definitely would have had to arrest them, but instead, she let them go and destroyed evidence. Of course, it angered her quite a bit, and that was the first time she had ever shown anger at Ga-on. But she had come to Ga-on's rescue when he was attacked by Juk-chang's crew. Afterwards, Ga-on confessed, and they were fine, until her death.
I did feel injustice on Soo-hyun's behalf, to be honest. She always laid down her life for Ga-on and I felt like Ga-on took her for granted, pushing her further and further, and when he pushed her over the edge, he didn't even do that much to beg for forgiveness, sigh.
She was killed by an assassin who was hired by Sun-ah but was made to look like he was hired by Yo-han, in order to manipulate Ga-on.
Min Jung-ho
Min Jung-ho was head of the Supreme Court (I think). He was Ga-on's mentor figure, and he was the one who'd arranged for Ga-on to work with Yo-han, to keep an eye on him. He was meant to appeal to Ga-on's law-abiding side, in contrast with Yo-han who was always breaking the rules.
I started noticing that he was often specifically contradicting Yo-han, rather than encouraging Ga-on to evaluate things for himself, and by the end of the drama, we saw that he'd actually been bought out by Sun-ah. Ga-on confronted Min Jung-ho with a BOMB, but was stopped by Yo-han. But the damage was done, and their relationship was finished.
Jung Sun-ah
Jung-ah was a very interesting character. I didn't think she was a perfectly executed character, but there was a lot about her that was thought provoking.
How do you write a villain for a protagonist who's morally gray? In this drama, the answer is to write a someone who is equally as unhinged as him, but operates by a completely different set of rules.
Jung-ah came from a very unfortunate background, having an abusive family and coming from poverty. Unfortunately, to keep up with the system, she had to turn bad herself, because she would not have been given the leeway to do whatever she wanted like Yo-han would have as a rich man, and one who was loved by many due to the live court show.
Because she knew that her persona as a former maid would be looked down upon, she was always working in the shadows. Actually, she hated it when people would point out the fact that she used to be a maid. I found it really interesting when Yo-han told her to her face that she didn't have the courage to take the power that she had amassed. Even though she had effectively taken control of the government, she was still mostly working in the shadows. I know Yo-han was just taking advantage of her securities, but I think he did have a point. Sun-ah basically had some internalized prejudices against herself, that she could not get rid of because she had to believe it in order to hide herself so well. She did entertain the idea of becoming president, but we didn't really get to explore that thought because Sun-ah didn't do much at the final showdown.
Sun-ah had also had a crush on Yo-han since they were kids, when she was still working as a maid in Yo-han's home. Their dynamic as kids and as adults was totally different though. As kids, she was totally at Yo-han's mercy, since he was the young master, and she was a maid who had a crush on him. As an adult, she had amassed much power of her own, and the power imbalance between them was much smaller. Her continuing to call Yo-han Young Master was really out of respect/nostalgia/playfulness.
That being said, at times, I felt like Sun-ah's crush on Yo-han was somewhat unnecessary. I don't love the idea that all women need to be in love with someone. In the adult timeline, I actually didn't think that Sun-ah was really in love with Yo-han. I felt like she was just acting affectionate towards him because she liked the idea of having someone to love.
There was a part in the show where Sun-ah invited Jae-hee to drink with her, and Jae-hee joked that Sun-ah must have her own friends to drink with, but the truth was that she didn't. She was so focused on her dream of gaining power that she couldn't stop to make friends, much like how Yo-han himself didn't make friends except to help him with his journey on revenge.
In the end, Sun-ah shot herself when her crimes were revealed on the court show. I didn't expect her to do that. Considering all of the power she had amassed on her own, I would have expected her to find a way out of this situation, or to at least die fighting. Instead, it seemed that she felt cornered and saw no way out but death. This might have been a mindset that befitted a Sun-ah of the past, who had been beaten down by those in power again and again. But it didn't make as much sense for a Sun-ah of the present to think that way.
My initial concern with Sun-ah was that I felt her styling didn't match the actress that well. Something about the hair didn't seem to match her that well. And at times during the drama, I felt like she Sun-ah's character was overacted. She did have very cutesy and feminine mannerisms, but at times they just felt forced with the actress that we saw. I would still say that the actress did a great job, I just felt like she didn't suit the role perfectly and had to do extra work to portray Sun-ah well.
Jae-hee
Jae-hee was Sun-ah's assistant. She acted both as Jae-hee's hired muscle as well as her secretary. They had a relatively good relationship, but Jae-hee did also fear Sun-ah. However, that fear was only showed very briefly, which kind of disappointed me. After showing a bit of fear, Jae-hee was back to being the happiest henchwoman ever.
Cha Kyung-hee
Cha Kyung-hee was the Minister of Justice. Yo-han and Ga-on had a few grudges against her. For one, Kyung-hee was in the church fire where Isaac and his wife perished. In a flashback, we saw that her actions had caused Elijah to break her legs. K's father committed suicide after being falsely accused by her. And she'd also wronged Ga-on by accepting a bribe from the conman who'd forced his parents to commit suicide, so that he would be able to live in hiding.
Sun-ah helped Yo-han take down Kyung-hee, mostly because they were a thorn in each other's side. Kyung-hee had clued into Sun-ah's past, and would purposely use it against her to hurt her pride.
Early on, her son was shown to have been very physically abusive and rude to people around him, and had been put on trial and received corporal punishment. Kyung-hee had a chance to save her son by revealing her past wrongdoing, but she'd refused, condemning her son to punishment, which shows what kind of woman she was.
Sun-ah and Yo-han launched a coordinated attack to take her down, which was very satisfying to watch. She ended up committing suicide.
Seo Jeong-hak
Seo Jeong-hak was the head of the Social Responsibility Foundation, but he was really a puppet for Jung Sun-ah. I think it was implied that he probably tried to sexually harass her, and she used it against him. We later saw in the drama that she was completely in control of Seo Jeong-hak.
I think Seo Jeong-hak did try to get Jung Sun-ah off his back, but he was unsuccessful, and he was killed by Jung Sun-ah in order to take the fall for the corruption for the Dream House proposal.
Heo Joong-se
Heo Joong-se was the president and one of the main villains. As a villain, he was a bit cartoonish, but not in the smart way.
If I remember correctly, he was a former actor, so maybe he wasn't the most qualified. But we also saw that he had quite extremist policies, and towards the end, I felt like he had turned into a caricature of what people envision a bad politician to be.
He was shot by Jung Sun-ah as he tried to plead with Yo-han to let him go when he'd trapped them in the room with the bomb.
Min Yong-shik & Park Du-man
Min Yong-shik and Park Du-man were two other villains, but they had a smaller role compared to Jung Sun-ah and Heo Joong-se. We saw that they would switch their allegiences from one person to another and though they themselves didn't do much that was important, the presence or absence of their support did a lot to elevate Jung Sun-ah or Heo Joong-se. So they were powerful just by existing.
Yo-han had convinced Min Yong-shik to gather the corrupt clique in the court room for a party, which of course angered the others. But in any case, both politicians and their wives (as well as Heo Joong-se's wife) died in the bomb.
Themes
Law vs. morals
This was probably the overarching theme of the drama. The law is supposed to reflect public morality as much as possible, but obviously it's not perfect.
I think Yo-han gained popularity because he gave off the appearance of listening to the people, even though in reality he was manipulating them (by posing questions in a rather manipulative way, etc.). Nonetheless, he'd gained popularity when forced to resign, because he even if he circumvented the law, the people felt that he had given the defendants a sentence befitting of their crimes.
The closing message was that the law was meant to mirror the feelings of the people, and that if they did not align, that's when people would act out.
Class differences and the system
"The system" is related to the last point in that laws are part of the system. But the system is not made equal, and of course, the rich and the powerful always get off more easily.
I think that is why Yo-han saw the system as a nuisance, nothing but a suggestion. He was always working "around" the law during the show. Partially because he knew how corrupt politicians were, but also because due to his rich background, he could afford to ignore them and break rules without fearing for his life.
Meanwhile, Sun-ah came from an abusive household. The law had never worked in her favour, even when she was wronged. So she learned to bend the system. She was never going to be free of it, whether it was because of class differences, or whether because of sexism. She could only get her way by brute forcing it, through threats or bribery.
I don't think this drama intended to state whether one approach was correct over the other. I think instead that it opted to show us people on both sides of the spectrum.
Overall
This was an interesting drama. The story was good for the most part, but at times it did fall back on cliches, or weird leaps in logic/common sense to get to the next part of the story. But overall I would say that it was compelling.