chillikun

9/10

Spoilers

> The Devil with a Detailed Revenge served in a decorated platter ~ There Are Consequences To Ignoring Consequences And Things Are Not Always What They Seem ~ If an evidence is obvious don't trust it. The neon! The Catholic/Christian motifs! The commentary on the nature of crime and punishment! The depiction of the corruption of state! The symbolism! The soundtrack! (Tempest has basically been on repeat for weeks now.) PLOT ------ If you were given the power to kill a man with a single app, would you do it?I feel like this show was so relevant if you think of this current generation. Keyboard warriors on every app.The premisse of the show was wonderful since day one. And stayed pretty flawless until the end. Packed with action, drama, karma, twist and turns The Devil Judge is how a drama should be done. I usually stay clear of law dramas for they're usually boring with the clique young lawyer male lead breaks the laws OoO shocking~. With a more mature cast (Kang Yohan being in his early 40s) you get a really rich back story complete with Kim Ga On getting his morals gob smacked by reality. One thing I like about the story is the way everything just connects back. Nothing is done for no reason. What each character is given by is clearly established. What I didn't like about is how Gaon is gullable for a smart judge and easily manipulated by people around him . Also didn't like the way he and Soo-Hyun went on about Yo-han is breaking the law while they are [spoiler] spying on him with illegal wiretapping ; virtually kidnapping his niece to investigate dirt on him and how they bring back all the horrible memories of Yo-Han without realizing they are manipulated by Foundation to the end.[/spoiler] Even with all that "show" on the last ep, i still think the revenge lacked impact. They all had it easy in my eyes. I actually wanted something more vile to happen, but that's maybe because i am used to watch so many western shows with twisted criminals. CAST ----- The acting in this is so good. Each actor fills their character perfectly, you get a feel for what type of person they are the moment they appear on screen. J Jisung is extremely charming as the somewhat sociopath devil judge . The judge is the epitome of **anti-hero** aka **Devil**. He tricks us to question his behavior, just like he does with other people involved in the story. He makes you believe he's the devil himself. Jin Young is just such a smooth actor. His scenes were he's just conversation with the people around him isn't boring and you get a sense of warmness from him (perfect fill in for Isaac [a dad and a brother]). But his emotional scenes are what sells him as no doubt an amazing actor. He portrays pain and frustration so well contrasting to Ga On's everyday warmness. It makes the audience really sympathize with him.But his character is very poorly written ; he is the most undecisive character, one minute he acts like devil judge is someone he cares a lot only to see him hate the devil judge and doubting him the next minute. Kim Min Jung plays Sun Ah so well. You could tell that Sun Ah is someone who likes glamorous things but wasn't born fortunate enough to enjoy it just by her body language. She has such an intense stare extremely fitting for her character and you could her pain and love through those eyes **sparking** **sparkling** although she is not right and her actions have their consequences. Ji Sung and Min-Jung create the most sizzling bromance chemistry ever without actually being romantic. Yoon Soo Hyun, now she is friend of Ga On and a police officer. Her character is merely a decoration and does nothing helpful to the plot. Her screen time is even less, compared to her a side character called Elijah, the devil judge niece gets more time. All she does is to sow seeds of doubt in Ga-on regaring Yo-han and also importantly Ga-on from crossing the grey line she drew. Elijah - Every story needs a cutie. Elijah is the cutie. The way she portrays a mirror image of Yo-han is amazing ; this is her (Jeon Chae Eun) first series and we are in for a next generation start. OST ----- The music is such a key aspect to a drama and this drama really utilizes that. It sets a mood and illustrates the total chaos and madness going on in the dystopian world. Not only that, it's a total bop. Its been my top playlist for the last 8 weeks. Overall -------- This is a not a story about a dystopian society but realism ripped from today's headline. There's just not enough words to describe how perfect this is as far as storytelling and acting. Standing ovation to all the cast and crew! You will trust no one until the very end. Absolutely no character is to be trusted, and i love this show because of it. I genuinely didn't know who had the true version of each event. If you haven't watched The Devil Judge, give it a try. It's worth every second of your time. Usually thrillers ; especially law thrillers have no appeal for a re-watch but I will be watching this soon again.

MovieGuys

0/10

A watchable but imperfect series from South Korea. The Devil's Judge manages to make legal drama's interesting by injecting action, novelty and variety into its episodic storytelling. You are also presented with a overriding back story, that has, at its heart, the question of "is good and evil, what we perceive them to be?" I did say this series was not perfect and my core criticism relates to what would personally characterise, as an unwelcome thread, of misandry. Talk of, for example, castrating and flogging men as punishment, is, frankly, downright ugly. In summary, quite watchable with a variety of tales and an intriguing back story. Let down by, at times, biased, storytelling.

purplelily

10/10

I really liked this drama. There is so much to learn from their characters, actions and decisions taken in a world so extreme I will never find myself in and yet it does depict the reality of our world so much that I am thinking and ruminating through them to see if I can wise up myself. From it all we can agree that humanity is all but a desire and greed for more power and money. And even the little good we have is tainted by that greed in whatever degree it is in. People are always thinking about themselves and left to their own devices, they only do what will benefit them, justifying themselves that what they do will benefit society while lining their own pockets. The drama focuses and somewhat justify evil fighting evil for good but then again evil is still evil. I read comments about viewers getting frustrated with Ga-On flip-flopping and then accusing Yo-Han but I get it that Ga-On is confused as to what is right and what is wrong. Ironically, these very comments proves the case in point that it is the same in our world where bad is seen as good, if it meets the purpose. Evil is seen as powerful and good is weak. But lest we forget that evil still begets evil. Lessons I learnt from this drama: - their moves are all very strategic, thinking several moves ahead weighing all options. - and they are very, very patient. Sun-Ah was planning for a very, very long time and was way ahead even compared with Yo-Han. - one has to be very smart to play the game. And if you choose to play it, you need to be willing to gamble even with your life - it is all an emotional power play. And the trick is not to get affected emotionally but to always have a straight logical mind to think ahead. The head must lead and the heart put aside, but that is so hard to do.