Kdrama 2020

Hyena (Kdrama Review & Summary)

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• Genre: Legal, Feisty Female Lead, Strong Male Lead, Romance
• Release Date: 21 February 2020
• Origin: South Korea
• Kdrama: 16 Episodes
• Available @ Netflix

Cast:

• Ju Ji Hoon as Yoon Hee-Jae
• Kim Hye Soo as Jung Geum-Ja
• Lee Kyoung Young as Song Pil-Joong (President of S&K law firm)
• Jun Suk Ho as Ka Ki-Hyeok (Hee Jae’s ears & eyes)
• Kim Ho Jung as Kim Min-Joo
• Hyun Bong Sik as Kim Chang-Wook
• Song Young Kyu as Ma Seok-Koo (S&K senior)
• Jeong Ji Hwan as Na Yi-Joon
• Park Se Jin as Boo Hyun-A
• Jung Dong Geun as Choo Don-Sik
• Lee Hwang Ui as Yoon Choong Yun (Hee Jae’s father, senior Judge)
• Kim Young Jae as Yoon Hyuk Jae (Hee Jae’s brother, judge)
• Oh Kyung Hwa as Li Ji Eun (Geum Ja’s assistant)

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Episode 1

This first episode has got everything.  It had sweet romance, it was thrilling, it had betrayal, it had compassion, it had lots of love and omg, Ju Ji Hoo is a bae.  Good body.  More, please.  LOL  And Kim Hye Soo plays a very cunning and very strong woman.  Perfect.

Anyway, Yoon Hee Jae is a rising superstar of the criminal court.  He was the youngest partner of a very prosperous and prestigious law firm, Song and Kim.

He was the main lawyer for Secretary Lee who works for the Blue House (White House equivalent) who was involved in fraud and corruption.

Somehow Hee Jae managed to bring it to a conclusion where Secretary Lee was completely exonerated.  Despite the not guilty verdict, no one believed that she was innocent.

The people were enraged with the ruling.

But Hee Jae was lauded for his brilliance.

He just got back to the office when he met Mr Ma, a senior at work with his client Mr Ha Chan Ho.

Mr Ha Chan Ho was intrigued by Hee Jae for not kowtowing to him.  Especially so when Mr. Ha found out that Hee Jae had won the controversial Blue House case.

Mr Ha changed barristers and hired Hee Jae to represent him.  He told Hee Jae that he wanted someone who can ensure that he gets custody of his only son.  He had been waiting for the case to be concluded for two and a half years.

Anyway, Hee Jae worked hard on the case and would often stay in the office until 4 am.

One day,  he went to the laundromat to obviously wash his clothes.  The laundromat was almost completely empty except for a woman who was reading a book.  He noticed immediately that no other machine was washing any clothes, thus the quiet woman intrigued him even more.

The next time he went to the laundromat, the woman was there again and he noticed that she was reading a book by one of his favourite author, Donato Carrisi (I bet everyone googled, as I did lol, who Donato was?)  He was liking her even more.  There was a powercut and the girl used her mobile phone with bottled water on top for lighting.  Now he was enchanted.  They finally got talking, though only briefly.  She said that she was going to come to the laundromat at different times so not to disturb him.  He then noticed that she had a bag of laundry by her side.  So  he realised that she did come to the laundromat to wash clothes after all.

He started hanging around the laundromat but the woman was never there anymore.

One of his college friends came to his office to ask him to do her divorce.

Hee Jae refused but he saw a photo of someone familiar in the ipad she was shoving on his face.  It was the laundrywoman.

He asked the friend, Yumi, who the woman was.

Yumi she was it was Kim Hee Sun.

Kim Hee Sun went to their high school alma mater but she was four years older than them.  It so happened that Yumi was going to the school reunion with Hee Sun.

Hee Jae was already at the reunion venue when Yumi turned up with Hee Sun.

Hee Jae by this time was utterly attracted to Hee Sun so he said that he had never behaved so impulsively before but he would like her to leave with him right at that moment.  Everyone gasped at his audacity.

Hee Sun stood up. She started walking and then looked back at Hee Jae to ask him if was coming.

That day started their sweet cute love affair.  He was so into her he brought her an expensive limited-edition Breitling watch.

Everything was lovely in his world and he was confident that he will Mr. Ha’s case too.

Even Mr Ha was confident and turned up at the hearing.  He said that he wanted to see his bitch of a wife get what she deserved.

Then walked in the defendant and her lawyer.

The lawyer was none other than Hee Sun who was really Jung Geum Ja.

In theory, the case was a done deal, the wife was widely known to have committed adultery, not once but eight times.

But Geum Ja had new information about the case.  She said that the custody of the child could not be given to the father because of his mental problem and use of drugs as well as anger management issues.

Suddenly, Hee Jae came to realise that Hee Sun used him to get the medical information which was highly classified. He realised that she had been looking over his shoulders when he was working on the case while they were together.

Because of the new evidence, the child custody had to be rethought and the mother will likely to get it.

Outside the court, Hee Jae’s colleagues were sniggering at him.  He lost a bit of his gloss as a win-all lawyer.

He saw Hee Sun and went to speak to her and she said that she knew they were over and that the only time that they may see again was when he was ready to settle.

Then a bit of a flashback!  It was three months ago Geum Ja worked in her law office located in a derelict building and their main clients were members of gangs until Lee So U, Mr Ha’s wife turned up to hire her as  her new lawyer.

Geum Ja had big dreams including buying her own building for a plush new office so between her and her assistant they concocted ways on how to win the case.  Geum Ja concluded that Hee Jae was that person that could help her.

Her assistant found out that Hee Jae had just broken up with his girlfriend because she was so clingy.  He doesn’t like clingy women.

So she strategies that to be his ideal woman; she played hard to get.

Anyway, a gang member turned up at her office and threatened to kill her for her uselessness, she was not able to quash his conviction.

Geum Ja said that if he did not leave, she will call the police and he saw the assistant ready to press the button to call the police.

As he was living he met Hee Jae by the stairs.

He Jae had come to settle his client’s with Geum Ja.

After bargaining to and fro, they agreed to a 25 percent of what wife was originally was asking for.  Then Hee Jae removed the Breitling from her wrist as it was too good for her, he said.

He was in his office when he felt a bit worried about her because he heard the gang member client telling someone that he will kill Geum Ja before he takes the boat to China.

Hee Jae sent a text to Geum Ja to be careful of the man with the knife.

But his warning was too late.  Geum Ja was already faced to face with the hood.  They started fighting and they both got badly beaten.  Geum Ja was a good fighter.  She had to because she was an abused child as she was remembering while the hood started beating her up.  She was fighting back and sprayed him on the face with her atomizer.

The man was finally beaten down and she was holding a brick to finish him off.

Will she kill him?

Episode 2

She did not use the brick in the end.  Instead, she called the police.

At the police station, they let her go as it obviously was a matter of self-defense.  As she was leaving, but the police said that it was a murky situation who was the real victim.  The gang member was likely to stay in the hospital for 8 weeks.

Geum Ja’s assistant turned up to take her to the hospital but she said that she would like to make a pit stop somewhere.

The stop was in front of a high-rise building.  Geum Ja was looking at it longingly and sadly said that the rent had again gone up.

Meanwhile, Hee Jae was really in love with Hee Sun and was missing her terribly.

It was Hee Jae’s father’s birthday.  The president of S&K came to celebrate the birthday with the Yoon family.  Hee Jee’s brother was also there.

Yoon Hyuk Jae, who is a judge, was not happy that Hee Jae was so close to the president.  He told Hee Jae that he a third rate lawyer should not aspire quickly to get to the time especially when he ends up owing something from others.

Hee Jae was so upset with his brother for calling him a third rate.

The next case for Geum Ja is about Hwang Mi Ra who ordered her bodyguard to beat up a woman.  As she did not personally beat the woman Hwang Mi Ra is safe especially when Geum Ja got involved.  She paid off the witness to retract her complaint and statement.

Geum Ja got to meet Ha Cha Ho at Mi Ra’s party.  She told Ha Cha Ho to hire her as his personal lawyer and she will make things go away for him as if it never happened.

S&K, under Mr Ma, was working on making Ha Chan Ho becoming the overall President of the Issemei conglomerate.  Apparently it would be a fairly easy task if Ha Chan Ho is not involved with some major scandal.

Hee Jae wanted to be a part of the team but Mr Ma humiliated him in front of all the lawyers during the meeting about it.  What Hee Jae would not allow was to be made a humiliated outcast.

Hee Jae plotted his next move, which was to ‘accidentally’ meet Ha Chan Ho.

Ha Chan Ho got super annoyed with Hee Jae.  His anger reverberated to Mr Ma and his team.

Meanwhile Ha Chan Ho’s secretary called Geum Ja to meet at a villa.

When Geum Ja got there, she was confronted by a woman who had collapsed on the floor with some illegal substances and drinks nearby

Geum Ja asked the assistant what she was supposed to do and why he had not called an ambulance yet?

The assistant said that Ha Chan Ho would not allow anyone to find out about the collapsed girl.

Geum Ja said that she will take charge as long as she will be Mr Ha’s lawyer involving this case.

Geum Ja called an ambulance against the advice of the assistant, who she instructed to take out Ha Chan Ho out of the villa.

At the hospital, the collapsed woman was introduced as Seo Jung Hwa.  She was suffering from malnutrition and dehydration.

When Geum Ja asked her why she was malnourished, Jung Hwa said that it was because she was forced to stay in the villa by Ha Chan Ho.  She starved herself so Ha Chan Ho would let her go.

Hee Jae got to hear of the situation and he plotted to oust Ha Chan Ho from his possible chairmanship of the whole Issemei conglomerate.

And the other candidate for the chairmanship was his sister, Ha Hye Won, who had engaged JD Law Firm to represent her.

Hee Jae went to Ha Hye Won and told her that he could make her the chairman because he had something to blow Ha Chan Ho out of the equation.  That something was Seo Jung Hwa.

Ha Hye Won was surprised.  She said that Seo Jung Hwas was her brother’s Achilles heel.  It was only over her that he would defy their father.

Seo Jung Hwa was transferred to another hospital and it was a race between Geum Ja and Hee Jae who get to her first.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next episode, please!