Kdrama 2021

The Devil Judge (Kdrama Review & Summary)

✴️✴️✴️✴️✴️/5

Global Granary Recommendation

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• Genre: Law, Legal, Mystery, Investigation
• Release Date: 3 July 2021
• Origin: South Korea
• Kdrama: 16 Episodes

 

Cast

• Ji Sung as Kang Yo Han
• Kim Min Jung as Jung Sun Ah (Social Responsibility Foundation Secretary)
• Park Jin Young as Kim Ga On
• Park Gyu Young as Yoon Soo Hyun (Policewoman)
• Ahn Nae Sang as MIn Jung Ho (Professor, Ga On’s Mentor)
• Kim Jae Kyung as Oh Jin Joo
• Jeun Chae Eun as Elijah (Yohan’s niece)
• Yoon Ye Hee as Ji Young-Ok (Kang’s Housekeeper)
• Moon Dong Hyuk as Lee Young Min (Minister of Justice’s son)
• Jung In Kyum as Seo Jeom Hak (Board chairman of Social Responsibility Foundation)

 

 

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Episode 1

A really exciting start.  Ji Sung has not lost any ounce of charisma.  In fact, he looks even better, if that is at all possible.

Ji Sung plays the newly appointed Chief Judge Kang Yo Han who wanted his courtroom to be about the transparency of law and order.  He, therefore, allowed his court to be live-streamed during the session.

With him were new judges as well. Oh Jin Joo who came from the countryside and Kim Ga On who was from the poorer area of Seoul.

Kim Ga On does not trust Kang Yo Han one bit.

Kang Yo Han was advised to try a minor, less controversial case for his first trial but he opted instead for the case involving a large chemical corporation.

Just before the trial began, Kim Ga On kept getting the feeling the Kang Yohan had been bought or put the pressure on by the higher-ups who were networked by the chemical company.

During the trial, Kim Ga On thought that his suspicion was right when the murder case was turned into negligence.

He then got a surprise when Kang Ho Yan read out his verdict.  He sent the owner of the chemical company to several lifetimes in prison which is 235 years.

Kang Yohan became an instant celebrity.  And due to the nature of the case, most of the people were left crying by the verdict, thinking that it was right.

An elderly woman approached Kang Yohan after the trial and she knelt down in gratitude in front of the judge.

Kim Ga On was thinking that he might have gotten a wrong impression of Kang Yohan after all. but then he saw Kang Yohan giving the elderly woman a reassuring hug, while he was tearing up, then yawned.  He then smirked at Kim Ga On.

Kang Ho Yan is the devil judge.

Episode 2

Loving this drama.

Kim Ga On continues to be suspicious of Kang Yohan that he bugged Kang Yohan’s office.

There was a young guy who felt very entitled and had made it a habit to terrorise unsuspecting poor and ordinary folks he came across on his yellow sports car.

But it got so bad that Kang Yohan had to take matter into his own hand which was witness by Kim Ga On who prevented Yoon Soo Hyun, his policewoman friend to intervene.

Later on there was a party attended by lawyers and prosecutors.

Yohan invited both Oh Jin Joo and Kim Ga On.

Kim Ga On turned it down so he missed when Kang Yohan met Minister Cha’s son who was Lee Young Min, the car terror.

Kim Ga On went to Kang Yohan’s office and out of the darkness out came out Kang Yohan who asked if he was looking for the bug he planted under Yohan’s desk.

They were still talking like a cat and mouse when they both noticed a pinprick light.

Kim Ga On was so quick, he pulled Kang Yohan to safety but he was not too lucky himself.

Episode 3

This episode talks more about Kang Yo Han and his childhood.

Anyway, when Kim Ga On woke up, he noticed that he was in a most enormous bedroom.  He then saw Kang Yo Han ministering to his wounds in a very familiar way which made him decidedly uncomfortable.

Yohan just smirked at him and told him that he needs to stay in bed for a while to recuperate.

After a few days, Ga On was climbing the wall.

He wandered inside the house and found that the place is truly magnificent, very gothic, very opulent but almost deserted except for a rather pugnacious girl in a wheelchair named Elijah and a housekeeper, who was dismissive of Yo Han.

One day, he found the housekeeper reverently looking at a photo and intoning that Yohan was a usurper and Isaac should be there as the true master.

Ga On noticed that Isaac was his doppelganger.

The housekeeper told Ga On about Yohan.

Apparently, the senior master of the house was so upset of the death of his wife that he went drinking and slept with a prostitute.

After nine months or so later, a baby was dumped into the mansion by the prostitute saying that it was the master’s son.

The senior master felt guilty about soiling his love for his dead wife he rejected the baby.

It was young Isaac who begged his father that they should look after the baby.

The housekeeper was hired first as a nursing mother and breastfed baby Yohan.

As soon as he was able to, Yohan was carted into a dingy dungeon/basement bedroom where more or less he was incarcerated when he was not in school.  He was never a part of the family.

Isaac was the only constant presence in his life.

Poor Yohan.

The second court case was being livestream.

It was Lee Young-min, the son of the Minister of Justice.

Episode 4

The minister approached Yohan to drop the case and she will give him anything.

He asked her to make an apology for victimizing an innocent man ten years ago to further her career.

This did not happen so the live stream continued.

The lawyers and father of Young-min tried to appeal to the people saying that Young-min was really a victim of neglectful parents who decided to serve Korea rather than tend to their son.  They added that it takes a village to raise a child.  Young-min§ was raised by only a nanny.

By the power of the votes by the people, Yohan made a judgment putting into consideration what Young Min’s side said about his lacking village care.

Yohan said that since Youngmin did not get the proper discipline of parents and villagers while growing up, now he can have it.

Yohan’s verdict was flagellation.  30 floggings which shocked everyone but at the same time agreed that it was a rather inspired punishment. 🤪

So the flogging took place and was televised.  Some were feeling the pain of every stroke and some were jubilant as such barbarity.  The punishment had to be cancelled as Youngmin was collapsing.  His flogging will continue on when he was better.

Yohan took Ga-on to a charity dinner party being held by the Social Responsibility Foundation.  Ga-on met the 1% elite of the society.

Ga-on was almost star-struck but Yohan told him that rich and ordinary people are just the same when it comes to greed.

Jung Sun Ah rose from a humble background as the power behind Seo Jeong Hak, the board chairman of the Social Responsibility Foundation.

The two have a very fetish relationship a la 50 Shades of Gray.  Sun Ah was the master and Jeong Hak was her willing slave who she beats up and he was loving it.  She makes the decisions but he spouts them for her.

Anyway, Sun Ah thought that Yohan was getting too big for his boot so she collared Ga-on and planted information that would make Ga-on suspicious of Yo Han all over again.

Sun Ah said that ten years ago, Isaac and his father donated their entire fortune to the Social Responsibility Foundation.  During a church service for the enormous donation, there was a fire that killed the Kangs.  Later on, Yohan walked out of the burning church almost unscathed.

Then he canceled the donation and inherited it.  Sun Ah was implying the Yohan caused the accident for his material benefit.

This was further given credence by the housekeeper.

Go An asked Yohan if he killed his family.

Yohan grabbed him by the throat and then he started giving Go An a different story.

At the end of it, Go An was sympathetic towards Yohan.

Episode 5

Go An was feeling better and even had gone back to work but for some reason, he stays at the Kang manor despite Yohan telling him that he can go.

Go An had really made himself feel at home which in a way was good for Yohan’s niece who developed an easy friendship with Go An.

Go An was the spitting image of Yohan’s brother which made him popular with the housekeeper.

Anyway, he confessed to Yohan that he had been snooping about him.

Yohan said he knew.

Go An said that he had also realised that there was a pattern to the cases that he allows in his court.

Their latest case was out of Yohan’s hand. It was more or less forced on him because the Minister of Affairs was trying to teach him a lesson for what he put her son through.

Actually, it was Sun Ah who convinced the Minister to challenge Yohan as he was getting too big for his boots.

The case was about a very popular actor who had sexually harassed a number of his staff, fans, etc.

The prosecutor wanted the actor to be punished with chemical castration which was favoured by the public.

Yohan thought that the case does not merit such drastic measure but the public had spoken and his show was always about respecting public opinion.

Sun Ah was in court and thought that she had cornered Yohan.

Yohan, however, had some cards on his sleeves.

He said that the actor should be sent to sexual orientation in the US for 20 years or so until he was no longer a danger to the public.  He showed what kind of facility the place in the US was.

The public was enthusiastic with the verdict which made Sun Ah so annoyed that she was thwarted once again.

She later kidnapped Yohan and took him to a place that was the same as Yohan’s gothic mansion.

He found out that Sun Ah was actually a former maid in his manor when they were very young.

Sun Ah started to sexually harrassed Yohan who was manacled into a chair.

Episode 6

This drama just keeps giving more interesting scenarios after another.  Ji Sung is even better looking than when he was younger.

Really loving this drama.  When you feel that Yohan was backed into a corner with nowhere to run, he was still able to extricate himself with class.

Anyway, he finally recognised Sun Ah as the young maid who used to work at the Kang Manor.

Sun Ah had become obsessive about him because they were a kindred spirit, if you can call their love of of creating mayhem as something they shared.

Anyway young maid Sun Ah tried to befriend young Yohan by bringing him delicious dinner and offered to be a lookout while he has a wander upstairs while his father was away.

But one day he found Sun Ah pilfering the silvers from the manor.  He told her that it was not worth it, she will get caught but she just laughed and Yohan could not really be bothered to tell on her.  Instead he overheard her telling the housekeeper that it might be Yohan who had been taking the silvers (cups) because he was coming upstairs more often.

Again, he took no notice of it but when he found her looking at the cross necklace that Issac valued more because it was left by his mother, Yohan told Sun Ah not to touch it.

Sun Ah was a cleptomaniac and touch the necklace again and tried to steal.

Sun Ah was cleaning the windows when Yohan found her.  He told her that if she really likes him then she should jump off the window to prove it.

She did and her flying body was seen by the housekeeper and thought that Yohan pushed her and was really evil.

Fast forward to the present…

Yohan told Sun Ah that she can kill him and he doesn’t care because he was a free agent.  He doesn’t value anything or anyone in the world.  Nothing to live for, he said.

Sun Ah finally let him go; she told her assistant that playing with Yohan was fun.

Despite Yohan saying that he doesn’t have anyone he cares about, there was really one and that was Elijah, his niece.

When he found out that Ga On had taken Elijah out of the house without his say so Yohan half throttled Ga On.  He said that no one was allowed to touch Elijah and not be dead.

Elijah moaned constantly about Yohan but when he was late home, she was besides herself.

The Minister of Affair had gone on television to say that Yohan had been paying his witnesses. Suddenly the public was suspicious of Yohan.  Was his court only for show?

Yohan purposely went on live and let the people judge him.  This was interrupted by the person he was supposed to have paid.  The man said that he did receive a lot of money from Yohan but after the verdict had been made and after he was fired by the chemical company for giving evidence.

Unanimously, the public voted that they trust Yohan.

Yohan promised that he will do everything to return their trust.

He then started talking about the money being donated to the Social Responsibility program.  He said that the donations were managed by Dream House and the board is made up of the most powerful including the president.  He then wondered loudly where the donations were really going.

The board who were watching went into incandescent rage.

Love this drama.

Episode 7

The chairman of the Dream Homes Village was invited by it was Sun Ah who showed up to give a talk to young girls.

Sun Ah gave a rather unique talk.  She told the girls that the world is a nasty place and women are often disadvantaged.  If you need anything then get it even if they had to steal it.  Don’t take no for an answer to get into your goal.

She ended her visit by pushing the principal on the stairs.

Sun Ah is out of control.

Ga On told Yo Han to treat Elijah better.  Be friendlier after all they only had each other.

Ga On did realise it and tried his best, unfortunately, it was not good enough.  It was only making Elijah more confused and finds a cheerful Yohan rather creepy.

Meanwhile, Yohan with the help of Ga On started their plot of pitting the directors of Dream Homes  Village against each other.  He was using Divide & Conquer strategy.

This seemed to be working as each of the directors was only too happy to blacken each other’s reputation once they heard what was also being said about them.

During the televised update of what he revealed about the Dream Homes Village, Yohan said that further investigation showed the anomalies of what was donated by the directors and the money received.

Yohan then introduced Ga On who did the accounting.

Yohan showed Ga On’s parents family photo with Ga On. He told the audience that Ga On’s parents’s death was caused by a con-man and therefore Ga On won’t tolerate fraudulent transactions.

Yohan promised the audience that in a week’s time he will give more information.

Ga On was absolutely livid that Yohan used him on the televised broadcast.

Yohan told him that whatever means they had to bring justice even if a con-man uses his own money.

Ga On was only going mental.  Ga On said that he believes in Justice and the man responsible for his parents death is paying his crime.

Yohan told him that he will show him something.  They drove to a remote correctional facility where the conman who did Ga On’s parents wrong was incarcerated.

When Ga On saw the conman, he was shocked because it was a different man from what he remembered.

He realised that because the conman has power, money and connection, he was able to manipulate the system and had another man serves his jail time.

Meanwhile the directors of Dream Homes were losing it but Sun Ah came out with an idea to use her boss, Mr Seo.

Sun Ah killed Mr Seo and then amidst national morning for the chairman of Dream Home she was appointed as successor to Mr Seo.

Episode 8

Ga On is convinced that Yohan uses other man’s pain to his own advantage.

Meanwhile, Sun-Ah started her plot to further ingratiate herself to the high-ups.  She made Mr. Seo take the blame in his pseudo-suicide speech and naming some of his employees as the culprits who siphon the donations from Dream Homes.

The corrupt president then made the memorial to Mr. Seo as his platform to make all those corrupt employees be punished.

Why am I not warming to Soo Hyun?  I would like to but I just can’t.  Even the romantic scenes she has with Ga On actually annoys me.😜😜😜😜  It was probably that long wig she was wearing that started it all. 🤣

Sun-Ah came to see Yohan in her capacity as the new chairman and in charge of the broadcasting of the live court session.

She told him that her goal was to take back the house, with Yohan with it, that she was kicked out of.  She thought at last her dream will come true but instead, he strangled her.  Only because Ga On came in to stop Yohan to harm her further.

Elijah had gotten close to Soo Hyun and they would go on a girl’s day out.

Prof Ming Jung Ho, Ga On’s mentor came to see him one night.  The professor said that he had lost faith on the live court and he was going to take it down and Ga On will be the centerpiece of his plan.

He asked Ga On to join him and be his eyes and ears against Yohan and the live court, his spy.

Ga On was thinking about it when Yohan called him and brought him to an underground aquarium where Yohjan finally introduced him to his motley crew made up of a lawyer, actress, ordinary citizen, and  Yohan’s bodyguards who were all victims of the elite and high-ups in one way or another.

Ga On was now in a deep quandary because deep down he does he does not trust Yohan but he sort of sympathise with what he was doing.

So when the professor came for his decision to join, he was shocked when Ga On sort of turn on him.  He told the professor that the live stream was about votes from people who had been let down by judges and lawmakers like him.  If they had handed out justice, people would not be hankering for good and proper judgment.

Ga On officially joined Yohan as crimefrighters.

Meanwhile, Sun Ah had taken Oh Jin Joo under her wings and egging her on to be more proactive.

Episode 9

Elijah called Yohan because her day trip with Soo Hyun turned horrific when Soo Hyun stopped the car to see to vigilantes who were creating havoc among homeless people who the vigilantes thought were foreigners who were a drain to society.

When Yohan arrived at the scene, Elijah was being harassed by one of the vigilantes.

Go An quickly removed the man off Elijah while Yohan grabbed the leader of the vigilantes by the throat.

He said, no one touches his niece.

Yohan’s absolute bottom line was his niece.

Soo Hyun pointed her gun at Yohan to stop him and then she arrested Yohan for something Special???

Yohan ignored her and went to take his niece from the car to take her home.

All the way home, not a word was uttered until they got home when Elijah asked if he will say something to her?

He said that she should not go out with Soo Hyun.

She said that she only went because she wanted tteokbokki, no one takes her out for tteokbboi.

Yohan realised that his niece is lonely, hungry for affection.

Go An went to see Yohan to apologise for Soo Hyun, he then mentioned that he was too strict with Elijah.

Yohan said that Elijah had been kidnapped twice.

Sun Ah suggested that the live court should have a wider press coverage so Yohan would become more popular with the people and they would desire him as she does.

The Chief prosecutor tried to explain what she meant to make her sound less bonkers but Sun Ah confirmed that what she said was what she meant.

Sun Ah told Yohan later that she has him covered. He could rely on the foundation.  She suggested that they should do the groundwork now so he could run for the presidency in two years.

Yohan said that it looks like she wanted to make a sheepdog rather than a wolf out of him.  She asked him if he could be a little nicer to her.

Yohan said that Go An reminded him so much of his brother.  They are the same who worries about him, that he might hurt innocent people. Yohan told Go An that his brother did not understand that there is no such thing as an innocent person in the world.

Go An asked the housekeeper to cook him lunch.  He then invited Elijah to eat with him.  Elijah screamed that she doesn’t eat Korean food.

Go An immediately found out that the housekeeper’s cooking is less than palatable.

He censured Elijah for not warning him.  He then finally understood that she said she doesn’t eat Korean so the housekeeper won’t cook.  She and her uncle somehow can’t tell the housekeeper’s that her cooking is crap.

Yohan told Ga On that it was time he takes his revenge and gets the man who drove his parents to their death.

After bribing Secretary Kim, the Minister of Justice. PA, Yohan and Ga On found Do Young Choon.

Ga On was ready to kill him but Yohan stopped him because he had a more suitable punishment for the culprit.

Yohan locked Do Young Choon’s wife and daughter in the work shed.  He then showed Young Choon that Yohan had dug up all of Young Choon’s money.  Yohan then sprayed petrol on the mound of money and the shed.  He lit them both.

Young Choon’s mother and daughter begged him to save them but Young Choon crawled instead to his money tried with all his might to put out the fire.

Go An was shocked and so were the mother and daughter who came out from the shed saved by Yohan’s assistant.

They then took Young Choon as a tool to bring down Minister Cha.

Episode 10

Yohan told Go An that they would topple the House of card beginning with Minister Cha.

Yohan gave his information on Sun Ah to Minister Cha in return of looking away when they put to trial the president’s dog body.,Juk Chang who is is racist and fascist.

He had it for foreigners, workers, the elderly, and the children.  He would lead a beating-up party for these sad people.

Juk Chang was found guilty and his punishment was to be out there.  His former fans and followers started beating him whenever is was out and about.

Meanwhile, Minister Cha was incensed when she found out that the foundation had decreased the ministry of justice budget.

She went to see Sun Ah.  She said that Sun Ah was much better when she was just a quiet assistant.  Her new role does not suit her.

Minister Cha pointed out the people closed to her seemed to be dying, her mother, her father and later the chairman.

Sun Ah laughed it off.

But the minister was not finished.  She said Sun Ah was just a servant.

This was really what made Sun Ah go mental.

Episode 11

Everything that could go wrong went wrong for Minister Cha.  She was given a choice by Yohan, become a whistleblower and they will give her a way out but she chose to blow her brains out.

She told them that she will smoke one of her finest cigars

GaOn was searching Minister Cha’s pocket for the sd card when Soo Hyun turned up.  She let them go but was so shocked.

Episode 12

Ga On left the mansion because he was turning into a monster.

Even Yohan was a little shocked at him when he started frisking the dead body of Minister Cha for the file.

The file was embedded on the last cigar she smoked.  And the President got hold of it.

Episode 13

This dystopian drama had turned more chaotic.

Ga On and Soo Hyun finally got it together.  After so many years as the bestest of frieds.

And then they are going to be parted forever because Soo Hyun was gun down while running to Ga On.

Episode 14

Poor Ga On felt so guilty for the death of Soo Hyun.  He attended her funeral but he stayed at the wayside.

And when everyone was gone, he cried his heart out on her grave.

He was found sobbing by Yohan and Elijah.

They took him back to the mansion and looked after him.

They live court started streaming.  It was the bully man who was a henchman of the presdient.

Yohan’s punishment to the henchman was death by an electric chair.

At first the votes were rising slowly but steadily but as soon as the background of the man was revealed as a sociopath who was employed by the president the votes started climbing exponentially.

People wanted the man to die in the electric chair.  But there was a twist ending.

Ga On quickly issued a press release that the live court was all fake.  Standing next to Ga On the very elated professor.

Episode 15

Penultimate Episode.

Anyway, I had just watched this episode raw, no sub available yet.

Despite not understand what was going on, I cried like a baby.

Ga On found out so many things that Yohan was supposed to have done.  He went to the mansion to kill him, stab him

Yohan held on to the knife and said that Ga On can kill him if he was sure he won’t regret it?

Ga On finally found out that Yohan did not start the fire in the church

It was actually little girl Elijah who wandered down to the devotional room lit by a hundred candles.  As she left the room, she unknowingly bumped into a candle which caused a domino effect among the other candles.  A net curtain immediately caught fire and that was that.,

Ga On also found that the professor had been working for Sun Ah all along.. And Ga On had also been a pawn the moment he had his ceremonial oath-taking as a prosecutor.

Episode 16

What a dynamic ending!!!

What a dramatic ending!!!

It is a very satisfying ending.

Sun Ah killed the president because he was too noisy.

Then she shot herself in the head, the last thought she had was that she truly loved Master Yo Han.

Yohan then blew himself and the elite gathered below the podium.

Ga Oh was shell shocked. Heartbroken, thinking that Yo Han died.

The bromance between Yo Han and Ga On is bordering on a BL kind of thing.

But Yo Han already contingency plan to cover everything.  He knew secret exit.

Yohan hurried home and fired his long time housekeeper and gifted her with her own healthfood shop where she could sell her unpalatable food.

The housekeeper was left to tell Ga On that Yohan had left with Elijah.

They were leaving for Switzerland to have Elijah treated and hopefully she could walk again.

Yo Han hinted that if Ga On can’t cope with doing the right thing, he will come back.

Really love this drama.

I don’t mind binge-watching it again someday.

The End