The Devil Judge (2021)

"Into the Abyss."

The Devil Judge was hyped up a lot during its initial run and I only got around to watching it in 2023. The one aspect of it that makes it distinct from others I've seen is how well written and acted the characters were. As for the others… I'll get to them.

Revolving around the shady schemes set up by politicians under the disguise of goodwill in a dystopian society, the Devil Judge follows the eccentric judge Kang Yo Han, as he slowly plots their downfall. And the words of law that restrain him don't stand a chance. When a Live Court show is set up with him as the presiding judge, the public has a chance to decide the fate of the perpetrators. But, how will he fight against power and bring down the wrong doers to their knees?

Characters:

Kang Yo Han is THE deal and I wouldn't mind watching 16 episodes of his story alone. Complex, and ruthless. The word 'Justice' easily slips off our tongues, yet we see criminals get away with their crimes.
Yo Han makes pivotal decisions and dubious moves. By the end of EP3 or EP4, I began to slowly believe his intentions.
It was my first time watching Ji Sung, but he kicked the ball off the park with his performance. Will definitely be watching his other works.
I loved his hate-love attitude with Elijah. Both the actors captured their bond perfectly.

Yo Han was not somebody to mess with. It was thrilling to watch him blow up expectations and play with fire. His morales or lack of them thereof does not go unquestioned. Meet Kim Ga On, who plays this part.

Park Jin Young did his best with what he was given for sure, but I did not trust that guy till the very final episode. He might've been well written, so much that he managed to make it to the most idiotic characters I've met in my life list. I am not saying that he should've been complex or on par with Yo Han, but he couldn't even hold a candle against him.
If a character is written to be inexperienced, it must be done convincingly so. His family had fallen victims to a conman and he still manages to believe everyone. That too, he wildly jumps into situations without thinking twice or getting help. He was a grown up, yet he wavers in making every decision. He redeems himself, but all that was stuffed into one single episode.

The second character who was ill utilized was his best friend/love interest Soo Hyun. For a detective who graduated with magna cum laude, she fails spectacularly when it comes to being practical. Her entire arc was spent wasting on an investigation that seemed to be more inclined to soothe her personal vendetta against Kang Yo Han. Which was useless as more dangerous incidents kept happening and not once did she try to raise a finger or investigate the corrupt officials. She spent her whole free time on the church incident which makes no sense since her own friend Ga On told her that Yo Han never harmed him. She hides the fact that it was Yo Han who helped save a life. What was that for? The other thing which irked me was how she dove headfirst into situations without backup.

Sun Ah was a decisive villain with a whole plan. She had my sympathy as well as my hate. Sympathy due to her circumstances and hate for her shameless greed for power and validation. The only person whom she truly considered and respected as an enemy was Yo Han. I did think that her character was playing the "feigned innocence" demeanor a bit too over the top. But, the actress was insane with her performance. Particularly the final episode.

Shout out to Cha Kyung Hee, the spectacled director and K – they have my respect, limited screen time or not.

Others seemed to be written as their thoughts depicted them to be: clowns. But, highly entertaining clowns.

The OST was apt, not too bright, but intriguing enough. Nightmare by Sondia is my favorite one.

The last episode was too crowded. So many scenes that required an emotional build up were stuffed into one and a half hours. Plus, remove Ga On's stupidity and this drama would've wrapped up by EP13 or EP14.
All in all, it's definitely a worthy watch. There are moments where it loses it's momentum, but, as a whole, it's a 'don't miss it'.

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Addictively Homoerotic

The Devil Judge shoved a middle finger right into the face of heteronormativity – a middle finger with a diamond ring on it, mind you – and it did so with a devilish smirk and a wink. Sexy, twisty, and unapologetically gay, it told one hell of a story, with one hell of a passionate, epic queer romance at its center.

Aside from the inspirations that scriptwriter Moon Yoo Seok mentioned, such as Beauty and the Beast, Jane Eyre, and a Swedish queercoded movie, this series has also drawn on, or evoked, Batman, Lucifer, Goethe's Faust, which is known for its homosexual subtext, the dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451, Sherlock Holmes, and even Romeo and Juliet. This seemingly outrageous blend of different influences worked spectacularly well, delivering a mind-blowing tale that will keep you on the edge of your sit from start to finish. Love triangles, seduction, obsession, jealousy, sexual tension – they all join forces to serve a romance so deliciously addictive.

But how is this a queer love story if Yo Han and Ga On neither kiss not profess their love for each other? The answer to this question depends on your definition of love. If you prefer to be told, not shown, that two people are in love, then kisses, dates, and confessions are what you need, and you will not find them here. However, if you, like me, want to see and feel with your whole being that two characters have fallen deeply for each other, if love to you means to protect, to sacrifice, and to desire, if you believe that it heals and transforms, then Yo Han and Ga On's story will captivate you, shake you, break you, and then uplift you. It is to South Korea what The Untamed and Word of Honor are to China. It is extraordinary, bold, and beautiful.

The Devil Judge, Kang Yo Han, is the heart of this series. Ji Sung has done a magnificent job portraying his complex character, who will keep you craving for more. What impressed me even more than Yo Han, though, is the fact that the rest of the characters were a match for him. Not one of them was flat or boring. Although they did things that were evil, annoyingly stupid, or reckless, I understood their motivations and objectives. From Ga On, to Sun Ah, to Elijah, to everyone else, the characters are masterfully drawn and brilliantly played by the actors. Ji Sung and Park Jinyoung's chemistry is through the roof. Kudos to the production team and the cast.

My only complaint is that the script introduced a heteronormative romance into the story out of nowhere. You cannot make Yo Han and Ga On so obviously gay and their relationship so obviously more than just a bromance – I have seen enough bromances to know the difference – and expect the viewers to buy your heterosexual romance. If the production team did it to disguise the clear homosexual subtext, they should know that it did not work: by forcing Ga On and Soo Hyun out of their friendship and into a romantic relationship that had no chemistry, they only underscored the fact that this story is queer.

Overall, do not be discouraged by the heavy topics that this series deals with. It is more than worthy of your attention. The last two episodes are brilliant and more than compensate for the underwhelming episodes thirteen and fourteen. Please, Mr. Moon Yoo Seok, give us a second season. I would watch Yo Han and Ga On be gay and solve/do crime for as many seasons as possible.

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One of the best drama for this season

This was one of my favourite drama of this year. I just got sucked in. They were able to keep it mysterious till the end. Though I sympathize with Yohan, I was suspicious of him from the beginning till the end. Ga-on'a character was suppose to be the complete oposite of Yohan and while he did seem to agree with Yohan on certain points, being on Yohan's side was conflicting to his self-righteous personality, so he never really commits to him and this part kinda made me mad. As for Sunha, her character was fantastic, she was so evil and way ahead of everyone, even Yohan. Just in the last episode I don't know if the writter was trying to redeem her character and try to make people pity her. It failed on me. I cannot feel sorry for her cause she was evil and manipulative from the beginning, suddenly showing an act of kindness from Yohan as a child moved her heart just fell flat on me. Also the fact that she didn't know what was going on inside the dream home didn't sit well with her character. she was someone who thinks things way ahead of its time, she had all kinda information on everyone but she didn't know what was going on in her own project was just funny. they made her character weak in the finale. they should have let her be the psycho she was and make Yohan decide her ends. This is the only part that disappointed me.

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Who needs due process when everyone looks this good while they threaten each other?

This show that takes its premise and runs absolutely wild with it, leading to some great TV.
It looks gorgeous, the music is fantastic, the actors are giving it everything they've got, and it all comes together into something that is lush with beauty and menace. This show does for crime and law procedural dramas what Kang Yo Han is doing on screen - they've gone all in on style and attitude, and not worried about keeping things realistic. There is very little restraint... anywhere, and that's a good thing.

One of the best things in this drama is the careful balance of Kim Ga On's emotional journey towards and away from Kang Yo Han. Often, POV characters have so little personality - they're the vehicle through which the audience experiences the story, so their actions can become motivated by plot necessity rather than by characterisation, which becomes tedious really quickly. The Devil Judge largely avoids this trap. Yes, there are moments of tension as you watch Ga On make bad decisions as he tries to decide who and what to trust, but he never acts without reason or against his nature. Park Jin Young does a really good job of showing us how much Ga On likes Yo Han, and how much he wants to trust him. But Ji Sung does an equally good job of layering misdirection, threat, and vulnerability in equal parts that the push and pull between trust and distrust is intriguing instead of just frustrating.

The plot, while stretching belief at times, is tight- some twists you'll see coming, and others will take you by surprise. This might be a fictional, dystopian Korea, but it's never far away from the present. Social media, pandemics, executive power, conspiracy theories and xenophobia might be pushed to extremes, but how much further than reality is extreme?
If there's an underlying message to the show, it could be a warning. It could be, as the show says, that systems fail in the face of power. If it's either of these things, then I don't think the ending is hopeful for the fictional, dystopian Korea (even if I have boundless hope for our main characters). That might be the one weakness of the show- in the end, it may condemn or praise individuals, but it can't seem to commit to whether the actions of an individual can or should engender real change. It seems to show us that the ends justify the means - even as it's taking pains to tell us the opposite. But this in no way lowers the enjoyment you get from 16 hours of people in amazing outfits saying horrifying things and (maybe) getting away with it.

They really committed to telling this story and telling it indulgently, un-apologetically reveling in it. I can't get away from how the production almost mirrors the character of Kang Yo Han. I mean, it's a bit over the top, and if you wanted to you could walk away and call it ridiculous, but why would you want to when it just full on commits to the insanity like this?

No-one on this show knows what irony is, every dial is turned up to 100%, I can even forgive the damn bus scene in episode one. God, I love it.

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Why het romances are stupid

Absolutely loved this show. I binged it in a couple days and tried to hold off on finishing because I didn't want it to end. I had seen gifs from the series and video of the behind the scenes on tumblr and heard it was pretty gay so I was all in. Very surprised and kinda disappointed to find that there was a het romance featured for Ga On. honestly feel that he and Soo Hyun had NO romantic chemistry and think it would have worked better if they just kept them as friends or have her be his sister. The emotional beats would have been the same ( if not heavier if she was his sister, blood or not, since one of the main themes of this show is family) and I woudn't have hated on her character so much. I still believe she was kinda dumb and like others have said, probably one of the dumbest detectives in any detective show I've seen. But yeah the romantic scenes (if you can call them that) were awkward af and i skipped through a bunch of it. That's why I can't give the show a 10/10 even though I would love to ( I would give it around a 9.9 out of 10 if I could but the rating system goes by halves). Honestly the show didn't need a romance and it only detracted from my enjoyment of it (although the chemistry between Ga On and Yo Han was fire and I can see why people said it was gay lol). Either way, I thoroughly enjoyed it and highly recommend this intellectual series that deals with murder, mystery, corruption and a sprinkling of gay and great characters, music, cinematography and direction. This definitely is one of my favorite non BL series that I have had the pleasure to watch in recent years.

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The Devil Judge - Words for coolness

It finally happened. I liked this series so much that I will give it the score 10/10. First time ever. After watching the show, what I realized was that it has a great re-watch value because you know how it ends. I mean you can watch the show with open eyes after your mind has been blown. You see most of the characters differently and you can even more focus on the details. In Wiki this show has a rating of 9.8! Like wow.

The Devil Judge is a show where you really need to focus on the characters and what is happening. It is weird how people like different things and characters in it, but I think that is good. It means the show can deliver for so many people. Kang Yo Han’s character and his story is the main highlight. He has a relationship with all the characters and Ji Sung made the character glow. I would put a lot of praising adjectives in here but the list would be soooooo long. I mean, he was GREAT. In the story you need to read between the lines and that goes for Yo Han too.

Of course, every series have their own mishaps, but those did not change my opinion about it. I enjoyed the show immensely. Also the episode names were cool. Imagine that?

Episode list

1. Star Judge (스타판사)
2. Prey and Hunter (사냥감과 사냥꾼)
3. The Secret Room (비밀의 방)
4. Yo-han’s Cross (요한의 십자가)
5. Scissor Hands (가위손)
6. Achille’s Heel (아킬레스건)
7. Dreams Shall Come True (꿈은 이루어진다)
8. Resistance (레지스탕스)
9. Batman and Robin (배트맨과 로빈)
10. Frankenstein (프랑켄슈타인)
11. Macbeth (맥베스)
12. I Hope You Are Lonely (네가 외로웠으면 좋겠어)
13. The Hunger Games (헝거게임)
14. King of the Frogs (개구리들의 왕)
15. Medea (메데이아)
16. The Devil Judge? (악마판사?)

Final score:

Story 10
Acting/Cast 10
Music 11+
Cinematography/Directing 11+
Costumes 10
Action 10
Coolness factor 10
2 ML chemistry 11+
(What ever way you see it. Friends, colleagues, father/son, brothers or bromance. They all work)
Rewatch Value 9

BTS clips 10

Overall score 10/10

So yeah, rating didn’t change after finishing the show. Can you tell, that I really liked it? 😜😎

I wish we would have a 2nd season.

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I absolutely and thoroughly ENJOYED every minute of it!!

Where do I even START with this great show! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

KYH's character peaked and fell as he won and lost at several points in the story, but at every step he made me eager to look forward to what was going to happen, and yet he never over-powered the story by pushing everyone else aside forcefully.
It was more like he never had to, because his mere PRESENCE was enough to make him stand out, no matter what.
His Live Court show was thrilling and exciting, just like the man himself. He did everything he could to make his beloved niece comfortable, and it was SO heartwarming to watch how he cared for his housekeeper and also ultimately Ga On, and how it became a family of four.
Ji Sung's presence was just SO impressive, he is made to be an actor, he was VERY well suited to play roles like this, and it is an absolute JOY to watch him on screen.

Ga On was also a character I absolutely loved, even though he was very fickle and at times not really worthy of being a judge acc to me, he was still easy for me to understand. He was too soft for this dystopian world and truly wanted to do things the right way, even if it meant joining hands with KYH who never really cared for the actual law. Also their chemistry was EXPLOSIVE.

I loved Sun Ah's character too, she was sexy, smart, feisty, ambitious, clever, and ultimately really did love KYH! She was a more than worthy opponent for our dashing male lead. I liked the potential that Soo HYun's character had, but she was good only in episode 1 and 2, afterwards she was a pure mess and irritated me lol.

The villain brigade, they were all awesome, every bit as despicable as people can be when given unlimited power and money to feed their greed.

A big THANK YOU to the creators, the actors, the music directors, and cinematographers for giving me such a memorable show to watch.

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Disappointed

I really wanted to watch this series, I'm an IGOT7 , and I 've seen Jinyoung's other dramas and already know Ji Sung is amazing.

Now I've seen a lot of the other actors and actresses on screen elsewhere so I went into this with a lot of expectations. And those expectations were met for sure. I can see Jinyoung's growth although he needs to work on his crying and needs more practice in a lot of his facial expressions. I have found that his melodramas really are his strong suit. I was pleasantly happy with all the performances but that's the problem. The performances given by everyone was great. However, the story line had promise but somewhere along the line I feel as if they forgot the central plot and it fell flat. I think the script definitely needed some work to help instill the importance of some characters.

I loved the court scenes but that was the most excitement really given in the show on the basis of it being a dystopian society. I wish I saw more of the world and just how unorthodox it was, it felt a lot like it was a normal world with a lot of poverty. There was no sense of actual dystopian other than a few instances. They needed to build more on the story. The relationship between the characters weren't always so fleshed out and understood. Like when things happen between them and then in a next scene suddenly they are talking as if nothing happened.

Jinyoung's character as well felt very naive and even when saw the things happening around him, made idiotic decisions. The visual aspect was good but I feel it made things boring. It was too artsy and I get they were trying to make it dark and moody but the episodes are an hour and some change long. Add that with tense music, tense atmosphere, and waiting on some action among the long filler conversations and more moodiness, it led to some great naps. For right now I have dropped this series, maybe another time will I try to go back in and watch it.

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Gold Mine Drama

This is the drama I've been waiting for. 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.

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. Jisung is extremely charming as the somewhat sociopathic devil judge and Jin Young is just such a smooth actor. His scenes were he's just conversating 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. 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.

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. I'm gonna be adding the track to my favorites.
If you haven't watched The Devil Judge, give it a try. It's worth every second of your time.

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After my excitement with "Mouse", this pretty thing came to fulfill my heart with thriller, fear, and amusement. This drama is my Korean "Black Mirror", and I just loved it! You can see my first impressions here: https://mydramalist.com/profile/8270201/feeds/RzYdBCP

I had a good feeling about this drama and I was right. The plot was pretty incredible and I have just some little things to point, but in totality, this experience blew my mind.

About the performance, I don't have a complaint about any actor. Maybe just a little frustration about the character of Judge Oh Jin Joo (Kim Jae Kyung), because I really wanted to see her more active in the plot, and making some difference, but turns out that her character was tasteless and even disposable sometimes. But the others... Oh my gosh. I loved Judge Kim Ga On and his duality, the way how we could see his struggle to do the "right thing" and how he was slowly involved with Yo Han's personality. Soo Hyun and her strongness, and at the same time her devotion to Ga On... And of course, my psycho queen, Jung Sun Ah. Really, Kim Min Jung is just amazing. I will watch "Mr. Sunshine" just to see her again. I have nothing to say about the performance of Ji Sung, besides he was simply incredible. He is one of the best actors in actuality to me, no doubts. But... I have to say that I expected a little more ambiguity in Kang Yo Han. In the first episodes we really feel unsure about him and everything, but with the process, his character kinda loose a little of that and it is almost predictable. In episode eight I started to figure out some things and wasn't took long to suppose the answer to the fire's mystery, and I think if they put Yo Han a little more ambiguous, this wouldn't happen. Another character that was changed in the process was the President. He was clearly a moron in the beginning, but start to change and this was a little sudden to me. But I'm saying that just to say something bad because I loved Yo Han and loved the entire plot.

This is a drama that will put you to think about society and about your choices in life. I like a lot of philosophy, so this kind of discussion about justice and rights really excites me, because it's always a current question. If you like this kind of drama and if you want to freak out without knowing how things will end, this is for you. I'll put this as an amazing almost chosen one (★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★/2) just because of the little things that I mentioned about the change in the characters, but still is a great show and worth your time for sure.

See you soon!
XOXO, Mari.

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