The Devil Judge

The Devil Judge (Korean: 악마판사) is a South Korean television series starring Ji Sung, Kim Min-jung, Park Jin-young and Park Gyu-young. It aired on tvN from July 3 to August 22, 2021, for 16 episodes. It was also available for streaming on Viu and iQIYI in selected territories, and on Netflix from December 24.
A 48-chapter webtoon adaptation was serialized on Comico from July 11 to August 18, 2021.
The series is set in a dystopian version of South Korea, where people harbor hatred towards their leaders and live in chaos. Trials are held through a courtroom live show aired on television, where three judges come together to bring justice and peace.
The drama, which was originally planned to run for 20 episodes instead of 16, is written by former judge Moon Yoo-seok. In June 2018, during the airing of the second half of his first drama, Ms. Hammurabi, Moon began to think about what it would be like to write about a judge with completely opposite tones and ways. He then talked about his idea with actor Ji Sung, imagining a judge who would join Batman and Joker together.
The setting of the series was inspired by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and by the "terrifying" changes that occurred in the world, defined by Moon as scarier than the virus itself: after seeing patients in hospices in Spain die because they were abandoned by nurses, the global economy collapsing in an instant, the world population struggling to make ends meet, the advent of fanatical groups attacking Congress, and the president of the United States of America treating doctors' advice as fake news, he decided to do a "thought experiment" similar to Black Mirror and V for Vendetta about what the world of the future would have been like if such a chaotic situation continued.
The characters of The Devil Judge moves in a hypothetical dystopian Republic of Korea in which, two years after a mysterious epidemic, the deterioration of the economy, the rapid growth of unemployment and the feeling of not being safe have accelerated the polarization of the city and transformed the suburbs into slums destined for the collapsing poor class, while the center of the city is inhabited by the wealthiest social classes. Amplified by the media and political power, the anger of the population has led to a society dominated by violence, extremism and hatred towards its leaders, and it has become impossible to think of uniting in solidarity to find a solution; for this reason, the "devil" judge Kang Yo-han, who punishes evil without scruples, is designated by the population as the hero who will save them and through whom to vent discontent and anger.
The series has been defined by the writer as "chaotic and full of heterogenous elements", in which dystopian cartoon setting, classic tragedy narratives and theatrical dialogues are exasperated. Believing that "Dystopia is where authority becomes religion and religion becomes authority", Moon inserted religious overtones "to add a tragic feeling": the three judges who preside over the media tribunal, with their robes, resemble the Trinity, while the courtroom itself refers to an amphitheatre, and the name of the app used by the public to vote, Dike, to the homonymous deity of the Greek religion. References to Christianity are present in the crucifix worn on the wrist by Kang Yo-han, in the cross-shaped scar on his back, and in the names of the members of the Kang family, which recall those of the prophets of the Old Testament.
The script also merged some of the writer's favorite novels, such as Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, Rebecca, Beauty and the Beast and Faust, and a tribute to The Dark Knight Rises; the opening scene of episode 12, in which Yo-han's aide, K, tells Ga-on that he'll lose everything if he stays with Yo-han, was written while thinking of the movie Let Me In, and in particular to the characters of Håkan, a middle-aged man who dies miserably living next to the lonely vampire Eli, and of Oskar, a child who bears the same fate. Other occurrences in the series draw inspiration from real events, such as Donald Trump's presidency, Brexit, Duterte's regime in the Philippines, and the tweet published by terrorist Anders Breivik before carrying out the attacks of July 22, 2011, which is recalled in episode 10 in the first sentence of extremist Jukchang's manifesto, "One person who has faith is equal to the power of a million people who pursue only profit."
The Devil Judge addresses the growing popularity of series featuring dark heroes battling evil with evil, such as Vincenzo and Taxi Driver, and questions why they are so loved by the public. The final message, conveyed by Kim Ga-on who wonders what needs to be done to create a world that doesn't need Kang Yo-han, is that, through everyone's joint efforts to change the system, it's not too late to prevent the social and political situation told by the series from transforming in reality. Through the death of Yoon Soo-hyun, a character who represents the only person who has ever loved Kim Ga-on unconditionally, giving him the will to go on living, and who continues to worry about him despite being dying, the writer also wanted to highlight how love is the final form of redemption, and the belief that the world would be different if everyone had at least one person who truly loves them.
Moon, however, made it clear that, in writing the series, he focused more on the relationship between the characters rather than on conveying his own message, believing that, in telling their stories in certain situations and with certain narratives, the message would naturally arise as by-product. The relationships between the main characters are of three types: Kang Yo-han and Jung Sun-ah's relationship is expressed by the key phrase "I want to have you", Kang Yo-han and Kim Ga-on's by "I want to know you", and Kim Ga-on and childhood friend Yoon Soo-hyun's by "I want to protect you", although these three wishes are sometimes one-sided. The relationship between Yo-han and Ga-on has been described as a "bromance" in which the two characters attract each other like magnets due to their differences. Speaking of how he wrote the characters, Moon stated: "When I created the characters, I completely ignored the genders. [...] Cha Kyung-hee is simply a powerful and ambitious figure, and Yoon Soo-hyun is just a detective who wants to protect her first love. They are both familiar characters who often appear as men in Korean dramas. In contrast, the role of Kim Ga-on is often given to female characters. Characters trapped in conventional gender roles are obvious and monotonous, and I think the prejudice that all women must be autonomous and men can be flat is also artificial. Every human being is an individual."
On June 9, 2020, it was reported that Ji Sung had been offered the main role. Apart from his friendship with writer Moon Yoo-seok, Ji Sung decided to appear in the series to "look back at the idea of justice in the present age", to find and express a new side of himself, and because attracted by the unrealistic character of Kang Yo-han. Ji had difficulty understanding the role; as he found some similarities with Goethe's Faust, he shared that he initially played Kang Yo-han as a good character who draws his strength from evil, only to learn from the writer that he was, instead, Faust's seducer, Mephistopheles, and that he was "shocked" and "confused" by the revelation that Kang was completely evil. Kang's hairstyle, clothes and speech were instead agreed with the director.
Park Jin-young and Park Gyu-young joined the possible line up in August, while Kim Min-jung's agency confirmed she was in talks to star in the drama on December 3. The four leads were confirmed on February 3, 2021, and Kim Jae-kyung also joined on May 12 in a recurring role. The Devil Judge is Ji Sung and Kim Min-jung's second collaboration after the medical drama New Heart (2007–08).
Park Jin-young wanted to act in The Devil Judge after being fascinated by Kim Ga-on's gradual change over the course of the series. At the audition, when Moon Yoo-seok asked him if, given the character's difficulty, he had read the script many times, Park answered no and that most likely they would cast someone more famous than him. The writer stated that he was struck by Park's defiant gaze and later discovered that he had actually read the synopsis and the script dozens of times, and that he even knew details unknown to him: this made him think he had found the perfect Ga-on, "sincere, competent and eager, but with an indistinct sense of resignation and anger." Later, Park commented that he sometimes felt embarrassed and regretful at his response because he probably gave the impression that he was spoiled.
Kim Min-jung was chosen at the director's suggestion, wanting an actress who could portray Jung Sun-ah as innocent and terrifying at the same time. Kim Jae-kyung received the script for The Devil Judge shortly after finishing Brave New World, the reading of which helped her understand the dystopian world. Impressed, in particular, by the idea of broadcasting the trials live throughout the nation, she met and interviewed a real judge to get a basic knowledge and understand how to play the role. She then auditioned wearing a Harry Potter cloak, having nothing more suitable, to immerse herself in the character of a judge.
The Devil Judge is directed by Choi Jung-kyu, who, to create the dystopian atmosphere, has combined futuristic and virtual elements with classic elements of the genre; in the photography, on the other hand, darkness has been emphasized, preferring dark settings. Lee Yong-seop of Westworld took care of computer graphics, representing a "sophisticated but excessive, realistic but clumsy, possible but non-existent Seoul", placing buildings familiar to viewers in unknown places and assigning them to different uses. The color yellow, which in Christian religious art is associated with the robes of Judas Iscariot, was used for negative scenes and object; at the same time, the color, usually identified with light, is a reference to the character of Kim Ga-on, described in the synopsis as "The light of this world", and who is sent by his professor Min Jung-ho to spy on Kang Yo-han to steal his secrets and then betray him.
The sets were curated by artistic director Jo Hwa-seong. After highlighting the keywords "the poor gets poorer and the rich gets richer" (빈익빈부익부; 貧益貧富益富), "lawlessness" and "chaos" by reading the script, he chose to give the exteriors a "desperate", rough, dark and humble atmosphere in representation of the poor, and the interiors a feeling of order, flashiness and superfluous luxury, typical of the rich. Kang Yo-han's house is a classic dark mansion, similar to Batman's, to show his dark hero side; Kim Ga-on's rooftop room, decorated with plants that have been abandoned on the street, conveys hope and that happiness is not proportional to wealth, while the Foundation's offices are designed to show its inclinations for drama and exploitation of people's desires through almost shamanic rituals and devotions. The courtroom is purposely circular to refer to popular participation in the trials of ancient Greece.
Filming began in December 2020, after Ji Sung's return to South Korea from Hawaii and a two-week self-quarantine, and ended in early July 2021. Locations include Osstem's headquarters in Magok District, Seoul, for the exterior of Kang Yo-han's office, Balan Outlet in Hwaseong and Le Papillon Barber Shop in Gangnam, while, for the Blue House, the crew used the reconstruction at the Hapcheon theme park.
The first poster was released on May 20, 2021, followed on May 28 by a 15-second video teaser. The character posters were released on June 11, and the 15-second trailer for episode 1 was released on June 18. On June 28 and July 1, two videos of 90 and 190 seconds were released, the latter coinciding with the press conference, to introduce the setting of the first episodes.
The music of the drama was composed by Jung Se-rin, who preferred the use of the electric guitar over the acoustic guitar. Kang Yo-han's and Kim Ga-on's suffering was expressed with instrumental strings solos, while for the moments in which Jung Sun-ah plots, the choice fell on the EDM genre; in addition to original pieces, the soundtrack makes use of Erik Satie's Gnossienne No. 1 and Rachmaninoff's Piano Sonata No. 2, rearranged to fit the mood of the scenes.
The soundtrack was released on CD on August 21, 2021, and contains 55 tracks.
After the first episode, it was observed that the unfamiliar dystopian background and virtual setting of the series were complicated to understand. Lee Jung-hyun of Yonhap News commented that it seemed to focus more on action and visuals, and that cohesion was missing, an opinion shared by pop culture critic Kim Seong-soo and Korean literature professor and drama critic Yoon Seok-jin of Chungnam National University, who found the directing excessive and that the message was not clearly revealed. Instead, Choi Sang-jin of Seoul Economic Daily felt that the first episode had struck a perfect balance by combining "exhilarating rapid development, sophisticated directing and excellent performances by the actors".
Pop culture critic Jung Deok-hyun pointed out that the fictional world represented by The Devil Judge showed the existence, in the real world, of "straw men" behind which the real forces in power are hidden, and that there was no fairness and justice, commenting: "The fictional dystopian Korea portrayed by The Devil Judge is drawn as if it were another parallel world in our reality. But, the more you insist it is virtual and just fiction, the more bitter it becomes. That's because the story [...] is getting more and more real as the story goes on. The more I say it's show and fiction, the more disgust arises from the discomfort I feel seeing an overlap, which should not happen, with reality". He attributed the diverse audience reactions to the series to its "terribly skeptical elitism", commenting that the way the population was swayed made sad and bitter even the reminiscence to the Gwangju massacre of May 18, 1980 and to the candlelit vigils calling for Park Geun-hye's resignation, which are recalled in the indiscriminate assaults suffered by the residents of Hyeongsan-dong in episode 13. Moreover, seeing secondary characters' tendency to sacrifice themselves for no apparent reason, Jung felt that the same elitism was reflected in the way Moon had decided to write the characters, making it seem that they were created on purpose to disappear from the scene at the right moment and unleash the emotions of the protagonists. Speaking of Kang Yo-han, he stated: "He is represented as a dark hero who lives alone in a mansion, like Bruce Wayne in The Dark Knight Rises, but it's hard to see him trying to save people in need".
In reviewing the first ten episodes, Bryan Tan of Yahoo Lifestyle Singapore called the series "a chaotic dystopian circus of greed and corruption," whose hallmarks are theatrics, drama and pageantry, deeming it "explosively dramatic" and continually improving. He praised Park Jin-young, writing, "[he] has been spectacularly pleasurable to watch. The young actor is extremely authentic in his portrayal of the tortured and righteous associate judge Kim Ga-on, and his ambiguous romantic feelings towards his friend Yoon Soo-hyun adds flavour to the side plot, and his presence adds a lighter and youthful dimension in contrast to Kang Yo-han's direct and merciless methods."
At the end of the broadcast, Kim Hyun-rok of SpoTV News complimented the acting and chemistry of the actors, believing they harmonized with "detailed narrative development that caught us off guard and sophisticated direction that vividly displayed a virtual dystopian Korea." Kim Hee-kyung and Kim Hye-rang of Hankyung praised the refreshing and unconventional development, the contrasts between rich and poor, and appreciated that it opened a debate on the correctness of Kang Yo-han's methods and what true justice was. Choi Hee-jae of XsportsNews complimented the bromance between Ji and Park, and the characters in general for showing their presence and leading a solid story, "a 'virtual dystopia' not far from the past and the present," adding: "Moving back and forth between reality, The Devil Judge made me think about what justice was and what is right" and concluding that "the ending crosses reality and fantasy, exhilaration and displeasure, and sin and atonement."
On the contrary, Lee Jung-hyun of Yonhap News argued that The Devil Judge had shown "no attraction beyond spectacle and vicarious satisfaction" and that, despite the broadcaster's emphasis on promoting social justice, ordinary people were relegated to "bridesmaids" while the protagonists faced the government that had hidden the truth. The same comparison was used by critic Jung Deok-hyun, who said: "Taking away the provocative verdicts and glamorous images, The Devil Judge is a more bare-bones work than you think. Like The Dark Knight Rises, which treated the dilemma of justice seriously, this drama often shows a dilemma, but what it reveals is the weakness of a human being swayed by lust. I don't think it's coherent to put social justice as a message and not let ordinary people be seen." Park Chang-gi of TenAsia criticized the unconvincing and hardly credible development of the story, decreed that the conclusion drawn by The Devil Judge was that killing for personal revenge was justified, and deemed that the ending was empty and left only a sense of disappointment.
Pierce Conran of the South China Morning Post found the start of the series strong and promising, then he commented that it veered towards a middle stretch "full of ups and downs as the story meanders between fun moments and finger-twiddling lulls." Evaluating it with 3 out of 5 stars, he concluded that it was "devilishly entertaining and derived thrilling catharsis from its live courtroom scenes", but that it showed an "almost pathological disregard for women", given that, out of five female characters, four were disabled or ended up losing their lives.
The Devil Judge figured in tenth place on Forbes' list of the best Korean dramas of 2021 for "strong performances and the parody of some too-close-for-comfort political realities".
The Devil Judge was among the five most anticipated Korean dramas of 2021. According to Nielsen Korea, the first episode recorded an average share of 6% in the Seoul metropolitan area and 5.6% nationwide, with a real-time peak of 6.9% and 6.6% respectively. The last episode marked the highest ratings, with an average national share of 8% and a real-time peak of 10.1%, occupying the first place among the programs of the same time slot. The series was the most watched program in its time slot for the entire broadcast period.
Interviewed about a possible second season at the end of the airing, writer Moon Yoo-seok declared his willingness to write it and that he wanted to try a more light-hearted action series, like Sherlock and Lupin.