[HanCinema's Drama Review] "The Devil Judge" Episode 7

The last episode concluded with Yo-han easily sidestepping an attempt by the Social Responsibility Foundation to assassinate his character. He then countered by openly calling out the Social Responsibility Foundation's Dream Village project as an obviously shady business enterprise for the wealthy. It's still not totally clear what the Dream Village actually is. At various points here it is described as either a real estate scam or a money laundering scheme. Of course, there's no reason it can't be both.

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But Yo-han has no real evidence for this outrageous charge, at least not yet, so most of this episode delves into character. Seon-ah has a long, technically pointless sequence where she gives a motivational speech to some disadvantaged children. What starts out as a corny reference to the etymological origins of Seon-ah's name as its written in Chinese quickly morphs into an outrageous lecture on how the best way to be nice is to get rich so you can afford the luxury.

This apparent inversion of that dialog from "Parasite" nevertheless serves a useful purpose, which is to say that no one is actually nice. Indeed, note how Yo-han calls out Ga-on for trying to manipulate his niece into giving up evidence. That's not a nice thing for Ga-on to do at all. But then that's kind of a running problem with his character. Though frequently framed as being an ethical counterpart to Yo-han, Ga-on doesn't really do anything.

I mean, honestly, with eighty minute episodes "The Devil Judge" is too long in the first place, and Ga-on should have been edited out in the drama's planning stages, or at least had his part greatly scaled down. He shouldn't be the perspective character. Elijah is a much more natural fit for that role. Her adolescent rebellion both conflicts with Yo-han's ambiguous role in her parents' death, yet also drives her to assist him with his comical trolling against even more sinister forces.

Speaking of which, there's a great follow up to the goofy presidential social media scene from last episode here. Yo-han pushes President Heo into a corner since of all the villainous characters, he's the one most vulnerable to pressure from the common population. As to the rest of the villains I uh...have trouble telling them apart most of the time. I'm hoping at least one of them will be fodder for a future show trial- this episode lacks even the hint of one though.

Review by William Schwartz

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"The Devil Judge" is directed by Choi Jeong-gyoo, written by Moon Yoo-suk, and features Ji Sung, Kim Min-jung, Park Jinyoung, Park Gyu-young, Ahn Nae-sang, Kim Jae-kyung. Broadcasting information in Korea: 2021/07/03~Now airing, Sat, Sun 21:00 on tvN.