Juvenile Justice: A K-drama review

Juvenile Justice is a legal drama that aired February 25th, 2022, on Netflix. It stars the actress Kim Hye-soo who plays the protagonist. She also stars in the shows Hyena and Dr. Romantic. Kim Mu-yeol plays Cha Tae-joo. The drama follows the cases that arrive at the juvenile court and also the lives of the judges.

I want to start off by saying how great this gem of a show is, I truly enjoyed watching it. It didn’t get a lot of buzz, but I was very intrigued by the synopsis. It also had a very emotional and dark concept.

The first episode starts off with a case involving the death of a 4-year-old boy who was killed by two juveniles. I was a bit shocked that this is how they would start off the show because of how dark the storyline is. A child dying by the hand of children. It makes you think of the world and how terrifying it can be. The episode gave me a lot of chills and had so many raw emotions. They did such a good job with the intensity, and although I couldn’t feel the mother’s pain, I deeply sympathized with her. Episode 8 was another one that was very raw. The scene where the wife of the man who died in a car accident found a kind of consolation with the mother of the boy that drove the car had me tearing up. These are the families of two people who were victims of circumstance and it felt like my heart would explode from the number of emotions I felt. The cinematography was also quite dark and melodramatic which added to the allure of the show. Episode 3 really showcased how unfiltered this drama is. There are some scenes that people would shy away from filming, or maybe mellow down, but this show held nothing back with the violence. The scene where the girl’s father beat her up made me feel like I was in the same room and so in turn I felt very helpless and deeply angered. There was the question of whether to understand where the girl’s grandma was coming from because it’s her son, and she was also a victim of the abuse and so I was thrown into a conundrum because as bad as she seemed to feel, she let it go on for too long, but at the same time, it’s not as easy as it seems to intervene. Every single episode came with so many lessons and journeys.

There was a nice build-up to Eun-seok’s backstory. There was the classic anti-hero plot where the viewers are supposed to dislike her but as the story unfolds you start to understand. I liked that even though she was very no-nonsense, you could tell that she had good intentions. The flashbacks gave just enough pieces to the puzzle, although nothing could have prepared me for the reveal of her past life. It made everything so much clearer, and I was very happy for her when she stood up to the chief judge about her principle of speeding through trials. It was also comforting to see culprits that have gotten away with so many heinous crimes be put away.

I would definitely put this at the top of my favorite legal K-drama’s, but to be honest I don’t have anything on that list. Loved the concept, loved the cinematography.

Rating: 9/10