Defendant (2017)

Wow, an amazing drama! But wait, not one without glaring flaws.

I'm so glad that this was the first law/prosecutor drama I watched that based its storyline entirely around the main villain who kills people and framed an innocent person, instead of corruption cases about government contracts and business dealings like in Stranger and Confession (I have reviewed both dramas). The first episode and Park Jung Woo's profession as a homicide prosecutor in the Seoul Prosecution Office already gave away the direction of the story, but what made the story stands out the most is definitely the masterful execution by the lead actors.

There are multiple plot holes that you can identify while watching the story where convenient incidences are thrown in to ensure that the bad guy keeps winning for so many episodes. While this gives a lot of room for villain's character development and makes us invest more in his character, it also makes the story repetitive and tired in a sense, especially in the first half of the show running.

I also did say in the beginning that the director already give away the direction of the rest of the story from the first episode, but the story did take a more interesting turn in the second half (in a sense, I am saying this was not necessarily a plot twist, rather a deviation from what the audience may have speculated from watching the drama - which made it much more interesting than a typical revenge drama). Imagine an innocent person who was framed for the death of his wife and daughter, you'd expect that he would get freed from a re-trial. You'd have to watch this drama to find out, but the second half was definitely better than the first half for this very reason.

I also find the conclusion a bit lacking, but giving away information about it would be a spoiler, so I would settle with saying that the punishment for the main villain was brushed off quite quickly. You'd imagine that after spending so many episodes (YES, MANY) to make the viewers root for his final downfall, they would invest a bit more screen time for his execution trial. Yet they only showed small bits of this part which felt very unsatisfactory. In a sense, this is also another way of saying that there's some real identifiable problem with the pacing of this drama.

There are five main characters listed on this drama page, but I can say in earnest that only two actors truly deserved its place and owned this drama rightfully, 1) Ji Sung (the main protagonist) and 2) Uhm Ki Joon (the main antagonist). Although I am here completely unreserved of my praises for Uhm Ki Joon's flawless portrayal of the main antagonist, his character is at best a villain who's only middle-range interesting. I would imagine that the most memorable villains are the ones who are cunning, hands-on and really smart, but here his character is only borderline psychopath, but more of a loser who is downright boring if not for the great acting. There are only two scenarios I could remember in the whole drama where he himself physically tried to take Jung Woo down with his own wits. Either way, the writing is sloppy in parts because the writers had the opportunity to refine/develop his character a lot more given the screen time they dedicated for him, but I believe they really wasted it.

That being said, there are two more support characters that really stand out to me in their emotional portrayal, 1) Shin Rin Ah who plays Ji Sung's daughter as well as 2) Kim Min Seok who plays Lee Sung Kyu. The prison cellmates are all interesting characters you would root for too, and they are really great comedic reliefs especially when the plot gets repetitive in the first half.

There are some nice BGM played in this drama that really enhances the mood of the story especially in the bonding scenes of father-daughter that are always an absolute tear-jerker. Rewatch value is also very high, considering any drama with Ji Sung is incredibly rewatchable.

Could have been a masterpiece, but not quite in my book. Definitely deserves its spot as a top-tier law/prosecution/revenge drama for Ji Sung's immaculate acting as well as the thrill that greatly ensues the second half of the story.

Final words: watch Doctor Prisoner if you want to know how a revenge thriller and main antagonists can be so uniquely and tastefully done! I truly can't praise and recommend it enough.

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I gave an all 10 for everything because this drama is no joke. The moment I started watching this, I was hooked. Watching an airing drama with this kind of genre could make you go crazy thinking and guessing what could've happen and such. But it was FUN, don't get me wrong. The story was actually common but the intensity and the attack they did was very different. There were twists in each episode that you wouldn't expect. And each episode will give you a roller coaster ride. Acting wise, you have no problem especially with Ji Sung. He is exceptional. I strongly believe he deserves the Best Actor award in the Drama Awards at the end of the year. Also, the kid who played as Ha Yeon was totally good. A promising child actress! Um Ki Joon too was a great actor. At first I was confused if he really had a twin but no, it was just him who played two roles. You would know the actors did a good job when you're attached already to the point of hating them, loving them, pitying them, etc.

Lastly, the friendship that was built inside the cell was so precious. You'll definitely love them. It reminds me of Miracle in Cell No. 7 all of a sudden. SNSD's Yuri was good too. She proved that she could act but can be better in her future dramas. All in all, it was a 100000/10.

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LITERALLY THE DRAMA THAT WILL MAKE YOUR HEART SKIP A BEAT.

I'm going to keep this review short. Defendant was one hell of a drama with so much emotions in it. This drama made me laugh, cry, angry, satisfied and beyond happy as a viewer. The fact that it has no romance in it, i coulnt believe it myself either that I managed to finish all episodes and i tell you, IT WAS SO GOOD.

You know when a drama is so good that regardless of how late it is at night, you would always want to press that next episode button. And that is exactly what defendant did to me.

All characters were on point. The story line was well written. And i'm giving it a 9.5 on music cause i wish there was an ost that stood out, which is totally understandable since majority of the music used were for suspense scenes that had no lyrics in it.

Overall this drama deserves a 10/10. Let your eyes do the work. WATCH DEFENDANT.

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A story that had a smart concept but dumb execution.

As you can see from my rating this review will not be of the popular opinion.

First I would like to state that I had started defendant when utnhad just finished airing, but then I put it on hold since then, only to decide to rewatch it 3 years later simply because I had all the episodes downloaded so I thought it would be a waste not to. I do not regret having watched it, maybe because it helped me rethink the concept of rewatching or watching an older drama however popular it may have been , especially after watching many dramas of the same genre that have come out since.
I was hating a lot of things with this drama's story but deep inside I knew it was mostly because my standards as a viewer had become high thanks to many other solid dramas of the same genres, whether it be law, crime, prison, or revenge. I have watched shows that share similar genres like stranger (forest of secrets), signal, prison's playbook, and I hear your voice, dramas that are by no means masterpieces but which enjoyed strongly woven stories that above all showed respect to the viewers' intelligence and boasted solid and believable character development for both protagonists and antagonists.

First let me discuss where this drama scored points...the acting. Ji sung and full stop! Solid performances by all, especially uhm kijoon, but ji sung's alone would have been more than an enough to still make me give acting such a high score. He was able to capture the raw emotions and pain of our hero, you felt for him from start to finish. As for our antagonist, while uhm kijoon performance was to point from start to finish I had my reserves as to the relatability of his character as a villain, which was due to the writing and by no means due to a problem on his part.

Now to where this drama did poorly; the story.

This is in a nutshell a story that had a smart concept but dumb execution.
Let me put it this way, If a drama forces its viewers to have to exercise a fair amount of suspension of disbelief in order to watch, guessing and questioning plot holes and filling in missing gaps every now and then, then the story writing is simply failing right there. End of story.

First off, this story relied on too many conveniencies to work, ranging from the trivial to the huge. To give just a few examples, the brother in law who works as a correctional officer, the mother of the villain who has dementia so can't cause too much trouble recognizing the identity swap, the wife of the good twin who was previously dating the evil twin and also has a son from (ie can be blackmailed into silence.), The DA in charge being a friend of the suspect who happened to visit his house minutes before the murder (in turn becoming an accomplice in the cover up).

The story also stretched the chaebol power card too far (which was in itself one of the biggest conveniencies of all). They show us the cheabol who not only has connections in multiple sovereign bodies such as the police, the DA and the prison, but almost has total control over some corrupt high ups, with such corruption reaching extreme heights at some points (forging fake lab results, stealing confidential case files from the NFS and killing off suspects in prosecution custody etc). The writer must know that the more his villain has to use his connections to cover up his tracks, the more he is creating loose ends and leaving behind even more evidence. Which is exactly what happened in the final epidode where everything unraveled....so miraculously if I may say (to be discussed later).

Another thing that bothered me with the story was that a big portion of the drama felt like a cat and mouse scenario, where the good side takes a step forward, the bad side takes couple of steps back. This while in no means an uncommon tool in this genre, here was done in a very obvious (like minho declaring at one point that it was a race to find the daughter), repitive and following an almost never changing pattern. it became kind of frustrating to be watching the good side plotting a way out and only awaiting the bad side to squash their attempts with a simple wave of the hand (through a call to the high ups or another hit job or both). And for God's sake how easy is it to run a car over with the same huge orange dump truck and get away with it each and every time!!!!!

Worst thing of all was the finale.
In terms of making fun of the viewers' intelligence, those last two episodes were by far the worst. It felt like the writer thought to himself "well they stuck this far, didn't they" and decided to go crazy with the story.
Not only does multiple sides who had sided with the villain for so long decide all of a sudden to come clean (from secretary to wife to corrupt DA friend), but also the smart and conniving villain does a bunch of unbelievably dumb stuff such as meeting with his minion, who is being charged with murder, inside the DA office after interrogation and straight out telling him where he hid a murder weapon!! I was screaming to the screen "haven't you ever heard of voice recorders?!" Worse, the supposedly smart manipulative villain who in an attempt to keep an accomplice under control had been blackmailing him with a recording, turns out that recording included his voice admitting to murder all along!!!! If you have to resort to sudden and inexplicable change of character whether it be intelligence-wise or conscience-wise then you are doing something wrong, Mrs writer.

To sum it up..this drama had a good premise and marvelous cast, but the execution of the story and the details felt sometimes sloppy, sometimes rushed, and other times downright dumb. The pace also felt awkward rushing through the important parts especially at the begining and towards the end, but going super slow and thorough at other parts to the point it felt draggy.
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The above is my review of the drama and below are some of the points that bothered me the most while watching this drama.
only read if you have watched this drama recently or have an excellent memory of the plot :D
Any discussions regarding regarding these points will be greatly appreciated ;)

1) First and most importantly why did minho choose such a complicated method that involves framing jung woo of murdering his family instead of just killing him. If he had killed him on the same night he would no prevented him from holding the press conference where he had planned to reveal minho's true identity. And please do not try to convince me that he was working by the concept of an eye for an eye, and that he wanted him to feel the loss of a family member just like he did when he was forced to kill his brother!! Not buying it because most surely minho must have suspected jung woo to be receiving help from his colleagues who most surely will continue digging into the case even after jungwoo was incarcerated.

2) so min ho was surprised to learn that the bag that was supposed to be carrying hayeon's body was found empty, and we see a flashback where they explain that sungyu's job was to put hayeon's body inside the bag (or did I get this part wrong?). my question is how did that happen, if minho's plan was to kill hayeon and dispose of her body how come jung woo ended up with an empty bag? Or was minho angry not at the bag being empty but that it was found in the first place?! I didn't quite understand that.

3) how did jung woo know at the crime scene that minho's blood was on the knife he used to stab ji soo?!!! We know he is a DA and all but sure he has no forensic lab at his house. And also how cine minho didn't notice he had a cut through hus gloves, That was too much of a stretch by the script writer imo. Also for crying out loud, what kind of shi**y CSI job did they do that they can't even make a proper comparison between the weapon found at the crime scene and the wounds inflicted on the victim.

4) during the prosecutors investigation it was mentioned that the CCTV footage didn't show anyone other than the apartments' tenants going in and out of the building. we know that the prosecutor friend jung hyuk covered up the fact that he visited the apartment on the day of the murder by deleting the cctv footage. But later on he mentions to minho that the cctv showed him exiting the building after the murder. Minho surely had the dep. Head at the DA's office ready to alter any evidence that connects him to the crime scene, so how come the DA in charge was able to access the footage in the first place.

5) concerning the sequence of events at the night of the murder, if jung woo took the empty bag in his car and buried it, How did he return to the house and get arrested there when we know he left the car with the knife hidden inside at a parking lot near where he burried the bag. Did he take a ride home?! And if he had done just that, what kind of a sloppy investigation was it that they never bothered searching for the missing vehicle.

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If You have Doubt About the Truth Being Real, Out Defendant' Will Give You the Answer

'Defendant' is very intense, and our convicted hero seldom has time to truly relax since the maniacal villain appears to have a mole lurking in every location. This proves that you cannot always escape difficult and painful trials of life just because you look great, wear the best clothes, drive the latest car, live in a fantastic setting, and that your spouse in equal to all you bring to the marriage. AS IF!

I needed occasional stretch breaks to loosen my tight muscles from the tension this drama. Yes, there were some light moments in the life of our hero, Senior Prosecutor Park Jung Woo (played by Ji Sung), but his emotion rides a roller coaster of from trauma to grief – around, then up and down, then round gain – repeating every few months. He’s caught in a cycle from complete forgetfulness to opening new bits of memory. We are not certain if there is a fix to his current situation or not. Each time, he discovers his location, yet learning the reason he is in that place causes his trauma to repeat. Will it matter what he learns it he can stop the repetitions?

A large part of the mystery is whether healing will occur with no professional help available. And then, there are those important people deeply vested in maintaining his status quo. I confess! I almost quit watching because his dilemma seemed hopeless and going NOWHERE fast!! 'Defendant’ is NOT an easy drama to watch because it's a realistic portrayal of poor investigations, mistaken assumptions (aren’t most?), mistrials, anger, hatred, grudges, sheer meanness, pettiness, and other human challenges. If you want or are looking for some easy, forgettable entertainment, PLEASE go AWAY! Who wants to read complaints from people who are unable to enjoy anything requiring patience and interest beyond an easy, "quick-fix love story with Many Hot Kisses!!"

On the other hand, if you are interested in moments of pure grace, unexpected kindness, dorky humor, and open-handed generosity, watch this series!! You will feel great afterward and experience joy. Even if rightness exists less in our current world, there are times when financially struggling people get a break, injured people are helped by strangers, and the innocent are set free.

'Defendant' is NOT boring!! I was so furious at the villain and a suborned helper, that if I'd been the Judge, lighting striking them wouldn't have been good enough! About that time, my conscience stirred and I was again reminded - with a possible headache - that I'm not God, nor a real judge, and ultimately, forgiveness is a far healthier choice for viewers (than acting like a German Shepherd with strangers at the door!) The villain is a better Vader than Darth!! Watch the drama for Ji Sung riveting performances that won him three top awards. (The villain received one: "Character of the Year.")

'Defendant' is extremely intense, tightly controlled, except for some terrible driving, brilliantly written story and dialog, clever people, affecting performances by all, and a harsh cat/mouse game playing throughout the entire story. Nothing is over until the end of the 18th episode. Have fun!!

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What an absolute MASTERPIECE of a slow-burn, thriller show.

Watching Ji Sung is ALWAYS a delight, the way he portrayed confidence, heartbreak, confusion, despair, desperation, misery, PAIN, and anguish was just TOO GOOD. I teared up at several points through the show and I just couldn't hold myself back from desperately wishing for him to achieve some sort of happiness through his seemingly never-ending pain.
That man is a true POWERHOUSE of acting, just brilliant to watch.
His chemistry and bromance with Shin Chul Shik and all his OPTIMUS PRIME glory lmao. He was amazing and hilarious to watch.
The support our prosecutor received from his cell-mates was touching and heartwarming, and it was so easy to become involved in their personal lives too and cheer for their happiness also. The side characters were all endearing and sweet and it was a delight to see them interact with each other. I loved how, instead of telling people that the cell-mates were a family, they SHOWED that they were a family through their actions and their encouragement and their interactions.
Every single scene of our dear prosecutor and his family in flashbacks was so damn sweet and so damn sad T-T.
I HATED the villain in this one, he was absolutely revolting and it was sickening how he acted, kudos to the actor I guess. BUT even more than that I HATED HATED HATED the 'friend' prosecutor. He should've burned in hell tbh, he was TERRIBLE.
The female attorney was too damn sweet to Ji Sung, at one point she even Googled 'How to aid in breaking someone out of prison' and that was A D O R A B L E. I loved how the brother-in-law was as a character, he was righteous but he changed his views and opinions and actions as the story progressed.
I liked the pace of the story, but overall it could've maybe been better in a 14/16 episode format, but that's taking it from a 100% to a 1000% tbh, it was thrilling throughout! LOVED IT.
I would highly recommend it.

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I will try to keep it short as much as I can.

First, the story isn't something unique or different, rather it is simple, but its execution is what makes it gripping.
The plot could have been meatier especially when it comes to some characters like Yuri's or the old inmate's ones, but I think the drama can become longer then.
I knew that there were two episodes extension, but I had never felt it dragging (comparing to other dramas).

Acting..everyone is talking about the acting which is the highlight of this show. I don't know if it weren't Ji Sung and Uhm Ki Joon, this drama would have been that great. Both acted deliberately; never overacting nor underacting for even once.The chemistry between the characters is another highlight and the comic timing comes as a relief from all that tension.

The music fits well and and it helps build up the tension and drag you into the mood. "I Love You Baby" was a sweet gesture and reflects the aim of the show and the motive behind our hero's journey.

Rewatch value: I often don't find thrillers have high rewatch value as all clues unfold in the first time, but I can watch this once again just for the performances.

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I'm normaly very critical and I have the urge to point out tons of problems in dramas. But this time I am very impressed. The story is great. I always felt satisfied after every episode and could not stop watching it. Each character was very different and complex, they always kept me hanging. You could never be sure were the story would go. What the characters were gonna do. This is a drama anyone can find interesting. The suspense is really strong. It reached the top of my list very fast
The whole cast did great. I know its not gonna be a surprise to say that Ji Sung did an amazing job with this role. But I still have to note that his acting really got to me, I legit tried to fight back my tears, but is was all in vain. ( they still got out )
Normaly I don't comment about the music, but I replayed the music a lot and I even made a playlist soo... its dope.
I can definitely see myself rewatching it very soon it was worth my time. It was a very enjoyable emotional rollercoaster, which i highly recommend~

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Amazing acting and poor writing

I’m so angry at this drama. Not because it was particularly bad. Because I had such high hopes for it I was just expecting more. And the truth is, this drama is average, but should be great. And ts was destroyed by poor writing and bad plot solutions.

First of all, casting was really good. There was maybe a couple of characters that wasn’t so convincing but the rest was truly memorable and could stand on their own. Ji Sung in main role was class of his own, even tough sometimes his shrieks were more comical than sad. But those were singular moments and wasn’t a big problem at the end.

But writing… especially in the second part was just bad. And basically only in one direction, which was sadly enough. Because let’s talk about villain and what we can do. Because apparently he can do everything without any consequences. He can lie himself away from every situation, he can kill anyone who tries to interfere with his plans and nobody would bat an eye. At one point I was sure he could just shoot the judge in the face and leave courtroom as a innocent man. No proof is enough to sentence him, no witness is enough and certainly not safe. When in doubt he can always use his trusty orange truck of death and problem is solved.
I’ve heard that chaebols can do a lot in Korea without consequences, but this guy just went too far. And obviously, when he couldn’t do something, be sure that his dad could.

This was so annoying that I was just praying for this series to end already, because his senseless impunity destroyed drama, that otherwise could be very good. And with it, it was average at the most.

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Where do I start with this drama... So many emotions I didn't expect to have when I first started watching this. Before I watched this drama I came in with low expectations, expecting it to be something that would be maybe a normal watch, something that I wouldn't care about watching. What I can say now is I was definitely wrong!

Story
So when it comes to the story I didn't expect so many plot twists and for the story to be what it was honestly. I was honestly surprised almost every episode with each new piece of information that would be revealed. Something that was starting to rub me the wrong way was that a lot of the time the villians were winning wayyy too much and that was pissing me off LOL. Besides that justice was definitely served in the end and oh I was so satisfied. Something to note was that there are some plot holes in the story, I sometimes was confused maybe subtitle mistranslations? But I was so sad when they killed off Sung Gyu that broke my heart in a million pieces I was so numb after that episode. I guess what annoyed me was that they never wrapped up that part of the story by telling Ha Yeon what happened to him. Besides that I thoroughly enjoyed this drama!

Acting
Acting is definitely a 10/10 for this drama. First off Jung Woo's character his emotions he portrayed were amazing, I cried so many times just watching what he was going through because I felt like I could feel what he was feeling. Cha Min Ho/ Cha Seon Ho's actor is another amazing actor. If I'm being honest I was confused the first episode because I thought he was being played by 2 different people but found out it was all one person lol. If that doesn't tell you how could he was at playing duality I don't know what will. The last person I'll talk about was Sung Gyu's actor, just amazing if you can't tell he was my favorite character in this drama. He made me hate him for a while not gonna lie but he won me over after some things were revealed. The acting from this guy was just superb and I really want to see more dramas from the whole cast especially these 3.

Music
So the OST, I thought a lot of the music was replayed a lot and at some point I thought was the budget tight that they use the same 4 tracks in each episode lol. It was nothing that I was impressed with that's for sure.

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O RÉU.. O RÉEEEU GENTE.. EU TO EM CHOQUE.. MEU DEUS DO CEU ... MEU DEEEUUUSSS. GENTE... O REU...
Se eu pudesse definir esse drama com apenas uma palavra essa palavra seria: SOFRÊNCIA
E ai a coisa toda começa a se enrolar e a vontade que dá é entrar dentro do Dorama e dar uma surra no Cha Min Ho, o gêmeo do mal, a usurpadora coreana 2
Um dia ele(o ator gato principal, a primicia da safra) acorda e percebe que todo seu castelo desabou. Sua família não está mais ao seu lado, seu nome carrega manchas de sangue e sua memória se perde no meio de um turbilhão de acontecimentos. A atuação do Ji Sung foi tão impecável, tão incrível! Ele merece um Oscar! Cada expressão, seus gestos, as lágrimas, o olhar que clamava por justiça. Parabéns Ji Sung, eu só me tornei ainda mais fã!
O bom sobre o vilao é que é daquele tipo de vilão que mesmo tendo um passado triste, você não consegue sentir um pingo de pena, porque ele é a verdadeira escória. É aquele vilão que você simplesmente vai lembrar e sentir desprezo pra sempre. O vilão mais desgraçado que eu já vi
AGORA VEM O REFRESCO DO DORAMA GENTE SAO OS AMIGOS DE CELA em que Jung Woo “morava”. Os companheiros dele são pessoas muito legais e leais. Com eles a gente consegue diminuir o peso da tensão. A relação deles é fantástica! ♥

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