The More I Watch The Devil Judge, The More I Become Desperate About Yo-Han's Backstory And The More His

The more I watch The Devil Judge, the more I become desperate about Yo-Han's backstory and the more his backstory is revealed, the more confused I get in figuring out of he is evil or not.

OK, so I rewatched this scene in ep 1 in light of the scene in ep 6.

Compare:

And in episode 6:

This is so clever and so interesting and such good writing!

Because when you watch ep 1, without having seen any other episodes yet, Hyun Soo’s statement comes across as cold-blooded boasting of a manipulative psychopath. “Hahahaha my wife is so dumb, I show her whatever she wants to see and she swallows it; I can read her like a book. We are a match made in heaven because I control her.”

But!!! By the time we finish episode 6, the meaning of that speech is so starkly different. Not just because it has become clear that anything Hyun Soo tells the unparents there is to both protect himself and Ji Won and their relationship from them and because they view him as a cold-blooded psychopath so he plays that role in front of them to fit into their expectations (he tries really hard to keep them and anyone in his orbit satisfied enough not to wreck his life.)

But also because everything he says has such a different meaning - yes, they are a match made in heaven because she believes only what she sees. That means she did not judge him for his oddness or his inability to process things properly (he may be an ideal husband now but when she first met and fell for him, he was openly a maladjusted freak, to put it bluntly.) AND now, she is also not going to judge him based on hearsay or rumors or suppositions. She is going to judge him on the actual facts. In fact, from the start she judged him for what she saw and not what he said - he said “go away” and “I am insane and violent” but she judged on what she actually saw - someone who kept staring at her with longing and protected her from robbery without expecting her to ever know. She is literally unique in that from everyone else he has ever interacted with (other than their daughter and possibly his noona.)

Even his statement of “I only show her what she wants to see” is quite different in retrospect - first, he does do that but that is because he’s trying to be as ideal a husband as he can be so she will stick around because he needs her for his actual sanity but also, second, she is the first person since possibly his noona, who reacts nicely when he does nice things - when he treats her well, she treats him well back, as compared to for example his delivery roommate who tried to kill him in return for Hyun Soo trying to help him find his wallet.

Oh, and his “I can see through her” is both ironic now (he obviously has no idea why she is upset in ep 6 and it freaks him out so so badly and not because he’s losing control of her but because he NEEDS to know what she thinks so he can make sure she’s happy with him and not mad at him for his world to be OK because he’s frankly badly codependent on her. This is no suave manipulator winning over deluded victim; this is a horribly damaged man who needs his wife a lot more than she needs him) and true in a very different sense - one of the reasons he is comfortable with her is because she’s very straightforward and even blunt about her wants and needs which for someone like him, who is bad at nuances of emotions and reading cues like that, must be amazingly restful.

In conclusion - her belief in only judging what she sees is going to save him, if anything will. They really are a match made in heaven.

Jung Sun Ah got me saying "Yass girl, show him who's the boss!!!" and "What the f is wrong with you, you psycho bitch???" in a span of 5 minutes.

Thinking of watching Law School solely because of this headcanon ship

Sol A, sighs : No one really loves me.

Han Joon hwi : Are you sure?

Sol A : yeah

Han Joon hwi, aggressively pointing at himself : ARE YOU REALLY FUCKING SURE ABOUT THAT ?

*snickers increase* this was Jung-hu with the face of Bong-su and Jung-hu is petty and childish af…

A warning??? For me???? Biiiiiiiiitc-

Mmkay sure.

2 minutes later.

*maniacal internal laughter*

2020 Year in Review: My Korean drama recommendations

2020 is the year I discovered my love for Korean dramas. It wasn’t the first time I’d watched them; I’d seen “Strong Girl Do Bong Soon” and “Hymn of Tragedy” but none of those had me marathoning series after series after series – or creating social media accounts. No, my gateway drug, I mean K-drama, was “Crash Landing on You.” 

After I finished watching the romance between Yoon Se Ri and Capt. Ri Jeong Hyeok, I wanted more. I needed MORE. Fortunately, I have friends and family who know all the good stuff and quickly hooked me up with first-rate shows such as “Goblin” and “Healer.” I’ll do a list of my all-time K-drama faves some other time. Here are the ones that came out in 2020 that I truly enjoyed (all available on Netflix US):

CRASH LANDING ON YOU

The premise sounds ridiculous – South Korean heiress crash lands on the wrong side of the DMZ and hooks up with a dashing North Korean captain – but Son Ye Jin and Hyun Bin make it feel possible. Their chemistry anchors a fairly simple story of a woman who finds a home in the most unusual of places. Add a dash of humor, a heap of angst, the best squad ever (the soldier ducklings), the most entertaining group of ajummas and a stirring soundtrack and you’ve got an instant classic.

THE KING ETERNAL MONARCH 

Writer Kim Eun Sook swings for the fences with this ambitious series about a king looking for his destiny and the skeptical detective whose photo has kept him company for 25 years. I think she hit a home run. I’ll admit TKEM is not an easy watch. You’ve got a magical flute, parallel worlds, time travel, time loops and doppelgangers, so you actually have to pay close attention to the details and the dialogue. But it is worth it. Kim Go Eun and Lee Min Ho are absolutely fantastic together, easily switching from banter reminiscent of classic rom-coms to swoony angst and total badassery. And Woo Do Hwan is quite the scene stealer. Watch this show, then watch it again. The second time is even better.

MYSTIC POP UP BAR

This show snuck up on me. I didn’t expect to love it as much as I did, but I have a weakness for found families. The titular bar is run by a cynical shaman tasked with settling the grudges of 100,000 souls. She is aided in this mission by an afterlife detective and a young man who possesses the ability to make people tell the truth once he touches them. There are “cases” to solve almost every episode but there’s also an overarching mystery and it gets settled quite satisfactorily. It’s a quick watch, only 12 episodes.

IT’S OKAY TO NOT BE OKAY (PSYCHO BUT IT’S OKAY)

So much to love about this show. Ostensibly, it’s the story of the romance between an aide at a psychiatric ward and a successful children’s book author. But it’s more than that, it’s about family. Again, found family. I enjoyed the main romance between Moon Gang Tae (Kim Soo Hyun) and Ko Moon Young (Seo Yea Ji) but I found myself more invested in the relationship between Gang Tae and his brother, Sang Tae (Oh Jung Se). And the relationship between Sang Tae and Moon Young. There’s a scene between them much later in the series that had me crying buckets. The series also features some interesting animated sequences lifted from Moon Young’s books and some of the most creative transitions I’ve seen in awhile. Oh, and Seo Yea Ji’s outfits on this show? Fabulous, darling.

HOSPITAL PLAYLIST

This series focuses on five doctors – one girl, 4 dudes – who have been friends since they started medical school. Let me tell you, the actors absolutely sell the friendship and camaraderie. This is more of a slice-of-life show. There are season-long arcs but the focus really is on the doctors, their cases and their relationships with each other. Yes, there are romances but my God, talk about slow burn, LOL! There is a second season and I can’t wait to catch up with the Fab Five of Yulje Medical Center.