Title: 피고인 | Pigoin | Defendant | Innocent Defendant
Genre:
Episodes: 18
Broadcast Network: SBS
Broadcast Period: January 23 – March 21, 2017
Synopsis:
Park Jung-Woo is a happily married man and a well-respected prosecutor of the special division in the prosecutor’s office for violent crimes. He has put a lot of criminals in jail and relentless in finding the truth and justice until he ended up being in jail himself. He was accused of killing his wife and child. Unfortunately, he lost his memory for the last past 4 months and he’s not even sure himself if he is guilty or not. All he knows is that he can’t do that to his child. To find the truth he needs help and he found it through Seo Eun-Hye, a public defender who is similar to Park Jung-Woo in being passionate in proving innocence for her clients. Though on different spectrum of law, they worked together to reveal the real story of what indeed happened in the lost memory of Park Jung-Woo and find justice to what had happened to him.
Characters:
- Ji Sung as Park Jung-Woo
- Um Ki-Joon as Cha Sun-Ho | Cha Min-Ho
- Han Ki-Won as Young Cha Sun-Ho
- Han Ki-Woong as young Cha Min-Ho
- Kwon Yu-Ri as Seo Eun-Hye
- Oh Chang-Seok as Kang Jun-Hyuk
- Uhm Hyun-Kyung as Na Yeon-Hee
- Son Yeo-Eun as Yoon Ji-Soo on Episode 1
- Shin Rin-Ah as Park Ha-Yeon
- Kang Sung-Min as Yoon Tae-Soo
- Sung Byung-Suk as Oh Jung-Hee
- Park Ho-San as Choi Dae-Hong
- Lee Shin-Sung as Ko Dong-Yoon
- Han Ji-Woo as Yeo Min-Kyung
- Jung Dong-Gyu as Deputy Prosecutor General
Wol-jeong Prison - Kim Min-Seok as Lee Sung-Syu
- Jo Jae-Yoon as Shin Cheol-Sik
- Yoon Yong-Hyun as Bangjang
- Woo Hyun as Han Sang-Wook aka Milyang
- Oh Dae-Hwan as Cheon Pil-Jae aka Moongchi
- Jo Jae-Ryong as Oh Hyuk-Joo aka Rockfish
- Jang Gwang as Cha Young-Woon
- Ye Soo-Jung as Myung Keum-Ja
- Kim Kyung-Nam as Executive Secretary
- Kim Seung-Hoon as Prison Security Chief
- Baek Ji-Won as Eun-Hye’s Aunt
- Seo In-Sung as Cha Eun-Soo
- Lee Jung-Hun as Yeo Sung-Soo
- Oh Seung-hoon as Kim Seok
- Seo Jung-Yeon as Kim Sun-Hwa
- Hwang Young-Hee as Cheon Pil-Jae’s Older Sister
- Kim Hwan as News Anchor on Episode 1
- Seo Dong-won as Detective Oh Jong-min on Episode 3, 7-8
- Han Kyu-won as Lee Chan-Young on Episode 6
- Oh Yeon-ah as Jennifer Lee on Episode 7 & 8
- Lee Deok-hwa as Prisoner #2460 on Episode 8
- Lee Si-eon on Episode 18
My Review:
Ji Sung is not my normal Korean actor I like to watch because of good looks but he is such a great actor and did some projects that I really like, so, when this came out, I wanted to check it out. However, after reading the synopsis of what it was about and wasn’t in the mood for melodrama, I relegated it in the back burner. Until my housekeeper was watching it on TV in one of our local channels and keeps on insisting it was good. So, I gave in and tried. I was actually glad I did, although, after 5 episodes it was getting a bit heavy for me and decided to watch the ending instead. Yes, yes, yes, I cheated because I wanted to watch something lighter than the first 5. In watching the ending, it encouraged me to watch it backwards to know what happened, which made it better and more fun to watch and got my entertainment dose I’m looking for and not the feeling of heaviness that I normally get from melodramas.
So, What do I Like About this K-Drama?
(1) Ji Sung as Park Jung-Woo is spectacular on this K-Drama. His acting talent shine here and can feel his raw emotions. I just don’t understand the shouting to make emphasis, other than that, he is the reason why this K-Drama worked and became high rating.
(2) All of the actors did their share in making this K-Drama compelling.
(3) The entire K-Drama in its story is quite heavy and serious in tone but mood was lighten a bit by the presence of Park Jung-Woo’s cellmates,Jo Jae-Yoon as Shin Cheol-Sik, Woo Hyun as Han Sang-Wook aka Milyang, Jo Jae-Ryong as Oh Hyuk-Joo aka Rockfish, Kim Min-Seok as Lee Sung-Syu, Oh Dae-Hwan as Cheon Pil-Jae aka Moongchi, Yoon Yong-Hyun as Bangjang. They made the K-Drama a little bit bearable and not make it such a heavy drama to watch.
(4) I like the fact that even after watching the ending, I still wanted to watch the rest. This means the turn of events is not as predictable like other k-dramas that I cheated on by watching the ending and totally lost all interest to watch the rest because I already can guess what happened in between. This one is different in a good way.
What I do Not Like About this K-Drama?
(1) Every single time I watch a legal and crime K-Dramas except for a very few selected ones, the manner by which forensics and evidence are handled makes me wonder if there are a lot of innocent people imprisoned in South Korea. Such as this case where a lot of assumptions are done instead of facts became the basis of guilt. For example, what might have been suicide should always be proven as such. I can understand 3rd world countries to act as incompetent as this one but not in South Korea and not involving a supposed prominent people as the story goes.
(2) Can a prosecutor try a case involving his own personal cause against an accused? Will not this create conflict of interest and even bias during sentencing?
(3) It fails to deliver accuracy on certain details. K-Dramas seem to always fail on this area more often than not. Small things that could have been made watching it more realistic. Like the state of their clothes after running or being in a dirt hole for quite some time. Things like that which are actually simple to do if the director thinks logically and not ignore minute details that smart audience will notice even if they are there to watch for the sole purpose of entertainment.
Would I recommend this K-Drama? Yes.
My Rating to this Drama
( See My Rating System: ) 4/5 Stars
OST:
01. Dreaming Now – Son Dong-Woon
02. Until the End – San E
03. Trauma – Raun
04. Winter Tree – Suran