Summary: Park Jeong Woo is a Seoul prosecutor who is after one of the twin sons of the chairman of Chamyung group, Cha Min Ho. In order to avoid arrest, Cha Min Ho kills his brother Cha Seon Ho and disguises to live as the latter. With Cha Min Ho’s power and connection, he frames Park Jeong Woo and sends him to prison. While trying to recover his memory in prison, Park Jeong Woo meets inmates who help and join him eventually escape prison to prove his innocence.
Genre: Thriller, Legal, Revenge, Chaebol
Episodes: 18
Stars: Ji Sung as Park Jeong Woo
Uhm Ki Joon as Cha Sun Ho / Cha Min Ho
Kwon Yoo Ri as Seo Eun Hye
Oh Chang Suk as Kang Jun Hyuk
Likes: The best thriller drama this year, hands down! Great plot, character-riched story brought to life by awesome actors!
Plot
I love the way it started. Park Jeong Woo, already in prison accused of killing his wife and daughter. We don’t know what happened and we’re curious to find out! Villain was always one step ahead, our main guy keeps on forgetting his memory, it was frustrating but little by little we see some hope.
Characters
Though our top characters Park Jeong Woo and Cha Min Ho/ Cha Seon Ho are already awesome, I love the fact that the writers also put importance to minor ones. So it wasn’t just the 2 all the time, we get background stories about friend inmates, prison warden and guards, the prosecutors, people connected to Chamyung group, Park Jeong Woo’s in laws, Yeon Hee and her revenge, Seo Eun Hye and her lawyer dream, and how all these minor characters were intricately connected. It was never boring to watch!
Actors
Ji Sung is definitely the best choice for this drama. This is his genre. Brilliant already as he always was in his past roles, Ji Sung as Park Jeong Woo shows off his flexibility in acting, changing from a dignified, tough, brave prosecutor to a hopeless death-row prisoner, a determined escapee then at the end back to his confident prosecutor self.
Uhm Ki Joon is a big surprise. He was okay-ish in Dream High 1 but really impressed by him portraying 2 crucial roles in this drama. From Cha Seon Ho, the respectable Chamyung group heir to Cha Min Ho, the psychotic and merciless brother. He delivered really well and a real match to our Ji Sung!
I think the most thrilling part of this drama was the prison break! It was a breathtaking scene.
Funny moments when…
- Cha Min Ho got caught by the lie detector test which he initially suggested.
- Prison inmates dancing to a kpop girl group song.
- Optimus Shin Chul Shik helped Park Jeong Woo
One of the best thrilling instrumental music. Check out Defendant OST.
Character sacrifice to make the story more believable – death of Ji Soo (Park Seong Woo’s wife) and Lee Sung Kyu (inmate).
Male prosecutor, former bff of Park Jeong Woo, Kang Jun Hyuk is prettier than our lady lawyer Seo Eun Hye haha!
Shin Rin Ah portraying the role of Park Ha Yeon, Park Jeong Woo’s daughter is very promising. Watch out for her!
I love the ending! At first I expected to be disappointed that the drama got extended by 2 episodes. This normally doesn’t come out good but it was just enough time to have a proper closure for everyone. The inmates reunion at the end was awesome! Cha Min Ho finally paying for everything that he did. Our Park Jeong Woo, recovering well from his loss and back as a fierce prosecutor – only investigating those their seniors prohibit them to investage. Love the very last scene!
Dislikes: Some obvious ad placement like the car (was it Hyundai?). That was when they did the dumptruck-car chase. And yes Subway again! Lots of subway sandwiches in the drama ;).
There seems to be only one psychiatrist/psychogolist in Korea haha!
This drama made it to the Top 15 Kdrama in 2017. Watch video…