The villain who worked hard
Miss Hammurabi (episode 16 - finale)
All the inspiring quotes tell us that success is only achieved by working hard. Or that opportunities are hard work in disguise. Or that nothing worth having is achieved by luck. All the inspiring quotes tell us to work hard, but when is hard work too hard?
Miss Hammurabi tackled a different obstacle or issue almost every episode. But one of the starting plot points was when Judge Park (Go Ara) showed her strong, fighter image to protect her fellow associate judge against the bullying and abuse of Presiding Judge Sung (Cha Soon-bae). We thought this storyline ended in the general meeting where even though they didn’t have enough people to meet the quorum, there was still a visible change in the atmosphere. But Miss Hammurabi didn’t sideline the topic and instead, complemented it well with the other social issues looked at in the trials. Which brings me back to the question, is being a hard-worker always a good thing?
Unlike other presiding judges, Judge Sung didn’t graduate from an elite university and didn’t have the right connections. He worked hard to get good grades and worked even harder to get into his position. He is the classic example of the ‘powerless’ that Miss Hammurabi intended to protect - so why, are we presented with a ‘powerless’ man who worked hard as a villain and why did we rejoice when he was punished?
We know that Miss Hammurabi has taught us not to listen to just one side of the story. But underlying the express message is the fact that no character only has one side to their story. Righteous and brave Judge Park challenges authority and disrespects the rules. Intelligent and rational Judge Im (Kim Myung-soo) is indifferent and selfish. Wise and fair Judge Han (Sung Dong-il) is impatient and angry. Loyal Judge Jung (Ryu Deok-hwan) curry favours from those in higher positions. There are many more but another that deserves a call-out is Mr Min Yong-joon (Lee Tae-sung) who intended to protect his family by becoming another villain.
And this is seen once again when Judge Sung, characterised as hard-working, is presented to us as someone who used their associate judges as stepping stones to achieve their goal. But unlike the other dimensional characters we’ve seen (with the exception of Min Yong-joon), Judge Sung didn’t show growth. Instead, he gained more power and the higher he got in ranks, the more he forgot about those below him.
Inspiring quotes shouldn’t stop telling us to work hard, but they should also include an additional disclaimer that working hard for your dreams should not be without kindness. The person who worked hard for their dreams became the villain who forgot that other people have dreams too.
There are no heroes and villains in real life - everyone has different sides to their story.
