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@thequillandscreen
Some Jinyoung-Ji Sung love
Literally made my day this morning when Jinyoung posted the Adamas poster on his Insta story with the caption: “Chief is coming back”
He really seems to look up to Ji Sung. Honestly, I feel like Ji Sung is one of those people that you don’t forget easy...especially if you spend months of filming having him look at you like he wants to eat you alive lol
Anyways, Gaon and Yohan continue to reign supreme!!!!
Been lurking for months without posting after life got in the way but just wondering, has this scene been translated yet? Because I’m so ready to!
I just stalked Jinyoung’s instagram and found this pic from a bts of filming the TDJ teaser, and ISN’T THIS JI SUNG’S SIGNATURE FACE? Like not one drama goes by without him making this pout.
Mirroring the most sincere form of love, imho. So that had me wondering, what parts of Yohan do you think Gaon would unconsciously mirror, and vice versa?
Translation of part 2 of Jinyoung’s promotional message for TDJ!
Video
[Cut to numerous clips of Ji Sung and Jinyoung being besties]
Question onscreen: What was the atmosphere like on set?
Jinyoung: First of all, unlike the story, the filming site was always bright. Ji Sung-sunbaenim’s personality is...he treated me like a friend. Rather than a sunbae-nim, he treated me like a hyung. He’s much older than me (why am I thinking of Gaon calling Yohan old?) but he treated me a friend, so I felt like he was really my older brother. And I learned a lot from him, so he’s a teacher (seonsaeng-nim) to me.
He made me think more about the character. He taught me a lot so I could focus more on the details. [In Japanese] He’s my sensei.
[Cut to TDJ bts scenes]
Question onscreen: How do you spend your time at home?
Jinyoung: First of all, I sleep a lot. And I clean a lot. I don’t have a very neat personality, so the laundry piles up like this (gestures) and the dishes like (this) and so I go (facepalms) “Ah! this is bad. I’ve to quickly (deal with this)”
[Cut to scenes from TDJ]
Question onscreen: Tell some highlights of the drama and please leave a final message to the viewers
Jinyoung: The Devil Judge is a dystopia that takes up events happening in Korea in the future. It’s a story of Associate Judge Kim Gaon who chases after Chief Judge Kang Yohan. It’s a drama about criminals being punished through a live court show.
I think it’s a show you’ll watch and feel a lot from. Please give it a lot of love and attention. And thank you so much to my Japanese fans who waited for this drama and waited for me. I hope there will be another chance for me to greet you through dramas and music. Please enjoy The Devil Judge, and I’ll see you again. [in Japanese] Thank you
Okay Jinyoung but in what context did you mean “chase after”? I’m think of ep 16′s eye sex now 😏😏
Translation of part 1 of Jinyoung’s promotional message for TDJ! @xxcaribbean Thank you so much for sending this!
Video
Jinyoung: To everyone watching this broadcast and to [couldn’t catch the Japanese surname], Fujiwara-shi and Miyazaki-shi, hello, it’s Jinyoung.
[Cuts to clips from TDJ]
Question onscreen: Why did you decide to appear in this work?
Jinyoung: I thought the script was really good and [switches to Japanese] Hallyu senpai-san Ji Sung-senpai was in it. That was the reason. (It’s so cute how much he looks up to Ji Sung!)
[Cuts to clips from TDJ]
Question onscreen: What did you pay attention to (take care with) when palying Gaon?
Jinyoung: All the roles I’ve done thus far have been of characters in their 20s, whereas the character’s age in this role was close to 30. So I thought I should act in a more mature way. Because this character’s quite sensitive, even a little grumpy, and is quite forthright with his words, I was careful with how I portrayed those scenes.
[Cuts to clips from TDJ]
Question onscreen: What kind of character is Gaon?
Jinyoung: He’s a very righteous person. Though there always a lot asked of him, he pushes forward boldly. I don’t think it’s easy to keep going the way he does. I think he’s a realistic and righteous person. His thoughts and feeling change depending on the situation, and when what he believes in is shattered, his reaction (response) is also very realistic. If being righteous was all there was to him, then he wouldn’t have been very charming, but that realism to his character was why I thought I had to take on this role.
Wonderful people! Does anyone know where I can get my hands on the TDJ scriptbook and B cut? I left it too long in the hopes of a DVD set and I’m sobbing internally bc I have no idea how on to purchase it without giving interpark a scan of my passport (which idk feels a little dangerous)
Can you please explain the part whereby Gaon said soohyun was his world, and how that doesn't mean he loves her despite the confession.?
Hey Anon!!
I poured out the bulk of my thoughts in this post here! But in essence, Soohyun to Gaon is as Isaac to Yohan (which Writer Moon Yoo Seok confirmed in this post). He definitely loved her; there's no denying that, but that love was very different from what he feels for Yohan. The latter was so all-encompassing and wild, and painful that after Cha Kyunghee's death, which itself harkens back to Gaon's parents' death, our man ran to what was familiar and soft and comfortable, all of which Soohyun represented to him.
He was swept up in a maelstrom of emotion: all the death, the Foundation nabbing people, Soohyun not wanting to talk to him. He was essentially adrift and he can't be faulted for latching onto the only anchor he's had since childhood. But even with those flashback scenes of them as children, what we see is Soohyun playing more of a caregiver role than anything else. She blows on his scrapes, he comforts him when he's sad. She might as well be his sister or his mother, because she truly is his Isaac.
On top of everything, Gaon was under the false belief that Soohyun rescued him from the thugs when it was really Yohan, all that gratitude, and his need for comfort, and the fact that she came back for him despite being angry with him, manifested in him confessing emotions that were long dead if he was being honest with himself.
But Gaon was too confused to be honest with himself and he just didn't want to think at that point. So he didn't.
But at the end of the day. Gaon brought a knife to avenge Soohyun and a bomb to avenge Yohan. Gaon tried to die for Yohan twice.
Gaon's reaction when Yohan was announced as dead is so so telling. While Sunah collapses, he's silent, frozen, then he leaves, because he knows he'll be joining Yohan in death.
And even when Yohan's alive, when Gaon no longer has reason to be guilty anymore, he still wants to die with Yohan because it's better than living without him. Soohyun might have had a pretty confession, and a wooden kiss (really wooden) but Yohan won in the end, because by word and deed, Kim Gaon vowed before all of Korea that he would die with his Chief.
Plus when he thought Yohan was gone for the second time, he went through Yohan's bedroom and reminisced about them ogling each other. That's gay. We love to see it!!
In what’s perhaps the most random moment of the year, Tale of the Nine-Tailed was just confirmed for a second and third (???) season with a different female lead bc the original female lead doesn’t wish to return. As someone who watched (and initially even enjoyed) the first few episodes, which devolved into a Big Fat Mess™ where there were too many episodes and not enough plot, I’m just thinking TDJ season 2 where????
Because this is also a tvN drama and I never removed my clown make-up, I can’t help but hope and wonder if we’ll get more. But I’m also so afraid that one/all of the lead actors might decline to reappear.
TLDR: tvN pls give us Lawful Family 🥺🥺🥺🥺
I’ll be subbing the entire TDJ press-con bc we are so deprived of content outside the BTS videos!
The bulk of the questions went to Ji Sung and Kim Min Jung but among the few posed to Jinyoung and Park Gyuyoung, was one where the MC Park Seul Gi excitedly said that fans have even come up with a name for their couple: OnSoo
What really got me was their reactions, poor Gyuyoung laughed awkwardly and Jinyoung cracked up. At this time filming was already over, so they knew alright. They knew.
And the next question was a Ji Sung-Jinyoung bromance question and the focus shifted to them for a while. It’s sad how all the presscons for every work in The Merciless Evil Devil from Hell quad avoid anything questions or answers that could be termed queer. It makes sense, but is pretty sad. Ji Sung did leave us some hints though 👀 👀
Props to queen Kim Min Jung for saying that she was sad she didn’t have a womance with Soohyun though.
Can’t wait to have this subbed up for us!
Thinking of Sun Ah and Jinjoo
Source: "Peter Darling" by Austin Chant.
I had to make this post after seeing this amazing post because this needs to be said for all new viewers of TDJ.
I can actually confirm that the writer did intend for Yohan and Gaon’s relationship to be gay.
Ji Sung said their relationship was one of “seduction”. At the Devil Judge press-con, he confirmed that his role was that of Mephistopheles (around the 23 min mark but I’m at work and can’t pinpoint rn loL) who “seduces” Gaon who is Faust. I’ve analyzed this in more detail in this post.
Writer Moon Yoo Seok has been very open about his influences in crafting Yohan and Gaon’s relationship being: Beauty and the Beast, Goethe’s Faust, and the movie Let The Right One In .
All these influences are either romantic or homoerotic. All of them.
The writer has also confirmed that Gaon occupies a traditionally female character and feminine gender role. He’s used tropes that we normally only see in heterosexual romances for Yohan and Gaon’s romance. A non-exhaustive list:
living together
snooping through the mysterious house of the man who’s whisked you away
undressing your partner and wound-tending
making him food, refusing let anyone eat unless said man returns
understanding him like no other, being the only one who sees through his facade to the loneliness within
choosing him over everyone else (ep 8 and then end of 15)
trying to die for him (twice)
defending him to the het love/past love, everyone around really
PINING, yearning (Gaon literally looked at the bed in ep 16 and thought back to shirtless Yohan okay)
taking care of each other
being vulnerable before and for each other
oogling him shirtless (both of them did this)
hand holding
DEEP. STARES.
sexy bomb defusal
love triangles (K and Soohyun)
Homosexuality is so taboo in Korea that the closest we’ve gotten to proper rep is the wlw couple from Nevertheless and Kim Seo Hyung’s character from Mine, and even then that’s because men find it easier to see women in love with each other than men being in love. And men finance drama production.
Writer Moon Yooseok (who has 25 years of writing experience) has literally done everything he can to get a queer story out there. Heck he’s even including stuff in the TDJ comic (spanking, anyone?) that wouldn’t fly on TV because he has more freedom there.
Ji Sung and Jinyoung have known this from the start as well (that poster photoshoot), and it’s hard not to know that your character is gay when they’re staring at another for 95% of the show and undressing and oogling each other, or when the ending is 2 minutes of sappy staring. They knew.
The director in episode 8′s bts at 6:04 as Jinyoung and Jisung rehearse Gaon ditching Min Jung Ho: “Gaon’s become cute now that Yohan’s here”.
Jinyoung: nods.
Me: Okay we’re all in agreement clearly.
Rather than new fans being disappointed for it not being gay enough, I hope they can uplift this for what it is: a serious attempt to bring a gorgeous romance onscreen. Writer Moon Yoo Seok really said lawful husbands. He’s been saying it from the beginning.
I'm not sure if this has been clarified already, but do you know what Gaon yells at Yohan just before he lunges with the knife in ep 15? We see an obvious 'Kang Yo Han!', but then he says something else as well. Unfortunately I can neither understand Korean nor read lips, so I was hoping someone else out there could shed some light! Thank you.
Hey anon!
Gaon mouths "Why did you kill Soohyun?" right after he says Yohan's name!
TDJ really makes judicious use of muting dialogue at times. It actually works so much better, but definitely is a pain in the neck if it isn't subbed in for international viewers.
Here’s some fluff for us inspired by this post.
Lawyer Go's inner ramblings:
Episode 1:
Kim-pansa sure is staring at Yohan a whole lot. I’m sure it’s nothing.
Episode 3:
Why are they living together?
Episode 5:
I guess they’re still living together
Episode 8:
Wonder what Yohan called this super important gathering of his whole team? Another criminal to hunt? We just finished with the last one.
Oh, he’s introducing Gaon. New member, I guess. Yohan doesn’t really trust people so Gaon must have really made an impression- wait he’s not even on our side??? He doesn’t know if he’s joining us?? Yohan, wtf are you-oh
Oh. Okay, they’re really eye-fucking, huh.
Episode 10:
K and I are right here and these mthfuckers really be having eye-sex over Gaon wanting to sped Yohan’s money.
Didn’t know Yohan could smile like that.
God, I’m so lonely.
(Jukchang’s Trial)
Got to say Gaon’s got an eye for strategy, we’ve really turned Jukchang into a loser- Are they flirting? In the middle of a trial? What is that smile, Kang Yohan? Oh God, now Gaon’s smiling too. That’s it, I’m downloading Tinder.
Episode 13
And he’s gone. Well that was a short relationship. Yohan’s not in a good way. I don’t blame him, poor guy just lost his righthand and has a massive hold in his abdomen.
Are you serious rn? Is he actually asking if that fucker is safe? He’s so safe he’s kissing another woman!
Episode 15
So how many times does Gaon have to betray Yohan before Yohan ends him? I can’t believe he’s this whipped.
Episode 16
Never forgiving Gaon for this. I can’t believe he put Yohan IN JAIL. Oh, he’s calling me now? They’re both calling me??
*hangs up the phone* First Yohan wants a bomb, then Gaon wants a bomb, they both run to save each other from the bombs they're setting off for each other. Why did I even go to law school?
*holds on for dear life as Yohan busts out of jail and drives to where Gaon and Min Jung Ho are*
*watches as they hug* I want to retire.
30 mins after the canon ending:
*picks up the phone* Oh hey, Yohan, how’s it going? Passports? What’s wrong with the ones I gave you? oh FOR GAON?
Damn it, I’m charging DOUBLE!
*hangs up* I want a vacation
Not sure if this question has been answered earlier but when does everyone think that Gaon realized he was in love with Yohan? Like truly in love
I want to say he realized it at the end of ep 15 and confirmed it again during those two death attempts in ep 16, because that “I’ll go with you” is such a gloriously selfish line. It’s him ignoring Elijah and everything else and just wanting to die with this man, because he doesn’t want to live without him.
I just found it a little surprising that Yohan, the poster boy for emotional constipation realized he was in love first after Gaon left. But then again, Gaon was a mental wreck with Soohyun’s death and Min Jungho’s manipulations to think further than pulling out knives. Would love to hear your thoughts!
Translation of relevant portions of Writer Moon Yooseok’s interview because we get more confirmation of lawful husbands!!!! Source
▲ How do you feel now that “The Devil Judge” has wrapped up? Please say something to the viewers who’ve given the show a lot of love.
I’m sad that I can no longer see the performances of these great actors every weekend. I was watching it in viewer mode. The show as first conceived as a 20-episode series, so I’m a bit regretful that I couldn’t discuss the story more carefully and see the actors' performances some more. Thank you very much to the viewers who supported and joined us.
▲ There were many characters who seemed to occupy reversed gender roles. Was there any special reason for that? When creating characters, I completely ignored gender. I don't know if gender has a big meaning except in certain contexts, such as the sexual violence that Jeong Sunah suffered from Seo Jeonghak. Cha Kyunghee was just an powerful person with a lot of ambition, and Yoon Soohyun was just a detective who wanted to protect her first love. Both are familiar characters that are often played by men in Korean dramas. Conversely, the role of Kim Gaon is often given to female characters. Characters locked in conventional gender roles are obvious and uninteresting, but I think the bias that all women should be subjective and men can be flat is also contrived. All humans are individual.
▲ While writing 'Devil Judge', was there a scene that you put a lot of effort or worried over? This was Soohyun’s death scene at the end of episode 13. Yohan has Isaac, and Gaon has Soohyun. They are the only people who gave them unconditional love and helped them hold onto their lives. The script initally had a scene where Isaac tried to take his own life, in the belief that his father wouldn’t abuse Yohan if he was gone. While thinking about how to express such unconditional almost religious (divine) love, I wrote a scene where a dying Soohyun, looked at Gaon's forehead wound and, "Are you okay? You’re bleeding." From this tragic death toward to the end of episode 15, when it is revealed that everything was Sunah’s cruel plan, the play runs towards catastrophe. Like a Greek tragedy, where the incomprehensible gods dictate a cruel fate.
It's not a very prominent scene, but I also remember the scene at the start of episode 12 where K, who follows Yohan like a shadow, tells Gaon his innermost thoughts for the first time, saying that if Gaon stays with Yohan, he will eventually lose everything. Actually, I wrote this scene while thinking about the movie 'Let Me In'. When writing that scene, the image of Hakan, the middle-aged man who lives with Eli, a lonely vampire, and meets a tragic end, and Oskar, a boy who bears the same fate, comes to mind.
[This is the summary of the movie and oh wow, it seriously confirms that Gaon, K and Yohan were in a love triangle]
▲ I am curious about how to interpret the ending of 'Devil Judge'. Kang Yohan escaped from the Supreme Court through the escape route he prepared in advance and went to Switzerland with Elijah, and he boldly appeared at the Judicial Reform Hearing to see if Gaon was doing well. This wasn’t in Gaon’s imagination, but there are viewers who misunderstand that. I would like to take this opportunity to tell you that Yohan is doing well with Elijah, and we will see him again soon with Gaon. The world doesn't change that easily
[YOU GUYS LAWFUL FAMILY CONFIRMED. AND HE REALLY DID SAY “SOON”]
▲ Did you monitor audience reactions? If so, please tell us a comment that stuck with you
I mainly monitored overseas reactions, and it was interesting because there were a lot of reactions from people from different countries claiming that the show was talking about their own country, and I was once again afraid of what direction the world is going in now.
[Friends, I wonder if he saw all our lawful husbands tag 😂😂]
examining the phrase “i didn’t want to see you go to a place you can’t turn back from” from ep 15 (and when gaon said it previously), really hits heavy when you realize that gaon actually cares for yohan but yohan does not care for himself. yohan had a plan all along, knowing he’d either have to flee, be tried and put in jail or he’d die. and not for one second did he care about what happened to him, as long as he got justice—and it’s not even justice for himself, truthfully. it’s justice for eljiah who has to live without her parents, who cannot walk because minister cha hurt her so badly.
it’s actually kind of painful to hear, maybe even for yohan, because at that point, he has someone who cares about him so deeply enough to not want yohan to go down the wrong path, but it’s too late. it was already too late even before gaon was put into yohan’s life because nothing would’ve been able to stop yohan no matter what. there was no other way because yohan had made up his mind to see it through regardless, but he hadn’t expected to have conflicted feelings because gaon actually made him care.
which made it all that much harder when yohan pushes gaon out of the courtroom, and he’s upset knowing he might not make it out alive, and gaon is behind those doors screaming his name. in the end, yohan’s revenge and his sense of justice came before all because at that point, it needed to be done, and it needed to be completed, which goes back to his jesus-like characterization. every plan was set in stone—albeit changes depending on context and circumstance, but the inevitable end was never not going to happen.
and that’s what makes gaon’s words so heartbreaking because if yohan had that to begin with, it could’ve turned out differently. but there gaon is in yohan’s office telling yohan he’s sorry he did what he did because he didn’t want the man to go to a place he can’t come back from, but at that point, what gaon failed to realize is that yohan was already lost to his plans long before he ever showed up. that was set in stone the minute yohan left the church with elijah in his arms.
and while i’m at it, i refuse to believe that yohan was ever meant to be the devil judge because in that same scene in ep 15 when gaon tells yohan that “using the vulnerability of human beings is what the devil does” couldn’t actually be further from the truth because again, if we go back to him being a jesus figure, the devil is never truly involved with blood and sacrifice. he causes chaos, yes, but jesus is the one that knows humanity has blood on their hands (re: their sins) and chooses to forgive them for “they know not what they do” because that is the entirety of the narrative—to give everyone a clean slate, to start over with a new covenant and new rules different from the old testament.
the clean slate in the show is a new judicial system, sure, but it also gives people the power back to make choices, to pay attention and live by new rules. their sins are wiped clean to start anew. gaon is still stuck in a mindset where the devil is compared to human iterations of what evil is, but the reasons they call yohan the devil are not actual reasons he’d ever be considered the devil, technically. humans live by good and bad deeds, and when you do something horrific, you’re considered a devil, but it’s slightly different in the context of the bible. jesus knew humanity would be stained with blood but it would be forgiven and it would be different after his crucifiction and resurrection, which goes to show that our concepts of good and evil are not always practical.
this is also not me saying that all of yohan’s actions were right, but gaon kept on about how yohan is trying to make humanity complicit in yohan’s revenge plot, and to an extent yes, but it also begs the question of whether they were already complicit in the system that was established before, and the answer to that would be yes. yohan was right to say that there are no innocent people in the world (and gaon’s right too that a lot of people try to be good people), and the actions they took via the app during the trials were just more obvious ways of their nature.
i said it before quite a bit, but yohan had to show the world the level of which things could get; he had to hold a mirror up to the entire country so they could look at themselves for who they were and what they were doing, so that when he got rid of the elite, they could do better. and now i’m talking in circles, but that is the exact story of jesus dying on the cross. the blood on their hands gaon was referring too, his fight to say that humanity is good wasn’t a lie either—he just failed to acknowledge that doing good isn’t always the base component of human nature, and that it takes practice and effort to actively work on. he can believe that for what it is, but you cannot remove the sinister component of greed and all the other seven sins that go hand in hand with humans. gaon was on the right track, but not quite right thinking that. yohan was also on the right track with the no innocent people comment, but also not quite right.
Holy shit this analysis is beautiful and spot on. Thank you for this!
I might be a clown for saying this. I am definitely a clown for saying this, but stranger things have happened and I just want to put this out into the ether because idk I’m a clown.
But as @b612sunsets noted, Ji Sung and Jinyoung haven’t posted a farewell to TDJ on their instagram accs. Now, idk about Jinyoung’s normal way of bidding farewell to a job, but Ji Sung usually goes ham with farewell posts (see his many, many Doctor John posts) so idk I’m a little confused by the lack of goodbyes?
But there’s also this. I’ve been wild about this talented man for a while and I squeed when he was attached to TDJ in June 2020. JUNE 2020. A full 13 months early. For ex, when he was in talks to star in “Doctor John”, the news came out Mar 11, and the drama started airing July 19. So what’s with the huge gap? COVID?
In the drama presscon, Ji Sung discussed how he knew the writer and was the first name attached to the drama because they brainstormed the character together in a way. The reporter (the awesome Park Seul Gi who has interviewed Ji Sung many times) said “then this is basically a drama you two wrote!” and Ji Sung laughed it off. But clearly he was invested enough and wanted to be in this drama so bad he wated a full year when he normally does 1 drama a year.
Ji Sung’s also in the middle of switching agencies, so promos post-drama haven’t been handled well. But Ji Sung ranked #1 on Gooddata’s search ranking for the buzziest actors and dramas for five weeks during TDJ’s airing, and he was on the list in general throughout the airing as was TDJ. And the writer specifically mentioned a second season when I haven’t heard a peep from other dramas (Mine, Vincenzo) So could it be that there’s more?
Who knows, I’m probably just a clown. But apparently Romantic Doctor Kim Sabu is getting a third season, so perhaps someday we’ll all reunite in this thread and cry and scream.
