The Judge from Hell - K-Drama

I saw the pilot for Judge from Hell two years ago, and thought ‘Ah, nice. A surreal twist to K-Drama’s two favorite topics: domestic abuse and violence against women.’ But with some laughs thrown in to balance it out.

And it’s dark. A judge gets sent to hell and turns out to be innocent, so the demon responsible has to be punished. Her punishment requires her to take on the dead judge’s appeareance, return to earth and collect ten souls. But not just any souls. Ten souls of murderers who feel no remorse about their actions.

So since she’s a judge, she’s in a unique position to release suspects back into the public. Suspects that will probably murder (again). This is both an indictment of Korea’s broken society as well as its broken justice system.

The first episode is about a stalker who can’t let go of his ex-girlfriend. Instead of sending him to prison, she gives him a slap on the wrist with a paltry fine. He goes back to violently abusing his ex, who hangs herself.

She ends up sending him to hell, arguing that he did not kill her physically, but emotionally. And that she was dead inside, so all the rules apply.

But in-between these depictions of horror, there’s a weird slapstick element. Like, she drinks Coke while presiding over a case, burping all the way while listening to witness testimonials about the stalker. Another time, she kicks a soccer ball back to some kids with demonic super power straight out of an Anime. And then it’s back to hardship.

Catch Judge from Hell on any streaming service near you. Check it out.