{"id":222989,"date":"2026-01-06T06:32:06","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T06:32:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/222989\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T06:32:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T06:32:06","slug":"hbo-max-k-drama-the-judge-returns-ji-sung-in-fantastical-and-melodramatic-morality-play","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/222989\/","title":{"rendered":"HBO Max K-drama The Judge Returns: Ji Sung in fantastical and melodramatic morality play"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Lead cast: Ji Sung, Won Jin-ah, Park Hee-soon<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Latest Nielsen rating: 4.4 per cent<\/p>\n<p>Five years after <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/lifestyle\/k-pop\/k-drama\/article\/3146455\/k-drama-review-devil-judge-dystopian-court-drama-goes-all?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">The Devil Judge<\/a>, Ji Sung once again dons judicial robes for The Judge Returns, another legal thriller with a fantastical premise ripe for social commentary.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">This time he plays Lee Han-young, a corrupt judge living in a dystopian near future who learns the error of his ways only when he meets his demise in a dark alley. However, he wakes up 10 years earlier, granted a second chance to right his wrongs.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The series opens in 2035, which is much like the present day, save for the slightly updated smartphones and far more poverty and homelessness, as wealth inequality has expanded into a vast chasm, torn open by rampant corruption.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lead cast: Ji Sung, Won Jin-ah, Park Hee-soon Latest Nielsen rating: 4.4 per cent Five years after The&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":222990,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[122460,16731,742,146,122464,6729,27570,85,71435,46,122457,113695,122463,122461,1855,3716,122459,1529,7801,122462,122456,59659,122458],"class_list":["post-222989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-ahn-nae-sang","tag-corruption","tag-drama","tag-entertainment","tag-haenal-law-firm","tag-hbo-max","tag-homelessness","tag-il","tag-inhaler","tag-israel","tag-ji-sung","tag-k-drama","tag-kang-shin-jin","tag-kim-jin-a","tag-korean","tag-new","tag-park-hee-soon","tag-review","tag-seoul","tag-the-devil-judge","tag-the-judge-returns","tag-wealth-inequality","tag-won-jin-ah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}