Some 36 years ago actor Kim Hye-soo, aged 16, portrayed a runaway teenager in the film “My Daughter Rescued from the Swamp 2” (1986). In her first Netflix series “Juvenile Justice,” the actor takes on a parallel role — a judge who despises juvenile offenders due to her traumatic past.

“Juvenile Justice,” released on the streaming service on Feb. 25, did not have the same impact on global audiences as its predecessors like “Squid Game” (2020), “Hellbound” (2020) and “All of Us Are Dead” (2021).

On the global chart of Top TV Shows on Netflix for March 7, “All of Us Are Dead” ranked No. 9 while “Juvenile Justice” fell out of the top 10 ranks. However, overall the series has generated positive reviews for highlighting crimes such as murder, rape, school violence, bullying, molka (illegal filming) and sex trafficking and the current legislature underage offenders are subject to.

During an online press interview Friday, Kim said that she was attracted to the series because of the narratives surrounding the minors.

“The series did not use juvenile crime merely as a form of entertainment,” she said. “I sincerely felt the writer’s intention to provide the audience with something to think about — our current understanding and perception of juvenile crimes and minor offenders. I also felt his [writer Kim Min-suk] efforts to not to veer toward any sides — his focus only lies on the message he wanted to convey through the story, and that lies in the complexity of the juvenile crimes and tracing their roots which basically stem from the social problems prevalent in contemporary society. Although it’s based on our [Korean] society, I think the issues are universally ubiquitous and it’s something that we can all think about.”

Kim said her previous role as a teenager didn't have any impact on how she portrayed judge Sim Eun-seok.

“I’m not the type to mull about the past — I just focus on the things that are right in front of me and what I need to get it done," Kim said.

"What I realized through this series about teenagers, in this period of variability, is the closer they get to their parents, the more they crave freedom, and the more they are exposed to their parents’ indifference, the more they crave affection. I think that my character of Yu-ri [in the 1986 film] was like that too.”

Kim also responded to some of the global media's criticism that it was difficult to sympathize with her character’s cold attitude toward young criminals as the full story of her past isn’t revealed until the last two episodes.

“I start with this [strong] dialogue that ‘I have nothing but hatred for young offenders,’” she said. “It’s very out of place for a judge to say that, but the line also reminded me of my past attitude toward these youths. As an outsider, I think I was also in shock and felt anger when I came across such news — the atrocity of the crimes that such minors committed, or I was in tears over the students who were victims. I detested young criminals and their crimes and I also criticized the verdicts the judges handed them. Sim is a judge and a family member of a victim [of juvenile crime]. She abhors young offenders and their crimes. However, it is shown at the end that she, as a judge, as an adult, tries to follow a path to her convictions, which is responsibility. Regardless of her personal wounds, her own thoughts and social prejudice toward the offenders, she sticks to her belief. I think [her attitude] very much overlaps with what this series is trying to say, and that’s how I approached this character.”

Nevertheless, Kim admitted that it was difficult to remain composed and indifferent for some of the scenes.

“From the moment I started preparing for the series, in the car as I went to the set and until the moment I fell asleep, I did not want to lose the thread of the emotions that Sim felt,” she said. “However, there were times when it was difficult to remain in character. For instance, there is a scene where I clash with [my moral opposite], judge Cha Tae-seok [portrayed by Kim Moo-yeol] over the case of a juvenile delinquent named Seo Yu-ri, who is also the victim of domestic violence. Cha asks Sim how could a judge who handles juvenile cases treat them with hatred and anger. As we were rehearsing that scene, I could feel that I was siding with Kim Moo-yeol’s character. But Sim isn’t the kind to show her feelings. So I specifically requested, with permission from the director and Kim Moo-yeol, that we film this scene without any rehearsals [...] This character has to maintain her stance of unswaying stubbornness, and that wasn’t easy.”

Kim received a lot of positive feedbacks from her acquaintances.

“What I was surprised by was the way the series handled juvenile crimes — it was meaningful in the sense that it truly contemplates how to guide audiences through the complexity of the situations and the multi-dimensional perspectives,” she said. “My friends my age are mostly parents themselves, and their age is similar to the parents of the perpetrators and victims that show up in our series. I heard a lot of comments from my friends that they feel afraid for their children who could either be the perpetrators or the victims of such crimes. I think the reason why Sim was portrayed as a judge who has to objectively handle the cases and as a victim’s family member is because no one can be free from juvenile crimes. It’s not narrowed down to handing out a fair verdict for the victims and their families, nor should it be merely focused on the roles of the management [the police, youth-related centers or organizations] who work toward the prevention of such crimes. It’s a problem that we all face, and it’s society’s problem. I believe it was a mechanism that the writer used to accentuate this point.”

Sim Eun-seok wasn’t Kim’s first experience in the court. In her prior television series “Hyena” (2020) on SBS, Kim played an ambitious lawyer named Jung Geum-ja, willing do to anything to reach her goal.

“[Regardless of my prior acting experience], courts are an entirely different universe for me as well,” Kim said. “There’s a lot of distance between my life and the court system. I mean, I did use to participate in the public galleries of cases that I was interested in, but it was a new experience for me to observe juvenile courts. What I realized through my experience was how narrow my stance or perspective were. I thought I was interested in social issues but my experience made me realize that I may have done so under pretense. I felt that my point of view did not evolve any further than venting my emotions — merely feeling sad, sympathy or rage over social phenomena.”


BY LEE JAE-LIM [lee.jaelim@joongang.co.kr]