(TV SERIES) The Judge Returns - A Well Done Legal Drama With Interesting Plot, A Little Bit of Fantasy Element and Entertaining Battle of Strategies

This series was made available on HBO Max in Indonesia since few weeks ago. I was not too sure if it would be interesting, but my wife who loved the acting of its lead cast was immediately intrigued. After watching several episodes, she highly recommended me to give it a try which I did from last weekend & managed to finish it last night. So how was the series then? Let us get into it now, shall we?

Brief Story Line

Lee Han-young (Ji Sung - Confession, Connection TV series etc) was a corrupt judge in Seoul who agreed to sway decision in favor of the ones willing to bribe him. However after an incident, he had a change of heart and turned his life around to clean corrupt Korean justice system powered by senior judge Kang Sin-jin (Park Hee-soon - My Name TV series, The Policeman's Lineage etc). Realizing he could not do everything alone, Han-young reconnected with his high school best friend Seok Jeong-ho (Tae Won-seok - Good Boy TV series, My Puppy etc) who was now a successful loan shark. He also enlisted the help of prosecutors Park Cheol-woo (Hwang Hee - Love Song for Illussion TV series etc) and Kim Jin-ah (Won Jin-ah - Secret: Untold Melody, Hellbound TV series etc), plus the support from reporter Song Na-yeon (Baek Jin-hee - The Real Has Come TV series etc).

Blades of the Guardians - Very Entertaining Martial Arts Movie with Some Brilliantly Done Fight Sequence

I have been highly anticipating this movie ever since I found out about it more than a month ago. But since it was released while my wife and I were away on holiday, I only got the chance to see it four days after it was available in Indonesia. Without further ado, here's more on the second of our movie marathon day. 

Brief Story Line

Set during the Sui dynasty era, Dao Ma (Wu Jing - Meg 2: The Trench, Wolf Warrior 2 etc) was a well known bounty hunter who himself was actually the second wanted man in the country. One day he was asked by his benefactor, the chief of Moji village Lao Mo (Tony Leung Ka Fai -  Legend of the Condor Heroes: The Gallants, The Lover etc) to escort the most wanted man Zhi Si Lang (Sun Yi Zhou - iPartment series, This is Not What I Expected etc) to Chang'an capital. Despite his reluctance, Dao Ma fulfilled the request and went there together with the child under his protection Xiao Qi, Lao Mo's daughter Ayuya (Opera performer Chen Li Jun) and her bodyguard Ani (Xiong Jin Yi - My Sassy Deskmate TV series etc).

(2026) Crime 101 - A Pretty Well Adaptation of Highly Praised Crime Thriller Novella

After spending a week's vacation out of town, I was in the mood to see films that I missed out while I was away. So yesterday my wife and I decided to have movie marathon and saw two of them in one of our favorite cinemas. Without further ado, here's more on the first film.

Brief Story Line

An intelligent jewel thief who went by the name Mike (Chris Hemsworth - Transformers One, Extraction etc) had been doing various robberies without using violence and always managed to escape via route 101. Detective Lou Lebinsky (Mark Ruffalo - Mickey 17, Dark Waters etc) from LAPD was able to link the robberies done by Mike who he dubbed as lone wolf, although his partner Tillman (Corey Hawkins - 6 Underground, The Color Purple etc) and other colleagues were skeptical about his theory.