Netizens re-examine the controversy over Netflix’s “Juvenile Justice” production team’s abuse of power against the judge who helped them
The revelation of Netflix’s original drama “Juvenile Justice” production team’s power abuse behavior was brought up.
Recently, the video titled, “‘Cold Judge’ Cheon Jong Ho, the reason he opposes ‘lowering the age of juvenile offenders’ while severely punishing them?”, uploaded on the Youtube channel of JoongAng Ilbo in April last year is drawing attention again on FMKorea.
In the video, Judge Cheon Jong Ho received a question asking “Do you resemble the character in Netflix’s drama ‘Juvenile Justice’?”. In response, he said, “In 2018, Netflix’s production team and production company came to Busan to make a drama related to juvenile trials”.
He continued, “During the interview at that time, they asked me to tell them everything, so I talked about the Youth Recovery Center and told them things that I didn’t write in my book”, adding “However, in 2019, they asked me to introduce them to the Youth Recovery Center. After then, they cut contact with me.”
Judge Cheon shared, “But last year, a colleague judge from the Changwon District Court visited me and said, ‘The Netflix production team that consulted with you needs to film the juvenile trials at the Changwon District Court’, adding ‘They said they received permission from you’. But I am in the Busan District Court, and I have no authority to give permission regarding the Changwon District Court”, wondering “Isn’t this an abuse of power?”.
“Hearing that, the chief judge of the Changwon District Court did not grant permission for the production team to film in the court”, Judge Cheon continued, “Later, I called the head of the production team and asked why they proceeded with the filming without my permission. They briefly said it was a mistake and ignore me.”
When asked if he felt offended by the incident, Judge Cheon told a surprising anecdote.
He said, “If the drama was made in a direction different from what I told them, I, through my publishing company, requested the production team not to take quotes from my book, not to use the characters, and not to publicize the information that they consulted with me. However, it was revealed earlier this year that the motif of ‘Juvenile Justice’ was me, and then I started to receive contacts.”
Regarding this, Judge Cheon explained, “First, my nickname is ‘Cheon No.10’, and in the drama, Kim Hye Soo’s character came out with the name ‘10 Eun Seok’ judge. Also, I always emphasized that juvenile trials should be improved and referred to them as ‘3-minute trials’. They borrowed that story and made it into ‘cup ramen trials’ in the drama.”
He stated, “When I raised objections and proposed the only one idea that I would include ‘The book that inspired Netflix’s ‘Juvenile Justice’ on my book cover, they even told me not to do that. ‘Do not mention it as a book written by a judge who became the motif of Netflix ‘Juvenile Justice’, they said and canceled my proposal”.
When asked if he released any position against Netflix and the production company, Judge Cheon replied, “(The production company) sent me an apology letter, but they did not connect me with Netflix.”
The judge expressed his dissatisfaction, saying, “Since the characters in my books were used, I simply proposed including a line on my book cover, but the production company kept insisting that Netflix doesn’t allow me to do that. They didn’t provide me the contact information of that side (Netflix) when I asked for it.”
Reading this article, Internet users commented, “Why did they bother such a busy judge? Do they really have nothing to do?”, “Is life that boring to them? Why didn’t they ask any lawyer who knows about such cases?”, “Many people really think doing good things is a must”, “The production company is really problematic”, “They hit the judge at the back of his head?”, “They deliver social messages and make a popular drama, but they turn their back on the judge who helped them made it?”, “They would be sued if they were in the U.S”, etc.
Meanwhile, “Juvenile Justice” is a legal drama about Judge Shim Eun Seok (Kim Hye Soo), who hates juvenile offenders, after getting appointed to the juvenile department of a district court. Throughout the two months after its release, the drama ranked in Netflix’s Top 10 non-English TV Show Worldwide.
Thanks to its great popularity, the production team announced the production of Season 2 in August last year but then canceled it during the pre-production process. However, Netflix explained that nothing has been decided yet.
Source: Wikitree
