{"id":26197,"date":"2026-01-06T11:45:34","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T03:45:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=26197"},"modified":"2026-01-06T11:45:34","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T03:45:34","slug":"hbo-max-k-drama-the-judge-returns-ji-sung-in-fantastical-and-melodramatic-morality-play","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=26197","title":{"rendered":"HBO Max K-drama The Judge Returns: Ji Sung in fantastical and melodramatic morality play"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.i-scmp.com\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/1280x720\/public\/d8\/images\/canvas\/2026\/01\/06\/62aa1cee-10ca-4dbf-b8d1-2ae8deebc90f_564762f4.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\"><strong data-qa=\"ContentSchemaRender-defaultRenderMapFunctions-Component\" class=\"css-1mniedq ex3nmsa17\">Lead cast:<\/strong> Ji Sung, Won Jin-ah, Park Hee-soon<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\"><strong data-qa=\"ContentSchemaRender-defaultRenderMapFunctions-Component\" class=\"css-1mniedq ex3nmsa17\">Latest Nielsen rating:<\/strong> 4.4 per cent<\/p>\n<div datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1xdhyk6 ec74h0k0\">Five years after <span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\"><em data-qa=\"ContentSchemaRender-defaultRenderMapFunctions-Component\" class=\"css-1mniedq ex3nmsa15\">The Devil Judge<\/em><\/span>, Ji Sung once again dons judicial robes for <em data-qa=\"ContentSchemaRender-defaultRenderMapFunctions-Component\" class=\"css-1mniedq ex3nmsa15\">The Judge Returns<\/em>, another legal thriller with a fantastical premise ripe for social commentary.<\/div>\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<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/lifestyle\/k-drama\/k-drama\/article\/3338839\/hbo-max-k-drama-judge-returns-ji-sung-fantastical-and-melodramatic-morality-play?utm_source=rss_feed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lead cast: Ji Sung, Won Jin-ah, Park Hee-soon Latest Nielsen rating: 4.4 per cent Five years after The Devil Judge, Ji Sung once again dons&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26198,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[15280,2441,6676,6545,798,15281,15282,2651,2648,13459],"class_list":["post-26197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bored-interesting","tag-fantastical","tag-hbo","tag-judge","tag-kdrama","tag-max","tag-melodramatic","tag-morality","tag-play","tag-returns","tag-sung","wpcat-33-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/26198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}