One Dollar Lawyer K-Drama Review: Average story saved by Actors and Direction but destroyed by chopping off episodes and rushing the final episode.
Director: Kim Jae-hyun and Shin Jung-hoon
Episodes: 12 (16-14-12)
Cast: Min Namkoong, Ji-Eun Kim, Choi Dae-hoon
Streaming: Disney Hotstar
Synopsis:
A story of a lawyer with unusual style who only charges 1,000 won (roughly 1 dollar) for his service to fight for clients that are up against the richest and most privileged.
One Dollar Lawyer K-Drama Review:
Before going into the story if you want to know about watching it I recommend it strongly for people who love court dramas with unique ways of winning. With box ideas not just fighting with the “truth always prevails” plot.
Firstly, I also think that reducing it from a 16-episode drama to a 12-episode one… Could have gone worse, but it wasn’t that badly executed. Chun Ji Hoon is a charismatic lawyer who provides his services for only 1$ to anyone for anything. The drama delves deep into his past and what took place before the timeline of the show.
His past heavily involves a woman named Lee Joo Young. She was a light in his life that helped him open up as he fell in love. She was also a lawyer who began the practice and the 1$ amount. Joo Young wanted to provide her services to anyone regardless of how much she would get paid and that stuck with Ji Hoon.
This all comes to a crashing halt when Ji Hoon finds Joo Young stabbed on the train and she ends up dying. He is devastated by this and begins his own practice in the same office she was in to continue her dream. This backstory explains his eccentric personality and also tells that he wears his sunglasses to hide the pain in his eyes.
During the drama, he once again opens up to Ma Ri, his new student attorney. I loved watching their relationship build and how much they genuinely cared for each other.
Towards the end, as the drama comes to a close, Ji Hoon realizes that he harbors deep anger and hatred within himself and needed to get away and realize why he actually became a lawyer and started his practice the way he did.
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This is the one part of the show that I did have a problem with… He leaves without saying a word, going to France for a year. He leaves Ma Ri and Mu Jang with short letters giving no good explanation. When he comes back they are obviously angry but ready to help him with anything and everything as always.
Ma Ri was my favorite character in the drama. Her confident and sassy attitude made her character stand out amongst the cast of men, and I loved watching every scene that she was in. Her actress does such a great job of captivating you.
She begins working as a lawyer at her grandfather’s firm, but has her interest peaked and joins Ji Hoon’s practice. There she is struck by his personality and confused by the overall purpose of the 1$ practice but learns and absorbs everything she can.
Also, She finds Joo Young’s picture in the office, hidden behind files, and puts everything together. then She and Mu Jang want to help Ji Hoon find her killer and get her justice.
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They always have his back and would do anything to help him be happy. After everything comes to a close and Ji Hoon leaves, Ma Ri is heartbroken.
She hides this herself with the glasses he gave her before he disappeared, and begins working and becoming a great lawyer at her grandfather’s firm.
The scene with her and Na Ye Jin at the bar and her reading his actual letter to her had me in tears and I wish that we could’ve gotten a more meaningful moment between just the two of them.
The final episode is rushed; there is no other way to say it. Everything that needs to happen happened. It feels heavily scripted rather than clever and nuanced. It is like watching a checklist being ticked off.
It got the job done but the Show deserved better. The “epilogue” on the island is unnecessary and out of place. The same thing happened in “REBORN RICH”.
Verdict: One Dollar Lawyer K-Drama Review
I liked that the show balanced the comedic moments with the serious ones. It was flawlessly done and did not come out as corny or anything. The cast has a good camaraderie that shows in their scenes together. It is sad though that it has only 12 episodes.
Highly Recommended.
