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Everything in this world is relative, including the law. It is a process that follows principles set by society based on evidence to maintain fairness, rationality. But that's also why the law won't protect all victims.
Juvenile Justice – The Court of Juvenile:
Juvenile Justice – The Court of Juvenile is a recent release on Netflix, so you may have come across many reviews or thoughts about the movie. After finishing Juvenile Justice, I really wanted to write a review but didn't want to bore you, so I chose to write about the case that I liked the most in the series and a similar real-life story.
Movie Review: Juvenile Justice – The Court of Juvenile
In movies, viewers often hope for a more humane ending to satisfy their emotions. But for me, a well-delivered content is what most clearly reflects reality to the audience. The case of juvenile forgery and fatal accident in episodes 7 and 8 is a clear example.
Before discussing the episode, I want to tell a true story. It's unclear which real case the screenwriter took inspiration from, but the following case is quite similar.
On March 29, 2020, a stolen food delivery car driven by a 13-year-old juvenile gang ran a red light, speeding, and ultimately crashed into a delivery person in Daejeon. The victim was a 19-year-old young man, precisely 18 years and 97 days old, who had just graduated from university and was working part-time. After the accident, the car continued to flee. When caught, about 6 juveniles were in the car, 2 of whom managed to escape and were only caught again when continuing the car theft in Sejong to return to Seoul. A group of thirteen-year-old kids drove over 100 kilometers, precisely 140 kilometers, and fatally crashed into a person.
The 19-year-old young man, when rushed to the hospital, was brain dead, his leg deformed, and his spine had to be fixed. His mother couldn't even close his eyes. The stolen car the thirteen-year-old gang used was completely wrecked. And they, sitting in the police station, took selfies and posted them with the status, 'Damn, we killed someone, let's rest from driving.'
Thirteen years old, what grade are you in, what are you doing at that age? Thirteen years old, just in the protective age range of Korean law. We often say something like this, 'kids don't know anything.' Yes, kids don't know anything, so adults have to teach them how to kill, how to destroy a family, how scary the law is.
The movie raises a big question like this, should we punish these kids severely or give them a chance to correct themselves because this is their first offense? Perhaps after watching the movie, we still can't answer this question accurately. Because even lawmakers today are still in the process of perfecting laws for juvenile offenders. What is severe enough, at what age can one be held responsible for their crime?
Chief Judge Na Geunhee said that solving juvenile cases is a race against time, which is true. Because this can protect children from the media and public opinion's skewering, exaggerating them into terrifying criminals. But Chief Judge Shim Eunseok is also right in saying that they need to be punished severely enough to understand how scary the law can be.
If parents can't teach them, society doesn't tell them, then the court must be the place to teach them how serious their crimes are.
The image of children laughing and cheering and fathers happily shaking hands after the court declares them innocent is perhaps my favorite scene in the whole movie. There's no humanity, no aftermath, this is reality. Because without enough authentic evidence to prove they were the masterminds behind the fake driving licenses and accidents, the chief judge pronounced them innocent.
As a viewer, knowing the truth, everyone must feel outraged. But 'the law is like that. The law will not protect all victims. The law only makes judgments based on evidence.'
A small case but it embeds many issues of youth, voyeurism, bullying, forgery, and reckless driving causing death. Kwak Do Seok, a boy who had to go to a correctional facility for assault but after serving his sentence wanted to change, to use his abilities to become a protector. He ultimately caused a fatal accident and ended up a vegetable for life. Although his intention was to help his friend delete the secretly taken photos, in the end, he was both the forger and the driver.
No matter what the reason for the action is, it can't change one thing, that a family has been shattered because of it, a wife lost her husband, children lost their father. This is the 'evidence' that Judge Na used to make the final judgment.
What do kids these days think? 'Teenagers value friends more than life itself.' After the court's ruling, I also hoped there would be a turnaround, that the girl Do Seok helped would stand up as a witness. But no, until the end of the movie, there was no change. We can't demand courage from them, but we also don't know how to tell them that this society will protect them too.
Will those kids and their fathers think after hearing that Kwak Do Seok turning the steering wheel in the opposite direction is usually to protect their lives? In my opinion, the fathers seem to only feel momentary shame, while those kids will soon forget. Because on that day, the court didn't teach them how scary the law is, didn't teach them how terrible it is to kill someone, a family.
They shouldn't cheer, rejoice like that.
The court's ruling that day gave such children the opportunity to disregard the law. They will think, oh, killing someone is just like that, restrain for a few months and then no one knows the crimes they have committed. One day, perhaps they will appear in court again, but it will be the court for adults.
The heaviest sentence for a juvenile criminal case is 20 years. It means if they serve the full sentence, after getting out of prison, that child is not even 40 years old, only lived more than half of a human's life. If no one tells them what crimes they have committed, will they continue to kill others?
'Teacher Paul once said: 'Come here with me, there are still many things I want to teach you. In this life, commas are more important than periods. So, you don't need to worry. Everyone will make mistakes. But that mistake is not necessarily a failure. You can always start over.''
It seems that life doesn't always go as we want it to. A period can come abruptly, not giving us the opportunity to start over. The law is like that, life is like that.
Trailer of Juvenile Justice – Youth Court
Posted by: Cuong Tran
Keywords: [Movie Review] Juvenile Justice – Youth Court
