Korean dramas put successful parents on trial

Korean dramas are increasingly putting successful parents on trial, and the new Coupang Play series The Affair Was Just the Beginning follows doctors, an influencer and an entertainer tied to a hit-and-run death in Korea. The drama is Hwang Dong-hyuk’s first producing work after Squid Game and examines the hypocrisy behind privileged parents protecting children’s crimes. Similar works such as A Normal Family, Snow White Must Die-Black Out and Your Honor show a shift from judging the child to judging the parent. The article says the trend reflects public reexamination of social status, ethics and real-life cases involving police and prosecutors.

In The Affair Was Just the Beginning, the parents of two high school daughters involved in a hit-and-run are portrayed by Cho Yeo-jeong, Kim Jae-chul, Kim Hye-soo and Kim Ji-hoon.

A production official said Tuesday that Kim Hye-soo’s flamboyant costumes were made separately to underscore her character’s desperation to display a successful life.

The series is the first work Hwang Dong-hyuk took on in a producing role after directing Squid Game.

The article says at least four related works have been released over the past year or two, including A Normal Family, Snow White Must Die-Black Out and Your Honor.

In real-life examples cited by the article, a senior police officer destroyed key evidence in his son’s sex crime case, and a former prosecutor faced backlash after trying to overturn a transfer order for his son over school bullying and violence.

Published Sep 20, 2026 12:05 am KST

Recent films and television series reflect public outrage over real-life scandals involving judges and prosecutors

Parents of children implicated in killings appear across recent Korean dramas and films, most of them doctors, judges, police station chiefs and lawyers holding entrenched social privilege. Courtesy of Coupang Play, ENA and Hive Media Corp, captured from MBC

"Why aren't they turning them on, the police lights?"

Actor Kim Hye-soo put the question to the production team during filming of "The Affair Was Just the Beginning," the highly anticipated Coupang Play series. In the scene, a patrol car dispatched after a report from residents pulls up with its emergency lights off.

"We hear they often respond with the lights off these days, because of complaints," the production team told her, and shooting resumed.

A couple cleans up after their high school daughter's hit-and-run in a scene from the Coupang Play series "The Affair Was Just the Beginning." Courtesy of Coupang Play

'Squid Game' director turns eye on high-flying parents

The neighborhood disturbance that brought police to the street was not about noise complaints. Here is what happened. In the drama, high school daughters from two households are caught up in a hit-and-run that killed someone. Their parents make a scene, each pointing fingers over what was done. The parents of the two teenagers tied to the killing are doctors, played by Cho Yeo-jeong and Kim Jae-chul, and a popular influencer and an entertainer, played by Kim Hye-soo and Kim Ji-hoon.

At the time her daughter caused the accident, the influencer was attending a wine party at a neighbor's home, wearing a pink scarf tied in a bow nearly as large as her face. Kim had the flamboyant costumes made separately to underscore her character's desperation to display a successful life, a drama production official said Tuesday. As the title hints, the series methodically exposes the immorality and hypocrisy of parents in Korea's privileged class as they clean up their children's serious crimes.

Actors Kim Hye-soo, left, and Kim Ji-hoon in the Coupang Play series "The Affair Was Just the Beginning" / Captured from Coupang Play

"The Affair Was Just the Beginning" is the first work Hwang Dong-hyuk took on a producing role after directing the "Squid Game" series. Where "Squid Game" showed the ills of capitalism starkly, this series looks at the bare face behind the glitter of success. The drama asks:

"Are socially successful parents truly without shame, even in front of their own children?"

Who faces judgment has changed

Works built on that question have hit the Korean content market over the past year or two. At least four have been released, among them the film "A Normal Family," MBC's series "Snow White Must Die-Black Out" and Genie TV original series "Your Honor."

In "Your Honor," a father who is a sitting judge destroys the evidence of his son's fatal hit-and-run. In "A Normal Family," parents who are a doctor and a lawyer try to bury the crime of teenage children who beat a homeless man to death, going as far as acts that violate fundamental family ties.

What has changed in these family crime dramas is who gets judged.

Earlier works put the child who committed the serious crime at the center and asked how a child became a monster, as in the 2002 film "Public Enemy." Now the gaze turns to the parents. Today's works go a step beyond "Mother" — the 2009 film that explored a mother's blind love following her child's murder charge. They test the social standing and ethics a parent spent a lifetime building.

A poster for Genie TV's series "Your Honor" / Courtesy of ENA

The starkest change is the parents' social status. In "Mother," Kim Hye-ja played a poor woman who kept a medicinal herb shop, selling ingredients for traditional Korean medicine, in a small country town, and who exhausted herself trying to save a son caught up in a murder case. She had no social standing to protect and no influence to leverage for her child.

Now the parents of children tied to killings hold power: judges, doctors and big-firm lawyers in "Perfect Family," a police station chief in "Snow White Must Die-Black Out," both from 2024. The child who commits a serious crime is no longer where the story ends. The child becomes the device that tests the social standing and ethics the parents built over a lifetime. Parents shielding criminal children have turned up in Korean films and dramas before. What is new is the run of works that measure a successful parent's morality against a child's crime.

Police officer destroys evidence, former prosecutor shields bullying son

"I'm giving it to you in advance. Later, when you get to college, you have to make sure you really volunteer."

The aunt in "A Normal Family" — a successful freelance translator who works at a nonprofit devoted to social contribution, played by Kim Hee-ae — says this to her high school niece as she issues her a fake certificate of volunteer service. The college admissions fairness controversy surrounding one family of a former senior public official comes naturally to mind.

Kim Hye-ja plays a poor mother in the 2009 film "Mother." Courtesy of CJ ENM

In reality, too, case after case has prompted a re-examination of a successful parent's life and ethics once trouble involving a child became public. A senior police officer destroyed key evidence in his son's sex crime case, putting the public-service ethics of the police on the chopping block. A father who had served as a prosecutor went as far as an administrative lawsuit to overturn a transfer order imposed on his son over school bullying and violence, then met a public backlash over his fitness for senior office and resigned a day after taking up the post.

Real-world cases of a child's wrongdoing becoming the occasion to reexamine a parent's lifetime of success resemble the narrative of so-called reverse-judgment content, stories in which the people who normally sit in judgment are the ones judged.

This article from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Times.

韩剧越来越倾向于将成功的父母置于审判席上，Coupang Play 的新剧《婚外情只是开始》讲述了一位医生、一位网红和一位艺人卷入韩国一起肇事逃逸致人死亡事件的故事。这部剧是黄东赫继《鱿鱼游戏》之后担任制片人的首部作品，探讨了特权父母包庇子女犯罪背后的虚伪。类似剧集如《普通家庭》、《白雪公主必须死-停电版》和《法官大人》也体现了这种从评判孩子转向评判父母的趋势。文章指出，这一趋势反映了公众对社会地位、道德以及涉及警察和检察官的真实案例的重新审视。

在《婚外情只是个开始》中，两名高中女生卷入了一起肇事逃逸事件，她们的父母分别由赵汝贞、金在哲、金惠秀和金智勋饰演。

一位制作方官员周二表示，金惠秀华丽的服装是单独制作的，以强调她所饰演的角色渴望展现成功生活的迫切心情。

这是黄东赫执导《鱿鱼游戏》之后首次担任制片人的作品。

文章称，在过去一两年里，至少有四部相关作品问世，包括《一个普通的家庭》、《白雪公主必须死-停电》和《你的荣誉》。

文章中引用的真实案例中，一名高级警官销毁了他儿子性犯罪案件的关键证据，一名前检察官因试图推翻对其儿子因校园欺凌和暴力行为而下达的调令而遭到强烈反对。

发布于2026年9月20日凌晨12:05（韩国标准时间）

近期上映的电影和电视剧反映了公众对涉及法官和检察官的现实丑闻的愤怒。

在近期的韩剧和电影中，经常出现涉嫌杀人儿童的父母，他们大多是医生、法官、警察局长或律师，拥有根深蒂固的社会特权。图片由Coupang Play、ENA和Hive Media Corp提供，转载自MBC电视台。

“为什么警灯不开？”

在拍摄备受期待的Coupang Play剧集《婚外情只是开始》期间，演员金惠秀向制作团队提出了这个问题。在拍摄的场景中，一辆接到居民报警后出警的巡逻车停在现场，但警灯却关着。

“我们听说最近他们经常关灯拍摄，因为有人投诉，”制作团队告诉她，然后拍摄继续进行。

在 Coupang Play 系列剧《婚外情只是个开始》的一个场景中，一对夫妇正在清理他们高中女儿肇事逃逸后的现场。图片由 Coupang Play 提供。

《鱿鱼游戏》导演将目光投向事业有成的父母

这场引来警察的邻里骚乱并非噪音投诉。事情是这样的：在剧中，两户人家的高中女生卷入了一起肇事逃逸致人死亡的案件。她们的父母为此大吵大闹，互相指责对方。涉案的两名少女的父母分别是医生（赵汝贞和金在哲饰演）和网红（金惠秀饰演）及艺人（金智勋饰演）。

事发时，这位网红正在邻居家参加一个葡萄酒派对，她戴着一条粉色围巾，系成一个几乎和脸一样大的蝴蝶结。一位电视剧制作方负责人周二表示，金秀贤特意定制了这些华丽的服装，以凸显她饰演的角色极力想要展现成功生活的形象。正如剧名所示，该剧系统地揭露了韩国特权阶层父母在为子女洗脱重罪时所表现出的不道德和虚伪。

演员金惠秀（左）和金智勋出演 Coupang Play 系列剧《婚外情只是开始》/ 图片来自 Coupang Play

《婚外情只是开始》是黄东赫执导《鱿鱼游戏》系列后首次担任制片人的作品。如果说《鱿鱼游戏》尖锐地揭露了资本主义的弊端，那么这部剧则聚焦于成功光鲜外表下的残酷现实。该剧提出的问题是：

“那些在社交上很成功的父母，即使在自己的孩子面前，真的毫无羞耻心吗？”

谁将接受审判已经改变。

过去一两年里，围绕这个问题创作的作品涌入韩国内容市场。至少有四部作品上映，其中包括电影《平凡家庭》、MBC电视剧《白雪公主必须死-停电篇》和Genie TV原创剧集《你的荣誉》。

在《法官大人》中，一位身为法官的父亲销毁了儿子肇事逃逸致人死亡的证据。在《一个普通的家庭》中，一对父母——一位是医生，一位是律师——试图掩盖他们十几岁的孩子将一名流浪汉殴打致死的罪行，甚至不惜做出违背基本家庭关系的行为。

这些家庭犯罪剧的变化在于谁会受到审判。

早期的作品将犯下重罪的孩子置于中心位置，探讨孩子如何变成“怪物”，例如2002年的电影《公众之敌》。如今，目光转向了父母。当代的作品超越了2009年的电影《母亲》（该片探讨了一位母亲在孩子被控谋杀后盲目的爱），它们考验着父母毕生建立的社会地位和道德准则。

Genie TV剧集《你的荣誉》海报 / 图片由ENA提供

最显著的变化在于父母的社会地位。在电影《母亲》中，金惠子饰演一位在偏远小镇经营药材店的贫穷母亲，她竭尽全力想要拯救卷入谋杀案的儿子。她没有任何社会地位可以依靠，也没有任何权势可以保护孩子。

如今，与杀人案有关的孩子的父母掌握着权力：在2024年的电影《完美家庭》中，他们是法官、医生和大型律师事务所的律师；在《白雪公主必须死-停电》中，他们是警察局长。犯下重罪的孩子不再是故事的终点。孩子成为了检验父母毕生建立的社会地位和道德准则的工具。父母包庇犯罪子女的情节在韩国电影和电视剧中并非首次出现。真正的新变化在于，如今出现了一系列作品，将成功父母的道德与子女的犯罪行为进行对比。

警员销毁证据，前检察官包庇欺凌儿子

“我提前告诉你。等你上了大学，一定要确保你真的积极参与志愿活动。”

在《普通家庭》中，由金喜爱饰演的姑姑是一位成功的自由译者，在一家致力于社会公益的非营利组织工作。她在给高中侄女颁发伪造的志愿服务证明时，说了这样一番话。这不禁让人联想到一位前高级公职人员家庭卷入的大学招生公平性争议。

金惠子在2009年电影《母亲》中饰演一位贫穷的母亲。图片由CJ ENM提供。

事实上，很多案例都促使人们重新审视那些事业有成的父母的生活和道德操守，尤其是在涉及子女的问题被公之于众之后。一位高级警官销毁了儿子性侵案的关键证据，使警方的公共服务道德面临严峻考验。一位曾担任检察官的父亲，甚至提起行政诉讼，试图推翻因其儿子在校园欺凌和暴力行为而被下达的调职令，结果却因其是否胜任高级职务而遭到公众强烈质疑，并在就职一天后辞职。

现实世界中，孩子的过错成为重新审视父母一生成功的机会，这与所谓的反向审判内容的叙事方式类似，在这种故事中，通常坐在审判席上的人反而成了被审判的人。

本文来自《韩国日报》（《韩国时报》的姊妹报），由人工智能生成系统翻译，并由《韩国时报》编辑。