Bloody knives and violent crimes in Defendant’s new teaser

Tuesday, January 10, 2017

Drama Casting & News

Bloody knives and violent crimes in Defendant’s new teaser

Ooooh, I’m getting strong Memento crossed with The Count of Monte Cristo vibes from the second teaser of SBS’s upcoming Defendant. In this new revenge-thriller drama, an amnesiac Ji Sung (Entertainer) stars as a top prosecutor-turned-felon, whose wife is murdered and his daughter disappears. Eom Ki-joon (Masked Prosecutor) plays a set of twins — one evil and one good — who conspires to put Ji Sung behind bars under false pretenses. The only person on his side is a determined public defender, played by SNSD’s Yuri (Gogh’s Starry Night).

It all seems to start with the death of one of the twins, Cha Min-ho, who slumps to the ground after someone violently strikes his head — all that’s seen is a fast blur. Who killed him is a mystery, but somehow Ji Sung earns the enmity of the living twin, Cha Sun-ho, and is subsequently dragged into prison to await his sentence on death row. Ji Sung rages against his captors in an interrogation room, but flashbacks of holding a knife and watching his daughter smile through a camera have him reeling with uncertainty.

Then Oh Chang-seok (My Heart Twinkle Twinkle) grabs him by the collar, asking if his memory loss is real. Tears streak down his face because he really doesn’t remember anything. The words “One case, two truths” appear onscreen as Yuri asks Ji Sung, “If there’s another truth, you have to reveal it to prevent the death penalty. Don’t you?” But he just stalks away from her, angry. At the very end of the teaser, Ji Sung resolutely vows to escape while scratching a wooden surface with his fingernail.

I love it when promos raise interesting questions, revealing just enough of the plot to make me hungry for more. So let’s talk conspiracy theories:

A) Eom Ki-joon manufactured the death of his twin and is framing Ji Sung.
B) Eom Ki-joon thinks Ji Sung is responsible for his twin’s death and is seeking revenge.
C) Another mysterious mastermind is behind the murders and is toying with both Ji Sung and Eom Ki-joon.
D) Ji Sung did it and is actually faking his amnesia.
E) None of the above.

What do you think? Despite my initial reservations, I’m definitely curious now to find out how Ji Sung will achieve his prison break and whether he’ll finally get the answers he’s searching for as a fugitive on the run. Monday-Tuesday drama Defendant premieres in two weeks on January 23, after Romantic Doctor Teacher Kim finishes its run.