There is not an ounce of demonstrable joy in this short K-series. Yes, you do get some sort of relief when justice is served but there is no funny moment. This is a very DARK and HEART THUGGING story. It was aired on Netflix and I finished it in one day. Accompanied by 1 litre of tears, a swollen face and dehydrated eyes (if there is such a thing).
Spoiler ahead
There were stories of murder, domestic abuse, leaked exam papers, theft and gang rape. The conclusion I got from this, which correlates with what I learned in Adolescent Psychology is that parenting style has a great influence on adolescent growth and development. That it takes a village to raise a child. That if the child could not be reprimanded by their family, teachers or other adults – then the responsibility falls on the court. The law and order. Poverty, marital discord, negative peer pressure all plays a part but as Judge Sim puts it.. not everyone commits a crime when push becomes shove. A crime is still crime. Killing is still wrong no matter what pathological spin you put to it. I realized that juveniles are very cunning too.
A case involving a juvenile makes them both a perpetrator and a victim. There is a dilemma of wanting to punish them but also rehabilitate them. Biologically, they still need the opportunity to change. It is hoped that the cognitive and emotional processes that drove them to commit the crime could be rewired, and reformulated to become better people. I have seen the juveniles in our local Henry Gurney School during one of my vaccination outreach programmes. It did make me wonder, what did they do for they looked so innocent face to face. I was so glad I had my mask on due to the pandemic.
When I watched the series, I was crying buckets. I don’t know how the talents could keep their composure while filming the scenes. And the crime the kids commit was just horrible. Some had no signs of remorse which was worse. As a parent watching this, it reminded me to be more aware of our children’s needs as they grow up. Every word we say, as adults, can make or break them. The juveniles in this story did what they did, mostly because they wanted attention. They yearned for affection without being consciously aware of it. The hard-core villains started in early adolescent years and when the court failed to educate them on the consequences of harming other people, they grow up as chronic delinquents as they purely believe that what they did was not serious at all, not wrong and that the law is a joke.
Minci Moss 