Miss Hammurabi 미스 함무라비 Review

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The 2018 Korean drama starring Go Ara as Park Cha Oh-Reum, Kim Myung-Soo as Im Ba-Reun, Sung Dong-Il as Han Se-Sang, Ryoo Duk-Hwan as Jung Bo-Wang, Elijah Lee as Lee Do-Yeon, and Lee Tae-Sung as Min Yong-Joon.



Brief summary: Im Ba-Reun is very successful at being a wallflower judge, quietly doing his job and following the system and making very few mistakes while at it. But then a girl reappears at his work that he hasn’t seen since high school, who seems to have her heart set on challenging everything that Ba-Reun has known about this job. Is coexisting with this “Miss Hammurabi” even possible?

This drama leads you through the moral dilemma of each case with the judges involved, so it really moves the heart. There’s a lot of great lines, feel goods when justice was served, but also heartaches as the characters learn and grow.



All of the characters seemed to have some weight to them by end, as if the story couldn’t have turned out like it did without them. Some characters in dramas, movies, or books simply exist to help the story move along smoothly or seem more realistic/probable but none of the characters felt like that in “Miss Hammurabi.” Every character that had a name contributed and therefore enriched the story and drama overall. Can’t help but be pleased with that!



Go Ara’s portrayal of Oh-Reum was really entertaining to be sure, but Kim Myung-Soo’s Im Ba-Reun is the one I liked to watch. First of all, Kim Myung-Soo worked hard on his first leading role, so we have to appreciate it anyways. But while Oh-Reum’s character development is all about learning from mistakes that she’s already made, Ba-Reun’s character development is all about learning the different from the things that he didn’t do. He has to transition out of being the wallflower that he was perfectly happy being (or was he?) into someone more dynamic and influential. I felt a personal connection with both main characters. I’ve always admired people like Oh-Reum who speak their minds and make things happen, but I’ve also always behaved like Ba-Reun, quietly content to be led and make minimal errors. I’m sure that there are lots of people like that who can see qualities of both Oh-Reum and Ba-Reun within themselves.



But something else about our little wallflower Ba-Reun is that during his character development he also expands his perspective which eventually leads him to understanding other people and changing his own behavior. I thought it was funny how throughout the drama he blamed his father for his family’s financial difficulties, but he totally overlooked the things his father did and the type of person his father was. Ba-Reun called him a burden, but where I come from we call people like Oh-Reum’s dad real-life heroes. It took Oh-Reum’s influence and making a mistake or two to help Ba-Reunite expand his perspective, but what might it take for us? And then even if we do learn something new out of it, how many of us are willing to do something with it?



Senior Judge Han Se-Sang: “You avoid crap because it’s dirty, not because you’re scared.” Am I mistaken or do I remember hearing something like that from the same actor in Hwarang? Is it a common analogy in Korea that I just didn’t realize was common?



Some more great lines:

“Even if you let 99 thieves go, you cannot persecute even 1 innocent person. I hear this expression a lot, and every time I hear it I wonder ‘Why does it have to be a thief?’ There are quite a lot of robbers and stealing isn’t a first-degree crime. What if it wasn’t a thief and it was talking about letting 99 serial killers go instead? Or letting 99 rich men who had embezzled their company’s money go? Or letting 99 child rapists go? What then? Is it still okay to let those 99 criminals go for the sake of one innocent person?”- Han Se-Sang

“It’s okay for you to inconvenience me.” - Im Ba-Reun/Park Cha Oh-Reum

“Why do you like me?”
“Because you make me feel uncomfortable. Looking at you makes me feel uncomfortable. Because you’re quite different from me in the way you think and the way you act. And when I butt heads with you I often find myself questioning the ideas that I once believed to be correct. I also get frustrated because I start wondering just how many times we’ll have to go head-to-head like this. At first, I thought I liked you despite that. But now, I think I like you because of that- because you make me feel uncomfortable.” - Im Ba-Reun.



My favorite part about the ending was how Lee Do-Yeon’s writing was connected to the production of the drama, as if the quiet stenographer was the one behind the story all along and Oh-Reum was just a a dynamic character therein, a catalyst. It was like the delectable icing of episode 16!



This story was cute, but I loved it because it made me think and feel. 5/5 stars!