Juniper
For many of us, there might be a time when we reflect on our past and think we should have thought long and hard before doing something we regretted. Maybe it was making a rash decision about an investment or even entering into a relationship. The ongoing Korean drama “One Ordinary Day” is exactly about taking a wrong step in life which leads to a chain of events that changes the protagonist’s life from happy, carefree college kid to being labelled as a murderer.
In this drama, Kim Hyun-Soo decides to join his friends for a party one night so he takes the keys to his father’s cab without telling him. He gets lost looking for the party venue and a young woman (quite drunk) hops into his cab. They hang out together and eventually end up at her house where they get drunk. He ends up having sex with her and early the next morning, he wakes up on the living room sofa. He goes into her bedroom to say goodbye and to his shock and horror, finds her stabbed multiple times.
Instead of calling the police, he cleans up evidence that he was there including removing a kitchen knife they used to play a game the night before. Not far from the victim’s house, his cab is stopped by police checking drivers for DUI. They suspect he has been drinking but as the breathalyser device is out of battery, the police ask him to get into their car to go back to the station. On the way, they get a call to investigate a break-in and it turns out to be the young woman who was murdered.
At the police station, he is searched for drugs and the police find the kitchen knife stashed in his jacket. That begins his nightmare as he becomes prime murder suspect. Locked up at the holding cell, he sees a lawyer talking to another cell mate and it is this lawyer, Shin Joong-Han who will help him throughout the drama. The lawyer is described a “third-rate lawyer” as he doesn’t have a good reputation unlike the high-flying lawyer who offered her services pro bono to Hyun-Soo’s parents.
Hyun-Soo is transferred to a prison with some really nasty and brutal inmates while awaiting his trial. Joong-Han has a kind heart and even when he is fired as Hyun-Soo’s lawyer, returns to lend a helping hand. Hyun-Soo’s new lawyer may be very famous but her motive to take over his case isn’t really about helping him. In prison, Hyun-Soo is bullied by members of a gang but he is watched over by Do Ji-Tae who offers his assistance.
Kim Hyun-Soo is played by Kim Soo-Hyun who demonstrates much emotion as the physically and mentally tortured young man accused of a heinous crime he has no recollection of. So far I have watched 4 episodes, 4 more to go.
