This review may contain spoilers
Inside the World of Ah Jin
This is the story of Ah Jin, a young woman with antisocial personality disorder shaped by years of abuse and trauma. Her mother abused her, her father killed her mother, and she continued enduring violence from him and others around her. She’s incredibly smart, manipulative, and uses people as tools, but only goes after someone when she feels threatened or wronged. Otherwise, she does keep to herself and uses men to help her climb to the top.
One of them is Junseo. They met as kids when Ah Jin’s father got together with Junseo’s mother, briefly living as step-siblings before Ah Jin’s father went to prison. Junseo knows she’s using him but accepts it because he’s attached to her, looking for her humanity while still being haunted by the moment his mother tried to drown Ah Jin. Since then, he’s trying to cut ties with his mother (who comes in and out of his life when she needs something) and stayed loyally by Ah Jin’s side as her brooding, obsessed sidekick. He’ll do anything for her except kill, which eventually becomes a problem since she needs help escaping her abusive father. Their relationship is incredibly close, toxic, and built on enabling each other’s worst impulses.
She also has Jae-Oh, whom she met in high school after catching him stealing an AirPod. She recruited him to run errands and collect money, and he eventually grew attached to her. Unlike Junseo, he’s more naïve about being used but definitely refuse to question her, even when he is pushed aside. He’s a good-hearted, loyal to a fault, funny, slightly arrogant kid who is typically bad at school, but the sunshine of the trio.
I won’t spoil the plot, but the first episode immediately pulls you in with its manipulation, secrets, revenge, and tight character dynamics. Ah Jin is the center of everything, and these two men willingly lie and scheme for her. She uses others too, but Junseo and Jae-Oh are her core tools.
Her whole goal is to put herself in a place where she can’t be hurt anymore, somewhere people can’t reach her. And in trying to protect herself like that, we sometimes see these small facets of her, little traces of humanity where she lets herself hope for something… but there’s always an external force pushing her to shut it down again.
She’s simply searching for the safe environment she never had as a child, a space where she can actually be herself.
It’s a deeply emotional, morally grey set of performances from the cast. We see the good in them, but we also see their unresolved issues, their obsessions, the healing they desperately need but never receive. So they cling to each other and try to survive, mostly by trying to give Ah Jin whatever she wants.
The series is phenomenal in both writing and acting. Kim You-jung is incredible as Ah Jin, delivering a rare, compelling portrayal of a female sociopath. If you like twisted relationships and high stakes, I definitely recommend it.
One of them is Junseo. They met as kids when Ah Jin’s father got together with Junseo’s mother, briefly living as step-siblings before Ah Jin’s father went to prison. Junseo knows she’s using him but accepts it because he’s attached to her, looking for her humanity while still being haunted by the moment his mother tried to drown Ah Jin. Since then, he’s trying to cut ties with his mother (who comes in and out of his life when she needs something) and stayed loyally by Ah Jin’s side as her brooding, obsessed sidekick. He’ll do anything for her except kill, which eventually becomes a problem since she needs help escaping her abusive father. Their relationship is incredibly close, toxic, and built on enabling each other’s worst impulses.
She also has Jae-Oh, whom she met in high school after catching him stealing an AirPod. She recruited him to run errands and collect money, and he eventually grew attached to her. Unlike Junseo, he’s more naïve about being used but definitely refuse to question her, even when he is pushed aside. He’s a good-hearted, loyal to a fault, funny, slightly arrogant kid who is typically bad at school, but the sunshine of the trio.
I won’t spoil the plot, but the first episode immediately pulls you in with its manipulation, secrets, revenge, and tight character dynamics. Ah Jin is the center of everything, and these two men willingly lie and scheme for her. She uses others too, but Junseo and Jae-Oh are her core tools.
Her whole goal is to put herself in a place where she can’t be hurt anymore, somewhere people can’t reach her. And in trying to protect herself like that, we sometimes see these small facets of her, little traces of humanity where she lets herself hope for something… but there’s always an external force pushing her to shut it down again.
She’s simply searching for the safe environment she never had as a child, a space where she can actually be herself.
It’s a deeply emotional, morally grey set of performances from the cast. We see the good in them, but we also see their unresolved issues, their obsessions, the healing they desperately need but never receive. So they cling to each other and try to survive, mostly by trying to give Ah Jin whatever she wants.
The series is phenomenal in both writing and acting. Kim You-jung is incredible as Ah Jin, delivering a rare, compelling portrayal of a female sociopath. If you like twisted relationships and high stakes, I definitely recommend it.
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