maple

thanks, it sounds perfect for me. i watch dramas to stay depressed =)

you need to watch your language

- Former prosecutor and now fired law professor Seo Joon Myung is probably in cahoots with antagonist trio & helped them prosecute ML until a scapegoat could be found 1 year later & wrap up loose ends.

- ML's sister went missing from her convenience store job. She was found unconscious by ML at a construction site & shoes right outside. Criminals then moved both ML and sister's clothes to a different location to be found.
- I think sister died due to criminal negligence at the construction site. The site would become Hansu Bio & the start of the antagonist trio's fraud & money laundering scheme.
- OR one of the trio hit & run killed ML's sister.
- So instead of having their people, the site, Hansu Bio & everyone implicated, they moved the body & made up the claims that ML raped & killed step sister.
- Maybe they disposed sister's body using a "cruise" or something.
- Then 1 year later, they fabricated & coordinated with police a more airtight conviction, make it seem like they caught the "real rapist murderer", so that ML's full of holes ruling wouldn't get revisited & overturned.

My guess, is that FL is trying to uncover everything by getting close to the antagonist trio. at the expense of herself.
basically, she's not cruel or mean or morally grey character. she's full send protagonist good guy. lawful neutral if anything.

- FL removes TK partner so she can handle Hansu Bio sales herself.
- FL gets Hansu documents from their legal dept for unknown reasons.
- FL has former Hansu Bio employees help find evidence from obtained documents
- TK CEO pretends to promote FL to managing partner but sets up the "suicide" to discredit her in case Hansu info gets released by FL.
- Park So Young was a weakness or plant that Assemblyman Lee had on presidential hopeful An Kang Won. But instead of using it on him, they are using it to discredit FL.
- Side effect of "suicide" = disqualifies FL from promotion & sends her to law school as professor.
- Park So Young being so upset at FL probably isn't due to rape but unhappiness of where she herself is in life. being a hostess & used as pawn by people in politics & power. and/or she could be under duress to play the part.
- FL is super distressed that Park So Young died because she thinks it's her fault that PSY got caught between her power struggle & jousting against the antagonist trio.
anyway continuing on
- FL provokes the antagonist trio so TK CEO lets her back into Hansu Bio sales. FL wants this case to get more info & well as accomplishment to climb higher & be trusted by trio.
- FL baits law professor to harass her & capture on camera cuz he was the prosecutor that handled Kim Dong Gu case (Gong Chan) 10 years ago.
- She was probably going to use it against him for her investigation into trio. but uses it to help her student instead.

these are my guesses and predictions based on ep 1 & 2.

it could be victim protection program. he did get convicted of rape and murder. even if wrongfully & overturned. it seems like ksociety is still super stigmatizing against these people. hence he was able to change name.

probably not released yet. but here's a rip from ep1 & 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDyP5puRG1E

can anyone give me spoilers. how did Feng Xiao Qin and Gu Qing Yu resolve their animosity between each other? or left unresolved?

watched another 13 eps till ep 35. too much party propaganda. dropped.

personally, i prefer "The Bond" (2021) as my goto heartfelt, close family, relationship drama. This one, ALJ, is too much of a romanticized portrayal of 60's-80's China, minimizes the impact of its political unrests, and affirms its socio-political structure.

watched 22 eps of "A lifelong journey", another "Life, Drama, Family" genre drama. however, instead of limiting the story to the perspective of a few main characters, it branches out quite a bit & includes a lot of screen time for spouses, in laws, friends, co-workers, and even some close managers/officers. This is because ALJ is more of a chronicle of society back then, complete with the changing political climate, work & social reforms, as well as just life in general for the average person.

With such a diverse range of characters and topics, we don't get to stay with any character for long before cutting to a different scene or issue. Even if we consider ALJ to have only 1 main protagonist, I still wasn't able to relate to him as much or care about his character as I sometimes have been for other exceptional dramas.

I think of ALJ as watching a play or movie in a theatre. The story might be well written and actors talented, but there is distance from your seat in the audience to where the stage or screen is. It's this distance that's preventing me from completely immersing myself in the characters, their relationships, and the story.

marked as spoiler but contains no story spoiler. it's just my analysis and critiques of the show after 22 eps.

"Aren't you guys tired of these school dramas?" -someone probably

i still don't understand why he made that choice. =/ perhaps he felt overwhelmed with guilt, so much that he thought he wouldn't be able to support Matsuno even if he survived the war? Kageura said Miyabe was not the same person after sending so many students to death. That's the only logical way I can accept him saving Ooishi instead of surviving... him not able to face Matsuno anymore.

Otherwise if you say, because of heroism, or to save 1 life, etc. I don't think that's it. He did everything except risk his life excessively. Till the end he didn't do stupid things such as shield suicide pilots because they wouldn't have made it to target even if he shielded them. Ooishi surviving wouldn't help the war, so it must be either a) thought someone else deserved to live on or b) as i said, he felt inadequate living on. His goal since the start was for safety of Matsuno and Kyoko, not his own life. He bet Ooishi would be able to help his family more than his destroyed self could.