“Hyena” is a South Korean television series that focuses on two high profile lawyers. Yoon Hee-jae (Kingdom’s Ju Ji-hoon) a successful lawyer and partner with an impressive pedigree works at the best law firm, Song & Kim, meets his literal and metaphoric match, Jung Geum-ja (Kim Hye-soo), a clever dark horse who comes out of nowhere and is willing to do anything to help her clients and win. Each time Hee-jae encounters Geum-ja, he stumbles and gets exasperated while she maintains the upper hand and stays a step ahead. When they are forced to team up for a common purpose, will their rivalry get in the way of helping themselves and their clients survive against a sprawling national conspiracy to hoard money and power?
Remember when “Scandal” had a team of lawyers, were fixers and not trying to possess power with proximity to the Presidency with varying, but shocking levels of incompetence? “Hyena” is “Scandal” without the ineffectualness and soap opera histrionics though there are heaps of melodrama. My favorite part of “Hyena” is the irreverent Geum-ja. Though she fights dirty, violates rules and social mores, and is greedy, she has a scrappy underdog quality that I admired and seemed to forge her own way to a realistic, rough justice. Her method of survival may be distasteful to the elite lawyers, but compared to them, she is loyal and forthright. Also unlike them, she is not pretentious and never pretends to be more well to do and sophisticated than she is unless she is in disguise to further her clients’ interest. She also understands how the world works in every sphere.
As a Black American watching a South Korean television series, I can take a break from examining race. I am not saying that there are no racial issues because I am not South Korean, but they are not the ones that I am familiar with so I can focus on other socioeconomic themes and take a mental vacation. “Hyena” focuses on class, national origin, and gender. Elite lawyers hate Geum-ja because she is an ambitious woman, is better than them at achieving her goals and violates all the social contracts that they made with others to get ahead. She did not go to the right schools. She did not work her way through the system. She seems to appear out of nowhere and became an ambulance chaser in the right zip codes though the series alludes to her start as working for shady characters in the underworld.
I loved how she did not adhere to gender norms. She has other foils in the series. There are two characters who abide by gender norms for women in business by being serious and adopting sober business colors: Kim Min-joo, the other named partner at the major law firm, and Ha Hye-Won, the only business minded relative in the Issume Holdings group, but because she is not a man, no one listens to her. The socialites and wealthy (ex) women of the powerful men are more colorful, but defenseless if the men in their lives turn on them. In contrast, Geum-ja fearlessly occupies every area of society immune to others’ efforts to shame her or put her down. She has a distinct colorful business style with her smart phone slung like a purse to ensure that she never loses it. Her expression can be quite flat except when she is up to mischief. This unflappable demeanor serves her well throughout the series, especially when she is in danger.
Physical violence is depicted in stark ways. When clients assault or physically harm their elite male lawyers, the lawyers are shamed, demoralized, shaken and close to tears. In contrast, when women face far more violence, they are functional and undeterred. Geum-ja beats them all by inflicting as much damage as she can on her attackers or not showing any fear. She is willing to make tradeoffs to survive-endure a certain amount of damage and pain to eventually get the upper hand. She uses her familiarity with abuse to turn the tables in unexpected ways. She is the only major character that straddles the line of action and courtroom drama. She is closer to a detective like Sherlock Holmes than a traditional lawyer except shadier.
In contrast, Hee-jae is a bit underdeveloped. He is arrogant, mean to his friend, hates all but one man who has more power than him and sees himself as the underdog in his family. By the elites’ standards, he is arrogant and ambitious, but if he is successful, it is tolerated. Geum-ja’s one upmanship exposes his façade of success and exposes a deep-seated insecurity. In contrast, Geum-ja does not mind masking as a buffoon or a socialite to get ahead. “Hyena” never explores the roots of his Achilles heel but plumbs the depths of Geum-ja’s motivations. The series elicits sympathy for Hee-jae by showing his emotional vulnerability as her first victim, but he never truly recovers his equilibrium. Like Geum-ja, Hee-jae does not mind transgressing social boundaries and violating the law to get ahead, but unlike her, he is not doing it for survival. Hee-jae is doing it for his reputation, to stop groveling to people that he sees as inferior to him, but his lack of street smarts and cynicism makes him vulnerable. Hee-jae is a character who relies on a stronger influence, the other named partner, Song-Pil-jung (Lee Geung-young). Hee-jae has an identity crisis which is never resolved. He mimics the strongest person in his life, and by the end of the series, he just shifts his admiration.
As “Hyena” unfolds, the series reveals that poseurs surround Hee-jae, and most of the attorneys at Song & Kim who look down upon Geum-ja are nouveau riche, not as established as their airs would have you believe. In comparison, Hee-jae is slumming it and rejects the status quo. Because everyone is terrified of being exposed for their real character or origins, the politics surrounding the show lean towards reinforcing a status quo that most benefits them even if it hurts their clients. In contrast, Geum-ja chooses her clients first, herself then finds a way to benefit others. There is one episode where Geum-ja convinces a poor woman looking for justice into dropping her case. Whereas another attorney would just destroy the woman and never think of her again, Geum-ja admits to the venality of her enterprise then still finds a way to make her whole. Geum-ja does not pretend to be on the side of justice. Her morality is doing a good job and surviving. She admits that it does not exist thus why she does not respect any rules, but her cynicism is not lacking in sympathy and finding a way to sprinkle a little Robin Hood mojo on the side.
Guem-ja’s rough justice results in long lasting relationships, professional and personal and gives people permission to be themselves, including some of her most distasteful clients, Ha Chan-Ho (Ji Hyun-Joon), whom I nicknamed as shirtless guy. I loved that Ji embraced his character’s chaos. Her acceptance of messiness and flaws makes her an anti-hero worth loving. It was interesting that the one facet of identity that transcends gender and class is national origin. There is a wealthy client, Kevin, who represents AP EON Finance, who is a Korean American. While everyone likes his money, and he may be the most emotionally and psychologically healthy character in the series, his amoral, indifference to the tacit social rules of South Korean society makes him an unwelcome outsider that no one personally likes.
I highly recommend “Hyena.” Don’t let the subtitles deter you. The sixteen-episode first season left me wanting more and it holds up under repeat viewing though there are a couple of dangling threads that the final episode did not resolve.
