In Dark K-Drama ‘The Defects' Throwaway Kids Must Fight To Survive

Forbes

4 days ago

Won Jin-ah plays a returned adoptee who must hide to survive in 'The Defects.'
Tae-sik, a thug in the k-drama The Defects, is tasked with disposing of the contents of a suitcase. Tae-sik, played by Choi Young-joon (Gyeongsong Creature, Bloodhounds, Blood Free),says he doesn't care what's in the suitcase. He'll throw it in a vat and fill the vat with concrete. He's not as coldhearted as he seems. When the contents of the suitcase begin to move and the child inside says she doesn't want to die, he can't kill her. Murdering children is a step too far. That child, A-hyun, along with a few more children he spares, wind up living in an abandoned bathhouse and he teaches them the skills they need to survive.
The children were part of a horrifying scheme in which a hospital director arranges expensive adoptions and then offers parents a refund if all does not go well. The hospital and charity foundation director Kim Se-hee, played by Yum Jung-ah (Snowdrop, Life Is Beautiful, Sky Castle) , may seem saintly, but she's vicious. Rather than return the children to the orphanage or find them another home, she pays to get rid of them and uses thugs to do her dirty work.
Choi Young-joon plays a warmhearted thug who can't bear to kill a child.
The horrible adoptive parents just have to report their children missing. Although adoptions do occasionally get nullified in real life, the adoptions in this drama have a nasty eugenics feel to them. The children in The Defects are considered defects. They get returned because they are not good enough. They're considered damaged goods because they are not religious enough, not compliant enough, even not studious enough. They don't deserve to live.
Won Jin-ah (Hellbound, She Would Never Know and Melting Me Softly), plays A-hyun, the leader of the abandoned children. She's the Wendy of their Peter Pan gang, which also consists of three other survivors who have little trust in the outside world. It's a very violent world and it will be a lot harder to survive if they suddenly lose their benefactor or hiding place.
The other teens that A-hyun must protect are Seok-su, played by Oh Seung-jun, Joo An played by Ahn Ji-ho (All of Us Are Dead, Gyeongseong Creature), and So-mi, played by Lee Na-eun (Extraordinary You).
This drama deals with some tough subjects and includes some terrible parents. Their lack of empathy for their adopted children is genuinely dystopian. The drama is not an easy watch but the teen survivors are young warriors, trained to exist in a cruel world, and, whatever ordeals they face, they'll not only survive but ultimately change the cruel world they live in.
The k-drama is based on webcomic "Ayishopping' written by Eom Se-yoon and illustrated by Ryu Ga-myeong, which ran from Dec. 6, 2016 to Jan.30, 2018 on Kakao. The Defects airs on Viki.com.