Juror 8

Hong Seung-wan's 2019 South Korean film takes as its starting point the country's first jury trial. In 2008, eight randomly selected citizens sit down to examine a matricide case widely regarded as already settled by its evidence. The film uses the familiar template of jury narratives but adds a tension particular to the Korean legal system: the jury system itself is on trial, and the bench does not want the experiment to fail. The judge played by Moon So-ri stands at the centre of that pressure. The eighth juror, played by Park Hyung-sik, begins questioning the accepted account. The film keeps the legal detail accessible and holds its pace; against that, the final section moves into an emotional register and loses some of its force. Who it's for: those who like courtroom drama and mainstream Korean cinema. Who it's not for: viewers expecting a hard critique of the law; the film closes somewhere optimistic about the system working.