Amidst a messy construction site skirmish at which police officers and hired thugs are attempting to oust a group of protesters, a young cop is killed along with the even younger son of an activist. While the boy’s father admits to killing the officer, he claims it was in an attempt to protect his son from the dead policeman’s fatal beating. Into this sticky and charged situation arrives inexperienced public defender Jin-won (played by Yoon Kye-sang), his kind-hearted yet trouble-avoiding senior Dae-sok, and a reporter desperate to break the story, Soo-kyung. Reluctant to take on the case at first, Jin-won eventually sympathises with the plight of the father, and takes it to trial. As the case escalates, political corruption and illicit deals are uncovered that lead to the very top of the social ladder.

In The Unfair, an all-star cast brings Son Aram’s courtroom novel to life in producer-turned-director Kim Sung-je’s debut directorial feature. The story echoes the events of the Yongsan Tragedy when residents protesting the redevelopment of a neighbourhood were forcibly evicted leading to several deaths, including that of a police officer.