
Miracle in Cell No. 7 is about an intellectually impaired father who was
imprisoned and sentenced to death because of allegedly raping and
murdering a girl. Lee Yong-gu works as park man in an establishment. He
has a pretty and smart daughter named Ye-sung whom he raised alone.
Ye-sung is big fan of Sailormoon and wants a Sailormoon bag being sold
in a store too badly that they always visits it twice a day just to
check if it’s still unsold. One day, they found out that the bag was
bought by the Commissioner of the Policemen for his daughter so Yong-gu
went inside the store and beg the Commissioner not to buy the bag
because Ye-sung wants it badly but the Commissioner hit him. One cold
day, the Commissioner’s daughter saw him and told him that she saw
another store selling the same Sailormoon bag and asked her to follow
him. Then, the alleged murder and rape happened. A witness saw that he
was kissing the girl and having the girl’s zipper undone. Yong-gu was
brought to the police, was questioned, forced to sign a sworn statement,
tortured and then sent to jail.
Yong-gu was assigned in Cell No. 7 where he made friends with
co-prisoners and eventually the chief. At first, he was not properly
acquainted with his co-prisoners because his co-prisoners defy and hate
him for the crime that he allegedly done. But when he was stabbed by
another prisoner from another cell, the leader helped him and then they
made friends with him. When he was asked what he wanted, he said
“Ye-sung” so when there was a religious service where Ye-sung’s choir
will be singing, one of his co-prisoners get her and bring her to
Yong-gu.Ye-sung did not only make his father happy by staying at the prison cell
but she also changed the lives and beliefs of his father’s
co-prisoners. She gave life to Cell No. 7.
The story started and ended in mock trial scene wherein Ye-sung was
the lawyer of the defense, retrying the case of Le Yong-gu. Inside the
court and stood as witnesses were Yong-gu’s co-prisoners who had
different lives after their life in prison and the Chief who took care
of Ye-sung when his father died. Ye-sung was able to convince the judge
that his father was innocent and that what happened was purely an
accident.
Furthermore, the movie shows a concrete example of injustice and delves more on the rights of the accused. Yong-gu was undoubtedly an innocent man and an intellectually impaired person. Even accused, it is always a well-settled rule that a person is innocent until proven guilty. Yong-gu was tortured and his sworn statement was fabricated. He was deprived equal protection of the laws. He experienced torture, force, violence, threat, intimidation which vitiated his free will. He was abused and his mental deficiency was used against him. The State has protection for mentally-challenged persons but it was not given to him. Once the accused has mental incapacities, he should not be tried nor be convicted.







