Overview of Extraordinary Attorney Woo

Kang Tae-oh, Park Eun-bin, and Kang Ki-young all appear in the 2022 South Korean television series ‘Extraordinary Attorney Woo’. It centres on Woo Young-woo, a young autistic woman hired by a prestigious Seoul law firm. Her communication style is perceived by her neurotypical friends as being strange, awkward, and blunt because it differs from their own. She becomes a more capable lawyer with each legal case as respect to her brilliance and photographic memory.

The sixteen episodes of the programme aired on ENA from June 29 to August 18, 2022, every Wednesday and Thursday. In some areas, it is also accessible via Netflix streaming.

In ENA history, ‘Extraordinary Attorney Woo’ received the highest ratings.

It earned positive reviews from the public, and its last episode garnered 17.5% of the national vote, making it the sixth most popular television drama by viewers and the seventh highest-rated drama in Korean cable television history.

Profile

• Drama: Extraordinary Attorney Woo (English title) / Strange Lawyer Woo Young-Woo (literal title)
• Director: Yu In-sik
• Writer: Moon Ji-won
• Network: Netflix, ENA
• Episodes: 16
• Release Date: June 29 – August 18, 2022
• Runtime: Wed. & Thur. 21:00
• Language: Korean
• Country: South Korea

Cast

• Park Eun-bin – Woo Young-woo
• Oh Ji-yul – young Woo Young-woo
• Kang Tae-oh – Lee Jun-ho
• Kang Ki-young as Jung Myung-seok
• Jeon Bae-soo as Woo Gwang-ho
• Jang Seong-beom – young Woo Gwang-ho
• Baek Ji-won as Han Seon-young
• Jin Kyung as Tae Soo-mi
• Jung Han-bit as young Tae Soo-mi
• Ha Yoon-kyung as Choi Su-yeon
• Joo Jong-hyuk as Kwon Min-woo
• Joo Hyun-young as Dong Geu-ra-mi
• Im Sung-jae as Kim Min-shik

Synopsis

Extraordinary Attorney Woo’ recounts the life of Woo Young-woo, an autistic lawyer who was reared by her lone parent. She only has one school friend, Dong Geu-ra-mi, who is an eccentric girl and stands up for her against bullies. She is the top student in her Seoul National University law school graduating class. Due to her autism spectrum disorder, law firms have no faith in her, thus no one hires her. However, she lands her first position at Hanbada, a sizable Seoul legal firm, as her father is friends with the CEO. Her sharp intellect and photographic memory, helped her to remember laws and anything she reads, observes, or hears with absolute clarity.

Her communication style is initially perceived as unusual and awkward since it differs from that of her neurotypical peers, and her excellent emotional intelligence goes unnoticed. However, as the show goes on, a lot of the characters she meets, including her supervising attorney Jung Myung-seok, her law school classmate and peer Choi Su-yeon, and legal assistance employee Lee Jun-ho, get used to her as she develops her practise as a new lawyer. But she also comes across individuals who are biased against her and other people who are disabled.

In a lot of the series’ legal situations, there are delicately balanced legal concerns as well as occasionally challenging ethical dilemmas. The methodical technique used by Attorney Woo frequently helps cases be resolved in unexpected ways. A recurring plot in the drama surrounds Young-woo’s parents, which reflects conflict between two prestigious law firms, Han Seon-young, CEO of Hanbada, and Tae Soo-mi, CEO of Taesan. Both women are female attorneys.

Young-woo’s keen interest in whales and other marine mammals is a recurring subject in the series. The people around her are frequently surprised and perplexed by her propensity to compare circumstances she encounters in her work and personal life to the lives and traits of whales and dolphins. Her epiphanies frequently accompany fantasies about these beings.

Theme

At the young age of five, the day Woo Young-woo received her initial diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder, she developed a fascination for the law. Woo Gwang-ho (Jeon Bae-su), who was at the time pursuing a law degree at Seoul National University, was her sole parent when she was growing up. She was unable to communicate like her peers, still Young-woo had read and memorised each and every line in her father’s law textbooks, unknown to him until he had gotten into a physical altercation with his landlord over a misunderstanding.

Young-woo started reciting the criminal statutes against inflicting bodily harm on others, along with the legal consequences if the attacker were ever found guilty of such an offence, as she became more and more agitated and terrified. Gwang-ho was completely speechless as he watched his daughter speak for the first time, reciting the laws that applied to their circumstances word-to-word.

By following her precisely planned morning routine on her first day as a new attorney at Hanbada Law Firm, Young-woo shows us how she has learnt to adapt to the world around her two decades later. To say she is passionate about whales, in addition to law, it would be a grave understatement. She is a living library of esoteric whale information, with images of these marine beasts adorning everything from her room slippers to her framed portraits.

 In order to avoid being surprised by new flavours or textures, her father creates a unique “Woo Young-woo kimbap” for her, in which all the ingredients are meticulously wrapped between layers of rice and seaweed. This allows her to see exactly what has been added within.

Young-woo’s life, unfortunately, isn’t always as irrational as whales and kimbap. As an adult, she experiences a variety of forms of ableism on a daily basis. The most startling behaviour, though, comes from her new boss, attorney Jung Myeong-seok (Kang Ki-young), who isolates her as soon as she exhibits any evidence of her neurodivergence.

Of course, despite the odds, Young-woo consistently succeeds. She stands up to the plate with her perfect recollection of the law and case documents to fill in any gaps in her first case as a Hanbada attorney that even her superiors had missed, despite Myung-seok’s oversight of her legal competence. She was given the chance to disprove the legal abilities of Myung-seok and her firmmates, but she also succeeded in clearing her elderly client of a false murder accusation.

In contrast to many of its legal K-drama predecessors, which have dabbled in dramatic, unrelenting examinations of ferocity in the courtroom, this series opts to cast a cheery light on legal issues as seen through Young-woo’s naive eyes.

The main plot of Extraordinary Attorney Woo drives the character development of Young-woo’s capacity to adapt to each episodic case and client’s unique circumstances. The challenges she faces, such as jealous coworkers or a nasty opposing attorney, are unable to deter her from her unwavering passion for and dedication to her work. Park Eun-bin’s portrayal of Young-woo, an autistic character whose representation is uncommon within the stratosphere of Korean entertainment itself, is noteworthy evidence of her acting prowess.

If there is anything to be said about ‘Extraordinary Attorney Woo’, it is that Young-woo’s characterization tends to lean towards the former. Media portrayals of autism spectrum disorder have always been a toss-up. They are either glorified as socially awkward yet misunderstood geniuses with savant-like abilities, or written off as flat side characters written in to showcase the uglier, undesirable sides to ASD.

Two episodes in, the show is already implying that neurodiverse people are expected to be able to make up for their unpleasant features by being natural-born prodigies, which is not wholly unlike to what many underrepresented minorities experience in both fiction and reality. It may be too soon to forecast the depths that ‘Extraordinary Attorney Woo’ author Moon Ji-won would be willing to delve into, but there is still plenty of room to do so. As viewers, all we can do is hold out hope that this space will be effectively utilised.

Awards

• Baeksang Arts Awards 2023
  Grand Prize Television –  Park Eun-bin (2023)
  Best Director – Yoo In-shik (2023)
• APAN Star Awards 2022
  Best Supporting Actress – Baek Ji-won (2022)
  Best Writer – Moon Ji-won (2022)
  Popularity Star Award – Park Eun-bin (2022)
• Busan International Film Festival – Asia Contents Awards 2022
  Best Actress – Park Eun-bin (2022)
  Best Content (2022)
• Content that Changed the World 2022
  Content Against Discrimination (2022)
  
• Critics Choice Association – Asian Pacific Cinema & Television 2022
  Rising Star Award for TV – Park Eun-bin (2022)
• Korea Advertisers Contest 2022
  Advertiser’s Choice Program Awards (2022)
  
• Korea Drama Awards 2022
  Best Picture (2022)
• Kim Soo-hyun Drama Art Hall 2022
  Serial Drama Category – Good Drama of the Year (2022)

Interesting Facts about ‘Extraordinary Attorney Woo’

1. The director waited 1 year to cast Park Eun-bin.
2. Besides the state of the art visual content, immense costs also went into casting numerous cameos, such as actor Koo Kyo-hwan. Reportedly, it cost 20 billion won to produce an extraordinary drama.
3. Woo Young-woo’s character was inspired by a real person.
4. Some of the legal cases in the drama are based on true stories, and were even published by actual lawyers who were in charge of the cases.
5. Korea’s best underwater photographer’s work was featured In the drama.
6. A mural of the drama went viral.

FAQ’S

1. How many episodes are there in ‘Extraordinary Attorney Woo’?
   There are 16 episodes.
2. In which year was ‘Extraordinary Attorney Woo’ released?
   It was released in 2022.
3. On which platform was ‘Extra Ordinary Attorney Woo released’?
   It was released on Netflix and ENA.
4. What is the Instagram ID of Kang Tae-oh?
   

   kto940620 is his Instagram ID of actor Kang Tae-oh.