Lawyers of Korea

[dangermousie]

Am on episode 6 of Lawyers of Korea (to be fair, since I left off at beginning of 5 months ago, that only means an ep) and my previous opinion stands - it's fun and breezy and with a lovely cast but it is a bit flawed in a way I will get into below. It still makes it fun to watch, just not a favorite or anything.

LoK's heroine, Lawyer Woo, is a rookie starting to establish her business. She does strictly small-time stuff until (due to a number of dramaish circumstances), the ecentric millionaire Han Mingook hires her to be his lawyer in his acrimonious alimony battle with his ex-wife, movie star Ae Ri - Ae Ri is basically seeking most of his fortune and Mingook is not about to take it lying down. Since this is a drama, however, there are further complications - for one, Ae Ri and Lawyer Woo went to the same trade school and used to be friends. And for another, Ae Ri's high-power shark of a lawyer, Lawyer Byun, used to be Lawyer Woo's live-in boyfriend - they even planned to get married until Byun just took off with no explanation and no way to contact him. Now he is back and intends to resume their relationship as if nothing happened. You can just imagine the hijinks that are about to ensue.

This drama has a number of lovely points - it's funny, it almost literally sparkles, the script is fast and witty, and the cast, all 4 leads, have this lovely snappy chemistry - it's almost like watching a kdrama do a screwball comedy. Not to mention that this is a rare drama without evil secondaries - Ae Ri is a wonderful woman, oddly fragile, yet self-possessed. And I have a huge crush on Lawyer Byun.

But there is a big problem - out of four possible shippy permutations, I can see 3 working, and the one I cannot see is the main ship - I would love to watch a drama about Mingook and Ae Ri reconciling, working out their issues. I would love to see Byun court Woo all over again (as I love spoilers, I know why he left her and his reason is no worse than most of kdrama heroes who do something for the little lady's good without bothering to tell her). And I would love to see Byun and Ae Ri hook up - not only is she fragile and needs someone to cherish her and he is equipped to do so, but these actors were the OTP of Seoul 1945 and they were amazing.

But Mingook/Woo? I don't really get it. Or let me modify this - I get it in a way - they have crackling chemistry and he is attracted by her no-nonsense combative attitude as he's never had a challenge before. And she really likes to spar with him. So yes, I can buy a temporary and very fun and very hot hook-up. The problem is, I cannot see it last - fighting all the time does not make a stable relationship for most, but more importantly, Mingook was genuinely in love with Ae Ri when he married her and so what? When hard times hit, he ended up womanizing.

So unless Mingook changes in some fundamental way, no matter how much he will be in love with Woo, and how much he will do wonderful things for her (like bodily protecting her from a beating), once the first flush of love is inevitably and quickly over, this relationship will be done. Though I suppose Ae Ri did actively start the marriage deaththroes by reacting to his mother so hmmmmm...

Also - I am getting the creeps seeing both lawyers potentially involved with their clients. Talk about super-unethical.

Still - this is fun and funny, and I like Mingook as a character, even if not necessarily yet as a person - he is a hilarious neurotic wonder. And I like the other three too.

I can't get away from thinking that this drama would be an ep long if people only told each other stuff they were supposed to instead of doing stupid 'for your own good' lies and treating their partner as if they were a retarded 3-yr-old. I mean, if Ae Ri only told Mingook about his mother's fun games as opposed to silently suffering and detaching and leading to the downward marriage spiral, or if Byun only told Woo about why he needed to leave, we'd have a drama about a couple of married lawyers and a rich guy/movie star glamour couple.

Comments

[mishane.livejournal.com]

Aw, you're watching this. Good. I enjoyed it (even if I don't remember too much about it).

I kind of agree with you about the couple switching although I don't think that Mingook and Ae Ri would ever work out again. There were just too many issues in that marriage for them to ever reconcile. I do agree about Byun/Woo and Byun/Ae Ri, although that might just be because Lawyer Byun is so damn charismatic that you want to ship him with everyone.

I ended up really really liking Mingook's character A LOT, but I forgot why. I guess that's bad. I do think their chemistry was a bit lackluster but the actor portraying Mingook did such a good job portraying what could be a very WEIRD character, that I kind of overlooked it.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Lawyer Byun is so damn charismatic that you want to ship him with everyone.


Yeah, agree. I totally love him.

Mingook amuses me immensely - he is such a lunatic.

[timescout.livejournal.com]

Min Gook sort of grows on you. :) He stays a lunatic till the end but we do get to see other, hidden sides as well. Lee Sung Jae is such a versatile actor and I hope to see him in another drama one of these days. It does not seem like he's done anything (no films either) since LoK. But then, he's had 'leap' years before.

I do agree with you that if these people had just talked with one another things would quite likely have gone differently. The non-talkative characters are a staple of K-dramas so I don't think we'll get rid of them in a hurry.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I am looking forward to hidden sides :)

Yeah - nontalkatives are staples making me love even more the rare dramas when they aren't around.