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| yna@yna.co.kr 2022-08-15 13:49:35
SEOUL, August 15 (Yonhap) -- South Korean hit drama “Extraordinary Attorney Woo” provided by broadcasting company ENA, is coming to an end this week.
According to the broadcasting industry on Monday, S.Korean phenomenon leading drama “Extraordinary Attorney Woo” is left with 2 more episodes which will be aired on August 17 and 18.
Some of the audiences are expressing their sadness through reviews by saying they are very sad that “Wooyoil” which means the day “Extraordinary Attorney Woo” airs in Korean is gone and their demand for season 2 is quickly rising.
◇ Would “Extraordinary Attorney Woo” which surpassed over 15.8 percent viewing rate be able to exceed 20 percent?
South Korean drama “Extraordinary Attorney Woo” had rough start because the protagonist “Woo Young-woo” has autism, and the drama was provided by less popular broadcasting service ENA. However, the drama became the next big thing through word of mouth.
First episode of Extraordinary Attorney Woo started off with only 0.8 percent of viewing rate, however it exceeded over four percent on its fourth episode, and continued on with its success and managed to exceed 11 percent during episode seven. Episode 9 which featured S.Korean actor Koo Kyo-hwan recorded 15.8 percent viewing rate.
The current trend with South Korean drama in general are having hard time exceeding over 5 percent of viewing rate, however “Extraordinary Attorney Woo” exceeded over 15 percent which is very impressive.
Judging by the trend that the last episode scores the highest viewing rate, “Extraordinary Attorney Woo” might have a chance of exceeding over 20 percent of viewing rate.
“Extraordinary Attorney Woo” which was provided through Netflix drew a lot of attention in foreign countries as well.
“Extraordinary Attorney Woo” dominated Netflix’s “Top 10 non English drama” by topping the chart 4 times.
During the second week of July, “Extraordinary Attorney Woo” was viewed for over 23 million hours, whereas during the first week of August, the drama was viewed for over 67 million hours, which is over three times a viewing hours compare to the second week of July.
“Extraordinary Attorney Woo” was offered with the remake opportunity in the United States, after the huge success of the drama.
◇ Protagonist Woo Young-woo, is a lawyer with autism who was portrayed as an angelic character throughout the drama, also the Kimbab and whales are showing signs of popularity due to “Extra ordinary Attorney Woo.”
One of the reasons “Extraordinary Attorney Woo” was able to succeed was because the protagonist Woo Young-woo was portrayed as a lovely character compared to other South Korean dramas.
Protagonist Woo Young-woo a lawyer with autism spectrum disorder, who starts off working at a law firm called Hanbada solves cases in a very unique ways.
There have been movies and dramas such as "Marathon" in 2005 and "Good Doctor" in 2013 however they portrayed disorders as something that needs to be overcome, or as of something very unique.
However, the drama “Extraordinary Attorney Woo” takes a different approach, protagonist Woo Young-woo serves as a normal member of the society, this twist received a lot of positive reviews and comments regarding how the drama has lead the modernization to the prejudice perspective.
Protagonist Woo Young-woo prefers to eat food such as Kimbab which she can clearly see the ingredients, and spits out facts regarding whales as if she is rapping, however these aspects of Woo Young-woo makes the character more lovable.
Reviews such as “I had to eat Kimbab after watching Woo Young-woo” and reviews of people who actually visited the Kimbab store featured in the drama as Woo Young-woo’s fathers Kimbab store are constantly being updated through social media.
◇ The drama modeled real court cases related to women, elders and sexual minorities.
Some of the cases Woo Young-woo was assigned reminded audience of the happiness brought by small little things, and shined lights on the way problems related to the current society.
The drama features diverse cases such as autistic kid who was framed of murder, followed by three brothers inheritance fight, a beautiful city of Soduk which had conflicts with road construction, mass layoff of female workers, and more.
These episodes are based off of real court cases written by actual lawyers. The mass layoff case is based off of an office couple’s case from Nonghyup in 1999 and the cover charge case is based off of a Chuneunsa court case.
Although most of the cases featured in the drama came to a happy ending, the drama showed possibility of realistic problems such as gender discrimination, child rights, and more to continue on with bigger social discussions.
Protagonist Woo Young-woo’s defendants drew a lot of attention as well, from elderly citizens to North Korean defectors, sexual minorities, children and more disadvantaged citizens.
Writer Moon Ji-won stated that through “Extraordinary Attorney Woo” she wanted to shine the light on not only those who are living with autism spectrum disorder but also on those with harsh living conditions who were never featured in South Korean dramas.
(This article is translated from Korean to English by Joonha Yoo)
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