Netflix K-drama Divorce Attorney Shin: Cho Seung-woo leads folksy legal drama as pianist-turned-lawy
Sung-han is quick and perceptive – abilities that have given him a perfect record in divorce cases. He has never lost one and they rarely go to court. In fact, he normally gets what his clients want before the mediation stage is over.
Given his skills, this lawyer’s name seems particularly apt – in Korean, shinsunghan means “sacred”.
Prospective clients delight in seeing the shingle “Sacred Attorney”, though they are taken aback after they step into his cramped and humble office, which is full of wooden panels, stacks of legal reports and a sliding door that keeps getting stuck.
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Sung-han’s office manager is the loyal Jang Hyeong-geun (Kim Sung-kyun). One morning in the office, the latter talks to Sung-han about his favourite radio DJ, Lee Seo-jin (Han Hye-jin), who has just been kicked off the air following a scandal.Mid-conversation, Sung-han’s secretary ushers in a new client – and Hyeong-geun’s jaw drops when his DJ crush walks in through the door.
In addition to losing her job, Seo-jin is also about to lose her husband and child. She was caught having an affair in the most public way possible – her lover leaked a sex tape of them online.
Vaguely familiar with the scandal, Sung-han initially balks at the seemingly unwinnable case. Seo-jin assures him that she does not want any money out of the divorce; all she cares about is getting custody of her young son.
Her simply stated but clearly passionate desire moves something within Sung-han and he takes on the difficult case. His sudden change of heart leads us to realise that Seo-jin’s desire to keep her son connects to something in Sung-han’s past.
Seo-jin may have had an affair, but it is soon revealed that she is leading the life of a terrorised prisoner thanks to her monstrous husband.
He insists that she constantly record her goings-on outside the house, takes photos of her underwear drawer every day and has cameras in the house.
Sung-han may be a successful divorce lawyer now, but his legal career began very late. Earlier in life he was a gifted pianist and, even later, a music professor living in Germany.
We do not know what prompted Sung-han’s career change, but his happy-go-lucky persona appears to be masking a pain connected to his past. The folksy trot singing and soju swilling seduces the audience while also manifesting as a pattern of behaviour that has emerged as he attempts to escape past trauma.
Whether in his car alone or in impromptu karaoke sessions with Hyeong-geun and property agent Jo Jeong-sik (Jung Moon-sung), the third member of their trio, the loud singing and jangly dancing is occasionally overbearing. But when the trot is switched out for classical music, the tone veers in a pensive and heartfelt direction.
Sung-hang’s past and the emotion buried deep inside him suddenly emerges at the end of episode two when, on a quiet night beside the Cheonggyecheon stream in Central Seoul, he walks by a piano which beckons him to play.
His fingers stroke the keys, plays a quiet few bars and pauses before launching into a brash and complex piano sonata that screams of deep-seated pain and suffering.
Vaguely aloof and brilliant but also dependable, Sung-han is a familiar character for Cho, who we last saw as a genius time-travel scientist in the disappointing series Sisyphus: The Myth. It is another smooth and inviting turn from Cho, and not one that is likely to pose him many challenges.
Not seen since Hold Me Tight in 2018, Han is the show’s co-star as the disgraced radio DJ. Given that her divorce proceedings conclude within the opening weekend of episodes, time will tell how her role develops in the series – though it is safe to assume that Seo-jin could be a love interest for Sung-han.
Like other Korean legal dramas, Divorce Attorney Shin proceeds in a vaguely episodic manner, with Sung-han taking on various cases, while we can expect his submerged past to steadily bubble to the surface through the show’s 12-episode run.
With so many legal dramas on Korean schedules these days, the show has its work cut out, but the smooth performances and its emotional core fuelled by classical music may be enough to help it stand out in a crowded field.Divorce Attorney Shin is streaming on Netflix.
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