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“Actor Lee Junho confirmed for up-coming thriller law movie - “The other lawyer”
Written by Kim Jiwon – October 03 2021
“The other lawyer” has finally found his lead actor, and we couldn’t be more delighted to learn that Lee Junho is taking this role. The 34 years old actor is coming to the big screen for the first time since his debut, twelve years ago in “The Clinic of our dream”, and to raise expectations, he has chosen a dark thriller that will surely make us shiver in fear.
Interviewed by GQ about his upcoming film, Lee Junho stated “It’s a new challenge for me, that’s for sure, but I am really excited to start working on it. Our director, Park Minji, is fantastic and I hope I will be able to make her character true to life”. He also added that he hopes “nobody would be disappointed in his performance” !
What do you think about this news ? Are you as excited as us to see Lee Juno in “The other lawyer”?
“What are you doing ?”, asks Minwoo with exasperation. It has become his usual tone now after four years of working together.
“Nothing”, Junho responds before putting his phone away.
“You were reading comments again”, his manager sighs. “I told you everyone is really happy about the announce.”
It’s a lie. Junho knows it because he just read at least twenty three comments explaining lengthily how stupid it was to cast him for this role. Their logic was so detailed so he almost agreed with them now.
“I was just checking the weather”, he lies in return. He turns in head to his window to escape Minwoo’s judgmental eyes, and he only sees a bright sky under the busy streets of Seoul.
His manager just hums and gives him a black cap. “Cover yourself well. We’ll arrive soon.”
Junho puts his hat on and pushes his mask on his nose to conceal as much of his face as possible. He’ll be outside just for a few minutes, but he knows well that it’s enough for a lot of people to notice him and charge into him. Greeting his fans is never the problem – it’s the others, with their big camera and their hard questions just to see a reaction.
Their car stops in front of the firm, and fortunately there is only some employees in front of the building. He steps out of the car, and he waits for the screams or the flash and nothing comes. It could be a good day. Minwoo walks closely to him, with his phone on one hand and his large bag in the other, and he guides him inside quickly. Even if Handaba handles all of his juridic problems, Junho doesn’t come often and prefers to send his manager who looks like a fish in the water there – maybe because of his few years in law school before meeting him.
“We’re going to the 15th floor”, he informs him as they step onto the elevator. They wait for the doors to close, but a woman arrives suddenly in front of them with one hand up on the air counting to three. Faster than his manager, Junho pushes the button to old the doors open and waits for her to come inside.
She is really cute, he thinks immediately. Everything about her seems so round and elegant, like her dark short hair or the yellowish buttons on her white vest. She thanks him when she walks in, without looking at him in the eyes. She seems nervous, fidgeting her hands and keeping her head down, and he hopes that it’s not because she recognized him.
“Hey”, says Minwoo punting a hand on his arm, “she’s in, you can close the doors.”
“Oh, sorry”, he excuses himself.
The elevator finally goes up, and it seems too long. Junho doesn’t know where to look, passing from his shoes to Minwoo’s phone to the girl’s badge around her neck. “Attorney Woo Young Woo”, it says and he can’t stop himself from smiling as he realizes her name can be read straight or flipped. Everything about her is really cute.
On their floor, they part way without saying anything, and Junho follows his manager who knows his way. A few employees seem to notice him, even with his mask on but they don’t make any effort to approach him. It feels nice when it happens like that.
“Attorney Jung, it's nice to see you”, greets Minwoo when they arrive in front of a tall man in costume. He recognizes him, and they shake hands with polite smiles. Attorney Jung always seems in a good mood, even with a serious face on, and it may be one of the reason why Junho stayed with Hanbada for so long. When you meet someone trustworthy, you keep him close.
They take place in their meeting room, closing doors and giving Junho the opportunity to take off all his costume. He feels lighter without all of this.
“Thank you so much for agreeing to meet us today”, thanks Minwoo. “I know how busy you are right now with the SAM case.”
“You heard about it ?”, he asks with a smile. “Indeed, It had been difficult but thanks to the attorney I want you to meet, we found the light at the end of the tunnel.”
“An another attorney? I thought we would only work with you”, admits Minwoo.
“I promise she’s perfect for you.”
“If you say so, I believe you”, he agrees, but he is not so sure in reality. When Minwoo proposed this idea, he only accepted thinking it would be with Attorney Jung that he knew and liked enough. He was already so anxious about his future role that he couldn’t handle meeting someone new. What if they weren’t a fan ? What if they also thought he couldn’t play a serious attorney? What if…
A few knocks on the door stopped his thoughts.
“Yes, you can come in Attorney Woo.” That name makes Junho turn his head quickly to find the same girl he met a few minutes before, her hand still raise as she counts down to three and takes a deep breath. She bows to them, without a look again, and sits next to her colleague.
“She is the one I told you about”, he explains to them, “Attorney Woo joined Hanbada two years ago, and studied law at Seoul University before that. She is sort of a genius.”
“That term isn’t appropriate to…”, she cuts him as she looks up.
“I know, I know”, cuts back Attorney Jung. “Attorney Woo is on the spectrum.” She nods her head this time, agreeing with his choice of words. Up close, it’s almost a shock to see how beautiful her face is. Her eyes are big and clear, and goes well with her cuteness he noticed earlier, but if you look at her well, if you take everything in one breath, only “beautiful” can describe her.
“What spectrum ?” asks Minwoo, losing his smile slowly.
“The autism spectrum disorder”, she answers swiftly. “My name is Woo Youngwoo, whether it is read straight or flipped. Like kayak, deed, rotator, noon, and racecar. Woo Youngwoo.”
Junho can’t contain his smile hearing her. She glances at him, stops for a few seconds seemingly thinking hard, and then goes back to stare at her hands.
“I’m Lee Junho. Nice to meet you, Attorney Woo. Did Attorney Jung explain to you what I’ll be doing for the next weeks ?”
“I know that you were cast to play an attorney in a movie, and that you need to follow one before production to get immersed in your role.”
He smiles. “That’s right.”
“That’s right”, she repeats in the same tone.
“Attorney Woo often takes on social cases, like your character, as I was told, and she knows the law perfectly. Sometimes even better than myself.”
“That’s true”, she confirms. Attorney Jung hides his laugh in cough, but Junho doesn’t.
“Do you know Lee Junho well ?” asks Minwoo suddenly.
“No, it’s our first time meeting…sorry, our second time after the elevator.”
Minwoo puffs. “I meant… Are you a fan ?”
“No.”
“No ?”, repeats Junho, a little surprised. He knows not everyone loves him, but usually they don’t tell him to his face. With the most adorable pout.
“I don’t watch movies or series, except for animal documentaries. I only know who you are because Attorney Jung and Attorney Choi told me.”
Minwoo sighs deeply, but Junho feels even lighter hearing that. She doesn’t hate him. She doesn’t even know him !
That’s perfect.
She’s perfect.
“It’s horrible”, growls Minwoo. They’re back in their car after their meeting, still parked close to Hanbada. And he keeps repeating the same thing, over and over again. “I can’t believe he would do that to us. To you! How are you supposed to learn to be a lawyer with her ?”
Junho doesn’t understand his reasoning and keeps his eyes turned to the front door. She should be outside soon if she follows the schedule she gave him. “She seemed smart, and Attorney Jung believes in her”, tries Junho to lighten the mood. ”Isn’t it nice that she isn’t a fan? It would be less stressful for me.”
“Who isn’t your fan, Junho? Go on, tell me.”
Just hearing that makes his ears ring. “A lot of people.”
“No. Weird people.” Minwoo’s tone is colder than ever before.
“Don’t say that. She was nice.”
His manager almost shocks on air as he repeats, “Nice ?”.
“Yes, nice. And you’re just a jerk right now.”
“I’m doing that for you! I don’t want you to learn with anybody, I know how stressed you are.” For the first time, he sounds honest but it doesn’t lessen the venom in his previous words.
“I’m not planning to copy her, Minwoo. I just want to know how a lawyer works.”
“But an attorney…”
“Give her one chance, okay? I’ll be with her this afternoon, and if I think it wouldn’t work out I’ll tell you.”
They didn’t even sign all their papers during the meeting, because Minwoo wasn’t cooperative at all. They still have time to retract themselves – even if Junho doesn’t think it needs to happen.
“Okay… I accept that but…” Junho doesn’t wait for him to finish his sentence because Attorney Woo appears outside, a large stack of papers in her hands, scanning her surroundings quickly. He leaves his car and walks out to her. His mask and hat are back on, but she recognizes him immediately as he proposes to carry her things. She accepts his help, and he follows her, using the paper as another way to hide his identity. If there is any paparazzi right now, they’ll be pretty bored.
In the car, he sits behind the conductor, a 40 year old man named Park Garam who greets him excitedly, and puts all the paper close to him. But Junho is surprised when he is joined by the attorney in the back seat.
“You don’t have to worry about me”, he says before removing his mask and smiling. “I can seat alone.”
She frowns. “I am not worried about you.”
“But aren’t you sitting next to your colleague usually ?”
She glances at the older man but doesn’t move at all. “Yes, but you are not here usually. It’s your first day with me, and you don’t know the case. I’ll explain it to you.”
“Oh.” He hadn’t thought about that. He supposed she’ll be too focused on her work to really engage with him. After all, his immersion was just a way for him to watch over a real attorney – to see how their days went, how a trial was done, how they think… He wanted to see reality, and not just read or watch fiction even inspired by real events. He didn’t have to learn how to be a real attorney, just to know how to act really closely like one.
“Our client today is Choi Yeong-ran, who was accused of attempting to murder her husband, Park Gyu-Shik.”
“How ?”
“She hit him with an iron after a marital dispute”, she explains and shows him a photograph of it. It looks quite big and Junho is wincing just imagining being hit with that.
“It almost looks like an animal… the one in Moby-Dick.”
“A sperm whale ?”, she asks with bright eyes. It takes his breath away for a moment. She looks even more lively than when she explains her work. “Do you know about sperm whales ?”
“Well, I know they exist. In the ocean.”
“But did you know that they have the largest brain of any animal on Earth ?”, she says fast. “It’s five times the size of the human brain.”
Junho smiles again. Pink spread on her cheeks like watercolor. “Really ?”
“A recent study showed that the brain develops itself because of socializing and…”, she stops abruptly. The sparks in her eyes dim a little. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t talk about whales at work.”
He wants to ask why, but he can see the expression of her colleague. She must have seen it too, how exasperated he looks.
“But I don’t really work with you…”, he starts to say closer to her. At first, she moves a little, surprised by his closeness, but she comes back closer to him, waiting for him to finish. “If it’s just the two of us, can’t we talk about it ?”
She smiles. “Yes, we can do that.”
“We can eat together if you want.” He feels stupid for mentioning it, but he can’t stop himself. “And we can talk about whales.” He knows Minwoo could eat with him if he asked, but his manager has better to do especially with his next movie. And he could find willing participants easily, even at a law firm. But Attorney Woo shines so brightly when she talks about her passions, and he wants to listen to her. He isn’t used to seeing this much fervor in someone. Especially, one so sincere and gentle.
“We can talk about whales at lunch ?”, she asks as if she is unsure of what she heard.
“Yes, Attorney Woo.”
She smiles again. “Okay.”
He smiles too. “Great.”
“Great”, she repeats. “But now, I need to concentrate before our arrival. Can you read all of these ?”
“I will try.” He isn’t sure he is capable of reading 50 pages in fifteen minutes with juridic and technical jargon. Or if anyone is.
(He learns later that she is, of course.)
The trial isn’t like what he saw in the movies.
It’s long and really boring at times. He doesn’t understand half of the terms used, and he can’t ask any questions to Attorney Woo because she is actually working and looking even more focused than on the car.
One good thing is that nobody is looking at him. All of their attention is on the judge and Mrs. Choi. He learned on their way here that her husband died during this trial, and it’s evident in her way of presenting herself. She looks smaller than in the pictures he saw and even older. It’s hard to see, and he can’t look at her for too long or he notices something new about her appearance that makes his heart clenches. So he watches over Attorney Woo.
After all, it’s hard not to. Even if he doesn’t understand what she is saying, her diction is so good and fluid that his eyes can’t seem to look away. She takes all of his attention by force and keeps it in her hands so that she flies all over the room when she is explaining something. It’s evident that she believes Mrs. Choi to be innocent of murder, and that she would do anything to prove it. And when she is interrogating their doctor, she stays strong-willed and sure of herself. Junho doesn’t understand what her tactic is at first, and then her questions keep coming, one after the other. The doctor’s expression changes slowly, as he realizes where she is going. Too late to change his thoughts or responses; she has taken him exactly where she needed.
When the prosecutor accepts to change the charges, Junho almost jumps on his feet to congratulate Attorney Woo. The silence in the room reminds him that he isn’t watching a play or a drama on his TV. It’s real life, and Woo Youngwoo is a real hero.
He needs to wait another half hour before they can leave the trial and he comes back to their car. The attorney seems a little bit tired, as she walks out to him, but she still has this light in her eyes.
“You were impressive, Attorney Woo”, he compliments her. “Congratulations.”
“It isn’t over”, she reminds him before climbing in the car. “The judgment is not decided yet. But I’m glad we changed the charges. Mrs. Choi is a good person, and she deserves to be a little bit more at peace.”
“Your tactic was really clever”, he adds when joining her in the vehicle. “How did you realize that the iron wasn’t what killed him ?”
“After many nights seeing it as only a sperm whale”, she answers so seriously that he isn’t sure what to respond.
“I see”, he trails off, but he doesn’t expect what comes next.
Attorney Woo comes closer to him as he did before to invite her to lunch, and she speaks slowly like a murmur. “Sometimes, I have some sort of epiphany and everything appears as clear as water in front of me. It almost feels like seeing a whale jumping. It’s sudden and grandiose”, she explains as she fidgets her hands. “This time, I was worried that it wouldn’t appear. I was blinded by what I was seeing at first glance. This iron.”
“That looks like a sperm whale”, he finishes for her.
She nods and looks at him. He doesn’t know what to do with himself. If he looks at her eyes, they appear too bright and dark, almost like he could drown in them. So he coughs and escapes a little from her space by checking his phone.
Five messages from his manager. He skips some of them about Youngwoo, but the last one catches his attention. “Attorney Jung invites us to dinner tonight”, he says to the two employees. “Can you come ?”
“I can’t”, the man says first. “My stepfamily is in town, and I can’t miss our dinner tonight.” He seems truly saddened to refuse, and knowing Attorney Jung’s taste in restaurants to celebrate Junho can understand why. It’s always a feast when they see him outside of Hanbada, with the juiciest of meat, deep and rich soups, and marinated vegetables – he can almost taste it.
“I understand. And you, Attorney Woo? Any step-family in town ?” Maybe it wasn’t that smooth of a question.
“No, I’m single”, she answers matter-of-factly. ”But I’ll have to call my dad so that he wouldn’t worry.”
“I’ll tell my manager.”
“And you ?”, she asks without looking at him.
He is thinking so hard about all the delicious food that they’re going to eat, his head is almost heating up. “Oh, I’ll come for sure.”
“You don’t have any stepfamily in town ?”, she asks and this time his whole face heats up. Her question is only curiosity, but it could be so much more If she wanted.
“No, I’m also single.” It isn’t a secret. He talks about it in every interview – even if they don’t always believe him. He is rather used to saying that; but in this car, as the sun disappears slowly behind the tall buildings, and he looks at Attorney Woo, his voice cracks and his ears redden. He feels almost shy, and knowing that someone else is in the car accentuates everything.
He wants to know if her curiosity is only polite ; just returning the question he asked her before. Or if it’s genuine interest; prying on information like he did, without her noticing. He thinks about it too much and doesn’t realize that she isn’t watching outside from her window but a reflection of him looking a little bit lost.
He wasn’t sure if practicing the law was supposed to make him feel this flustered.
The food is delicious, as expected from Attorney Jung’s choices of restaurants. Even the alcohol is sweet and light in his stomach, and he accepts to drink up to two glasses – he knows well that his limit is small when it comes to that. But something keeps him from enjoying himself completely.
Attorney Woo isn’t eating any of it. Instead, she asked for one of the least expensive meals on the menu, seaweed sushi, with just a cold glass of water. She doesn’t talk much but laughs sometimes at what Attorney Jung says. She doesn’t seem unhappy at all, but if she truly wanted to celebrate her trial today, it’s obvious that she would not have picked this place.
When they leave the restaurant, he tries to propose to her to walk her home, or at least call a cab for her, but she declines with a bow and wishes him a good evening. Watching her walk away, she doesn’t appear to need any help at all; she clearly enjoys listening to whatever she hears in her headphone and looking around at the trees turning slowly yellow and orange.
Maybe it’s more for him that he proposed.
“So what do you think about her ?” demands Attorney Jung when they stop in front of his car. “Mr. Kwon told me you had some reservations.”
Junho casts a dark glance at his manager who does his best to ignore him. “Not at all”, he rectifies clenching his jaw. “She was impressive today, and I think I can learn a lot with her. If she is okay having me with her for a few weeks.”
Attorney Jung nods. “She already looked at her contracts, and she told me that she accepts if you do.”
“I do”, he confirms with a grin. “I’ll try my best not to distract anyone in your office.”
The lawyer laughs. “I think only Attorney Woo will be immunized to your charms, but that’s also why I thought it would be a good idea.”
“Yes, unfortunately, I’m not a whale.” That makes the two of them laugh a little, but Minwoo taps his foot on the ground, crashing the nice atmosphere.
“She is really…special”, he says with a frown. “Isn’t she too different from your character ?”
Junho’s character in “The other lawyer” is a cold man, who worked his way up during his youth before losing everything after a complicated trial. Even without seeing his accessories and everything, Junho knows that this character wouldn’t be the type to carry a dolphin charm on his bag or to talk about whales with stars in his eyes. But he would be the type to fight for justice and think about ways that other attorneys wouldn’t. Like her.
“I don’t think so. She’s just a good lawyer.”
Attorney Jung gives him a tap on the arm. “That’s well said. See you tomorrow then.”
Minwoo seems less than happy to know that they’ll continue his immersion, but Junho doesn’t care. It feels new and exciting; he would blame the alcohol for his giddiness if he hadn’t felt like that the minute after seeing her talking to the jury with passion.
(He doesn’t even notice that he hasn’t checked for comments since this morning.)