Justice has been served, with Mun Ka Young and Lee Jong Suk ready to devour with their new drama “Law and The City.” Set in modern-day South Korea, we meet a group of five attorneys who live in a ruthless and indifferent world, striving to make the most of each day in their office, all while enjoying an occasional meal together. Although the premise of the plot isn’t particularly exhilarating at first glance, we soon discover that life doesn’t have to be like an over-the-top soap opera to be interesting.
Warning: spoilers from episodes 1-2 ahead!
After nine years as an associate attorney in a medium-sized law firm, Ahn Ju Hyeong (Lee Jong Suk) has reached a point in his life where few things can impress him. He is merely happy with getting his job done — especially when he doesn’t want to do it — and receiving his monthly payment, without burdening himself unnecessarily. This makes him appear indifferent and even a little cynical at first. However, at second glance, you realize he is simply forthright. He sees things for what they are, focusing on facts rather than prejudices, and he fulfills his duty without overly involving his feelings. In that sense, he is the perfect attorney: sharp, straight-to-the-point, and unrelenting.
If you are familiar with Lee Jong Suk’s game, then you can already guess how devastatingly charismatic he can be when he shows his most serious side in this type of legal K-drama. But this time around, he highlights his character with a newfound maturity that perfectly matches Ju Hyeon’s professional side without losing his goofy side. As Ju Hyeon likes to clarify, he has almost worked, but not quite yet, a decade in the field. He has seen much of the same things over the years, so you can’t blame him for becoming that aloof to his environment. Ju Hyeong seems detached even from his own family, but you can already guess that there’s more behind his perfectly arranged persona.
Nonetheless, he isn’t a complete sociopath who is incapable of making any friends. On the contrary, he is quite close to some of his colleagues from other law firms. In a mix that resembles some classic and well-loved K-dramas like “Hospital Playlist” or the “Reply” series, this show also has a very colorful squad that sparks both comedy and comfort in a unique sense. You have Bae Mun Jeong (Ryu Hye Young), a food lover who seems to be always rushing somewhere; Ha Sang Gi (Im Seong Jae), a thrifty man who would endure a bunch of work only if it comes with a hefty bonus; and Cho Chang Won (Kang You Seok), the typical chatty man who doesn’t exactly need an audience to yap away.
Together, they make an already remarkable and unforgettable group. You could easily spend hours and hours watching them share a hearty meal while engaging in a chaotic yet perfectly synchronized conversation. Nonetheless, things take an unexpected turn when one of their members, Yoo Dong Wook (cameo by Kim Kyung Nam), decides to leave his firm, and his place is occupied by Kang Hui Ji (Mun Ka Young). This new presence will not only bring fresh air to their group but will quite literally shake Ju Hyeon’s world.
With her characteristic charm and beauty, Mun Ka Young portrays Kang Hui Ji, a young and curious attorney who is eager to learn a lot as she joins a new law firm. She is a goody-two-shoes type who tries to make the world a better place with one good deed at a time. But make no mistake, her good-natured personality doesn’t necessarily mean that she is naive to a fault, as it is common in some female leads. On the contrary, she uses her resources to her advantage and knows when and how to step in or withdraw, depending on the case. In that sense, she is the perfect contraposition to Lee Jong Suk’s character.
This makes the fact that they actually met 10 years prior during a backpack trip around Hong Kong even more interesting. Including a fated connection like this one to the plot turns a typical office romance into a deeper and more appealing one. And their encounter isn’t all that impossible to begin with, given that South Korea is a small country and both of them are attorneys, so it doesn’t seem out of tune with the show either. To create something like this in a show, without making it too cliché or forced, you would need a solid script, talented actors, and brilliant chemistry, and this show definitely has it all.
Adding to this already well-rounded story, two secondary plots include a variety of legal cases that show us, in a fictionalized way, some pressing issues in modern society that viewers can relate to outside of the screen. There’s a visually impaired man who struggles with assault charges by his former lover, or the show depicts a family about to be evicted from their home by the bank. There’s, at the same time, the goings-on among the group of senior attorneys who manage each law firm. As they soon find themselves in a predicament when the owner of the building gives them no choice but to merge their firms, their decisions will put them and their teams in a tight spot.
Though we cannot be sure whether this show will have an ultimate villain or a greater conflict coming from the merging, with just two episodes in, this K-drama has succeeded in hooking viewers with its brilliant way of showing the complexities of life. Nothing is completely black or white, but rather a gradient of all types of shades. Moving forward, Ju Hyeong, Hui Ji, and their squad will have to learn how to show their true colors, both as individuals and as a group of attorneys in the same firm, in the upcoming episodes of “Law and The City”!
Watch the first episodes of “Law and The City” here:
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Andy zar is an avid drama watcher, from K-dramas to C-dramas, she believes any weekend is a good weekend to enjoy 12 hours of binge-watching dramas. She loves romance, web comics, and K-pop. Her favorite groups are EXO, TWICE, Red Velvet, and BOL4.
Currently watching: “The First Night with the Duke” and “Law and The City”
Plans to watch: “Reborn“
