Woo Young-woo

"My name is Woo Young-woo. Whether it’s read straight or flipped, it’s still Woo Young-woo. Kayak, deed, rotator, noon, racecar. Woo Young-woo!"

- Young-woo Woo Young-woo is the main character in the South-Korean legal series Extraordinary Attorney Woo.

Character creation
Writer Moon Ji-won had previously written Innocent Witness, a drama movie centering around an autistic girl (Ji-woo) who is the only witness of a crime. Extraordinary Attorney Woo came about when production company AStory asked if Ji-woo could become a lawyer when she grew up. The "aha" moments where Young-woo reaches a breakthrough in the case and visualizes whales swimming by were only added later on during the writing process. Whales were chosen as the topic of her special interest because they are quite visually striking.

Actress Park Eun-bin felt a sense of responsibility for portraying the character in a natural way. She was hesitant about her ability to approach the character with the needed gravity and almost turned down the role because of that. She had only 2 weeks to actually prepare for role because she came right out of another project (The King's Affection). She opted to not imitate any real people or existing characters. Instead, she built the character based on the diagnostic criteria for autism. She also spoke with professors who are experts on autism. Young-woo's long, uninterrupted lines (such as when infodumping about whales or talking about law) were a particular challenge.

Autistic actress Sue Ann Pien provides Young-woo's voice for the English dub.

<!--===Case 1: Extraordinary Attorney Woo=== Young-woo joins the Hanbada law firm and meets her new colleagues. Her first case is attempted murder: her former landlord has apparently been hit over the head by his wife. However, he is not happy to see Young-woo, since he is mad at her father and suspects him of sleeping with his wife (an unbased accusation).

Case 2: The Wedding Dress that Slipped Off
Young-woo handles the case of a wedding dress that slipped off during the wedding ceremony, causing shame and embarrassment to both the bride and the groom's family. Young-woo and Lee Jun-ho pose as a couple to go undercover at the agency that handled the wedding. In Jun-ho, she has also found a conversation partner to talk about whales, but he has to learn to set boundaries; they agree to only talk about whales during lunchtime.

Case 3: This is Pengoo
Kim Jeong-hun, a young autistic man, is accused of beating his older brother to death. Myeong-seok takes on the case and wants Young-woo to join him, because she is also autistic. She is apprehensive because though they are both autistic, she has never met someone like Jeong-hun before. Communication with Jeong-hun is difficult so she asks her dad for help, who suggests trying to connect with something that the client really likes (like he connected with Young-woo over law). Jeong-hun's family has an ambivalent attitude towards her, and the general public starts revealing its negative opinions about autism. During the trial, the opposing lawyer starts badgering her for her autism. In the meantime, she comes to a revelation that can turn the case around, but Jeong-hun's family does not want her on the case anymore because of the opposing lawyer's hostile attitude towards her for her being autistic. The case is passed to another lawyer and ends well, but Young-woo starts writing her resignation letter and starts packing her things.

Case 4: The Strife of the Three Brothers
Though her resignation letter hasn't been processed yet, Young-woo has stopped coming to work and instead part-times in her dad's restaurant. When her best friend's (Dong Geu-ra-mi) dad gets scammed with an unfavourable contract by his brothers, she tries to defer the case to her colleagues, who won't take it due to low chances of succeeding. Young-woo takes ends up taking it, but gets stuck when she is unable to present solid evidence, and the brothers manipulated the only witness. She ends up pulling off a slightly dubious but legally sound scheme with Gue-ra-mi that ends up winning the case. Jun-ho also inquires why she wants to quit being a lawyer, to which she explains that people never see the lawyer Woo Young-woo, only the autistic Woo Young-woo, and that that always gives her side a disadvantage. Jun-ho replies that he does want to be on her side. Young-woo decides to get back her job right before her resignation letter is processed.

Case 5: Wild Card VS Tactician
Young-woo and Min-woo work on a copyright case related to ATM technology. A rivalry between the two starts to unfold, since they're both on one-year contracts and have to prove themselves in order to get their contracts renewed. Jun-ho and Gue-ra-mi tries to teach her how to tell if someone is lying. On a drunken night, Jun-ho confesses to Min-woo that he loves someone at the office, but the latter thinks he's referring to Choi Soo-yeon. Rumors circulate that Tae Soo-mi, CEO of rival law firm Taesan, has an illegitimate daughter.

Case 6: If I Were a Whale
Myeong-seok assigns Young-woo to a case with Soo-yeon, hoping that she'll be able to prove some even-temperedness to counterbalance Soo-yeon's more passionate approach. It concerns a North-Korean defector who was on the run for 5 years since the initial crime, in order to raise her daughter before she'll be tried and sent to prison. This strikes an emotional cord with Young-woo, since she's never known her mother, and they try every possible approach to get probation instead of a prison sentence. At the office, Min-woo has been gossiping about Jun-ho supposedly having a crush on Soo-yeon.-->

Autism
Young-woo is diagnosed with autism at a young age. She did not speak until she was five years old. Her first words were the legal definition of inflicting bodily injury after witnessing her landlord accost her father. Young-woo has memorised verbatim many of her father's law books. She also has an enormous interest in whales: her room is decorated with whale items, and she often relates things she sees in cases to whales. Her father warns her to not talk about whales at the law firm since it is not an appropriate topic to talk about. In addition to whales, Young-woo also has a fascination for palindromes (like her name, which is the same read forwards and backwards).

She is rather sensitive to sound. When going out, she often wears headphones, and she has a tendency to become overwhelmed by busy environments. She often self-regulates by tapping her ears.

Young-woo is very open about being autistic, including at her job.

Relationships

 * Lee Jun-ho: a popular and charming employee at Hanbada law firm. He quite fancies Youn-woo.
 * Jung Myeong-seok: Young-woo's mentor and a senior lawyer at Hanbada. He is initially apprehensive about Young-woo's presence as an autistic lawyer, but quickly comes around.
 * Woo Gwang-ho: Young-woo's father. He raised her by himself, and owns a restaurant.
 * Han Seon-yeong: head of Hanbada law firm. She hired Young-woo due to her excellent performance at law school. Though Young-woo's application was initially rejected by the HR team, Seon-yeong considered that to be a mistake and made sure to get her on board with the company.
 * Choi Soo-yeon: junior lawyer at Hanbada. She went to law school with Young-woo and now works with her on the same team.
 * Kwon Min-woo: junior lawyer at Hanbada. He works on the same team as Young-woo.
 * Dong Geu-ra-mi: Young-woo's somewhat loud and chaotic friend. They've know each other since high school. She works at a small restaurant, where Young-woo sometimes comes to hang out and ask for advice. They have their own handshake.
 * Kim Min-shik: owner of the restaurant where Gue-ra-mi works and Young-woo hangs out. They're friendly with each other, and he sometimes gives her advice as well.

Reception
The series was a massive success both in South Korea and internationally. It reached the highest ratings in the history of ENA (the network that aired it) and lands in the top 10 highest rated Korean television series of all time. It reached the Netflix top 10 television series in 57 countries and spent 21 weeks in the global top 10 for non-English language television series. It was likened to Squid Game in terms of international success.

A common criticism is that her disability is portrayed in a way that is harmless and cute, and that most real autistic people are not like Young-woo at all. Her savantism is another point of criticism, also because it is rare in actual autistic people.

Episode list
Young-woo appears in all 16 episodes of season 1 of Extraordinary Attorney Woo. The series is renewed for a second season, set to air in 2024 without significant cast changes.

Adaptations
The series is set to receive a webtoon adaptation.