The reason why the viewers feel especially sad when hearing the story about mother whales Park Eun-bin told in “Extraordinary Attorney Woo”
The story about motherhood portrayed in the recent episode of “Extraordinary Attorney Woo” touched the viewers.
In ENA’s Wednesday-Thursday drama “Extraordinary Attorney Woo”, the main character Woo Young-woo (Park Eun-bin) has an extraordinary affection for whales and she can suddenly tell some stories about whales even at work. The image of whales is also used as a symbol in this drama. Being an alienated species, the only mammal living in the ocean, whales symbolize Woo Young-woo, a person with autism spectrum disorder trying to live harmoniously with ordinary people. The story of a dolphin trapped in the aquarium also tells the situation of Woo Young-woo, who is still trying to escape from prejudice in society. In the recent broadcast of “Extraordinary Attorney Woo”, Woo Young-woo brings up the story of the mother whales with her fellow lawyer Choi Soo-yeon (Ha Yoon-kyung) while solving the assault case of a North Korean defector to talk about motherhood.
Woo Young-woo said, “The most famous way of hunting whales is to kill the baby first. They throw a harpoon at the weak baby and as the baby is swimming around in pain, the mother never leaves its side. She can’t abandon her baby that is in pain. That’s when the second harpoon is thrown at the mother that is the ultimate target. Whales are intelligent. She knows that she will also be killed if she doesn’t abandon her baby. But she never does. If I were a whale, would my mom not have abandoned me?”
The North Korean defector in the assault case Woo Young-woo took charge of is a mother whale. Although she somehow got involved in the case in order to get back her money, the mother lived as a fugitive for five years for the sake of her child. She ran away for five years in order to make sure that her daughter could remember her mother’s face. After 5 years, she came back to jail and paid for her crime. In short, to this character, the fear of losing her child is greater than the fear of being punished.
However, Woo Young-woo’s story about mother whales was not only to describe the case of the North Korean defector woman but also to talk about the harsh reality that she faced. That’s why her question “If I were a whale, would my mom not have abandoned me?” made the viewers feel heartbroken. Woo Young-woo was abandoned by her mother. Young-woo’s mother abandoned her but her father Woo Kwang-ho (Jeon Bae-soo) sacrificed a lot and tried his best to raise Woo Young-woo. He chose to live a life for his daughter rather than a life for himself after discovering Young-woo’s talent.
But why did Young-woo’s mother abandon her? Although the identity of the mother has not yet been revealed, the viewers are guessing that Young-woo’s mother is Tae Soo-mi (Jin Kyung), CEO of Taesan law firm – Hanbada’s rival company. Of course, this theory, which is inferred by the names of the two rival companies, is still an assumption by fans. In particular, “Hanbada (which means “One sea”)” is the company that accepted the whale named Woo Young-woo. Tae Su-mi’s company “Taesan” (which means “Tae mountain”), is a place where whales cannot live. If Tae Soo-mi is really Woo Young-woo’s mother and she abandoned her disabled child to climb higher with great ambition, the situation can be seen as a prejudice that society has against disabled people.
The story about mother whales is told to talk about motherhood, but in another way, it seems to create a discussion about how society accepts and embraces disabled people. The drama simply puts Woo Kwang-ho, who protected his disabled daughter until the end, and the mother in comparison to what choice our society would take. Will they be a person who finds a way to live together with the disabled like Jung Myung-seok (Kang Ki-young), Han Seon-young (Baek Ji-won), Lee Joon-ho (Kang Tae-oh), and Choi Soo-yeon (Ha Yoon-kyung) of Hanbada law firm, or like Woo Young-woo’s mother who abandoned her child?
This is why Woo Young-woo’s story about mother whales is especially sad. It makes the viewers want to take care of Woo Young-woo and help her come out to society proudly.
Source: Daum
