“Divorce Attorney Shin” (신성한, 이혼)

By Jae-Ha Kim
Substack
May 1, 2023

☆☆☆☆
Shin Sung-han (played by Cho Seung-woo)
Lee Seo-jin (played by Han Hye-jin)
↑Note: Korean names denote the surname followed by the given name.

A trio of middle-aged male friends is at the center of this series. Sung-han (Cho Seung-woo) is a classical musician turned divorce attorney. Kim Sung-kyun plays his best friend Hyung-geun, who is reticent to give his wife — who is already pregnant with her new partner’s baby — a divorce. And Jeong-sik (Jung Moon-sung) runs a real estate business in a building owned by Sung-han.

The three are losers in the eyes of the neighborhood halmoni who runs a ramyun shop. She doesn’t hate them. Rather, she feels sorry for them, mainly because they are men with potential who have no significant others. But what they lack in popularity, they make up in their loyal friendship with each other. It was refreshing to watch a series where the focus was on men’s vulnerability.

Sung-han’s career change came after his younger sister died by suicide after losing guardianship of her only child. Married into a cold chaebol family, she lost everything after the divorce. And her having seeked psychiatric treatment while studying in the United States was used against her in the legal custody battle for the boy.

The way the series reveals certain key points, it’s not a spoiler to say that she did not choose to die. If anything, she wanted to live for the sake of her son. The villain is revealed early on, but one of the frustrating elements of this otherwise good series is the way it pits women against each other. Yes, the stepmother has some serious issues. But her wealthy milquetoast husband is almost worse by his lack of action. He didn’t take care of his first wife well enough. He allows his second wife to dictate what will happen to his biological son. And he does little to protect the emotional needs of his child.

Just about any man can impregnate a women. But not all of them will be good fathers.

There are also subplots involving a revenge porn video that destroys a popular radio personality’s career and could jeopardize her own custody battle for the son she loves.

If I have to nitpick one element of the series, it happens early on in the first episode. Sung-han goes to talk to the young son of the DJ (played by Han Hye-jin) to see which parent he would prefer to live with. He’s not accompanied by a police officer or a social worker. He just goes to the school and takes the third grader (who he has never met before!) out for burgers and a chat.

Nooooooo! Stanger danger alert! This should never be normalized as A-OK in any society.

Airdates: Sixteen hour-long episodes aired from March 4 through April 23, 2023 on JTBC. I watched this K-drama on Netflix.

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