Phantom Lawyer: Episodes 1-2
by lovepark
An attorney wakes up one day with the ability to see ghosts and learns that the dead are quite talkative. As he slowly acclimates to these new powers, he must prove that his first client was a victim of medical malpractice, and along the way, help the remaining family find closure after his sudden death.
EPISODES 1-2
The dead tell no tales, but in the case of Phantom Lawyer SHIN YI-RANG (Yoo Yeon-seok), that couldn’t be farther from the truth. As our aptly named hero waves a fan in the courtroom, decked in an all-black suit with a gold patterned tie, a ghost whispers in his ears. Yi-rang, though, was not always a liaison for the deceased, and the story takes us back a year to when it all began.
As a newly minted lawyer, Yi-rang enters the job market with high hopes and brags to his family that firms are lining up to hire him. Then, in the very next second, he gets a message informing him that he did not get the position. The rejections pour in, and Yi-rang goes through the same song and dance until he interviews for Taebaek Law Firm. After a single glance at his resume, firm partner HAN NA-HYUN (Esom) dismisses him without asking a single question, and Yi-rang realizes that his name has been marked with the scarlet letter. It turns out that his prosecutor father died dishonorably, and even after all these years, his infamous legacy holds his son back.
Feeling disheartened, Yi-rang vows to open his own law firm and make everyone regret looking down on him. In his drunken stupor, he drops by the real estate agency just as a nearby shaman gets a heart attack, and some ghostly force passes through our hero. This marks the start of a string of coincidences, and soon, Yi-rang signs a lease for the recently vacated (and ghost infested) office of the aforementioned shaman. The only thing going for the place is its good view of the courthouse, but even that sight gets ruined by the burly floating man (Heo Sung-tae) that no one else can see.
Like any sane person, Yi-rang asks the realtor for his money back, but the latter threatens to tattle to his mom PARK KYEONG-HWA (Kim Mi-kyung) since Yi-rang used the deposit from her butcher shop to set up his firm. Suddenly, being haunted by a ghost doesn’t sound too bad, but then Yi-rang gets possessed, tipping the scales once again. He seeks professional help by finding a priest (Jung Seung-gil) who happens to be an ex-shaman, and he advises Yi-rang to help the ghost remember his identity in order to move on.
The next step in “exorcism 101” is rather easy since the ghost’s wife drops by the office and tells them that her husband’s name was Lee Gang-pung. At once, the memories flood back to Ghost Gang-pung who remembers who he is, but unfortunately for Yi-rang, this also means his unwanted companion remembers why he cannot move on. Five months ago, Gang-pung underwent a simple surgery but died on the table in a case of medical malpractice.
Though the police are still investigating, the wife’s attorney suggests settling for a meager sum, and representing the other party is Na-hyun. Though she dislikes the pompous attorney, she likes winning even more and pushes the wife to sign. Right as the wife puts pen to paper, Yi-rang swoops in and exposes the attorney for colluding with Taebaek Law Firm. The wife promptly fires him, and Yi-rang offers his services pro bono. First client secured.
After working tirelessly, Yi-rang strolls up to the courthouse for his first civil case, and his whole family tags along to watch like overeager spectators for a little league’s game (I love them so much). The proceedings go relatively smoothly with Yi-rang pointing out some crucial facts, but our overconfident pup is no match for Na-hyun who proves why she was made partner at one of the top law firms. She reveals Gang-pung’s shady history to the court, and the information blindsides Yi-rang. More importantly, it riles up Gang-pung, and one side effect of intense emotions is ghostly possession.
Before Yi-rang can escape, Gang-pung enters his body and causes a scene, shouting in a different dialect and threatening to attack the doctor. Luckily for Yi-rang, Na-hyun trips him before he can reach the stand, and a splash of water wakes him up. More embarrassed than hurt, Yi-rang manages to escape the ambulance and returns to his office to do what he should have done from the start: burn the talisman that called Gang-pung to his office.
As the talisman burns, Gang-pung notices his fingers turn to ash and returns to possess Yi-rang’s body. He attacks the priest just as Mom walks in and pushes her aside as well. However, once outside, Gang-pung jumps into a river to give back control and begs the attorney to save his sick daughter. That’s all our softhearted hero needs to hear before stepping into action, and along the way, he bumps into Na-hyun who drives them to the hospital. While Yi-rang runs on ahead, Na-hyun stands outside the emergency room petrified as memories of her past come back to haunt her.
At the hospital, Yi-rang meets with the wife and clears the air between them (he learns that Gang-pung turned a new leaf, and she learns that Yi-rang is simply a strange man who happened to save her daughter). Alas, at home, a bigger problem awaits our attorney since Mom knows about the stolen deposit. To Yi-rang’s confusion, Mom hugs him when he returns and seems suspiciously understanding about this whole ghost-possession hullabaloo. Granted, she isn’t quite over the money issue and makes her son sign over half of the firm to her. Heh.
With Yi-rang back on the case, he sets out to track the missing nurse who witnessed Gang-pung’s death, but finding her turns out to be the easy part. The nurse refuses to testify since the doctor could retaliate, but in exchange, she tells Yi-rang about the EMR (electronic medical record) which would prove that the patient did not die from a heart attack. Of course, the opposition is already aware of this as well, and Taebaek Law Firm CEO YANG DO-KYEONG (Kim Kyung-nam) had the hard drive destroyed. The thing about evildoers, though, is that no one can be trusted, including the gangster Do-kyeong hired.
Turns out, the hard drive is intact, and both Yi-rang and Na-hyun want it. After obtaining some confidential information (Yi-rang through ghostly means; Na-hyun with good old fashioned lying), they learn the gangster’s whereabouts and head over to retrieve it. Yi-rang arrives first with his brother-in-law YOON BONG-SU (Jeon Suk-ho), and their haphazard plan goes as well as expected (i.e., everything goes terribly wrong as soon as they arrive). With alarm bells ringing, Bong-su warns Yi-rang that he’s been spotted as if the hoard of gangsters running right behind him wasn’t enough of a clue.
Somehow Yi-rang and Bong-su manage to keep the gangsters out of the building long enough to find the empty computer as well as a hole to escape. However, as they slip away, Na-hyun arrives impersonating a prosecutor which, granted, is slightly better than Yi-rang’s plan but not by much. (Does dragging your brother-in-law as support but endangering him in the process count as a net positive or negative?)
While Na-hyun distracts the baddies, Gang-pung tells Yi-rang about the secret compartment in the gangster’s car — the man was his old boss because this show loves coincidences — and they find the hard drive. Through sheer dumb luck, Yi-rang has succeeded, but our phantom lawyer is the type of person who can’t ignore the old lady selling vegetables on the street. In other words, rather than escape, he crashes the car into the building, making his heroic entrance, and then promptly gets beaten up since he’s a nerd who spent his time hitting the books rather than the gym.
Thankfully for our captured three, Gang-pung knows how to throw a punch and possesses Yi-rang’s body to fight off the gangsters. After taking everyone down, a drop of water falls on Yi-rang, causing him to faint, which means no one else is around to stop Na-hyun from stealing the hard drive. As she lifts a bat to destroy the evidence, she remembers Yi-rang coming to her rescue and stops. For the first time in her life, Na-hyun loses a case, and the doctor is arrested.
Before moving from this world, Gang-pung visits his daughter and assures her that his death was never her fault. She blamed herself for telling her dad to go to the hospital to get his snoring checked out, and by some miracle, she hears his voice and finds some solace. Now that all his lingering regrets are gone, Gang-pung leaves, and Yi-rang looks a little forlorn as he watches his first client vanish into golden dust. Life moves on, and Yi-rang hopes to keep his office ghost free by throwing every type of warding around his door in a mishmash of religious and shamanistic traditions. However, as soon as he enters, he’s greeted by his next client: an undead schoolgirl who fell off a roof.
The first week of Phantom Lawyer was silly, ridiculous, and over-the-top. The story relies on a gimmick with barely fleshed out side characters and the jokes lean more slapstick, requiring some suspension of belief. There’s also something oddly hollow about the show, much like its main character’s empty office, and the awkward background artists and props don’t help the uncanny feeling that occasionally pops up in scenes. Not to mention the inconsistent treatment of the ghost as actors move around him, thus breaking the immersion and revealing to the audience that he is, in fact, corporeal. Despite my complaints, though, I wouldn’t write off the show as a total loss just yet.
As someone who will watch even the most terrible shows for a well-written character (rare, but they exist), I actually enjoyed watching Phantom Lawyer because of Yi-rang and his family. I loved their interactions at the restaurant, the way they showed up at the courthouse to support him on his first day, and all the little quirks that added up into a wholesome whole. The performances also bolstered my enjoyment with Yoo Yeon-seok capturing the perfect balance of adorable and heroic, Kim Mi-kyung imbuing pathos in every scene, and Jeon Suk-ho being a riot in a lovable, hapless way. Na-hyun also shows some potential as a character, not because of her tragic backstory, but from her absurd attempt to break into a drug trafficker’s den. (Side note: what kind of 20-year drug operation is so shoddily run?) I can see her fitting in with Yi-rang’s crew or at least turning into a frenemy — something akin to the bromance in Good Manager. While I wouldn’t say this first week was amazing, there was enough humor and heart to keep me engaged, and hopefully with this case a week format, the story will get better as time goes on.
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