The Attorney
| The Attorney | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster | |
| Hangul | 변호인 |
| Hanja | 辯護人 |
| Revised Romanization | Byeonhoin |
| McCune–Reischauer | Pyŏnhoin |
| Directed by | Yang Woo-suk |
| Written by | Yang Woo-suk Yoon Hyeon-ho |
| Produced by | Choi Jeong-ho Choi Jae-won |
| Starring | Song Kang-ho Kim Young-ae Oh Dal-su Kwak Do-won Im Si-wan |
| Cinematography | Lee Tae-yoon |
| Edited by | Kim Sang-bum Kim Jae-bum |
| Music by | Jo Yeong-wook |
Production company | Withus Film |
| Distributed by | Next Entertainment World |
Release date |
|
Running time | 127 minutes |
| Country | South Korea |
| Language | Korean |
| Box office | US$74.1 million |
The Attorney (Korean: 변호인; RR: Byeonhoin) is a 2013 South Korean legal drama film directed and co-written by Yang Woo-suk in his directorial debut. With 11,375,954 tickets sold and a revenue of ₩82.9 billion, The Attorney became the 15th-best-selling Korean film of all time and the second-highest-grossing Korean film of 2013.
It was inspired by the real-life "Burim case" of 1981 when, during the authoritarian Chun Doo-hwan regime, 22 students, teachers and office workers who belonged to a book club were arrested without warrants on fabricated charges that they were North Korea sympathizers. Roh Moo-hyun, then a tax lawyer from Busan, formed a legal team with his allies, including Moon Jae-in and Kim Kwang-il, to defend the arrested individuals against the government. After the case, Roh became an influential human rights lawyer throughout the 1980s; he later entered politics and became the 9th president of South Korea. Later, Moon Jae-in also became the 12th president of South Korea.