Innocent Witness is a 2019 South Korean drama film directed by Lee Han. The main plot of the film is about the relationship between a lawyer and an autistic student.
Soon-ho is an attorney who needs to pay his father's debt. One day, he gets a murder case: Mi-ran, a housekeeper was accused of murdering her master. Mi-ran claimed that she found her master dead in his own room. The only witness of this case is an autistic high school student named Ji-woo. In order to convince Ji-woo to bear witness, Soon-ho decides to meet and befriend her.
This film provides examples of:
- Amoral Attorney: Zigzagged with Soon-ho. He was a former human-rights lawyer, then employed in a law firm which is notorious for siding with evil companies. He tries defending his client even that means insulting witnesses he befriended, but then sides with the witness when finding out they were right.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Kyung-Hee looks like Ji-woo's best friend, but is actually just using her, and always abuses her behind people's backs.
- Bullying the Disabled:
- Most of Ji-woo's classmates bully her because of her autistic behavior.
- In the first trial, Soon-ho's side states that Ji-woo's autism is a mental problem that makes her unable to be a valid witness, which hurts her deeply.
- The Butler Did It: Double subverted with Mi-ran. At first, Mi-ran claims that she is innocent of murdering her master and it looks like she is right. However, it is revealed that Mi-ran is lying because she got an order from the victim's son.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Yoon-Jae is the CEO of CA, a feminine hygiene manufacturer accused of its products causing cancer.
- Hollywood Autism: Ji-woo is an autistic student who interested in puzzle games and states things which make logical sense, but is not good at communication and identifying others' facial expressions. She also has sensitive hearing.
- Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Soon-ho is struggling with which side he wants to be on: Soo-In, a idealistic attorney fighting with a big company, or Byung-Woo, a cynical partnership of Soon-ho's law firm who states that he needs some "pollution".
