ENA weeknight drama Honour is drawing attention to the "past incident" that binds the three lawyers Lee Na-young, Jung Eun-Chae and Lee Chung-ah into a community of fate and to the founding background of law firm L&J.
ENA weeknight drama Honour (directed by Park Gun-ho, written by Park Ga-yeon, planned by KT StudioGini, produced by How Pictures, hereinafter "Honour") is a mystery pursuit about three female lawyers who confront a past that has returned as a massive scandal head-on. In the drama, Yoon Ra-young (Lee Na-young), Kang Shin-jae (Jung Eun-Chae) and Hwang Hyun-jin (Lee Chung-ah) are friends who have maintained a relationship for 20 years since their college days in their 20s and are the lawyers who founded the law firm L&J (Listen and Join), which specializes in defending female victims of crime. But their partnership is more than simple friendship or a career extension. L&J reflects the meaning of "listening to victims' stories (Listen) and joining them (Join)," and as Yoon Ra-young revealed in previously released preview footage, it clearly shows the conviction "we wanted to become the person they desperately needed." At the same time, it raises curiosity about where that goal originated and what led the three in the same direction.
In particular, the "past" they share comes with a weight beyond a mere setting. The incident, which has not yet been revealed in detail, is a secret that tightly bound the three and is likely the starting point that gave birth to the current L&J. Their relationship, which is more than friendship and deeply entangled in each other's lives, is presumed to have been formed by passing the same time and sharing the story that led them to stand on the side of victims.
The actors' direct explanations of the core points of their relationships add credibility to this narrative. Lee Na-young described the emotion that runs through the three characters as "a bond of solidarity that bears the same secret beyond friendship." She said it is a relationship of survival and honor, of protecting one another without collapse even if broken. She explained that the bond is possible not simply because they are longtime friends but because they are people who have shared the same burden.
Jung Eun-Chae pointed to the moments where the power of a 20-year friendship emerges in the work. Tacit moments that communicate without full explanation, the same convictions and similar temperaments formed over a long time led them to the same place, she interpreted. As she said, "the starting point of every story is tragic fate and solidarity," she also hinted that their past connects to their present choices.
Lee Chung-ah's point is more intuitive. "The feeling that runs through the three is to protect one another," she said. In relationships tied by words like love and friendship, many emotions exist, but she believed what has kept them together to this day is ultimately "the desire to protect one another and keep each other from getting hurt." Rather than grand definitions, this simple but earnest attitude toward the other person is presumed to be the strength that has sustained the three lawyers' relationship and the foundation that led to their current choices.
The law firm L&J declared it would stand by victims. But at its start, the silence and secrets the three carried together 20 years ago are connected like a fuse. Questions about why they decided to become victims' "last bastion" and how that secret and the founding of L&J are intertwined are raising expectations for the drama. The production team said, "The solidarity shown by Lee Na-young, Jung Eun-Chae and Lee Chung-ah will be more than reassuring; it will be harrowing," and asked viewers to "watch the broadcast together to unravel how the incident 20 years ago connects to the present L&J and the mysterious threads of fate."
Meanwhile, ENA weeknight drama Honour is based on the Swedish drama of the same name and will premiere on ENA at 10 p.m. on Mon., Feb. 2, and be available on KT Genie TV and Coupang Play.
[Photo] KT StudioGini
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