KUALA LUMPUR: Netflix's hit K-drama Extraordinary Attorney Woo which follows the story of a high-functioning autistic lawyer has prompted some soul-searching in South Korea.
According to AFP, the most-watched non-English show for over a month on Netflix even has members of K-Pop sensation BTS as fans of the 16-episode series.
In it, rookie lawyer Woo Young-woo is fiercely intelligent but displays visible autistic traits like Echolalia, which features the precise repetition of words or sentences, often out of context.
Although her condition helps her find brilliant solutions to legal conundrums, it also often leaves her socially isolated.
Actress Park Eun-bin, 29, who plays the titular character said that she initially hesitated to accept the role.
"I felt I had a moral responsibility as an actor. I knew the show was inevitably going to have an influence on people with autism and their families," she said.
Park added: "It was the first time that I had absolutely no idea what to do, when it came to how to express things, while I was reading the script."
Although the series has been well-received, some Korean families of autistic people have described the show as unrealistic and pure "fantasy".
Lee Dong-ju, the mother of an autistic child, had described the achievement of Woo to be akin to, "a kid winning an Olympic medal for cycling without being able to walk yet."
But psychiatry professor Kim Eui-jung of the Ewha Womans University Mokdong Hospital said that there was actually some truth to Woo's story than many South Koreans realise.
She explained that a third of people on the spectrum have average or above-average intelligence, and might not have any noticeable autistic characteristics or even realise they have the condition.
Lee Da-bin is one such person on the spectrum but was not diagnosed until later in life.
"People don't recognise the mild forms of autism at all. I feel that I'm being erased," said Lee.
She shares many traits with the fictional Woo, from hypersensitivity to taste to academic excellence despite suffering from bullying.
She grew up knowing she was different but blamed herself for not being able to fit in.
It was only after she had dropped out of school and began seeing a psychiatrist for depression that she was diagnosed with autism and her teenage struggles to connect with others began to make sense.
"It was a life where you would not even speak 10 words a day. I'd lived my whole life thinking that I'm just a weird person and it's my fault that I can't get along with other people," she said of her time in school.
Professor in psychiatry at Chung-Ang University Hospital in Seoul, Kim Hee-jin, explained that public awareness or understanding of high-functioning autism is still very limited in South Korea.
According to her, early interventions can help prevent those on the spectrum, "from blaming themselves for the challenges they face due to autism, such as difficulty making and maintaining friendships."
For Lee Da-bin, life has been much better since receiving her diagnosis and she has been able to restart her studies with the ultimate goal of a career in medicine.
Like the fictional Attorney Woo, whose struggles with dating and dreams of living fully independently are touchingly portrayed in the hit show, Lee said that she wants a life with a sense of agency and connection.
"I want to make enough money to support myself and afford my own place, where I can live with someone I love," she said.