Noh Ji-uk (Suspicious Partner) as an autistic coded character
Noh Ji-uk has a lot of autistic traits: he is not polite unless he wants to be, he's very direct, sometimes a bit weird ("was that too cool?") and awkward when flirting with Bong-hui. To his colleagues (outside of his own law firm) he comes across as cold and lacking social skills, someone who has no interest in people liking him, but he is extremely dedicated to his work with high standards of morality…
With all the attention given to autism with Extraordinary Attorney Woo I want to argue why I think Noh Ji-uk in Suspicious Partner is an autistic coded character.
Why?
Woo Young-woo in EAW is quite a stereotypical portrayal of autism. Although, for once we do have a female autistic character (autism used to be strongly associated with white males), the writer did write her as a genius with exceptional skills. However, only a very small percentage of autistic people are geniuses. The show tried to show that there are as many "varieties" of autism as there are autistic people. However, they chose another very stereotypical character to make this plot point. I know a lot of autistic people identify with Woo Young-woo, but it made me wonder if there is a character in a kdrama, that represents my "version" of autism.
Autism isn't the same for everyone
There are many autistic characters in kdramas. Apart from Woo Young-woo, there is Sang-Man in Rain or Shine (Just between lovers) and Moon Sang-tae (It's okay not to be okay). But autistic people are all different and autism presents in many different ways. Not all autistics are like Woo Young-woo, or Sang-Man or Moon Sang-tae, but they are all autistic. Similarly, not every autistic person would be like Noh Ji-uk. But I see myself in him a lot.
Autistic coded
I use autistic coded, because I haven't come across anything that officially said that Noh Ji-uk is in fact autistic. I doubt he was written as autistic. As a real person, he would have, like many autistics, gone undiagnosed and undetected (unless you know what you're looking for). This does not mean he can't be autistic, it just means that mainstream understanding of what an autistic person looks like and how they behave is very restricted to stereotypes.
Because Noh Ji-uk is "accidentally" autistic (as in the writer probably didn't intend him to be), he can't be a fully developed autistic character and some aspects of autism he would experience in real life as an autistic person, are missing in his portrayal. But this is the case with all autistic characters on screen and doesn't refute my argument.
Disclaimer
Of course, this is my personal opinion. There is no right or wrong answer to this. However, I am actually autistic and I recognise myself and some of my autistic friends in a lot of the things Noh Ji-uk does and in how he behaves and reacts. On it's own, everything I am listing could be explained in a myriad of ways, but taken together, to me he reads as autistic.
Noh Ji-uk in Suspicious Partner
Uncomfortable in crowds/close proximity to people:
Autistic people often dislike crowded places and people invading their personal space. The reason is sensory overload and problems with filtering sensory input. If you can't tune out noise and talking around you, you get stressed, you won't be able to concentrate, because you are distracted by hearing conversations around you just as loud as what your friend is saying next to you. Add the smells and physical contact from people bumping into you and this stress from feeling overwhelmed can for some people become hard to control and lead to autistic meltdown. It can also just be uncomfortable, but totally manageable, depending on the autistic person and also on what kind of day they are having.
1) One of the first scenes we see Noh Ji-uk in is the subway scene in the first episode: he is super shy, almost awkward, being pushed around, his shoulders hunching slightly, he looks like he doesn't know where to turn, shies away from people bumping into him, making himself small, ducking away. This is in contrast to his very confident demeanour and posture in court as a prosecutor, which is why this scene stood out. He is very confident in situations he knows and where he is in control, but quite the opposite in a crowded subway. He looks extremely uncomfortable with people invading his personal space and strangers behaving in unexpected ways.
2) There is another office scene, where Eun-hyuk and Mr. Byeon sit on his desk, making it untidy and are just too close for comfort: Noh Ji-uk repeatedly and firmly shoves them off, wants them gone and keep their distance to him.
It's a persistent stereotype that autistic people don't like small talk and don't follow certain social conventions. To neurotypical people this often comes across as rude. A lot has been written about why this is. One of possible reasons is a wish for meaningful conversation rather than "empty" small talk. Engaging in meaningful conversation, however, for very practical reasons, is not possible with every person you pass in the hallway and thus is something you only do with people you care about and spend more time with. As a result some autistic people do not engage much with people that are not important to them. Especially in work place environments this can be difficult, as they depend on politeness and small talk to create an atmosphere where people like to work with you and help you. For this reason, many autistic people learn to do small talk. But as it doesn't always come naturally, it can feel draining and depends on how much energy they have on the day. The ability and willingness to engage in small talk often decreases with e.g. stress levels or sensory inputs, like a noisy environment.
3) We learn early on, that Noh Ji-uk is not respected by his colleagues as a prosecutor, nor later as a lawyer. He doesn't greet his colleagues, which offends them. He isn't interested in them, so he doesn't do it. He doesn't see the point in investing into social relationships the way other people might and the way Mr. Byeon asks him to, when they go for drinks in a bar: to fit in, to feel validated, etc. As we know this fails spectacularly. All Noh Ji-uk cares about is doing his job well.
4) Which is also why he doesn't care much about being voted worst prosecutor, because he knows it means he is good and he isn't interested in the social consequences.
5) There is a scene at the end of the series, when he is reinstated as a prosecutor and his colleagues and Cha Yoo-jung greet him in his office. They are not the people he wanted to see, and he seems puzzled, almost irritated at them being there. He doesn't realise the socially appropriate behaviour would be to at least pretend to be thankful and happy about the gesture of welcoming him back. Cha Yoo-jung comments, she forgot what a jerk he is, but he is already thinking about the case, not interested at all in his colleagues or what they might think of him.
6) The way Noh Ji-uk treats his colleagues as a prosecutor may seem arrogant, but I don't think he has an arrogant personality in other contexts (e.g. with his friends and family). When he says things about them being stupid or not very clever, he isn't laughing at them. He has a neutral face, because to him it's a fact, he is not trying to be mean. Of course saying someone is stupid is neither nice nor socially acceptable and being autistic is not an excuse: but the point is, he doesn't say it to hurt them, he states it as a fact and doesn't realise or care that it comes across as rude.
Emotions and understanding his feelings:
A lot of autistic people struggle with emotional regulation. Part of this can be connected to difficulties with recognising emotions and as a result struggling to control and regulate them appropriately. If I know that I am angry or upset and what exactly I am angry or upset about, I can take steps to deal with that. From personal experience I know that I sometimes need some time (hours, days…) to figure out if I am more sad or more upset or rather disappointed and why I am upset or sad and what exactly it was that made me sad or upset, or disappointed. The more stressed or overwhelmed I am, the less I am able to figure out how I feel and what the appropriate reaction should be (to regulate emotional reactions). The most uncontrolled versions of this are autistic meltdown and autistic shutdown, but for me it mostly appears as outbursts of anger and frustration. E.g. recently I shouted at a driver who overtook me on my bicycle in a very dangerous way, which stressed and scared me. Shouting at him, in the heat of the moment, felt like a great way to relieve that tension and stress. Of course it wasn't helpful at all: but in the moment I was unable to regulate those emotions, they took over.
7) Some of fans favourite scenes are Noh Ji-uk loosing his temper. Some might say he is choleric, but the shouting isn't aimed to create opposition, to alienate or hurt people, but rather a release of emotion and stress. It is noticeable, that he loses his temper in very specific situations, like the office meetings when people start to go off topic. It looks mostly like frustration. He wants to concentrate on work and can't understand why they cannot simply do the meeting without derailing. He usually looks on for a while until the frustration about the fact, that he can't stop it from happening gets too much. He starts shouting, but it is used not to hurt people or bully them, but rather an expression of that frustration, a tool to release tension that has built up. It is of course not a helpful reaction.
8) There is another scene, where he resorts to shouting. When he opens up his law firm, people are crowding around him, chatting and arguing loudly. He covers his ears, until he explodes in frustration and shouts at them. This scene looks a lot like sensory overload to me. Not to the point where a meltdown might happen, but uncomfortable enough, that he needs it to stop. And like the derailed office meetings, he deals with the situation by shouting, frustrated about the behaviour of his colleagues and frustrated about his lack of control over it.
A strong sense of morals is something that is often associated with autistic people, to the point where it can get a bit black and white and where it can be physically uncomfortable to go against what you think is the right thing to do.
9) Noh Ji-uk's sense of morals is a red thread throughout the whole series. The most notable is him not being able to abandon his principles and imprison Bong-hui in order to save his career. It could be argued, that he was already in love with Bong-hui, which is why he decided to be honest about the two murder weapons and drop the charges. But I think it is also reasonable to say, that it was simply against his morals to do so. After the case is closed, there are a few scenes, where we see him reach for every straw that might reveal the real killer. It seems obvious, that he has a strong desire to solve the case, not for her sake, but for his own, to get closure and to arrest the real culprit (this changes later on in the series, when he clearly says, that he wants to catch the killer to clear her name).
10) His need to do the right thing goes so far, that he disregards ranks and hierarchies (some even say that autistic people have a disregard for hierarchy and difficulties respecting people simply because of their rank). There are several scenes where Noh Ji-uk calls out the inappropriate behaviour of the lead prosecutor with no regard for the political consequences: Once he confronts him in his office about his obsession to frame Bong-hui, another time he threatens him in the elevator. This behaviour causes him and his colleagues to have a disadvantage in court and possibly contributes to them loosing cases. All of this of course happens after defying the lead prosecutor has already cost him his job. But doing what he thinks is the right thing and achieving justice is more important to him.
11) Another case revealing how important it is to him to do "the right thing" is the case where a mother wants to go to prison in place of her son. There is a conflict between keeping a clients secrets and not being allowed to lie in court. Eun-hyuk wants to keep his client's secret, which he believes you should as a lawyer, or you might loose all your clients. Noh Ji-uk is committed to telling the truth. He wants to find the real culprit rather than letting an innocent person go to prison, whatever the motive. To him the matter is quite clear and black and white: finding the real culprit is the right thing to do. Eun-hyuk sees the greys in mitigating circumstances (years of abuse by the hands of the victim and potentially a son who killed to free his mother from this tyranny). He wants to respect the wishes of his client and acknowledges that there is a dilemma and that it's not easy to decide what to do.
12) Noh Ji-uk's sense of morals is also strongly related to the reasons why he struggles to be a lawyer. He struggles to do anything he doesn't think is morally right. He doesn't want to represent clients who are clearly the perpetrators (the scene where he lectures the mom trying to bust out her bully of a teenage son).
However, it is not just a preference, it sometimes seems almost physically impossible to go against his morals. There is a scene where Mr. Bang says it's been 2 years and he has still not adapted to being a lawyer, pointing out that other people would have learnt by now. Noh Ji-uk, however, is suffering from depression because of it.
Both, the strong moral compass and not being able to go against it, to me, are very autistic traits. I struggle at lot when asked to do tasks that don't feel right, e.g. at work. It is not as simple as a mere decision to do it or not do it. It is similar to a person afraid of heights not being able to move in a triggering situation. Noh Ji-uk is unable to pretend, unable to "just do the job". He is bad at being a lawyer because he can't force himself to do things that are against his convictions and it takes a toll on his mental health.
He doesn't look autistic:
Compared to e.g. Woo Young-woo, Noh Ji-uk might not look as obviously autistic. I do not either. A lot of autistic people, do not look stereotypically autistic. This has got a lot to do with autistic masking, which is the ability to hide your autism and act as if you were neurotypical (e.g. do small talk, make eye contact, no obvious stimming, … the list is endless). It takes a lot of energy to do this and it varies from person to person how well they can mask, if at all. It also depends on how much energy an autistic person has at a certain time. When I am stressed or tired, I am not able to mask as well. The consequence of masking is that a lot of autistic people pass as neurotypical in daily life without anyone knowing (sometimes including themselves) that they are in fact autistic. Masking is one reason why there are so many undiagnosed and late diagnosed autistic people.
13) To be able to mask a lot of autistic people observe others in order to learn and copy behaviours. This is often subconscious, but it happens all the time. This can result in a very deep understanding of how people act, which can go beyond the understanding neurotypicals might have, who use social conventions and behaviours intuitively. Noh Ji-uk is very intelligent, with excellent analytical skills. He graduated early. The way he can interrogate people, even manipulate them shows great insight into peoples motives and behaviours. This only applies, when he pays attention (which he does when working). (But similar to the points about masking: he can be incredibly oblivious to everything that is going on, if he doesn't care and doesn't pay attention.)
Masking itself can be very draining. Similar to when an autistic person feels overwhelmed, a lot of masking requires them to recharge. How a person recharges is different for everyone. For many people it involves being alone (or at least reducing social interactions) and doing something they love. After a day at work, where I have to do a lot of small talk, smile, be engaged or in general do things out of my comfort zone, I am often very exhausted when I come home to the point where I don't have the energy to cook, go shopping or sometimes even take a shower. Doing my favourite things, by myself, where i can be as much my own autistic self without needing to pretend or hide anything is what I need to replenish my energy.
14) We do actually get a few scenes where Noh Ji-uk comes home after work and heads straight for his quarters upstairs: lying or sitting on the sofa and not moving while listening to music on his stereo. If he was written as an autistic character, this would be him recharging after an exhausting day at work.
(Of course in Suspicious Partner this is conflated with his nightmares and his inability to sleep because of them. But it could be argued that he mostly has these nightmares when he is more exhausted from cases/work than usual.)
There are a lot of details in Suspicious Partner that although they don't mean a person is autistic, they are co-occurring or consequences of being autistic and fit my general impression of Noh Ji-uk being autistic. They might also simply be details in the story that relate to several of the categories above and as a result have ended up in the miscellaneous category.
15) Noh Ji-uk doesn't seem to have a lot of friends, but the few friends he has, are very important to him. There is nothing that says autistic people can't have a lot of friends or that if you only have a few close friends you are autistic. But because frequent social interactions can be draining and a lot of autistic people are already drained from living in a neurotypical society, keeping up a lot of friendships is often not possible and keeping fewer close friends that would be okay with longer radio silences is often the result.
16) Him having a hard time forgiving Eun-hyuk (and Cha Yoo-jung) can also be a form of lack of emotional regulation. The betrayal by his two best friends, his two only friends is incredibly hard for him to forget and let go. At the same time he cannot let go of the friendship, leading to him tolerating Eun-hyuk and keeping him around, but letting him know every now and then, that he hasn't forgiven.
16) Him not acting in the appropriate way: He sprays Eun-hyuk and Bong-hui with the water hose and is told by Mr. Bang to act according to his age. It is used as comic relief, but in it's essence this could be interpreted as him not handling his jealousy in the appropriate way. It could be a failure to regulate his emotions properly but also simply not acting in a socially acceptable mature way.
17) Noh Ji-uk can also be awkward and a bit weird. There are many instances used as comic relief, where he acts out of jealousy and does and says awkward things to the amusement of Bong-hui. There are also several scenes where he gives her advice only to sound a bit full of himself, and congratulating himself, e.g. when he tells her to continue to be shameless and accept his offer to live and work with him, only to walk away, saying to himself "was that too cool?".
18) Equally funny and awkward was his reaction to the young boy suddenly having to stay at his place. We see him completely out of his comfort zone, not knowing how to behave and deal with a child, which is again used for comic relief. However, it looks very much like him having no clue what to do, how to even talk to a child and shying away from trying. But as soon as they find common ground they form the most heartwarming relationship.
19) When he is not paying attention or doesn't care, he is completely oblivious to other people and their feelings. Mr. Bang tells Bong-hui that he had several colleagues develop crushes on him, without him noticing and of course Bong-hui stalking him for months and having a crush on him, went completely unnoticed.
20) However, similar to (13), when he is paying attention Noh Ji-uk is super considerate of Bong-hui and her feelings. He is always trying to understand her and not upset her. This of course is not just an autistic thing. However, because there are often misunderstandings resulting from different communication styles between autistic people and neurotypicals, we are often extra careful with people we love. To avoid accidentally upsetting anyone, we end up investing a lot of energy in checking what people want and what their boundaries and needs are, which manifests as being extremely considerate, much like Noh Ji-uk. This results in a lot of green flag moments, like him respecting her need for more time or when she changes her mind about accepting him. Or the scene where he notices her unusual neck tie and discovers the bruise when he checks in on her, but retreats and gives her space, when she asks for it.
There are probably many more examples that could be listed here. If you can think of any, let me know, maybe there can be a part 2. Let me know what you think. Do you agree? Disagree? I would love to hear and discuss it.
(picture credits netflix and sbs.co.kr)
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