Extraordinary Attorney Woo — Filming Locations & Real Places

Watch Extraordinary Attorney Woo and you start wondering whether that revolving door Young-woo walks through is a real place.

Turns out it's a real office building called Centerfield in Gangnam. The scene where Young-woo waltzes through it with Jun-ho's help was actually filmed in that building's lobby.

Even funnier is the gimbap shop. It's a real restaurant in Suwon's Haenggung-dong café district, a Japanese place called Kazaguruma. Unlike the show, there's no gimbap on the actual menu — just udon and rice bowls. Given how happily she eats gimbap on screen, more than a few fans have probably shown up expecting some and been thrown off.

The episode-8 Sodeok-dong storyline needs a different frame. The 'Gyeonghae Provincial Office' scene in that episode was really filmed at the Chungbuk Provincial Office and Provincial Council — but that's the filming location for episode 8 alone, not the show's overall setting. Seoul and Suwon are the drama's real stage; Chungbuk just shows up once.

화성 서장대·공심돈, 수원 화성 — 극 중 수원 행궁동 배경 인근 · Wikimedia Commons

The village of Sodeok-dong itself was filmed at a real place too — Dongbu Village in Changwon, Gyeongsangnam-do. Since filming wrapped, the whale mural from the show is still painted on a wall at the village entrance, and the symbolic hackberry tree still stands where it always did.

Rewatching the show, what it gets right is that it never lets Young-woo settle into being just 'a kind, capable person.' She's written with clear vulnerabilities and desires to match her ability, and that balance is what keeps this from staying a simple feel-good tale.

Following how Young-woo grows into a professional colleague under attorney Jung Myung-seok's mentorship, and how her relationships with Hanbada colleagues like Jun-ho, Su-yeon, and Min-woo shift episode by episode, it becomes clear the show poured more care into these relationships than into any single legal case.

Rewatching episode 8 in particular, you realize the Sodeok-dong case isn't just a standalone episode — it's the point where a family secret involving her father Woo Kwang-ho and a woman named Tae Su-mi starts slowly coming into view. That case becomes the moment Young-woo has to face a part of herself she never knew.

충청북도청 본관, 청주 — 극 중 촬영지 · Wikimedia Commons

There are still varied views on the show's portrayal of autism. This site wants to keep in mind that what the show depicts is Young-woo's own story, not a stand-in for every autistic person.

From Gangnam in Seoul to Suwon's Haenggung-dong, all the way to Chungbuk for just one episode — tracing the filming locations shows the drama's stage was wider than you'd expect.

Exactly where Young-woo lands on her career, her love life, and her independence by the end, I won't spell all of that out here. I'll just say that ending doesn't wrap up as a simple 'happily ever after.'

If you ever pass through the Centerfield lobby in Gangnam, try walking through the revolving door yourself, and if you make it to the gimbap shop in Suwon's Haenggung-dong, don't be thrown when there's no gimbap — just order the udon and enjoy knowing you're standing in the real filming spot.