♥♥♥♥/♥
TITLE: I Hear Your Voice/ I Can Hear Your Voice [너의 목소리가 들려]
ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 2013, June 05 - August 01
WIKI: http://asianwiki.com/I_Can_Hear_Your_Voice
SEASONS/EPISODES: 1 ssn / 18 eps
US AVAILABILITY (as of 2018-11-08): Viki (free w/ads), KOCOWA (free w/ads), ONDemandKorea (free, no subs)
ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 2013, June 05 - August 01
WIKI: http://asianwiki.com/I_Can_Hear_Your_Voice
SEASONS/EPISODES: 1 ssn / 18 eps
US AVAILABILITY (as of 2018-11-08): Viki (free w/ads), KOCOWA (free w/ads), ONDemandKorea (free, no subs)
After his father is murdered right in front of him, 9 year old Soo Ha gains the ability to hear people's thoughts. He spends the next 10 years learning martial arts to be able to keep his promise to protect a girl, Hye Sung, whose testimony sent his father's killer to prison. Hye Sung grew up to be a defense lawyer. This is a thrill ride as the killer gets out and comes after them over and over, deciding not to give up until either they're dead or he is. He messes with their minds and uses fear tactics and trickery. Soo Ha and Hye Sung will need to use their skills to protect each other through the various schemes of the villain... and hopefully survive long enough to live happily ever after.
Basic summary:
Two teenaged girls witness a murder in which a vehicle containing a father and his 9 year old son is struck by a large truck, then the truck driver gets out to finish off the father by beating him in the head. The murderer spots the girls and takes off after them before he has a chance to murder the boy. Hearing approaching sirens and unable to locate the girls, who have hidden in some bushes, the murderer yells out a threat he hopes they will heed: tell anyone and he will kill the girls as well as anyone they've told, or shut up and live a long life.
Seeing on TV later that the trial isn't going well because the victim's son, Soo Ha, is the only witness and he's been rendered speechless by trauma, the girls go to the courthouse to testify. Both are scared and count to 3 with the intent of going in together... however Do Yeon chickens out and runs away, and only Hye Sung winds up going in. Not a moment too soon either, as Soo Ha has written on a notepad that he can read minds (a talent he developed apparently from the head injury he received in the accident) and "heard" the murderer taunting them, and now everyone thinks he's crazy and his testimony is unreliable. With Hye Sung's testimony, Soo Ha's father's killer, Min Joon Gook, is pronounced guilty. Filled with rage, Joon Gook leaps past his guards and attacks Hye Sung, trying to strangle her and screaming in her face that he will come for her someday.
Later, Soo Ha and Hye Sung meet outside. Soo Ha tries to thank her for testifying but he still can't talk, and Hye Sung is terrified and lashes out, wishing she'd never come because now psycho Joon Gook was going to come for her. Soo Ha finally manages to speak and makes a promise that he will protect her.
10 years pass and Hye Sung has become a lawyer and has just gotten a job as a defense attorney. Her childhood Best-Frienemy Do Yeon is now a prosecutor. The little boy Soo Ha has spent 10 years learning martial arts and searching for Hye Sung. He finds her just in time as Joon Gook has been set free and is looking forward to enacting his revenge, but Hye Sung isn't the sweet angel-noona that Soo Ha has built up in his mind all these years. Even still, he must stick with her both to protect her from psycho Joon Gook, and to convince her to use her job to protect the innocent, something she seems to have lost faith in.
Throughout the drama, Joon Gook comes after them time and again, sometimes with devastating consequences. How many times can they escape before something has to give? And what hope is there for a puppy-love romance with a large age gap?
Two teenaged girls witness a murder in which a vehicle containing a father and his 9 year old son is struck by a large truck, then the truck driver gets out to finish off the father by beating him in the head. The murderer spots the girls and takes off after them before he has a chance to murder the boy. Hearing approaching sirens and unable to locate the girls, who have hidden in some bushes, the murderer yells out a threat he hopes they will heed: tell anyone and he will kill the girls as well as anyone they've told, or shut up and live a long life.
Seeing on TV later that the trial isn't going well because the victim's son, Soo Ha, is the only witness and he's been rendered speechless by trauma, the girls go to the courthouse to testify. Both are scared and count to 3 with the intent of going in together... however Do Yeon chickens out and runs away, and only Hye Sung winds up going in. Not a moment too soon either, as Soo Ha has written on a notepad that he can read minds (a talent he developed apparently from the head injury he received in the accident) and "heard" the murderer taunting them, and now everyone thinks he's crazy and his testimony is unreliable. With Hye Sung's testimony, Soo Ha's father's killer, Min Joon Gook, is pronounced guilty. Filled with rage, Joon Gook leaps past his guards and attacks Hye Sung, trying to strangle her and screaming in her face that he will come for her someday.
Later, Soo Ha and Hye Sung meet outside. Soo Ha tries to thank her for testifying but he still can't talk, and Hye Sung is terrified and lashes out, wishing she'd never come because now psycho Joon Gook was going to come for her. Soo Ha finally manages to speak and makes a promise that he will protect her.
10 years pass and Hye Sung has become a lawyer and has just gotten a job as a defense attorney. Her childhood Best-Frienemy Do Yeon is now a prosecutor. The little boy Soo Ha has spent 10 years learning martial arts and searching for Hye Sung. He finds her just in time as Joon Gook has been set free and is looking forward to enacting his revenge, but Hye Sung isn't the sweet angel-noona that Soo Ha has built up in his mind all these years. Even still, he must stick with her both to protect her from psycho Joon Gook, and to convince her to use her job to protect the innocent, something she seems to have lost faith in.
Throughout the drama, Joon Gook comes after them time and again, sometimes with devastating consequences. How many times can they escape before something has to give? And what hope is there for a puppy-love romance with a large age gap?
Flow and sequence:
For about the first half of the drama there are two storylines running parallel. The first is Min Joon Gook has gotten out of prison and is determined to kill Hye Sung as he promised to do. The second is that Soo Ha has to convince Hye Sung to care about her job and use it to defend her clients. She's been apathetic about her purpose for a long long time, and having the help of a 19 year old who can read minds is motivating and empowering, driving her to find the thrill in taking and winning challenging cases.
About halfway through the drama, things seem to come to a head with the villain and we get a somwhat false-finale sort of feel. There's a showdown that doesn't go as planned and important characters get hurt. Our underaged hero confesses his love for noona Hye Sung, and after the chaos he vanishes for a whole year (don't worry, they don't torture us with some long drawn out year's worth of boring scenes), during which time the police find reason to presume villain Min Joon Gook is dead. Soo Ha is suspect #1 of course, and the fact that he's missing doesn't help. When he's finally located, he's got no idea who he is let alone the man he's been accused of killing. In addition to that, he's lost his mindreading ability. He's a legal adult now and the courts want to try him for murder as an adult... The 3rd quarter of the drama centers around Hye Sung's legal battle to save Soo Ha.
The last quarter of the drama is the real finale and I can't tell you much without giving things away but this portion of the drama is much less about the legal battles and more about revealing everything that's been hinted at and bringing to an end all that's been brewing.
About halfway through the drama, things seem to come to a head with the villain and we get a somwhat false-finale sort of feel. There's a showdown that doesn't go as planned and important characters get hurt. Our underaged hero confesses his love for noona Hye Sung, and after the chaos he vanishes for a whole year (don't worry, they don't torture us with some long drawn out year's worth of boring scenes), during which time the police find reason to presume villain Min Joon Gook is dead. Soo Ha is suspect #1 of course, and the fact that he's missing doesn't help. When he's finally located, he's got no idea who he is let alone the man he's been accused of killing. In addition to that, he's lost his mindreading ability. He's a legal adult now and the courts want to try him for murder as an adult... The 3rd quarter of the drama centers around Hye Sung's legal battle to save Soo Ha.
The last quarter of the drama is the real finale and I can't tell you much without giving things away but this portion of the drama is much less about the legal battles and more about revealing everything that's been hinted at and bringing to an end all that's been brewing.
Cast/ Characters/ Acting:
Lee Jong Suk as Park Soo Ha - I found no flaw with Lee Jong Suk's acting. He always manages to play his roles convincingly, with emotion and realism, and I found this one to be no different. It was a little bit difficult to go with it when the storyline was saying he was a 19 year old in a school uniform and looking at his 24 year old face my eyes were arguing too much for me to really get into imagining him as a 19 year old. I expected to sense some awkwardness between him and the lead female because they are really 10 years apart as well as playing characters who are 10 years apart, but to his credit, for Lee Jong Suk's part I could feel no hesitation or awkwardness. I enjoyed seeing the difference between the carefree and hot-tempered person the character Soo Ha began the drama as and the more self-controlled and confident person he later became.
Lee Bo Young as Jang Hye Sung - The character Hye Sung was extravagantly annoying. She's arrogant and apathetic, self-centered, and mean. She got somewhat better through the drama... I presume the viewer is to attribute her personal growth to Soo Ha's good influence. Lee Bo Young's acting was good, but it's harder to appreciate good acting when it's a character you're supposed to be cheering for but whose personality you can't stand. Hye Sung was basically your quintessential drama-trope narcissistic lead male, except she was the female. She's not on top of my "lead female characters I detest" list (those positions are currently held by the female leads from My Love From The Stars and My Sassy Girl) but she was notably obnoxious. Good acting, but not great. I could find no flaw with her facial expressions, mannerisms, delivery of lines... but the something that's invisible is what I was having trouble finding: namely the chemistry between her and the male lead. She acted her part in a way that I can't name anything she could have physically done differently, but there was an underlying tension (and not the good kind) in her character's romantic interactions. I felt more zing from her fangirling over the second lead than I did when Lee Jong Suk's character was leaning over her on the couch. In fact that scene was a perfect example of what was missing. Hye Sung was basically crawling backwards away from him on the couch while Soo Ha looked at her with hungry eyes and advanced. The scene should have been literally buzzing with sexual tension. Despite her posture and facial expression being "right" for this scene, there was nothing in her eyes that made it feel real. While Lee Jong Suk's pupils were dilated and there was a hardness around the eyebrows making his acting seem very real, there was nothing in Lee Bo Young's eyes, making her acting seem like *just* acting. Any time he got near her for any sort of romantic interaction, her eyes went flat. Every kiss scene she stayed about an inch further away from him at all non-liplocked times than would have been comfortable. I have a feeling the fact that the actress got married in real life a month after this drama ended probably had a big part to play in why she couldn't get into the romantic scenes enough to convey the unspoken attraction that I felt was absent. It would be decidedly uncomfortable to act a romantic drama with another man a month before you marry your fiancee.
Yoon Sang Hyun as Cha Kwan Woo - As always, Yoon Sang Hyun gives a believable performance as a larger than life character. Lawyer Cha is a bit of a complicated character, appearing cheerful and childlike on the surface but being an emotion-driven optimist-by-choice on the inside. Yoon Sang Hyun has a tendency to steal the show with his great acting and eye-grabbing aura. He has a charisma that makes you pay attention to him whether you want to or not. The first thing I ever saw him in was Secret Garden, playing the self-tortured aging Kpop star Oska. I was so drawn in by his portrayal of that character! He's currently a minor side character in My Secret Terrius (an OBGYN who is the brother of a friend of the main character and has to patch up wounded Terrius a few times) and as usual he's a total scene stealer with his agelessly handsome face and his expressive eyes.
Lee Bo Young as Jang Hye Sung - The character Hye Sung was extravagantly annoying. She's arrogant and apathetic, self-centered, and mean. She got somewhat better through the drama... I presume the viewer is to attribute her personal growth to Soo Ha's good influence. Lee Bo Young's acting was good, but it's harder to appreciate good acting when it's a character you're supposed to be cheering for but whose personality you can't stand. Hye Sung was basically your quintessential drama-trope narcissistic lead male, except she was the female. She's not on top of my "lead female characters I detest" list (those positions are currently held by the female leads from My Love From The Stars and My Sassy Girl) but she was notably obnoxious. Good acting, but not great. I could find no flaw with her facial expressions, mannerisms, delivery of lines... but the something that's invisible is what I was having trouble finding: namely the chemistry between her and the male lead. She acted her part in a way that I can't name anything she could have physically done differently, but there was an underlying tension (and not the good kind) in her character's romantic interactions. I felt more zing from her fangirling over the second lead than I did when Lee Jong Suk's character was leaning over her on the couch. In fact that scene was a perfect example of what was missing. Hye Sung was basically crawling backwards away from him on the couch while Soo Ha looked at her with hungry eyes and advanced. The scene should have been literally buzzing with sexual tension. Despite her posture and facial expression being "right" for this scene, there was nothing in her eyes that made it feel real. While Lee Jong Suk's pupils were dilated and there was a hardness around the eyebrows making his acting seem very real, there was nothing in Lee Bo Young's eyes, making her acting seem like *just* acting. Any time he got near her for any sort of romantic interaction, her eyes went flat. Every kiss scene she stayed about an inch further away from him at all non-liplocked times than would have been comfortable. I have a feeling the fact that the actress got married in real life a month after this drama ended probably had a big part to play in why she couldn't get into the romantic scenes enough to convey the unspoken attraction that I felt was absent. It would be decidedly uncomfortable to act a romantic drama with another man a month before you marry your fiancee.
Yoon Sang Hyun as Cha Kwan Woo - As always, Yoon Sang Hyun gives a believable performance as a larger than life character. Lawyer Cha is a bit of a complicated character, appearing cheerful and childlike on the surface but being an emotion-driven optimist-by-choice on the inside. Yoon Sang Hyun has a tendency to steal the show with his great acting and eye-grabbing aura. He has a charisma that makes you pay attention to him whether you want to or not. The first thing I ever saw him in was Secret Garden, playing the self-tortured aging Kpop star Oska. I was so drawn in by his portrayal of that character! He's currently a minor side character in My Secret Terrius (an OBGYN who is the brother of a friend of the main character and has to patch up wounded Terrius a few times) and as usual he's a total scene stealer with his agelessly handsome face and his expressive eyes.
Writing and directing:
There were a few plot holes. Like how do we have a murderer being let out after only 10 years in prison ... a murderer who rammed a car containing a child with a truck and then bashed the head of the driver in repeatedly in front of that child and then attacked, and attempted to choke to death a 19 year old girl in the courtroom in front of judges, lawyers, guards, and witnesses, while screaming in her face that you're going to come for her. Yeah, let's just let him out after 10 years, great idea. Meanwhile his cellmate was also convicted of murder for which he's actually innocent and no body was ever found because the supposed victim was never actually dead, but he's in prison LONGER than the demented head-bashing, child-threatening lunatic? That was the most glaring but there were a couple other less glaring plot holes.
Happy Ending Factor?
I'd give this drama a 9 out of 10 for happy ending. The female lead actress had a fiancee to think about and a wedding to plan so I think she was just not feeling it with the male lead, thus her acting didn't quite reach her eyes at times. Truth is she's a good enough actress and Lee Jong Suk was so phenomenal that you could easily have a totally different opinion on that than me, you might feel like they had fabulous chemistry! Aside from my personal feelings on their chemistry, the drama was nearly perfect and all the happy-ending-requirement boxes got easily checked.
Final Summary:
I thought this drama was going to be about some mindreading guy who solves crimes with his lawyer girlfriend, but instead it was more of a serial killer thriller mixed with a legal drama. I really enjoyed it- I thought it was a sweet drama, but also a MAJORLY suspenseful and sometimes scary drama. My only qualms with the drama overall were the few plot holes and the female lead's lack of chemistry with the male lead. I am glad to have watched it and might watch it again in a year or two. I'd say watch it for sure if you like crime dramas or serial killer thrillers with some sweet romance as a secondary plot, but if you're not really into either of those and were hoping for a super steamy/juicy romance with a supernatural twist, this one promises more than it can deliver.
Check out {I Hear Your Voice} on Viki!
Check out {I Hear Your Voice} on Kocowa!
Check out the I Hear Your Voice OST on Spotify!
(Dramas may not be available on certain sites for certain countries. It depends who acquired the license for a specific drama for your country and who did not. Drama may be available on Netflix in your country but not even show up in mine, so check there if you have a Netflix acct. Ditto for Viki- may be available in your country but not mine. Click HERE for a list of legal Kdrama streaming sites and what countries they work in.)
Check out {I Hear Your Voice} on Kocowa!
Check out the I Hear Your Voice OST on Spotify!
(Dramas may not be available on certain sites for certain countries. It depends who acquired the license for a specific drama for your country and who did not. Drama may be available on Netflix in your country but not even show up in mine, so check there if you have a Netflix acct. Ditto for Viki- may be available in your country but not mine. Click HERE for a list of legal Kdrama streaming sites and what countries they work in.)
No comments:
Post a Comment