I Hear Your Voice (2013)

This was one of my first k-dramas, so I feel a little nostalgic about it. After rewatching, I need to lower my previous rating. I still love Lee Jong Suk´s role in this one, he is so cute. But to be fair, the couple has no chemistry at all except from the one of two siblings. The drama has strong support actors, I just can´t get to like the woman lead. I was more critic to the story too, especially the overflowing rightfullness and way too close and inobjective relations between lawyers and defendants, but it worked for the gradation of the drama and some of the stories were interesting.

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The story is incredibly well written, there are much more maturity then in a regular kdrama, the plot is really captivating, and the cast is wonderful (to tell the truth I was really impressed by Yoon Sang Hyun because of his absolutely brilliant and touching acting, especially when even without talking, only with his eyes, he was capable of transmit powerful emotions), only there is one disadvantage: Lee Jong Suk. I know that he's famous because of his face and I really have tried to get used to this guy because he's one of the most popular Korean actors and I'll have to see him but, somehow, in such a good, unusual drama and with such a flawless acting as Lee Bo Young's and particularly Yoon Sang Hyun's, it seemed unbearable to me see all the time the inexpressive Lee Jong Suk's face with the same insipid emotion of discomfort. Well, the true is that about the chemistry between him and Lee Bo Young we also shouldn't speak because such doesn't exist. And it was really strange to see the deep connection and attraction between the female lead and male second lead, while the main couple was absolutely forced (also, these silly typical Korean reactions when the male lead wants to kiss the girl more passionately and she doesn't let him "cross the boundary"... all this relationship was the only unbelievable and annoying element). However all the rest has made me such a good impression that the only evaluation I can give is 10.

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This is a cute story. I loved the storyline. Lee Jong Suk is so cute here. I loved the character he played and he was just a great actor. Lee Bo Young, I loved the part she played as well. A lot of family issues they had to go through... I don't know how they made it through it... The writers made this storyline very real. Retaliation is such a dangerous scenario for anyone to go through but it really happens in real life. This is the 2nd drama that I have watched Yoon Sang Hyun participate in. I love this actor as well. I love his vocals. The romance was there between the two main leads but who couldn't resist Lee Jong Suk? It's not boring where you have to skip or fast forward to the next episode. You have to enjoy each episode. There is some visual action in this. Something to watch while being isolated because of COVID.

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i think because of the high positive opinions i do really put high expectations at this drama
which wasn't that brilliant as i imagine after watching

i did enjoy the nona romance between the two main leads but at the same time i found the romance was in the back seats & a little lukewarm & the development in it was slow motion

the writer focused so much on the lawful cases to fill the drama which took us several times away from the main story
this drama would be brilliant if the lawful cases was fewer & reduced no. of ep.

i found the character development for (Lee Bo) was really weird it was causative
when the reason disappeared (lee jong) she returned again to the same bad attitude ???
& many times i found that there were fake emotions on lee jong face while he was acting as if he wasn't versed enough with his role

but at the same time this drama was focusing on a very imp. moral which is
the courage to tell the truth under any circumstances & to admit & apologize for ur faults
which was very imp. msg for people nowadays

if u r that type of person who likes lawful cases much & moderate romance then definitely this is ur cup of tea

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Ehhh. This could have been so much better...

Since the writers felt a need for some comedy and the director is not the best - the first few episodes are pretty hard to watch. Have your fingers on the right keys and zip through all the overacting, bad dialogue and near afternoon soap opera writing. They used a teenage kpop storyline to set everything up but, it is a little weak. Lead female - public defender - not developed well as a character. I found her irritating most of the time. Then, the writers drop all of that and she suddenly becomes a normal person. There wasn't a believable transition from a pretty awful person to one we are supposed to care about and root for.

As per usual, the first several episodes are disposable. I stuck with this all the way through because I KNOW Lee Jong Suk is an amazing actor. He didn't disappoint.

As for a "review" I am going to stop here. Why? It wouldn't be fair for me to go on. I expected a drama. Unfortunately, I realized this was a soap opera made to look like a drama. It tries to be too many things. Bad rom-com vibes that they drop and never bring up again. An irritating almost to the point of unredeemable main character where - again - all of that is dropped and forgotten and they are presented as normal - what you would expect characters. The villain is so lucky that the law is so inept - everywhere. Wanted posters, eye witnesses, etc. mean nothing - so, we get stuck with a villain who only shows up here and there to move the story along through all 18 episodes. Again, soap opera. Not a bad thing but, I wish I would have known going in.

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Let me start off by stating that I've watched this series years ago and this review is an attempt as a re-watch.

Although I've only re-watched a few episodes, I decided to drop it. It captures your attention quickly and easily with the initial backstory of your leads. But the script feels shallow for its setting and genre, even with its good attempt to build intensity into each scene.

1. The male lead for example who tries to hunt down his "first love" in the streets by following strangers. It isn't as if she changed her name from when they met or internet wasn't available. So it doesn't make much sense even when we exclude the fact that he apparently can recognize her by face a decade later (especially when they met as kids).

2. The female lead was fantastic as a child but she somehow turned into a rude, extreme snob as an adult? So much so that she can't say a simple "thank you" when someone finds her wallet and is outwardly rude instead? Very odd. While it was believable that she was a shitty lawyer, it is nonsensical that she somehow gets chosen as a public defender just because she told a tale of her past. It would have made more sense if she had credentials to back it up but she doesn't even know how to search for browser history on a computer?

Her mother got fired as a housekeeper and they had to move out. Not a big deal. It isn't as if she didn't have a loving mother who had her back and a decent roof over her head. Even if you try to apply the "she conceded to societal norms", it is still overreaching. Maybe her one traumatic incident as a kid, just wasn't traumatic enough (especially compared to a kid who saw his father murdered). Yet the series builds so much around this.

Then, somehow her moral fibers start to kick in within a couple of days because of some lecturing and a sudden reminder of how she was once falsely accused herself? What has she been up to all her adult career life then?

3. Who in the right mind would decide to hang on a windowsill just because they didn't want to get caught smoking? Ever heard of dropping the cigarette and saying you just walked into the room? It's not as if the room was barricaded.

It's tough. As mentioned, they did well with the intensity level and the light comedy so I can see why it would capture high scores with some. But if you really look at the basis, there just isn't much depth. I wouldn't have been so judgmental if this was supposed to be on the lighthearted side but it really isn't. Would have given it a lower score but because the actors were able to make it somewhat entertaining, I could have probably sat through it to the end.

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Let me say this right off the bat.

I don't have an inherent problem with age gaps between adults as long as the relationship is a healthy, appropriate, mutually beneficial one. When it comes to relationships between a teenager and an adult (because I think it’s important to separate this issue from that of age gaps between two adults since they are not the same thing), it's a little different. The maturity difference between a 17-year-old and a 19-year-old is probably not (typically) going to be so vast as to make a relationship between two people of these ages a problem. Widen the gap to, for example, 17 and 25, and I'm unsure how likely it is for such a relationship to survive, but I'm willing to give the story a chance. Widen the gap further to 17 and late 20's/early 30's, and you're going to have to do it like High School King of Savvy did where the high schooler is played by a grown-up for me to be able to immerse myself in the story and not feel weird about it.

So I’ll be totally honest and say that I struggled with the age issue here. I wanted the leads together, but I also wanted the male lead to be older. There's definitely not a reason, in terms of story, that he couldn't have already been 20 or 21 years old. Even 19 would have been better (although still not preferrable). (For reference, Korean age is calculated differently than in the West, so while the drama says he's 18 or 19, he's actually a year or two younger in western age.)

Age issue aside, there is a lot to love about this romance. Great chemistry, realistic compatibility, mutual respect and genuine attraction. Overall, they're an adorable OTP. My only complaints about the romance outside of age?

I don't know why Soo Ha had to already be in love with Hye Sung at the beginning of the drama, considering they barely knew each other outside of their one encounter years ago. From a writing standpoint, it would have made more sense if he had searched her out simply because of his desire to look out for her and follow through on his promise. Love could have come later. That being said, this is a very chaste drama. There are a couple kisses, and they are very tender and sweet, but they are very appropriate for the male leads age. Beyond that, the leads have very little physical contact.

Now that all of that is out of the way.

This is technically a court/crime romance drama (with a side of supernatural), but while there’s lots of court and crime drama to go around, there’s also an awful lot of drama law Logic as well.

For the first half of the story, the court/crime drama is set up in a ‘case of the day’ format. But halfway through, the overarching mystery takes precedence, to the point that it overshadows the rest of the drama almost completely, and I eventually began to lose all interest in the story. (Watching the last few episodes felt like a chore, which is never a good thing.)

No one’s choices made any sense. The villain was cartoony and not smart. His backstory could have been compelling, but the writers handled it so poorly that I didn’t care. As I said earlier, the story was Rife with drama law logic, and the legal system was treated like a plaything to be used however it’s owners wanted to use it, the rules constantly changing. (For example, the villain (who had some terribad facial hair at one point) CUTS OFF HIS OWN HAND!!!! in order to frame the male lead for murder, and of course, the police find said missing hand and arrest the male lead for murder. Because all the proof you need of a murder is a severed hand.) It was all just incredibly stupid.

I could express disappointment here at the supernatural element of the drama and how it was handled, but I honestly don't mind that we never got any explanation as to why Soo Ha could read people’s minds. It was clearly only in the story as a means of bringing Soo Ha and Hye Sung together, and I was perfectly okay with that.

In terms of characters, I loved both leads. Soo Ha is all the good things. Intelligent, sensitive, kind, protective, genuine, encouraging, supportive. He never comes off as childish or immature (which may or may not be realistic, depending on your personal opinion of the maturity level of teenage boys).

Hye Sung is a fun mix of confident and awkward, brash and intelligent, and extremely lazy. She flies through life by the seat of her pants and when something goes wrong or opposite of how she expects, she just finds a way to go with it. In a list of female drama characters I wish I could be like, she would definitely be on that list. (But I’d like to be her After she’s already gone through all of the craziness in this drama. No crazy murderers needed in my life, thank you very much.)

Kwan Woo is incredibly kind. He's one of the kindest male drama characters I’ve ever seen. He’s modest and unassuming, with a sense of justice that is almost unparalleled. He’ll follow a case to the end. I struggled with some second lead feels simply because he’s so wonderful, but ultimately, he wasn’t meant to be with Hye Sung. He was honestly too good for her. Like, he was too good of a Person. I have a feeling his extreme kindness eventually would have driven her nuts.

Do Yun was never an intriguing character. As is typical in older Korean dramas, she was a mean girl. As is not typical in older Korean dramas, she had absolutely zero interest in our male lead. (Which makes sense. It’s one thing to pair up an almost-but-not-quite-adult teenage boy with an older woman. It’s another thing to stick him in-between Two adult women. That’s definitely past my comfort level.) She almost becomes an ally to Hye Sung at the end, but the writer’s chose to leave the two as frenemies instead.

Joon Gook is a terrible character. He’s poorly written and not interesting. There was a point where I could have been compelled to care about his backstory, but then he went off the deep end, and I stopped giving a shit.

Sung Bin drove me batshit crazy. I don’t know what the determining factor is on whether I will like or hate a character who’s really persistent in the love department (because I’m very picky when it’s comes to characters like that), but whatever it is, she definitely fell into the ‘HOLY BANANA PANCAKES BATMAN WHY WILL SHE NOT GO AWAY?!’

And we’re not even going to talk about Dae Suk, Do Yun’s ‘father.’ Mainly because the actor playing him was bad at his job. Like, really bad. Like, he consistently makes weird facial expressions that don’t look like anything I’ve ever seen anyone else make when they Aren’t constipated, bad.

Truthfully, I only finished this drama because it would have been a waste Not to finish something I had loved so much in the beginning. Throughout the first half, I was completely committed to the story. Then the aforementioned mystery and drama law logic completely sucked the life out of everything in the second half, and I had to take a break before watching the last few episodes because I was so stressed out. It was okay when the court drama was about Other people and not about our main characters. The ‘crime of the day’ set up didn’t require me to invest all of my energy into it, so I could focus that energy where it should be focused, on the romance. But when I had to divide my energy between our adorable OTP and the insanely frustrating court/crime drama surrounding them, I found that the OTP was not a compelling enough reason to do so.

If you’re looking for a drama that accurately portrays the legal system in South Korea and handles it’s overall mystery in a way that is actually satisfying…you’ll probably want to pass this one on up. But if you can handle drama law logic (and a romance between a teenager and an adult), then I still recommend this drama. There are a lot of good things about it.

Just don’t pay too much attention to all the stuff that happens outside of the romance, and you should be fine.

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Typical Crime Kdrama

LIKES: Lee Jong Suk's acting for his character Park Soo Ha. He showed a great range of emotions for his character. Yoon Joo Sang was also great as Judge Shin Sang Duk. The music really tugged on heart strings in the appropriate places and added to the drama of the action sequences. Beautiful location shots; the aquarium and apartment scenes. Production was pretty good too; no shaky camera moments that I noticed and zoom in shots were smooth. The FX for wounds was well done too, looking pretty realistic. I had no problem with the age gap between Soo Ha and Hye Sung, but that's because Lee Bo Young was directed to act like a child with not control over emotions. She was portrayed as being in her early twenties and not older or a calm lawyer like we normally would expect.

DISLIKES: The blood FX on weapons however looked too fresh and should have been darker due to air exposure, etc. Yoon Sang yun often over-acts. I'm not a fan of his acting, but he did satisfactory with his role. The story, although a typical crime kdrama, tried to being in the sci-fi aspect with Soo Ha being able to hear other people's thoughts, but it was never explained why or how he got the ability or why only he had the ability. The romance aspect was used for the connection between Soo Ha and Hye Sung, but they had no chemistry and it was under utilized. In places the story lagged and could've been cut back, so the ending didn't feel so rushed.

Overall I wont rewatch it, but some people might really like it. This drama barely made my rating of 6/10.

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Como eu poderia deixar de falar de uma personagem que exala feminilidade e força por onde anda? Sim estou falando de: Jang Hye-Sung (Lee Bo-Young), a protagonista de I Can Hear Your Voice, que por sinal é um Kdrama muito bom, que por um motivo que desconheço, raramente vejo alguém comentando sobre ele.

Ela desafia seus próprios medos desde que era muito jovem quando testemunha um assassinato e mesmo sendo ameaçada pelo criminoso, resolve depor no tribunal para fazê-lo pagar pelo que fez. Esta decisão muda o curso de sua vida, já que depois de muitos anos, após cumprir sua pena e sair da cadeia, o criminoso lhe persegue em busca de vingança.

É interessante ver o como ela lida com o que aconteceu em seu passado, em um certo incidente onde fora acusada injustamente de ter ferido uma colega de classe (aquela típica menina minada, filha de um juiz influente na cidade). E apesar de suas origens humildes consegue se manter de cabeça erguida e se torna uma defensora pública alguns anos depois. Claro que a influência desses incidentes não fora totalmente positiva em sua vida, já que após passar por tais experiências, ela se torna uma pessoa extremamente desconfiada e antissocial, que trata os casos que precisa lidar em seu trabalho como algo banal, apenas para cumprir tabela e ganhar algum dinheiro.

No entanto, aos poucos vai se abrindo novamente, seja quando reencontra o garoto que ela ajudou no passado Park Soo-Ha (Lee Jung Suk), seja quando conhece o advogado Cha Kwan-Woo (Yoon Sang-Hyun)que faz com que ela esteja sempre repensando seus conceitos. Não posso deixar de acrescentar o que mais me chamou atenção nessa personagem, isto é, a forma como ela consegue se reerguer sempre que cai.

Quando passamos por esse tipo de situação como seres humanos que somos, o primeiro sentimento que temos naturalmente é o ódio, o rancor, e em alguns casos até mesmo aquela inquietante sensação de injustiça, ao ponto de querer se vingar de alguma forma, mas ela contraria o senso comum e demonstra uma mentalidade tão forte que deu gosto de ver. Isso sem dúvidas é inspirador.

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