I Hear Your Voice

When writing becomes a strong point

I wasn`t surprised, first of all, to see that the writers responsible for this drama were the same ones who gave us "Pinocchio". Both of these dramas` strongest points is their writing.

To start off this review, I do have to admit my bias for Older Female/Younger Male trope, which has been one of my favorites for a long time now, and it is also the way I found out about this drama. I always like to start off my reviews by mentioning one drama`s pros, as I believe that each one, no matter how good or mediocre it is, has its pros and cons. For one, most of characters` emotions, thoughts and relationships are meticulously explored and tied, where you can thoroughly understand their motivations and the progression of feelings they experience. For example, I completely understand why and how Soo-ha would fall for Hye-sung. It has next to nothing to do with her appearance per se, but it is the kind of infatuation which you can hardly shake even well into your adulthood. She basically saved his life and honored his family while not really understanding the level of danger she`d be put in. That`s commendable and worthy of his affection. It`s not JUST an `idol` type of shallow obsession, it`s both gratefulness and love for someone who became your savior. I also like how, though disappointed at first, he still understood her personality instead of wallowing in self pity over a ruined facade. Another point goes for the characterization and development of Hye-sung. Now, this also partially has to do with my preference. Under almost each episode at the start of this drama, people were brutal towards her. "She`s unlikeable, downright insufferable, I hope we see her grow and change."Jang Hye-sung is the type of a female lead we still don`t see a lot in dramas, for whatever reason. She`s arrogant(and she stays this way for the remainder of the drama), proud, with very relatable goals in life in hindsight(comfortable living provided by money) and blunt to a fault, but it`s so refreshing. We do see her change however. But not in the over the top way, from bad to good, from independent to pathetically underpowered. Her arrogance, which has stemmed from her insecurities, acting like a front, instead started to stem from her ability and convictions. She did not stop being self-important and cocky, she just changed the source from which that power was coming. That`s how you understand your characters and their thoughts and develop them accordingly. Other characters receive similar treatment, especially the show`s antagonist Min Joon-gook. Up until episode 12, Min Joon-gook was one interesting and downright realistic take on a serial killer. He`s an everyman, someone you can easily employ, positive and helpful. We all like to imagine our serial killers as sociopathic, asocial and broody humans who are creepy and obviously on a bad path because that would make us feel more perceptive and safe, as we deem it easy to spot them. And admittedly, some are like that. However, the vast majority are more likely to be like Min Joon-gook. Even as a serial killer, he still makes mistakes and worries about how his plans are going to work out. That clumsiness , coupled with the eerie normalcy of his character, made him a worthy addition. Which is why I`m rather mad for what they did to him in later episodes. The OST is also very good, some bangers lead to the enhancement of the actual atmosphere instead of taking away from it.

As I`ve said, if the story is tight, the characters are fleshed out and worthy of praise and OST is great as well, then pray, what are the cons of this drama?

Well, I would be a hypocrite to give this drama an 8.5 or higher when, at the same time, it becomes lazy and employs one of the worst tropes known to the dramaworld, if not the worst. You know the one, for sure. FREAKING MEMORY LOSS. Thanks, I hate it. I hated it before, I hate it now and I`ll hate it forever until the end of time. Unless amnesia is an important plot point encompassing your story from the start until the end, don`t use it. Don`t use it to pad out the runtime of an otherwise satisfying show. It flushes your credibility down the toilet in an instant. And I hate how every drama that does this obviously does it for useless filler, shown through the fact that memories return after maximum two episodes. Another reason why I just couldn`t rate it any higher is briefly mentioned above, but I just hate how they turned Min Joon-gook`s motivation from going after Hye-sung because of her testimony, aptly showing how being consumed by hatred can make you rotten from the inside to it being a revenge against Soo-ha of all people, on the basis of his parents` past. This way they undermine most of the things he did to get to where he got. Him telling Soo-ha that he`s not his target and that he has no wish to hurt him, to him luring Soo-ha for a ham-fisted exposition on turning into a beast, it`s all diluted and unnecessary and obviously done for tacked on drama. Finally, I feel like, and this is just my gripe with both this drama and "Pinocchio" from a writing standpoint, they should`ve developed actual relationship between Soo-ha and Hye-sung more. As in, as a couple. It still felt like they weren`t even together when they`ve been in a relationship for a bit. It all stayed on the `playful-yet-innocent` level for characters whose feelings obviously warrant more.

Still, I like this drama a lot and fun fact: I actually watched "Kill Me, Heal Me" before this and had no idea that Lee Bo-young(Jang Hye-sung) and Ji Sung(Cha Do-hyun) were married!What a coincidence!

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Only discovered this recently and, boy, I'm glad I did! Thinking this was made in 2013, I'd say this show was ahead of its time with strong female lead who fiercely faced social issues of age and economic gap, or being in a competitive field which favored men. Wide age gap between the leads were overcome by their exceptional chemistry. Their conversations were also very mature despite much younger male lead (no bickering trope, thank god). This has the best, most peaceful and natural cohabitation of leads shown in Korean dramas.

There was no over-the-top antagonist and the villain was well used for the show's crime-thriller genre. Female lead acted really, really well and young male lead was also very good. The supporting cast equally did well in the acting department which made the show even more lovable. Show and the characters were well-written, where all the leads (main & secondary) have the biggest character growths seen in dramas.

There's never a dull moment in this show. It got me so hooked that I finished it in 2 days. And I so love the soundtrack!!! Definitely a classic you'd love to re-watch over and over again!

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This drama is perfect! All in this drama is amazing.
I really love the story, the acting, the music... I really give rarely 10, but for this drama I've need to put this!
The story was really original, and the couple was so cute and lovely.
This is one of the best drama with a couple where the girl is older than the boy.
Lee Jong-Suk is a great young actor! I really love is character.
Lee Bo-Young the same. Really a amazing actress! I really want an another drama with them as couple!
I really ship them!
The music... wow! I really love the ost... I can't stop to listen it.
You really need to watch it!

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who knew Korean law could be so interesting. at first i thought reading minds oh so common. but then after the first episode.my mind was made up not just because of the plot, lee joon suk is a very great actor. throughout the drama there chemistry kept on getting stronger. and the actress, oh god the actress was really good. lawyer cha was fun to watch he had this nice nerdy character. the story had so many unsolved mysteries,there some drams i watch as i skip some useless scenes this one wasn't like that i watched every single bit and i loved it. overall it was superb

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I started watching this drama because of the cast (ok, I admit that I'm a sucker for noona romances as well). I didn't know much about the plot, I wanted the element of surprise.
I had seen Lee Bo Young in God’s gift: 14 days and Lee Jong Suk and Yoon Sang Hyun in Secret Garden, and I thought they had done a great job.

All in all I enjoyed it, but it just felt a little too pretentious at times. It’s understandable, though, since the basic premise is really ambitious: how difficult it is to find the balance between justice and compassion/sympathy/empathy, trust/faith in others, the inutility of revenge, forgiveness... I really like the fact that it adressed those issues.

I also found the love story and the loyalty involved in it really cute.

I love the fact that the lead female character is a strong, bold and independent woman as well, and that the relationship between both main female characters, the grudge they hold against each other, has nothing to do with a man they're both in love with, for instance, as it happens in other dramas. I really liked that plot. I didn't like the plot about the murderer as much, although I appreciate the fact that there is a message of redemption you don't find in other dramas either.

The soundtrack was also great. Indie band Every Single Day already did a great job in Pasta OST and I think they deserve more credit. They don't have enough recognition.

I really recommend this.

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Takes time to love

This was a drama that really had to grow on me, because I started out hating every single character except for the main male lead, who was the most straightforward and righteous one of them all. As the drama went on, the characters really grew in subtle yet obvious ways, and it was really nice to see. This goes especially for the two teens still in high school, who grew to be really lovable and relatable for me.

The biggest plot point that I hated was the goddamn AMNESIA, which really annoyed me because he was the only character that I cared about and we essentially had to start from scratch for no good reason. It also led to a bout of noble idiocy, which didn't end up terribly but is still one of my least favorite tropes.

I'm also a sucker for the little tidbits of fantasy that are in this screenwriter's dramas (dreams in WYWS, hiccups in Pinocchio, mind-reading in IHYV) and this was no different, but I kind of wish he was more involved in the different cases, like going on investigations. It's understandable he wasn't because he was still in school, but I felt like there was a lot you could do with the mind-reading and it was all confined to him passively reacting to things around him.

Another thing that annoyed me about the mind-reading was just how it was filmed, with frame holds on random faces and voiceover. It made the production value of the drama seem very cheap and took me out of every single thing where that happened. I understand that it's hard to depict something so internal, but still.

Finally: No SLS here. I never liked the second lead.

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One of the Best Dramas in Existence

I just want to say that I cannot see a drama as good as this releasing in the future. This is truly a masterpiece of a drama that I cannot even think of words to describe it. There are only a few dramas where every second truly counts and there are absolutely zero fillers. This is one of them and it is a tragedy that there are people that didn't watch this drama.
The story is the best I've seen in any drama and each character is unique and important in their respective ways. By far the best villain I've seen in any drama. This is also one of the only dramas that I've watched that has a clear moral of the story and clear theme.
Each actors played their parts perfectly and I have nothing but compliments for all the cast. If you are a Lee Jong Suk fan and haven't watched this drama, then you aren't a true fan. This drama was literally the birth of Lee Jong Suk but I think Lee Bo Young and Yoon Sang Hyun acted the best.
Music is indescribably nostalgic and very fitting for the drama.
The only flaw in this drama is the fact that it isn't the most realistic drama. Also I didn't cry watching this drama but that is only because I am not the type to cry when watching something.
Overall, I cannot rate this drama below 9.8 because it is truly a cream of the crop drama. If you haven't watched already, then I urge you to try the first episode and continue if you like it. This isn't the drama where the plot gets watered down as you watch. All the way until the climax, you will experience a serious, thrilling, comedic, suspenseful, and romantic drama that you will learn something from.

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Timeless Legal Thriller with a Memorable Cast of Characters and a Top Tier Slow-Burn Romance

Good Things:

• No one is effortlessly good or irredeemably evil. Everyone gets a story that examines their motivations and allows them the chance to grow and change; even the villains. FL's journey is central, but all the leads share the spotlight.
• If you like slow-burns with a focus on daily life domesticity, tsundere!FLs/steadfast!MLs, witty bickering, role reversals, healing from shared trauma, cohabitation, hurt/comfort, a protective ML with an equally protective FL and helplessly devoted longing, it's top tier.
• Parallelism is used to great effect, both as a rhetorical and narrative device to explore the themes of justice, the cycle of revenge, personal vs professional integrity and the limits of the law from different vantage points.
• Unlike most legal thrillers it doesn't involve chaebol/political corruption, genius lawyers or an episodic case-of-the-week format. Instead it's an arching narrative about how the legal system fails to hear the people that it represents and several people in particular who have to live with the consequences.
• It's an excellent example of the cross-genre complex plots that were hallmarks of Kdrama in the mid-2010s and have been dumbed down ever since: all the niggling details have a purpose and it sticks it's landing at the end. There's also a balanced mix of comedy/tragedy/plot/romance so no one aspect becomes overwhelming.

Either-Or Things

• The age gap. ML is 18/19, FL is 26/27 (int'l). May be deal-breaker for some, though it's more of a 'I would set myself on fire to keep you warm' romance than an overtly sexy one.

Bad Things:

• The cinematography. It has a simple style and high frame rate that looks plain compared to modern Kdramas.
• The pacing. It received a two-episode extension due to high ratings, so the story stretches EP14-18.

Interesting Things:

• Lee Bo Young won the 2014 Best Actress Baeksang for her role as FL.
• The story is loosely based on the fairytale 'The Happy Prince' by Oscar Wilde.

Recommended if you enjoy slow-burn romances with domestic/daily life relationships, idealistic legal dramas, anti-revenge revenge cycles and sweeping, panoramic stories.

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I watched this after seeing Pinocchio & While You Were Sleeping. IHYV is very similar to these two, it's written by the same writer who seems to specialize in these procedural supernatural romance dramas, so no surprise there, I wasn't disappointed, for the most part. What's interesting that While You Were Sleeping feels like an improved version of the same underlying story, we even had precognitive dreams in IHYV too, so in originality naturally IHYV wins big time.

So let's begin with the negatives. I really didn't like the love triangle, especially around episode 9-11. In a mystery/procedural drama there is no need for this, since there are plenty of tools to keep the viewer on edge, this defo felt out of place. (Pinocchio & WYWS also had triangles, but those were very weak & benign in comparison) Sungbin's story felt unnecessary once her trial was over. I like the actress, but there was definitely problems with her scenes in the second half of the drama, maybe she served as a tool for some clever product placements that I've missed?! The amnesia plot was annoying & unnecessary,it was a low point in the drama. Also there are problems with drama logic, like can the Korean police be really that incompetent...
Positives are aplenty. I really liked the unusual main couple. Especially Lee Boyoung did an excellent job. I also loved the judge character that is played by the guy I already knew from Running Man. The ending was one of the best I've seen so far in a kdrama. Also the bromance between the female leads was really good, even better than in DoTS. I liked the OST, though it's obviously nowhere near as good as in WYWS. The plot (except around ep9-11) had a nice flow & I liked the theme of the show overall. There are more positives, but there is not much reason to talk about them, overall this is a very pleasant watch with forgivable flaws. I think Pinocchio is still the best in this genre, out of those that I've seen, but this is not far behind.

edit years later: Decided to change my rating to 10, while my criticisms have merit, I have seen very few kdramas I enjoyed more & the rewatch value is really one of the best as well..

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This was a really good drama. I enjoyed watching it most of the time.
After watching episode I actually felt like dropping this drama, because Lawyer Jang'S character irritated me so much and I had the feeling she was not willing to grow and change some of her rotten (sorry, haha) features. Thankfully she changed and proved me that she figured out that she can'T continue the way she did before. [I actually enjoyed watching her, but I thought that some of her character traits don't match with her being a Lawyer].
The story was good and I was really so happy that I didn't have to see Joon Gook all the time. He was such a creepy person who made me have goosebumps all over my body. Jung Woong In did his job really amazingly. I hated him, when he did something despicable, believed him even so I knew he was lying and I had sympathy for him although I knew that he was a monster. Really well done.
Generally Ienjoyed watching all characters. I actually liked allof them. Wait .. no, that's a lie. There was one person who I hated even more than Joon Gook and that is Seo Dae Seok (Do Yeon'S father). He was such a detestable character. I really wanted him punished.

Before submitting my review I have to say something about the ending: You can't believe how relieved I was that this drama had a happy ending. I was expecting a really sad ending with at least one dead person. But this dind't occur. And for that I am very thankful.
The ending was really good. I liked especially the part, where Soo Ha was talking about all the people who brought him to be the person he is now. It showed how much everyone of those characters improved and how the affected each other. That was reall good.

I guess that's it :)

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