SongofSixpence

The writer wrote 4 earlier Kdramas based on fairy tales:

1. I Hear Your Voice = The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde
2. Pinocchio = kinda self explanatory
3. While You Were Sleeping = Sleeping Beauty
4. Start-Up = Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand

So if you like the style check out the others! I loved I Hear Your Voice best because the writing has that same fairy tale feel with the life lessons and past-present parallels coming full circle but While You Were Sleeping and Start-Up have the same director as Castaway Diva so they look stylistically similar.

Uh, that's the dynamic in most romances because Kdrama MLs are usually richer, more successful and more powerful than FLs? So this is one of those things where the reason is "because patriarchy" but not in the way you think.

Itaewon Class is kinda what you want but it only works because ML's life has been ruined and he wants revenge. Both SFL and FL help him get it.

Pinocchio or I Hear Your Voice from the same writer. They're thematic stories with an emphasis on the power of relationships (friendly, familial and romantic) to heal and support people when the system fails them. They also have complex characters, inspiring career stories with thriller plots, a mix of romcom and tragedy and a fantasy realism setting.

Pinocchio has more family drama but the romance in IHYV is more like CD.

Right on! There are so many great themes in this story, like living a life for love vs regret and revenge, how taking time to hear someone's suffering can avoid further tragedies and the power in acknowledging your mistakes to become a better person.

I also love the message that one person trying to save someone is just a start, it takes a community and their relationships to save someone when the system fails to. ML and FL couldn't have got the happy ending they did without all the other characters working to make it happen in big and small ways.

Dramas older than 2016 get bad ratings on production quality alone. Some people just don't like shows that "feel" old even if the writing and acting are fantastic. It's also a noona romance which get a lot of flack in general.

In 2013 I Hear Your Voice had four Baeksang nominations: Best Director, Best Drama, Best Actress (Lee Bo Young won!) and Best Actor. It was a hit in ratings too with 26% peak during the final episodes. So it's a true classic no matter what the MDL rating is.

The fact you use terminology like "simp" says everything anyone needs to know about you. What's with this sudden influx of incels and neckbeards on MDL? Got back to fetishizing your anime waifus and leave Kdramas to those who appreciate them.

I wondered this too. Wikipedia says the child actors play 9 year old ML and 15 year old FL which would make it 6 years gap. But the show says ML is 8 at his father's murder trial in 2002 and FL is 28 Korean age in 2012 which makes her 26 or 27 international.

So it's more like 6-8 years gap not 10.

ETA: Someone on reddit pointed out FL's birthday is on her job resume in episode 2 and they were right: it's 1985/11/15. So FL is 26.

Nope, she gets off with barely any punishment and forgiven mostly because they suddenly make another character the mastermind and swap her out as the villian. It was infuriating and it ruined the second half of the drama.

I never thought I'd see a break up and noble idiocy in a non-romance drama but somehow they managed it. Great for fans of coffee and chill slice of life but annoying for anyone who can't stand those awful Kdrama tropes.

Welcome to the life of a noona romance fan! I think the highest rated one on MDL is I Hear Your Voice and that's only an 8.5 despite being a fantastic all rounder (though there is murder, lol). There's just a large percentage of drama fans that shout "no chemistry!" the second they see a visibly older FL with a younger ML while oppa romances like Hidden Love get rated through the roof.

Ep5: FL and ML move in together. ML's indirect confession.
Ep7: FL and SML start dating.
Ep8: FL and SML break-up. First kiss and ML's confession. ML moves out.
Ep10: First hand hold.
Ep11: FL's indirect confession.
Ep12: FL and ML move in together again. First hug.
Ep14: Second kiss and FL's confession. Offically together.
Ep17: Snuggling in bed (but no bed scene). ML says love instead of like.
Ep18: Third kiss and FL says love instead of like.

9.5/10: I wasn't expecting to love this one but it was the perfect mix of serious melodrama and cheesy romcom with a heartfelt story that hits all the right emotional notes.

The format is a mix of episodic and main plot with the episodic cases introducing you to how public defenders work in South Korea sprinkled with social commentary. Judges and prosecutors have all the power and a 99% conviction rate; the public defender's job is to make nice and plea for leniency. Not that that stops FL once she gets going because even at her apathetic worst she has a better sense of justice than prosecutor frenemy SFL who's one step away from "I am the law" authoritarian. It's their rivalry that drives the legal story, aided by FL's pragmatic boss, idealistic co-worker SML and ML who forces FL to see the best in herself and is always ready to lend a hand when she can't.

The revenge plot is a slow burn that develops with the romance as it guides all the connected characters back together to deal with the fallout from a series of events in the past. Not exactly unique for Kdramas, but the difference here was how intensely personal everything is. There's no psycho villain, genius mastermind or corrupt chaebol pulling strings behind the scenes: just flawed people who make difficult choices they have to ultimately take responsibility for and struggle and grow as they do.

But if you don't like non-traditional romances, pass: FL is the self-absorbed tsundere who can't trust people and ML is the sweetheart with self-esteem issues. Their romance is them patching up the damaged parts of each other (sometimes literally) through their give and take relationship. It's not a perfect green flag with all their trauma but if you want to watch two uniquely endearing leads work out their issues while cutely cohabiting and desperately trying to save each other this really doesn't have a match. I've never rooted so hard for leads to get it together and get together or felt so cathartically fulfilled when they finally did.

(non-spoiler romance timeline below)

The fact that FL and ML have completely switched roles is so fascinating.

In the first half ML spent years longing and searching for FL, discovered that she wasn't what he remembered, came to terms with it but fell in love with her as a person. He thought they couldn't be together, so he decided to protect her and then let her go.

Now FL is in exactly the same position - she's spent a year listening to ML's voice every night and running after anyone who looks like him, found him again but he's not the same and she still falls in love with him despite herself. She can't see a future for them so she wants to protect him until he heals and then let him go.

There's lots of parallels in this drama - ML and MJG, FL and SFL, SML and Attorney Shin - but I think this is my favorite one. You get to see both ML and FL struggle with their feelings and take a similar journey to accepting and acting on them.

FL's current confused longing is everything. She can't decide whether she wants to gently stroke his hair before she tucks him in or tenderly smooch him when he's sad or melt at all the heart eyed looks. I can't wait to see what the breaking point is.

The first episode was great but the next few alternated between cringe comedy (what's with all the poop humor?), jumpy flashbacks, awkward romance and what I guess is an episodic story which was really underwhelming. Is there even a main plot to this series? Is it all just formulaic repetitions of dream → problem → solution? Because I think it's a drop from me in that case.

I was not prepared for the punch in the feels in the middle of this drama. All the themes are personal now and all the stories relate somehow. I still love the way all the characters (especially ML and FL) are flawed and have made serious mistakes but are trying to help each other as best they can.

This is an emotionally tough binge but I'm 100% invested, gonna try to finish today

I love how ML's idealistic fantasies about FL are completely destroyed but he's falling for her all over again because the important parts like her willingness to stand up for people (especially him) are still there. Like when FL's scared for her life hiding under a blanket with a baseball bat... but the second she gets a call that ML is in trouble she's down at the police station bailing him out. Those are the kind "show don't tell" character details that make a love story work.

I also didn't expect so much romance this early? But FL's fake kiss and her chuffed appreciation of what she thinks is ML's crush were adorable. Same with the long walks home and lingering looks from the balcony.

A couple more episodes in and FL's speech about 99% of women in the world not bothering with performative femininity out of sight is #relatable. It's a nice touch that her style backs up her philosophy because at home she's always dressed cozy with minimal make-up.

It's also a huge plus that everyone in this drama is a normal middle class person living a normal middle class life - even mind reader ML. Unlike most romcoms set in parallel universe Kdramaland this feels more down to earth and realistic despite the premise.

I'm really digging all the character dynamics and the pacing is good too, probably gonna binge watch the rest over the weekend.

I've only seen two episodes and I too would die for FL so ML's motivations make total sense to me, lol. I wish more FLs were allowed to be complicated, flawed people but still considered worthy of love and saving. In Kdrama that seems to be dynamic reserved mostly for MLs - FLs have to be sweet cinnamon rolls or they're completely vilified.

Recently finished this one and it's maybe 6/10. I rolled my eyes through the entire cheesy high school prologue which should have been a clue to what I was in for. Like a lot of other comments I think the brothers' relationship was the strongest part and once the story moved on it became a generic corruption plot with pointless drama holding up the romance and an unsatisfying ending.

So if you want a tropey soap opera this is a decent one. If you're looking for something with more oomph or an emotionally healthy relationship, keep looking.