IHYV doesn't just do a good job of critiquing what love is, it shows love doesn't magically fix anything and it…
FL's revolving door soliloquy on choice, fate and coincidence is my favorite example of an interrogation of inyeon; the Korean concept of karmic cause and effect. Fate only puts people in each other's path, it's their choices that ultimately connect them. Which is the basis of FL's, SFL's and ML's backstory; all of them share the same past connection but FL becomes the FL because of the choice she makes in court.
But if we're trading favorite subverted tropes it's tied between the umbrella scene and the bus fall for me. I've been watching Kdramas 12+ years; there are very few examples of FL rescuing ML in the rain (none so dramatic as this) and I've never seen another instance of ML falling into FL's lap on the bus (with such perfect reactions). Though I agree there are so many that it's hard to choose; the whole premise of FL saving ML's life is a trope subversion, as are the archetypal roles of the leads.
The manic pixie dream boy description of noona MLs is uncomfortably apt. I love the genre for the atypical relationships, but it has its issues and that's a major one.
With so many noona romances released this year I decided to revisit my favorite, and it remains my unequivocal favorite. Too many feature one sided relationships where it's ML's role to love and support FL with little growth or agency of their own. Here ML and FL are both complicated people on parallel journeys of learning how to love and support each other without sacrificing themselves in the process.
It also presents a rare critical take on the idealized first love, love at first sight and past connection tropes. It acknowledges that ideal first love is just a fantasy and falling in love for real is a different, more difficult process while love at first sight isn't enough to make a relationship work unless you also put in the daily effort to build/maintain that relationship and a past connection can be meaningless, formative or detrimental depending on the individual involved. Together, they present a more complex, substantive view of love than the standard Kdrama meet cutes and wish fulfillment.
The story broke molds for its time and it did it so well it's still unique today. Maybe I'll come across something as memorable again, but so far no luck.
No open ending, after 3 seasons her ex husband dies, her new liver who is SML dies also. She is with her child.
I'm curious about your reasoning? I Hear Your Voice won Lee Bo Young the 50th Best Actress Baeksang; it was also nominated for Best Drama, Best Director and Best Actor. She took the Daesang (Grand Prize) for acting at the Korea Drama Awards and the SBS Drama Awards that year too.
Mother is an amazing melodrama - it won the 54th Best Drama Baeksang and netted her a Best Actress nomination - but if you're going solely by awards/nominations I Hear Your Voice is by far Lee Bo Young's most critically acclaimed role.
In general I'd recommend I Hear Your Voice as both a star-crossed noona romance and a legal/revenge tragicomedy; it was a highly rated/awarded blockbuster in its day and the story is as strong as ever. But more specifically, if you're interested in:
• Flipped relationship dynamics with a tough, tsundere FL and soft, supportive ML who are equally willing to do whatever it takes to save each other. • Strong character arcs that give everyone the chance to grow and change. • A mix of romcom/melodrama in the relationship and plot/romance in the story. • Legal/ethical issues with no genius lawyers or easy answers. Instead it shows how the system fails to function, how it ideally should and the consequences of both outcomes.
Then yes, this is definitely a drama worth watching. The only major downside is the pre-2016 production values, which are going to be a shock if you're used to more modern ones.
In his first case, second trial.. I don't know if he wants to win the case or America's Got Talent.. 😂
If you mean ML, he addresses FL as 당신/dangsin (dear/darling) almost the entire series (and in his diary later on). Because of how they first meet, FL mistakes it as the rude usage of the term (a non-honorific 'you') rather than the intimate; she doesn't catch on until his confession.
In Korean, it's sort of a Princess Bride-esque 'as you wish' misunderstanding where ML is expressing his feelings every time they talk while FL just thinks he's being cheeky and she's equally cheeky back.
SML calls FL 짱변/jjang byeon, which is a pun of her surname and her professional title which translates to 'best lawyer',
If you're curious, there's a nickname guide and legal FAQ in the forum posts.
Gearing up to re-watch this one for its 10th anniversary, and even after a decade it's still a top Kdrama for me; the gold standard of complex plot, cross-genre romcoms. Love the slow burn ordinary daily life romance in extraordinary circumstances, the morally complicated characters, the narrative parallelism, the clever motifs and the critical but idealistic view of the law.
The only major downside is the Viki subs are so-so, especially compared to the OG Dramafever ones. Kocowa is probably the best place to watch it now, Netflix being a distant second.
1. It's a series of murders.2. They stopped for a long period after the arrest of the suspect (FL's uncle?) that…
It's just a theory, but in ML's conversations with the prisoner his name is very deliberately never mentioned and FL in the past was shocked to see her uncle (implying he probably wasn't a part of her life); makes it very likely that the uncle was the one arrested in the past and that's why FL's mom and dad left the village.
1. It's a series of murders. 2. They stopped for a long period after the arrest of the suspect (FL's uncle?) that ML spoke to in prison. 3. The murder leaves a signature Bong Bong Teahouse matchbook at the scene; the same matchbook was found at ML's murder in 2022 and FL's mother's suicide in 2021 with a scrap of paper inside that says 'Girls who read are dangerous'. 4. According to ML's calendar in his office, the first murder happens on Thursday May 14, the second on Saturday May 17 and the third on Wednesday May 20th. 5. The current date in the past is May 10th.
But considering ML has already made huge changes in the past (saving the girl who should have fallen to her death while high, stopping the newspaper article about the drug problem from being written, becoming a teacher and moving into the town) it's hard to say if events are still going to follow the timeline.
Short answer: Yes.Long answer:There was a three tiered legal system: civil cases and low level criminal cases…
Yep, they were outlawed and stricken from public records in the early 1600s, so there's not a lot of primary source material on the profession from the later Joseon era.
If you want some more in-depth info about the legal system of Joseon, search for "The Codifications and Legal Institutions of the Joseon Dynasty" by Jung Geung Sik. It's a pretty easy read and availible for free in some online law archives.
Were there lawyers in modern sense of the word in Joseon era at all? Like, public defenders of crime suspects…
I posted a more in-depth answer to this question a couple comments back, but yes: there was a three-tiered legal system with a court of appeal as well as an extensive system of criminal and civil litigation. And there were 外知部/oejibu, who were a mix between clerks/lawyers, who assisted people in filing and arguing their cases.
Fun fact about public defenders, though: outside of the US they're not a common feature of modern legal systems and the US itself didn't have any until 1963. So expecting them in Joseon is kind of unreasonable.
In South Korea, a dedicated system of public defenders didn't exist until a massive legal reform in 2008. There are currently only ~230 public defenders in the country, which has a population of ~50 million. Over half of them work in the Seoul court system; 24 district branch courts have no public defenders, and others only two or three.
If you want to know more about public defenders in South Korea, check out I Hear Your Voice; it's a 2013 legal drama that showcases the changes the 2008 reform brought to legal system.
There was a three tiered legal system: civil cases and low level criminal cases were dealt with by the county magistrate, the provincial governor handled appeals and more serious criminal cases, and the Ministry of Justice presided over the court of final appeal and criminal cases punishable by death. A case could also be brought directly to the king through 上言/sangeon (written appeal) or 擊錚/gyeokjaeng (literally banging a gong and shouting out your plea as the king passed by).
Litigants were expected to present their cases personally. The upper classes were more likely to be familiar with the process or be able to afford one of the many published legal codices. But the lower classes were often advised by a 外知部/oejibu, which was a mix between clerk and lawyer. It wasn't an officially recognized or licensed profession, and was actually illegal (punishable by banishment) during certain periods in Joseon when the government attempted to crack down on nuisance suits.
But if we're trading favorite subverted tropes it's tied between the umbrella scene and the bus fall for me. I've been watching Kdramas 12+ years; there are very few examples of FL rescuing ML in the rain (none so dramatic as this) and I've never seen another instance of ML falling into FL's lap on the bus (with such perfect reactions). Though I agree there are so many that it's hard to choose; the whole premise of FL saving ML's life is a trope subversion, as are the archetypal roles of the leads.
The manic pixie dream boy description of noona MLs is uncomfortably apt. I love the genre for the atypical relationships, but it has its issues and that's a major one.
It also presents a rare critical take on the idealized first love, love at first sight and past connection tropes. It acknowledges that ideal first love is just a fantasy and falling in love for real is a different, more difficult process while love at first sight isn't enough to make a relationship work unless you also put in the daily effort to build/maintain that relationship and a past connection can be meaningless, formative or detrimental depending on the individual involved. Together, they present a more complex, substantive view of love than the standard Kdrama meet cutes and wish fulfillment.
The story broke molds for its time and it did it so well it's still unique today. Maybe I'll come across something as memorable again, but so far no luck.
Mother is an amazing melodrama - it won the 54th Best Drama Baeksang and netted her a Best Actress nomination - but if you're going solely by awards/nominations I Hear Your Voice is by far Lee Bo Young's most critically acclaimed role.
• Flipped relationship dynamics with a tough, tsundere FL and soft, supportive ML who are equally willing to do whatever it takes to save each other.
• Strong character arcs that give everyone the chance to grow and change.
• A mix of romcom/melodrama in the relationship and plot/romance in the story.
• Legal/ethical issues with no genius lawyers or easy answers. Instead it shows how the system fails to function, how it ideally should and the consequences of both outcomes.
Then yes, this is definitely a drama worth watching. The only major downside is the pre-2016 production values, which are going to be a shock if you're used to more modern ones.
In Korean, it's sort of a Princess Bride-esque 'as you wish' misunderstanding where ML is expressing his feelings every time they talk while FL just thinks he's being cheeky and she's equally cheeky back.
SML calls FL 짱변/jjang byeon, which is a pun of her surname and her professional title which translates to 'best lawyer',
If you're curious, there's a nickname guide and legal FAQ in the forum posts.
The only major downside is the Viki subs are so-so, especially compared to the OG Dramafever ones. Kocowa is probably the best place to watch it now, Netflix being a distant second.
2. They stopped for a long period after the arrest of the suspect (FL's uncle?) that ML spoke to in prison.
3. The murder leaves a signature Bong Bong Teahouse matchbook at the scene; the same matchbook was found at ML's murder in 2022 and FL's mother's suicide in 2021 with a scrap of paper inside that says 'Girls who read are dangerous'.
4. According to ML's calendar in his office, the first murder happens on Thursday May 14, the second on Saturday May 17 and the third on Wednesday May 20th.
5. The current date in the past is May 10th.
But considering ML has already made huge changes in the past (saving the girl who should have fallen to her death while high, stopping the newspaper article about the drug problem from being written, becoming a teacher and moving into the town) it's hard to say if events are still going to follow the timeline.
If you want some more in-depth info about the legal system of Joseon, search for "The Codifications and Legal Institutions of the Joseon Dynasty" by Jung Geung Sik. It's a pretty easy read and availible for free in some online law archives.
Fun fact about public defenders, though: outside of the US they're not a common feature of modern legal systems and the US itself didn't have any until 1963. So expecting them in Joseon is kind of unreasonable.
In South Korea, a dedicated system of public defenders didn't exist until a massive legal reform in 2008. There are currently only ~230 public defenders in the country, which has a population of ~50 million. Over half of them work in the Seoul court system; 24 district branch courts have no public defenders, and others only two or three.
If you want to know more about public defenders in South Korea, check out I Hear Your Voice; it's a 2013 legal drama that showcases the changes the 2008 reform brought to legal system.
Long answer:
There was a three tiered legal system: civil cases and low level criminal cases were dealt with by the county magistrate, the provincial governor handled appeals and more serious criminal cases, and the Ministry of Justice presided over the court of final appeal and criminal cases punishable by death. A case could also be brought directly to the king through 上言/sangeon (written appeal) or 擊錚/gyeokjaeng (literally banging a gong and shouting out your plea as the king passed by).
Litigants were expected to present their cases personally. The upper classes were more likely to be familiar with the process or be able to afford one of the many published legal codices. But the lower classes were often advised by a 外知部/oejibu, which was a mix between clerk and lawyer. It wasn't an officially recognized or licensed profession, and was actually illegal (punishable by banishment) during certain periods in Joseon when the government attempted to crack down on nuisance suits.