SongofSixpence
A deeply touching love story wrapped in revenge, reget and the law.
If you're looking for the sort of "fun while it lasts but forgettable when it ends" Kdrama romcom format that's all the rage these days you won't find it here: I Hear Your Voice is anything but forgettable. Its message that everyone deserves to be heard and treated with compassion to avert deeper tragedies - on the personal or societal level - is both melancholy and cheesily heartfelt in the best way and the romance has the same mix of emotional complexity and lightheartedness.
First, let's lay some groundwork:
1. The age gap. If you stan Hidden Love it's doubtful you'll have a problem with it considering the leads are the same age when they get together: ML is 19 and FL is in her mid-twenties.
2. The amount of complaints about any and every noona romance having "no chemistry" smacks of toxicity considering oppa romances are never criticized the same way or treated as a separate genre. So if can't get over the visuals of an older FL with a younger ML: don't watch it. Maybe examine your life and your choices.
3. It doesn't surprise me the negative reviews of this drama are all from people who hate the FL or people who hate the romance because this has the most non-traditional gender roles I've seen in Kdramas. FL plays the ML role: she's a self-absorbed tsundere who brings home the bacon and can't trust or rely on others. ML plays the FL role: he's a supportive, snarky sweetheart who does all the housework and struggles with self worth. Somehow this makes both leads awful people to a certain subset because ML behavior from a FL (and vice versa) is unforgivable. See again: toxicity. Your life, your choices, yada yada.
But enough about the patriarchy. On to the plot.
The format is a mix of episodic and main story 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 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 is 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 take responsibility for and struggle and grow as they do.
And no one starts more flawed or grows more than ML or FL. 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 the trauma but if you wanna 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. FL's journey from someone unwilling to risk herself for others even a tiny bit to standing up for ML, her clients and what's right even when there's almost no chance of success is amazing to watch and easy to cheer for. Same with ML starting as someone who completely denies himself in heartbreaking ways because of his loneliness and fear of abandonment to someone who values himself enough to express and assert himself in heart fluttering territory. I've never rooted so hard for two leads to get together or felt so fulfilled when they finally did.
Honestly, the worst thing I can say about I Hear Your Voice it is it has some gratuitous wrist grabbiness near the beginning, some messy SFL family drama near the end and it looks like it was made in 2013. Because it was! If you can get past the older tropes and the uncanny valley of the soap opera effect, it's smooth sailing to a memorable story and the best noona romance I've seen yet.
First, let's lay some groundwork:
1. The age gap. If you stan Hidden Love it's doubtful you'll have a problem with it considering the leads are the same age when they get together: ML is 19 and FL is in her mid-twenties.
2. The amount of complaints about any and every noona romance having "no chemistry" smacks of toxicity considering oppa romances are never criticized the same way or treated as a separate genre. So if can't get over the visuals of an older FL with a younger ML: don't watch it. Maybe examine your life and your choices.
3. It doesn't surprise me the negative reviews of this drama are all from people who hate the FL or people who hate the romance because this has the most non-traditional gender roles I've seen in Kdramas. FL plays the ML role: she's a self-absorbed tsundere who brings home the bacon and can't trust or rely on others. ML plays the FL role: he's a supportive, snarky sweetheart who does all the housework and struggles with self worth. Somehow this makes both leads awful people to a certain subset because ML behavior from a FL (and vice versa) is unforgivable. See again: toxicity. Your life, your choices, yada yada.
But enough about the patriarchy. On to the plot.
The format is a mix of episodic and main story 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 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 is 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 take responsibility for and struggle and grow as they do.
And no one starts more flawed or grows more than ML or FL. 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 the trauma but if you wanna 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. FL's journey from someone unwilling to risk herself for others even a tiny bit to standing up for ML, her clients and what's right even when there's almost no chance of success is amazing to watch and easy to cheer for. Same with ML starting as someone who completely denies himself in heartbreaking ways because of his loneliness and fear of abandonment to someone who values himself enough to express and assert himself in heart fluttering territory. I've never rooted so hard for two leads to get together or felt so fulfilled when they finally did.
Honestly, the worst thing I can say about I Hear Your Voice it is it has some gratuitous wrist grabbiness near the beginning, some messy SFL family drama near the end and it looks like it was made in 2013. Because it was! If you can get past the older tropes and the uncanny valley of the soap opera effect, it's smooth sailing to a memorable story and the best noona romance I've seen yet.
Was this review helpful to you?
