This review may contain spoilers
Terrible Writing, Acting, Directing and Story...So, What Is There to Like?
“I Hear Your Voice” is a series that never seems to be able to figure out what it wants to be. Unfortunately, this becomes even true of the characters, who don’t know who they want to be either. The writer took many liberties for this story, even going so far as to make up things just to make the story work. This is one of the cardinal “sins” of writing. Always write about what you know. And never change a character for the sake of the plot.Many K-Dramas successfully blend various genres such as comedy, drama, romance, and even thriller-aspects. Most of the series I’ve watched do this extremely well. This is one of the few series that does this very badly. It uses comedy when something isn’t funny. It uses romance when things are cheesy and not even romantic, and it completely undervalues the killer of the story, causing him to tap-dance around in order to prolong his presence in the series for no real reason. At first, he seeks to kill. Suddenly, he completely changes tactics and wants to be understood. I've never even read about REAL killers doing things like this!
We also have some of the absolute worst acting performances from an ensemble cast that I’ve seen in a very, very long time. Everything from hamming up scenes to overacting, to being completely disingenuous are just a few of the major mistakes this cast makes. Usually, it’s only one or maybe two actors who are weak. In this series, only one or two actors are actually strong and believable.
The story is an intriguing one in which Park Soo Ha and Jang Hye Sung are brought together one fateful night when Min Joon Kook slams into Park Soo Ha’s car and proceeds to brutally murder Park Soo Ha’s father right in front of him. Park Soo Ha himself was about to be killed as well until a young Jang Hye Sung witnesses the crime and proceeds to take photos and be a witness to the crime. This brings about an ominous threat from Min Joon Kook who swears revenge upon Park Soo Ha and Jang Hye Sung, whom he attempts to strangle to death in the courtroom.
Years later, Park Soo Ha is a high school senior who has never forgotten Jang Hye Sung and what she did for him. It’s also obvious that he’s very smitten with her. Park Soo Ha is also a young man capable of reading people’s thoughts. Obviously, this can be very unnerving for anyone who knows of his ability. He trains hard in fighting, knowing that one day, Min Joon Kook is likely to come looking for him as well as Jang Hye Sung. Coming across her, he begins to follow her, especially after learning that Min Joon Kook has been released from prison on “good behavior.”
Jang Hye Sung becomes a public defender. Not because she feels any sense of responsibility, but because she feels she can do the job. And “doing the job” entails lazily arguing for a lighter sentence. She never believes her client and simply feels that her only “duty” is to get a reduced sentence for them. She’s incredibly immature, conceited, and believes that the whole world revolves around her. She’s vain and has no problem showboating when she’s defeated anyone in court. If something goes wrong, it’s always the other person’s fault. She loves playing the victim. If someone lies, she holds a grudge. If she lies, she feels justified. She’s a true hypocrite in every sense of the word. There isn’t much that’s likable about Jang Hye Sung.
Cha Kwan Woo is a mousy, sheepish man who’s dropped out of the police force in order to become a public defender. He seems to have high values despite being a very wishy-washy shell of a man. He constantly looks as though he’s on the verge of tears, and he’s immediately infatuated with Jang Hye Sung. A real head-scratcher is why anyone would be enamored with Jang Hye Sung! And we’ve got an absolutely ludicrous triangle involving these three characters, when none of them are worth it.
There are some serious plot problems in this series. At one point, Cha Kwan Woo feels compelled to defend Min Joon Kook when he’s caught for murdering Jang Hye Sung’s mother. Of course, Min Joon Kook comes up with a ridiculous story, and Cha Kwan Woo buys it. The real problem, however, is that at this point in the story, Cha Kwan Woo is dating Jang Hye Sung. And yet, at no point, is a “conflict of interest” raised by anyone! Mr. Shin, the veteran of the public defenders, cowardly removes himself from consideration rather than realizing that it’s his job to take the case. Of course, Cha Kwan Woo is so gullible, one has to figure out how this man could ever be a public defender, let alone a police officer. He also has zero police skills! At one point, he sneaks up on Min Joon Kook to capture him—from the side! Anyone with peripheral vision (and supposed police training) would never do that!
Another ridiculous point in the story is that Min Joon Kook cuts off his own left hand—with a 15cm knife! I’m not sure the writer had any notion of just how painful and difficult it would be for anyone to try and cut off their own hand with such a blade. They try to justify it with a pitiful demonstration that nobody with a brain would ever buy!
At one point, when Min Joon Kook is suspected of being murdered by Park Soo Ha, a witness claims to have seen Park Soo Ha, and yet nobody goes out to speak with the witness or even bring the witness to court until nearly after the fact. Talk about lawyers not doing their job! I had no idea they were so incompetent.
We have judges who roll their eyes and show emotion in court (something judges are not allowed to do!) during testimonies. We also have jurors who constantly nod their heads at every, single thing. I’ve served on juries. Jurors don’t do that, and certainly not all of them at the same time!
The courtroom scenes are just about the worst I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen a lot in movies and TV shows. It all played out like a bad soap opera by directors and writers who haven’t a clue what really goes on in a courtroom and what court proceedings and protocols look like. I especially laughed at Jang Hye Sung wearing miniskirts to court. Somehow, I don’t think a judge would allow that kind of attire.
This is the first series I’ve seen with Lee Bo Young, and she is just plain awful. She can’t seem to find the fine line between being comedic or being dramatic. I understand that her character is supposed to be haughty, but she comes across like a spoiled high school prom-queen, constantly flipping her hair and giving snide remarks. In short, she’s just not believable in any aspect of her character. She’s absolutely clueless. She also has zero chemistry with anyone in the series. She reminded me of Denise Richards, one of the worst American actresses (or any actress!).
Yoon Sang Hyun (Cha Kwan Woo) is almost as bad. He often says his lines with a wooden expression as though he’s reciting a poem in front of a school class. I understand that his character likes Jang Hye Sung, but acting like a 15-year-old milksop is hardly the way to endear the viewer. He’s simply pathetic despite his ideals as a lawyer being very noble.
This is the second series I’ve seen with Lee Jong Suk (first being “Hymn of Death”). He’s easily the strongest of these three. He reminds us that his character is a good six or seven years younger than Jang Hye Sung, but he also comes across as easily the most mature of the three. While he’s prone to losing his temper, he’s also the most levelheaded. However, his age and lack of world experience prove to be his weaknesses. Lee Jong Suk juggled this complex character rather well.
I’ve seen Jung Woong In (Min Joon Kook) in a number of series. He’s good a playing the villain or the antagonist. However, he really hammed up and overacted his role in this series as he was obviously trying to find the line between a sadistic killer and a sympathetic victim. He’s prone to shouting way too much—especially when his character wouldn’t—and spewing ridiculous nonsense in his tirades. I would have preferred a calmer and cooler killer who revels in his intelligence rather than some madman.
Yoon Joo Sang (Mr. Shin) and Kim Hae Sook (Jang Hye Sung’s mother) were easily my favorite performers of the series. We had some peripheral characters, such as Park Soo Ha’s high school companions, who brought absolutely nothing to the story. I had a hard time figuring out if Kim Choong Ki was his friend or not, since they were constantly engaging in fist fights. So much for being friends.
The writer was clearly making it up as you go along without any notion or idea about how things actually work in the real world much less the courtroom. Perhaps the writer watched too many dramas and thought, “Hey, I can do this!” Wrong.
The music was equally bad, playing light, fluffy songs at points when something dark and sinister was about to happen. That made no sense either. The series failed as a romance, failed as a comedy, and only barely stayed afloat as a thriller. This “ship” should have been sunk before it ever left port.
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Do not watch this, you will regret.
This drama is one of most popular dramas here. I've checked first 5 pages of review, all were positive with 10 and 9. So I thought I should watch this. I was naive... I know I'm not a target audience. I know Korean dramas is different from western dramas and they often overdo with dramatic moments. I know it's more romantic melodrama than mystery/detective. But I steel can't understand, why this shit so popular and so highly rated. Characters are stupid and inconsistent, they driven not by logic or their character, they do mostly stupid, illogical thing, cause author need more drama. Same with events, author doesn't care about logic or realism, he want drama so drama will happen even if it's impossible in real life. Plot is filled with big holes. Every episode i watched, i was asking myself, why characters doing this shit, or isn't answer is obvious, so why they can't find answer, or such events can't take place in real life, how i can believe.Usually I'm not writing reviews for several reasons, but this time i think i should. I'm writing this review, to warn naive people like me, who was lured here by tons of positive reviews. If you can't turn of your brain so you would not be able to cry on unbelievable drama, do not watch this, or you will end up with wasted time and disappointment.
P.S. Sorry for bad English, I'm not native speaker.
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What makes it un interesting?
The story is stiff
Why did I even start watching the drama?
Good reviews and often on favorite drama list of some viewers
What is intersting about it?
The thrill when the bad guy was threatening them
Why wont I like it?
I dont have that much time to waste watching all episodes fully - i dont find it worthy of my time.
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This review may contain spoilers
It was good but…
Listen, I love a good Lee Jong Suk drama because he’s such an amazing actor imo. This drama was a good watch overall but it a few of the characters were slightly annoying (mostly the main actress at times). The story was cool and different but enjoyable nonetheless. I wasn’t a fan of the relationship they kept pushing on us. I don’t get why they wanted us to ship a high schooler and and (almost) 30 year old so bad. It didn’t sit well with me.I do recommend to give this drama a try though. You might actually like it more than me.
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I'm very dissapointed
I was VERY excited to watch this for several reasons. Lee Jong Suk was in it, it was about law and this kdrama is the only one that had so many good reviews on this app, I pretty much only saw 9 or 10. And when I started it, it was pretty good however with every episode my motivation to finish it kept disappearing so I dropped it.For the story - it was nothing special, I've watched a few shoes involving law and that aspect was definitely very weak in I hear your Voice. The antagonist was importing for the plot but he was in every damn episode so it got so damn boring. I'm not sure what the creators were going for it had thriller, fantasy, law, romance, comedy? it tried to have everything but kinda didn't have anything at all. Now for the romance....I hated it. I didn't want the female lead to end up with neither of them. I mean one of them was a high schooler and the other was a very annoying and childish attorney.
Acting/Casting was pretty good I always love seeing familiar faces in older kdramas but I wouldn't say that the acting was something spectacular. Also I loved the side characters way more than the main ones however it wasn't really worth it to keep watching just for some characters that appear rarely.
For music - it was pretty good but like nothing special that stands out.
For rewatching - If i could give it a 0 I would but I cant so i'll give it a 1. I'm definitely not rewatching this ever again however there's a low chance that I will finish it someday but I doubt it.
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What I liked is how they've shown the court cases, how lawyers deal with them.
Just I didn't like Jang Hye Sung behavior even on the court. She irritated me with her arrogance and dullness. And I don't like her look and acting.
Lee Jong Suk's character is okay and is a good smart guy. I don't understand his love to the heroine as I don't like her. And he is crazily handsome.
Well, Jeong Wung In acted great.
I can't remember any other characters, nobody else caught my attention.
Well, may be mostly only the fans of JungSuk will enjoy watching this drama to the end. I don't know, just guess.
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Sometimes Romance Kills the mood
THIS SERIES IS REAL PIECE OF SHIT....Plot was well written but not always Romance is good in dramas. Romance between two main lead in this series killed the mood for me. Even though I finished watching it, this particular element was let down for me. Age gap between couple is never the problem but I felt there was no real chemistry between two leads. This seemed forced down rather than natural.
Main actress was shown to be so immature despite being lawyer. Side characters were strong than main characters for me.
Beside this, story was good and ending in every episodes made me curious for next one.
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There was some great acting in the series. Choi Sung Joon was adorable and stole every scene he was in.
The music was decent but not memorable. It felt like it was there to convince you of a scene's emotion rather than complement it.
Now that I've watched it there's very little chance of me watching it again. Most of the buildup fell flat on execution, so knowing what happens will not put me in that same mindset the second time around.
That said it was still a decent series so I feel it deserves the score based on the suspense factor and some great side characters/story lines.
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The last two episodes have a lot of "fillers" cause the drama initially was meant to have 16 episodes but due to the large success it became a 18 episodes serie.
The actors are really good, especially Lee Jong Suk and Kim Kwang Gyu (he always made me laugh!).
I loved instrumental music (my favourite tracks of the ost are Return and Verdict) but i dislike the opening song, it is annoying.
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This review may contain spoilers
Well Written
Each episode is good in its way,Initially they were taking the cases up and damn I liked that part from this whole drama.The twin case and the case before that was too good.Min jun guk's part was a bit draggy. Then ms yeon's father's case was also very amazing.Each case taught me a lesson of life.If you like noona romance then this is for you. I somehow wanted mr cha to end up with ms jang as the age gap between park su ha and jang was evident. The romance part didn't go well with me that much but other than that the judge played a very good part too. The drama has suspense and will take you to the end. The drama was well written and ended on a happy note so if this is a spoiler I m sorry to ruin it :p Park su ha's character till the end seemed kiddish to me and mr cha's character was more mature but then this was a noona romance drama.The acting of all the actors were just amazing ,I liked ms yeon and mr cha's acting alot. This drama goes to all its supporting cast. Without such amazing supporting cast this drama wouldnt be this good.
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