“I Hear Your Voice” (너의 목소리가 들려)

By Jae-Ha Kim
jaehakim.com
September 16, 2018

☆☆☆☆
Jang Hye-Sung (played by Lee Bo-Young)
Park Soo-Ha (played by Lee Jong-Suk)
↑Note: Korean names denote the surname followed by the given name.

I finished “I Hear Your Voice” around the same time I started watching “Pretty Noona Who Buys Me Food.” Both deal with older women/younger men plots, where the woman is less than a decade older than her partner. Not a big deal, right?

The problem I had with “I Hear Your Voice,” though, is that the boy is a high school senior when the relationship begins. And while Soo-Ha certainly is more mature than Hye-Sung in many ways, he is still a teenager.

To put things into perspective: The age of consent in South Korea is 20.

The storyline would’ve been just as effective (and less creepy) if the scriptwriters had made Soo-Ha a few years older. Maybe even 21.

Lee Bo-Young (who was so wonderful in “Call Me Mother“) portrays a scrappy public defender, who doesn’t do much to champion for her clients. Hye-Sung goes through the motions, but doesn’t really care about the outcome. She figures the system will work things out. And frankly, she’s more concerned with getting a regular paycheck.

Soo-Ha (Lee Jong-Suk) is an orphan. His mother died a month after receiving a heart transplant. His father was murdered shortly afterwards. Blessed — or cursed — with the ability to hear people’s thoughts when he stares into their eyes, Soo-Ha feels indebted to Hye-Sung who, as a child, testified against the man who killed his father.

But now, the murderer — Min Joon-Gook (chillingly played by Jung Woong-In) — is out of prison and seeks revenge on Hye-Sung, who he blames for his imprisonment.

After Soo-Ha finds her, he uses his mind-reading abilities to help her win cases and ingratiate himself into her life so that he can protect (and love) her.

Thankfully, his identity isn’t kept a secret for longer than four episodes. Once Hye-Sung realizes who Soo-Ha is, she opens up to the boy and they share a friendship, which at first is based on what they went through dealing with childhood trauma.

As the teenage version of Hye-Sung, Kim So-Hyun (“Moon That Embraces the Sun“) is incredibly expressive and carries herself with poise beyond her years.

I was disappointed at how the adult version of Hye-Sung was presented as kind of a dingaling. She’s dismissive of her colleagues, who are trying to help her. And she throws tantrums and cries at work. Essentially, she starts off the series as a stereotype of every single helpless female that men use as an excuse to not hire women.

She does grow into a cunning lawyer, who enjoys winning and learns to appreciate the hard work it takes to achieve that goal.

As with “Lawless Lawyer,” this series takes liberty with how law is served up. No court would force a public defender to represent a client who had (1) beaten him up and (2) tried to kill his girlfriend. But Cha Gwan-Woo (Yoon Sang-Hyun) ends up doing exactly that.

Airdates: Eighteen hour-long episodes aired on SBS from June 5 to August 1, 2013.

Spoiler Alert: The backstory to how Min Joon-Gook became so evil was well done. He was once a loving husband, father and son. He worked multiple jobs so that he could pay for his wife’s upcoming heart transplant. But thanks to some finessing by Soo-Ha’s father — a respected journalist — the heart was given to Soo-Ha’s mother instead. Joon-Gook’s wife died. He got revenge by killing Soo-Ha’s father. And after Hye-Sung’s testimony seals his fate in prison, his young son and elderly mother (who has Alzheimers) are unable to survive on their own and perish. He has nothing to live for at this point and goes all out to take everyone with him on his way to hell. Now, this doesn’t excuse him being a psychopath serial killer, but I did like his story arc.

The Adoption Element: Hye-Sung’s childhood frenemy, Do-Yeon (played by Lee Da-Hee), never knew she was adopted. Her father — a powerful judge — helped send Do-Yeon’s birth father to prison for a murder he never committed and then surreptitiously adopted the man’s child.

Soo-Ha was never formally adopted. After his parents died, he moved in with his paternal aunt’s husband and his family. (The aunt isn’t in the picture, so my guess is the uncle is a widower.) Though the uncle is kind to him on the surface, Soo-Ha can hear his uncle’s resentment at having another mouth to feed. He wonders how he’s going to immigrate to the U.S. with four children, one of whom isn’t his. He deliberately loses Soo-Ha in the park. When a policeman brings the boy back to the house, the uncle is filled with dread. He takes care of the child to a certain extent, but he also helps himself to Soo-Ha’s inheritance and spends it on his own children. And then he leaves South Korea and leaves Soo-Ha to fend for himself.

Yes, Min Joon-Gook is an evil character. But so, too, is this relative who won’t even try to tolerate a child who isn’t biologically his.

#IHearYourVoice & #PrettyNoonaWhoBuysMeFood both deal w/older women/younger men plots, where the woman’s 10ish years older than the male. Not a big deal, right? Except in I Hear Your Voice, he’s a h.s. kid. The age of consent in SK’s 20. My review⏯️https://t.co/oqiMaJxbub📽️ pic.twitter.com/lglO3QT6Ac

— Jae-Ha Kim 김재하 (@GoAwayWithJae) September 17, 2018

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