“Big Mouth” (빅마우스)

By Jae-Ha Kim
Substack
October 15, 2022

☆☆☆☆
Park Chang-ho (played by Lee Jong-suk)
Ko Mi-ho (played by Im Yoon-ah)
↑Note: Korean names denote the surname followed by the given name.

Let me start this review by noting how perfect the cast was for this series, especially the lead actors Lee Jong-suk (as a lawyer on a losing streak) and Girls’ Generation’s Im Yoon-ah as his pragmatic wife (who’s a skilled nurse). There was not a moment where I didn’t believe that this couple was besotted with each other. Even when they argued, it was obvious that they cared so very much about each other.

At the start of this series, Chang-ho is a lawyer famous for losing most of his cases. He earns the nickname of Big Mouth, because he isn’t afraid to voice his opinions, even if they’re not fully developed at the time he speaks. Hired by the mayor of Gucheon, the case seems too good to be true. Choi Do-ha (Kim Joo-hun) wants him to defend three of his frenemies (a surgeon, the son of a hospital chaebol and the hospital’s attorney), who may or may not have killed the man found in the trunk of their car. The key to the murder is an elusive study done by the deceased, which could incriminate the men, as well as the elite hierarchy to which they’re tied.

The powerful trio already has the trial planned and the appropriate people bribed and in their pockets. Chang-ho was essentially hired to be an obedient frontman who only has to do what he is told. His payoff will be enough money to not only pay off his debts, but to have a nice little nest egg left over for his family, which includes his doting father-in-law Gi-kwang (portrayed by the always magnificent Lee Ki-young).

Chang-ho knows that the case he has accepted isn’t on the up and up. Everyone involved is at best suspicious, and at worst depraved. But the money is too good to turn down.

What happens from here on out is a thrilling spiral of events that includes Chang-ho being mistaken for an elusive crime boss called Big Mouse, his being imprisoned in a brutal prison, so many double crosses that you’ll need a spreadsheet to keep track, and an ending that ties everything together — albeit sadly, and a bit too rushed.

Amidst all the drama in this series, there are some lighter moments, especially when Chang-ho and his father-in-law team up against Mi-ho’s more stringent nature. But what the series drills home is the differences between the haves and the have nots. Criminals with money and power get VIP treatment in prison, while the rest are given sub-human treatment. (That theme is also explored in “One Ordinary Day,” another K-drama I watched around the same time.)

Like Kim Soo-hyun, Lee made his post-military debut with a cameo appearance before starring in a critically-acclaimed K-drama. Kim made a much-talked about appearance in IU’s “Hotel del Luna,” before tackling “It’s Okay to Not Be Okay.” Likewise, after Lee finished his mandatory military duty on January 2, 2021, he made a special appearance in the film “The Witch: Part 2. The Other One,” before signing up for “Big Mouth.”

Airdates: Twelve hour-long episodes aired on MBC TV from July 29 to September 17, 2022.

Spoiler Alert:

We know early on that Chang-ho and Mi-ho are married. But after Mi-ho is exposed to contaminated toxic waste that a company is illegally dumping, she dies of lymphatic cancer. Honestly? The ending was so sad that I need to share this photo of the couple in their happier, more hopeful days.

Note: While I was writing this, we had a power outage and I lost a good chunk of this review. Argh! Honestly? I’m too tired to re-construct the entire post, so what you are reading is a truncated version.