What can i say about I Hear Your Voice? IHYV was a brilliant drama, that could have been a serious masterpiece of the genre if not for some minor errors that, even though they weren't important enough to break the overall awesomeness, they were enough for me not to give it the, otherwise, well-deserved 10/10. More specifically: STORY The base story is rather complicated and the description does it no justice. To be honest, the description sparked no interest in me at all, the overall rating and people recommending it made me watch it. So how can i make things simple in this one? We basically have 2 stories that collide. Story 1: The male lead, Park Soo Ha, his father gets brutally murdered in front of him and he obviously wants the murderer to rot in jail. Story 2: We have 2 girls, Jang Hye Sung and Seo Do Yeon, they have a missunderstanding (... of some shorts, you'll get what i mean when you watch it) and they get involved in the murder case as in, they are witnesses of the murder. This is your very base story, i don't think i spoiled anything, more like i made that confusing description make sense. This is the first 10 minutes of the pilot... interested yet? After that we go 10 years in the future to see what our leads are doing today. Soo Ha is in high school, Hye Sung is a public lawyer and Do Yeon is a prosecutor. It is fairly obvious that we have a legal drama in our hands. The 2 girls are enemies for... reasons, and Soo Ha has been in love with Hye Sung ever since his father's trial because she gave the decisive testimony that threw his father's murderer in jail. So the show starts from here and develops. I feel the need to establish the main meaning of the show, or at least what i got while watching it, from now. REVENGE ISN'T GOOD! The whole show revolves around the idea of revenge, and it tells you that revenge has nothing to give you, revenge brings nothing good to the table it just brings more and more pain. Moreover, it says that there is no need to spend time hating someone for something he did to you, you gain nothing from hating, just keep moving and life itself will get in the way of that someone's life. If you try to do something to get revenge, that bad action will come back at you, so there is no reason to push it. Seriously wonderful food for thought, amazing moral standards that we all should follow (especially me who have/had quite a different take on revenge) Apart from the idea of revenge, the show, being a legal drama, adresses several moral questions of the law, how it works, and what it means to be a lawyer. Example: Should a lawyer believe his client no matter what? What if the client is lying? If they are a murderer should the lawyer try their best to keep them out of jail, or they deserve to be locked up? Even if they did murder someone, what about their reasons? Do they justify what they did? You get the idea... The legal part is like the 40% of the show. Basically we see Hye Sung deal with several separate legal cases where each case wants to make a point about law and all the questions i mentioned above, and at the same time we get some relationship and love triangle development. The rest 60% of the show revolves around the backstory of the murder i mentioned in the beginning. The murderer gets out of jail and he wants revenge on everyone and everything. At the same time we get several backstory reveals on all the characters which was refreshing and great. Now that i mentioned everything this show did right, time to discuss what this show got wrong, at least in my opinion. I basically had 3 very simple problems with the development of the show. Problem 1: Boring legal cases. Episodes 2-7 are filled with 3, quite interesting, but unrelated to the main plot, legal cases. Yes they were interesting, but this isn't a procedural show, i hate when they do that. Episode 1 was AMAZEBALLS, like at-the-edge-of-your-sit, mind-blowing, screen-punching amazing and then we get 6 episodes of basically nothing. Yes, i liked them, but what i would have liked more? Episode 8 as episode 2 or 3.... Problem 2: Something i have faced before in other kdramas. Silly reasons for the main couple to not be together. C'mon who likes that? We all know they will end up together, if the writers can't find some serious reasons to have them apart, then don't play with out nerves and hearts and let them be happy as soon as possible! This really, really got on my nerves when the show started pushing us to cry because of the silly conversations that lead to the main couple to keep breaking up and hurt each other. Unnecessary as.... you get the idea.... Problem 3: Ok, halfway through the show, on episode 9 happens a huge game changer. I won't spoil what it is. Anyway, some people might love it, i was in two minds about it at first, but in the end i ended up to the conclusion that it was unnecessary and brought nothing to the show but unnecessary couple drama, and it basically served as a plot-slower (does this word even exist? I mean they wanted to slow down the plot since the show got extended because of high ratings). Many people argued that this 'game changer' was used to establish that the main couple really loved each other. Guys, c'mon i understand you wanting to defend your favourite show, i've been there, but this is not the way. It was well established that the couple was crazy in love almost from the beginning, this was purely unnecessary. Anyway, at least, it gets resolved fast -thank god-. Lastly, since i didn't want to give this a separate 'problem' mention, there were some minor but very obvious plot holes to conviniently help the story develop. Example: it is said that the male protagonist needs to look in someone's eyes to read his thoughts, but there are quite a few times he suddenly hears thoughts without looking at someone's eyes. Stupid plot hole that could have been avoided, but this isn't enough to kill the overall vibe of the show. Taking problem 3 out, i have faced the 2 other problems in other kdramas, and i need to accept that this is how kdramas are written, so i need to stop whinying, but i won't! :P Other from these 3, everything else was completely on point, apart from some boring conversations here and there (i have to confess there were some episodes that nothing really happened, i will dub these episodes 'filler episodes', there weren't many but they were there). One more thing i feel the need to mention is the supernatural element. I generally like when dramas give a supernatural twist in their stories, but they still keep them real. However, i know there are people who feel reluctant about watching a drama because of these supernatural twists. Here the supernatural element doesn't bother the development of the show, it doesn't feel fake or forced at all (ok maybe during the middle because of problem 3), in the contrary it helps the show develop and move forward and it is sweet most of the time too! Giving the show an overall look, what i possibly liked the most was the incredible character development, all of the characters mature, i mean we get a bitchy shut down prosecutor with daddy issues who grows into a woman who owns who she is in the end. We get a shut down bitchy lawyer who only does her job for the money and sucks at it, and in the end we have a great woman who values people and their opinion. You get the idea. Another thing i loved, and i will stop there because noone will read this long ass review, is the fact that almost all plot insidents are important and are connected. I liked how every action of the characters had a reaction of some kind. I won't say anything more because i don't want to spoil anything. What you need to understand is that the writing and backstory here is perfection, possibly the best backstory i've ever seen in a kdrama thus far. ACTING I felt like acting was the weakest part of the show. it wasn't bad in any way, but to be honest i was expecting better. Lee Jong Suk, looked great and i appreciated it, but i wasn't there for the eye candy, his acting was weak imo. He was alright, but i know korean actors can do more than alright. Lee Bo Young, was great, especially her mother-daughter scenes were perfect (you'll get what i say when you see her) Lee Da Hee, in my opinion she was the true star of the show, at least acting wise. I loved her acting from head to toe, she was flawless, especially the way her acting changed along with her character development. Wonderful actress Yoon Sang Hyun, even though i disliked the character there is nothing bad to be said about the actor, he was the 'funny' one, but serious and emotional when he was supposed to be. The supporting cast wasn't excuisite, but they were above average. Overall a great job. MUSIC I only have a separate music part in my reviews when the music is very good, here it was very good, i loved the OST! RECOMMEND/REWATCH Definately a must watch, to be honest normal people wouldn't even care about the 3 problems i named, i know most people like those silly problems that keep the couple apart, and a lot of people like separate cases that keep things interesting. I don't, it is a matter of preference, what was supposed to be great was here, so definately watch it! Would i rewatch it? Yeah, why not, if there was an episode on tv i'd definately would rewatch it. I doubt i'd watch it on purpose alone again though