Ok, I Hear Your Voice is a show where you should totally ignore the english series description. I don’t know who wrote it, or what they were thinking, but this show has absolutely nothing to do with special private investigators or working to free people who are “guilty until proven innocent.” That description made me think this show was going to be about the Korean equivalent of the Innocence Project. It’s not.
This show is about two public defenders, a prosecutor, and a boy who can read minds. The prosecutor of course, wants to prove people committed a crime and put them behind bars, and the public defenders’ job is to make the prosecutor carry the burden of proof, and keep the defendant from being convicted if there’s any chance that person didn’t commit the crime they’re charged with.
In this respect, it’s a pretty standard procedural show– a person is accused of a crime, the prosecutor charges it, the public defenders try to blow holes in the prosecutor’s case and get a not-guilty verdict for the defendant. All of the court room stuff I’ve seen in the show so far, the defendants are innocent until proven guilty, just like you’d expect. I have yet to see them do any kind of special appeal for anyone who’s already been convicted a crime before stepping into the courtroom. Now, there are times when all of the evidence seems to point toward the defendant being guilty, and the public defenders have to show it’s all circumstantial evidence, but that’s not actually the same thing as being presumed guilty until proven innocent. The defendants on this show are still presumed innocent until the prosecutor can prove they’re guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
None of that is what makes this show really interesting though, and believe me, it is delicious. When the story opens, public defender Jang Hye Sung, played by Lee Bo Young, and prosecutor Seo Do Yun, played by Lee Da Hee, already have a long and turbulent history with each other. When they were teens, Do Yun (young version Jung Min Ah) got Hye Sung (young version Kim So Hyun) evicted and expelled from school for something she didn’t actually do. Then when the two girls heard a car crash and went to investigate, they witnessed the blatant murder of Park Soo Ha (Lee Jong Suk, young version Goo Seung Hyun)’s father at the hand of Min Jung Gook (Jung Woong In). Hye Sung snaps a picture with her cell phone, catching Jung Gook’s attention before he can kill Park Soo Ha.
Jung Gook chases after the girls but is unable to find where they’ve hidden. He threatens them, saying they should hide from him for the rest of their lives, and if he ever sees or hears a peep from them, he will enjoy killing them both too. Even after this, the two girls continue their feud with each other; the one who doesn’t come forward as a witness has to admit they’re a liar and a coward.
Nine year old Park Soo Ha tries to tell everyone that his father was murdered, but the trauma has affected him in two ways. His voice has gone missing, and he’s hearing people’s thoughts–whether he wants to or not. Based on his written testimony, the prosecutor does charge Jung Gook with murder, but there’s no direct proof. It’s likely to be ruled an accident.
Do Yun and Hye Sung show up after the trial has started, but neither one can bring themselves to open the doors and just walk in. They decide to open the doors on the count of three, so neither of them is facing Jung Gook alone. But the only one who actually steps into the courtroom is Hye Sung. Do Yun runs away. Hye Sung testifies against Jung Gook, offering her cell phone picture as evidence. Jung Gook tries to choke her out right there in the court room before she can testify, and promises that as soon as he gets back out of jail, he’s coming for her first.
I don’t know why the judge doesn’t preemptively do anything about Jung Gook’s death threats really (possibly because he’s Do Yun’s father?), but the show picks the story back up just before Jung Gook is due to get out of jail. Park Soo Ha is determined not to let anything happen to Hye Sung, but he has to find her first. He’s been in and out of orphanages since his father’s death, and has no idea where she is, or what she’s doing. It turns out she’s just landed one of the public defender positions we talked about above, along with Cha Kwang Woo, played by Yoon Sang Hyun.
The show is extremely well crafted and engrossing. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed all of the episodes and plots twists so far, along with the mysteries still to be solved– like what exactly was going on with Seo Do Yun all those years ago? And why did Jung Gook kill Soo Ha’s father in the first place? There are a few spots where I saw some twists coming, but all in all, this is still a great story line, with a really fun cast. It’s totally worth watching, and nothing like the rather blah English description. Highly recommended.
Please support the Korean cast and crew by watching I Hear Your Voice at official sites. You can find it here:
I Hear Your Voice airs in Korea on SBS, and is scheduled to run for 20 episodes.
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