Eu Ouço a Sua Voz (2013)

Let me say this right off the bat.

I don't have an inherent problem with age gaps between adults as long as the relationship is a healthy, appropriate, mutually beneficial one. When it comes to relationships between a teenager and an adult (because I think it’s important to separate this issue from that of age gaps between two adults since they are not the same thing), it's a little different. The maturity difference between a 17-year-old and a 19-year-old is probably not (typically) going to be so vast as to make a relationship between two people of these ages a problem. Widen the gap to, for example, 17 and 25, and I'm unsure how likely it is for such a relationship to survive, but I'm willing to give the story a chance. Widen the gap further to 17 and late 20's/early 30's, and you're going to have to do it like High School King of Savvy did where the high schooler is played by a grown-up for me to be able to immerse myself in the story and not feel weird about it.

So I’ll be totally honest and say that I struggled with the age issue here. I wanted the leads together, but I also wanted the male lead to be older. There's definitely not a reason, in terms of story, that he couldn't have already been 20 or 21 years old. Even 19 would have been better (although still not preferrable). (For reference, Korean age is calculated differently than in the West, so while the drama says he's 18 or 19, he's actually a year or two younger in western age.)

Age issue aside, there is a lot to love about this romance. Great chemistry, realistic compatibility, mutual respect and genuine attraction. Overall, they're an adorable OTP. My only complaints about the romance outside of age?

I don't know why Soo Ha had to already be in love with Hye Sung at the beginning of the drama, considering they barely knew each other outside of their one encounter years ago. From a writing standpoint, it would have made more sense if he had searched her out simply because of his desire to look out for her and follow through on his promise. Love could have come later. That being said, this is a very chaste drama. There are a couple kisses, and they are very tender and sweet, but they are very appropriate for the male leads age. Beyond that, the leads have very little physical contact.

Now that all of that is out of the way.

This is technically a court/crime romance drama (with a side of supernatural), but while there’s lots of court and crime drama to go around, there’s also an awful lot of drama law Logic as well.

For the first half of the story, the court/crime drama is set up in a ‘case of the day’ format. But halfway through, the overarching mystery takes precedence, to the point that it overshadows the rest of the drama almost completely, and I eventually began to lose all interest in the story. (Watching the last few episodes felt like a chore, which is never a good thing.)

No one’s choices made any sense. The villain was cartoony and not smart. His backstory could have been compelling, but the writers handled it so poorly that I didn’t care. As I said earlier, the story was Rife with drama law logic, and the legal system was treated like a plaything to be used however it’s owners wanted to use it, the rules constantly changing. (For example, the villain (who had some terribad facial hair at one point) CUTS OFF HIS OWN HAND!!!! in order to frame the male lead for murder, and of course, the police find said missing hand and arrest the male lead for murder. Because all the proof you need of a murder is a severed hand.) It was all just incredibly stupid.

I could express disappointment here at the supernatural element of the drama and how it was handled, but I honestly don't mind that we never got any explanation as to why Soo Ha could read people’s minds. It was clearly only in the story as a means of bringing Soo Ha and Hye Sung together, and I was perfectly okay with that.

In terms of characters, I loved both leads. Soo Ha is all the good things. Intelligent, sensitive, kind, protective, genuine, encouraging, supportive. He never comes off as childish or immature (which may or may not be realistic, depending on your personal opinion of the maturity level of teenage boys).

Hye Sung is a fun mix of confident and awkward, brash and intelligent, and extremely lazy. She flies through life by the seat of her pants and when something goes wrong or opposite of how she expects, she just finds a way to go with it. In a list of female drama characters I wish I could be like, she would definitely be on that list. (But I’d like to be her After she’s already gone through all of the craziness in this drama. No crazy murderers needed in my life, thank you very much.)

Kwan Woo is incredibly kind. He's one of the kindest male drama characters I’ve ever seen. He’s modest and unassuming, with a sense of justice that is almost unparalleled. He’ll follow a case to the end. I struggled with some second lead feels simply because he’s so wonderful, but ultimately, he wasn’t meant to be with Hye Sung. He was honestly too good for her. Like, he was too good of a Person. I have a feeling his extreme kindness eventually would have driven her nuts.

Do Yun was never an intriguing character. As is typical in older Korean dramas, she was a mean girl. As is not typical in older Korean dramas, she had absolutely zero interest in our male lead. (Which makes sense. It’s one thing to pair up an almost-but-not-quite-adult teenage boy with an older woman. It’s another thing to stick him in-between Two adult women. That’s definitely past my comfort level.) She almost becomes an ally to Hye Sung at the end, but the writer’s chose to leave the two as frenemies instead.

Joon Gook is a terrible character. He’s poorly written and not interesting. There was a point where I could have been compelled to care about his backstory, but then he went off the deep end, and I stopped giving a shit.

Sung Bin drove me batshit crazy. I don’t know what the determining factor is on whether I will like or hate a character who’s really persistent in the love department (because I’m very picky when it’s comes to characters like that), but whatever it is, she definitely fell into the ‘HOLY BANANA PANCAKES BATMAN WHY WILL SHE NOT GO AWAY?!’

And we’re not even going to talk about Dae Suk, Do Yun’s ‘father.’ Mainly because the actor playing him was bad at his job. Like, really bad. Like, he consistently makes weird facial expressions that don’t look like anything I’ve ever seen anyone else make when they Aren’t constipated, bad.

Truthfully, I only finished this drama because it would have been a waste Not to finish something I had loved so much in the beginning. Throughout the first half, I was completely committed to the story. Then the aforementioned mystery and drama law logic completely sucked the life out of everything in the second half, and I had to take a break before watching the last few episodes because I was so stressed out. It was okay when the court drama was about Other people and not about our main characters. The ‘crime of the day’ set up didn’t require me to invest all of my energy into it, so I could focus that energy where it should be focused, on the romance. But when I had to divide my energy between our adorable OTP and the insanely frustrating court/crime drama surrounding them, I found that the OTP was not a compelling enough reason to do so.

If you’re looking for a drama that accurately portrays the legal system in South Korea and handles it’s overall mystery in a way that is actually satisfying…you’ll probably want to pass this one on up. But if you can handle drama law logic (and a romance between a teenager and an adult), then I still recommend this drama. There are a lot of good things about it.

Just don’t pay too much attention to all the stuff that happens outside of the romance, and you should be fine.

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Let me start off by stating that I've watched this series years ago and this review is an attempt as a re-watch.

Although I've only re-watched a few episodes, I decided to drop it. It captures your attention quickly and easily with the initial backstory of your leads. But the script feels shallow for its setting and genre, even with its good attempt to build intensity into each scene.

1. The male lead for example who tries to hunt down his "first love" in the streets by following strangers. It isn't as if she changed her name from when they met or internet wasn't available. So it doesn't make much sense even when we exclude the fact that he apparently can recognize her by face a decade later (especially when they met as kids).

2. The female lead was fantastic as a child but she somehow turned into a rude, extreme snob as an adult? So much so that she can't say a simple "thank you" when someone finds her wallet and is outwardly rude instead? Very odd. While it was believable that she was a shitty lawyer, it is nonsensical that she somehow gets chosen as a public defender just because she told a tale of her past. It would have made more sense if she had credentials to back it up but she doesn't even know how to search for browser history on a computer?

Her mother got fired as a housekeeper and they had to move out. Not a big deal. It isn't as if she didn't have a loving mother who had her back and a decent roof over her head. Even if you try to apply the "she conceded to societal norms", it is still overreaching. Maybe her one traumatic incident as a kid, just wasn't traumatic enough (especially compared to a kid who saw his father murdered). Yet the series builds so much around this.

Then, somehow her moral fibers start to kick in within a couple of days because of some lecturing and a sudden reminder of how she was once falsely accused herself? What has she been up to all her adult career life then?

3. Who in the right mind would decide to hang on a windowsill just because they didn't want to get caught smoking? Ever heard of dropping the cigarette and saying you just walked into the room? It's not as if the room was barricaded.

It's tough. As mentioned, they did well with the intensity level and the light comedy so I can see why it would capture high scores with some. But if you really look at the basis, there just isn't much depth. I wouldn't have been so judgmental if this was supposed to be on the lighthearted side but it really isn't. Would have given it a lower score but because the actors were able to make it somewhat entertaining, I could have probably sat through it to the end.

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