She gets a job as a public defender for the steady pay cheque and finds herself working with idealistic and enthusiastic lawyer, Cha Kwan-woo (a dorky and amenable Yoon Sang-hyun), whom she starts dating. She no longer believes in justice and merely works to earn money. Jang Hye-sung in contrast has dived headfirst into cynicism, going through a routine as a lawyer with little enthusiasm. And that ultimately is what I Hear Your Voice explores: how does justice get served for those who canвЂ™t be heard, either physically or socially? The answer of course is that those who have a voice need to speak for them.ДЇast forward 12 years, Park Su-ha is in his final year of highschool and has built up a fantasy version of his вЂњfirst loveвЂќ: the girl who risked her life to get justice for his father and whom he has sworn to protect from Min Joon-kook.

But, as he discovers in his fatherвЂ™s trial, the truth is worthless if youвЂ™re voiceless. While his head injury has rendered him mute, Park Su-ha finds it has also given him a gift вЂ“ telepathy. She nonetheless comes quickly to regret testifying when the perpetrator, Min Joon-kook (Jung Woong-in) threatens vengeance on herself and her family. Jang Hye-sungвЂ™s decision was influenced by her own recent encounter with injustice and her strained relationship with former friend turned nemesis, Seo Do-yeon. Justice is served by 19-year-old witness, Jang Hye-sung, who risks her life to testify. Rendered mute by the head injury he received at the time, he is unable to communicate properly and faces the prospect of his fatherвЂ™s murderer walking free. When he was a child, Park Su-ha witnessed his fatherвЂ™s murder in a staged car crash. Show just works, despite everything about it that shouldnвЂ™t work: the cliched childhood connection through shared trauma, the large age gap, the overuse of kdrama tropes and the somewhat preachy writing about justice.Дespite (or maybe even because of) all this, I Hear Your Voice really is the classic kdrama I remember it being and IвЂ™m happy to recommend it as a gateway drama to people exploring Korean content for the first time. Having rewatched I Hear Your Voice for the first time in a long time, IвЂ™m happy to report that the show holds up far more than I expected. In the case of I Hear Your Voice though, the romance is an issue only for the lead themselves and this is only one of the dramaвЂ™s refreshing decisions. A true Noona romance is one where the age difference is an issue вЂ“ either for the characters or for the people around them вЂ“ in a way that it wouldnвЂ™t be if the leadsвЂ™ genders were reversed.

The popularity of Noona romances therefore comes from their inherent trangressiveness. Romances between a young woman and an older man are normalised so reversing this dynamic comes with a challenge to cultural mores and social standards. older sister) вЂ“ are a product of KoreaвЂ™s deeply hierarchical, age-based and hyper-patriarchal culture.

Noona romances вЂ“ where the woman is older than the man and is therefore his вЂNoonaвЂ™ (lit. ItвЂ™s almost the same age gap as the actors themselves. I Hear Your Voice was a Noona romance with a very large 12-year age gap between Lee Jong-sukвЂ™s 19/20 year old Park Su-ha and Lee Bo-youngвЂ™s 31/32 year old Jang Hye-sung. This 2013 drama starred acting heavyweight Lee Bo-young as a public defender who gets help from вЂ“ and eventually has a romance with вЂ“ a much-younger telepath, played by the A-list model and actor, Lee Jong-suk. I Hear Your Voice is one of the first Korean dramas I remember watching. For new viewers, there are some old gems hidden behind NetflixвЂ™s algorithm and I Hear Your Voice is one of them. With Netflix purchasing half of KoreaвЂ™s back catalogue, this nostalgia tour has been made much easier. The Covid19 lockdown has provided a good chance to catch up on some classic dramas.

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