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Mar. 20th, 2017 09:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantsSo tenillypo and I have just finished watching a drama which is called I Hear Your Voice but which I have been calling, from the beginning, ACE ATTORNEY: KOREAN ROMCOM.
Our Heroine is a jaded public defender named Jang Hye Sung who needs to learn to believe in her clients! and the law!! assisted by a telepathic teenager who can read her clients' minds and tell her if they're innocent or not!!! Because that's definitely what you need to know, to do your job as a defense attorney!!!!
The storyline literally follows all the beats of an Ace Attorney game:
FIRST CASE - Easy Starter Case! A Failboat Friend Has Been Falsely Accused!
SECOND CASE - Bizarre Strangers Are Involved In An Inordinately Complicated Murder!
THIRD CASE - Someone We Care About Got Murdered!
FOURTH CASE - Someone We Care About Got Framed For Murder!
FIFTH CASE - Someone Is On Trial For Murder But It's All Tied To A Previous Murder Trial That Went Wrong Twenty Years Ago And Also The Principals In The Case Might Be Somebody's Long-Lost Parents Presumed Dead!
On the one hand, TRAGICALLY, nobody interrogates a parrot. OR a whale. On the other hand, dramatic amnesia, accidental stabbing, identical twin murder suspects, and MORE THAN ONE INCIDENT of a person cutting off a body part to fake their own death. Also, not even while playing an Ace Attorney game have I screamed "CONFLICT OF INTEREST! RECUSE YOURSELF!!!!" so much at a screen in my life, ever.
Now, OK, I've played lots of Ace Attorney games. I know how this goes. You have your awkward public defender protagonist --
-- and their cold-hearted prosecutor rival --
-- with whom they share a DRAMATIC BACKSTORY involving childhood rivalry, courtrooms, lies, betrayal, murder, and somebody losing an eye! --
-- (we were so disappointed that Do Hyun got her eye fixed at some point and did not keep her dashing eyepatch when she grew up to be a dreamy prosecutor) --
-- anyway, PROSECUTOR RIVAL, who consistently inspires them to up their defense attorney game --
-- and who occasionally finds themselves reluctantly collaborating with the other team for the sake of JUSTICE!!
-- and who definitely doesn't have any inconvenient ~feelings~ about their public defender rival, no sirree, none whatsoever!
Now, the the show seems to be under the impression that it is portraying a love triangle in which the rival love interests are Attorney Jang's nerdy, idealistic coworker, Attorney Cha --
-- and Attorney Jang's telepathic teenage sidekick, Soo Ha, who has been pining after her since he was eight and she provided key testimony in the CASE OF HIS FATHER'S MURDER --
-- thus turning both Soo Ha and Attorney Jang into targets for a serial killer (played by Mishil's multi-talented brother from Queen Seondeok.) I may have forgotten to mention there was a serial killer on the loose.
I refuse to believe this man's cunning disguise is not yet another homage to Ace Attorney.
Anyway. ROMANCE! All well and good, but given that Attorney Cha also appears to be conducting an adorable side romance with his charming legal secretary --
-- and Soo Ha is STILL IN HIGH SCHOOL --
-- I'm not ashamed to say that we found it perfectly easy to write off all heterosexual love interests and spend the entire show shouting at Attorney Jang and Do Hyun to bang in an elevator. The showrunners can't fool me. I am an Ace Attorney expert and I KNOW WHAT'S UP.
tenillypo and I have just finished watching a drama which is called I Hear Your Voice but which I have been calling, from the beginning, ACE ATTORNEY: KOREAN ROMCOM. Our Heroine is a jaded public defender named Jang Hye Sung who needs to learn to believe in her clients! and the law!! assisted by a telepathic teenager who can read her clients' minds and tell her if they're innocent or not!!! Because that's definitely what you need to know, to do your job as a defense attorney!!!!
The storyline literally follows all the beats of an Ace Attorney game:
FIRST CASE - Easy Starter Case! A Failboat Friend Has Been Falsely Accused!
SECOND CASE - Bizarre Strangers Are Involved In An Inordinately Complicated Murder!
THIRD CASE - Someone We Care About Got Murdered!
FOURTH CASE - Someone We Care About Got Framed For Murder!
FIFTH CASE - Someone Is On Trial For Murder But It's All Tied To A Previous Murder Trial That Went Wrong Twenty Years Ago And Also The Principals In The Case Might Be Somebody's Long-Lost Parents Presumed Dead!
On the one hand, TRAGICALLY, nobody interrogates a parrot. OR a whale. On the other hand, dramatic amnesia, accidental stabbing, identical twin murder suspects, and MORE THAN ONE INCIDENT of a person cutting off a body part to fake their own death. Also, not even while playing an Ace Attorney game have I screamed "CONFLICT OF INTEREST! RECUSE YOURSELF!!!!" so much at a screen in my life, ever.
Now, OK, I've played lots of Ace Attorney games. I know how this goes. You have your awkward public defender protagonist --
-- and their cold-hearted prosecutor rival --
-- with whom they share a DRAMATIC BACKSTORY involving childhood rivalry, courtrooms, lies, betrayal, murder, and somebody losing an eye! --
-- (we were so disappointed that Do Hyun got her eye fixed at some point and did not keep her dashing eyepatch when she grew up to be a dreamy prosecutor) --
-- anyway, PROSECUTOR RIVAL, who consistently inspires them to up their defense attorney game --
-- and who occasionally finds themselves reluctantly collaborating with the other team for the sake of JUSTICE!!
-- and who definitely doesn't have any inconvenient ~feelings~ about their public defender rival, no sirree, none whatsoever!
Now, the the show seems to be under the impression that it is portraying a love triangle in which the rival love interests are Attorney Jang's nerdy, idealistic coworker, Attorney Cha --
-- and Attorney Jang's telepathic teenage sidekick, Soo Ha, who has been pining after her since he was eight and she provided key testimony in the CASE OF HIS FATHER'S MURDER --
-- thus turning both Soo Ha and Attorney Jang into targets for a serial killer (played by Mishil's multi-talented brother from Queen Seondeok.) I may have forgotten to mention there was a serial killer on the loose.
I refuse to believe this man's cunning disguise is not yet another homage to Ace Attorney.
Anyway. ROMANCE! All well and good, but given that Attorney Cha also appears to be conducting an adorable side romance with his charming legal secretary --
-- and Soo Ha is STILL IN HIGH SCHOOL --
-- I'm not ashamed to say that we found it perfectly easy to write off all heterosexual love interests and spend the entire show shouting at Attorney Jang and Do Hyun to bang in an elevator. The showrunners can't fool me. I am an Ace Attorney expert and I KNOW WHAT'S UP.
no subject
Date: 2017-03-21 04:44 am (UTC)Actually telepathic?
no subject
Date: 2017-03-21 04:57 am (UTC)...in retrospect, I feel I may not have played this angle up enough in the review. In my defense, we found the actual telepathy much less interesting than most of the other plot points.
no subject
Date: 2017-03-21 05:24 am (UTC)All righty, then!
...in retrospect, I feel I may not have played this angle up enough in the review. In my defense, we found the actual telepathy much less interesting than most of the other plot points.
Hey, look. Lonely teenage telepaths are a dime a dozen. Hot lawyers potentially banging in the elevator don't come along every day.
no subject
Date: 2017-03-21 10:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-03-21 06:11 am (UTC)and who occasionally finds themselves reluctantly collaborating with the other team for the sake of JUSTICE!!
That made me so uncomfortable in the twins' case (I think?). I was like, um, you're their lawyer? I'm pretty sure this is an appalling miscarriage of justice? I'm glad Attorney Shin called Attorney Jang on it afterwards!
*smooshes Attorney Cha with Yoo Chang*
Also, ha, I didn't know the bad guy was in Queen Seondeok too. He was in Empress Ki, and I just saw him playing a good guy(!) in The Last Scandal of My Life, which was sadly otherwise terrible.
no subject
Date: 2017-03-21 10:07 pm (UTC)Oh man, he is the most endearing villain in Queen Seondeok. He's GREAT AT EVERYTHING ... except fighting! But if his sister's sinister schemes require someone who's skilled at cooking, chemistry, or interior decorating, he's absolutely your guy!
no subject
Date: 2017-03-22 08:58 pm (UTC)Would you recommend Queen Seondeok? I'm slightly put off by its length...
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Date: 2017-03-23 01:17 am (UTC)Queen Seondeok is great if you like EPIC! up through, like, episode ... 51? The final arc is not so great. But up until then, there's a lot to love!
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Date: 2017-03-23 11:36 pm (UTC)Hee! Not that I've noticed. She's pretty fabulous, though. (Sadly, I'm less sold on the love interest.)
The only epic I've watched is Empress Ki, and I found the longevity of the villains somewhat stressful. I knew they needed them to keep the story going, but I was dying for them to get their comeuppance! But even so, I may have to give Queen Seondeok a try.
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Date: 2017-03-21 01:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-03-21 10:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-03-21 08:15 pm (UTC)Where could one hypothetically see this?
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Date: 2017-03-21 10:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-03-22 02:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-03-23 01:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-03-23 02:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-03-23 02:31 am (UTC)I haven't yet but I BELIEVE IT. (I play the games on iPhone -- is Spirit of Justice out for iOS yet?)
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Date: 2017-03-23 04:39 am (UTC)Yes, sort of--and it'd be nice if Maya herself weren't sidelined repeatedly. I agree that she's allowed a bit more dignity than Telepathic Teen Hero is....
Probably not yet! The 3DS version was released outside Japan last September. Notably, some of these games have had S. Korean releases, not only US and Europe. Access is a thing.