TV Review Legal thriller 'Whisper' hits Korean politics head on

Actor Lee Sang-yoon, left, and actress Lee Bo-young from SBS legal thriller "Whisper" /Courtesy of SBS

By Park Jin-hai

At a time when the candlelight vigils in Gwanghwamun Square and the people finally forced the impeachment and arrest of former President Park Geun-hye, and people talking about the next political administration and leader, the new SBS legal drama “Whisper” reveals the true colors of Korea’s society, throwing a timely question of what should be done for the society to have a fresh start.

The 16-part legal thriller tells the story of former detective Shin Young-joo, played by actress Lee Bo-young, who teams up with a young and virtuous elite judge Lee Dong-joon, played by actor Lee Sang-yoon, to uncover corruption in the defense system at the nation's biggest law firm Taebaek.

Penned by writer Park Kyung-soo, who previously wrote a series of political dramas including “The Chaser (2012),” “Empire of Gold (2013)” and “Punch (2014),” featuring the immoral power elite and the corrupt cartel of politics, businesses and law, came back with his latest version of a revenge story.

“Watching its first episode, people can catch a glimpse of the ugly faces of Korean society now,” said a culture critic Jung Duk-hyun.

In the Monday-Tuesday drama, premiered on March. 27, the nation’s largest law firm Taebaek kills a former reporter, who has been after corruption in the defense system in which the law firm has been involved, and influences the dead reporter’s colleague, detective Shin’s father, who has also been investigating the case, to become falsely accused based on fabricated evidence and put behind the bars by the law firm desperate to cover up the case.

News media, which had fired journalists who persisted in reporting the corruption case and telling truth, only highlight Shin’s father’s previously criminal offenses that he had been accused of in the process of leading the journalist strike.

A Supreme Court Judge asked a favor for his son-in-law’s case, saying “Let’s make life easy,” but Lee declined saying, “A judge shouldn’t live life easily. I get clothes and money from the country to punish those who attempt to live life easily,” and adding, “Everybody changes their minds. That is why the world never changes.” At court, Lee gives the accused the highest sentence and puts him under the court’s custody.

However, the only result for his law-abiding ruling has been the personnel committee’s review, led by the Supreme Court Judge, to depose him from his position, accusing him for good-intended behavior as an abuse of power.

Out of fear of losing his job and reputation, he accepts the offer of the law firm he once called the “legal abuser,” and makes the ruling that Shin’s father killed the reporter, sentencing him to 15 years in prison.

The drama shows the bare face of reality where the law, instead of defending innocent people, has been reduced to being a handy and merciless tool for people in power and victimizing ordinary citizens’ lives.

Through the demise of a young elite judge, who once fought for justice, “Whisper” bleakly shows how this society crumbles.

In return for selling his conscience and giving in to Taebaek, Lee can have it all, becoming the son-in-law and heir of the law firm and his father getting hired as the president’s doctor.

“The drama shows the system as one where losing one’s conscience is the moment where a person gains power. More striking is that the corrupted elites are incredible diligent. By watching the power elite, accused for the Choi Soon-sil gate, who do all they can to slip away within the legal system, viewers of the drama must feel it in their heart the line that ‘ evil never sleeps,’” said critic Jung.

“The drama’s title Whisper must mean that we should listen to the smallest voices of people. But it is another way of saying that this society has never listened to those people. But through the impeachment of the president, we have witnessed ourselves that those small voices, carried person by person, can become a huge voice that can change the world. Let’s wait and see what kind of hope Whisper can tell us.”