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War of the Outlaws
Ever since he made a name for himself with the dark horse action crime drama The Chaser in 2012, award-winning screenwriter Park Kyung Soo has rarely disappointed in his subsequent works. His specialty is writing tightly-woven, well-constructed storylines that often touch on themes of politics, corruption, crime, and revenge. Case in point, his 2015 drama Punch, one of my favorite dramas of the year, has earned a well-deserved best screenplay award in 2015. Needless to say, the level of anticipation and excitement for me, a legal/crime thriller aficionado, has been set high upon hearing about Whisper.
Whisper is full of twists and turns, alliances and backstabbing, to keep you engrossed.
Indeed, Whisper did not disappoint. Though it took a bit of time to ramp up initially of the characters and complex business-political context for the drama, it was well worth the time investment to embark on this journey that finished strong. In what seemed like a never-ending strategic game of chess, Whisper is full of twists and turns, alliances and backstabbing, to keep the viewer engrossed all the way through.
The premise of Whisper is a familiar one — Choi Il Hwan (Kim Kap Soo), a powerful CEO of the biggest law firm Taebaek, bribes and blackmails his way into controlling the socio-political affairs of Korea, including turning an upright reporter into a criminal to cover tracks of a murder case involving his daughter Choi Soo Yeon (Park Se Young). As part of this scheme, Chairman Choi successfully manipulates an honorable judge Lee Dong Joon (Lee Sang Yoon) into colluding with him on the ruling of the reporter’s case and absorbs Dong Joon as his son-in-law to work at Taebaek.
Meanwhile, the reporter’s daughter and heroine of our story Shin Young Joo (Lee Bo Young), tries to use her critical thinking skills and fighting spirits as a police officer to get to the bottoms of the case and clear her father’s name. Despite not wanting anything to do with her at first out of guilt and fear, Dong Joon eventually teams up with Young Joo, who has helped him reconnect with his righteousness while working amidst a sea of self-centric, corrupt to the core people at Taebaek.
One of those self-centric people is M&A team manager Kang Jung Il (Kwon Yul), who is immensely ambitious and calculative, vying for the Taebaek CEO seat. He also happens to be the son of Chairman Choi’s business partner and long time frenemy, Chairman Kang Yoo Taek (Kim Hong Fa). To complicate matters further, despite the two chairman’s ferocious rivalry, Jung Il is romantically involved with Soo Yeon, creating a bit of a Romeo and Juliet situation at the moment.
As one can see, Whisper is not shying away from architecting a complicated web of characters and their motivations. This is part of the reason that the beginning of the drama felt difficult to follow and hard to get into. When coupled with the extreme 180 degree turn of Dong Joon’s morals and attitude, the drama admittedly put me off a bit.
However, once the equivalent of the messy Warring States get consolidated down to three primary forces — the Choi family, the Kang family, and Young Joo + Dong Joon — through a series of unforeseen betrayals and renewed alliances, the brilliance of the strategy war begins to shine through like that of the Three Kingdoms period. We’re treated to every tactic in the military books — trading horses, bluffing, creating mirages, tit for tat — all resulting in an incredibly stimulating three-way horse race that keeps us guessing on.
There’s never a moment without someone being pushed to transform and adapt.
But beyond the intellectually captivating psych war, writer Park Kyung Soo’s other superpower also manifested in a full bloom here. That is, his ability to sculpt emotionally and logically savvy characters who can evolve and morph their actions as the sequences of events and dynamics between them change. Be it Ms. independent Young Joo’s eventual reliance on Dong Joon, frivolous Soo Yeon’s brainy moments, or poised Jung Il’s emotional outbursts, there’s never a moment without someone being pushed to transform and adapt. The progression of these characters’ motivations seems so natural and believable that the viewers are fully bought into Whisper’s world as a mirror of our world, and its cast as people around us.
Another accolade Whisper deserves is how it chose to flush out the romance between Young Joo and Dong Joon. The unlikely pair at the start of the drama gradually build camaraderie and trust that ultimately manifested into a love line. But the romance is always in the background and never distracting from the main plot of the psych war. Each interaction between them is subtle and transient, with just enough spark to suggest a progressing relationship.
Digging even deeper into the drama, there is an underlying profound theme within Whisper that could have been easily overlooked, which is the impact of the father’s role on each of our lead characters. Interestingly, all four fathers, Reporter Shin, Chairman Choi, Chairman Kang, and Dr. Lee, are all selfish in their own ways, for better or for worse, at the expense of their children’s happiness. In Reporter Shin’s case, his pursuit of justice left his daughter and wife in a despicable state and the drama touches on his regrets in his final days. In the other three’s case, their pursuit of power, money, and fame respectively, led to their children’s ultimate demise in those specific areas. There is something beautifully symbolic and poetic about how Soo Yeon lost her power, Jung Il lost his fortune, and Dong Joon lost his fame. It’s the drama’s way of bringing actions and consequences to a full circle.
The success of Whisper boils down to its fast-paced, gripping story full of the unexpected turn of events and its top-notch cast that brings the morally ambiguous characters to life. It’s both entertaining to watch and deeply philosophical at the same time, probing the audience to reflect upon how one small misstep, one decision, and one lie can snowball into a path of no return and fundamentally change relationships and the outcome of one’s life. If you enjoy a thought-provoking drama, then Whisper is the perfect choice.
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