Crime drama 'Voice' leans on fear factor

The Korea Times

The Korea Times

Entertainment & Arts

Wed, December 6, 2023 | 00:51

Crime drama 'Voice' leans on fear factor

Posted : 2017-03-01 19:33

Updated : 2017-03-01 19:51

Scenes from OCN crime drama "Voice" / Courtesy of CJ E&M

By Park Jin-hai

OCN's crime drama "Voice" is like a hard-boiled horror movie. You may feel sick more than once, but once you start watching, you won't be able to take your eyes away.

Nail-biting scenes which come one after another induce viewers to become deeply immersed in the situation of a victim being chased by a serial killer and running away in the nick of time.

The Saturday-Sunday night drama, starring Jang Hyuk and Lee Ha-na, takes best advantage of the sound effects in a drama. By tracking down the smallest sound of a crime scene heard through the phone calls made to the 112 emergency call center, Kang Kwon-joo, (played by actress Lee), a tough policewoman who is gifted with perfect psycho-acoustics skills, tightens the nerves of viewers to the extreme.

Moo Jin-hyuk, played by Jang, is a "mad dog" detective who becomes guilt-ridden after his wife was murdered three years earlier while he was at work.

The Moon and Kang duo teams up as the "Golden Time" team and solves cases together, chasing after serial killers who murdered their loved ones.

Despite controversy about its overly violent and visual expressions of cruel crime scenes, viewers seem hooked on the drama. The drama had to up its movie ratings to age 19 and older for the last two episodes from the initial age of 15 and above.

The 12th episode that aired on Sunday told the story of a welfare center head's secret experiment on homeless people and organ selling to China, garnering 5.1 percent, topping the viewership list for cable shows broadcast on the day _ no easy feat for a cable crime drama.

Experts and viewers have shown concern that the drama leans heavily on fear and shock to bring the viewers to the small screen.

"I couldn't look away from the screen. As a mother, when it showed the stepmother killing a child in an episode, the motive after the real crime Shin Won-young, a 7-year-old boy who died at the hands of his stepmother and father who starve and abuse him, it was especially hard to watch," said Kim Ji-young. "The scene where the stepmother stabbed the child when she found the boy hiding inside the washing machine under the laundry was really hard to see. I was in tension and pain for the whole hour. Other detailed crime scenes also distress me, as I thought it can happen to me as well."

"Voice" had scenes such as an iron ball crushing people, a victim's organs are kept in a refrigerator, the police tipster was crucified and found in a closet and a psychopathic villain makes a path full of blood.

In the Content Power Index, tallied by CJ E&M and Nielsen Korea, "Voice" ranked fifth place, from previous 20th place, in the third week of February from Feb. 13- Feb. 19. In the category of most searched TV series, based on viewers' portal search words, it ranked in the top five.

Culture critic Jung Duk-hyun says the drama has succeeded in getting attention from viewers, but its expression has been too brutal.

"The drama has been given high marks in giving chills. But its storytelling has been too loose. For instance, the scenes where the police release an acid terror suspect, naively buying his story, and a stalker overhearing police officers' conversation at the police station doesn't look believable," said Jung. "The cruel crime scenes shock viewers with visual and auditory sensations, which make viewers less affected by the loosely connected plot."

"Voice" has four more episodes to air. Given the hot responses from the viewers, a special show, including actor interviews, will be broadcast on March. 18.

jinhai@ktimes.com