First Impression: Big Mouth

Drama Profile

Title: Big Mouth (English title) / Big Mouse (literal title)
Main Cast: Lee Jong-suk, Yoona, Kim Joo-hun
Writer: Kim Ha-ram
PD: Oh Choong-wan (Start-up)
Timeslot: Friday and Saturday, 22:00
Network: MBC
Episodes: 16
Genre: Noir Crime Thriller

Plot Synopsis:

A lawyer with a ten-percent winning rate is caught up in a murder case and becomes the notorious and genius con artist, Big Mouse, overnight. (Synopsis from Disney+)

Maknae’s First Impression:

Lee Jong-suk’s long-awaited TV series comeback is here! For his small screen return, he teamed up with Yoona to topbill this 16-episode noir crime thriller with a promising suspenseful plot. 

Big Mouth’s opening episode started by introducing the character who holds this titular alias – Park Chang-ho (Lee Jong-suk). He is a third-rate lawyer who is known for being a ‘Big Mouth’, someone who is all talk but lacks the skills for it. He is a bit gullible for a main character but I’m sensing (hoping) he is a layered character who will get unraveled as the story progresses. Or at least his character development will be worth watching until the end.

Park Chang-ho’s character introduction was also on the lighter side of things, especially for a series that labeled itself as a noir crime thriller. And most of those scenes were that of Chang-ho and his daily life with his wife Go Mi-ho (Yoona). She is a nurse by profession and supported Chang-ho while he studies for his bar exam.

Despite their financial difficulties, all is seem well between the couple. Their lovely and humorous scenes are refreshing to watch since it’s rare to have an actual married couple in K-dramas. But one should not get fooled by Chang-ho and Mi-ho’s domestic life as things started to get darker when Chang-ho finally hit rock bottom. They showed what life he has before he get “falsely” accused and imprisoned. And I suppose, with its genre, this series will get darker and sleazier after its pilot week.

The series really became interesting as soon as it finished laying out its set-up. The main hero got mistakenly accused as the genius con artist Big Mouse (which is spelled the same way as Big Mouth in Hangul). He then used the false accusation to his advantage as he try to adjust his life in the “only place in Korea where lawlessness is allowed.” And even though I believe Chang-ho isn’t really that big-shot scammer they accused him to be, I still get the eerie feeling there would be a plot twist in his character; probably reminiscent of plot twists in Mouse and Flower of Evil.

The vague character introductions of people surrounding Chang-ho will also make you doubt whether those presented as good guys are really good characters or if the evil character we met is really evil.  One of the characters I suspect the most is Gucheon Mayor Choi Do-ha (Kim Joo-hun). He’s obviously ambitious but he is also presenting himself as the one who can weed out the evil in Gucheon. Even his wife, Hyun Joo-hee (Ok Ja-yeon) seems like isn’t completely innocent since she’s directly connected with Gucheon Hospital. Meanwhile, Gong Ji-hoon (Yang Kyung-won) is introduced as the outright evil character but is he really the main antagonist?

It also seems like Chang-ho has been caught in between two fighting factions (their intentions not clear yet). And if he is, I think, the real Big Mouse is probably having fun watching all of it happen. Whoever Big Mouse is, it’s probably just one of the characters we already met like Choi Do-ha. Or it could probably be Jerry (Kwak Dong-yeon).

Chang-ho’s co-prisoner seems harmless at first. He and No Bak (Yang Hyung-wook) could be seen as Chang-ho’s dependable cellmates. No Bak could be an elder figure that could help Chang-ho adjust and survive in the prison. Same goes with Jerry but I wonder if they really cast a well-rounded character actor like Kwak Dong-yeon for a hero’s sidekick? If he ends up that way, then I’m hoping to get a good amount of scenes between Chang-ho and Jerry. But if it turns out Jerry is a two-faced traitor, then I hope the reveal would be jaw-dropping. Either way, the starting premise of Big Mouth is really intriguing.

>>Lee Jong-suk, YoonA confirmed for “Big Mouth”