A lawyer more known for his losses than his legal skills is framed as a notorious crime boss, Big Mouse, and sent to prison.  In the beginning, he is eager to prove his innocence and get released, but as time goes on, he realizes that convincing everyone that he is Big Mouse is his best shot at staying alive.  Secretly he continues to try to discover the true identity of the criminal mastermind, with the help of his family and friends on the outside.  This support team is led by his wife, who trusts him, even when all the evidence seems to work against him.  Danger lurks around every corner, as they try to expose the truth about Big Mouse and his circle of powerful supporters.  They will need to be extremely careful if they expect to stay one step ahead of the corruption at the root of this case.  

Im Yoon Ah as Go Mi Ho

Go Mi Ho is married to Chang Ho.  The two of them met when they were young and she worked as a nurse to help him get through Law School.  When her husband is first arrested, she immediately assumes his innocence and jumps right in to gather proof.  Even when all the evidence points to his guilt, she is straightforward in asking him if he really is Big Mouse. And when he assures her that he is not, she believes him without any doubt.  She takes a job working as a nurse at the prison so she can see Chang Ho and help him gather evidence.  But in the course of her duties as a nurse, she is exposed to toxic materials that will put her life at risk.  

Go Mi Ho is bright with a sharp edge of strength that makes her fearless in the face of danger.  Her faith in Chang Ho and devotion to him and their marriage is unshakeable, even when she is frustrated with him.  Even though most of the drama had them spending long periods of time apart, their great chemistry and strong personalities made them a great couple to watch.  Im Yoon Ah played this role so well.  She conveyed this character’s bold personality while still showing an honest warmth that gave the role depth.  It would have been easy to undervalue this role next to Park Chang Ho’s undeniable screen presence, but she brought a quiet confidence that made her character and their relationship irresistable.  

Yang Kyung Won as Gong Ji Hoon

Gong Ji Hoon is the President of a media company.  He and Choi Do Ha are battling to win the favor of Chairman Kang Sung Geun, and become the next leader of the secret society, NR Forum.  Ji Hoon’s success lies in his ability to predict which way the wind is blowing, and he is not afraid to change alliegances if it will work to his advantage.  This makes him a smart business man but an unreliable partner.  

 ♥ Go Ki Kwang

Mi Ho’s father was such a warm and fun character.  Whether his scenes were with his daughter, Chang Ho, or Soon Tae, it was a pleasure to watch his natural interactions and passion for the role.  The scene in Episode 1 where Mi Ho and Chang Ho are fighting over who Ki Kwang would choose to live with set the stage for their relationship all the way through.  I wish that the ending had included a scene with him and Chang Ho together, showing a glimpse of how they have gone on, hopefully still together, without her.  Lee Gi Young took a role that could have been fairly inconsequential and gave it a life of its own.

♥ Plot Twists

The best thing about this show was the constant plot twists and surprises.  Even if you managed to guess one or two, chances are there were others that came as a total shock.  My favorite twist was seeing Soon Tae as the powerful second in charge of Big Mouse’s organization.  The fast pacing for this drama didn’t give us much time to figure things out and that kept it even more interesting.  This is not the trope-heavy, predictable kdrama that we see so often.  

 Rushed and Useless Deaths

This drama introduced us to lots of interesting characters, so it was a real disappointment that several of them died without any real fanfare.  It almost felt disrespectful to the characters themselves.  The first example of this is No Bak, Mr. Big Mouth himself.  After such a long mystery about who he really is, he gets out of prison and 15 minutes later he’s dead.  For a crime boss as successful as him to just randomly open a cupboard and find a bomb seems too easy and convenient.  I would add  Hye Jin and Kwang Hyun to this list.  And don’t even get me started on the sudden deaths of Do Ha and Mi Ho.  It was almost like the writers just didn’t know how to phase out the characters properly so they just said , “And now they are dead”. 

 Plot Holes

It is so frustrating to me that such a great drama could leave so many loose threads and dropped storylines.  Honestly I could fill a whole page with my unanswered questions.  But let me just hit on the low points.  Starting with the whole story about the Chairman’s son, who is a psychopath. Kwang Hyun takes the fall for him in order to get the money to save his mother.  But other than that, we have no story about him at all.  And why bother having him sue Do Ha for his father’s inheritance in the last episode if Do Ha was just going to die 10 minutes later.  It just seemed like this character was going to have some bearing on the story itself.  Also we never really find out what kinds of horrors were going on in the secret lab or what the missing paper is actually about.  And how exactly did Do Ha manage to become the Mayor of Seoul and a potential presidential candidate without anyone finding out he has been using a fake identity most of his life. All of this and more made me want to track down the writers and insist that they answer all my questions.

Most fans seem to agree that the ending of “Big Mouth” was incredibly rushed.  There really isn’t any happy ever after to this ending.  In fact, it all feels a little gloomy and depressing for our hopeful and upbeat lawyer.  Chang Ho’s legal battle against Do Ha is unsuccessful, since Do Ha kidnaps his wife and has her institutionalized.  Mi Ho faints after the verdict is announced.  We next see her in a hospital bed where she tells Chang Ho that she is tired.  She closes her eyes and, we can assume, dies peacefully.  Chang Ho gets the last laugh when he visits Do Ha at his swimming pool.  Chang Ho proudly announces that  Do Ha is swimming in the same poison water that has killed so many people, including Mi Ho.  As Chang Ho leaves the area, we see Do Ha collapse dead into the pool.  We see Chang Ho continuing to act as Big Mouse, but using his money and power to help those in need through legal services and financial donations.  The ending scene shows Chang Ho driving in a car with a bouquet of white flowers as we hear a voiceover of Mi Ho’s words to him, asking him to be a good Big Mouse.  As a photo of the couple blows in the breeze, Chang Ho drives off into the horizon.