Encounter

I’m writing this post right after having finished the one for Defendant, but might schedule it to publish tomorrow or something instead. I don’t really know why, it just doesn’t feel right to post twice in one day.

So I started Encounter before Defendant, and was actually really quite enjoying it, until I ran out of episodes. Then I watched Defendant and pretty much finished that series in the time it took two new episodes of this to come out, and I don’t know if I just lost the flow, or what, but I just didn’t enjoy this series so much from then on. I think it had a really strong start, and I particularly liked the Cuba scenes, but it just fizzled for me to the point where I just wasn’t really invested at all at the end, and couldn’t really have cared less if they stayed together or not. I’m not sure if it was just me, but the last episodes sound mix was shocking, which if it is how it was aired, just proves that they lost their way a bit at the end. Also, my Korean is good enough to realise that the Korean title for this drama is Namjachingu (남자친구), which means Boyfriend. Can we all agree that Encounter is a significantly less lame title?! I mean, sure, it sums up the plot well but still, lame.

Soo Hyun is the divorced daughter in law of a chaebol family who still lives under their thumb due to her fathers debt, but runs a successful hotel chain. One day, while on a trip to open a new hotel in Cuba, she has her bag stolen and falls asleep on top of a wall, nearly plunging to her death until luckily, the only other Korean there, Jin Hyeok, catches her. After a little nap, they walk back to the town together and she makes him spend literally all his money on dinner, wine, shoes, and salsa clubs. None the less, it’s very sweet and they definitely have a spark, but as chance would have it, they don’t see each other again .... until .... Jin Hyeok randomly gets a job at her hotel, realises she is the CEO and they start their love story.

I mean, it sound ridiculous now I’ve written it down, but it was a really sweet start.

For the most part, it was well done. You could really see the character development in Song Hye Kyo’s Soo Hyun, in that she started very sad and serious, and slowly, as she fell for Jin Hyeok, started to smile and laugh more. I mean, who wouldn’t, Park Bo Gum was absolutely adorable. I have to say though, that I did much prefer Song Hye Kyo in Descendants of the Sun, and thought her chemistry with now real life husband Song Joong Ki was much more ... chemistryish. The only thing that really bothered me about this series, other than it’s predictability, was how they didn’t do more with Woo Seok, Soo Hyun’s ex husband who literally faked an affair so she could divorce him because he loved her so much. You all know (ha, ‘all’, like I’m talking to anyone other than myself, let’s be honest here) that I love me a second male lead, and they just made him totally pointless and pathetic. It was such a shame, because he was really pretty and had real potential to properly shake up the story.

TLDR
It was ok.
New kdrama fans will probably like it, or those who like the samey romance style as 90% of korean drama.
I probably won’t watch it again.

I was probably going to watch My Strange Hero next, another currently airing series, but I’ve decided to rewatch Game of Thrones, so that will take me a while. I have also found myself with access to a Netflix account, which means I have subsequently found myself with access to shows such as It’s Okay That’s Love, Hwayugi, and My ID is Gangnam Beauty, as well as many other series not available on Viki, so that might complicate things somewhat.