What’s Wrong With Secretary Kim?

I have just finished watching What’s Wrong With Secretary Kim. To be honest, I thought I’d powered through this drama, but actually, I’ve certainly watched a series quicker. I think it was just in comparison to the behemoth that was Six Flying Dragons, that watching this seemed to fly by.

Not going to lie, I had high expectations, and I’m not sure I can honestly say they were totally met. It was good fun but predictable; easy to watch but not addictive. Let’s just stay it doesn’t knock off any of my top 5. I’d very much rank it alongside the likes of  Strong Woman Do Bong Soon and Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo as a lighthearted romantic drama that I enjoyed but wasn’t anything particularly special. 

It’s the classic rich man falls for penniless girl plot, with some memory loss, family strife and copious  amounts of very obvious product placement thrown in. Just like The Heirs. Just like Boys Over Flowers. Just like Shopping King Louis ... I could go on. There were a fair few side stories, a rather disappointing second male lead*, and literally everyone had a very predictably happy ending. I do enjoy watching Park Seo Joon, and I thought Park Min Young was beautiful (I’ve only just realised that she was the lead in Healer and City Hunter - did not recognise her at all). It’s basically just crowd pleasing fluff with big names and pretty faces. So just like 98% of Asian drama. 

* they could have done so much with his character, but no, they basically wrote him off. He is listed as main cast, had a solo title card in the opening credits, the set up for a love triangle even past the big reveal - but no, I think the SA who played an intern had more screen time than him. And we all know how much I love a second male lead (it’s the Rui Effect). 

It is really highly rated on Viki at a 9.8, which puts it on a level with DotS, Bong Soon, Weightlifting Fairy and Healer, but I get the impression more and more that these ratings can’t be trusted to truly represent what they are supposed to mean as opposed to popularity scores. You see series that have yet to start airing with high scores because people start rating it based on the casting. They do tend to drop down quickly, but it’s a lesson to learn, to only pay attention to ratings on older shows. 

Edit: I feel like this post has come across as much more negative than I meant it to. I think I just missed the action and significance of Six Flying Dragons. This series was a classic kdrama - nothing new. I enjoyed it a lot, I really did, and it would probably be up there in my top 20 or so. 

Tl;Dr

It was enjoyable.

I recommend it to girls with unrealistic expectations of men. 

I probably won’t watch it again. 

My Princess

What's this? A post before 1 am? I know what you're thinking, this must mean its a k drama post, right? Well, surprisingly, you are correct.

My Princess is about a girl who finds out she is a princess. Shocker, right there. Basically, the Korean government have put the reestablishment of the Korean Imperial Family to the public vote, and as such, an ordinary student, Seol, finds out that her father was the grandson of the last emperor. Having spent her early childhood on the run until her father was killed in a car accident (well it is Korea, after all), she was raised in an orphanage completely unaware of her legacy. She meets diplomat and 3rd generation cheabol (aka super rich person) Hae Young, who will be forced to give up his inheritance should the restoration go through. At first the two have a strained relationship as Hae Young is put in charge of teaching Seol princess-y things, but soon they start to fall for each other yadda yadda yadda. Originally, Hae Young was to marry Yoon Joo, who was actually rather keen on Professor Nam, Seol's crush, so obviously those two got tied off neatly at the end because k dramas can't end with out every single character getting a happy ending.

I must admit to noticing a bit of a trend lately. I get very easily hooked into these shows at the start, but half way through, when things start to get a little too peachy and happy (as in when the main characters start to realise that they like each other) I lose interest. Not that the series went down hill or anything, far from it, I guess I just find the chemistry between main characters much more enticing when they don't realise its there. One of my favourite moments of this series is when Hae Young dumps a sleepy Seol into a fountain because she is late for class. You can bearly see it, but Hae Young does this ha-ha-in-your-face dance while she is spluttering and all the staff are shitting themselves that they just let a royal get thrown in a fountain. I liked that side of the relationship ... the fun side before it gets bogged down with love and all that crap.

From Google. The Fountain Dunk. I wish I could find a screen cap or video of Hae Young being a smart arse, but I can't remember what episode it was

It was a good series, fun to watch and not too mushy. I know I laughed out loud, and I'm pretty sure I cried. Hae Young was hot and Seol was really pretty ... in fact she reminds me a lot of Ji Eun from Full House. She had some really lovely costumes and I am pretty much in love with how she did her hair (I need to get some cute accessories).She had some amazing shoes too (although I did notice they left the labels on the bottom more than once ... tut tut golden rule broken right there). I liked the palace uniforms as well, mixing smart suits with traditional hanbok was a really goo idea. However, I was not a fan of Yoon Joo. At the risk of sounding shallow, I did not like her face or her style or her character ... although I don't think I was supposed to so its all good.

Next up is Baby and I, a Jang Geun Suk movie (you may get two reviews in one day). He is the guy from You're Beautiful and Mary Stayed Out All Night. I keep having to check right from the start because I'm pretty sure Love Rain is going to sneak into the top 30 soon enough. I'm on 26 now. For reference, 25 is Zettai Kareshi (the robot story that still breaks my heart to think about) and 29 is Nodame Cantabile, which I watched at the beginning of May 2011. It does not seem that long ago.

<3 x