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. 

Secret Garden

You know, I debated about writing this post. I finished watching Secret Garden last night, and since then, have watched 3 episodes of Coffee Prince, even though I usually write my review post as soon as I have watched the last episode. I like to get my thoughts out while they were so fresh, to the extreme that for Koizora, I was unable to stop my tears throughout writing. I used to really love reviewing the Asian dramas I had just completed, sharing my opinions on them not just for myself, but for any others who should come across my blog and find my drama posts interesting. However, now it feels more like a chore. I feel like I constantly repeat myself, mostly judging everything I have seen to be 'enjoyable but nothing amazing'. Things aren't so new anymore, from the sorts of plots to the social etiquette. I've gone from culture shock and novelty to normality, and normality isn't so fun to share my thoughts on.

So hopefully, the above being said, you'll forgive me for keeping this short. Rich man, Joo Won, falls for uninterested poor woman, Ra Im. He pursues her until she caves in, and they live happily ever after. Throw in a magical and somewhat poorly explained body swap sub plot that was much less a part of the story than I had expected, and that's pretty much the gist of it.

FROM GOOGLE. The sit-up scene. I loved the guys in the background, all pretending to kiss each other when they realised what Joo Won was trying to do. Seriously though, he did wear some hideous tracksuits.

I liked it, so much so I would spend pretty much all my free time watching it, but once again, the ending was just a little too neat. Everyone got their happy ending, which I'm noticing as somewhat of a theme in Korean dramas. Japanese dramas seem to be much more comfortable with more realistic or tragic endings, and not every story has to end with a proposal or marriage. There was one part that was super sad, where you realise how strongly Joo Won really feels for Ra Im rather than being a spoilt little boy wanting what he can't have, but obviously, you know that it's all going to work out one way or another, especially when were still 4 episodes left. However, I am noticing that Korean dramas are much more comfortable with real kisses, which was something that always turned romantic moments to amusing ones in Japanese dramas, the whole barbie kiss mood killer.

I was fangirling Super Junior once (HAH yeah, just the once), and they were acting out the most notable scenes in this drama, but I didn't put the two together until I saw the real scenes. I love those boys, look how cheeky Leeteuk is with his pocky game, how Shindong is just sitting in the corner eating, and how Eunhyuk and Kyuhyun sabotage their poor leader who was obviously embarrassed and regretting the pocky idea. I don't know why they are all in PJ's, even if it is cute. EDIT - while looking for a good image to put up, I found Kyu wearing Joo Won's tracksuit. I genuinely screamed. I love finding Super Junior when I'm not looking for them <3

So I'm already on to my next one, Coffee Prince. Girl pretends to be a guy ... again. I don't know why this is such a common theme in Asian drama, but there you go. I have to admit though, I do still find the whole straight guy thinking he is gay because he fell in love with girl-pretending-to-be-guy very amusing, so its all good. I don't know whether I'll do a review, I might just include bits in my normal posts as I go rather than holding everything back for one whole post. I'm a little disappointed in the visual aspect so far though *cough*moreprettyguysplease*cough*.


<3 x

EDIT - This post didnt end up being that short ... I blame SuJu.