September 2018

No matter how time passes, a romantic comedy (“rom-com”) remains as one of the long-withstanding favourite drama genres. There is a little girl who lives in many women’s hearts. She still believes in fairytales, and is secretly hoping that a prince charming would take her away someday.

Even when the drama has the most clichéd (almost predictable) story line about a narcissistic chaebol falling for his capable, beautiful secretary (with the loveliest smile), it would still become an instant hit. “Rich Guy vs Ordinary Girl” may be an extremely old-fashioned plot, but as long as it resonates well with the general public, who cares?

What makes this web-toon turned drama so swoon-worthy and being able to acclaim 5 to 10% viewership ratings on average?

The fundamental requirements include not only having good looking & popular leads, endearing moments, kiss scenes, funny elements, the most important would be chemistry between the leads and how supporting roles would add on to the FUN on set.

Other than an almost perfect chaebol (who’s rich, intelligent, successful, good-looking, except being dense), the gorgeous and capable secretary, there is a considerable amount of effort put into creating the latest office fashion trend.

Park Min Young is a trendsetter and a fashion icon among young ladies. Whatever she donned in the drama garnered much attention, ranging from office shirts (Common Unique, avouavou, Sezwick, Jill Stuart), knee length skirts, handbags from Sandro, Jimmy Choo, Joy Gryson, Chloe, Mulberry, Fendi, Valextra &Loewe, to her dangling earrings. My favourites were her off shoulder dress and cold-shoulder floral dress from “Not Your Rose”.

Much as I love romantic comedies, “What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim” failed to make me fall head over heels, because it lacked depth in the following ways:
– Not enough depth to the respective love lines or family relationships
– Weak character build-up for supporting roles, especially disappointed in how they portrayed Lee Tae Hwan as Sung Yeon
– There wasn’t much takeaway from the love triangle

It may not be Park Seo Joon’s 1st time assuming the role of a Chaebol, but it’s definitely one that you cannot help but applaud and shake head (at the same time) at his hilarious narcissistic behaviour.

他的 “自我感觉”异于常人的良好。He thinks he is a gift from heaven, being so intelligent, rich and handsome that he seems more like some superhuman existence.

There is this saying which goes “you need to love yourself before you can love another person”. For Young Joon’s case, he needs to learn how to allocate some of his precious self-love to the people around him. He only shows his gentler demeanour towards Mi So.

While he may be the most difficult boss, you would chuckle at how Mi So can just handle him so well, on many different levels, be it at work, personal or social events. You can see from his little actions like slowing down his strides so that Mi So can catch up and walk alongside him. It’s a manifestation of how he sees her as his equal half, evolving from their long-time superior-employee relationship.

Even when he really didn’t want Mi So to leave her job, he hoped that she would look for what truly makes her happy in life. He’s the overzealous boyfriend, who would freak out at the thought of Mi So adjusting neck tie for other men. He would take care of her when she was drunk but also angry that she did not control her limit.

Perhaps it’s due to age; such “far from reality” dramas are not as heart-gripping for me. I prefer “Fight for My Way” because it not only shows the cute interactions, but also how real the obstacles that the characters meet in life are.

Much as the “Park-Park” couple looking so compatible and cute together, Park Min Young seems to have the best chemistry with Ji Chang Wook in “Healer”. As for Park Seo Joon, he’s got such oozing chemistry with Kim Ji Won and Hwang Jung Eum, that Park Min Young pales in comparison.

Park Min Young’s acting is average but since it is a rom-com, you do see her giving some cute expressions such as an evil sneer. More often than not, you would see her with big, doe eyes looking lovingly or angrily at Young Joon. Both leads manage to act on a level of understanding that complements each other. It is very important to have a 好对手。

Mi So can consider publishing a book or giving a talk on “How to Handle your Boss cum Boyfriend”. It may seem that Young Joon had the upper hand at the beginning since he is her boss. However, when the relationship changed, you could see how Mi So had him twirling round her fingers.

Do not be fooled by her appearance. Mi So is the new age competent woman who doesn’t compromise if she is being treated badly and she will say NO even to her most difficult boss. It’s plausible Young Joon finds this alluring and challenging about her.

While Mi So can 察言观色 very well, she has seemingly overlooked the fact that it is not just Young Joon in a one-sided relationship. She has disregarded Young Joon’s feelings time and again while they were making wedding preparations. It is usually the ladies who lament that their other halves do not seem to bother much. In this drama, this role takes a reversal turn. It shows that it takes 2 hands to clap in a relationship.

“女人心海底针”。 Since prehistoric days, it is tough for men to ever fully understand women, especially so for a narcissistic chaebol like Young Joon.

He may be witty and can solve the most appalling or difficult business situation, but he lacks the basic understanding to women’s hearts. He never knew Mi So is allergic to pollen till his brother told him before their wedding.

That is something I couldn’t fathom. How could someone be dense till this extent?

It is rather confusing that Young Joon didn’t seem to realize he likes Mi So all along till she made known her decision to resign. Yet at the later part, he knew he has been in love with her since Day 1.

That’s where the story buildup is weak in terms of how the love line develops. From someone who knows close to nothing about the intricacies of human relationships, Young Joon made a 360 degree transformation to a Sensitive New Age Guy (SNAG).

Young Joon let his emotions took the better of him after hiding them for 9 years. We could understand how eager he wanted to announce their newfound relationship to everyone else. However from Mi So’s perspective, she has long considered all possible consequences of dating her superior (who’s a “Golden” bachelor). She needs to withstand all accusations thrown at her on how she managed to win Young Joon’s heart.

While rekindling memories of the childhood kidnap scene was an attempt to beef up their relationship, it may have taken a notch too far. Audience may be skewed towards thinking that the 2 of them are just holding on to a childhood promise, instead of genuinely falling for each other.

We could tell in the earlier episodes that the 2 of them do feel something for each other. Even when Sung Yeon was mistaken as the “Oppa” who saved Mi So back then, Mi So also made it clear to him that she was just being grateful and it isn’t love.

Here are my favourite top 3 kiss scenes:
1) Wardrobe Kiss
2) A First kiss attempt but to have Mi So pushed far, far away
3) When Young Joon started kissing Mi in his home, Director Park barged in to the “crime scene”

I find Secretary Yang’s way of confession so refreshing! Imagine writing your confession in black marker on a bottle of coke. The lady would not realise till she starts sipping coke. In no time, she would have gulped the entire coke to see what you have written. That was SWAG. She would be too overloaded with sweetness to even think about rejecting you.

My Favourite Relationship Goals Quotes:

1) “There’s nothing better than being honest” – Mi So
2) “I want to be in the kind of relationship where I feel the tiredness of my day getting washed off just by hugging you once, even if you don’t make my heart flutter” – Young Joon.
3) “你是我的世界，也是我的所有瞬间。而我的所有瞬间，都是你。” – Young Joon

Marriage is not just about making sky-high promises. It is about making and realising attainable lifelong promises. This is what we call “细水长流，平凡的幸福”.

There are 3 distinct office romances that we see in this drama. “The Underground Love”, “The Boyfriend who can’t wait to flaunt his beautiful girlfriend”, and one whereby it started from Loggerheads to Lovers.

It’s best to keep mum about your office romance, for it not just affects how people may perceive of you, but it would also affect your work performance and your “impartiality”. We are all human beings, and we do get carried away with our feelings.

It seems that societal perceptions about being successful = being rich and dressing well, have not changed. This is particularly so in a more conventional society like Korea. While we are sad that Chansung had only 1 set of “office suit”, we agree that sometimes we wish we have just that 1 set of “office uniform”, so we would not need to fret over what to wear the next day.

Never a day had Young Joon forgotten about that dreadful past, but he acted nonchalant and as if he had lost his memories, so that everyone could carry on with their lives. He did not wish to revive Mi So’s painful memories although this would mean she would not remember him. He was truly considerate and sensitive towards Mi So’s feelings. It seems he is in a more suffering state. He remembers all the hurt and pain, but also the love for her, yet he could tell no one.

We also love Kang Ki Young’s role as Director Park Yoo Sik, who’s Young Joon’s long-time friend but subordinate at the same time. Yoo Sik is more like his Life and Love adviser, who rendered much earnest and valuable help to Young Joon’s personal life.

One useful advice was when Mi So called Young Joon a “bulldozer”, he asked Young Joon to control his speed because “more haste, less speed” applies in all love relationships. It would be wise that he slows down since it will pressurise Mi So to try to catch up with him all the time. Over time, she would just get sick of even trying.

I probably had my expectations set a tad too high regarding the sibling rivalry between Sung Yeon and Young Joon. We can sense hatred, angst and resentment between the 2 of them. The situation worsened as Mi So came into the picture, with both brothers trying to pursue her. We thought the clichéd “Rich parents would oppose” scenes would appear, but luckily there was no soap drama in this aspect.

I thought Lee Tae Hwan’s break would come as the 2nd male lead in “What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim”, but all I could ask was “what’s wrong with the script”?
They did not just waste such a good looking contender to Young Joon, but made him seem as if he’s a weak opponent right from the very beginning.

While I agree Lee Tae Hwan has quite a fair bit to learn in horning his acting skills, the character lacked all the attributes he could leverage on to alleviate his attractiveness. His saving grace was at the last episode when he finally 冰释前嫌 with Young Joon and said that “I’m sorry. At that time, I couldn’t let it be me.” Perhaps the scriptwriter didn’t want the storyline to be too 煽情, it is more of like 点到为止 even when Sung Yeong expressed his remorse and regret.

I also like the part where Young Joon spent a lot of effort crafting a proposal plan for Mi Soo.

A marriage proposal is not about copying what others do, but more of customising what is suitable for that individual. Just think intently on what is it that she wants and you would come up with something that’s unique for her.

While this drama is ideal for a light-hearted laugh after a tiring day (with many swoon-worthy elements), the storyline is pretty forgettable in my opinion.

Nonetheless, it is still worth watching once if you are a fan of Rom-Coms or any of the leads.Read More →