Seo hyun jin superb yet again
Seo hyun jin never fails, her acting prowess is superb as always. From her facial expressions to her diction and delivery, oohhh perfection!!The casts were also exemplary. I was always looking forward to the next episode, that I binged watch it in a day. SHJ is really the queen of chemistry, no matter who she gets paired with. She's just perfect. I love her! I have watched almost all of her drama. She's my favorite actress, looking forward to her pairing with Gong Yoo.
Was this review helpful to you?
Was this review helpful to you?
Was this review helpful to you?
Seo Hyun Jin does it again!
This drama is another version of the corrupt high society dramas that have been quite popular lately. If you liked dramas like Vincenzo and Penthouse, you'll most likely like this one. What I personally like a lot about this show, however, is the strong woman character. She is smart, she is fierce, but she has a reason for what she does. And I think Seo Hyun Jin does a great job, every scene her facial expressions and lines sound natural and like she is embodying the character. This is what helps sell an otherwise overdone plot.In terms of acting, Hwang In-Youp is new, much newer than Seo Hyun Jin. He is good at a certain type of role, a caring but fierce lover boy. We all saw this in True Beauty back in 2020. But in this drama, he has shown improvement in his acting so far. His facial expressions are better, and his ability to convince us he is the character, not just playing it.
It takes a bit to get into the plot of this show, especially if you are a woman. Unlike other kdramas, this kdrama isn't afraid to talk about the reality of violence against women. Sexual assault and rape are discussed in this show, which can be quite triggering to some people. Women face some physical violence as well. This is different, but I think it is an intentional thing from the writer to get the viewers to root for this tough female main character, who faces danger knowing others want to break her down.
I have watched all 4 of the episodes that are out so far, and I can say this is a very good show so far. I think some of the cliche's can be made up for by the suspense and twists in the show, as well as the chemistry between SHJ and HIY (who, despite their 6 year age gap, look very good together!)
If you're on the fence about this show, go into it with a little bit of openmindedness. The plot has its flaws, but the actors will win your heart and make you root for their characters love and revenge. Thanks for reading!
Was this review helpful to you?
Thrilling start to finish
Basic plot: Why Her is the story of a talented lawyer Oh Soo Jae who rises to fame in TK Law Firm. However, her story is not simple. Her journey was one of a righteous young lawyer who goes through tragedy and hardship and makes revenge her ultimate goal by turning herself into the most sought out cut-throat lawyer that that clean up the messiest of cases. However, due to the shocking death in a case, she is forced to take time off and become a professor at a law school. This is where she meets an eager and helpful law student, Gong Chan. As fate would have it, this is not a chance encounter and they would discover just how they know each other while working together on cases.Review: This is a rare drama where the thrill is maintained in every episode.
Oh Soo Jae is an elegant lawyer who knows exactly how to deal with misogyny in the workplace. She knows she is the best out there and she doesn't care for the opinions of others. She keeps her cards close to her chest. And her character is true to life in many such work places that are dominated by men.
Perhaps the noona romance is not to everyone's liking, however, both characters are adult and the attachment of Dong Chan to Soo Jae is understandable and justified. Similarly, Soo Jae is actually very lonely even when she may not show it and this romance depicts a softer side to her. Dong Chan gives her strength. However the romance element is not a huge part of the show even though I would have loved to see more of it. There is also an additional element of a love triangle with Choi Yoon Sang. His attachment is also understandable as they have known each other for long and he also plays a stong supporting role. My only disappointment was that this character was cut a bit shorter than I would have liked.
Choi Tae Gook is the main negative character. He is also owns TK Law Firm. This is a powerful and daunting character. My only criticism of this role is that we do not see him in action in any case whatsoever. He merely pulls strings in the background in his favour. He along with Assemblyman Lee In Soo and Han Seong Beom plot and plan and help each other rise further in their career ambitions. However, the brains of Choi Tae Gook are unmatched and he has other plans.
The show also has a number of lovely supporting characters that give life to the drama.
Final points: I for one do not understand the harsh criticisms of Why Her. Feels almost like they watched an entirely different show. The finale also keeps you guessing whether the show will end the way we want it to. I hope this review allays any concerns about the show and helps you decide to watch it. I have tried to provide just enough information without giving anything away. I would definitely give this a watch again.
Was this review helpful to you?
Great cast, poor execution
Believe me, I really tried getting into this but I just couldn't.Individually, I like both Seo Hyunjin and Hwang Inyeop. They're both terrific actors when given a proper script and a good character to play with. This was obviously not the case.
Seo Hyunjin'sn character is depicted as arrogant and believe's she's better than anyone else, and I fully support this when it comes to men, and given she works for a law firm, I love how she's the best of the best above all men working there. We don't really get to see many executive women, as usual for this genre. But I just feel she's too bland, like why is being arrogant her only personality trait?
As for Hwang Inyeop's character, don't even get me started. Why does he have the same hairstyle as he did in The Sound of Magic when he was playing a high schooler? As for his personality, it is nonexistent and that's all I will say.
I'm really not interested in continuing this one, my friends, but best of luck if you do! And if you like this, kuddos to you as well!
Was this review helpful to you?
Promising, complex though somewhat flawed storylines let down by irksome lead.
The storylines are excellent with multiple layers and even dimensions of plots and subplots that tie in together rather nicely so far, for the most part, barring some obvious plot flaws. The acting in general is very good, they've cast the right people into **most** of the key roles.However, maybe it is just me, but the FL Oh Soo Jae started getting on my nerves to the extent that I just dropped this series. She plays her role as a powerful, confident, no-nonsense ice queen rather well, but her grating nasal voice got a bit too irritating for me. When she's supposed to be expressing some deep vulnerability or strong remorse, it looks too fake and forced. She comes across as so one-dimensional that it feels like a fake character, not a real human you can connect with, relate to and empathise with.
The romance plot lines are mostly unnecessary, there's so little chemistry between them that it's cringe inducing.
Compare how Seo Hyun Jin's plays her role as Oh Soo Jae with how the leads play the roles of Lee Ji-An in My Mister, or that of Nam Ha-Neul in Doctor Slump. These roles are quite complex and multi-layered as well, but they hook you, create a connection, and you can relate deeply. With Lee Ji-An in My Mister, I still recall some storylines years after I watched the series - now that's sticky, that's a connection, something this series failed to deliver.
With Oh Soo Jae, I found myself losing the connection even by the tenth episode, I just dropped the whole series when I found myself cheering for the bad guy - now Heo Joon Ho does a stellar job at that role! I give the acting/cast a 7/10 because the bad guys are superb.
Was this review helpful to you?
Am a sucker for elder women younger guy trope
All complains about male lead acting and character being weak is stupid. Isnt that how yall write all the million female leads in kdramas.Finally a difference in character strong powerful women and older..
Yeah i am eating up every episode
The acting is good.
The pacing is good.
And the male lead is handsome, all the complaints can suck it.
The conversation between the leads just gets me.
It has a giddy feeling to it.
And they find a way to intergrate the romance in the heavily packed law theme without overshadowing either so thats a big plus.
Am looking forward to how everything unfolds.
Was this review helpful to you?
Good Enough
Korean Drama " Why Her ? " is an office melodrama that centers around the leading lady who dominated the whole drama.The story has many layers, starting with a scandal that ruins the leading lady's career, and then, slowly, revealing the past and the clues for the main criminal case that binds everything together in the final episodes.
And yet, and even though the drama had many action scenes and suspenseful moments, the romance was unnecessary, cheesy, and not what the story needed. Plus, it was only there to fill in the gaps and had no pace and no smooth progress.
As for the performances, the leading lady gave a killer performance. The rest of the cast did a good job as well.
So, overall, 6 out of 10.
Was this review helpful to you?
DROPPED - Are we suppose to feel bad for Oh Su Jae???!!
I gave up in the middle of episode 3 when she brought up the first episode's mystery crime in the classroom.This drama felt too insensitive and tone-deaf for me. The production quality and cast of actors were the only saving grace for me.
Either the Writers wanted the audience to find OSJ likable and failed,
OR
the Writers never intended to make OSJ likable and there's a villainous plot twist waiting near the middle or end of the drama to showcase that and confirm my suspicions.
Sadly, it looks like OSJ is meant to be pitied and rooted for, even though her pride, apathy, and 'holier-than-thou' attitude make it hard for me to stomach her non-existent virtues and ethics.
The more I watched this drama and OSJ, the more enraged and violent I got. So, I stopped watching.
Hopefully, I'll find other works of the actors to enjoy and appreciate their acting abilities. My issue is with the writing of this story and not the actors themselves.
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
Is this the only topic that can be written about women?
'Why Her?' is a drama I had been looking forward to ever since it was announced, mostly because Seo Hyun Jin is one of my favorite actresses, but also because it was going to be Hwang In Yeop's first major leading role, and it had Bae In Hyuk included in the cast, both of which are new actors that I'm keeping my eye on. I hadn't read much about the plot when it was announced, nothing more than it being a story in the legal world and about a professor and student relationship. I don't really have a problem with teacher-student plots, as long as it's not set in a high school with a weird romanticization whenever they cross paths, or just look into each other's eyes, especially while solving math problems with a borderline psychopathic enthusiasm *side-eyeing Melancholia*.Oh Soo Jae is a confident woman, who has escalated high up in the ladder by her own means, surviving in a tough male-dominated field, despite not having the expected educational background for people in her position. I'm still not sure about how to feel about this because the drama has not explained yet how she managed to land such important positions in a top 10 law firm as only a high school graduate, and I don't think a person with her qualifications can actually land a teaching job at a law school, but then again this is 1) fiction and 2) she was given the position, so it's not like connections can't solve everything in this case.
Then we have our male lead, Gong Chan, whose age we are still unclear about and I would personally love to have it addressed because I can totally ship him with a successful professor in her early(?) 30s if he's above 24 years old, maybe? But if he's any younger it would make me a bit uncomfortable. He spent one year in prison and it looks like he was already out of school when the murder of his step-sister happened, so he must be at least 22 years old, I would say? It would be nice if they throw in that he already served in the army, so that he would meet my desired age of 24, and then I would have peace of mind while watching the show.
But anyway, my problem is not really about either main character, or the story so far at all, but with a recurrent topic not only in 'Why Her?', but also thrown into many Kdramas nowadays.
Ep 1 starts with Oh Soo Jae's character introduction, showing the viewer she is a tough woman with no support from her coworkers or other colleagues even outside her law firm, except for her assistant and some guy that looks like he would kill on his boss' command, whoever that is. We see many graying middle-aged men (boooo) despising our female lead over the littlest things, and basically, just for being a capable woman in the industry, some of those trying to use her to their own convenience. We also see Oh Soo Jae on two occasions (if I recall correctly) sitting alone in the middle of her fancy apartment, once again showing the viewer that she may be tough on the outside, but she feels the loneliness of her lifestyle once she is all on her own.
The plot continues with a case of a woman suing her client over sexual harassment and this is where my problem starts. In order to understand why I find this so incredibly unnecessary and problematic, we would need to contextualize this drama in the place from where it comes: the South Korean society, where women's rights are violated multiple times, and —as mentioned in the Ep about three times, and inappropriately (in my opinion)— where the law is never on the woman's side in sexual harassment claims, as well as a place where sex crimes against women are one of the highest in the world, from 'developed countries', and where women have it overall really bad in this sense.
So we see our (flawed) female lead shaming the alleged sexual assault victim, giving her 'reality checks', making her feel even more miserable, despite the victim's attitude not being the particularly stereotyped attitude of a victim, and here is where I have another problem. Sexual assault victims are expected to be ashamed of themselves, to be depressed, to be in mental hospitals trying to recover from it, and overall visibly suffering, but if a woman is confident and recovered speedily from this horrible situation, then questions arise over whether she was actually assaulted or not. And we see this quite clearly in the show. Park So Young had a nonchalant attitude, quite relaxed, giving off a vibe that she's actually a gold digger and not a real assault victim. Now, I have two problems with it. One, as mentioned, sexual assault victims react differently to their assaults, some and most, actually, take it really badly and will need a lot of time to recover from it, if ever, but some are actually able to continue with their lives and it doesn't mean that they did not suffer from the assault, or that they do not deserve justice. Just because a woman is not suffering doesn't mean the predator doesn't deserve to be thrown in jail. It is unclear whether the sexual assault actually took place or not, but this is just overall dangerous to the already very stigmatized view of sexual assault victims.
Now, if Park So Young was actually lying and was a gold digger, I really don't think this is something that should be shown on dramas either. Not only in South Korea, but everywhere in the world victims of sexual assault are always questioned, doubted, shamed, and re-victimized when they come forward to raise their voices and confess that they are victims, so to raise the question in a drama where an alleged sexual assault victim is suing a powerful man perpetuates this idea and reinforces it, showing that "women can also lie about sexual assault". Now I'm not saying that this can't happen, but the percentage is very low, compared to actual assault victims that are still dismissed and never believed. It's disappointing that this drama is both written and directed by women, yet they use this problem as a plot accessory.
Actually, I have another problem with this. I don't think South Korean women, or women who watch this drama in general, need to hear from another woman the horrendous things that Oh Soo Jae told Park So Young when facing a sexual assault lawsuit. Yes, I'm sure this is just to show that our female lead is flawed and to set a standard about where she needs to start changing (which we see in Ep 2), but I personally can't really see a reason to use this specific 'flaw' on a female lead to show the viewers that she will change in the future.
Not satisfied with the female lead shaming her, the victim ends up killing herself by suicide (as we know so far), and becoming 'the flaw' of our female lead's career. Making a woman in a high position become the target of public shaming because another woman allegedly committed suicide after being raped and shamed about it really doesn't sit right with me. The drama entirely forgot the main point, that a woman being raped, and completely focused it on the female lead shaming her and leading her to suicide. I know this is how people would view it in real life, that they would shift the blame from the predator to the other woman because it's easier to blame women than predators. I know it's all true, but again, I just don't see why *this* needs to be the starting point, or the breaking point, for our female lead.
Now we have an awful start for our drama (in terms of content, not really that the drama started off badly), and we continue the drama with not only one or two, but three more cases of sexual assault. All in one ep. All to different women. Our female lead is groped and sexually harassed by a disgusting professor, then a female student is again groped and sexually harassed by said disgusting professor, and on top of everything, our male lead was previously and falsely convicted of raping and murdering his step-sister. The drama started with a sexual harassment plot, and continued with three more because obviously, that is the only thing that can be written about women, right?
This is exactly my problem: I really don't understand what's the recurrent fixation of Kdrama writers with including so many sexual assault instances in the plot. It feels like all or most recent dramas have a sexual assault minor or major plot point, all on different levels, but all there. I just don't think women need to be reminded of this when we see it all the time in the news, and it's not like it exactly helps with the 'raise awareness' attempt, because sexual predators are not the ones watching these shows so it will not prevent anything, and men who could help either already know this happens, or don't care at all, so showing this constantly on dramas will not really produce any impact in their lives. So at the end of the day, the only people being affected by this are women watching these shows, despite having to see this in our daily lives, reading news about femicides all the time, and overall facing sexual assaults on different levels every day.
Also, I might be wrong, but more than having 4 cases of sexual assault in 2 eps of a drama, I think not hiring an ex-convict of sex crimes would make a more powerful statement against sexual predators and would help to build safe places for women in the industry, so that the risks of being sexually harassed while working would reduce at least one bit, but that's just me, I guess.
Anyway, this review of only two eps is already very long, but I needed to get it out of my chest because it's something that has been bugging me a lot from dramas lately (lately being like, 2 years), but this drama was really just over the top with it.
Overall, the show looks promising if they focus it well on the romance part without neglecting the law part, but I really hope we don't have to see a certain graying middle-aged man too much (preferably not ever again), or just too many powerful, middle-aged men trying to screw our female lead over. Also, on another, totally unrelated side, I think it's funny that our female lead has not only one younger romantic interest, but two, which is uncommon because we usually see only one younger love interest in noona romances, while the love triangle develops with another, older and successful, daddy-like second male lead. But here we have two, both of which have a past connection with our female lead, and who look like they will form a nice brotherhood, so I'm actually looking forward to future eps of this drama, and I hope my complaints disappear quickly and my expectations are met so that I can enjoy this drama fully.
TL;DR: Our female lead is the perfect successful femme fatale with two completely eye-candy younger romantic interests, but our Kdrama writers have a passion for sexual assault victims and cannot go one day without including sexual assault in their works.
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
I've dropped it without remorse as a matter of principles
This review contains spoilers for the first two episodes so don't read it if you eventually intend to watch the drama.They say that power ( and money of course) change people.
In reality power and wealth can't change our character. They can give us the chance to manifest what our true character actually is.
This drama tries to depict a bad ass female character.
As bad ass though is considered a character that is daring and fearless, strong and willing to overcome any difficulties.
Unfortunately this doesn't seem to be the case for the FL character of this drama who comes out from the very first episodes as person who lacks all sorts of empathy and is misusing her position and power. So this drama is depicting ( from the very first episodes) just a very bad character.
I haven't seen in any series or films such an unlikable character. We see a person that disrespects her colleagues, disheartens and discourages her juniors, is arrogant even towards to her employers ( the phrase towards the president of the law firm "your business is me and I'm your business" says everything about her attitude), slaps people while they are apologizing for their mistakes, disregards anyone who is not in her position, lacks any kind of collaborating spirit with her associates ( in a law firm that is not her own firm), disrespects the profession of a teacher and finally attacks personally, blames and despises the claims of a presumably rape victim in such a cruel and traumatic for this person way that drives it to commit suicide.
I don't know if the writers of this drama thought that these are the traits of a strong and feminist bad ass female character. If that is what they were thinking when they developed this character I can assure them that these are the traits of a narcissistic character, of a person with serious personality disorder and they are not the traits of a person that has any kind of principles or the moral foundations, is dedicated, or skillful and willing to serve, work and succeed in any field, let alone any legal field.
A character like this is an insult for all the emancipated women that try to establish their positions in the higher ups of their field with their skills and hard work.
She is the worst and the most distorted depiction of how women in positions of power are supposed to behave.
But THIS IS NOT HOW POWERFUL WOMEN ARE. It is rather how sexist S. Korean males think that powerful women are supposed to be. Psychos or even worst! lol
Personally now this depiction of female empowerment (in the South Korean style) offends me so much that I'm dropping this drama without remorse and without having the slightest inclination to give it a second chance and watch a few more episodes.
There is not chance for the writers to manage to justify the actions of the FL in the first two episodes. because some of these actions contradict so much with, at least, mine established moral and professional principles that simply can't be justified or be undone with some tricky plot twist.
1 out of 10 from me. One of the worst two episodes that I have ever watched that also made me reevaluate my opinion about S. Korean society in general.
Was this review helpful to you?
