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tears can end the drought anywhere
i love chinese/korean dramas. to start with, i'll admit that i wanted to see this because of ji sung, whom i admire and love as an outstandingly talented actor, with a very high EQ, which he relies on very skillfully while getting into his characters. the first one i saw with him was "kill me, heal me" - and it was "love at first site", i wanted to see more and more of ji sung. so i did quite a few, including his last drama "devil judge", which became one of the best dramas in my book of excellency.but.. this "secret love" was the first time that i wanted to let it go from the first 4 episodes, sooooooo boring, repetitious. then i must admit, i sort of got sucked in, wanting to know how the writer resolves this or that, where it will go and how the characters will develop and adjust. disappointment is not even a word i would use , by the end i felt a waste of my time, emotions and investment. first of all, it felt more like it had characteristics of a cheap american soap opera rather than one of the korean or chinese dramas that i got to love so much. the amount of tears shed by the main female character and then many others in this drama can easily put an end to any drought anywhere on earth - when it's that much it becomes almost irrelevant. yes, some instances were called for such expression of desperation and sadness, but not ALL the time, non stop. it made this drama very lopsided, if you will. the topic itself had a potential but it was wasted, scattered and definitely underdeveloped (the story itself). after the first 4 episodes it kind of started building steam, but the last 5 episodes it started rapidly deteriorating, really getting NOT SAD, but on my nerves. it almost got us to a conclusion of the worst outcome - greed, money and power win the day, love is in the dust and that is the fate of humanity. thanks god, in the literally last few minutes of the very last episode, the writer got himself/herself up, dusted up, and provided a semi-happy ending, but was this enough payback to the viewer? i think not.
a few words about the acting. top performance from ji sung as expected, and bae soo-bin surprisingly good, but i did not see him in any other production. hwang jung-eum is not consistently good - she is overdramatic in many instances and screeching to the degree that it feels like it's piercing your ear drums (but that's the complaint i had in "kill me heal me" as well.) so i gave an 8 for the acting because of these actors.
in conclusion, i could live without this drama. sorry to all the other reviewers who actually liked it a lot, i am in the minority.
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Story: 9.5/10 Oh my goodness.. The story is so well written. There was a lot of suspense and it was unpredictable. The characters were well developed and they had lots of characteristics. Yoo jung's husband was so upsetting LOL. Yoo Jung's character will really get to you. I don't really get why Ji Sung fell in love with Yoo Jung that fast but um ok haha. Lee Da Hee's character was kind of pathetic. I never figured out what really happened to Ji Sung's girlfriend's secret death until the ending so man they kept it well sealed! The only part I don't like in this whole drama was the ending. I expected a little more from the romance but well it ended well.
Acting/Cast: 10/10 Hwang Jung eum's acting is flawless as always. Her tears make you cry ok like I could not stop crying whenever she cried. Her acting is so incredible that you'll literally feel heaps of sympathy for her. Soo bin's acting was pretty good and Lee Da hee's arrogant image was well done just like in her other dramas. Her clothes were so pretty! *-* Ji Sung was SO good oh my goodness. He really improved from All In to now.
Music: 10/10 they all stood out to me and I was like I have to get this hahah
rewatch value: 9/10 yes maybe
overall: 9.5/10 I recommend thissss
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Back to the story, the thriller is good, I really looked forward to what will happen on the characters especially to Do-Hoon and Yoo-jung, how will Min-Hyuk get his revenge, how will the family of Do-Hoon treat Yoo jung, etc. Though the acting is a little bit meh. The romance between Yoo Jung and Min Hyuk was so out of the place. Why would you like someone who is connected to the death of your past lover and why would you fall for someone who makes you suffer? That is so weird. Their 'relationship' was so forced in this drama. And why do Min Hyuk keep thinking that he owns the women here? For example his lines like "don't die without my permission", "Smile for me' keeps dragging Yoo Jung etc. That is so cringy. No wonder the reviews in this drama before was 10/10 because that kind of things were so normalized before.
I like Choi Gwang-soo and Seo Ji-Hee in this drama, they're cute.
I'll just give this drama a 5/10.
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P.S and that woman se yeon i hate her because i wont go that far for someone who dosent love me and happy with someone else that makes him happy and i know that she's a good person i won't be selfish like that ughhhh and for that person do hoon i want to say one word GO TO HELL AND COME BACk AND GO AGAIN and rot in there (evil face here) even if i like the actor but i hated him in this drama and i hated his mother more cause if he was my son i won't mAKE everything easy for him and i would'nt have spoiled him like that i wold have let him take responsibilityi for what he did:( but the acting was wow for all the people in this drama
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First I want to repeat that I am not a very big fan of all the melodramatic series, especially if they are Korean since they tend to let all the characters cry enough tears to water all the deserts of this world. But having said that, I really enjoyed this drama! The best part was probably the acting. All the characters did well, even if they had to cry waterfalls. They did it beautifully. Also all the angry and crazy scenes were played beautifully, and let me tell you, there were enough scenes that would've made me crazy if something like that happened to me. And with that, we're at the kind of problematic part of this drama.
The story is good and classic. It's some kind of revenge, but then they fall in love. Been there, done that. But then the main couple isn't the only one involved. At some point, I didn't even know who wanted to take revenge on whom anymore. Because all the characters where somehow involved and it just was a crazy hate-story. That's also what made me doubt that romantic relationship between Min Hyeok and Yu Jeong so much. It came way too fast and out of the blue. I wished they took some time from the overlong beginning and put it at the back of the story. At first I thought I wouldn't like this drama much, judging by the slow start of it. But the previews kept me watching, which is a good thing. The pace picked up and I was happy as it was, only the ending was a bit rushed, together with the romance.
So, all in all, I can really recommend this drama. For people who like melodramatic stuff, this will probably be very exciting and good. If you are expecting a great romance line, don't watch it. It's not worth the romance, but the relationship of all the involved parties. The exciting part isn't the love, it's the hate and the things that change through time. The scary secrets everybody has and that make you see them in a different light, once you know them. I guess that's also why the drama is called "Secret". It's after all the essence of that drama.
3* out of 5* for a great drama, that just happens to be not my style of drama. Still, definitely recommended to fans of those dramas!
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This review may contain spoilers
I just finished watching this show here's my opinion. The story got me hooked from the start to the end, it was heartbreaking and I cried almost all episodes.
The characters were all so well acted. I've never hated a character in a drama more than I hated dohun and I felt yujong's pain so deeply, that only means the actors did their job perfectly.
I loved the ending it was satisfying, the only thing I could complain about is that I kinda wish yujong could have her son with her although I understood her decision. Hopefully in the future when the kid grows up he will understand and consider her his mother.
As for the romance between minhyuk and yujong in the beginning I couldn't imagine how they would go from deep hate (in minhyuk's case) to love but then the show made it work and it was worth it, I just wish there were more scenes of their love, I felt like with a few more episodes it could have been better on that part.
As for the osts I loved them and I added all the songs except the instrumentals to my playlist.
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New Favorite!
I loved this drama I have only a few on my favorites list and this a new one I finished it in one day it was so good! The acting was very good and if you hate to love dramas this would be for you and if you have watched Mask (2015) I guess you could say its like that but just a little more different in some way but it's still a very good drama and definitely recommended you watch it and it's most definitely a re-watch when your bored or go nothing to watch. Sometimes you wanna punch your screen cause the people in this drama make you mad or very unhappy but you got to keep it in cause how else would you watch dramas if you broke your screen lol.Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
a melodrama i would always come back to
i can't entirely express my love for this drama! it is so brilliant from the plot writing to the actors' acting as well as the soundtracks and cinematography.the story, i would say, is a pretty classic or even cliche one, a love story between 2 people who have feuds or hostility towards each other. but the drama was conducted in a way that still leaves us astonishing moments as well as intense emotions. it doesn't make us bored at all for knowing how the story is going to end!
the break-ups, reunions, and starts of relationships in the drama are full of emotions: joy, sorrow, and surprises. the progress of characters in discovering themselves thanks to other characters and learning to love and cherish who they love is gold, which attracts and keeps the audience till the end of the drama.
not to mention the visuals of all 4 main characters is undeniably great! Ji Sung and Hwang Jung Eum have established such perfect chemistry in this drama that I could not accept the fact that they are not even real!
overall, a very satisfying drama to watch! highly recommend!
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I love the aesthetics of painful beauty laying in the relationship of the leads, an interesting development of the characters and another wonderful feature of this drama: the supporting plot disgorged into the integrity of the drama with an absolute naturalness. There are a lot of brilliant dramatic scenes and somehow one can admire it as a good cocktail.
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Cast- now this is one thing I didnt like. especially the female leads actress, she was very annoying. I also think the female lead could be a bit dense at points but other than that it was fine. I liked the male lead he was pretty good, other than that the rest of the cast was nice.
Music- The music was nice I loved the song sung by Ailee.
Rewatch- I probably wont rewatch this. I rarley rewatch dramas anyway.
Overall- I would reccomend this drama if you want some good writing, with some mystery. I dont reccomcend if you dont like the female actress, and dont like a lot of crying. (there is lots)
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