I think this drama is severely underrated and in my opinion mainly because of its poor choice of title "Love affair" brings out the notion of betraying romantic emotions of someone and their trust at the deepest level. It's a dirty and unforgivable act. However, this story is about anything but love affair. Granted the female lead is married, but in this scenario, considering her marriage and how the relationship is, I don't think anyone who will watch this would think that this was a love affair, it simply doesn't fit the category!
This is not your average light and bubbly love; it's dark, complex, passionate, bitter-sweet, and even sometimes torturous. It's a battle where we'll cheer as hard as we can for love to win against all odds. It's a story of growth and maturing oneself through experiencing love, a story of how easily one can lose oneself if s/he is chasing the wrong goals, and how they can still go back to true happiness regardless of their past/bad choices. It’s a story to show how love can change one for better or the worse.
Before analyzing the rest of the drama, I just have to say that I LOVED the music in this drama!!!!! They played so many beautiful pieces that were very well integrated within the flow of the story. Also, unlike your average drama, the music actually added meaning and depth to the drama. Most of the pieces were classical music played by the main leads (and let me tell you, I still cannot believe that they are actors not professional pianists!!!) There was one song that was not classical music, and it fitted the drama better than Cinderella's glass shoe fitted her. Anyone who has any appreciation for classical music is going to enjoy this drama enormously. And I'm not overselling it by stating that it's through the music that we can truly understand their passion, their fears and their love.
The pacing is slow, but surprisingly it didn't bother me at all. I loved that I could take my time and savor their every single gaze, touch, and emotion. The slow pace allowed me to synchronize my emotions with them; to not only understand, but also feel how they felt for one another. I guess the only negative point of the drama is the business part of it, but trust me; this one is not as bad as the others out there. It’s not the strongest part of the drama and the writers try not to get very technical with it. But I think it wasn’t that poorly written/executed. In the scale of the drama as a whole, it didn’t bother me at all!
The characters are complex, and it takes time to truly understand them. There were times that I was very annoyed with the main actress because I didn't really understand her. Nevertheless, as the drama progressed, my understanding of the characters deepened and I start too feel their pain, their hope and most of all their passion. It had been a very long time that I had felt such complex emotions with such intensity. It was almost like I was one of them.
Well I can go on and on, but I want to keep this review at a semi-reasonable length to allow ppl to read it. So if you're a fan of classical music, or if you want to go on a very emotional and bittersweet journey of love, fear and loss, I would recommend you to definitely give this a chance.
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This drama is excellent. Love unexpectedly blossoms through music. I can so relate to Oh Hye Won. Sometimes a person feels like they are just moving from one necessity to the next (even if she was a little greedy) with out really thinking about how you are living your life. Then some one walks into your life and changes everything. The way the director portrays every emotion through music is so wonderfully done. I love that the writer actually assumed we would know what the character was thinking. The music is amazing. I even cried. Crying while watching a drama is rare for me.
Yoo Ah In is combustible. His emotional portrayal of Lee Sun Jae was perfection. I don't know any actress that could have played the roll of Oh Hye Won better than Kim Hee Ae. I really don't know how she gave off a feel of innocence. I felt like she was reliving her youth. Good for her. I was totally invested in the main characters. The rest of the people were good too, but I could have cared less about their characters. I think that is what the writer wanted. There is no second male lead. No one for you to care about except the two lead actors.
The music is phenomenal.
I say watch it. Maybe younger people wouldn't really be in to it. It isn't action packed or anything. It is a real romance.
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Just to be clear about something, I'm not a fan of love affairs, actually I don't like them at all and usually do not watch dramas with concept like that but this one I chose because of the music theme and the main actor. And I'm glad I did that 'cause I fell in love with this drama so deeply with no cure for healing. For the record this drama and story aren't affair at all as all of us think what affair actually is and you could see that from the very start and the relationship between the married couple, they were more like business partners. Yoo Ah In and Kim Hee Ae have done the job brilliant in portraying the two people who met and simply, slowly fell in love through the piano playing, music sheets, Mozart, Liszt, Tchaikovsky, and many other classical geniuses. I was hypnotized and mesmerized with their conversations, with their playing, with their passionate chemistry, I can't remember when I've reacted like this to some couple and chemistry in drama, since MARS I haven't felt like this.
This is not some average bubbly romance drama; it's dark, complex, passionate, bittersweet, and sometimes even torturous. It's a true emotional, mature and adult romance drama where we'll cheer as hard as we can for love to win against all odds. It’s a story to show how love can change one for the best or the worst. I loved very much how they concentrate simply on development of the main characters, their constant battle inside them, their pain, their hope and most of all their passion. It had been a very long time that I had felt such complex emotions with such intensity. It was almost like I was one of them. Of course there are boring parts, for example the part about business and all those irritating female characters who were so evil, bad and gossiping around, I really hate that. But except that everything else was a masterpiece for real. Yoo Ah In as a young piano prodigy was magnificent, he once again proved to me why he's one of my favourite actors in the whole world. When he’s onscreen with Kim, they make beautiful music together, both literally and figuratively. The love story generates plenty of heat, and feels genuine and quite moving. As long as the two leads are playing duets together or sharing bowls of noodles, everything else was in the shadow, only them and their fantastic chemistry.
Unlike in the most of average dramas, the music actually added meaning and depth to the drama. They played so many beautiful pieces from so many great composers and anyone who has any appreciation for classical music is going to enjoy this drama enormously. This drama is a bit slow, but it didn't bother me at all. I loved that I could see and feel their every gaze, touch, and emotion. I was able to synchronize my emotions with them, to understand and feel how they fell for one another.
For me this drama has a deep meaning and definitely left me with so many great and honest emotions. If you're like me a person who loves a true pure romance dramas with adult and mature thinking with endless love for music in your daily life, then this drama is for you.
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Unfortunately, I found the world surrounding the lovers to be less fleshed out and compelling. While I understand that the awfulness of most of the other major characters is meant to highlight just how terrible Hye Won’s life is despite its surface luxuries, I would have loved for there to have been more layers to the antagonists. Their universal loathsomeness did draw sympathy to the protagonists, but it also undermined the realism of the show and simplified its conflicts. It’s not hard to cheat on a husband with no redeeming characteristics, but that felt like an easy out for the screenwriter (and the audience) rather than an honest exploration of the challenges of marriage.
The directing of the show is carefully composed and the pacing slow. This allows for some lovely, unhurried emotional beats, but it can also feel a bit stifling. There were times I would have liked less precision and more abandon. The technique mirrors Hye Won’s fierce control, but when the fissures open in her life I wish the show had cracked open more deliriously as well. The main couple and the music are amazing. Everything else feels well worth losing for their stolen moments of joy.
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What I love about the story itself though is the message it sends through it's morally broken heroine is that it is never too late. The focal point of the show is not the story, but the characters. Especially Oh Hye Won and Lee Sun Jae. The characters are soo real to me that I feel their pain and understand every decision they make. The acting is done so superbly that I believe they are in love when they play piano together. I can go on and on and on about how marvelous and unique and artistic this show is, and I do not want to forget to mention how the piano pieces highlighted in this show are so wonderfully showcased that people who are not fans of classical music will appreciate it. Watch it. WATCH IT. It is so much better than a lot of shows out there. Secret Love Affair is worth your time.
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The description might confuse you into thinking that this is a romance drama blend in with the adultery concept. Sadly, for me, this was not what i was expecting. This wasn't a romance drama, it wasn't even an adultery drama. On the contrary it was heavily based on the inner relationships between the hierarcy of a company. The drama centers on a woman, Hye Won, and her complicated life and personality. The drama's main concept is how the protagonist, being unhappy due to her life decisions without even her realising it, rises above it all with the help of a charming young piano student.
The drama talks about life decisions. I can link to a saying we have in my country that i can roughly translate as "If you don't look at where you want to go, you will go where you look". Which means that if you don't set your goals straight from the beginning, no matter what you real want you will end up with what you settle with.
The show was never about the romance it was about seeing her grow as a person to realise what she really wants out of her life. This is why i have mixed feelings about this. I expected something different but, while i am dissapointed, the drama presented something completely unique and even though it was troublesome to digest and understand, i'm happy i gave it a try.
The main reason people -me included- found this boring is because of the difficult, tedious conversations about job policies and schemes of the characters. We were dropped in the middle of a war zone from the first episode, we could barely understand anything and things didn't get any clearer as the drama proceeded. Tedious, boring, vague, incomprehensable dialogs that only increasingly confused me. But, that was the actual prettyness of the whole drama. The fact that it was complicated, with unrelatable characters that you can't help but hate and in the middle there is Hye Won, a strong yet vulnerable, troubled woman, who makes the wrong choices but around so many hateful characters she becames relateable instantly and sways you.
Apart from the company drama that takes the main lead here, music is the next most significant part of this drama. The music is overall exquisite. The romance itself is being expressed solely through music, and that is another reason most people -including me- found the romance unfulfilling. You'll probably need to have music knowledge to properly understand the emotional messages delivered through music or at least have a keen ear to appreciate them.
Honorable mention to the cinematography. I'm not a fan of cinematography but here it was truly marvelous. It was gritty, dark and elegant, and suited the overall feel of the drama completely.
The acting was overall top notch, no complains, but the performance that is memorable is Kim Hee Ae's. The whole drama is on her, it's hers. The other characters serve as fillers just to help her rise and grow. Kim Hee Ae's aura was great for this drama, elegant, graceful, aristocratic even without losing her confused, sensitive even defenceless, at parts, self. Yoo Ah In's performance was also great and their chemistry was strong, noone can deny that even with the 20 year difference. However his character felt again as a filler, and wasn't given the appropriate screen time to gain some kind of value on his own.
Overall, this was a difficult watch. I wouldn't rewatch this, but i can understand why some people would. It's a drama that is aimed at a special few and those few will love it. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone who doesn't like exclusively character driven shows, long conversations about company politics, schemes but not the juisy type, and slow plot pace.
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This review may contain spoilers
To sum up : "This drama is simply a work of art".Never thought I would ever give a perfect 10 to any kdrama, but to my utter delight, this one met my exacting standards. I almost didn’t watch this, because the synopsis was so unappealing. "Older married woman has affair with a kid young enough to be her son" … uhh..thanks, I'll pass … not interested in watching successful people who ought to be content with their lives creating artificial angst for themselves and the viewers. Just goes to show how wrong pre-conceived notions can be.
I was bored one day and since it was on Netflix, I just started watching it.
The first episode was a little random and almost lost me … but …just hang in there, because starting from the 2nd episode, the story just took off, and wow, what a ride it was from that point onwards! The acting, the music, the direction, the photography, the sets/lighting. ….every single scene seemed to be so lovingly put together and the result was a work of art.
The main female protagonist was NOT a korean version of Madame Bovary I thought she would be -- instead, here was one of the best female characters I've seen on screen, korean or otherwise. She was neither a "good woman" or a "bad woman" -- instead she was beautifully multi-layered with enough strengths and failings to fill a book. She was steely strong and scarily manipulative when it came to her business dealings, her face never betraying her inner emotions and remaining calm under intense pressure she faced every day. She was always a step ahead of the game and it amazed me how she openly played the "triple agent" in the nasty chaebol family she was working for (you have to watch it to understand the context). She was blatantly ambitious and didn’t hesitate to hurt people along the way if it meant getting ahead.
On the other hand, deep inside the "unspoilt" part of her, she loved the piano. And she loved it with passion. This is what brings the young self-taught genius pianist and her together in the first place. Their slowly growing love (slow on her end, but almost immediate on his) is so intense that it gave me goose bumps and butterflies several times. Their passion for each other is so uniquely and interestingly depicted that I have to bow down to the director and writer. It is not your typical "slow-mo dramatic kiss and hug" scene. Instead, we often see only the back of their heads when they are kissing. But the set-up, the background music, the slightest flicker on the actors' faces, their body movements are what builds up the crackling sexual tension.
SPOILER ahead******* : the pivotal scene when they first make love was so beautifully filmed it just took my breath way. Instead of showing us the details, the director has us listen to the lovers' voice over as they softly confide their fears to each other and comfort each other, while the camera pans over several innocuous inanimate objects in the shabby apartment, carefully avoiding any glimpse of the bed. The net effect : the most tuggingly-intimate love scene I've ever seen.
******SPOILER END
Both the actors have done a stellar job in portraying their characters with great nuance and complexity. And they fit together so well and naturally that the age difference just melts. Theirs is the best chemistry I've seen …period …they just burn the screen up together. I wonder how watching the actual filming on the set would have been. Their scenes together were so real and so palpable.
In the end, the "affair" actually takes a backseat . The story is really about her self-discovery and how she gets the courage to own up to her mistakes and start life all over again with a clean slate. I LOVED the ending -- it was perfect and I wouldnt have it any other way.
The actor who played the poor husband (who is not a very sympathetic character anyway) actually did rather a remarkable job in pulling it off. He was not so unsympathetic that you hate him. In fact, I felt a little sorry for him, not because his wife leaves him (they were never "together" emotionally to start with), but because he was really not capable in his career despite ambitions. He just ended playing puppet to his superiors but was always on the losing end. So he was just plain weak …. but the actor succeeded in not making him totally despicable.
Lastly, this drama would NOT have been the same without the astounding music. I would even go so far as to say that the music is truly the main character in the entire show. Thanks to this show, I was introduced to some amazing piano pieces that I have downloaded and listen to frequently.
This drama has truly spoilt me for all future kdramas, and I really hope and wish this team of director/writer would come together again and do another show.
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GOOD - (Acting) Alright, so this one is a given. Both actors are absolutely incredible. But I gotta say... Yoo Ah In... OMFG he is absolutely spectacular. He is so good, I was in awe. He keeps getting better and better, really. PS - He actually learned to play piano for the role and he looks and feels like a brilliant pianist.
GOOD - (Cinematography) Every minute is like a movie. Its shot like a movie. Its dark, and its beautiful. A feast for the eyes.
GOOD - (Eye Candy) LIPS. That is all. #yummy
GOOD - (Music) Its classical music. Piano. Beautiful concertos, beautiful pieces. If you don't like classical music, this is NOT the drama for you. Its packed with it.
EH? - (Music) Now here is the thing... there are FULL songs/ FULL works in there. And its not to "waste time" or anything... like they sit there and play a whole piece. And you watch their faces, and you kinda die a bit. But then again, thats just me. You may hate it.
EH? - (Pace) Its slow. I'm not gonna lie. But that doesn't mean there isn't anything happening. Its intense. But it is slow, as in -- there are a lot of "reflection shots" where the character sorta sits there thinking... you know.
CURVEBALL - (Makeup) Now forgive me for this, because once you notice this, you will never be able to unsee. Everyone's faces are SHINY. Not like "Omg Fairy you're just being picky" NO. Like they're a reflection in the lake shiny. They are sweaty shiny all the time. Good luck dealing with it. lol (You get used to it and stop noticing at one point)
OVERALL - Its an amazingly shot and acted drama. But its an adult one. And I don't mean you gotta be a certain age, you just gotta have a certain level of maturity. Having said that, there aren't a lot of physical moments... unfortunately. If you like classical music, or Yoo Ah In, this is the one for you. If you like spunky, fast paced, happy dramas, skip this one.
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Yoo Ah In plays Lee Sun Jae, a music prodigy that accidentally catches the attention of a professor at a prestigious music school, and is thrust into a world where his raw talent is in demand, although he comes from a very different world. Sun Jae's story is the only thing I cared about in this drama, and he comes across as so genuine, impulsive, and passionate, that it makes total sense that Kim Hee Ae as Oh Hye Won would fall for him. The problem is that their chemistry is what is supposed to carry this whole drama and it got old for me very quickly. Yoo Ah In is just an amazing actor, so he handles the range of emotions required for the role, even the most melodramatic moments, in a way that still felt real. I cannot say the same about Kim Hee Ae. At times I couldn't tell if I didn't like her performance, or how the character was written, but I think it's both. Oh Hye Won is meant to be cold and business-minded until she awakens her passion with Sun Jae. I think they did that well in the beginning but eventually, she just becomes so wish-washy and whiney and honestly hard to sympathize with. They also didn't seem to have much chemistry beyond physically and musically, which makes such a controversial relationship hard for me to root for. I got more surrogate mom vibes which got very Oedipusy and weird. Eventually, they relied too heavily on flashbacks too, so the romance in the drama felt stale.
As for the supporting cast, the performances were fine but the corrupt school storyline bored me completely. This takes up a lot of the drama, and I guess was meant to show off the strength of the female lead, but she was so overly melodramatic, and they were so stereotypical, that I zoned out during all of those scenes. Many of the corruption scenes felt repetitive anyway, full of frustrating character choices, so I probably could have skipped most of them and I wouldn't have missed much.
The only supporting character that I really liked a lot was Kyung Soo Jin as Park Da Mi. I loved her being the aggressive voice of reason, which is funny since she initially annoyed me. She was also one of the only characters that showed any growth.
Would I watch this again? Definitely not. The only reason I didn't drop it was because I wanted to see how things would turn out for Sun Jae. Even during the lead actress's big speech in the last episode I was ready to finally give up because I felt nothing. It was her moment and I cared more Ah In's reaction shots. His longing puppy eyes kept me watching, but they couldn't make up for scenes that dragged, musical interludes that felt way too long, and way too many flashbacks. To me, it felt like 4 episodes worth of story stretched out to be 16.
Overall I was ready to like this drama way more than I did. I know many people were more into the music and forbidden romance than I was, so I would say that if you aren't excited about this couple in the beginning, don't expect it to get any better. It wasn't even the extreme age difference that bothered me or their physical chemistry, but they seemed to focus more on mood than developing their relationship. They actually listened to a whole Billy Joel song which took up more time than any real character or story development. That's what this drama felt like to me... a mood that you have to be into more than a story with anything to offer beyond the synopsis. I think that maybe you have to be in a sip wine and listen to classical music mood to watch this drama and enjoy it, otherwise, there are better things to watch than this not even very secret love affair.
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I'm not a fan of affairs stories, but I AM a fan of freedom tales. The drama is not about Oh Hye Won cheating on her husband and giving up on everything for a young pianist. The drama is about her breaking away from all the restrictions, prejudices and stereotypes of society. If you read Kate Chopin's The Awakening you'd understand what I mean. Lee Soon Jae was only the trigger, the hope and the strength that helped her throw herself in the vast ocean so she can be reborn again. The drama is a brave attack on the world of the corrupted rich and how low they can stoop to protect what they believe is theirs. How such people can strangle others' dreams without feeling the slight regret.
Full of deep, mind blowing and heartbreaking music; the drama sneaked into every cell of my existence.
Kim Hee Ae was the perfect actress for the role and I can't imagine anybody else playing it. The pain her whole body portrays is nothing I've ever seen. That dignity she upholds and that charisma! She mesmerised me.
Now comes Lee Soon Jae. I don't know what the writer had in mind when she wrote the character of Lee Seon Jae but i'm sure Yoo Ah In surpassed anything the writer had in mind. For the first time in a really long time I cannot find words to describe a character. I cannot pinpoint the reason I find him irresistible and i'm sure Oh Hye Won didn't know either.. at a moment i'd be sure he had some psychological issue, in the next moment he's just an innocent , simple-minded and outright young man, then he's a crazy passionate man in love. He's never normal but i can't tell why he isn't.. This character acted by this actor is completely putting me in Oh Hye Won's shoes.. Her facial expressions as she watches him are not forced at all. I guess anybody would have felt that insane rush of emotions if they were with him...
Again; if ur not a non-conformist, don't start this.
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It starts off pretty good, but nothing special, and it keeps you guessing as to whats going to happen next, but then it takes a turn for the worst. I would have to say the best part of the entire show is the piano music, which was beautiful, and the romance was cute, but once again nothing special. The couple managed to make it not awkward despite the huge age difference between the two and that was a plus, but that would have to be the ONLY good things about this drama.
The biggest let down for me was the absolute horrendous plot. Even in the beginning they have you a bit confused as to what exactly is going on, and until the very end you still have absolutely no idea what the heck is going on. It was very poorly written and really does not seem to fit in well with the "Secret Love Affair" whatsoever. The story tends to drag in unnecessary places, making you wish they would just get on with it already, and in other places they rush the story so much that it leaves you confused as to what just happened, without any decent explanation whatsoever.
Overall I am very shocked at the amount of good reviews this was given, and I cannot say I would recommend that anyone wastes their time with this. The few spurts of romantic encounters in it was nice, but it just didn't make up for how poorly the plot was executed.
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