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Charming92

Greece

Charming92

Greece
Secret Love Affair korean drama review
Completed
Secret Love Affair
13 people found this review helpful
by Charming92
Aug 27, 2016
16 of 16 episodes seen
Completed 2
Overall 8.0
Story 8.0
Acting/Cast 9.0
Music 10.0
Rewatch Value 2.0
Two widely spread reactions about this drama. On the one hand, this is absolutely fabulous, unique and perfect in every way, masterpiece. On the other hand, this is boring, slow, draggy and has no purpose. I am proud to say, both are true. This drama is like those oscar movies that are apparently so perfect but when we watch them we end up asking ourserves 'why did i waste 2 hours of my life on that? What was so special about it anyway?'. This drama is like caviar. Elegant, and graceful. Have we all eaten caviar at least once? Yes. Do we like it? Some of us. If we were to choose between a burger and caviar, burger would be the first choice for most, right? This drama is like caviar, it demands a certain type of viewer, and i wasn't that type. 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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