Tag Archive | Park Min Young

Love in Contract: Writing Fail – DNF

Nov2

Park Min Young has turned out to be a great actress. Her character in City Hunter largely irritated me, but since then she has become an it girl for romantic comedies such as What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim, Her Private Life, my fave, When the Weather is Fine, and lately, Love in Contract in which she plays a thirty-something who has made marrying and divorcing men into a job. Starring alongside her are Ko Kyoung Po (Chicago Typewriter) and Kim Jae Young (Beautiful Love, Wonderful Life).

Mostly, I attempted watching this show for PMY, and Ko Kyoung Po is easy on the eyes. Wasn’t sure about the second lead as I hadn’t seen him in anything before. All around, the acting is pretty good, but they all really suffer through the writing, because it’s terrible! It’s as if the writers have no clue what either romance or comedy is. Ko valiantly carries the weight of the story as his character is the most intriguing and the least cliche. His awkward, introverted judge is supper appealing and it was clear early on that he was the one PMY’s character would fall for. Aside from their romance–and there wasn’t enough of it–the rest of the story is pretty useless. The main character’s roomie is funny and nice, but if he was easily forgotten, as was the second lead, as were most of the other characters. PMY herself also looked thin and tired, which is perhaps how her character was supposed to look, but it was distracting.

Made it to episode eleven and gave up. I just wasn’t interested anymore and it was clear the plot was just meandering along with no focus. Many of the choices the characters made were just dumb and not believable. When all you’ve got is either characters lying or withholding the truth as a way of creating drama, you don’t have much. Daytime soaps have better drama. How interesting it could have been to follow the main character as she navigates multiple marriages, and fake marriages at that. Instead the focus was on her strange past, that is sad, but not altogether interesting, and the life of the second lead, also uninteresting.

Altogether, Love in Contract will just be one of the many forgotten shows. There’s no there there to make it memorable.

What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim?: Kdrama review

Dec19

This show was a second watch for me, and I was surprised to see I hadn’t actually written a review on it. Well, that’s getting remedied now.

Let me tell you about the life of a secretary: Often it is a very demanding, very thankless job in which one is given more and more tasks to be done often without additional pay and certainly no additional time in which to do them. It is also extremely rewarding to be that cog in the wheel that makes everything work. Secretaries are vital to most organizations, but it’s like one’s vital organs, they just work, one doesn’t think about them unless something is wrong.

What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim? is a Kdrama romantic comedy starring Park Seo Joon (She Was Pretty) as company VP Lee Young Joon and Park Min Young (City Hunter) as his long-suffering secretary, Kim Mi So. After working together day in and day out for nine years, Young Joon is shocked to find that Mi So wants to resign and leave him. And of course, he doesn’t want her to leave. The drama is based on the book of the same title by Jung Kyung Yoon. It’s kind of the plot of Two Weeks’ Notice starring Hugh Grant and Sandra Bullock, and a little bit of The Devil Wears Prada.

This show is a wonderful blend of romance and comedy, and although I thought the ending episodes dragged a bit, I think I enjoyed it more the second time. All of the little details and jokes really shined. Park Seo Joon is hilarious in his role as a narcissistic, demanding boss who is actually a big softy. The character’s vanity is largely for show, as she finds he actually cares about those he loves to an almost dangerous degree. Park Min Young matches Seo Joon scene for scene, giving us plenty of comedic reactions of her own and somehow makes Mi So’s passive aggressiveness lovable.

What really me got hooked watching again, though, was the back story of a traumatic past for both of the characters and also the glimpses into their years of working together. We get to see Mi So actually shouting– shouting–at her ridiculously demanding boss. And with good reason, as he is way too demanding. However, as we later learn, Mi So is also very under qualified for this position. But we then get to see her come back the next day and strive to meet his expectations. Time and time again we get to see her do this, letting Young Joon shape her into what his perfect secretary needs to be. I can tell you this is part of being a secretary. You’re given impossible tasks that you just can’t do, you complain, and then you come back striving to meet every single one. Sometimes high expectations really aren’t a bad thing, and this drama showcases that. Also, although Young Joon is vain, he’s not incorrect to be so to some degree: He’s handsome, wealthy, smart, keeps his company a success, and does have some right to be demanding. And because Mi So has grown to match him, she has every right to be demanding of him as well.

As for the romance, it’s pretty typical and classical and would almost be boring except there’s just so few of these kinds of stories around anymore, even in Kdramas. Mi So isn’t off on a feminist jaunt of some kind, she realizing she’s missing what most women want: a husband and family. When Young Joon finds this out, he comes to the logical conclusion that he should be said husband. This all happens because Mi So is finally calling in her card–Young Joon needs her, and for more than just being a secretary. It’s not just recognition of her work she is looking for, but for Young Joon to acknowledge her as a woman who has her own needs. Like in Two Weeks’ Notice, both have really been in love with each other for nine years, they just didn’t really know it. Can and does that happen in real life? Maybe, maybe not, but either way it makes for a good romcom material. I think woman as secretaries are a great thing for that position so clearly highlights how women are built to be helpmeets for men, which is far more than just a helper. In this story, the two are equals, though maybe they didn’t start out that way at first. It’s evident by the end that should Young Joon be out of commission for awhile that Mi So would be able to run the company in his stead. Classic romance is the best romance, hands down, and empowering to both sexes.

In the show there are also some background romances, carried off hilariously by comedic actors Kang Ki Young (I Am Not a Robot) and Hwang Bo Ra (Love Rain). Kang plays Young Joon’s second in command who has his own awesomely inept secretary and is a master at sarcastic comments. Hwang’s character is part of the secretary office team and is funny as a women with zero tact and an inflated ego who falls for a puppy dog hero chauffeur. There’s also a sweet romance with secretary Mi So’s replacement and a workaholic, which really highlights that some people reject others not because they do not like them, but simply because they are not ready for romance. A good romance has a lot to do with timing, probably more than we acknowledge. For women in childbearing years, they don’t want to waste time. For men not in a position to provide all that they want for a family, they want to wait until they are in that position. Neither side is wrong, but they do clash on occasion.

What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim? By the end of the show, nothing. Everything has been resolved with wedding bells just like it was supposed to be. They are a team in work and in life, and are considerate and caring of each other, just like couples who love each other should be. More of this stuff, please. At the end of the day, it’s good, it’s wholesome.

Her Private Life: Kdrama review

Jun9

I thoroughly enjoyed Her Private Life starring Park Min Young (City Hunter, What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim) and Kim Jae Wook (Coffee Prince). Park is currently my favorite drama actress. She has grown on me since City Hunter and has become very good at her craft. As for Kim, I’d only seen him play minor characters before now, but he did well as a leading man, and is a natural at it.

Her Private Life romantic comedy is possibly the stuff of nightmares for boyfriends and husbands around the globe. The romantic relationship in it is perfect–perhaps too perfect. Who could meet such standards of understanding and willingness to work together? This show is one of example of why some men run from the romanic comedy genre, but really, it’s just as unrealistic for women. Fortunately, most women know this is fantasy and that most men may not be so understanding if your side hobby is fangirling after other men. Yes, that is the main character’s “private life.” She is a crazy fan for the lead singer of a band called White Ocean. Fortunately for her, her love to be ends up thinking it’s a bit cute.

Although I like the feel goods in the series, it doesn’t focus on the fan stuff all that much. It could have been an opportunity to really show, well, how crazy fans get, and how obsessed. It touches on that, but quickly moves on to more comfortable territory of family drama and a first love back story for the leads. If I could read Korean, it would be fun to see how the novel goes, if it follows the same plot or sticks with the fangirling.

My favorite parts in the series were where Kim’s character, gallery director Ryan Gold, infiltrates Miss Sung Deok Mi’s website and message boards, picturing him entering in disguise through a metal detector to an inner sanctum of women sitting at tables and talking as if they were in a coffee shop. It was a fun visual and I was hoping they would do a lot more with it.

My second favorite part was the ending. Everyone ends up happy and fulfilled, even the people who didn’t get to be with the person they wanted. It’s fantasy, but we need that once in a while to keep that bird of hope perched in our souls. I am definitely looking forward to more from the two leads. They have great chemistry and hopefully will work together again.