Angsty Revenge Melodrama Returns with the Premiere of Secret with Ji Sung and Hwang Jung Eum

I just know I’m probably going to loathe all the main characters in the upcoming KBS melodrama Secret (English title Secret Love) starring Ji Sung as an emotionally dysfunctional second generation chaebol, Hwang Jung Eum as the girl who he thinks killed his girlfriend, Bae Soo Bin as a prosecutor and douchebag boyfriend to Hwang Jung Eum, and Lee Da Hee as a rich girl who likes Ji Sung. I’m simplifying but you get the picture. From all the stills I’ve seen, Ji Sung’s character seems to be a very physically aggressive ass and I really hate that type. Similarly the billion and one stills of Hwang Jung Eum working various part time jobs with a very earnest and optimistic expression makes me want to slap her (wake up, this ain’t no manga!) and see if she actually has a personality and backbone unrelated to bending over backwards to put her boyfriend Bae Soon Bin through law school and exams. Her sacrifice and dating him for the past 7 years comes to a screeching halt when they get into a rainy day car accident right after he proposes to her. See, all the Candy heroines always have the worst luck in life. Since Bae Soo Bin’s character just passed the prosecutor’s exam, he convinces Hwang Jung Eum to take the fall otherwise he’ll get his licensed stripped. She agrees and even endures a trial where HE’S the very prosecutor arguing to put her in jail for the accident, which took the life of Ji Sung’s character’s girlfriend.

Hwang Jung Eum ends up in jail for 5 years and comes out to find that everything has changed and her sacrifice only means she’s a moron for believing in Bae Soo Bin’s empty promises. Ji Sung has been nursing a grudge against Hwang Jung Eum even after she’s served her time and plots to get even more personal vengeance against her. Lee Da Hee fits into this story somehow, probably because she likes Ji Sung but Bae Soon Bin might be plotting to marry her rich skinny self to social climb even more. Who knows. The PD behind the camera directed School 2013 and both Dream High, while the screenwriter is a newbie that apparently won a script competition with this story. I actually think nothing about Secret looks bad, the stills are fine and the cast can all act. My biggest hurdle is actually the two leading ladies – I don’t have a problem with their acting, but Hwang Jung Eum seems to have finally gone overboard with her facial changes because she looks positively freakish in this drama with her face pulled so tight over all sorts of modified features. She was adorable in Giant but has since then totally gone the way of Seo Woo if you ask me. Lee Da Hee seems to be following the same trajectory, so seeing them is both distressing and distracting. Sigh, I’ll know tomorrow if it’ll be worth the eye pain to watch this drama which is billing itself as the next Nice Guy.

Secret teaser (KBS World English subbed):


Comments

Angsty Revenge Melodrama Returns with the Premiere of Secret with Ji Sung and Hwang Jung Eum — 10 Comments

    • Oh I so agree with you. I find it really distracting to see those Korean actresses with supposedly pouting lips but in truth looks like they have been stung by a bee or an ant, LOL. They look like dead people in ghost stories but with colorful makeup to make them look alive. I simply can’t understand why they do that to their faces when it is not nice to look at. It is like looking at a mask, those masks used in stage plays. And it is more obvious when they are paired with a main lead or second lead who has not gone under the knife. Can’t they be contented with minor changes only? I heard too that plastic surgery is addictive. Just like the physical characteristics common in certain in genetic disorders such as dwarfism and mongolism (mental retardation. Those who undergo plastic surgery also manifests common physical characteristics. They almost look alike or they look like clones of each other (as one other person mentioned in another blog)

  1. On the one hand this drama looks promising… on the other hand I am sick and tired of all the Candy heroines.

    Then I remember Hee Jin from “Queen In Hyun’s Man” flipping off her douchebag Ex and all the Kdrama heroines pale in comparison to her awesomeness.

  2. Oh wow, I’m genuinely concerned about how skinny LDH is looking in these pics 🙁 I don’t remember her looking this thin in I Hear Your Voice.

    I don’t think I’ll watch this. The plot is off-putting to be honest – after all, shouldn’t HJE’s character also be the one going on a revenge mission against her worm of an ex-boyfriend? Or is she Candy all the way?

    • Are you kidding? She was just as thin in IHYV, I paused the screen everytime the camera caught her at an angle where I can see her skinny body just to stare at how skinny she is.

    • I WATCHED THIS WHOLE DRAMA IT WAS WORTH IT HJE’S CHARACTER IS NOT CANDY ALL THE WAY. WHEN YOU HAVE A FIRST LOVE YOU CAN AND PROBABLY WILL DO EVERYTHING FOR THAT LOVE BUT IF THAT LOVE PROVES FALSE Weeellll… Try watching this drama it was good.

  3. The moment a drama says that its the “next [insert drama here]” it has already lost major points with me. Dramas shouldn’t be aspiring to be other dramas. I mean, what’s the point of watching then? There is only a rare crop of dramas that can live up to name dropping…and I can’t even think of any that fit the bill off the top of my head.

  4. I like HJE but her face did look strange in FHT2. She’s never had a good hair day in any of her dramas except G. It looks like she’s gone back to that hairstyle. I think she looks good here. I love how tiny and pixish she is …reminds me of Ivy Chen. She should lay off plastic surgery because it freezes up her naturally exuberent expressive face.
    I don’t need I will ever get used to the physically aggrresive macho Kdrama male characters. When I first started watching Kdramas I was shocked at the pushing, shoving and yanking.. how normal it was for a chractor to raise his hands threateninly even if he didn’t hit anyone. I just decided it was a cultural thing and Koreans must be just more physically expressive . But it bothers me when young girls start thinking being yanked around is romantic.

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