My penitence or abstinence or sacrifice for the Lenten Season came very early this year… I decided to wait until the Holy Week to watch this particular drama even if I have all the episodes safely downloaded many many many weeks ago …haha… seriously, is there any other word to call it? imagine, I have denied myself the pleasure of seeing this highly successful drama starred by 2 Korean actors whose previous work I sooo admire. And as if to constantly tease and goad me into watching it are endless proof of the impact of this drama in the Korean entertainment industry itself. all these time I would see parodies left and right performed by big name celebs, several commercials based on the drama were released during and after it was aired AND, I would hear nothing but good feedbacks and how it did really well in the ratings game. Even Hyun Bin’s house in the drama is quite famous now… haah, that house and Oska’s house is ultra modern and structured yet the grounds/garden is wild and pretty random …that house screams Architectural Digest to me. AGAIN, I feel like im being possessed by the spirit of my father that im actually just a tinie winie bit short of fangirling over a house for chrissakes! and that whole area where that house is located is a dreeeam. what an eye candy for a drama location… In them I saw some of the most picturesque shots in this drama, kudos to whomsoever is the cinematographer/cameraman. Great shot of that area around Joo Won’s estate in spring and winter… picture perfect! fierce!
It looks like, this is going to be a long review. Tell you honestly, lately, im trying my best to write brief reviews but sometimes I have so many things to say about a particular drama and when that happens, you will be gratified to know that it means only one of 2 things, that the said drama is either very good or it is very very good(yikes! i think im infected by the "korean english syndrome", im subconsciously copying their penchant for repeating words to stress a point ;p… very very very very ^^). First off, I wasn’t too crazy on the publicized plot. A romantic-comedy-fantasy about body swapping didn’t sound like a good enough material for this 2 celebrated actors. Im not as well versed in the goings-on of the people behind-the-scenes of any drama so I have no idea what the “attraction” of our superstar leads to this particular production given its somewhat unimpressive plot. Judging from episode 1, It seems to me that the director, scriptwriter and the rest of the production are no lightweight in the industry. from the result of the pilot episode, I can only assume that the “attraction” must be the quality of the production people involved. Their work here is anything but the usual rom-com, there is a semblance of uniqueness that I completely approve of. The general texture, design, style and approach of this drama is modern, cool and casual …nothing heavy in most parts. The general direction of the storytelling was clear, intelligent and exciting, the script/dialogues are witty and was effectively articulated, the pacing is just right, the acting of the cast is …wait, I think its more like, im totally loving the characters here and how the actors portrayed them, and I mean all of them! just to prove my point, I was totally convinced as to the how or why our egocentric, arrogant, narcissistic rich male lead was absolutely smitten by our tough and cool leading lady on the strength of the frst episode alone. From previous experience, as far as I AM concerned, the whole process of being attracted first, then eventually falling in love, is one of the hardest transition to interpret onscreen and be believable at that(from my previous reviews, you know that im preeetty hard to convince about these things). it usually takes time and excellent acting to explain how a burgeoning love can happen AND chemistry between the leads is a must, to be credible in my eye. So, it is a small miracle that with the limited scenes of episode 1, I was already sold to the idea that, h*ll yeah, it is possible for our male lead to fall for our female lead. I fell for it, hook, line and sinker :)
Yoon Sang Hyun as Choi Woo Young / Oska (Joo Won's cousin). I dunno about you but to me the funniest character is Oska(what’s up with the missing “R”?). he only has to be onscreen and I couldn’t help but smile or laugh at his “ celebrity look” and persona. He doesn’t even need to open his mouth to say anything, just to see him in his uber trendy clothes and hairstyle at his age, is enough to elicit a laugh from me. I was laughing sooo d*mn hard each time he appears doing his song and dance a la “idol” group style …haaaaaaaaaaa, sooo absurd and ridiculous and preposterous and hilarious that im surprised at myself for not being annoyed at the whole act!
Our leading man, Hyun Bin as Kim Joo Won and his famous, or is it, infamous yet definitely ridiculous and flambouyant sequined dark blue tracksuit is… im at a loss for words. Actually, when he wore the animal print and the black lace variation of that famous “tracksuit”, I almost fell off my chair, the shock of seeing someone that is suppose to be rich and classy and fashionably chic dressed in that tacky and loud get up is just way too funny for me. ***no worries Hyun Bin oppa, I still respect you after the things that you did in this drama*** With the same preposterous’ness, the same absurd’ness, the same bizarre’ness, the same ludicrous’ness, outrageous’ness and whatever’ness, Joo Won and Oska are indeed blood related no doubt about it, no question about it, they share the same DNA! I have this feeling that Hyun Bin purposely lost weight for this role. He was not this slim in his last drama BUT whether he did or not, what matters is that he rocked the screen in his dark tailored suits. ***wooot***
Our leading lady, Ha Ji Won as Gil Ra Im is the tough stuntwoman looks like a casting coup to me BUT, her fangirling on an outrageous aging popstar is something that to this day, im not too sure how I would take.
SHE was confused and quite at a loss by HIS strange behaviour towards her. HE is also confused by the intensity of HIS attraction to HER. HE was bewitched! HIS endless daydreaming of HER presence in HIS immediate vicinity, keeping HIM company in his reverie, most notably in the early episodes, is sweet, original, and highly amusing, specially the parts when HE couldn’t believe that HE was falling for a poor and ordinary girl. What’s funny is, the more SHE pushes HIM away, the greater HIS affection becomes. HE totally doesn’t get HER simply because HE never had any experience with HER kind of a girl before. Dear lord, as if I don’t already like Hyun Bin enough, when he started to verbalize his feelings to the girl he likes, how he felt sad and distraught because of her destitute and impoverished state, boy oh boy, somehow, he is starting to feel and sound “ a little bit” like “Mr. Darcy” to me, minus his silly humor of course. FYI, “Mr. Darcy” just happens to be my all-time favorite male character in any love story novel/English literature. He is the main male character from Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” written in 1796-97, published in 1813. His somewhat accusing lines to Gil Ra Im on that Action(stunt) School rooftop in episode 3 is like the modern day version of Mr. Darcy’s famous lines to Lizzie(Miss Elizabeth Bennet, the heroine) in the book after her rejection of his love …”you expect me to rejoice in the inferiority of your connections… whose condition in life is so decidedly beneath my own?” and Lizzie’s equally memorable rebuke …”it spared me the concern which I might have felt in refusing you, had you behaved in a more gentleman-like manner”. I wouldn’t be surprised if the writer of this drama is a fan too… Haay, it may be time to revisit my Pride and Prejudice dvd, I think I miss it. Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy …simply the best!
What I saw from episode 1-12 is mostly comedy and fantasy coupled with strong attraction and flirtation. I didn’t feel the "real" love story part of Secret Garden until I saw episode 13. expect the unexpected in the next episodes after that. BUT ohhh boyyy I just need to mention this, that whole Ra Im transformation in ep14 with a little help from her fairy godmother Oska was ooohlala… she and Joo Won were uber sweet that night, ants were crawling all over that V VIP party venue :) I have a question though ‘coz I swear its one of those things about Korea that’s driving me nuts… am I just dumb or what, but, is the use of the acronym VVIP common outside of Korea? What’s sooo special about these group of people that one single “V” wont do??? Another question, if there is a VVIP, could there be a VVVIP? Or VVVVIP? Or a VVVVV …never mind… it’s a joke ..haha, along with their use of words like, “fighting” as an encouragement or cheer like “you can do it” or “goodluck”, and “debut” is when an artist is being introduced/launched in his/her first major project, and “CF” for an endorsement or TV commercial, and “selca” when somebody takes a picture of themselves, "idol groups" are "boybands or girl groups" and something that sounds like “umaigad” is “oh my god” :):):) ok, that’s your korean english tutorial for today… :p
Even if it is basically one of the backbone of this drama, and even if it was the source of some loud laughter from me, I never liked the body swap plot to begin with specially when it dragged on for I think 5 episodes initially and then came back again in later episodes. It came to a point where they seem to get out of each other’s body at the drop of a hat… ooops, more like “each time the rain drops”. At first I thought, I do understand the analogy and logic of it all, its like putting yourself in somebody else’s shoes to better understand their plight. But later on, when it seems like the reason for the body swap has something to do with a promise made to a dying man, all the logic and reasoning that I have concocted in my brain quickly evaporated. And with that final scene on the final episode, I was scratching my head asking, “what was that scene for?” aside from letting us know Joo Won visited and saw Ra Im when her father died, is there a special significance in that scene that it deserves the distinction being "The Final" scene? Will somebody please enlighten me… I may have lost a lot of my brain cells due to the confusion brought about by the frequency of the body swapping :)
I think what made this drama a big success in korea and what separates this from the usual Korean drama is the script. it was in-your-face and straight to the point. just the way i like it. The way they addressed the rich man-poor girl relationship is anything but typical kdrama. Joo Woon in an attempt to rationalize his overwhelming attraction to Ra Im, inspite his eccentricities and oddities, is level-headed enough to figure out and tried to convince himself that it is possible that whatever attraction he may feel for this poor girl may be temporary and he may get tired of her and if he acts weird and seriously fall for her, he begged his mother to do everything and anything to stop him from his madness. For Joo Woon to tell THAT to his mother, in front of Ra Im is a scene that is unheard of as far as I am concerned in “kdramadom”… Ooops... Wait a minute, have I spoken too soon? I think I did. For some reason, the director and scriptwriter it seems and in all probability lost steam, and fell in the same trap this kind of story usually does before it folds. In the rich boy-poor girl plot scenario, the creators of this production eventually ended up choosing a twist from one of the multiple choices, AGAIN! WHY for crying out loud??? And they were doing so well at doing unconventional things in this drama too… haay, is there really no other way than going the same way that all the others went to??? Haaa, thank you lord, at least, im just relieved that the “choice” did not drag long enough for me to get really pissed and it was able to recover really nicely, quite beautifully actually, in the last 2 ½ episodes ***hurray*** In case youre confused and do not understand what I meant by “multiple choices”, I wrote about them in a previous review, you can read it in the review of the drama entitled “ Frog Prince”.
Im afraid in this drama, Ha Ji Won as Ra Im was not given enough scenes to shine… she was overshadowed by the presence of the 2 leading men who are quite impressive in their portrayal of their roles. The boys were given the best lines, the funniest scenes and they delivered some decent acting on their drama scenes. SO, without a doubt, the acting honors for Secret Garden goes to Hyun Bin as Joo Woon. Now I absolutely understand why the whole of Korea was going gaga over this man after the conclusion of this drama. There are a lot of things in his character that doesn’t leave much to be desired in the the early episodes BUT he’s injected tons of simple mindedness and silliness and cuteness in that character that he perfectly portrayed and maximized it to the hilt! The guy owns this drama totally and completely. He uttered and brilliantly delivered the most beautifully written lines in this cutting edge drama. He was seriously funny without much effort in his “body swap” scenes and his unforgettable tongue-in-cheek portrayal of a man who thinks he is wholeheartedly bewitched with the most unsuitable girl for him. He is a man desperately trying to cope in a situation where he found himself in love with the wrong chick! I just love, love, love how he would often over analyze his feelings for Ra Im. He would examine every option open to them and would study what would be the ramifications for choosing each option with his outmost, or should I say in-your-face honesty and/or tactlessness that is sooo funny and amusing and yet, it totally makes sense! Just one tiny critique though, that scene when he read whatever it is that Ra Im wrote in that note she left inside the Alice in Wonderland, or is it Wizard of Oz book, well whatev, when he cried …is it just me or was that cry that he did, lacking in some way? I cant put my finger on exactly what it is that was lacking in almost all of his “crying” scenes, could it be his body language? His facial expression? Perhaps his eyes did not convey to me the deep hurt and longingness he was suppose to feel under the circumstances they were in. bottomline is, whatever those feelings are, it failed to reach me in its entirety. I received some, but not all of that emotion he was trying to transmit. I could visually see that he was hurting and maybe even felt it to a large extent BUT, I was not THAT affected by it …im sorry but it failed to touch a raw nerve in my heart. ***there ive said it*** Even at the risk of annoying and raising the ire of his fangirls which includes my one and only sister, mianhae unnie. To all the unnis out there, lemme just stress that aside from the “crying” scenes, everything else that he did here was just perfect… waaahaha ***this is my sorry attempt to lessen the blow :p*** So spare my life and don’t scalp me alive ..haha… When you think about it, WHO AM I to criticize the acting of our beloved Hyun Bin anyway, so, don’t mind me and my opinionated opinions!
WOW!!! That’s all I can say about the last episode. I honestly thought no Korean drama will give me the kind of ending that I want, EVER, specially in a trendy drama like Secret Garden BUT lo and behold, believe it or not, the ending was a classic “AND THEY LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER”… without giving out spoilers to those who have not seen it yet, you all know how I feel about wanting to see what happened to the leads in the future, wellllll… here, its 5yrs into the future. what can i do, im concerned about our leads, I need to make sure that they are still happy together years after… those 3 b*bies are sooo adorable, waaaaa!/%#*! How can I explain my delusional tendencies to a normal person… im sorry but I cant explain it, I have no sorry excuse to justify my being mental ^.^ its just that in my world, i check the ending first before even starting on a drama. if one of the leads die, i at least want to prepare myself for the disappointment. no bad surprises please, otherwise, i will be depressed for a few days. Silly me is sooo affected by a mere drama production… haha.
YES peeps, I never thought I would live to see the day when I would say this of a korean drama but... “I love that ending”.
