Skip to main content

Review-Secret Garden

Rich man and poor woman is one of the most sought after themes in Asian dramas. Secret Garden is 2010's Korean drama which blends this theme with hint of fantasy element. 


Let me make a small checklist

Rich Chaelbol....................✅
Poor female lead...............✅
Past trauma......................✅
Fantasy element................✅
Throwing water on face..........✅

Okay you now got the drift.

So these are almost all the founding pillars of typical Kdrama.

After watching 'Crash landing on you'  made me think of hit 2010 drama also starring Hyun Bin.The name secret garden is quite misleading and does not really give any hint of what is there for store. I agree that there might be some secret but where is the garden? I was damn confused at that time.

Kim Joo won (Hyun Bin) is CEO of departmental store. He is definition of how lazy, chauvinist a person can be!   KJW comes to work only once in a week and rest of the time he spends in really beautiful house. He has cousin brother named Oska-a hallyu star with declining popularity who has been involved in lots of scandals. One day Oska asks KJW for help where he bumps into Gil Ra im (Ha Ji won) who is working as stunt double. KJW mistakenly assumes GRI as main actress and things get pretty interesting further. At first she doesn't know that he is rich chaelbol and assumes he is country bumpkin because of his tacky suit. His suit is running gag in entire drama.



First few episodes focus on how there is huge social and economical difference in their classes. You will start to wonder where is this going and BAM! There is some freak accident and KJW and GRI swap their bodies. There are hilarious encounters they had to face. As they swap bodies they come to know the hardships and class differences more vividly. Eventually they fall for each other and try to overcome all the obstacles that also includes accident in past that connects them.



KJW is like a curious kid. He tries to understand why he is attracted to the poor stunt woman. On the other hand Gil Ra im is more practical and does not respond to his approaches positively. But finally she understands what her heart wants.


It is quite slow drama to be honest. They have their own sweet time to move the story line further. Some scenes are very funny. I like the one where KJW is imprisoned and the other person is also wearing same suit as his! After watching this drama only I came to know 'That man' OST was sung by Hyun Bin himself. After these many years also I can recall few lines from that.He really looks so good in this one. Ha Ji won as stunt woman is different than typical Kdrama girl. She is tough. But she has soft side which no one really notices.

Watch it for some comedy, handsome HB, nice OSTs.

Country: South Korea
Cast: Hyun Bin, Ha Ji won, Yoon Sang hyun, Kim sa rang
Year: 2010
Genre: Romance, fantasy


(all images from Google)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Anime Review- Erased

Erased/ Boku Dare Ga Inai Machi Meaning- The town without me Country: Japan Genre: Shounen/Seinen There are certain events in our lives which have impacted everything afterwards. Some are good some might be bad ones. What if we are given a chance to go back to the past and try to correct that event to our favor? Sounds exciting as well as frightening! Same chances are given to Satoru Fujinuma.  He is 29 years old struggling manga artist who also works as pizza delivery man. He has special ability termed as 'revival' which sends him back in time just few moments before the a tragedy. He does not have any control over this ability. Usually he will be sent back in time just for one to five minutes before incident takes place. On one day, his mother is murdered and 'revival' kicks in. But he is sent back in time by 18 years! Back in those days, he is just a school going kid living with his single mother. He wonders what he has to co...

Review-Reply 1988

There are 3 dramas in 'Reply' series. I have watched only 1988 version, TWICE. Let me tell you, every episode is almost 1.5 hours yet I have no regrets. As the name suggests this series takes place in the year 1988. It is story of five childhood friends and their families living in Ssangmun-dong neighborhood of Seoul. Duk seon is the only girl in the group of five. Sun Woo is student council president. Jung-Hwan is from rich family. Choi Taek is brilliant Baduk player who has left school to focus on his game. Dong Ryong is mischievous and has no interest in studies. These friends often hang out in Taek's room, dancing, arguing, eating pizza and ramen, watching video tapes. The drama shows daily life and struggles of everyone and how their friendship changes subtly over the course of time. It also has second set of characters-the parents and the siblings. They are also equal part of the drama. The cinematography is really good. If you are 90's kid then you ...

Dramas from Taiwan!

.... The first thought that comes to our mind about Taiwan is of course bubble tea! Second one might be electronics goods and the mighty Taipei tower. We all know that Korean dramas dominate the world of Asian Dramas. They have evolved so much in past few years handling different genres. But there is lot more to explore if you look around. If you have been following Asian dramas for a while you must have encountered few dramas from Taiwan. There are quite good numbers of T-dramas to watch once you are past language barrier and difficulty in remembering names. Here is the list of few I have come across so far. 1. Meteor Garden This is based on classic  Hana Yori Dango /Boys Over Flower . There is a group of four boys from rich families who consider bullying other schoolmates for entertainment. In that school arrives female protagonist from humble background who gets into the trouble with them. You might have already watched Korean remake of the same.   Positives: The story...