K-Drama Mini Reviews: The Contemporary-Romance Skimmed Edition // Where I have no Idea If I should Recommend or Not!

Drama Name: My Secret Romance
Episodes: 13

Cha Jin-Wook (Sung Hoon) is a son of a wealthy family who doesn’t like having long-term relationships but when his one-night stand who he hasn’t been able to forget, aka Lee Yoo-Mi (Song Ji-Eun) who mysteriously disappeared the next morning joins his company, things start to change for the both of them.

Okay, soooo this drama is hella cliched and predictable. But if you’re in the mood for something sweet and not complex then this is definitely the show for you. Despite the predictability, this was a cute watch actually. I liked how Lee Yoo-Mi never gave up on herself despite failing in her job almost every time. And she was pretty awkward around Cha Jin-Wook a.k.a her boss which made the situations pretty funny sometimes. The chemistry between them is definitely the number one thing that made me finish this drama!

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Drama Name: The Heirs
Episodes: 20

My only reason to watch this ridiculous drama is because of Lee Min-Ho. Though I still had some expectations because of the cast. But this drama was kind of the father of melodrama. Anyhoooo, onto the review.

Cha Eun-Sang (Park Shin-Hye) belongs to a pretty poor family who goes to California to visit her sister but the visit turns out disastrous where a stranger aka Kim Tan (Lee Min-Ho) helps her in the end. She collides him with the 2nd time when she is admitted to the same school. This drama was the rags to riches kind of story which was extremely exaggerated. A love triangle was kinda forced, there were the cliched mean girl and the ultimate couple of the school. The plot was too predictable but I just wanted to finish this somehow. Like what even was the plot?

Both the main leads fall for each other but their status comes between them as Kim Tan’s father can’t see his son with a poor girl and blah blah. You get my point. They sacrifice, they give up a lot but finally end up together. The end.

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Drama name: Playful Kiss
Episodes: 16

I WAS PRETTY OUTRAGED WITH THIS DRAMA!!! I should have seriously dnf-ed this one because this deserves no love at all! Because of the goddamn egoistic male lead and the female lead with no self-respect.

Oh Ha-Ni (Jung So-Min) has had a crush on Baek Seung-Jo (Kim Hyun-Joong) forever but she gets rejected in front of the whole school. After an earthquake which destroys their house, they move to her father’s childhood friend’s house which is ultimately Seung-Jo’s father. (Like wow!)

I lost count of how many times Oh Ha-Ni got treated like a trash by Seung-Jo who is pretty much a douchebag but oh no! He likes her secretly!! What in the holy hell!! Are you goddamn serious!!! Why would you treat the person you like in the worst possible manner? And even after every single incident she still went around Seung-Jo wherever e went!! That girl seriously had no self-respect at all.

The only two characters I liked in this drama were Bong Joon-Gu (Lee Tae-Seong) and Seung-Jo’s mother. She was the biggest shipper of the couple but she definitely went overboard a few times. Bong Joon-Gu made his feelings about Oh Ha-Ni no secret and cherished her. He was always by her side. Yes, he was kind of funny and weird but he was 100 times better than the male lead. I was glad to see he got a happy ending in the end but he was the actual gem present right in front of Oh Ha-Ni’s eyes and she missed out on it.

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Drama Name: Reply 1997
Episodes: 16

I had a looooot of high hopes for this one because I have only heard great things about this drama. But I found it not quite as engaging as I thought it would be. (Maybe it’s because I watched many clips on YouTube before? I dunno.)

The plot revolved around a female high school student Shi-Won (Jung Eun-Ji). The story unfolds in two ways. One, we get to see the present, at their high school reunion dinner in 2012 and the other part of the story is told in flashback mode (from 1997) where their journeys from high school to college and ultimately how they became what they are now.

Despite the drama being a little boring, I still enjoyed the story and the narration style. In every episode one thing was left up to the imagination of the audience, that is who did Shi-Won ended up with since Yoon Yoon-Je (Seo In-Guk, I looooove him asdfgljkgf!! Okay!!) and his brother both liked her. In the reunion, we see all 3 of them and the answer unfolds in the last episode. I think I didn’t enjoy it more because I already knew who she would end up with. (My ship sailed thankfully!)

This drama definitely had its moments. It was realistically depicted and I loved the friendships between all the characters. Despite everything, it ended on a sweet note which left me satisfied.

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Drama Name: Innocent Man
Episodes: 20

Where the man is definitely, absolutely, 100% not innocent.

I still have no idea what and why I watched this drama. I am still in awe (I don’t know if it’s good or bad. It was that weird). This is makjang drama at its highest.

This drama was actually like the Hindi serials which go on an on or years without any solid plot where even the audience forgets why they started watching this in the first place. But as much as this drama was pointless, it was hella addictive as well. I couldn’t stop watching despite being frustrated!!

Basically, Kang Ma-Roo (Song Joong-Ki) kinda gets betrayed by the love of his life Jae-Hee (Park Si-Yeon) who is willing to go beyond anything to achieve her dreams of being rich. After a certain turn of circumstances when Ma-Roo sees Jae-Hee after a lot of years, married and living her dream, he decides to get revenge, using another woman, Eun-Gi (Moon Chae-Won) who is technically Jae-Hee’s stepdaughter. (Ho! hahahaha!)

Eun-Gi is a smart businesswoman, I don’t know why or how she fell for Ma-Roo, it was a bit insta-lovey. When she ultimately learns the truth, she loses her memory in an accident and the smart, amazing woman somehow becomes a blubbering mess and dependent where she again falls for him. Ma-Roo who first approached her with a different intention starts to develop feelings for her and when he is finally sure about his feelings, she gets her memories back!

Viola!

I hated Jae-Hee with all my heart. That woman was vile and only looked out for herself, though the ending tried to justify her actions but damn, how can a woman like that be forgiven? Ma-Roo was equally to be blamed, he actually brought all it on himself. The ending felt rushed too and basically, it came out of nowhere. I wanted to see the relationship between Ma-Roo and Eun-Gi develop slowly but instead, I got the melodrama with a plateful of petty revenge.

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Have you guys seen any of these K-Dramas? What did you think about it? Did you enjoy any of these?

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