My Secret Romance (2017)

Perfect fluffy romance piece

I was ready to dislike this drama, but find myself absolutely enchanted by it. I realize this isn't a serious piece nor is it the most stellar acting from the cast, but I think they all work well together to create an enjoyable drama that I personally have watched over and over again.

The chemistry between the leads makes it easy to watch their every interaction and I'm a sucker for any drama where the male is a bit of an arrogant ass who is overcome by his feelings for the female lead. I realize the FL in this is naive beyond belief, but somehow this never in any way minimizes my viewing pleasure.

This seriously is my go-to drama for anytime I'm overwhelmed by some of the more probing and "deeper" dramas. I feel so grateful to have discovered it.

I know I've read many reviews here and on YouTube pleading that this pairing be given another opportunity to act together. I'm not sure how likely this is after so many years have passed, but I know I'd love to see another romance between them.

Leggi di Più

I'm going to give this show a 10 on my review just because I can ;-)

For me, this show is a solid 8.5 stars.
I loved it back when I watched it and enjoyed a rewatch even afterwards a few months back.
HOWEVER, I'm going to give this show a 10 on my review just because I can and because I don't think the show deserves the hate & low rating it's getting. Makes me think there is a "reason" people are trashing and they're only saying the show sucks to justify whatever their agenda is. I (of course) could be reading too much into it as well. Either way... this show is good enough not to be dog-piled on.
Enjoy a light, not-to-serious romcom now and then with~
A sexy, rich ML?
A fun, interesting FL?
Fabulous side characters & gorgeous/fun 2nd ML?
Slightly complicated family dynamics?
Decent chemistry between leads? + hot kisses/scenes?
LOL worthy moments littered throughout the show?
Something to watch while you turn off your brain from over thinking and over analyzing and to just ENJOY A FREAKING FEEL-GOOD SHOW FOR ONCE???
This is the show for you. :)

Leggi di Più

Tenía potencial, pero... meh

La historia comienza cuando el mujeriego heredero de una importante empresa y una chica joven y soltera tienen una aventura de una noche... Lo que pasa es que ella desaparece al día siguiente, cosa que a él le molesta mucho.
Tres años después, vuelven a encontrarse, ya que la prota comienza a trabajar en la empresa de él (que ahora es un adicto al trabajo y dejó las fiestas).

¿Alguien dijo "el dorama más cliché de los últimos años? Porque es literalmente eso. Desde el empresario rico y la empleada de clase media/baja, hasta las escenas y los recursos utilizados... Todo ya se vio mil veces en otras series.
Ojo, no es que sea malísima, pero tampoco destaca. Es una más del montón, y dentro de las "comedias románticas" hay opciones mucho mejores. Sugiero guardar esta para cuando ya no sepan qué ver, o para cuando quieran ver algo rápido a lo que no haya que prestarle mucha atención (son solo 14 capítulos y duran menos de una hora c/u).

Al principio me sorprendió para bien, ya que me impresionó que mostraran una "aventura de una noche" de forma tan explícita, pero la verdad es que después ni ese tema me terminó de gustar cómo lo llevaron.

Sobre el desarrollo no hay mucho que decir, es más o menos lo que se imaginan: El protagonista abusando de su poder como empleador para estar siempre cerca de ella (y molestarla en el proceso) y la protagonista siendo una boluda la mayor parte del tiempo. O sea, mucho tira y afloja entre los personajes principales.
Igual, curiosamente, el prota masculino no me terminó de desagradar por completo, era más meh que otra cosa... Eso sí, avanzaba un paso y retrocedía tres.

Sobre los personajes secundarios solo voy a decir tres cosas: El mejor amigo de ella era el único coherente, la chica enamorada del prota está loca y los demás podían ser reemplazados por plantas (aunque una relación que se da entre ellos sí me gustó).

Tiene partes divertidas, en general no aburre y los besos son buenísimos, pero algunos temas no me gustó cómo los trataron (el trabajo de la madre de ella, por ejp).

En fin, meh.

IG de reseñas cortas: @altoplottwist

Leggi di Più

A realistic modern day drama...

A beautiful take on a realistic modern day love story. Although most of the actors were new to me, they did manage to give justice to the role. It is realistic to a point, short, sweet and simple. No blood, no death, no evil.

The characters were portrayed flawed, adding a little bit more charm to the show. ML owns his world but still longs for love. He has a dominant character, but never cruel. Oh and he hates being left behind. FL is loved by her family but still is peppered with insecurities. She's a straight laced girl with dreams of being a nutritionist. This was mainly because she didn't want to be branded as an easy girl. The love triangle on both sides of ML and FL were non life threatening nor vindictive. Even if their parents were far from being perfect, in their own way, they love their children very much.

Then they met and the magic begun. Their journey to falling in love was sweet, almost innocent like. At the latter part of the show, the mom of FL raised a really good question: Why does it matter how love started? Why does it matter if it's a one night stand or even two? The right thing to do, is to be responsible for your actions. If you love him/her then go get him/her.

The beautiful scenes, the meaningful message of the show plus the music, binds everything together.

Leggi di Più

One night to happy life

What can be better than a lovely drama with Sung Hoon? One-night-stand with him in the drama! Oh yeees 😈 till today's day I didn't know that something like that can happen in korean dramas but seems it can 😵 The show started off strong and hooked me hard from first to 14th episode.

My Secret Romance is one of those dramas that you don't want to break away from and return to the gray everyday world. It is sweet and light breath of fresh air! I absolutely loved the storyline which was rather simple and straightforward what was a nice change after The Sword and the Brocade where a loooot was happening 😅 Moreover, there was no conspiracies here, evil plots or in-laws, sudden murders or weird childhood connections.

It definitely could have been longer but it didn't take away much from its quality therefore I could totally recommend to watch it. Would I see it again someday? Sure, why not ^^ It's like Bridget Jones Diary, you can watch it any time😁

You can find this one and more reviews of kdramas on my blog: https://my-asian-dramas.blogspot.com/2021/05/my-secret-romance.html

Leggi di Più

This drama is definitely your typical romance k-drama! - I do love a good romance drama sometimes when I feel like I just want to pretend I'm in a different world for a bit. LOL But these kinda dramas can be a little tooo cheesy and cringe at times, but yet sometimes you just enjoy watching these kinda things!

But I think Song Ji-Eun, who was Lee Yoo-mi in the show was really innocent, she really portrayed the like really innocent look in this drama. Like a girl who just sometimes was a little oblivious at times.

But, I mean Sung Hoon, was really good looking in this show, so I can't complain too much! -

Leggi di Più

Its no secret I like this drama.

Using my personal rating system of "loved," "liked," "meh," & "nah," this is a “loved”.

What I liked:
I have watched this at least three times. Its one of my favorite KDramas ever. The main reason is that the FL is in the same profession as me (except that I hated being a foodservice dietitian and that is her primary area of practice). Well, to be truthful, the main reason is Sung-Hoon (thank you for showing him in swim trunks!!!) but having the same profession as the FL (and to have it accurately portrayed) was a big reason for me, too. Minor additional point of similarity with the FL: I love the scene where she introduces his dinner but gets distracted by his arms and instead announces she’s serving him “vein pasta” that night—because forearms and hands are a major attraction point for me, too.

Other things I liked: the comic relief of the personal assistant; the chemistry between the ML/FL; the SML (and yes, I had SMLS but not too bad since he had plenty of opportunities to confess before she met the ML again; I had watched 100 Days My Prince before this so was happy to see Kim Jae Young again—seriously, that boy needs to do more costume dramas!). I loved the mother and felt bad for her that she could not connect with her daughter. I get the impression that Korean society is very conservative about sex and her sexual liberation was brave. I liked that she did not apologize for who she was and the decisions she’d made in her life. It was just sad that they so negatively affected her daughter.

I love that in the end, the ML chose the FL, chose to stop being a chaebol and go it on his own rather than be under his father’s thumb—while at the same time maintaining a father/son relationship.

Things I did not like so much:
I did get frustrated with the FL’s need to keep secrets (her half-brother), her vulnerability to what others thought about her, and her dislike of herself for having had a one-night stand. She lied to both herself and the ML (though it does all work out in the end). On the other hand, given the bullying she experienced in high school as the result of her mother’s line of work plus the tendency (at least in Kdramaland) Korean society to hold children at fault for the ‘sins’ of their parents, I can see why she was so on edge all the time.

I did not like the jealous girl trope. First of all, if someone has barely noticed you for twelve years, that sounds like a personal problem. You need to get some self-esteem and move on. And why do these characters always think that as soon as they get rid of the FL the ML will magically fall in love with them!? Its lazy, tropey writing and I wish they could have come up with something better.

Minor point: The ML’s dad did a good job acting but there is no way someone who looks like him fathered someone who looks like Sung-Hoon. C’mon.

And I got tired of the “she’s not good enough for you” argument as well. That may be a cultural difference I’m not used to or don’t understand, but why people treated the FL like dirt because of who she was dating was so ridiculous to me.

Final thoughts: This is a favorite for me, personally, but I know its not everyone’s cup of tea. I recommend it, of course, but you do you. :)

Leggi di Più

What do you get when you put a rich handsome lonely boy and a poor unsuccessful decent looking girl together? You get the plot for a short Korean drama series. Even though this may be the plot of almost 80% Korean romance dramas, I still love watching them because these Korean writers somehow manage to present the same old wine in a new bottle every time. And I am a sucker for romance and still jump each time I see Naoki confess his feelings for Kotoko and bawl each time I see Joon Pyo cry for Jan Di. So, I still am game for this formula. However, sometimes the cliched storyline backfires and ends up disappointing audiences the way this drama disappointed me.
Though I was high on romance dramas, I hadn’t seen an out and out mushy, corny stuff in some time. My Secret Romance came as a respite for my longing. There was ‘fireworks’ in the very first episode which generated a lot of buzz for the drama. I too would wait eagerly each week to catch up on the drama. But sadly, this drama also tumbled towards the end till it fell flat.

Let’s weigh My Secret Romance on our show beam balance and see how this romantic drama fares and if it is worth a watch or no.

Good Weights
Sung Hoon: This guy has the face and body of a Greek God. He is a rare specimen of a ‘tanned’ Korean actor. Acting-wise he may be on a weaker footing but looks-wise he was just perfect for this role. This role anyway did not require him to emote a lot so it was ok. The show was replete with kisses and sweet moments and Sung Hoon does that like an ace player so I am happy that he was in the drama. However, even this Jack could not save the Titanic from sinking as the story failed to provide enough scope for him and the drama.

Couple Chemistry: I have said this before that, for a romance drama, the lead couple chemistry is the deal maker for the drama. Actors Sung Hoon and Song Ji Eun shared an amazing chemistry. She looked like a very naïve employee while he looked every bit of an intimidating boss. Jin Wook and Yoo Mi share several sweet moments on the show and these two actors looked very comfortable with each other which made them look convincingly in love with each other.


Bad Weights
Lee Yoo Mi: Now I am only talking about the character Yoo Mi and not actress Ji Eun. I personally felt that Yoo Mi was not a well-developed character because she seemed one-dimensional. She feels a little awkward with Jin Wook initially because of their one-night stand and also because of his stern face. But even after he makes it clear that he likes her, she still looks wary of him. Why?
The most annoying thing is when she stares wide-eyed at him each time he steals a kiss. She even hiccups occasionally in his presence. I know Jin Wook is HAWT and anybody would feel nervous around him but being nervous all the time is a little too much.

Overly Cliched Storyline: Yes, I admitted at the start of this post that I don’t mind clichéd romance dramas. But trust me, this drama is toooooooooo clichéd. A one-sided lover cum best friend, a clingy girlfriend, an elitist father and almost everything you can think of was there in this drama. There are several dramas that have all of this but the script of the show makes a drama interesting. I felt that the scripting for this drama was weak and could have been better.

Too Much Love: Suspense shows thrive on the suspenseful scenes that catch viewers off guard. Similarly, romance shows thrive on romantic moments that viewers eagerly wait for. Though I am a sucker for romance, I do not enjoy shows that constantly throw romantic scenes out of nowhere. I like to wait for the story to develop and like to cheer the leads on to finally go in for the much-awaited kiss. This drama became like a trashy romance novel that has a kiss on every alternate page. Where is the wait? Where is the excitement? After a point, I would yawn at the love scene despite Sung Hoon being in the frame. I wish the writers had been more judicious about the kisses, then the kisses would not have lost their impact on me so easily.

Draggy Ending: Ugh! The last four episodes make me cringe. Why!!!! Despite the predictable story, I was liking the show because of Sung Hoon and Ji Eun but then, the last four episodes were unbearably boring. I actually jumped through most of the scenes and landed straight on the last episode because so much of misunderstanding and flashback made no sense to me. I think the writer must have run out of ideas and was forced to drag the show till 13 episodes so he must have written these four episodes on one page by simply writing ‘recall what happened in the previous episodes’.

My Secret Romance weighs down with bad weights which means that there were a lot of loopholes in the drama. For me, My Secret Romance is like a Mills and Boons story that is high on love and low on story and logic. I did enjoy the first nine episodes of the drama till it started to drag unnecessarily and spoilt the perfect climax of a predictable romance drama.


If you like dramas with a lot of lovey-dovey scenes, good-looking lead couple, and an exceptionally hot leading actor and do not mind a lame climax then do watch this drama, it won’t disappoint you. Also, if you like Sung Hoon then you have to watch this because he looks just so damn HOT!!!u like dramas with a lot of lovey-dovey scenes, good-looking lead couple, and an exceptionally hot leading actor and do not mind a lame climax then do watch this drama, it won’t disappoint you. Also, if you like Sung Hoon then you have to watch this because he looks just so damn HOT!!!

Originally posted on www.alphagirl.in

Leggi di Più