The Heirs (2013)

The Heirs was one of the most popular shows in the year 2013. The main lead Lee Min Ho bagged several awards for his performance and also won the Baidu Feidian Best Asian Actor Award that year. Additionally, the lead couple Lee Min Ho and Park Shin Hye won most of the Best Couple Award that year. Considering the categories the show won awards for, I guess I understand what exactly worked for it. As for me, The Heirs was one drama that left me bewildered. I still haven’t understood if I liked the show or no. Since I watched all 20 episodes, it means that it did manage to hold my attention. But in the end, I am still left wondering what made me stick till the very end. It definitely wasn’t the Original Sound Track (OST). Then, what was it?

Good Weights
Good-looking Cast – I think I should stop mentioning this point because this is common for almost all Korean shows. A good-looking cast is the USP for most Korean dramas. If not the cast then, at least, the male protagonist has to be extremely handsome to appeal to its target audience i.e. young girls. The Heirs does indeed score high on a cast full of eye candies. Lee Min Ho (Kim Tan) is an Asian heartthrob and has a huge fan following across Asia. It is said that The Heirs was in the news after Lee Min Ho was finalized as its lead. Fans kept a tab on minutest of development in the show.  The female lead, Park Shin Hye (Eun Sang) is one of the most successful Korean actresses and has a loyal fan base of her own. Together they made a very interesting couple.

Competent Supporting Cast – The subplots of the show were reasonably interesting and the supporting actors did a marvellous job with the limited screen time they had. I simply loved Bo Na and Chan Young’s love story. Bo Na was the show stealer and her easy chemistry with Chan Young was really enjoyable. Kim Tan’s arch rival Choi Young Do’s gradual growth with each episode in the show was also very interesting. His character seems to grow on you and you eventually start liking him despite his rotten ways.  

Amazing Outfits – Since the story is about rich kids, the cast flaunted some chic and classy outfits. Rachel Yoo’s (Kim Tan’s fiancee) wardrobe was the best amongst the girls. Sadly, the female lead was the daughter of a housemaid so she could not sport expensive dresses and jackets.


Bad Weights
Cliched Storyline – If the show was talked about then I am sure it must have been majorly for its cast because the storyline did not have much to offer. It is the same old rich boy falls in love with a poor girl, defies his family for her and they live happily ever after. There are viewers who still enjoy the Cinderella concept but it can be a drag sometimes.

Too Many Subplots – Though the subplots were interesting it could have been a little less chaotic. There were too many characters and each of them had a back story. I would often get confused trying to link the stories together. Most of the time I would be wondering who is marrying whom, who is whose mother, who is having an affair with whom and so on.  

Pathetic Theme Song – The song ‘Love Is The Moment’ By Changmin would be played each time there was a romantic scene between Kim Tan and Eun Sang. I am sorry to lambast the song but it really killed ‘the moment’ for me. I wish they played some other song (actually any other song) instead of untimely hammering “love is the moment” in our ears. It’s really annoying to hear a man scream the same words at a very interesting and awaited point of the show. Actually, the song itself is not that bad. It just did not suit the show.

The show beam balance has an equal number of good and bad weights which means that I enjoyed the show as much as I disliked some aspects of it. It has many special moments that made me go ‘awww…’ at the same time, it also had me go ‘what the heck….’ more than once.

The Heirs is for those viewers who enjoy watching beautiful people fall in love and fight against the world to be together. If you are looking for some sensible power conflict amidst a love story then do not opt for The Heirs because it does not offer you that.

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2nd Time watching

It’s time for me to give my feedback. This is one of the first dramas I started watching. The first of Lee Min Ho’s dramas. I fell in love with his looks, acting and his great charisma. After watching THE HEIRS, I started looking for all his other shows.

The Heirs is one of the reason i became addicted to watching Korean and Chinese dramas.

The Heirs is cute and funny. It has a good story line. Even though, I watched this twice I was hooked and couldn’t stop watching it was as if my first time. I cried and laugh like crazy.

Overall, if you are a romantic and has a young soul, I recommend watching.

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First, the plot. I can't say much without delving into spoiler territory, but it's a cliche. Does that mean it's bad? Not at all! Although it's a cliche, it's very well done and it also puts its own spin on the lives of the rich, showing us some of the less-than-desirable moments as well as the parts that people dream of.

The show itself has a way of playing with your feelings. There are a lot of lighthearted moments, as well as dashes of comedy and each character has their own underlying development arc. It also shows us a lot of different types of relationship - romantic, family, and friend - and how they all have their own ups and downs.

To add, the cast is one of my favourites. Lee Minho, Park Shinhye, Krystal Jung and Kim Woobin especially - if you like even one of them, I'd suggest this drama solely for that. The soundtrack is also one of my favourites out of any drama (second only to The DOTS). Bite My Lower Lips by eSNa remains one of my favourites from the OST of The Heirs.

So... is it a show that will play with your heartstrings? Most likely. Is it a show that will annoy you at times, or make you cringe? Yes. Is it one full of cliches? Definitely. Does all of that make it bad? Of course not! Obviously, it has it's flaws, but it's a solid show overall and I enjoyed it a lot all 4 times I watched.

I would really recommend this drama to people who enjoyed dramas like The Master's Sun, Lie to Me and Love Rain.

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A big surprise

Hey, did I watch the same "The Heirs" that everyone talks sh*ts about? I mean, I've heard some really bad things about this kdrama that made me skip this one for a longggg time, since I started watching kdrama. So I thought this one could be like "Boys over flowers" which I really hated, but, surprising The Heirs was way much better. Although I'm not into Collegial Romance anymore, this one got me. I really enjoyed watching every episode of it. But, I can't bring myself to give this show a review more than 7.0, Here are some some points of the story I liked:

1• Is the story good? > Yeah, it's, pretty enjoyable
2• Is the ML good? > Yeah, for a rich boy Kim Tan was a pretty good ML
3• Is the FL good? > Look, in my opinion she was the best collegial girl (in love) that I've met in a kdrama. Here's why: She's strong, cool, not dumb, and for a 17 years old she was kinda mature when it comes to make decisions. She wasn't the kinda collegial girl who was dumb all the time and be like [Oh! help me! I can't even make decisions by myself. I always need the ML!] She was able to defend herself and was fearless. I don't understand why ppl talks sh*t about this FL bc for me, she was amazing.
4• Do they have chemistry? > Yeah, I've seen Lee Min Ho with better actresses who looked better with him, but this one from this show was good too, as a collegial couple they had a good chemistry

Anyway, I enjoyed 98% of the story but I have my complains:

1• I like how Young Do was able to grow up and regret his actions, but still I can't understand how come he ended up falling for Chang Eun. Kim Tan and her had their moment back at Unided States but what about Young Do? I really don't like when a character doesn't have a reason at all to like other. Idk, for me it was kinda like this: "Oh we need another male lead to create conflict between the main couple so here you go Young Do, start to like her out nowhere"
Really, for me was very uncomfortable seeing Kim Tan and Young Do fighting over Chang Eun bc for me Kim Tan and Chang Eun were always the main couple, I was like: "Boy? What the f you doing? You don't even have the right!"
I don't understand why ppl wanted Chang Eun to be with Young Do at the end when Kim Tan was a really cool Male Lead right from the start?
Although I started to like Young Do, I never shipped him with our Female Lead, not even once, their scenes together would made me roll my eyes.
Anyway, there's stories where I wanted the FL to end up with the second ML, but in this case Young Do wasn't even a option from the start. Maybe if they'd made Kim Tan a boring and "not worth it" male lead than maybe I'd ship them but Kim Tan here was amazing as a man to her, so... Nhe.

2• The Older brother. I started watching this show bc I always curious about it and when I saw that Jin Hyuk would be at this kdrama I immediately started watching it since I love this actor, but wtf was this character of his? Omg! Even though I love him I couldn't stand his character at this show at all. He hated his brother for no reason at all (and I'm sorry but hating him just bc he's a son of another woman isn't a reason for me, I mean, that isn't even his fault!) I felt bad for Kim Tan, he loved his brother so much. Also, his decision at the end, he chooses the company over the woman he loves and he's gonna marry someone else that he doesn't love in order to continue as the boss of the company. Urgh! What a deception, not because he abandoned his girlfriend but bc he chose the same future as his father, living with a woman that he doesn't love. I hate how he chose marriage contract and decided to keep the company instead of leaving everything behind. I can't avoid to think about his future with a woman that he doesn't love while thinking about the other one, how dumb.
I wished that both Kim Tan and him would abandon that sick family and their stupid father.

3• Talking about their father... I NEVER HATED SO MUCH A CHARACTER AS I HATE HIM! He caused conflict between his son's, destroyed the life of THREE woman and all what he cared about was the f company! Omgggg you guys have no idea how much I hate this kinda character bc I know that ppl (sh*t parents) like this exists in real life. I'm glad I'll never see his face again bc I think I started to dislike the actor too! Hahahah. And ofc by the end he ends up sick at a hospital bed almost dying and suddenly everyone wants to forgive all the sh"t he made????? Suddenly just bc the fell sick he deserves to be forgiven for destroying others ppl life? Especially the life of his sons????? I hate this kinda thought, just bc someone is sick it doesn't me this person start to be a saint. I wish he had died at the end

5• And ofc... THAT KISS! I've see a lot of ppl taking about how horrifying was that first kiss of Kim Tan and Chang Eun but I didn't imagine that it was so so so so so BAD!!!!! What's wrong with the actress? What the f was that face of hers? The only one kiss that it felt like she wasn't disgusted to kiss Kim Tan was the last one of the last episode bc every kiss before that she seemed disgusted to kiss him. Oh! Poor girl, it's really a sad thing to kiss Lee Min Ho, I understand you girl :( poor you...

Anyway! There were some things I really enjoyed in the story but there were another things that makes me never want to watch it again, specially seeing how stupid Jin Hyuk's character was on this show.
But! The Heirs was a box of surprises for me, I wasn't expecting to enjoy it as much as I did. Hands down to my new favorite collegial kdrama.

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No Complaints

I'm well aware that I give many dramas a 10/10, and the reason is, if I don't have any real complaints, and I had a good time watching it, then it's a 10/10 for me. This is one of those shows.

I will say that this was the second drama I've ever seen Park Shin Hye (female lead) in and the first one left a bad taste in my mouth. So I did have to overcome comparing her with her character in Pinocchio (who drove me nuts), but she did a really good job of shaking that image for me.

I thought the whole cast was great to be honest, even the obnoxious ones. I'm well aware that Choi Young Do (Kim Woo Bin) is supposed to be especially awful and you're meant to hate him and then slowly come around and maybe even feel a bit sorry for him, but I feel like I wound up liking him before I was meant to. lol. He was just really funny and charismatic.

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The plot is commonplace. Rich guy falling for a poor girl and it does not create any mark of difference than other dramas. Themes mostly revolve around quest for power and money, the tug of war in love, and mostly it runs in circles. Also, there is not enough foundation on Kim Tan's and Eun sang's love and it fails to put emphasis on where Tan's obsession for Eun sang is rooted. Moreover, the main characters except Young Do are pretty boring and there is no driving force behind their romance. Tan's character is mediocre and he fits more to be in the sidelines than on the stage. Eun sang's character, likewise, is so weak and too fragile that she always plays the damsel in distress who cannot stand up for her own and constantly needs saving. The only alluring character this drama has is Young Do. Kim Woo Bin has put a vigorous life into the character that despite his arrogance and seemingly hard facade, he still has vulnerabilities in him. Kim Ji Won's acting is also great.

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Honestly when I look back I don't even know how I managed to finish this show cause I hated it. I guess I just had too much free time back then.

Onto the actual review, this drama is not good. The plot is basically a bunch of clichés thrown together in the worst way possible. It's boring and overly dramatic at certain points, with probably the worst love triangle I've ever seen.
The characters are all terrible. The female lead is probably the worst I've watched in a drama. I get that the she goes through tough times, but I felt all she did was cry all the time as if that was her only personality trait. She had no spine and just served as everyone's doormat, it was frustrating to see.

And then we have Kim Tan. The way he was always manhandling the fl and forcing her into situations she clearly didn't like made me extremely uncomfortable when I watched them interact. The main couple had no chemistry together and honestly their kiss scenes were pure cringe. I don't think Park Shin-Hye is necessarily a bad actress, but sis can't act a proper kiss scene to save her life. The first time it happened it looked like Lee Min Ho was kissing a wall or something which just makes it weird to watch. The only reason I accepted them together is because the second lead is literally a psychopath, bullying the fl and trying to make her life a living hell, I still can't believe people shipped them.

The only good thing about it was the fact that young Park Hyung-Sik is in it, but this definitely doesn't make this show worth to watch.

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I finally decided to watch The Heirs because I was curious about why people hate this drama so much. Now, I too am people (lol). I'm already not the biggest fan of school dramas but this one reminded me exactly why I usually avoid them (usually they are too cute and slow for me). I was also deceived by the cast, which is filled with familiar faces from dramas I liked, even loved, but nothing could save this drama from itself. I guess the point was to show these superficial characters as having hidden depth but because this drama lacked depth itself that theme failed miserably.

The Heirs stars Lee Min Ho as another extremely wealthy student, like a Boys over Flowers flashback, but honestly, he seemed way too mature to be a student this time. Maybe it's because his character was so passive, but even with his usual charm, he seemed out of place as Kim Tan. He is matched with Park Shin Hye as Cha Eun Sang, in a standard poor girl role that has definitely been overdone but can still work if there is great chemistry... Spoiler Alert: There is no great chemistry! Initially, I was kinda entertained by the first few episodes, even if it was full of tropes and way too many coincidences and seemed to escalate to romance way too unrealistically. If the show kept up the same energy as the beginning then this drama could have been decent. Instead, it became so painfully dull I had to force myself to watch it till the end. It didn't help that most of that dullness came from Park Shin Hye's acting (and this isn't the first time I thought she was boring in a drama). Other than successfully crying on cue, I thought she was a bad choice for this role. Her character was supposed to inspire all this attention and admiration, but I couldn't understand what everyone saw in her since she was so boring and uninteresting. That brings me to the bad@ss third-wheel Kim Woo Bin as Choi Yeong Do. He is definitely the most interesting of the three main characters, and a great 2nd lead to secretly root for, but his storyline just didn't make the most of his performance. That can also be said about most of the performances, and that brings me to the writing which is this show's biggest flaw.

I don't always need a drama to make complete sense if it's entertaining. I also understand that melodramas tend to be over the top, which can be fun to watch if done right. I kept waiting for something entertaining or over the top to happen but it never did. Most of the show is the same unequal social status romance trope over and over again mixed in with school scenes of students being catty and bullying each other. How they are kept apart isn't even interesting, neither are the random moments of corporate infighting, featuring Choi Jin Hyu in a forgettable role. Please don't make the same mistake I did and expect the story to eventually pick up or end with a bang. It never does. Even if they condensed this drama into a two-hour movie I still don't think there'd be enough drama to keep the story from dragging, so 20 episodes seemed painfully long.

If I had to choose the best parts of the show it would be the relationship between the leads' moms. Kim Mi Kyung is a favorite of mine and the best performance in this whole drama, and she doesn't even speak, which says A LOT.

Would I watch this again? Never. I'm still surprised I didn't drop it the first time.

Overall, don't be fooled by the cast. This drama really is as bad as people say. Watching characters do the same things over and over again was like watching a drama that is 90% flashbacks. What's the point of a romance with a boring couple that mostly cries over being apart, and anytime they do get together you don't even care (Don't even get me started on the awful kissing scenes). This drama tried to rely on repeating what has already been done in countless other popular dramas and failed. This is the kind of drama you can take several naps through and not miss anything. If you do watch and you start getting bored just skip to the final episode, I promise you that you won't miss anything that important and you will save yourself from wasting hours of your life like I did. Yes, there are worse dramas than this one, but there are too many good dramas with these cast members to watch 20 hours of this.

I guess the point of The Heirs was to feel sorry for these characters who seemed to have everything, but by the end, I just felt sorry for myself for giving this drama a chance. Please don't be like me, believe these bad reviews and skip this drama.

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All the best to you if you're going to watch this series

There's so much to say about the plot (and it isn't positive) so instead of typing paragraphs and paragraphs, I'll say three things. One, Cha Eung San should've asked both Choi Young Do and Kim Tan to FUCK OFF and should've focused on her studies, Kim Tan and Choi Young Do should've left her the FUCK ALONE (seriously man wtf was up with them, following her around, basically harassing her till the point of submission), and, although I don't like bullies in TV shows or otherwise, Choi Young Do was fucking hot and even if you wanted a good story, Cha Eung San should've ended up with HIM and NOT Kim Tan. That's all.
Oh, and if you're going to watch the series anyway, be ready to pop a blood vessel or two, it's really frustrating to watch. <3

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This is one I’ve watched over and over (skipping over the evil dad parts). I thought LMH and PSH were lovely together. Though Kim Woo Bin’s character is not a good guy, he was able to convey a lot of vulnerability which I enjoyed watching. The woman that played PSH’s mom was really good (but she’s good in everything, especially Healer,). As time went on, I was disappointed in the weakness of the ML and his dad was just the WORST! It was a happy ending, but not a good ending. I don’t like the cliche they use about years going by. That made the ending flat for me.

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"When we were eighteen,we fell in love,loved each other,cried,ran away,knelt down.And turned our backs at each other countless of times.I thought it was a pretty dream.But you ended up being a nightmare."

-Kim Tan

With the best cast,the best dialuges,expressive characters,interesting relationships and beautiful and epic love-story.."The Heirs" are one show i will never forget.I watched this one with great attention,both laughed and cried with the characters.Watching Lee Min-Ho and Kim Wo-bin co-star as nemesis,their epic performances are one thing i unlikely will ever forget.Everything intruged me,and i found a lot of these characters passionate,and i rooted for them with all my heart.We get to watch them fall in love,suffer,battle,fight through obstacles and grow up in the imaginary Elite world they live in.

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I watched this drama for almost 10 times already! Every time that I watched this, I'm still on the hooked and can't hide my excitement in every scene / episode. The drama itself teaches us on how to be true on ourselves and fight for what we want and for our love. True love do exist but not all of them has the courage to fight and brave enough to face all the struggles. If you want to find happiness, you must know how to endure pain. The cast portrayed their roles very well! I love them all. I am still looking forward for the Season 2. A total package. A must watched! One of the best drama that I've watched. Thumbs up!!

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