The Heirs (2013)

From the beginning, Heirs was hyped up as having one of the best casts (especially for eye candy), great writer, yada yada yada. The ratings seemed to support that, however many fans of dramas watched and were disenchanted with the first few episodes; some fans throughout the whole drama. I am not one of those fans. While I would not call Heirs a rousing success, it was a good drama.

Why was it good? Many things contributed to both the good and the bad of this drama. The writer and director were not at the top of their game the first 4-6 episodes, but by episode 7/8 things began to get good… and once they started the ball rolling, it ended on a great note.

The actors…. it’s hard to pull a cast together like they did and NOT have some of the best actors in the business, and they did. There were quite a few standouts with acting, but I’d have to say Kim Woo Bin was probably the best of them all. Don’t get me wrong, Lee Min Ho and Park Shin Hye are excellent, but because they were the leads and in the spotlight, it’s much easier to say their acting wasn’t up to par for many episodes. I do not blame the actors, however. I blame alot of this on the writer and director.

Once everyone was one the same page, their love story became more believable, Kim Tan and Eun Sang’s pain was evident for all to see, and the emotions hit you in the gut. Kim Woo Bin was on the ball from minute one, though. I don’t know if it’s because he’s played nearly nothing but these types of roles, or if it is because he saw the best way to play it without direction, but he was on fire in this drama. I could list all of the other actors that were amazing, and there were plenty (not just the pretty ones either!), but I don’t need to. There honestly wasn’t a bad actor in the bunch, not even a mediocre one. The parents, the kids, the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th love story partners… they were all great.

On a special note, why the writer couldn’t have put more of the BN and CY relationship feel into KT and ES’s relationship, I’ll never know. These two were the highlight of the show for many episodes for me.

Did it portray a message or was it just another kdramaland story? It had a message, a very clear message, and the final episode brought it home in technicolor. In many dramas you always see the rich guy/girl who can’t love the poor guy/girl because of class differences. You see the wealthy marry off their children as if it’s a high stakes poker game and the winner laughs the loudest. You find nearly nothing but dysfunctional families because of these same reasons… no one is allowed to love who they want without some miracle taking place. Heirs took on the challenge of showing you a much clearer and realistic picture of this practice. Being a second son, Kim Tan should have had the freedom to love whom he wanted, but daddy dearest didn’t agree. In the end, what they give you for the finale is not an unrealistic ending. They showed the reality of this practice with Won. They showed the effects on Rachel and her mother Esther. It was a very good look at an often “overcome” issue in dramas. It was nice to see a story that ended with a bit of realism.

The OST was amazing, even if you did get sick of hearing “Love is the moment” every other scene. They had many songs they could have used in the OST for some of these times, but chose to pretty much go with that song alone. The other song I loved dearly was “Love Is”. Lee Min Ho also sang a song for the OST which only got used in episode 17, which kind of sucked. I really liked it and think it could have been used more too.

Cinematography… the drama was beautiful. The filming locations were chosen with major care and were gorgeous. The way shots were filmed, the direction in action during filming, all of it was remarkable. Though it’s fair to say the writer and director had their collective heads in the sand for the plot and acting, they were on full charge when it came to visual effectiveness of each scene and location. Even the fashion (though I heard LMH bought and used his own things) was amazing for the most part… some of the fuzzy sweaters could have been left at home, but good lord I want some of those trench coats BAD! Oh, and the white suit LMH wore.

The feels… yes, there were feels. It didn’t happen, except for Young Do’s character, until at least episode 7 or 8, but they were finally there. KWB was able to cause feels with his character from the beginning. And though it took a while for things to develop and get the emotion to you, once it did, you felt it alot. Kim Won, Young Do, Kim Tan, Eun Sang, Tan’s mom, and ES’s mom… these are the ones that made me feel the most, not necessarily in that order. Again, Kim Woo Bin as Young Do stole most of the feels in my opinion.

In summary, I think overall this was a 7.5 or 8 out of 10. I was hoping that it would be a 9 or 10, for many reasons, but it didn’t happen that way. I sincerely hope this drama doesn’t hurt or hinder LMH because he’s so much more than this. Faith and City Hunter showed the skills he really has and I hope he can find a movie or drama that give him the freedom to be as good as he can be next time. Park Shin Hye is always a great actress, but I’d really like her to take some lessons in being affectionate! Kim Woo Bin… dude, just go do what you do, you need no instruction Choi Jin Hyuk, I love him and am so glad you he is in another drama right away so I don’t have to go months without him! I thought he was amazing in Gu Family Book, but he ruled in Heirs.

Now, it's on to another drama. I won't miss this one like I did Master's Sun, but I will miss seeing LMH, KWB, and CJH every week.

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well daebak, this is the korean gossip girl. the chaebol high school kids and rich people drama was on point. at first i did not think i would like it at all coz of eun sang (shin hye) coz i hate her acting but she was great and fit the part. kim tan is just owns the part and nemesy kim woo bin couldnt have been any better. the cast and crew was awsome they made the story flow. i watched it week by week and i was just left hanging and dumbfounded everytime. le bo na and choi young were just cute, puppy love.Tans bro was cold and sexy, i dint care much about the women excepts tans and eun sangs mom. rachel was a cold bish but she always fits that part well.
the only problem is the usual korean cliche. they pause tooooo much, they pass each other in 360 degrees for a whole 3 minutes and bla bla. as usual the kissing scenes where psh is tight lipped. the first episodes in america were bad esp the eng guy, he was trying too hard. it gets better when hes back in korea.
drama drama

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Very solid beginning, even though the American actors they hired were horrible. As long as you can get past that you are on fairly solid footing. I enjoyed it at the beginning, and thought the meet-cute was well done. And then the second half of the show happened and you wonder why the hell you are watching this. Nothing in the story makes sense, and you can see that they really faltered in how to actually move the story forward once Kim Tan was back in Korea and his relationship with Cha Eun Sang starts to actually move forward beyond creepy stalking.

So let me tell you why this drama IS worth your time: THE. SUPPORTING. CAST. Basically everyone but the lead couple make you drawn into what's going on and they all do an amazing job with the measly little scraps they are given. I really wanted to know more of all of their stories, and infinitely less of the lead couple. They were cardboard and a waste of life. Why do people love Lee Min Ho again? I can't for the life of me figure this out. Park Shin Hye is right there with him. Why do people love her? I'm so confused.

I was irrationally invested in Young Do and Rachel's brother-sister relationship for the abysmal screen time they got together. I needed them to be together and awesome close friend-siblings forever, because every time they were together was amazing and so funny. They had that warring "I can't stand your face but I still have to love you so I do" thing that siblings have and did it so well. Bo Na and Chan Young were also my favorite thing in the universe. So sickeningly adorable and stole the show from anyone else that was in the scene with them individually or as a couple. Also, thanks CNBlue for giving me another human I irrationally love. I already LOVE Krystal, but Kang Min Hyuk was new to me and now I have another kpop star that I need to quit that life so he can be in dramas all the time. I wanted a better ending for Kim Won, but we can't have everything. I mostly just wanted a reason to be invested in him enough to be invested in his ending. Now there's a character who got the short end of the stick. If the lead couple's screen time had been cut in half and the story had been distributed evenly among the rest of the characters it probably would have been a much better show.

I'm also very convinced that the ending would have been better if it was a Taiwanese drama. But then I wouldn't have Krystal or KWB, so maybe not. That ending is a disaster though.

And OMG that song. Way to be heavy handed with the OST. I love Taiwanese dramas irrationally, so you must be really aggressive with the soundtrack for me to not like you. Plus in general it's horrible song, and if I never hear that song again it will be too soon.

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Before you roll your eyes at how high of a rating I gave this show, hear me out.

The Heirs is one of those shows that is my guilty pleasure. It's like wearing a shirt that you love but everyone else hates: you know it's not flattering and it doesn't make you look sophisticated, but you just can't stop liking it nonetheless.

Objectively, The Heirs should be so- so. The story was the regular he was rich and she was poor; they can't be together but could love conquer it all? Top it with a couple of mean girls, preppy school for ridiculously rich, spoiled brats and the unavoidable love triangle, put in as many Kdrama cliches as you possibly can and give it a go. Objectively I know that the Heirs wasn't a masterpiece yet I had a ridiculous amount of fun watching it. Sure, it was stuffed with cliches like a Thanksgiving turkey, but most of the wrist-grabbing, love quibble scenes were just entertaining for me. I'll even admit that the story fell apart towards the end of the show and I ended up fast forwarding 2 episodes.

The acting was ok for me. It is probably true that Kim Woo Bin's acting stole the show. Once again, I can admit that he was the highlight of the show even though I didn't particularly love his character nor did he give me a bad case of second lead syndrome. Some people didn't like the acting of the female lead. Park Shin Hye has a particular style of acting that not everyone likes. She pretty much acted here the same way as she acted in other shows I saw her. Can't say she was worse here than in You're Beautiful or Pinocchio.

All in all, I just had fun watching it and this is ultimately why I watch Kdramas in the first place: to have fun.

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The Heirs is a drama that I've been eyeing for such a long time but since I've been on such a K-drama hiatus, I never really looked into it. I guess because when the show was announced, it received a huge amount of hype. I guess for good reasons. The two main leads are no question, the hottest stars of their generation. Lee Min Ho definitely made a mark with his role as Jun Pyo in the Korean adaptation of Boys Over Flowers while Park Shin Hye's role as Go Mi Nam in You're Beautiful also captured the hearts of many. The series also has a stellar cast ranging from f(x)'s Krystal Jung and CNBlue's Kang Min Hyuk. Overall speaking, I enjoyed watching this series. I think that it's greatest strength would be the amount of acting done (lead by the main leads of course) that pushed the plot to create such dramatic reaction from the viewers.

But I admit. The Heirs is not exception from the common plot cliches. Lead A is rich, lead B is poor and together they fall in love because of destiny or pure coincidence. And that is exactly how this drama works. It's a pity that the plot is quite similar to Boys Over Flowers (which I haven't seen, I've seen the Japanese and Taiwanese version) making it difficult for Min Ho is move away from that typecast. Of course, his character here has its individual characteristics that sets him aside from the icon role of Jun Pyo. But still, it somehow and in some way, go down the same rabbit hole. So that's cliche number one.

Cliche number two is really how dramas make use of the Iceberg effect. It has a tendency to just show these little details in the beginning but like an iceberg, it has deep hidden ones below the surface and once discovered will cause great disaster. Needless to say, those under the tip of the iceberg are pretty little "twists" that don't seem to be twists at all. In fact, I've become fed up with the complicated family secrets of cliche plots. This person's mother is actually this person's blah blah blah, it's embedded and will always somehow connect the two leads together. Yes, The Heirs suffers from this cliche. Again.

But what the good points? Perhaps, plot wise, a good aspect might be that being a tycoon's child and having to deal with that kind of responsibility and how it burdened the characters made the plot interesting and exciting. I didn't particularly like the high school setting (it seemed similar to Boys Over Flowers again but okay) but it's really how with power comes great responsibility and how it forced the rather young characters to carry such burden somehow pushed the plot and developed the character.

Still, the series seems to be overflowing with characters. And it's come to the point where I ask myself if having this character here is really necessary or if it's crucial to the development. Sometimes, the answer is no. Having too much characters creates unbalance and results in distraction. A character needs a purpose to be there. Not to be manic pixie character but at least to have some sort of purpose if not to the main lead then at least to the story.

As for the romance. Yes, it's like a modern Romeo and Juliet, Min Ho and Shin Hye against the world. For the most part, The Heirs lacks cohesiveness in general maybe because there's too much characters. But it also lacks consistency. Instead, it's consistent with this pattern of breaking-up-letting-go-going-back-together cycle that the leads keep going to that just becomes frustrating. You see, each episode is an hour long. In one episode, they're happily together and in the next, they're avoiding each other. And this keeps going on and on and in the end they'll be together anyway. I know that it's to show the endless power of their love but does it have to be repetitive. I notice that this is another romance cliche.

Having said that, I ship Kim Woo Bin's character with Shin Hye's character more. For me, I believe that it would have become a much more interesting romance to see how Do Young changes from this I-hate-everyone-so-I'm-going-rebel attitude to becoming this vulnerable person who can actually love but just covers up his wounds to cope with his brokenness. I'm not saying Kim Tan (Min Ho) is not having a difficult time because he is too. But at least he has a mother. Or at least he can pursue his brother's approval and just focus on that. But Do Young is just...so broken. I'm still waiting for that day where second leads will break this cliche and get the girl (or guy).

Now Shin Hye's character is really just wallowing in some much self-pity. Unlike the main lead in Boys Over Flowers who despite being poor and attending a rich school is bold, daring and brave and fights head on. But Eun Sang is just so miserable and still so pessimistic that it becomes annoying. It becomes a character that doesn't have independence or strength to draw from herself. I mean it's good that Kim Tan gives her courage and take care of her (how sweet!) but despite being a couple, one must still be great as an individual.

Did I mention how I love Kim Woo Bin and Kim Ji Won's acting? They're the ones that left the mark for me.

Hence, as I've mentioned before, the plot is good when it shows how these youngsters handle power and responsibility and that's one the message. Another one would probably be the power of love. Or even young love. (And yes, you shouldn't underestimate it) Young people are indeed fearless when it comes to love but this drama shows that an 18-year-old's love can be fearless and it can conquer. Perhaps, love is not in age after all.

Nevertheless, it's these dramatic plot cliches and intense romance that becomes the show's greatest asset. Because of that, it leaves so much emotions as a viewer who's watching. It's moving, it's dramatic, it's intense that makes you wanting for more and just ignoring all these cliches as you watch. I guess for entertainment value, the show hits the mark.

Lastly, I'd like to comment on the criss-cross and slow motion combination of "sweet" shots like hugging, kissing or whatever romantic scenes there are. This is to emphasize, sure. But it's become a cliche shot in Korean drama. And a soundtrack.

Despite all that cliches, the series moved me. So for entertainment and FEELS value's sake (because it made me cry which left a lasting impression), I would have to give it this rating.

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Emotional roller coaster.

This story started really cute. I've never seen a Kdrama shot in any other country besides Korea.
The rest of the story was so full of twists and turns. So much back stabbing and conflict. It seemed that every character had some sort of dark past that they were frantically hiding from someone. So many emotions it made my head spin. Lies, deceit, hate, jealousy and then of course, unrequited love made for one hell of a roller coaster ride.
Secrets turned into weaknesses, turning people into monsters. It seems that most of Kdrama set in schools deal a lot with being bullied. Status seems to be a huge factor.
I felt really bad for most of the actors, especially Tan and at times just wanted to hug him.
This drama deals with a lot of different relationships. Between parents, lovers and friends.
It was a good story in my opinion.
It made me realize that we as humans should be kinder to one another. You never know what someone else is going through.

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I don't usually make reviews, but I was so disappointed in this that I felt like I have too. I'm just going to bullet this.. It's not even worth complete sentences..

- The beginning is way to slow. There are WAY too many characters. Although if you watch long enough, everything makes sense.
- OMG, PARK SHIN HYE, SHE CRIED WAY TO DUCKING MUCH, even though I know it wasn't her fault. She is so stupid... It's one of those situations where you want to smack the female lead for her stupidity.
- Of course, LEE MIN HO was just amazing as usual.
- The drama was definitely an EXTENDED EXTENDED music video. It would have been so good if they cut out some of the still scenes and shorten it by an episode or two.
- The music within the drama was also played at really crappy times. I'm like hmmm... and then music comes on and I'm like UGHHHHHH.
- THE BEST PART THE DUCKING BEST PART of this drama was the way all the characters grow throughout the series.

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Storyline: Although the story was nice, the pace of the drama was too slow. It had the Boys Over Flower feel to it but in this one, it was more serious.

Actor/ Cast: All of the cast played their part extremely well!

Music: The music accompanied the drama very well, it made it feel more real. The timing of the music was also done perfectly, however it did feel a little repetitive at times.

Like: - The side story are equally pleasing but sometimes it gets too tangled up with the main story, and made it very confusing.
- The seriousness was balanced with humour.

Dislikes: - The ending escalated too quickly, it felt too rush and there was a lot of question that was not answered.
- Relationships between characters were too rushed and at times not believable.

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It wasn't a "fulfilling" drama ta watch. I am kinda upset at myself for watching it. This drama was made to "sell" Lee Min Ho's popularity, this was more of a promotional choice, rather than being a decent drama. Story was dragging, this should have been 16 eps. But die-hard fans won't mind as it focuses on them being "eye candy". I am not a fan of the lead actress, her acting is the same in other dramas (always pathetic!). Over all this drama was a commercial drama, very little depth. And the music, man it was killing me! Also they do not look like High School students - more like college but not high school. Arghhhh! I wasted my time ????. Sooo I should have believed the LOW ratings.

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