Monday, May 23, 2011

"Secret Garden"

This Korean drama pulls out all the stops. It's got the arrogant, handsome rich guy, the pretty hardworking poor girl, bullying, a dead father, a terrible secret, gender bending, amnesia, really insanely well-decorated home interiors, and various pretty supporting cast for love triangles/squares.  This one also throws in some weird supernatural activity to boot.  Hyun Bin (the actor from "My Lovely Sam-Soon") does a good job playing the arrogant rich guy.  Ha Ji Won does a good job playing the object of his affection and shows some martial arts skills.  I think K-dramas always end the shows on cliffhangers that make you want to keep going, which was the case in this show.  At the end of the twenty episodes, I felt a bit played.  Usually I sob at some point of these shows, but I didn't really all that much with this one.  It felt like a very contrived show, like they were checking off things that were successful in past shows.  But it worked, I didn't drop the show and kept going.  I did like the character of Oska, the fading idol singer, played by Yoon Sang Hyun.  Another positive is the conclusive ending, which doesn't leave you hanging with questions like "what happened later?"