Sunday, November 14, 2010

Secret Garden, Secret Power

   Drama started with high ratings of 17.2%. Why am I even reporting those? Because it's obvious that for a broadcast company this is the main factor of judging whether drama is good or not. Call it dumb, cynical or just practical. Perhaps everything combined.
I had high expectations toward this drama, we psyched ourselves enough on D-A, and... I'm not disappointed. At least not after the first episode. 19 more to go. And as my fellow Thorns, I do hope they will not end it up drowning in tears, sorrow and wallowing in pain. As much as I have a thing for the tragedy, I hope for a happy ending. Or at least a positive one. SKKS, anybody?
As I said, I'm a first episode-girl, so as much as density of idiocy and cliches in Marry Me, Mary! just made this drama indigestible for me, the comical streak in this one is vey, very nice. This comical streak has Hyeon Bin's dimples, so...
   I may be mistaken, but I can't recall his funny to that degree role. Snow Queen was a tragedy and a bit not for my liking, Friend, Our Legend was everything except for fluff. My Lovely Kim Sam Soon, on the other hand was a well mix of comedy and a normal, everyday relationship, but not a fluff anyway. And Millionaire's First Love, except for being a chick flick and a fairly light one (I just loved his attitude there, especially in the school, when faking his broken leg...), ended with death. So I guess it's his first such hilarious role.

   OK, so we meet our characters, first, Kim Juwon (in a very, very bad suit), who looks like a typical handsome CEO, just to be scared out of his socks because of lightning, and after that we see he has more fears, ie. he doesn't use elevators. Gil Raim is a stuntwoman, depreciated by the main actress for being "just a stunt". And then we have Oscar, who greets his cousin Juwon while kissing "a goodbye kiss" with a random girl. And we have Yunseul, whose realations with Juwon are not of those the most romantic ones. Not from his side anyway.


Our main heroine comes with a bad boy... I mean bad girl image, but she's from a filmplan. Everyone in the restaurant is shocked, Yunseul and her friend even advise certain mother to cover the kids eyes so not to look at such display.

 And the encounter between those two ladies is not of the most pleasant ones.


Her gesture with leg is just so girly cute...
 And we have Oscar, a Hallyu star. The moment I heard his voice I said to... actually I was unable to say anything. I was unable to think anything. Damn, Yun Sangyeon sings great. Deep, clear voice. Plus, those sparkling eyes and weird haircut. Who could resist?


But his cousin was not impressed, as we see it clearly.


Just no matter the hair, no matter the vain and spoiled behavior of a star, I love Oscar. He's simply... adorable.


 Tacky clothes are tackly clothes, my friend, no matter of the brand name on them.



Our perfect CEO is not only scared of elevators, but also screams as a maid while riding too fast.


And here we have the first scene between two men. Our purrrfect CEO and a fellow guy from the movie crew. Plus, Juwon is more and more intrigued by Ra-im, her life she's leading and character.


Oh, my godss, Ocsar socks. I wouldn't mind getting those for Christmas. But then again, I wouldn't mind getting Oscar, keke.

Ra-im is a big fan of Oscar, just forgot to add. This is not the happiest news for Juwon, heh. He hated those socks so much^^.

Hair, clothes, everything vanishes when Sanghyeon smiles. What does this man possess to make me feel all aroused just by a mere smile? And we know why he dresses the way he does, he's a star. A Hallyu Star.

We have to wait a bit more for the "exchange" starts. But we will wait.


In overall:
Plot: so far so good. We got a sketches on the characters, we were given a bit of their personalities and the relationships. I may be guessing where this will be going, but still enjoy it and anticipate today's episode.
Technical: not bad, not heavy, the action scenes, especially Raim beating the crap out of few guys on the street and her bike-chase after the car, were nicely done.
Acting: oh, why you ask? Ha Jiwon, Hyun Bin, Yun Sanghyeon. Enough said. They are great. The sprouting chemistry is also great. Now we have a very amiable and natural air between the characters of Ra-im and Juwon.
Music: I like it. The chase scene music, and of kooooors, Yun Sanghyun. Some others, playing singers in dramas *cough*cough* have a loong, looooong way to go. Just sayin'...

One word: to-be-continued.

And to close it with some words from the actors:
Actress Ha Ji-won talked about herself, who is changing like a man as she acts in "Secret Garden".
In the production conference meeting of "Secret Garden", Ha Ji-won and Hyeon Bin said, “The setting of being different gender is hard but we are filming with joy.”
Ha Ji-won added, “Changing script and act each other with Hyeon Bin helped me a lot. I was surprised to see how I become more like a man every day; I saw myself sitting with spread legs like a man. Even for a kiss scene, I had to lead a kiss like a man. Because of Sin Woo-cheol PD and Hyeon Bin's help, I could fulfill the requirement.”
Hyeon Bin added, “I didn't know how hard it would be to sit like a woman.”
( hancinema )

And Press Conference cut is available to download here. The fragments of the drama are hilarious.