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Golden Oldie!
That is in relation to the rapid change in Kdramas in the last decade! I really love this drama. It never gets boring or draggy (not even to the very end which most kdramas do). I had watched it once before and had completely forgotten about the body swap, but that's the power of good storytelling, it is not the main focus of the story. The love & characters keep it going without having to rely on special effects as most shows these days. It really is jam packed with interest.Ha Ji-won owns every scene, she is a total boss and carries it. I would have loved to have seen her in more kdramas as she is a really strong female role model and brilliant actress to boot. This is early Hyun Bin and not the same hunk as seen most recently in CLOY, which is a shame. You can see the age difference of 5 years and physically I don't feel he suits FL. But I guess he was cast to play her believably as a female. Those scenes crack me up, because I think even the actors got confused!
There are so many familiar faces in this drama that I was surprised they all started off here!
Lee Jong-Suk playing a supporting role but it totally fits him so much, more so than any other drama I've seen him in! Yoo In-Na of supporting actress Goblin fame, she is such a sweet actress, with great comic timing. And the ever versatile Kim Sung-Oh from Korean Odyssey. There is also a surprise cameo from SonYe-Jin, who would have thought that her and Hyun Bin would get together a decade later...amaaazzing!
There is not 1, not 2, but 3 couples and potentially 4 & 5 going on which I love as the attention is distributed in a fair and interesting manner. The OST is great & very catchy. 'The Little Mermaid' features quite a lot in this storyline. It really is a Kdrama favourite as I've seen it pop up in soooo many kdramas with the ending metaphor of turning into foam as a perpetual worry.
I love the ending where they don't have a fancy wedding, this was just more romantic and it reminded me a lot of 'Arthur' (1981) US film where Dudley Moore gives up his fortune for Liza Minnelli, maybe it inspired this drama! Also, their child rearing tactics were great! I love how their relationship was still their number one priority and the kids came second, I know it's not realistic, but hey if it happened in reality there would be a lot less divorce and I think the kids would turn out healthier too. Well, that's my 2 cents...give it a chance, it won't disappoint.
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I can see why this show has good ratings;
1. the acting is so on point that you start to believe the situations.
2. The premise of the show (though a complete cliche of a kdrama) keeps you intrigued and doesn't try to sugarcoat the story to keep it a happy-go-lucky "everything's going to work out" feel.
3. The plot never contradicted itself (been seeing that a lot lately) and nothing really felt forced upon you throughout the show that you just had to accept (example: the leads can't be together because of something trivial that doesn't even really matter anyways).
4. They kept the characters true to themselves (example: the antagonist doesn't just suddenly have a complete 180 in their attitude to change the outcome of the story).
5. They didn't ruin cliffhangers by changing the situation at the beginning of the next episode.
With all that being said... I found myself struggling to finish it near the end. The story progresses at a moderate pace, then near the end it slows to a crawl. You can completely predict everything that's going to happen (Now I don't know if this is just a product of watching too many K-Dramas but it felt worse than usual), so it gets to the point where you just want to skip through it. I guess the last few episodes being that way really killed it from being perfect for me.
Raitings
Acting: 10/10
Writing: 6/10
Tear meter: 1/10 (Only one remotely sad part)
Overall: 7/10
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1000 crying emojis BECAUSE IT IS OVER WAAAH
I loathe snobby people. I generally dislike overwrought cheesy ballads. I could list so many things that annoyed me about SG when I first watched it; I nearly dropped it after ep 3 with the bag scene, and did drop it (temporarily) after ep 11 because I found the ML so loathsome, and could not see why FL didn't get together with her action school bros to slice and dice him, his appalling mother, and probably SFL too as she was irritating af at that point. BUT IT OVERRODE ALL OF THAT AND TURNED ME INTO MARSHMALLOW and now I am sat here with my eyes full of dorky hearts, singing all the ballads and giving it ten stars for everything, because it was so good it has wiped out all of my critical faculties and totally battered my brain into a mushy mess of love. I really have no idea why. All I know for sure is that I'm not alone, so give it a try, it could work for you too.If you are watching it and are as annoyed by the ML as I was - stick with it to ep 12, because it gets a whole lot better, all the annoying things cease to matter and it has a really great happy ending.
(Since I wrote this I've rewatched it many times. Yep, still with the heart eyes, still love them all, still love all the tunes. It's probably just as well I didn't see it when it came out as I'd probably have a drawerful of Oska socks.)
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Lack of Development
FL & ML: At times I found myself in a predicament, the male lead as a character was rude, arrogant, and selfish. I was not really sure how he even fell in love. Of course, throughout the show, they made it seem like he fell in love with her solely because he thought about her all the time. It did not seem he fell in love with her personality or who she was as a person, he just liked her because he thought about her a lot. I did not really see how he could fall in love with the female lead. It lacked chemistry. As well as from the FL’s perspective, I am unsure what he saw in him. He said some pretty rude and demining things to her over and over again, yet she accepted him anyways. No apologies given. The moments that the ML acted in a bad way, there was never any follow up. It was like it happened but then you just move on to the next thing, it was never addressed.SFL & SML: I did not like their relationship at all, the characters were just poorly depicted. The SFL was annoying, and she was causing her own suffering, a lot. Everyone knew that she was still in love with the SML and that she wanted them to be together again. But every time the SML was trying to do better and win her over, she would continue to push him away. I understand that this type of thing adds more drama and entertainment to the story, but there was just too much, and it got old, fast. I found myself not wanting to watch the show because I did not care about their relationship. At times when they would come up on the screen, arguing yet again, I found myself disassociating from the whole thing.
Character Development: There was, but there wasn’t. The ML at the beginning vs the ML at the end, seemed like he had grown a lot as a character. He started to get along more with others and was being nicer. But this development, I am unsure where it even came from. I just…ugh…
Overall Thoughts: Honestly, I feel like I did not start to really enjoy this drama until about episode 16. That is more than halfway through, more like about to finished. I went into the show thinking that it was going to focus on the switching bodies, but it didn’t. I was ready to see more of them being in each other’s bodies as well as them trying to actually figure out why this happened. They somewhat just ignored the whole matter and they accepted it way too early on. And then magic it was gone. There was not an actual explanation as to how it happened or why it happened or even why the father was involved in this weird magic scenario. Don’t even get me started on the end! It was just too much and too far out there, that I felt it did not make sense at all. They should have just ended it with the mother giving in or them just being together. Adding in all this extra stuff made it seem unbelievable.
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Surprisingly Turned into One of My Favorite Dramas
I first want to preface this by saying this took me 2 attempts and over 6 months to finish watching.I had heard of this drama numerous times--especially after finishing Boys Over Flowers (2009) and Coffee Prince. The story first caught my attention for how interesting it is. I had also seen the lead actors in other dramas and was curious.
The first watch through I made it about 12 episodes in before I dropped. It seemed to be predictable to me. But, thankfully, I decided to rewatch and try again. This story is so interesting. The characters are WILD. The acting is amazing. The emotions I felt watching this show were all over the place!
I feel like I definitely appreciated this show much more the second time I watched it. You do have to take into account when it was made, but the story and the characters hold up well all these years later.
Can't wait to rewatch!!!
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Not Sure...
Rating this drama is really hard and my rating before ep15, when I almost dropped this drama, and after would definitely have been very different.At first, I didn't care much for any of the main leads and didn't see any romance at all between them. The ML just acted like some obsessed, entitled rich guy who doesn't have any respect for personal boundaries. He also constantly berated the FL, groundlessly blamed her (amongst other things for not returning his feelings/ not taking him into consideration --- why would she when she simply does not feel that way and barely knows this dude who's suddenly obsessed with her?!) and was just an overall jerk to absolutely everyone.
I was really annoyed that they tried to sell this horrible behavior as him being smart or in "love". Honestly, even up to this point I haven't figured out when, how or why the FL actually started to return those feelings.
BUT, when the whole coma thing happened, his true and deeper feelings suddenly seemed more tangible and believable. He matured so much in those episodes so that he even realized his "solution" was probably the most selfish thing he's ever done. Another great moment was, when he actually gave up a lot of what he had before because his mother wouldn't give in.
Still, their love story is messy and even after finishing the drama it fails to make sense to me. Is the connection through his accident and her father enough to justify their relationship and make it "love"? I might have to re-watch it someday, maybe I'll see the development of both their emotions clearly then. As for now, it pretty much feels like the FL just gave in to a rich kid's temper tantrum.
I also never really came to understand the whole reason behind the body swap. Did I just not pay enough attention? Like, who was that person who gave them the drinks? Was that her father? What did he have to "save" her from? And how was the body swap supposed to help? Also, what was the point of this composer guy side character that Oska was chasing after? So confusing! I honestly think I will actually have to re-watch some day to answer my many questions, lol.
The ending was satisfying though. I must say that I really cared about the side characters as well and was happy that their relationships got just the right amount of screen time! Oska in particular was such a great and loveable character who showed the most steady growth throughout the series. And his and Gil Ra Im's relationship seemed the most natural and believable. I also liked the whole realistic portrayal of his and Seul's relationship and esp. how she went through stages of regret, rage, forgiveness etc. I didn't like how it ended for those two, though, because obviously she still didn't trust him in the end and them having to keep living in such a way doesn't scream "happy" ending to me, but I guess it sadly was very realistic... However, the development of Seul and Gil Ra Im's relationship was nice and I loved how Oska and Seul rooted for her and Joo Won and tried to help them out.
I also liked that Gil Ra Im kept working after they got married and had kids and I enjoyed seeing her and Joo Won as parents, just living a "normal" life and being happy (and angry lol) together. Are they my favorite couple ever? Not really, because I'm not that into the whole cat and mouse relationship type...
What really got me was Hyun Bin's acting and, of course, OSKA and his growth and relationship with Gil Ra Im! There were so many funny moments that I enjoyed. Overall, I also like that Gil Ra Im generally wasn't a pushover and made Joo Won work hard in order to get and keep her. She wasn't the typical overall perfect FL who's kind and gentle and just an addition to the ML etc but someone who also got upset, rough and feisty and kept working hard for herself and her dreams no matter what. She wasn't overly nice but treated others with respect and knew how to pick her battles.
As for cliches, there were plenty but it kind of just fit into this drama. Although I'm really not a fan of the "letting you go for your own sake" moment...
However, something I absolutely hated was how it seemed totally okay and natural for rich people to look down on and mistreat everyone else. Is that a reality? Maybe. But that doesn't mean a drama should condone it. I felt like Joo Won's disgust towards poor people never really changed. Yes, he "accepted" Gil Ra Im and fell in love with her "despite" her being poor, but he gave her lots of sh** for it and in the end took her into his world with him and that was that. Maybe some people would find it too cliche or overdone but I really wanted a resolution for this (like the department store doing some charity events (even "just" for families of firefighters who died) or something like that) because it just annoyed me so much!
In the end, would I recommend this drama? Yes, but prepare to be confused and at times infuriated, haha.
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Typical early 2000s drama (rich boy, poor girl) but quite disappointing
The drama started out very interesting with a strong female who also gave off a tom boyish vibe almost and a snobby rich man. It is like every other rich boy, poor girl drama which I was disappointed by since I thought there was going to be more to it especially because I thought the main theme was them switching bodies.They switch bodies for like a couple episodes and that's it which I feel like ruined it a bit. It also has 20 episodes and 16 would've been sufficient enough in my opinion. They dragged it out with the mother not agreeing and petty drama to the point I physically could not watch it because of how basic it was.
In the end, I strayed away from the actual main couple and became more interested in taesun because his 'romance' or 'love triangle' was far more interesting.
The drama isn't AWFUL but it certainly isn't the best or worth finishing in my opinion. Because it is an older drama I respect some people's opinions on having nostalgia with it but as my first and probably only time watching it, it did not live up to it's expectations
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A Classic
Wow, so I finished this drama in less than 3 days, and I have to say that it was one heck of a wild ride. I haven’t watched any other drama that is more than 10 years old besides BoF, and this drama far outshines BoF in my opinion. Still, while I definitely enjoyed this drama (duh, I finished 20 hours of content in less than 72 hours) I still had a few problems with it that I couldn’t really ignore, which I’ll talk about now. First and foremost, I feel like this drama was just too long. When a really long drama has a very quick pace and a narrow plot, we run into a problem where the characters experience one misfortune after the other, leading the drama to become, well, a little too dramatic. The conflicts in this drama felt never-ending, and I would have given this drama 16 episodes at most since some plot arcs were just incredibly cliche and a little out of place, even. I haven’t had this problem with many dramas, but some of the side conflicts were quite boring to me and I had to speed up the video in order to get through those bits a little faster. A couple that stood out to me were the pointless scenes with Han Tae Sun (yeah, I love Lee Jong Seok, but his character in Secret Garden was just not it), mostly because I felt his character didn’t really add anything to the overall plot, and, on a similar note, the whole storyline with Oska’s plagiarism scandal. Just honestly pretty boring and pointless to me. The last thing is not really a complaint rather than a personal preference, but I felt like Ju Weon’s neediness for Ra Im was a little bit ridiculous. Like, come on, it was basically stalker level. I didn’t mind it too much since she liked him back, but it would have been pretty problematic if those two weren’t the main leads, I’m just saying. Overall though, I love the actors (Hyun Binnnnnn!!!) and the extremely wholesome character development and relationships among all of the characters. Yoo In Na acting as Ah Young was a really nice surprise. I swear, this woman doesn’t age! The ending was very wholesome overall - it’s not often that we see our leads have children and get the storybook happy ending, and I was HERE for it. Despite the flaws, I’d say this drama is definitely a classic, and I’m very glad I watched it.Vond je deze recentie nuttig?
not coherent & absolute mess
this drama was great until it turned into an absolute MESS! it's like the scriptwriter was fired and a new one took his/her place, because the fantastic/horror plot is totally OUT OF PLACE, and the drama lacks COHERENCE. it is only the cast - mainly the ML - that saves this drama, otherwise its a complete disaster, dont bother to find any logic in it...so, since everybody is giving this a perfect TEN, let me point out its flaws! 1st, the GENDER BALANCE is totally off!! we only get to meet 3-4 DECORATIVE women to a lot of men? the stuntmen team, the shareholders team , the filming crew, the cousin, the secretary... ALL MALE!? as for women, its just our FL, her friend, her rival, and the popping-now-and-then doctor... women in this drama - or whatever - always wear shorts/mini/tights, so i swear ive never seen the woman more as AN OBJECT till now. is this SOFT P*RN or what? (oh its mostly women in p*rn, this must be reverse)
2nd, we have a lot of DRAMA QUEENS, like the FL, the stuntmen boss, and that Oska guy who looks like an alcoholic and also quite old for the part!
3rd, everyone is overreacting. Going by the logic, why keep it simple if it can get complicated? two mature & single ppl like/love each other, but it gets difficult for NO reason?
puhhlease spare me the drama!
i feel like the team - director + scriptwriter - got scared of the initial love plot, since it was getting quite intense! !
i really wanted to give this a better score.
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It's funny, romantic, and a unique gender bender even to this day.
But, the huge drawback really is the ML's toxic and abusive behavior towards the FL. It was out of place for her to just take it and seem like a weakling when she's portrayed as a strong woman, especially physical strong.
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A slice of life of the stunt world
10/10 is my rating. Two worlds collide in this exciting South Korean drama that aired in 2010 and 2011 (20 episodes). Gil Ra-im is a stunt woman who is poetry in motion when she is doing action scenes. Ha Ji-Won brings a versatility to this female lead role by being both tough and vulnerable. She also masters how to act more masculine when the body switch happens. Her cool behavior attracts multiple suitors the most unlikely of which is department store CEO Kim Joo-Won (Hyun Bin) who is drawn to Gil Ra-im despite the fact that he knows she is not the type of person that would be accepted in the elite social circles he and his family belong to. He masterfully adopts a more feminine attitude when they body switch and his slow transformation is believable. It is not hard to understand his fascination with Gil Ra-im and it is equally understanding how she would find him attractive for the security and protection his lifestyle offers.spoiler 🚨 There are many likable characters in this drama and you want to see them all end up happy. It is uncomfortably amusing at times (like Bromance if you have ever seen it), there is suspense, romance, mystery and multiple plot twists. This is one of my favorites and should appeal to anyone looking for a unique drama.
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Let me tell you, this is definitely a must watch. After watching City Hunter I had quite the expectations for dramas I'll see, and Secret Garden did the trick! At first, I really didn't get the hype at all. But then... what the heck! If I recall correctly, I was hooked from ep 1! The story is really great and you will LOVE the characters. The whole idea of switching-body-thing gives it a nice twist. The OST is great too. They have perfect songs for the funny moments and they have that perfect song for the crying moments (i.e. That Woman). I'm 99% sure you won't regret this one, trust me (and the other reviewers here)!
If you're looking for a rom-com, then watch Secret Garden. Overall, it's worth the watch:)
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