What's Wrong with Secretary Kim (2018)
Super fun premise although it felt like it dragged on for a bit longer than it needed to. Also, it felt a bit too similar to male lead actor Park Seo Joon's previous show just a few years prior- She Was Pretty (2015).Contrary to a lot of other reviews, I thought the main couple's chemistry was fine enough. They played off each other well, the romance was convincing enough, and they went through their own trials and tribulations to come out stronger, cuter, and more in love with another. Park Min Young played a playfully serious secretary and Park Seo Joon played, again, a cool perfectionist yet goofy CEO archetype. The boss-employee dynamic was fine for the most part, though it felt a bit too tipped in the boss' scale.
The side characters and subplot were... okay? Without a doubt the clear cut focus of the show was the development of the leads so any side characters didn't have much to work with. The "big bad evil" plot point was oddly dark but I appreciated it. Some parts were played safely and some parts were unnecessarily bloated, but again, fine for the most part.
Even after the show was over and the dust had settled, we never got the true answer to the question: what's wrong with secretary Kim?
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Best romcom ever
Ahmm!!!😍I loved this drama so much !!! Okay so im someone who is into crime , thriller and suspense that keeps me on the edge of the seat but this drama was an exception and I thought why not try it ?
So I did and I loved it so much !
So unlike other dramas this drama doesn't have so much to it but it still pleases you .... It is very light hearted and warm and you'll feel really good watching this if u r under stress or if u r a really busy person and u cannot often keep up with the story's suspense and all this drama is for u...
The characters in this drama are all soooo adorable and warm ... It truly felt like a family!🤗 I think the cast did a great job in giving us small giggles and making us feel warm all along !
I love how PSJ portrayed the male main lead .... I mean I did feel a bit bad but it was fun watching lee sung hyun so full of himself, arrogant and self centered but as the character further opens up u get to know that there more to him and hes like a coconut which is hard on the outside but soft from the inside .... I mean he did really care about mi so a lot its just that he didn't show it .... And mi so did a great job turning him into a new person and helping him open up...
And mind you there are a lot of love birds in the office😁😉 !
When I first started watching it I wondered why PSJ was so adamant on keeping mi so by his side but as the story proceeds you get to know!😁
I think this drama is just a small part of everybody's life where you feel you should quit and just rest now , get married have children, make a family...but it still was so cute looking at the couples cute it's and buts!☺
Overall its a fun experience watching this drama.... If you are having a tiring day and don't have anything to do or if u r feeling a bit low be sure to watch this drama ! Trust me it will surely heal you and entertain you to the fullest!
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Goofy, sweet office romance
The defining office rom-com of modern K-drama: The world’s most perfect secretary (she is who I want to be when I grow up) works for the world’s most perfect boss (who is work- and self-absorbed to the point of not really noticing anyone else). The drama starts when, after 10 years of dedicated service, Secretary Kim suddenly announces her resignation. The boss is shocked. He immediately decides that he must figure out why she is leaving and somehow stop her. Why would she leave the perfect boss? What could have caused this so out-of-the-blue? More importantly, how can he convince her not to go? Which leaves us asking the more important question: Why can’t he let her go so easily? Well…the answer may be more personal than he wants to admit. (hint-hint, wink-wink) A traumatic childhood backstory involving a psychotic kidnapper and suicide is thrown in for the tension of it all, and there’s also a cute CEO’s brother/famous author/love rival to round out this classic series. Quote of the show: [a post-it note reminder on the female lead’s desk] “Think coolly (cool head); feel warmly (warm heart); run like your feet are on fire.”Was this review helpful to you?
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Loved It
This drama was such a fun watch, didn't have much expectations started to watch for Min Young as I had loved her character and acting in the drama "her private life". Some of the dialogues were very funny...this is my first Park Seo Joon drama and he absolutely nailed the character so did Park Min Young...I liked the story, as it had no unnecessary drama's, fights and misunderstandings, matters and issues got resolved swiftly ...it was kind of real...how a couple in love would try & resolve issues... I liked the fact that story revolved around the main two leads (no second leads), although a brother was introduced his role was kind of rushed, which I guess was required for the plot. There were some sweet & hot kissing scenes, the main couple had lot of chemistry - of course it had a happy ending! Would love to see them together in another drama.Was this review helpful to you?
Story/ Plot/ Script: 7
Acting/ casting: 7
Character development: 8
Production quality/ budget management: 8
Enjoyment/ impact: 8
10=perfection 9=exceptional 8=really good 7=solid 6=it's fine 5=meh, forgettable 4=simply bad 3=waste of time 2=brain-rot 1=garbage
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This review may contain spoilers
This was my very first kdrama and it sucked me deep into the world of Asian drama. The chemisty between the leads was flawless and I liked the supporting characters as well. My favourite character was definitely the hardworking secretary Kim Mi So and I liked her relationship with her family (her two sisters and her father). I also liked the mystery sub-plot although the "leads meeting as kids" cliché definitely isn't my favourite one. Park Min Young has been my favourite actress ever since this drama. Was this review helpful to you?
my poor poor single heart.
This show was no masterpiece, but for some reason, I found myself immediately jumping from one episode to the next. One of the reasons this could be is due to how unique this basic storyline is. It's confusing... I know... but I don't know how else to explain it. So let me organize it....
Story 〆(・∀・＠): Here is where I am a bit confused. The story is a sweet classic romance between an arrogant CEO and his always reliable secretary who decides she wants to leave. Of course, romance ensues blah blah blah... but at the same time, it's so much more than that. The plot is unique in the ways that it's driven by things that happened in the past rather than a forwarding present conflict. So much of the characters and why they do things stems from what happened in their childhoods. I have yet to encounter a plot quite like this one in that regard. Another thing is that it's a mystery that I couldn't figure out for the life of me. In most shows, unless it's specifically written as a show with a lot of twists and secrets, I can usually figure things out pretty fast. And with romances, I can generally puzzle their quick little mysteries after one or two episodes. But with this show, I genuinely couldn't figure things out until the very end, which was incredibly refreshing for me. It's true that I could just be an idiot and couldn't figure it out, but I was indeed on the edge of my seat (not in a thriller way but in the way of wanting to find out more). This show also twists a whole bunch of tropes to make them more enjoyable for me. Making the rich family the more accepting group and making the arrogant CEO into the more understanding one between the two leads, are both examples of things that were changed much to my liking. I'll admit that this show is a.... well... it definitely a romance! There were so many cute scenes that just had me crying to myself. A lot of those added moments were definitely added in with fan service in mind. Towards the end of the show, it became VERY romantic, which is something I love, so I didn't have any issue with it for even a second. But even if you are a romance fan, if you're not one that enjoys cheesy scenes, then there might be a few moments of struggle for you. Again, it's a show that's very romantic... not just regular romantic. Something I love, but I know might want to be warned about.
Acting ｡゜(｀Д')゜｡: Ahhhh the acting!!! Where do I start!? fuuu okay! I love both the main lead actors to death. I have seen quite a few works with Park Min-Young and Park Seo-Joon as the leads, so when they came together.... let's just say I loved them before the show started. Seo-Joon has this way of making you fall in love with his arrogant and jerky characters, while Min-Young is not only stunning but has a face that can pull off various amounts of emotions. Both of them came in with their characters and made you feel heartbroken when they had to leave. Their chemistry was flawless and made my single self feel shamed. But it wasn't just the main two that brought the heat, but it was all the side characters around them. I can wholeheartedly say that I fell in love with each member of the office. They each had their own personalities, and the actors made it look like they were enjoying every second of it. Some went over the top while others were more silently quirky, but the differences between them made each of their subplots so much more enjoyable to follow. (My heart goes out to Kim Ji-Ah. I loved that character so much for some reason!)
Music ヾ(⌐■_■)ノ♪: duh duh duh here comes the boring part of the review! Or at least for me anyway.
I hate repeating myself with the shows I review, but this is all I can say: happy songs at happy times while sad songs during sad times. No off-putting music was put in, and everything worked together nicely. They added a nice feeling to each of the scenes, but I never paid attention to them. They were extremely basic and were something I'd never want to listen to in my free time. The one thing that was funny to me was that one of the songs kept repeating a word that sounded like a particular curse word. I'm not going to say it since I couldn't find anybody else who thought the same.... so I guess it's just my dirty mind. It was funny regardless though XD
Other (ง°ل͜°)ง: Office workers. I haven't watched as many shows that center around them, and the ones I have always angered me just a tiny bit. The CEO is always wealthy from the money he makes at his company, but at the same time, I never see him work. It's always him sitting at his desk (maybe reading a paper or two), but usually, he's thinking or doing something with the female lead. That's one thing that I can reeeeallly appreciate. The CEO was actually working!! In fact, one of the main conflicts both the leads had was how they manage their relationship within their work setting. Even though the CEO had a few moments of just wanting to hang out with his secretary, it never overtook him, and he still was able to get some work done, which is a small detail I found myself appreciating. Other than that, the work environment was very comforting. The characters were a bit more dramatic than I presume regular office workers are, but I always found myself enjoying the office scenes the most. I could watch a drama on what goes on there. Something that definitely contributed to my love for the show.
Would I say that this is my favorite show? No.
But I can assure you that I'll be rewatching a few moments over again through YouTube. One of the show's main beauties was that it's a basic plot with an underlying secret that I couldn't figure out. But now that I know, I doubt that I'll want to watch it again. But even with that said, it's a perfect show for just wanting something fluffy and romantic. It's nothing too serious and makes you feel good the entire way through.
So even though it isn't my favorite, it's definitely up there in the ranks for me.
Happy watching <3
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I started to watch “What’s Wrong With Secretary Kim” and the first thing I have to say is that the story has a slow start. I watched it and it didn’t catch my attention at first and I got bored. I’ve read a lot of reviews on it and they said it was good, but honestly, I’m getting bored and I’m taking forever to finish it because of that. If the drama is really interesting to me, I would finish it in like 3 days or so. I will continue the drama because I’m not the type that would start a new one without finishing the previous drama that I’m on.
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SUNGYEON BIG BARF
i read the comments talking about how they watched 11 and skimmed through 12-16LOL me too i just went looking for plot and dropped it near the end of 15
!!SPOILER!!
specifically when sungyeon acted all nicey when talking abt miso and whether or not youngjoon proposed to her 🤨 big barf ew
what is wrong w his character bro
the writers made him such an asshole and they tried to save it?? just let him rot please
i get it he was guilty, he was a child, but the “culprit” in a sense shd hv never, under no circumstances, take the position of the victim and blame the victim as if they were the culprit
that is disgusting and unforgivable, literally the worst thing you cld do,, and he had the balls to continue blaming others even after finding out how he acted as a victim 🤮🤮🤮
anyways with all the plot, youngjoon’s character doesnt make sense at the start!! he was portrayed as a complete narcissitic fool who just had random women around him
wasnt he hella mature as a kid?? to sacrifice himself and act as a culprit for the sake of the family?? he then proceeded to become an idiot after growing up?? where did the mature dude go?? did he like reverse grow LOL
and in the later episodes where they showed adult him who was still into miso, tht was not how he acted like at the start
COMPLETE DISCONNECT IN CHARACTER IMO
he liked her but apparently he proposed to her and all tht stuff just to stop her from resigning and he wasnt sincere??
the plot was okay but it was just weird that it was a rim-com
omg a kid was kidnapped for 3 days and saw a lady off herself in front of him and suddenly its just romantic laughing side couples
it was just weirdly wayyyyyyy too bright for such a dark backstory??
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Main couple love story flowing very boaring and silly way. They were working 9 years together still when they meet eyes to eyes they are getting very shocked excited , uncomfortable and all. It will be ok for the school dramas or teenagers couple . But here this acting I feel unnatural and not realistic.
Acting is so so, there is nothing much to appreciate but not bad . honestly I feel they dont have much to do. From the beginning it started well but after two or three episodes its got very boaring , everything are very predictable.
Normally Im not a dropper . But this one I cant move on. Every seen and dialogues are same . That rich boyfriend doing all the fancy things I saw that seens in a several dramas (secret garden , boys over flowers , masters sun) but in a better way.
As mentioning the beginning ML is a genius and over smart , but I cant feel it. Some dramas we can feel that vibe from ML. As a example masters sun ML. I think his secretary is the one who having master brain and taking all the wise decisions. And that stupid best friend who having a high post in company . Office environment is such a waist not looks like a professional office . Only office building looks very elegant. These all are very disappointed character set up for me. Actually I expected much more than this .
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This review may contain spoilers
I hate this with a burning passion and I need to rant about why.
The titular question refers to Lee Yeong Joon's (Park Seo Joon) confusion regarding his secretary giving notice after years. What is wrong with Secretary Kim Mi So (Park Min Young) that she can't see what an honor and privilege it is to be his 24-7 slave?It isn't much of a question, actually. Kim Mi straight up tells LYJ that he's a narcissist and she's had no time to have her own life while working for him. So, since she is finally in a secure financial position, she's quitting. This is just the Sandra Bullock 2002 movie Two Weeks Notice, Korean style, right?
It ain't.
Don't be fooled by reviews calling this sweet and fluffy with 'a great plot'. This is a nonsensical, over dramatic, badly written garbage fire of abuse and misogyny. I was three episodes in when I started feeling physically ill that this barrage of red flags and crime are perceived as romantic.
The problems?
1. The SeKrit Backstory runs the premise off the road so they don't have to deal with the systemic misogyny.
2. Kim Mi So doesn't exist as a character, so neither can a romance exist. Also misogyny.
1. The SeKrit Backstory.
I don't think I've ever seen a plot reveal so totally invalidate the first half of the show the way this one did. Re-read that plot synopsis. That's how the series plays it initially; that LYJ doesn't know why KMS wants to leave, or why her leaving/dating other men upsets him. He spends the first few episodes confused and trying to win her heart in a plethora of cringe ways. LYJ treats KMS like shit and she's tired of it. Simple. LYJ has to fix his ways, right?
No. All that gets abandoned when they introduce TeH SeKrit Backstory. You see, Yeong Joon and Mi So have history; as children they were kidnapped and imprisoned by some Rando Lady! LYJ has scars from the cable ties she restrained him with, and he calls the kidnapper 'mom' in the flashbacks which seems to indicate there was some weird shit going on, which spawned his phobia around physical intimacy with women. The specter of molestation rears it head, but it's never really addressed. Nor is why Rando Lady kidnapped them, or why she later hangs herself in front of them.
Once she's dead, the kids escape and LYJ takes KMS home where she vows never to forget him, blah blah blah, she's five years old. Of course she forgets. It's all very stupid and artificial, designed to give them traumas to be plot obstacles.
Oh, you thought that was the end of the trauma? Nope. See, LYJ got kidnapped because his elder brother Lee Sung Yeong (Lee Tae Hwan) has been bullying him for years, and abandoned him alone to be hurt. In the aftermath of the kidnapping, LSY has a mental collapse in which he absorbs LYJ's experience as his own. So, LSY believes HE was the one kidnapped because of LYJ's actions and starts terrorizing LYJ.
And rather than, say, get their children any help, the parents just accept the delusion as truth and go on with their lives.
Yeah, you read that right. These revolting parents allow the child to invert his guilt. LSY takes over LYJ's room, he screams and physically attacks LYJ, and constantly brings it up to guilt him into things. The parents, rather than help the child with the complete identity crisis, allow him to continuously re-traumatize the actual kidnapped child. In fact, they make it LYJ's responsibility to uphold the narrative to stop LSY from acting out. At a certain point they just assume LYJ lost his memory of having been kidnapped so they gaslight him, perpetuating phenomenal levels of emotional and mental abuse.
I thought we'd see a Golden Child/Scapegoat dynamic to explain it, but no. The best I can come up with is Asian filial piety; that the appearance of normalcy is worth any sacrifice, including the mental well-being of your children. Both LYJ and LSY were abused in the name of pretending there weren't problems. The parents get weepy about it later, but don't ever fully own their culpability, nor does the narrative think they should. In my culture, this is unacceptable levels of cruelty. Your mileage may vary, I suppose.
Somehow these layered traumas morph LYJ into an arrogant, self-absorbed man who constantly boasts about his physical perfection, intellectual prowess, generosity, and wealth. It doesn't track. None of it is framed as compensation for a damaged ego. He truly believes it.
Anyway, they grow up separate and one day KMS gets a job at LYJ's company. So, of course, LYJ masterminds KMS into becoming his secretary, despite the fact that she is severely under qualified for it. Not only that, he immediately takes her to a foreign country where she doesn't speak the language- and then berates her for not knowing the language, the full scope of her job or the customs and culture. So, entrapment.
With a combination of isolation, constant criticism, and back-handed assistance, LYJ provokes KMS into becoming a perfect employee. Not just a secretary; she handles much of his personal life, including dressing and dining help, visits with his parents and assists him in romancing (and ditching) women. KMS has learned all his foibles to cater to his every whim. She's rightfully tired of it.
That entire premise is never resolved. LYJ never comes to terms with the fact that he's been horrifically selfish and manipulative. The SeKrit Backstory becomes a giant, grotesque trauma float meant to excuse all of LYJ's behavior, and distract from the very real problems that exist between them that the show would have to take a good long look at their gender politics to resolve.
2. Kim Mi Who?
Kim Mi So is truly a farce of a character. I was astounded by how little she existed in a story ostensibly about her. She's the titular character, for fucks sake, but she's such a nonentity. Not one single thing in this whole damn plot was actually about her, her wants and needs.
For example; How was Mi So kidnapped? Did anyone notice? Her mother was dying somewhere and a five year old goes missing for a day or two and no one notices? Her experience of this massive plot point which takes up half the show is never revealed. The kidnapping is life-changing for LYJ. For KMS, it just seems to be a thing that happened to put her in LYJ's orbit. The only consequence is her fear of spiders. It is ornamental at best. You'd think she might share the fear of cable ties, but no.
KMS's entire character is written to loop back to LYJ in a really sick way that denies her a basic person-hood. We know nothing that happened to her in the intervening years which does not relate to Yeong Joon. Even the fact that she somehow has to be the one to pay off the debt accrued by her father's shitty life choices and her two older sister's educations, relates back to LYJ, because it's him she has to appease to keep her job.
This might be another culture barrier I can't see, but why is it KMS's responsibility to shore up the family finances instead the older sisters? Why don't the older sisters go 'hey, you supported us at a job that made you miserable, but now you can quit, and we'll support you while you find a career/path that will make you happy'? Well, because then something would NOT be about LYJ, and we can't have that. The sisters never have one conversation about their family situation. All of their exchanges are about LYJ and how awful he is. They, of course, later become obstacles to the relationship for extremely valid reasons the show refuses to acknowledge.
Mi So's only distinct thing you can point to her liking is the Morpheus books. And even that isn't about her. It's about her interacting with LSY to expose The SeKrit Backstory with LYJ.
So not only can she not have her own experiences and history, they didn't bother to give her an actual personality beyond competitive, determined and perky. But even those traits serve LYJ's story; she's not competitive or ambitious enough to say, take what she learned with LYJ and get a job elsewhere, only to become the perfect employee for him. She's determined—to get to the bottom of the kidnapping story, but not to quit, date other men and find her own life. She's perky because it seems like most Asian Drama heroines are for no other reason that it's a feminine virtue. She starts out being So Done with LYJ, but the first time he starts throwing money at her, she caves. Like, bitch?! Sure, you can't be bought with cold hard cash, but if you put a thin solicitous romantic skin on it and you're all in?
Her laundry list of very valid complaints about LYJ come to naught, and are then exacerbated with the 'romance' of harassment, bribery, stalking, love-bombing, intimidation and wealth flexing. It's not romantic. Romance is not guilting women into compliance with your trauma. At no point does LYJ recognize his power or his abuse of KMS. His romantic efforts are in service of keeping her in his employ and under his power, not for sincere affection.
KMS molded herself into the perfect secretary for LYJ, fully acknowledging that she'd sacrificed her identity to do so, and the plot isn't troubled by that in the slightest. If anything, there's an insidious, tacit kind of approval; She should be molding her whole life around a man who doesn't care about her or others. She should be happy with the crumbs he gives her all while espousing his own glory. She should continue to work for him, a complete subordinate in every single avenue of her life. That's what women should aspire to. She has no protection from him in the future, and that is an incredibly dangerous thing to encourage women to do in the name of romance.
The gender politics of this show are everything that South Korean women are protesting with the b4 movement, but you'll find nothing but the same sexist agenda aiming to promise women that love is service and access to our bodies.
What's Wrong With Secretary Kim? She woke the fuck up, and you put her back into a gilded female prison under the guise of True Love and It's Not His Fault, It's His Trauma.
Fuck. Off.
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