If you want something slightly different from a regular drama, take this for a spin you won't regret it!
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Promising start, and a steep decline
Good lord, what did I just watch.It feels like I bit into an lush looking apple and tasted the rot inside.
I don't want to waste my time and everyone else's by talking too much about this show. Here's the dealbreaker for this show: sexual assault passed off as romance.
The male lead forcefully kisses the female lead, tortures her mentally, gaslights her, controls her actions, and is in general a downright menace and an antagonist.
I watched as many as 12 episodes because I really thought he was the antagonist and would get his comeuppance, or at the very least change drastically and die tragically.
Didn't seem like that anymore, so I dropped it like a hot potato.
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The storyline is truly intriguing, and that's why I kept coming back. I'm not afraid to drop dramas even if I invested halfway through.
I would've dropped this drama, but I was still pulled in because I wanted to see where the characters would end up.
I hated all the characters. Especially the leads. I was excited to watch the KMHM leads together again...oh god. This was a horrible mess. Don't waste your time with this frustrating drama.
The characters are pathetic and twisted. Pure toxicity.
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It didn't.
It so thoroughly disappointed me but I should have known when I saw the actors and the performance in the first episode.
And I even watched 13 out of the 16, all I can say is...
Don't waste your time on this one.
I truly believe that this COULD have been an epic, timeless drama. If the plot only had been (which I thought it was about when I read the plot) a love story of a woman who killed another man's lover and they fall in love. If the writers had explored that complicated, unspeakable love. How a woman could ever allow herself to love the man of the woman she killed and the man's guilt of falling in love with the woman who murdered his girlfriend. Wow. It would've had so much potential of exploring that stort of guilt, forbidden love and the complexity of human emotions. It would have been uncharted water and it also would have been more credible, that people just can't choose who they love.
BUT IT DOESN'T.
Instead this series turned out the be something written by middle schoolers where there are conspiracys that aren't even credible for the audience. The over-acting, so many just full-blown overreactions to certain events and UNDERreaction to others just made this feel like I was watching some sort of drama a middle schooler would have thought up. And oh lord, are there some plain friggin' cringy-ass-moments. Doesn't help with the fact that all the characters are stereotypes with no depth (although some scenes painfully try to give depth and all they do is try and dig a hole in a frying pan). The actors does not help at all, they do not stand out, non of the characters are even memorable since after watching 13 episodes - I can't even remember the characters names so yeah.
And the main female lead- The girl is innocent! Shocking, can't have a girl who is human and not perfect or dressed to be some sort of Jesus-figure. So many bad things happen to her, so unfair! No, she's just naive and pure stupid at times and the acting nor the script made any of her choice believeable. You'll have tot try hard to find a more 2D character out there.
Not even gonna write about the other characters or the rest of the drama. Hope this will save you 13 hours of your life better spent elsewhere.
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tears can end the drought anywhere
i love chinese/korean dramas. to start with, i'll admit that i wanted to see this because of ji sung, whom i admire and love as an outstandingly talented actor, with a very high EQ, which he relies on very skillfully while getting into his characters. the first one i saw with him was "kill me, heal me" - and it was "love at first site", i wanted to see more and more of ji sung. so i did quite a few, including his last drama "devil judge", which became one of the best dramas in my book of excellency.but.. this "secret love" was the first time that i wanted to let it go from the first 4 episodes, sooooooo boring, repetitious. then i must admit, i sort of got sucked in, wanting to know how the writer resolves this or that, where it will go and how the characters will develop and adjust. disappointment is not even a word i would use , by the end i felt a waste of my time, emotions and investment. first of all, it felt more like it had characteristics of a cheap american soap opera rather than one of the korean or chinese dramas that i got to love so much. the amount of tears shed by the main female character and then many others in this drama can easily put an end to any drought anywhere on earth - when it's that much it becomes almost irrelevant. yes, some instances were called for such expression of desperation and sadness, but not ALL the time, non stop. it made this drama very lopsided, if you will. the topic itself had a potential but it was wasted, scattered and definitely underdeveloped (the story itself). after the first 4 episodes it kind of started building steam, but the last 5 episodes it started rapidly deteriorating, really getting NOT SAD, but on my nerves. it almost got us to a conclusion of the worst outcome - greed, money and power win the day, love is in the dust and that is the fate of humanity. thanks god, in the literally last few minutes of the very last episode, the writer got himself/herself up, dusted up, and provided a semi-happy ending, but was this enough payback to the viewer? i think not.
a few words about the acting. top performance from ji sung as expected, and bae soo-bin surprisingly good, but i did not see him in any other production. hwang jung-eum is not consistently good - she is overdramatic in many instances and screeching to the degree that it feels like it's piercing your ear drums (but that's the complaint i had in "kill me heal me" as well.) so i gave an 8 for the acting because of these actors.
in conclusion, i could live without this drama. sorry to all the other reviewers who actually liked it a lot, i am in the minority.
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Story: 9.5/10 Oh my goodness.. The story is so well written. There was a lot of suspense and it was unpredictable. The characters were well developed and they had lots of characteristics. Yoo jung's husband was so upsetting LOL. Yoo Jung's character will really get to you. I don't really get why Ji Sung fell in love with Yoo Jung that fast but um ok haha. Lee Da Hee's character was kind of pathetic. I never figured out what really happened to Ji Sung's girlfriend's secret death until the ending so man they kept it well sealed! The only part I don't like in this whole drama was the ending. I expected a little more from the romance but well it ended well.
Acting/Cast: 10/10 Hwang Jung eum's acting is flawless as always. Her tears make you cry ok like I could not stop crying whenever she cried. Her acting is so incredible that you'll literally feel heaps of sympathy for her. Soo bin's acting was pretty good and Lee Da hee's arrogant image was well done just like in her other dramas. Her clothes were so pretty! *-* Ji Sung was SO good oh my goodness. He really improved from All In to now.
Music: 10/10 they all stood out to me and I was like I have to get this hahah
rewatch value: 9/10 yes maybe
overall: 9.5/10 I recommend thissss
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P.S and that woman se yeon i hate her because i wont go that far for someone who dosent love me and happy with someone else that makes him happy and i know that she's a good person i won't be selfish like that ughhhh and for that person do hoon i want to say one word GO TO HELL AND COME BACk AND GO AGAIN and rot in there (evil face here) even if i like the actor but i hated him in this drama and i hated his mother more cause if he was my son i won't mAKE everything easy for him and i would'nt have spoiled him like that i wold have let him take responsibilityi for what he did:( but the acting was wow for all the people in this drama
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This review may contain spoilers
I Tried to Like Secret Twice… But Yeah, It’s Still a No for Me.
📌 THE OFFICIAL “I Tried, But Nah” Review of Secret (2013 K-Drama):Let me just start off by saying this: I watched Secret not once, not twice, but THREE times. That alone deserves an award for patience because each time, I was like, “Okay maybe this time it’ll hit different…” but nah, every single time I ended up sitting there like: “Yeah, now I remember why I dropped this mess.”
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🧍♀️THE FEMALE LEAD: BACKBONE? NEVER HEARD OF HER.
I didn’t hate her… but she frustrated my soul. Like girl, all you had to do was say you didn’t do it. I get that she was in love with the second male lead and took the fall for him — okay, tragic love, sacrificial queen, etc. But once you’re getting bullied and hated on by someone who thinks you murdered his girlfriend, can you maybe say something besides “…”?! Like baby, speak up. Try once to defend yourself, please.
I understood why she eventually just took it — she loved that man, and love makes people stupid, apparently. But at some point I needed her to stop being a punching bag and start acting like she had a spine. Her silence wasn’t strength. It was just… sad. And yes, she eventually moved on, but she felt like a blank slate most of the time. I literally had more feelings about the side characters than her.
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🧍♂️THE MALE LEAD: MAKE IT MAKE SENSE.
Here’s my biggest issue with this whole drama: he thought she killed his girlfriend… and still fell in love with her. What in the brain rot is that? Like sir, be serious. You hate her, you think she’s a murderer, but you also wanna kiss her?? That ain’t forgiveness — that’s mental instability.
And no, he didn’t even forgive her and then fall for her. He fell first, then circled back to “oh wait maybe she didn’t do it.” Excuse me?? If someone took someone I loved out of this world, the last thing I’m doing is blushing over them. I needed him to have more self-respect, or at least some moral consistency. The way this man was emotionally torturing her, and then suddenly catching feelings… yeah, I was side-eyeing him the whole time.
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🧍♀️SECOND FEMALE LEAD: DOWN BAD, BUT I GET IT.
Okay listen… I understood her. Yes, she was a bit delusional. Yes, she stayed too long. But she was also loyal and emotionally attached to this man since childhood. She watched him cry over another woman and STILL stayed by his side, knowing he didn’t give a damn about her. That kind of emotional masochism is tragic. And at one point, I swear he even told her “We’re not even friends.” Like dang. He said “you’re not even in the group chat.”
Was she pathetic? Yeah. But also? Relatable. Because people act like second female leads don’t have feelings too — like they can just flip a switch and move on. She just wanted love. It doesn’t make her evil or crazy. She was just in pain. And that pain was real.
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🧍♂️SECOND MALE LEAD: COMPLEX, TRASH, BUT HUMAN.
Now this man right here… He had me switching sides every 10 seconds. Like at first I was disgusted. You had the mother of your child go to jail for YOU?! You let her take the fall for a crime you committed?! I was throwing hands through the screen.
But then… plot twist. He didn’t do it on purpose. And yeah, he was scared, weak, selfish — but also? So painfully human. I don’t condone it AT ALL. But fear and regret? That’s real. He’s not evil. He’s just a messed-up person who made a horrible choice and regretted it.
And that car crash flashback? The full truth? It hit. You realize he didn’t plan anything. He was a coward, not a villain. Still trash for not standing up for the FL, but again — human trash, not demon trash.
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👶 THE BABY + THAT PLOT TWIST:
Yo. I dead thought he did something to that child. Like I was convinced he hurt the baby somehow. But nah, he gave his son up for adoption… and honestly? That was the first mature thing he ever did. He realized that kid needed stability and peace, not a broken home with legal drama, toxic men, and constant trauma. I respect that.
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❤️ RELATIONSHIP VIBES: I FELT NOTHING.
Now let me be clear — if I’m not shipping the main couple by episode 6, I’m out. And here? I felt nothing. The ML and FL gave absolutely zero chemistry. Like I don’t care if they kissed, cried, or confessed — I was numb. The only characters I cared about were the second female lead (because girl, please choose YOU for once), and the second male lead (because his redemption arc almost got me).
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🧠 FINAL THOUGHTS: EVERYONE WAS TRASH BUT REAL.
I don’t think any of them were evil. They were just broken, selfish, scared, and stupid — aka real people. The ML was hateful and obsessed with revenge. The FL was weak and way too self-sacrificial. The second ML was a coward. The second FL was love-sick and drowning in delusion. But none of them were monsters. They were just flawed.
So do I recommend Secret? Not really. I didn’t vibe with it. Maybe it works for people who like emotional pain and messy forgiveness arcs. But for me? If I’m rewatching a drama three times just to remember I never liked it… that’s not a good sign.
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