1
This review may contain spoilers
Carrying the Weight of the World!
The magic of this series actually doesn’t rest in the romance. It rests in the magic of how a little boy decides to bear the weight of the world upon his shoulders and carry that burden into adulthood.
There are many aspects of this series that we’ve seen countless times. A rich man who ends up falling in love and courting an ordinary woman. A rich man who lavishes her with bought out amusement parks, boat rides, restaurants, and so on. There is still the arcane belief that happiness lies in a relationship with a wealthy person, unfortunately, usually the man. It’s been said that money can’t buy happiness. It also can’t buy love, as true love has absolutely nothing to do with wealth.
Lee Young Joon is the Vice-Chairman and partial owner of a massive corporation. He’s also a bit of a narcissist. If you look up the true definition of a narcissist, Lee Young Joon only fills some of the boxes, but not all of them, which leads us to believe that he’s conceited and full of himself, but he’s not necessarily a narcissist in the typical sense. Yes, he’s bossy, overbearing, demanding, and he must always get his way. However, buried underneath is a man who is capable of deep feeling.
Enter, Lee Young Joon’s secretary, Mi So Kim. While Lee Young Joon is very smart and capable, it’s obvious that the person juggling and taking care of all of the balls in the air is his unwavering and loyal secretary. However, after reaching her boiling point in having to work for nine years for the self-centered Lee Young Joon, Mi So Kim decides that it is time to pursue something else, thus leaving Lee Young Joon in a quandary.
However, there is far more than meets the eye when it comes to the relationship between these two, and it’s here that the true heart of the story takes off. As children, Lee Young Joon and Mi So Kim were kidnapped by a deranged woman and kept inside an abandoned building. Cable ties were used to bind their hands and feet. Mi So, who was only five, has spent years trying to find the “mysterious” boy who not only saved her life, but also did all he could to prevent her from seeing the nightmare images from that fateful event. It's endearing and heartwarming to find a young boy who takes on that kind of responsibility.
Lee Young Joon feigns memory loss of that day, and even goes so far as to deny that he was even the boy who was with Mi So, thus opening the door for his jealous and envious brother, Lee Sung Yeon, to believe that he was the one who had been kidnapped, due to the amount of guilt their parents placed upon him. Too often, parents forget how lashing out can create deep psychological scars and even manipulate memories.
Rather than confess to Mi So that he was the one who had saved her, Lee Young Joon decides to deny it in order to prevent her from reliving that horrible past. In short, he does everything in his power to protect her, even from those memories, and we find out that Lee Young Joon hasn’t suffered any memory loss at all, but is simply bearing the brunt of it, even to the point of suffering horrible nightmares and scars. This is how we learn that Lee Young Joon is a truly noble and loving person because, just as Mi So has been looking for him since she was little, Lee Young Joon has also been looking for Mi So.
There is an absolutely adorable scene shortly after Lee Young Joon takes little Mi So home after the kidnapping, where she professes her love and even proposes marriage to him. Sometimes the most profound memories are those we have as children, and in this case, even years later, their dreams come true.
The series is essentially wrapped up by the 12th episode, and as another reviewer pointed out, the last four episodes contain mostly filler stories. One of the things that hurt the series was that too much attention was given to the romantic relationship between the co-workers. Frankly, while there were some hilarious and silly moments, I really didn’t care because I wasn’t invested in them. Anyone who has been involved in a workplace romance will readily tell you that they are a bad idea. Even the awkwardness created by the relationship between Lee Young Joon and Mi So, should be enough to give anyone pause before entertaining one.
The performances between Park Seo Joon and Park Min Young are first-rate, even if their chemistry was a bit inconsistent at times. Park Seo Joon’s crowning performance is still in “Itaewon Class,” and I felt that Park Min Young gave a better performance in “Her Private Life,” mostly because she had better chemistry with her male lead in that series.
Most of the humor is provided by Park Seo Joon as we see how silly and awkward he makes Lee Young Joon, especially when he’s praising himself or telling Mi So how great he is. He does have a few cringeworthy moments when he crashes Mi So’s vacation, or when he tries to plan out their wedding, even going so far as to pick her dress for her. His friend was correct: he’s like a bulldozer. However, it’s hard to escape Park Seo Joon’s charm, which reminds me a little bit of Michael J. Fox as Alex Keaton in “Family Ties.”
Overall, this is a good series that would have been great had they cut it to twelve episodes. However, don’t let that sway you. The last four episodes are still good, but they just don’t quite hold up compared to the rest of the series.
There are many aspects of this series that we’ve seen countless times. A rich man who ends up falling in love and courting an ordinary woman. A rich man who lavishes her with bought out amusement parks, boat rides, restaurants, and so on. There is still the arcane belief that happiness lies in a relationship with a wealthy person, unfortunately, usually the man. It’s been said that money can’t buy happiness. It also can’t buy love, as true love has absolutely nothing to do with wealth.
Lee Young Joon is the Vice-Chairman and partial owner of a massive corporation. He’s also a bit of a narcissist. If you look up the true definition of a narcissist, Lee Young Joon only fills some of the boxes, but not all of them, which leads us to believe that he’s conceited and full of himself, but he’s not necessarily a narcissist in the typical sense. Yes, he’s bossy, overbearing, demanding, and he must always get his way. However, buried underneath is a man who is capable of deep feeling.
Enter, Lee Young Joon’s secretary, Mi So Kim. While Lee Young Joon is very smart and capable, it’s obvious that the person juggling and taking care of all of the balls in the air is his unwavering and loyal secretary. However, after reaching her boiling point in having to work for nine years for the self-centered Lee Young Joon, Mi So Kim decides that it is time to pursue something else, thus leaving Lee Young Joon in a quandary.
However, there is far more than meets the eye when it comes to the relationship between these two, and it’s here that the true heart of the story takes off. As children, Lee Young Joon and Mi So Kim were kidnapped by a deranged woman and kept inside an abandoned building. Cable ties were used to bind their hands and feet. Mi So, who was only five, has spent years trying to find the “mysterious” boy who not only saved her life, but also did all he could to prevent her from seeing the nightmare images from that fateful event. It's endearing and heartwarming to find a young boy who takes on that kind of responsibility.
Lee Young Joon feigns memory loss of that day, and even goes so far as to deny that he was even the boy who was with Mi So, thus opening the door for his jealous and envious brother, Lee Sung Yeon, to believe that he was the one who had been kidnapped, due to the amount of guilt their parents placed upon him. Too often, parents forget how lashing out can create deep psychological scars and even manipulate memories.
Rather than confess to Mi So that he was the one who had saved her, Lee Young Joon decides to deny it in order to prevent her from reliving that horrible past. In short, he does everything in his power to protect her, even from those memories, and we find out that Lee Young Joon hasn’t suffered any memory loss at all, but is simply bearing the brunt of it, even to the point of suffering horrible nightmares and scars. This is how we learn that Lee Young Joon is a truly noble and loving person because, just as Mi So has been looking for him since she was little, Lee Young Joon has also been looking for Mi So.
There is an absolutely adorable scene shortly after Lee Young Joon takes little Mi So home after the kidnapping, where she professes her love and even proposes marriage to him. Sometimes the most profound memories are those we have as children, and in this case, even years later, their dreams come true.
The series is essentially wrapped up by the 12th episode, and as another reviewer pointed out, the last four episodes contain mostly filler stories. One of the things that hurt the series was that too much attention was given to the romantic relationship between the co-workers. Frankly, while there were some hilarious and silly moments, I really didn’t care because I wasn’t invested in them. Anyone who has been involved in a workplace romance will readily tell you that they are a bad idea. Even the awkwardness created by the relationship between Lee Young Joon and Mi So, should be enough to give anyone pause before entertaining one.
The performances between Park Seo Joon and Park Min Young are first-rate, even if their chemistry was a bit inconsistent at times. Park Seo Joon’s crowning performance is still in “Itaewon Class,” and I felt that Park Min Young gave a better performance in “Her Private Life,” mostly because she had better chemistry with her male lead in that series.
Most of the humor is provided by Park Seo Joon as we see how silly and awkward he makes Lee Young Joon, especially when he’s praising himself or telling Mi So how great he is. He does have a few cringeworthy moments when he crashes Mi So’s vacation, or when he tries to plan out their wedding, even going so far as to pick her dress for her. His friend was correct: he’s like a bulldozer. However, it’s hard to escape Park Seo Joon’s charm, which reminds me a little bit of Michael J. Fox as Alex Keaton in “Family Ties.”
Overall, this is a good series that would have been great had they cut it to twelve episodes. However, don’t let that sway you. The last four episodes are still good, but they just don’t quite hold up compared to the rest of the series.
Was this review helpful to you?
