LA_Drama Fan

Cuba?

So in the newest trailer released (see above), we see that she gets a "makeover" and gets her hair straightened and she ditches the glasses (contact lenses?). This now matches her appearance as we saw in the running-thru-the-forest sequence at the end of Ep36. So I'm guessing that actual scene (and she regains her memories) will come either at the end of 37, or sometime in 38???

And what's interesting, is that BaiLu makes her MORE likeable than she is in the book.

Thank you for finding this! KBS America last night ran Ep 36, so they are now caught up with the domestic feed (they had been 2 weeks behind, maybe because of the planned Olympic outage?) and this preview was absent from their broadcast last night as well.

Rachel, I'm not sure. I saw it when it was live on KBS years ago. You might try Dramacool(dot)sk. Be sure to use the .sk version as the others are full of bad links. And use Adblocker installed on your browser if you do.

All these years later, I still find myself watching the end of 49 and opening of 50 where she goes in after hours to help him out at work. So many parts of that scene were relatable, especially the way she took off her ID lanyard and wrapped it up to store away. I must have done that 100 times myself.
This was such a good show.

Despite the high ratings, I kept putting off watching this. That was a mistake. I can't believe this series, and I'm only on Ep 6. It's almost like each episode is it's own individual motion picture. The production values are unreal, and the ending of Ep 6 may have been the most intense thing I've watched in years. WOW.

Review submitted. This was a truly fun show and I found myself humming "Sparkling Lemon Water" while on vacation, LOL. Everyone have a wonderful Summer!

My brain cannot fathom how they did this. I don't recall any K-drama (or even historical drama) doing something like this for prior Olympic breaks or even the Asian Games. It's just weird how they stuck it in there. I get the whole cliffhanger angle to keep interest in the series, but why not present it in the previews section as done in every prior episode (or every other drama, for that matter?) Oh well...

See you all in 2 weeks!

OK, I can't figure out the last scene, which is of monumental importance to the story.
- It was obviously out of sequence and in a strange environment.
- It was shot in soft focus around the edges, with a lot of lens flare, which they tend to do with the spoilers, or a 'dream sequence'.
- It contains things only she would know (what she said about their tattoos, and apologizing to GJD for not getting engaged).
So:
- Was she dreaming? If so, she then knows some things at least from her past.
- Was this a spoiler? It wasn't depicted as such as done before (spoilers for the following episode are presented in their own section after stills from the current episode).
- Was it a preview? If so, where are they?
- Did the director get drunk and screw up the editing???
The only thing I can guess is that they did a time skip ahead to the shoot on Jeju Island, and something happened to reclaim her memory. She runs, he pursues, and here we are. So, I'd guess that Ep 37 will open with a step back from here to the shoot on Jeju and whatever events led up to his chasing her in the forest?

Am I thinking too much? Does anyone agree? Otherwise, this makes no sense to me.

Berd, I think that "how nice it would be if...." will be the ongoing theme of this drama. So many missed opportunities with this one.

Well, she's got 2 good male actors in this at least: SangYi & YooJin. I've never seen the ML lead in anything I've watched yet, but fingers crossed. She's such a dominant figure that maybe we won't noticed him that much.

Thank you so much for your kind words. I wrote my review but I’m on vacation this week and I’m not near my computer so I can’t submit it. I will next week. In my opinion, this series rates a 9.5, I’m only reducing the .5 for the poor editing that was done by cutting certain key scenes. Other than that, I couldn’t ask for more for an offbeat and very interesting series.

They address this in the early episodes when the team tells her how to move like a robot. But this really comes out near the end when he gets angry with himself when he realizes how much he wanted her to be a robot that he over-looked all the warning signs. (this was actually a funny scene).

If you're feeling down and need a pick-me-up, 'Hometown ChaChaCha' is hard to beat. It helped a lot of people here get thru the pandemic.
Overall, though, What's Wrong with Secretary Kim is one of the best romcom's I've ever seen. Everything was right about this series, even the littlest detail.

I don't think the writer would agree, LOL. We actually discussed this at length right after she was recovered on the rocks...if you scroll down a ways, you'll see the long conversations.

Saw the final episode on Monday. I feel like friends of mine just moved away...after having watched them for the last 6 weeks. I need to think for a bit before even trying to submit a review.

Ep 36 – ShuYi to the Rescue

We open the last episode with ShiYan stressing about the negative public reaction to the project and his reluctance to speak to the media, including ShuYi, to clear things up. She still feels some responsibility for all this as she thinks part of it is due to her recent article on the project. At home that night, she embraces him and tries to get him to open up to the media and get ahead of the story, but he can’t yet. He explains to her that there isn’t much to report in the way of progress and he doesn’t want to stir anything up (A really sweet scene to the opening of the finale).

In the morning, Ms. Tang asks ShuYi to follow up on all the rumors on the Yuanchang project but ShuYi tells her boss there isn’t much to report yet (and it’s not because of who her boyfriend is). But the media abhors a vacuum on news, so articles begin to appear full of conjecture and half-truths about the situation with Yuanchang, and Ms. Tang is forced to have FW reply. She gathers her staff asking someone to take charge of writing the article and ShuYi agrees, to everyone’s surprise (at this point, she has an agenda). She goes about interviewing everyone BUT ShiYan and writes a complete explanation of the situation, the background of the project, and an optimistic tone about its eventual outcome. (We don’t know if there was any disclosure about her + ShiYan’s relationship – probably not). She essentially does what she urged him to do and put a factual and “maybe” positive spin on the project. The article is praised and well-received by the public, appeasing his insurgent elders on the board, who vow to back off and let ShiYan proceed. When he gets home that night, he thanks her (she feigns ignorance of helping him) and they embrace. He grants her a promise made long ago: He’ll sit down for another interview of him for FW.

With that settled, FW proceeds to begin the e-magazine project in earnest and Ms. Tang appoints ShuYi as the interim director and tells her to start assembling her team and organization structure. ShuYi gets her niece and is lucky to get Brier (the star intern hired at the same time as her niece) to volunteer for the project too. She will also get a new intern (and future love interest for Brier) as her tech lead.

In 3 months time, she does a presentation on the project’s status for Ms. Tang & the Editor in Chief. Obviously, she’s done a great job and is praised by Ms. Tang on ShuYi’s efforts to get the project started and her accomplishments as interim director. At it’s conclusion she is cheered by her Editor in Chief, who DOES mention that he’s heard the rumors of her behing helped by her boyfriend, but she is honest and tells him that her boyfriend has helped but he is one of many resources she’s used in her job as a reporter. When she gets back to her desk, the staff is CERTAIN she will get the promotion and permanent appointment and she promises to take them to dinner the next night to celebrate. She feels as though she’s on top of a mountain. However…..

Things move fast in China, and less than an hour later she’s in Ms. Tang’s office and finds out her Appraisal of Promotability goes badly and the Editor in Chief turned her down, after all. Ms. Tang tries to soften the blow telling her that she is selfishly happy that she can stay with her and that the Editor does praise her a lot, it’s just that he doesn’t know her that well yet. His concerns were due to her young age (she’s still only 25, remember) and her lack of management experience to lead such a vital new project. With the mountain she stood atop just a few minutes ago now completely crumbling away under her feet, our heroine stoically accepts the decision and shuffles back to her desk.

Her shift done, she leaves the office dejected and tells ShiYan what happened, to his amazement. When he goes to meet with the Editor to question his decision, she grabs him and begs him to stop. Dejected, she pouts and whines that night (that’s our girl) until he cheers her up by agreeing (just barely) to let her take a silly picture of them. He also tells her that her ex-bf was recently fired and his mistress was dismissed as well (so much for them!) which puts a grin on her face.

The next day, she takes the photo of them on the Temple Steps (from their trip to Zhanlan, several episodes ago) to put on her desk at work…and her spirits are lifted. We now see them exchange pleasantries’ as a normal couple would and behave accordingly, to the point she refers to him as her husband. That night, it snows in earnest at their home and they embrace and kiss as he carries her off to bed. The next day at work, she does get to have some fun, and tells her niece that she’s passed her probation and is appointed permanently to FW. (Be sure not to miss the funny scene when the niece informs Prof You of her good news).

We are now presented a montage of events sometime later on: We learn that the Dark Horse/Le’an collaboration does produce the tech breakthrough they sought and they have begun production of millimeter-wave chips; ShuYi is presented with her second award for reporting excellence (for an article from before the series began on elderly health care) at the 10th annual Financial News Award Ceremony; Le’an, at it’s 7th year anniversary banquet has CEO Shen announce to his staff and VIPs from Yuanchang (ShiYan, GuanJi, Prof You, Fiona) that they are going public (a feather in ShiYan’s cap as their investment will really pay off now) and ShiYan (who brought along ShuYi) is asked to speak to the staff. It’s interesting that the Black Horse CEO Mr. Buzzard is there (given their collab project is essentially done) but he says nothing and stays in the background.

With the banquet speeches over, and the attendees leaving, ShiYan pulls his girlfriend aside and gives her an engagement ring in the moment we’ve all been waiting for. Typically for our girl, she initially refuses (she loves to poke him) and when he chases her down to ask WHY??? She tells him she’s already married…and he picks her up and twirls her around the room in joy.

Later on, in Ms. Tang’s office, her boss reveals that she is getting married and invites ShuYi to be her bridesmaid. ShuYi is shocked to learn her boss is marrying her “Uncle Guan”. (This looks like another instance of rushed editing, as I’m sure the scene where Ms. Tang And Mr. Guan decide to marry would been filmed, given the time devoted in previous episodes on their relationship and her reluctance to marry at her older age).

The final scene is at the wedding, and Ms.Tang is lovely in a gown befitting her statuesque figure and age. A couple of odd things, though in this setting: they don’t kiss after exchanging rings and just embrace (we’ve never seem them kiss at all); Guan Ji is not his father’s best man – ShiYan takes that role. At the reception, all the family members meet and the Three Musketeers are teased as to which one is next to marry? After a suggestion from Uncle Guan that they have a group wedding, which the Musketeers like but is quickly shot-down by the girls, the episode ends with Ms. Tang tossing the bouquet with all our ladies vying to catch it.

Ep 36.5 – Vows Made & A Secret Revealed

So in the bonus episode, necessary because of the sloppy editing of the series, we finally get their wedding.

With her wedding invitations ready to go, Shu Yi gets frustrated that ShiYan just lets her decide everything, including her wedding dress. She reaches out to her BFF again for help and Shanshan makes the needed decision on which venue is best (she confirms the choice that ShuYi wanted all along). But the one thing that ShiYan is against is her choice of this venue as he feels it’s “too pink”. She pleads with him (I’m not sure how much of this is teasing on his part) and finally threatens (uhhh “promises”) to cook his dinner every evening. Alarmed at the thought of her cooking, he relents and she gets the pink wedding of her dreams.

We jump to the ceremony which is sweet and funny and typically her (BaiLu makes for a beautiful bride). It’s fun to see the entire cast assembled together as well, with Mr. Chen, ShiYan’s personal assistant doing the honors as officiant. In a interesting arrangement, the invitees are arranged such that one side of the aisle are all his employees and the other side is the FW crew from her office…showing just how much their professional lives have dominated them. She gets her idol-cum-sister-in-law-to-be to sing as well. After exchanging rings, we see the promised kiss between husband and wife that has teased us in every opening credit from Episode 1. After the reception and they see all their family members off, he pulls her back into the church to tell her a secret: the first time they actually met (which he teased back in Ep 31) was at the 8th annual Financial News Awards when she won her first award at 23 years of age. He tells her how she caught his eye back then and that he’s followed her ever since: both surprising and immensely pleasing his bride who kisses her husband again. The final shot is a pan back from them kissing alone in the church and is beautifully arranged with the background music.

I’ll leave any final comments in the REVIEWS section. Thanks for reading all along to this unusual and addicting series.

All they have to do, literally ALL THEY HAVE TO DO, is have her look in a mirror once in a while and let us see another actress face. It's even a non-speaking role, so it wouldn't be that expensive to hire that cast member. They could even use her for occasional brief POV shots from other cast members - although I don't think this show does this that much.

I agree with you. That whole scene brought tears to my eyes when she said that. She does such a good job of portraying her character, I'm left speechless.