S1234

Most dramas there days - Bulgasal, Snowdrop, Tale of the nine tailed have featured men who are more than a decade older. No one says anything. Why is this a problem if 4/10 dramas men older, 5/10 dramas same age, 1/10 dramas women older. At least Korea is showing some diversity. Korea is saying that age is not a bar for women. I think it’s really important. If you don’t like don’t watch 🙂👍. When you cross thirty you will see how horrible the world is stacked against older women be it at workplace, social places and in entertainment. If women are laid off, it’s hard for older women to find another job if they have started looking old. All of these biases add up and we all will grow older you will too. I in fact wish there was more diversity and they showed us older women, older men, and disabled main leads also.

He was so so awesome in its ok not to be ok 👍

As a boyfriend he was not but as her boss he was. Was there not a old English saying “judge a human by not how he treats his equals but by how he treats his inferiors”. Plus he was very possessive and controlling. The thing with kabir singh was that he was written to be unlikable but here in secretary Kim, his behaviours were glossed over. Which is why I actually liked Kabir Singh beucase they showed his redemption arc and he did lose his medical license and he lost his social equity with his family and others, so he paid his dues. A very complex character portrayed very well. This guy I found him mean and he did not pay for his behaviour at all and it was all fine and dandy. Having said that of course opinions differ 🙂.

I think it all correlates. In South Korea the idols are scrutinised so much and not even allowed to date. Same goes for actors I a guess the moment their fluffy bunny image is shattered people have a problem. He portrayed a dark character and people conflate him with that. Which is so absurd. Basically this means that act in fluffy pain vanilla dramas such as beloved summer or else get blacklisted. This is why I never see them play anti heroes. The only actor who has broken this trend was namgoong min in remember and boy did he play that well. I actually don’t think song Kang is bad at least he acts better than Cha Eun woo. He did a good job in navillera.

I have never hated a male lead so much. He was such a huge jerk. Just because he was handsome and rich does not mean that’s ok. One of the most toxic leads I have seen, very similar to Kabir Singh (an Indian movie). This is in such contrast to private life. Ryan gold was really Gold. He was progressive (open to LGBT) people, professional, respectful and also supported the heroine in her madcap adventures. Private life showed that beautiful, rich, talented Men do not have be such massive egotistical jerks. Another drama with a fluffy bunny amazing and super cool hero for me was Strong Woman Do Bong Soon. Third drama with respectful and vulnerable but strong hero and a rich CEO was private life of my secretary. Veronica park was legendary. The hero really shined in that drama. This drama is horrible, is offensive to women and I don’t understand how women can like being bullied like this. It’s inhumane to make someone work 18 hours a day for 10 years without a break. She did it because she has a loan to pay. With COVID around I have seen people around me struggle even if they had to put in 12 hours a day, how it this ok and in with country or planet is that ok.

Also when you are younger the patriarchal society always wants you to be with the guy who like you so basically saying men can get what they like and women should roll with it. But as you grow older in life and you have seen how women are made to do things which are hard and the whole society keeps telling them what to do like painful pregnancies or feeding babies and not sleeping for years etc, you release how important it is to do things you like for a change even if it may not always work out. I think older women will have a different view of this drama 🙂. To be honest I found the noddle guy more toxic “ I am the man. I have the honourable intentions. Be mine and I will follow you everywhere. She should be honoured since I care so much about her. “ But he never asks her what do you want like ever. As if that’s not important. It felt like mansplaining and that he was talking down to her. While the so called toxic guy kept saying it’s your choice and be with me as long as you don’t have any regrets. I will respect your boundaries and back off if you have regrets”

I agree. Even as a woman this is offensive. Someone breaking up with you is painful. They have already badly hurt you once. You were sad about it once. But if you keep going back to the same person you really don’t have any self respect. It does not augur well for such relationships. Imagine they get married and she cannot conceive (hypothetical) is she again gonna run away after a brutal breakup. If they face any kind of hardships is she again gonna run away? Forget about being a girlfriend it’s hard being even friends with such a person. It’s just like a broken record this drama, break up make up cry and be sad and then again make up… gosh this to me is the worst drama I watched last year

I agree. I think the biggest mistake that the director did in this drama is marketing 101 “know your audience”. She directed a show full of nuances and contextual meaning which people in early to mid twenties may not get immediately, they are usually black or white. Which is why some very high rated drama are so awful in my opinion like the one which is being aired now the Kim dam mi one, I cannot even seem to remember it’s name. The very formulaic dramas may get a high rating.

Secretary Kim gave me total Kabir Singh vibes, love but very controlling and arrogant. So for me it’s one of the most problematic Koreans dramas out there

I hope this is a good drama and not like now we breaking up. I like noona romance sometimes, but the few that came last year were disappointing.

Oh you also noticed the last scene. I thought I was the only one who saw the panic in his eyes. I actually felt like throughout the drama he likes her more

Me too. I seem to always have the unpopular opinion when it comes to romantic dramas. For example the new one with Kim Dam Mi Our Beloved Summer is so bad (according to me ) that I don’t understand why it’s rated so high. This one showed a real relationship with intimacy, complicated people

I think that the heroine was socially special. She did exhibit mild signs of autism. I have met such brilliant people in real life who are clueless and who don’t understand Manipulations and who have a lot of trouble processing emotions and body language. They are also very idealistic for example they showed her to be very passionate about ecology and environment. In contrast the boy was very normal. Maths focused yes but he had a lot of friends and he knew how to interact with people. Which is why I said that if the drama was brave enough to address that and show us a heroine who was special. What an amazing drama that would have been.

Waiting. Arang and moon embracing sun and scarlet romance are all favourites. I don’t like historical romance but I love love love historical fantasy romance

I loved this drama. I did not think the male lead was toxic since he was clear from the beginning about his intentions. The female lead chose to be with him. Also, we talk about consent a lot during intimate moments and I felt that the male lead never pushed on those boundaries. He kept asking the female lead whenever they were about to kiss if she was keen. I don’t know why people seem to love toxic arrogant men in k drama land and then think this lead was toxic. I am so tired of watching super rich guys grabbing the heroine by her wrists and then kissing her by force. Some guys In k dramas are such jerks. For example in what’s wrong with secretary kim, he abused her at work for 10 years made her work like crazy. And still people love that drama. This drama (nevertheless) is not about love, it’s about consent, having agency in a relationship and choice. They also showed us a capable heroine. For example the first scene where her ex boyfriend makes a very vulgar sculpture of hers, they don’t show her crumbling apart especially when she lives in a conservative Asian country. She stands her ground and eventually breaks up with that guy. With Jae Eon, she chooses him beucase she is attracted. But one gets that feeling that she retains the power in the relationship since she is aware of her surroundings, good at her work and also has friends.

My beef with this drama is how stupid is the heroine. People above the age of 25 have a warning meter built inside their systems. They can easily pick out mean, and dangerous people. The way she keeps ignoring her all powerful and scary boss is so weird. No one would do that in real life. The whole fiasco could have been avoided if she could read the body language of people around her. It would have been an amazing drama if they showed her autistic/ high performing savant then I would have loved the drama but they did not do so. She did not seem socially special in any way so why was she so unaware of what was happening ? I am ok with the age difference since nothing happened when they were student teacher. Male dominated dramas like the goblin showed a pseudo patent (goblin as the guardian of the girl) and the heroine and no one had a problem. I feel that romance with guardians and their charges are much worse. The whole drama (goblin) felt super creepy. This drama is not so

Absolutely agree. I would say this is not exaggeration at all

Honestly real life office politics is far more melodramatic, vicious and ridiculous. Imagine a child playground with people having the maturity of toddlers but lots of power. I have seen far more damage done to people than this. So this drama was very realistic, in fact I would say it was a little less melodramatic 😀😀. But for people less than thirty this might be difficult to watch since you may not have encountered such things yet so it’s hard to watch

Agree and men never get that hate

I totally agree. The double standards is mind blowing. People love goblin when it was an under age romance but since he is a guy no one has any problem. There were so many things wrong with goblin. She was an orphan and he essentially was almost like a parent figure. But just because he was a male lead, people saw no issues whatsoever. What I find weird is that negative comments seem to come from women also. It’s like women are also validating that female characters should always be young, pretty and innocent.