Review:
Truth be told, when I first heard that this was an upcoming drama, I was excited. Personally, I had the thought that this was going to be like Boys Over Flowers..WITH A DIFFERENT STORY LINE. So admittedly, I was curious and excited. I got to say that this drama did meet my standards and I enjoyed it (especially in terms of character depth) but I have to say that there were also parts that I wish could have been changed a little. I'm going to get into the good and bad right now.
1. Park Shin Hye is amazing at crying scenes. I have known that from all her past dramas...not to mention she played the child part in the sad Stairway To Heaven. As good as she is at crying scenes, her personality in real life is very lively and bubbly and carefree. But throughout the drama, I couldn't help but feel that her character really needed more spirit or strength. Cha Eun Sang seemed to always be crying and crying and crying. She's crying when she faces a dilemma, crying alone in a room, and so forth. I understood some of her tears but I really thought it would've been amazing where she faces a really heart-wrenching situation and just grits her teeth and raises her head high and gets past it while we're all on the verge of tears. I mean how awesome would that be to see that amount of strength in a character?
2. I love Lee Min Ho. But his character in this drama annoyed me. I'm not saying all the time...because there were many scenes where I was like: "Oh my gosh, this is so cute" and "Oh...how romantic." I was shipping them together at the very beginning when Eun Sang was in the US. But as it slowly went on, I found myself edging to Choi Young Do more and more. (Kim Tan shippers please don't hate me on this. I'm not saying in any way that I'm not satisfied with the ending, it's just my personal opinion on his character) His character felt really clingy to me. Like...without Cha Eun Sang, he couldn't live. And he constantly spoke of wanting to prove his worth and capability to take care of her to Cha Eun Sang...but time and time again, I was not impressed by his actions. I felt that he was all big talk and no action. It makes sense too. He's a teenager under the rules of his father. I just didn't like how he gave Cha Eun Sang a lot of empty promises. Also, I didn't like this about both the characters of Kim Tan and Cha Eun Sang. What is up with the wrist grabbing? And what is up with allowing him to lead you away? A lot of situations had to do with Cha Eun Sang and she should have been there to take care of it and finish it cleanly herself. But almost every time, Kim Tan came and grabbed her wrist and just dragged her away or outside before going back and dealing with it and not letting her deal with her own problems and stand up for herself. Not only that, I felt that he used a lot of sympathy. It was constantly about how his brother was cold and indifferent to him..but the truth is, the brother actually cared for him...only silently. And he always made it seem like his problems were much more bigger than any other character's on this drama. And to put this out there, they all had problems...whether we saw them or not.
BUT. I will praise him for maturing throughout the entire drama. He learned to stand up for himself and he had a lot more courage and did things that would actually make an impact. And because of that, I applaud him of that.
(And I do want to ask his stylists...why they made him wear such strange looking clothes throughout the drama. and the amount of make up in that scene where he confronted his father all worn out and all...he looked like he could have been Edward Cullen's best vampire friend or something.)
3. Choi Young Do. I do admit I was leaning toward him through the entire drama. I liked his character depth a lot and I'll explain. But before I do that, I want to point out that he also used some sympathy points too with his mom who just abandoned him to a father who constantly had affairs. His father was only focused on winning and getting to the top at all costs (even if you have to use underhandedly methods and cheat). His father would hit him/slap him if he didn't meet the expectations. He was also marrying Yoo Rachel's Mom for a business alliance.
But I felt that his character depth was stronger than Kim Tan's.
One, because of his father's pressure and how he treated him, Choi Young Do was a feared bully at school. He brought people down. And because he wasn't sure how to react to Cha Eun Sang who he liked, he teased and kind of bullied her also just to see how he would feel for her.
Two, he began to change from the bully he was. You could literally see him slowly improving himself as he opened up more to Kim Tan and his feelings and worked hard to find a way to beat his father at judo without cheating. And by the end, he was completely focused on finding what brought the best out of him, becoming a better person, and asking for forgiveness.
Three, he was humorous and easy going. It's really nice to see that in a character. His sarcasm and remarks were some of the many highlights in this drama.
Four, he treated Cha Eun Sang well most of the time. Other times, he was kind of mean like keeping her from falling in the pool and then just letting go. But he always said something to tell her to take warning. Like for the pool incident, he warned her saying that that was what Kim Tan would do to her, pretend to hold on to her and eventually let her go because of his engagement.
Five, his own personal emotions and the amount of pain he had to go through knowing that no one really understood him. The best friend he once had is no longer as close as they once were. The girl he liked fell in love with his ex-best friend. The people around him at school are just scared of him. And he missed his mother's love.
4. Chan Young and Bo Na: This couple was another reason to keep watching because of their humor and Bo Na's personality.
5. Myung Soo (acted by Hyung Sik) appeared to be happy and carefree throughout the entire drama...but you see at the end that he might have had more to him than we (as an audience) know and we probably will never know what it truly was.
6. I felt that they had a lot of potential on Kim Won's love life. The repressed relationship could have had a lot more going on and I felt like I wanted more from that couple and to know more about them because they were similar in some ways to Kim Tan and Cha Eun Sang.
7. They had a lot of great OSTs in that drama. I think a lot of them would have fit a bit more and made the scene more sentimental than the epic: LOVE IS THE MOMENT. I heard that so many times that I couldn't help but just sing along to it even if it was a really touching scene.
Special shout out to my friend with the initials C.L. who helped write this synopsis along with my help:
Synopsis
Whether
you are an heir to a large business corporation or an heir to poverty, your
worlds will collide with each other and create chaos. Cha Eun Sung lived in
poverty with her mother in Korea while her big sister was studying in the
United States. Cha Eun Sang takes jobs as a chicken delivery girl and a barista
to help her mother pay the bills and she has a dark brooding hatred for the
rich. Eun Sang’s sister, Cha Eun Seok calls their mother to tell her she is
getting married and needs money for a wedding. Eun Sang takes this chance to go
to America to start a new life with her sister but is sorely disappointed when
she learns that Eun Seok is not getting married or going to school. Instead Eun
Seok is a full time waitress living with an abusive man and is infuriated to
find that Eun Sang has discovered her secret. Coldly treating her little
sister, she digs through Eun Sang’s suitcase and takes the money. She then runs
off telling her sister to go back to Korea, leaving Eun Sang shouting and
crying after her.
All the while Kim Tan
was sitting in the café looking at them from an open window and becomes
acquainted with Eun Sang after he sees his American friend pick up a bag of bean
powder from Eun Sang’s bag and his friend becomes hospitalized. This causes a
run in with the police and Eun Sang’s passport is temporarily confiscated and
she is forced to stay in Kim Tan’s house until it is returned. During her stay
she has an unpleasant encounter with Kim Tan’s fiancé Rachel Yoo who demands
that Eun Sang leave Kim Tan’s house immediately. Eun Sang eventually returns to
South Korea with the help of her friend Chan Young and leaves a love struck Kim
Tan behind.
Kim
Tan is one of the heirs to a large business corporation know as the Jeguk group
and his fiance Rachel is the heir to a large fashion company, they’re the
perfect couple…or is it just an alliance? After his encounter with Eun Sang,
Kim Tan starts to have second thoughts about his marriage because he has
completely fallen for Eun Sang. He was pretty nonchalant about his marriage
before as he wasn’t concerned with it. He was more focused on his cold older
brother.
Eun
Sang begins to attend a school full of heirs to large businesses, and upper middle
class jobs thanks to Kim Tan’s father who wants her to realize that she and Kim
Tan can never be together by observing the school’s high class environment. He
wants her to realize that she and Kim Tan come from two different worlds and
they can never be together. Kim Tan holds on tightly to Eun Sang and even
breaks off his engagement with Rachel to be with Eun Sang. He follows her
around in the school which makes it hard for her to avoid him. At home, he is
unavoidable also. Her mother works as a maid for his household and they were
allowed to live quietly and out of sight there (since the sister took the money
away). When Kim Tan came home, she was really shocked to find out he was the
second son of the Jeguk Group she hated so much. In school, the classes and
groups are very well-distinguished. At home, lines are drawn. It just shows Eun
Sang just how different her world is from Tan’s.
Rachel
Yoo may seem like the worst person in the world but in a few parts of the drama
you have no choice but to sympathize with her. Her mother is marrying a man for
his money/alliance and she has gained an unwanted sibling, Choi Young Do. She
hates Eun Sang for stealing away Kim Tan and she thinks that she is also
seducing Young Do which is why during a camping trip she slaps Eun Sang but
Young Do interferes and protects Eun Sang. Once she finds out that Eun Sang is
actually poor she decides to expose Eun Sang’s lowly life by ordering a
delivery of coffee to a party filled with their rich classmates just to let
them all see Eun Sang come and deliver it. Kim Tan also reveals himself as an
illegitimate son so in a way Rachel’s plan backfired.
Choi
Young Do is the heir to his father’s company and Kim Tan’s former best friend.
After finding out about Kim Tan’s illegitimacy (when they were younger), he is
infuriated and breaks off their friendship. Young Do falls in love with Cha
Eun-Sang also. He’s in love with her but is not sure how to express it. So he does
everything he can to grab her attention by tripping her and pushing her into a
pool. But he also protects her and helps her when she is trying to let go of
Kim Tan’s hand. At times he may seem like a jerk but he is actually the
sweetest. He keeps many secrets for others and when he wants something he will
use it as leverage but he will never tell another soul.
Kim
Won is Kim Tan’s older brother who doesn’t acknowledge his younger sibling and
is indifferent towards him. His relationship with Jeon Hyun-Joo is very rocky
because of his driven attitude towards the top and deep down he knows he is
hurting the one he loves but he has no choice but to put it aside. As the drama
goes on you see him warming up to Kim Tan and envies his courage in trying to
make his relationship work with Eun Sang despite the pressure put on by their
father. Kim Won realizes too late that it is lonely at the top.
Lee
Bo Na and Yoon Chan Young are the cutest couple because Bo Na gets jealous very
easily because of Chan Young’s relationship with Eun Sang. Chan Young thinks
it’s very cute and likes to tease her but Eun Sang gets annoyed because she has
to constantly hear Bo Na tell her to stay away from her man. When she finds out
that Kim Tan has returned from the U.S. she gets anxious that Chan Young might
find out they were once in a relationship and she thinks that Kim Tan is back
to win her heart so she keeps telling Kim Tan that she doesn’t like him and he
should get over her. Kim Tan and Chan Young find this amusing. Though they seem like the perfect couple (and they are, to be honest), they also had their ups and downs just like any couple and they dealt with them all in their own ways...which is adorably.
The
heirs are not as special and perfect as we think they are. In fact, they have a
lot of pressure upon their shoulders. And the one who wears the crown will bear
the weight of the crown.
