Secret Garden: the end

[alexandral]

Having finished "Secret Garden", I finally remembered what this drama reminds me of. "Lovers in Paris"! Eureka! And to my further no-surprise, these two dramas are written by the same writer (and so are "Lovers" and "Lovers in Prague"). Now then, ladies and gentlemen, I adore "Lovers" in all shape and form, these are three highly delicious "traditional" Kdramas, and "Secret Garden" does not disappoint.



In the last 5 episodes of "Secret Garden" we find out what the body swap is for. Let me tell you this story in full because it is such a good fun:

Past: Raim’s (girl) father was a fire-fighter. The father died saving JooWon (guy) out a lift of a burning building.

Present:The young ones meet and fall in love. Accidental (or not so accidental) body swap happens between the two of them and they learn to control it. Raim is a stunt woman, so one day she is injured and falls into coma. JooWon arranges another body swap because he wants to GIVE HIS LIFE FOR HERS. In the process, he disconnects her life support (it was not needed, you see), and takes her to a location far far away. In the far away location, a big thunder storm happens (rain is the catalyst for body swap) , Raim wakes up in JooWon’s body. And after that JooWon wakes up and has an amnesia. I will not tell you more because I don’t want to spoil.
Hee! This story is so outlandish that it is incredible fun. Fortunately I do not watch kdramas for the sake of believability. Besides, let me tell you, after watching an amazing Dutch show "Myth Busters" on holidays, I am very sceptical of believability of many Hollywood movies and TV shows too. Anyways, I do not watch anything just for the sake of believability. And sometimes more outlandish is better, so I watched and enjoyed several makjang, even "Temptation of an Angel".

There was a new unexpected minus in the second half:
- Raim, who seemed to be quite a fiesty lady in the first half, had taken to crying in the second.

But there was an extra plus too:
+ The second half of JooWon's cousin Oska’s story turned out to be even more awesome than the first.

Anyways, on the whole this was good fun, my ratings: 7/10. Dramas to watch if you liked this are "Lovers in Paris" (very similar, some fantasy element, but no body swap) and "Temptation of an Angel" (if you like coma stories).

My prediction: This is not the last time body swap happens in kdrama, and not the last time we are goign to see :
a) a guy imagining a girl walking next to him wherever he goes;
b) kisses happening in the middle of huge "high society" parties.

PS : my open letter to Hyun Bin : Dear Hyun Bin, please eat your breakfast, lunch and dinner. Do not skip meals: a good doze of bacon can be good, not bad.

Comments

[lydzi.livejournal.com]

Oh? Maybe I should watch Lovers in Paris then ^^. Could be really interesting right :).

kisses happening place in the middle of huge public parties.

I still have the Goong one perfectly in mind XD.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

Oh, try "Lovers in Paris" ! It gets repetitive in the second half (in the similar way SG does) , but the main OTP is great. "Lovers" is really really good too, and also similar, and it is quite a recent drama.

Note: because "Lovers in Paris" has a small amount of fantasy element, it's ending is widely misunderstood, but if you want to I will spoil you.

I still have the Goong one perfectly in mind XD.

This was epic! But I am sure we will see people kissing left-right-and-centre whist dancing at big "high society" parties soon, this was quite an original scene. One scene from "Lovers in Paris" was in "Boys Before Flowers", you see. :D

[intermezzo]

I told you you'd like it.

I still stand by my opinion and my bitter reaction to it. Man, I sound like a scorned woman or something. XD

Re: body swap in kdramas. there's going to be another one and I'm SO going to watch that one. I'm having a bit of a brain freeze because I don't remember its title or who was cast, but I remember flailing over it. A lot. A LOT!

And there was one other drama where there was some sort of body swap, well, okay it was more like a soul possesing the body of a young man for a few hours a day and I liked it. It was Who are you? with Yoon Kye-sang. I haven't watched Road Number one, but I really loved YKS in WaY and so far I think it's his best performance (in a kdrama) to date.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

Hee! I think it is all down to one's expectations. I went from "of, sounds so tacky - body swap" to "YAY! Makjang!" where if you expected something worthy, well, there isn't many dramas like this in the first place.

It was Who are you? with Yoon Kye-sang.

Gosh, I have blanked this one out, on purpose, I think. :D I thought it was a lovely drama but the father's character gave me creeps, in that "very very odd Kdrama humor" way. I am not really big on Kdrama comedy lines, you see.

[intermezzo]

The majkang bits in SG irked me, I told you. Not one amnesia, but he got it twice? The firefighter who saved him was Ra-im's dad? I can suspend belief only so much. ;)

Oh, no, that dad gave me the creeps as well. I watched the drama for YKS's character and how well he played it. it did turn out plesantly heart-warming, all things considered.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

The amnesia thing was so ridiculous I laughed in the places I was supposed to be emotional. ;D Stay away from "Lovers in Paris" and "Lovers" , in this case - both are VERY ridiculous if you think a bit too seriously. LiParis features a guy who was his own uncle and Lovers features a lost child of a corporate boss , a gangster man in present.

OTOH, have you watched "Lovers in Prague"? It is very very underrated, and it is the closest thing of this writer to "City Hall". It is like the writer has a split personality - LiParis, Lovers and SG are written by one person and City Hall and LiPrague by another. Lovers in Prague also has a really REALLY good actress, Yoon Jae-hee - she won a prize in Cannes.

[intermezzo]

I haven't watched any of the Lovers kdramas. I stayed away from LiP cos I heard the finale made people raise their eyebrows

I'll take that in mind

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

LiP has a fantasy ending where Cinderella's story is supposed to happen again and again. People did not understand. The writer became slightly more understandable in "Secret garden", but still, I did not understand what all that stuff about the Little Mermaid was for. But she obviously has a thing for fairytales.

"Lovers in Prague" also has Jang Geun Seuk in semi-big role with his own OTP, he was cute as a button!

[intermezzo]

Look, I seriously can't understand how KES can be the same writer who gave us City Hall. I really don't understand. I can see the similarities (both starts like typical romcom and then you get to see lots of angst in the end) but while watching CH I could see why the OTP had to suffer, in SG the sheer number of "misfortunes" made me roll my eyes rather than clutch my heart and weep for them. Know what I mean?

JGS is always cute as a button! ;)

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

I can see similarities in all her dramas as far as very high quality dialogue and original scenes are concerned (she gave the world few classic ones), and her jokes always make me laugh, but yes - it definitely seems as if there are two sides to her.

The worst of her dramas is "Hello!Miss", that one is quite an odd thing.

[intermezzo]

Oh hey, 49 Days is the drama about the soul swap thing . Jung Il woo and Bae Soo-bin are in the cast.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

hee! I am so so glad a body swap drama is already in making (this has cheered me immensely), even if it sound like possession more than bodyswap.

[intermezzo]

Did you take a look at the cast? I'd watch them even if the story was booooring and I don't think this will

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

The cast looks awesome, but I am a strange one here - I found that for some reason choosing dramas by cast never works for me. Even someone like Hyun Bin who was my very top favourite (I was rabid about him I tell you) seems to have changed into a skeleton.

[intermezzo]

LOL I understand. I wouldn't choose to watch a drama only basing my decision on the cast, but it certainly helps if a few of my biases land roles on something I'm already interested it. ;) I squeed when I heard Jung Il-woo and Bae Soo-bin were cast.

Anyway, I'd be curious to know what you'd make of Marry me, Mary. The Geuns have such GREAT chemistry together and there are so many cute between them. I've rewatched many scenes countless times already (they're just too cute for words imho) It's a fluffy drama but *ponders* you may not like it. IDK. What does your flist say about it? I know timescout dropped it cos she couldn't get into the characters.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

Yep, I am the same. I also have few actors that for some reason don't click with me. Like Kang Ji hwan - I tried countless times, but I just don't that starry-eyed feeling I get with others (and many others, some of them are not 100% good looking neither).

I have heard very good things about Mary, actually, i am definitely going to watch it. I don't usually rely on fandom opinion, neither. There seem to be quite a few dramas that I know no other person who watched them - i like to find those underrated gems.

[intermezzo]

I like Kang Ji-hwan, but sometimes I can't finish his dramas. Dude, even if you and other people flailed about Capital Scandal, I tried watching the first ep several days in a row. When I did get through all the ep, I realized I had dozed off, like, 3 times. I failed. Maybe it'll get better, but idk. I usually do give dramas at least 4 eps before I drop them, but CS...I downloaded it aaages ago and I still haven't felt the urge to watch ep 2. *hangs head in shame* IDEK what puts me off. ugh, I wanna watch more Ryu Jin!

I don't rely on fandom opinion, either. I liked Flowers for my life and I don't think many know about it. LOL Mary wasn't as polarizing as SG was. I don't think I ever heard anyone say the otp wasn't cute. M3 had loooots of problems and fans were aware of it, but still...IDK, I liked it and aodred the otp.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

Capital Scandal; I was all about the secondary OTP (as I was in Secret Garden). It is genuinly good drama, though, GIE IT ANOTHER TRY.D:

I'll get to Mary eventually - I missed few dramas during my "PHP Zend certification" period, I am watching "Fugitive" now (and loving it, despite everything I have heard about it)

[intermezzo]

Ooooh oooooh so Ryu Jin gets more action? Is that the secondary pairing you're talking about? Please, let it be so. I will. I'll try, okay? I'll try. I know it's good.

Fugitive, I only watched one ep but I'm going to finish it. Ahhh, I have started too many things and am overhwlemed. LOL From what i heard, it's slapstick and too action-y in the first half of the drama (and I heard complaints about the lack of decent plot/character development in the beginning), bu then the series gets going and becomes really good.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

Ooooh oooooh so Ryu Jin gets more action?

Oh yes, lots and lots of it - the second pairing gets as much screen time as the main one.

I love the slapstick-ness and spoofiness of "Fugitive", I am sure there will be angst somewhere, but so far I am enjoying the fun.

[intermezzo]

Yay! That's something to look forward to.

I don't know about angst, but I think there's going to more interaction between the characters that is not related to chases?

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

More interactions will be welcome. :D

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

If you don't mind me asking - what did you dislike in particular?

Also - OMPH! Oska's gay friend. I wanna see this actor again.