Romance Secreto (2014)

I didn't watch the drama for the longest time because the title, promotion posters and the trailer turned me off. I imagined a story of an older woman seducing a younger man which did not appeal to me (the shiny faces were also a slight turn off). But boy am I glad that I ended up watching it after all.

It is so much more than a love story. It is a beautiful tale of two people coming together and making one realise what it is that really matters in life. Even though I have been watching K-dramas for many years, my love for "secret love affair" pushed me to write my very first review of anything ever.

Everything about this drama is beautiful (that is the only word that I find fitting to describe this drama), from the very beautiful leads to the sets to the music. The writer and the director have done a wonderful job making art come alive onscreen.

I loved the lead actors and their amazing chemistry. Kim Hee Ae's restrained and elegant portrayal of the very flawed Oh Hyewon took my breath away and watching Yoo Ah In bring the beauty of Lee Sonjae to life was a joy to behold.

The music in this drama is a character by itself. The background as well as the classical pieces that were played were very well matched with the tone of the drama. Yoo Ah In's performances playing the piano especially the concerto in episode 10 were very convincing.

The side stories about the chairwoman and all those people was okay and slightly stretched and boring at times but I guess that was a story that needed to be told as well.

I wish the makers of the drama had promoted it in a different way so that it would have appealed to more people. I am so glad that I watched it even though I put it off so many times.

This is by far the most beautiful drama (and pretty much anything onscreen) that I have watched both in terms of aesthetics and the story being told, accentuated by wonderful acting and music. I am sure I will be watching this story of Oh Hyewon and Lee Sonjae many times over in the years to come.

Leia Mais

Love so secret you can't see the affair on the screen

Story: Noona romance gets an ultra chaste makeover in this drama that is bent on showing everything except the affair itself.

Acting: Yoo Ah-in is a real deal. Unfortunately, the drama is heavy on business scheming nobody cares about so I skipped those parts (it's a lot of skipping!) and can't say anything about actors involved.

Music: classical music stands in for sex and climaxing.

Rewatch Value: For insomniacs only. Yes, it's that boring. Too much politicking, too much piano playing, not enough affair. If you are into noona genre, watch properly steamy Dark Desire (Netflix Mexican drama) instead.

Overall: Like Extracurricular (drama about sex trafficking without sex and trafficking), Secret Affair wants to broach a taboo subject (well, taboo in SK I guess) without being controversial. Hence chastely implied that the couple in question is having an affair without showing sex, while wasting its overlong running time on politics of running a concert or something. Do or don't. If you can't do subject justice due to PG rating requirement perhaps leave it to foreign television that has no such restrictions.

Leia Mais

A SERIES VERY DIFFERENT THAN OTHERS THAT FALL IN THE SAME GENRE

The series is not for everyone it has very different vibes than usual older woman nd younger man genre nd it involves classical plays as it's main theme as ml nd fl are both pianists or experts in that field especially fl nd ml is just beginning nd meets her so if you don't like classical music that much you might find it a bit uninteresting in initial eps but if you don't mind enjoying classical music then you will surely like it. . Now the synopsis A woman who has been living a fake empty life to achieve her goals to belong to the upper class her greed for fame her whole life then one day a young guy enters her life who belongs from a totally different world nd she sees herself in him as how she was in her beginning times as how she had the passion for music nd she sacrificed it all,Just to achieve a life where she feels empty now nd how that young man slowly nd steadily fills her empty life with daily life joys she missed out in her early days,the things she could have enjoyed in her earlier days the meaning of real home nd more, they face a lot of obstacles together but they still persist until end what you will see in this series is the devotion ml had towards the fl nd how fl slowly here n there made mistakes hurt ml but sacrificed everything to protect him so that his life won't be ruined by the society she took all the blame nd more nd how ml just didn't stop supporting her even after she had nothing left nd she even said to everyone nd ml to express herself I recently re-watched it so I remember I will tell you all exact words she said-"the world of music which i had given up, I wanted to exert my influence, as if I was born with such rights, as if they were embedded in my genes, something that no one could take away from me. Then one day in my life, very unexpectedly... a progress report of my life was in front of me. Then the value that I had long forgotten asked me a question. How will I live the rest of my life? I vividly remember that very moment. It was a highlight of my life. It was the moment when, for the very first time in my life.. Someone devoted himself just for me. He didn't give up his life for me or give a romantic confession. He just.. busily wiped the floor of his place. All he did was try to provide a clean seat for me. But then I realized that I had never received such devotion from anyone. That I had even considered myself as a means for success. Me.. who had abused myself into misery. He did everything he could for me, he loved me, he let me lose it all I could've never done it on my own, he gave me what I could call a real home, so I'm thankful. "This series is not for everyone you need to be patient to fully get into it but how they persisted how fl was so strong throughout the series tried to do everything to protect their connection with each other nd how ml was as her solace in all this they had to go through. The casts are yoo ah in and Kim hee ae you all must know them from their other works they were perfect cast for these roles I definitely liked this series I hope you all will understand this series same way I did.

Leia Mais

this drama was going to be brilliant but wz sorrow it has 2 huge negative points
1st :
lots of piano music tracks wasn't necessary at all except filling the drama
2nd:
lots of flashbacks even from the same ep. which made the drama very slowly and at the same time boring
.
3rd: i couldn't find it
the sub was horrible i tried to figure out the drama as much as i could
.
in spite of all that i was fond of (Yoo ah in) love to (kim hee ah) sooo
his love was pure , innocent & faithful till the end
he tried as much as he can to keep the love relation between them in spite of the big age difference & the
Social level difference
i really loved how he tried to proof his love to her
first time to me to see (yoo ah) but his acting was brilliant but was a little exaggerating while pretending playing piano

Leia Mais

This is actually my first drama of Yoo Ah In and Kim Hee Ae and I'm really hoping to watch more dramas of their dramas! This drama didn't really live up to my expectations except for the acting, but thanks to this drama, I'm really looking forward to watching Chicago Typewriter and The World of The Married!

The plot was actually simple, student-teacher x affair. However, since the characters were about to do something wrong, I was expecting to feel so much thrill but I was kind of disappointed that I didn't. I felt like it wasn't enough. The plot was at a very good pace from the beginning and I liked how they incorporated music into it, adds more to its grace and elegance that was just a mask, however... It all went downhill. It got a bit boring and so many other things were incorporated which I think wasn't necessary for the main point of the story.

Despite the lack of thrill in the story, the cast is still inexplicably amazing. The acting was definitely superb and Kim Hee Ae and Yoo Ah In, along with the supporting cast delivered their roles well.

No doubt about the music that it's beautiful. I really love classical music because I think that it's very pleasing to the ear. I was really surprised that Yoo Ah In was actually the one playing the piano.

Overall, the plot was not that good but the acting and music were amazing. If the plot was given more thrill, I would've looked more forward to finishing the whole drama faster. Yoo Ah In and Kim Hee Ae had chemistry and I'm so glad that they pulled it off! I'd only recommend this if you love the lead actors, but I got bored with its pacing and plot. The Classical music in the drama is a very good bonus tho!

Leia Mais

There were some breathtaking moments, scenes I would watch again, and not to mention the acting from the leads and those musical performances, but that wasn't enough to save this as a whole for me. It started out decent but then like so many dramas, once the leads get together it loses tension and drive. I enjoyed the beginning but could barely make it past episode 11. A huge majority of the show, as in almost all of the show, was spent talking, whether it was group discussions around a table or side characters discussing nothing relevant to the plot for long stretches of time. If there had some kind of actual complex and engaging plot this could have been a true masterpiece, instead plot was nonexistent. 8/10 for the music and Yoo Ahin's performance.

Leia Mais

I am NO fan of infidelity, in fact it’s a big turn off for and I don’t hesitate to stop watching even if the plot line is good. I watched this one because I was very curious to see Yoo Ah In’s artistic interpretation of Sung Jae ‘s character. I think he is the most versatile actor I’ve ever seen (check out The Throne in Netflix). He has my highest respect in accepting projects with extraordinary roles. But this review is not about YAI, sad though that may be. I dropped the show after they caved in to their physical attraction in episode 8 but did read recaps of the remaining 8 episodes, big thanks to https://noonasoverforks.com/2014/03/19/secret-love-affair-episode-1-review/.

To me SLA calls out the elephant in the room, can two people, 20 years apart, really fall in love and remain in a marriage relationship? Not that the drama ever showed the main leads marry. Oh Hye Won represented what ladies yearn the most- love, affection, appreciation- no matter how high up one is in the social ladder or how much money they have while Sung Jae represented pure and innocent (puppy) love. His ideals, thanks to his mom, is still good and intact. It breaks his young heart to see the love of his life wade through the murky waters of lies and deception and get hurt, physically and emotionally. Sung Jae agonizes that he is powerless to save her. YAI did not disappoint in delivering Sungjae’s agony (have I mentioned I’m a fan? Lol!) Instead he turned to the one thing he can do, play music, along with a bunch of disavowed students. It was actually refreshing to know that he had some good times with his age group doing what he loved the most - playing the piano.

In summary, this drama is different, it’s complicated. Great actors, really good classical music if you like that genre.

Leia Mais

DUMPSTER FIRE

Holy crap is this a bad drama. The acting is horrible, the chemistry is listless and awkward. The story is shallow and uninteresting. The music is uninspired and poorly timed. The whole thing feels like porn-quality story without any actual porn. I'll be honest, I didn't finish this drama. I mean...ok I watched parts of all the episodes but it was so boring and lame-duck that I'd get a few minutes into the episodes, skip ahead, watch a bit more, and then eventually just be like uuuuugh maybe it gets better later, and then move to the next episode. I couldn't find a single solitary redeeming thing about this Kdrama and I feel like I wasted several hours of my life trying.

So what's left. If the acting is bad, the story is bad, everything else is bad... What's even left for a drama like this? Only the romance. If they could have pulled off the romance maybe maybe there'd be some redeeming quality to this drama. But the chemistry between the lead actors is so so bad. It's like high-school level awkward romance when you're not even really sure how kissing works or why you'd even do it. The interactions between these actors should have been full of romantic tension with complex emotions like shame and guilt...but instead it was all so very monotone. Even the guilt was monotone. Everything was this super bland gray of a pointless exercise in mediocrity. It was basically room temperature unseasoned tofu level bland.

Maybe if you're really into those weird Victorian era dime novels where the only romance comes on the last page for a brief kiss...maybe then you'd like this? It's basically like a romance you'd expect a grandma from the 1950s would enjoy. It's the kind of romantic interaction you imagine your parents having because it's too cringe to think of them actually being romantic.

Avoid this drama unless you're stranded in a post-apocalyptic bunker and it's one of two shows left in the world and the other show is season 1 of Marvel's Inhumans.

Leia Mais