The thing with reviewing dramas is that I'm getting tired of rewriting the same plot. "The Heirs is not a remake of boys of flower" writer says, along with the confident claim that it will be "more entertaining"! But let's be honest, the similarities are astonishing. Rich handsome men in elite schools minding their own business until some poor commoner attracts their attention. You might as well just read my Boys Over Flowers review! Alas, I digress and I shall now go into detail. Park Shin Hye is our heroine, Cha Eun Sang, the poor girl who has to work multiple part-time jobs to support herself and her mute mother. When she hears her sister is getting married she goes to America to congratulate her. However, things don't go as planned and she ends up stuck in America with little money and no passport. Given her situation and being partially responsible Kim Tan (Lee Min Ho) offers her a place to stay. Kim Tan is our rich kid, he's studying abroad and already has a business-based fiancee. With Kim Tan's engagement anniversary quickly approaching this is no time for him to be falling in love with another girl! I'm sure you can see where this is headed.
Having the main plot based in America poses two possible problems: setting and language. As far as setting goes the company actually flew every one other to America and actually recorded in a school! I guess they got enough money for that from the phone sponsor... but I won't bother you about that. Language, is slightly more awkward to deal with. Lee Min Ho is good at speaking English, but not at acting in English. But then there's Kim Tan's school friend who should be completely natural in English seeing that he is American, in actuality he is worse than Lee Min Ho. It's more than a bit disgraceful.
Anyway, what do I think of the plot so far? Well, what did I think of Boys Over Flowers in the first few episodes? No matter what the writers try to say, it is so similar! Admittedly, I think The Heirs is going to be much more complex than Boys Over Flowers but to do so it's had to sacrifice a lot of the overstated drama. But I cannot deny it's enjoyable! It's been a pretty intense two episodes and I don't want to spoil it for you so I will leave it at that.
Fortunately, characters are something I can always talk freely about. I will just brush over our female lead because we all know what she's like. Playful, hardworking, innocent, a bit boisterous but still very weak. No surprises there. I am, however, pleasantly surprised at the complexity of Kim Tan. We've got away from the abusive lead characters and instead got a character who I can be comfortable with. Sure he doesn't express himself outright -no-one does- but he doesn't pull a bad guy act. He's bashful, but still caring. He's a perfectly complex character and easily the highlight of the show so far (the fact that Lee Min Ho is the actor might be an assisting factor though).
There's another particularly good thing about this drama: it's soundtrack. There's only two episodes, but already there's been a spectacular spread of music. I especially love the Lee Hongki track! It's also got some good jokes in it!
So while the plot maybe be similar to Boys Over Flowers I think the actual content of the two dramas is hard to compare. Certainly, The Heirs has got the best, most convincing male lead! It's also done a very good job at manipulating my emotions. In just two episodes I've already laughed plenty and came close to crying. They even made me really angry! Like really angry, and that's actually quite rare. I know it's only got two episodes out, but I can tell that I'm going to really enjoy this drama and I think you guys will as well!!
Pie:
No comments:
Post a Comment