Secret Garden (Korean, Drama)

This is said to be the most loved Drama that aired in the past few years.

What makes this such a good drama is the detailing of the story in sort of many levels and the mystery and secret kept till the end point of the film. Plus the out of ordinary story line, and a love story with much variations.

The characters are all so lovable like every other Korean Drama. (Don't know how Korean Drama all have so cute and lovable characters... Almost every character in every Drama is to die for. :-) )

Secret Garden is funny and humorous to a very strong level, but the romantic side is what hits us more. Specially the episodes towards last makes us really fall in love with the romance element.
Plus, the love story and struggles in the love is shown in not the usual normal cliché way.

Characters :

Kim Joo-won : The arrogant CEO of a big Shopping Mall. Rich and handsome 34 year old bachelor. But a jerk all the same. And the taste of him in selecting track suits is like so bad. Ends up wearing freakish looking track suits that later in life Ra-im calls him 'Kim Track-suit freak'.
Ju-won lives alone in his big house made mostly of glass, and transparent materials, and open surroundings. He doesn't go to office every day, and goes only on Tuesday and Friday. And he will not ever take elevator to work. And drives only a convertible car in open state.
The reason for all this is his really advanced claustrophobia. Anyhow, he has seen only richness and luxury in his life and has never given anyone else any importance.
But his life changed when he meets Gil Ra-im. And he cant get that injured but proud stunt-woman out of his mind.

Gil Ra-im : A 30 year old, not-so conventionally pretty, but out of the world proud Stunt-woman. She is an orphan, her dad who was a fire fighter died when she was 17. She lives with her friend Ah-young in a tattered small rented apartment.
For her her work is worship. Even when she knows that no one will remember the stunt people, and will remember only the main actors, she tells her juniors to consider them self real actors and devote themselves to the work, because she says they all will remember each other.
Even if she gets hurt in the shoot, she doesn't make any fuss, and just ignores it and keeps on working.
But she is not all tom-boy like. Even when being a tough stunt-woman, she is really a girl and behaves like one. Also, Ra-im is the biggest fan of the singer Oska. And when she is talking to Oska, she is really a girl.

Oska (Choi Woo-young) : Kim Joo-won's older cousin brother and once was a big star singer. But lately Oska's ratings is falling, and he is trying too hard to save his stardom and career.
He is a player and always be with random girls and changes girls frequently, though this habit was developed from a bad heartbreak in past.

His character is a really funny and lovable character.

Yoon Seul : Oska's ex-girlfriend. She is trying to to get married to Kim Joo-won now by meeting him for various blind-dates for arranged marriage through a couple of contacts.
She is a perfect lady. And though she is not an angel, and is perfectly human with jealousy, greed and scheming, she is not totaly bad at heart, and maybe she is just trying to get revenge form someone who had once hurt her...Some one is...Oska??

Director Im (Im Jong-soo) : Director Im is the stunt director if the team in which Gil Ra-im is a part of. He is like a guardian and a parent for Ra-im. She respects Director Im the most in the world. But maybe, Director Im has different feelings for Ra-im. But he can't express his romantic love towards Ra-in ever because she respects him so much. Plus, he only wants Ra-im's happiness. So his love is not so greedy to even hurt her by making her realize that the person she respects the most has romantic feelings for her. He knows that that maybe a shock to her.
So he silently just likes her and does his role as her respected guardian.

Han Tae-sun : The most interesting character of Secret Garden. It can be even said that he is like a highlight in this drama.
Han Tae-sun is a small scale singer, whom Oska seeks out to train. Well actually Oska just insists on to train Tae-sun, coz he says that he is traing a kid in an interview by mistake. But when Oska ask Tae-sun to let him train him Tae-sun refuse then itself. This makes Oska feel insulted and he keeps on pestering Tae-sun to let him be trained. And even have to give demo of singing to Tae-sun, and realize that apparently Tae-sun sings better than him.
Tae-sun even warns Oska, that he likes men, but Oska doesn't realize the point and keeps on going around Tae-sun. Well, in the end Tae-un ends up training Oska, and having feelings for him, well while Oska, knows nothing about it of course...

Min Ah-young : Gil Ra-im's best friend and her flat mate. She works in the lounge of Kim Joo-won's mall. Ah-young is a playful and cute girl, who like a typical girl and like to dress up and be pretty.

Secretary Kim : Kim Joo-won's private secretary. He always has to end up covering for Joo-won and handle all of his arrogance. And secretary Kim has a crush on Ah-young.

Gil Ik-sun : Gil Ra-im's dad. He was a fire fighter and he died in a fire when Ra-im was 17 years old. He was a really loving dad, and Ra-im still misses him.
Well, he plays a really important part in this story.

Story line :

Kim Joo-won is a 34 year old rich arrogant bachelor. His mother is trying to get him married by sending him to blind dates, but he rejects the girl. Oska, Joo-won's cousin brother is a singer and he is a player in case of girls and changes girlfriends frequently. Gil Ra-im is a hard working Stunt-woman. Yoon Seul, is trying to get married to Joo-won, and trying to maintain her status as a rich girl.
At that time, Oska request Joo-won to go and see one of his ex-girlfriend, Park Che-rin who is an actress. Apparently Park Che-rin is threatening Oska that she will tell press that Oska and she used to be a couple and now Oska dumped her for no reason.

Since Joo-won needs Oska to be the brand ambassador of his mall, he agrees and goes to meet Chae-rin and take her to the place Oska asked to take her. But he ends up taking Gil Ra-im with him since Gil Ra-im was playing Chae-rin's body double in that shoot. Ra-im was injured before, but once she hears her favourite celebrity Oska's name, she ends up going with Joo-won, whom she mistakes for Oska's errand boy because of his weird track suit.
Once the misunderstanding clears up, Joo-won leaves Ra-im back at the shoot and goes to talk to Che-rin. While going back, Joo-won sees Ra-im at her practice, and gets mesmerised by the sight of the fighting girl...
He goes to talk to her, and ask stupid questions on which she gets angry and kick him. But then, he see blood dripping down and goes and checks Ra-im's hand and see the deep cut and ask her id she is mad to go around in that. He takes her to a hospital. Ra-im refuse to behave nicely to him, and leaves.

Joo-won can't get Ra-im out of his mind after that. He is puzzled why a girl like that is occupying his mind when his type is clearly not that. But he can't keep Ra-im out of his mind no matter how much he tries. So he goes seeking for her, and try to meet her using various excuses.
Slowly, Ra-im also feel weird that this guy behaves so clingy. She tries to shake him off, tries to be arrogant, but that just make them twisted in to a relationship that can't escape from.

That is on top of all this that something out of the world absurd and magical happens.

They all will be in a trip to Jeju island, and Ra-im gets lost in forest. Joo-won who goes seeking for her, finds her but gets lost himself with her. They both finds themselves in a small restaurant in the forest. There is a woman there who serves them chicken dish. Ra-im takes two bottle of flower wine from there saying her dad used to make these. And after going back to the hotel where they were staying, he gives one wine to Joo-won telling him to give that to Oska. But, Joo-won drinks that himself that night when it is raining. Ra-im also drinks her wine at night.
The next morning they wake up and finds that they are in each other's body.

Hilarious troubles follows after that.

On the whole, the use of the fantasy element sets the drama on another level. Though the concept of body soul switching can be said to be adapted from English movies like 'It's a Boy Girl Thing' or 'Hot Chick', in Secret Garden it is dealt with in a different way. Also, the switching is not the most important thing here and the most important thing still remain the romance.
Plus the switching comes and goes a couple of times, so that is a bit different than anything.

About at the end, Joo-won's character get a partial amnesia and forgets his life after his accident at age 21. But this amnesia story line is really essential in story and doesn't feel like unnecessary like in Boy's Over Flowers. And unlike in 'Boys Over Flowers' where Gu Jun-pyo gets amnesia and forgets his girlfriend Geum Jan-di, and refuse to accept her, here in Secret Garden, despite forgetting Gil Ra-im, Kim Joo-won who behaves like a 21 year old boy, accepts Ra-im and falls in love with her all over again.

Hyun Bin who plays Kim Joo-won has done quite an amazing acting as 3 type of characters in this Drama.He has to play Joo-won's normal 34 year old self, as Gil Ra-im - a girl, and as Joo-won's 21 year old personality. All the 3 has been done really well by him.

Well, I don't understand why Hyun Bin didn't become a top star ages back itself. Well, personally I was a fan of him after watching 'A millionaire's first love', though according to Wikipedia records that film was a flop and Hyun Bin got appreciated only after Secret Garden. Though my liking for Hyun Bin after watching 'A millionaire's first love' had little to do with his acting and more to do with his looks in the film...ha..ha... ;-)

But anyway, Hyun Bin has acted really well in Secret Garden. And as about Ha Ji-won who plays Gil Ra-im, well she is Korea's favourite actress, and is an excellent actress, so we don't have to say that she has done well.

Well, for me the highlight in Secret Garden is Han Tae-sun, and actor Lee Jong-suk just makes that role the high-light of the drama by his careless charming expressions.

But above all this Secret Garden is all about that strong love.. The deep love that even shows how Joo-won gets ready to accept death to save the girl he loves. That point brings teas in the eyes of anyone who watches... And sends the love in it to the level of epic love stories like Romeo-Juliet where hero and heroine died for each other.

On the whole, the main strong points of this drama are.
1. A good strong Romance.
2. A good thrilling mystery
3. Gil Ra-ims personality. We will feel a lot of respect to that character.
4. Relationship of Oska and Tae-sun that is quiet funny and something that spread a smile on our lips
5. Good music...
6. Humorous...
7. Not so usual story...

So with the combination of all of these, Secret Garden becomes worth a watch in every level.