I had no idea this #cdrama and #kdrama world existed, nor did I expect to find it so entertaining. I am glad I stumbled on it. Honestly, it feels like discovering an alternate TV universe, a well kept secret that everyone knew about except me. This, in my humble opinion, is the beauty and genius of the internet and social media apps.
Unfortunately this nouveau-addicting-hobby is now competing with my love and time for reading. There are twenty neglected-brand-new books waiting for my attention and consumption.....I am sure when my enthusiasm levels dip, everything will eventually balance and accommodate each other like it did before.
Ironically my latest mini review is about the Korean romance series, 'Her Private Life' which stars Park Min Young who plays Sing Doek Mi and Kim Jae Wook who plays Ryan Gold. Sing Doek Mi is a secret fan girl and a curator at Cheurm Museum of Art, Ryan Gold is an artist and renown art critic who joins the museum as the newly appointed Art Director in the midst of a financial scandal. The series was produced by Studio Dragon and Boon Factory Worldwide and according to Wikipedia is based on the novel Noona Fan Don Com.
This is the second Korean drama that I watched this year. Just what I needed; a world to enter and temporality forget about our current pandemic reality and be like a fly on the wall in a make believe romance.
So lets get into it! Here's what I liked about this sixteen episode series.
1. I didn't know you could be a hard core fan girl beyond the age of 16 years old. Did you know you could? I thought those sort of things ended once your adolescent hormones organized themselves and stopped trying to betray or embarrass you. Also....I don't think I was ever that obsessed with my favorite superstars. Sing Doek Mi, has spent the whole of her teenage years and her twenties being a dedicated and passionate fan of Chi Shian (Jung Jae-Won also known as One).
She spends her limited time off, dressing in black incognito, going to events, taking pictures and posting on a competitive fan-girl community social media site. She has a huge camera which to me seems like a significant investment...I mean the lenses are items you see professional journalists use to capture top notch award winning photos. This is NOT a cheap hobby. I remember watching Backstreet Boys, Take That and Boyzone concerts on TV and seeing young people being carried out of the stadium, because they fainted from shear excitement. So now I wonder was I ever truly a fan? Probably not, compared to Sing Doek Mi. I never invested in high tech equipment, I didn't have a sudo account to only share my dedication, and I didn't spend my evenings painting and pining the finished portraits on my walls. This is a secret that only her family and loyal best friends Nam Eun Gi(Ahn Bo-Hyun) and Lee Soen Joo (Park Jin Joo) know about, she is ashamed of it and it makes for some funny misunderstandings and entertaining moments of conflict in the beginning episodes.
2. Sing Doek Mi parents are my favorites! Go Young Sook (Kim Mi Kyung) and Sang Geun Ho (Maeng Sang Hoon) each have their personal obsessions disguised as wholesome hobbies, but they can't seem to understand how their daughter inherited hers!? They are a lovely representation of family. I enjoyed watching them become elated upon discovering their daughter was 'dating a very eligible bachelor' ..... they immediately decided to get over-involved to help their beloved only child not ruin her chance at a reputable marriage with her fan-girl-ways.
3. I love the sound tracks that play when the lead couple start to fall for each other!!! I was humming and singing along to every hook of every song every single time. Even now as I write this my head is bobbing as the songs play in the background... whoever wrote them is a master at creating catchy tunes.
4. Sometimes... well... most of the time I didn't understand Ryan Gold's fashion...maybe I'm old fashioned...I don't know.... what do you think?
6. The disgraced art director of Cheurm Museum of Art, Uhm So Hye (Kim Sun -Young) and her toxic relationship with her daughter Cindy (Kim Bo Ra).... well her toxic relationship with everybody in her life. She reluctantly hands over management of the museum to Ryan Gold because her husband is going through an embezzlement scandal. Though she's never far away; always spying on everyone and trying her level best to stay in control of the museum and her former employees. Uhm So is so funny that I couldn't stop laughing at the ridiculous tantrums! I agree with soompi she's a scene stealer for sure. She even goes to the extent of sending her daughter to be an intern/spy in the museum, which backfires because Cindy starts to discover her own career potential aside from being a being a fan girl...yes Cindy is a fan girl too!
As I said earlier, I liked this series but I have some questions about some story points in the plot.
1. When Heo Yoon Je /Ryan Gold (Choi Go) first goes missing nobody reported it to the police. Why? Sing Doek Mi's mother watches her children playing with this boy late into the evening, even takes him home for a few days when she learns his mother is missing, then abandons him at an orphanage. Even Heo's mother didn't report to the police when she gained consciousness from the accident. I am guessing Heo was between the ages of eight and ten years old, surely they could have asked him where he stayed and who his mother was? At that age I knew our home phone number off by heart in case of an emergency, I knew the name of the road we lived on, I even knew our car registration number. If you know the answers to any of the above questions or you have a different perspective please comment below.
2. My last question is... what happened to the whole 'fan girl' aspect of the story? It just fizzled out towards the end. There's no big reveal, Chi Shian never discovers who she is. Fan girling was such a huge part of the beginning episodes. It was a hobby that was jeopardizing many areas of Sing Doek Mi's life . Even Cindy was thrown out of her home and cut off from her 'rich- kid' lifestyle because of this obsessive hobby and yet they never learn that they are actually online rivals...we needed a proper climax!
In the comment section below,
tell me if you are or have ever been a 'true' fan girl like Sing Doek Mi .
I need to know. 😆😉
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