Okay i am just throwing my two cents on the subject, which i normally don’t do because i have way too many pet peeves that most people don’t share. What i personally couldn’t sit through were “Boys before flowers” and “Playful kiss” and my aversion to this dramas has nothing to do with the acting or directing, it’s just that this are two of the most unbearable mangas i have ever tried to read. They contain one of the things that seems to be pretty popular as a concept in mangas - we have a girl that’s absolutely average looking, a plain Jane, that is not at all intelligent more like average in that departement too, doesn’t have any talents or outstanding abilities, and in my opinion more often than not has a really annoying personality although that’s suposed to be her saving grace. And somehow that girl always gets the most gorgeous, most popular, richest and smartest guy there is to get and from time to time even the second best falls in love with her, and i am like
I mean going with the idea about the inner beauty being the most important is all well and good but why is the gap between the characters so big it’s freakishly huge and why is it always the girl that’s ordinary and unremarkable, i just don’t understand the appeal of that kind of story. I prefer the female lead to be strong, successful, smart and if possible if it’s no too much to ask beautiful. I could be happy even if she just has one extraordinary quality or talent or something like that. Also can she not be the doormat for every other character in the drama, i mean there is kindness and then there is a complete lack of a backbone and the line is not that thin, i can’t understand how they get mixed up so often. The whole damsel in distress, crying all the time, can’t do anything on her own, getting slapped aroud by everybody just isn’t my cup of tea(that doesn’t actualy apply for “Boys before flowers” but there are others that have gotten it to a tee). One other thing that grates on my nerves and has ruined more dramas than i can count is the god awful love triangle, especially the one where the girl just can’t decide which of the two man in her live does she love, is it so hard to make a decision and even if that happens alot in real life and is perfectly normal i actualy watch dramas so i can take a break from the real world and escape it so if that is what’s offered count me out.
I prefer to have my one in a lifetime magical kind of love where the heroine only loves one man at a time not two. And that is going to sound completely contradictory but i like it when the story starts with one or both characters being in love with somebody else and then falling in love with each other. Sorry i kind of got sidetracked here. Anyway if this things are present in a drama it’s more likely for me to steer clear of it then not. Also family dramas just aren’t my thing so i avoid them too add the ones that i gave up because the plot didn’t interest me or there was something else wrong with them, (which could be anything from bad chemistry between the actors to a predictable plot and sometimes it’s something too ridiculous for words) and there aren’t many left for me to watch. I am picky that way so maybe my opinion is not really credible. Anyway i will stop here because i’ve probably become quite annoying with the long post.
Well, I did not think another drama would come and make it on my list so soon but somehow MY SECRET HOTEL ended here for me, and the ending just pushed it over the edge.
It’s rare for me that I like the story less and less, the actors aren’t the problem, but the arc of suspense got lost in the first third and was never found again …
Yes lutra spot on. I agree, a mess is what I call it. Some dramas go OTT with off the wall storylines but this one takes the prize for bottom of the bottom…
I couldn’t get past episode 6 of my Secret Hotel. I kept starting it and never finishing it. I mostly only came to watch it for the actor Namgung Min because of Can You Hear my Heart. I don’t know, the entire style of the show was weird. The music choices were super happy/uplifting for dramatic scenes- and not in a funny way but it was more awkward. Plus the relationship between the main leads was just frustrating. Good to know know I avoided and even more frustrating ending. I might just skip to the end just for laughs.
@CagedSahara
Actually, after 6 episodes going to the last episode would make you feel you lost out on a good drama, haha. But having watched all of them it was just so-so. Some might come up with the chemistry between the leads, but chemistry only doesn’t deliver a good story.
O.O … i am SCARED of those kinds. thank you for warning me. i heard winter sonata was a really good one on allot of peoples list.
oh oh! i heard of this! my goodness. i cannot watch this sort of thing. this is why i need YOU. lol
my mom told me about that whole story and that park hyo shin sings the snowflower OST or an ost of the drama and he cries because he’s remembering that that guy (that committed suicide) was his friend. my goodness no.
HAHAHA thanks for the warning. i can take all i can get seriously.
im not watching any dramas for a while. i was watching so much and i gave up for a bit to rest and im just watching Youtube vids and stuff because of the amount of time ive had recently. but i have to get back on track soon…
The start of Secret Hotel was so good ! (4 episodes) But I think that the writer is dead (or sick I don’t remember…) and it’s someone else who wrote the following episodes. And the story lost the exciting part and became a banal love triangle… But I still liked this drama.
The writer died. R.I.P. It’s very unusual that a script is not complete before production is started. The staff that divide it into 1 hour episodes would surely need more than a 1/4 of the script in order to say if it will be 16 or more episodes long. My harsh criticism was directed at the writer that continued and obviously had no interest in doing a decent job.
It was said that the first 4 episodes were completed by the original writer Kim Ye Ri and she “scripted” the further drama development. And yes she had cancer and died in march or april, when the drama was in pre-production.
And it’s rather usual that episodes are never written “in stone”, when the drama starts, because the Korean production prefer the live-shooting of a drama till this day, with all advantages and critical things on the way.
The positive thing for the production is they can change if the drama doesn’t get the viewers attention, or if viewers “demand” a certain outcome. Or nice cameos can be added, product placement can be taken care of, if an actor gets ill, he/she can be written out of the story …
Anyway I can’t blame the writer only who tried to “walk” in the shoes of another writer. We can’t tell what the differences are and how much the writer could adept to Kim Ye Ri’s vision. All I know is a production are more people than just the writer and the director has a say too, and the cut can change many things as well.
All in all, it would have been nice to see Kim Ye Ri’s drama, for me especially since I had already mixed emotions about a former drama she started and she couldn’t end because of her health, which was LIE TO ME, I liked the beginning there too and at the end I was so-so for me, but others loved it. It’s the same with MY SECRET HOTEL, others might love it for me it was so-so …
@Kurama
I have the same feelings, but I still completed it. Anyway what I loved about the start that it was so complex and just had it all romance, mystery and comedy. At the end it was a mystery minus romance, minus comedy, plus melodrama, plus how to not live your married life, if you want to stay married for more than just 3 months, plus how to not live your life no matter if you are sick or healthy.
omgosh, thats pretty sad to hear, thank you so much for all your info!
so just for the future, do any of you recommend this drama? i havent been watching any dramas recently (shame T.T no time and too busy watching reality shows when i can), but i was kinda curious to start it sometime…
@b2utybubbles. This one you suggested ‘Nice Guy’ I went looking for it, a wee bit of a search. Is it also called ‘The innocent Man’? The google search came up with this when I wrote Nice Guy.
I watched both the '08 and '13 ‘Who are you’ thought it strange that there would be two identical titles very different stories but both good.
So I started into ‘The innocent man’ and am here to ask you if I should continue? am I on the correct one?
LOL Lose your voice why?
Are there any other melodramas you watched and liked, maybe Beyond The Clouds, then it might be something for you.
I can at least tell you it doesn’t have an ending like What Happened in Bali, no worries.
i laughed at first cuz i thought you were joking! are you serious? i no 
