K-Drama: Heirs - He Who Wears The Crown Endures Its Weight

The year 2013 doesn't look so bright for K-dramas. As a fan of dramas, I can barely remember a good drama that I've watched so far. Many fail my expectation to stay entertaining till the very end. A lot of them deliver poor ending that felt rushed and forced. Many big stars made a comeback to the drama world, like Song Hye Kyo and Jo In Sung in 'That Winter The Wind Blows'. But even with senior actors and actresses, the drama fails to gain spectacular reactions from the viewers, aside from some signature scenes such as the 'cotton candy kiss’ that has been parodied by many. 

the infamous "cotton candy" kiss

As per October, Lee Min Ho starts to film a new drama, after quite a long hiatus from the drama world, called 'The Heirs' or simply called ‘Heirs’. From the look of it, 'The Heirs' share a great deal of similarities with 'Boys Before Flowers', that tell the life of the rich and the poor youngsters. The Heirs gives us a set of eye-candy characters, with Lee Min Ho, Park Shin Hye, Krystal f(x), Kim Woo Bin, and Kang Min Hyuk (CNBlue). These people are more than enough to attract viewers from the very start. I my self included in this type of viewers that's drawn to a drama by its set of actors. 

At first I though that 'The Heirs' will be a place for Lee Min Ho to act as a bratty, spoiled rich kid that bullies the weak and the poor, like his former character, Gu Jun Pyo. Little did I know that he would be the exact opposite of Gu Jun Pyo. Lee Min Ho plays as Kim Tan, the mistress' son and an heir of a mega corporation, Jeguk (Empire) Group. Born from the womb of a mistress, Kim Tan is lucky to still be treated with luxuries, though his step-brother thinks of his existence as a threat, therefore send him to an exile to the United States. Kim Tan, in my perspectives, has what we called brother complex. He loves his brother unconditionally, although he is always treated with the uttermost disrespect and is clearly resented. This makes Kim Tan had an impression as a hooligan during middle school, but since he left for America, has changed to someone ignorant that do nothing but play, eat and sleep, following his brother's command. Here we are introduced to a character that comes from a wealthy family, good looking, and loaded with unlimited money, yet is solemn and weak-hearted, having no ambition what so ever to do something with his life. His sole life purpose is to never be in his brother's way, to please him in any ways possible, and to never inherit or even step a foot in Jeguk Group so his brother can own it all. Interesting, right? I am presented to a side of Lee Min Ho that is not ideal at all (excluding his heavenly abs and looks). Strong enough to stand on his ground but choose not to and walk the apathy way -- depressing to the core. 

The Heirs characters plot

After being shown the life of the high society that swims in gold, we are introduced to our main heroine, Cha Eun Sang (Park Shin Hye), that lives in poverty, taking 2 part time jobs a day, while juggling with school and her mute mother that works as a housekeeper in Jeguk family's main house, serving the mistress (Kim Tan's biological mother). Like it's not pathetic enough, she must deal with her sister who lives in America, lying about going to university and marrying a decent man. Later when Eun Sang decided to see America and meet her sister, she is revealed to a reality where her sister is nothing but a waitress in a cafe and lives with her boyfriend in a lousy neighborhood, far from what we call 'a decent life'. While in America, the odd is in her favor, as she meets Kim Tan, and makes our 'ideal husband material' falls for her. Even though Eun Sang feels the sparks between the two, she wants nothing to do with our Kim Tan, since she knows he’s from another planet altogether and has a vexing fiancée, Yoo Rachel (Krystal f(x)).

To make the storyline even more complicated, coming back to Korea, Eun Sang found out that her mother has been living in Jeguk's house for some time, after giving her whole house deposit to her oldest daughter in America. Eun Sang ends up living under the same roof as Kim Tan, who also decided to come back to Korea for good, against his brother's will. They also enroll to the same school for the riches, Empire High, where Eun Sang sees with her own eyes how different her world is to these bunch of heirs. She's tangled between the rivalry of 2 old 'frienemies', Kim Tan and the pesky Choi Yong Do (Kim Woo Bin) -- that I like to call the Gu Jun Pyo of 'The Heirs'. At the same time our heroine must survive her new high school life with her fake 'new money' status to avoid being bullied and thrown to the lowest Sudra class. Don't forget the possessive fiancée that goes to the same school, the childhood best boy friend Yoon Chan Hyung (Kang Min Hyuk) and his overly attached girlfriend Lee Bo Na (Jung Soo Jung). A love triangle is building up, family and business tension is heightened, and so far the storyline has been captivating but running too slow, with each episode being dragged too long for no good reason. 

Hello there, bromance! Soon to be in love with the same lady eh?

So far 'The Heir' has been running for 6 episodes, airs every Wednesday and Thursday on SBS, and is set for 20 episodes. From the bottom of my heart, I wish the writers decide to pick things up a little bit, to avoid the viewers from leaving their seat every minute for a toilet break. The end of every episode has fallen flat instead of tight-gripping, with half of it filled with only meaningful glares and empty threats. New problems arise in almost every scene, yet no serious action or follow-up is taken. After watching 6 episodes, this seems to be the rhythm of this show, but it's no sin to hope for more scandalous scenes, yes? (Screaming fight, fight, fight! Kiss, kiss, kiss!) 

Sets of eye candy and big names aren’t enough to make one good drama. It needs strong characters and storyline to support its life. Nevertheless, so far the show has spread good vibes and is shown to be promising enough to become one of 2013's most memorable K-drama. It’s still too early to drop a verdict at this stage. If you're interested to watch this show, there are a lot of online websites that enable you to stream or even download the episodes with English subtitles. Thank heaven we won't miss the ultimate exposure of Lee Min Ho's barechestedness. Oops. :P

hot guy alert!

By: Devita