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!
