[HanCinema's Drama Review] "My Secret Hotel" Episode 12

While I can understand why Sang-hyo agreed to Hae-yeong's request, this episode really seems to undercut the recent point of "My Secret Hotel", which is that Hae-yeong has lost out because the sincerity of his emotions can't really override the fact that the guy's basically a selfish jerk. The drama continues to provide a somewhat compelling argument that Sang-hyo probably shouldn't end up together with either of the male leads, given that they have such obvious unresolved issues. Also one or both of the might be murderers.

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For the sake of Hae-yeong, there is something of an argument to be made here that he and Sang-hyo can actually get along fairly functionally and effectively if they're working for the pursuance of some greater goal. Although dealing with Hae-yeong's parents honestly isn't the most challenging looking exercise. Given that the marriage with Soo-ah was insinuated to be arranged they're taking all of this surprisingly well. Apparently they really do just love their son so much that as long as he's happy it doesn't even matter how this is accomplished.

Key word there being his happiness. While the resistance Sang-hyo shows him makes perfect sense from our perspective, from their perspective it kinds off as a little weird. Apparently they think it's a normal thing for half of a newlywed couple to be showing signs of resistance? Granted, they don't actually see a lot of this, but a lot of the aggressive overtones here are rather discomforting. This is especially true given the flashbacks we see. If Sang-hyo has changed, it's because she's gotten more mature. Hae-yeong has not.

I actually did like the humor here, though, if only because the jokes in this drama work a lot better when the situation is more extreme and dynamic. Normally everybody is just sort of goofing off, which at times can be endearing, but for the most part just serves to emphasize that most of the characters here are jerks without much in the way of wider personality traits. Even in this episode scenes that don't involve the in-law storyline tend to be the weaker ones.

Well, if we don't count the murder storyline at least, which once again is forced to move at a very slow pace in order to prevent that plot from being resolved too quickly. The main annoying part of all this is that aside from those little snippets, there's little indication that "My Secret Hotel" is actually a murder mystery at all. It almost makes me wonder if the drama would have been better off if that whole storyline element had been excised- then I remember the romance has its hiccups too, like with the weirdly possessive cliffhanger.

Review by William Schwartz

"My Secret Hotel" is directed by Hong Jong-chan, written by Kim Do-hyeon and Kim Ye-ri-II and features Yoo In-na, Jin Yi-han, Namkoong Min and Lee Young-eun.

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