[HanCinema's Drama Review] "My Secret Romance" Episode 11

As expected, Jin-wook and Yoo-mi continue to be generally sad as they try very hard to pretend like they don't miss each other. Jin-wook, being the man, is of course the first to snap and realize that of course he loves Yoo-mi and needs her very much. But various contrivances pop up to insure that Jin-wook misunderstands what Yoo-mi is doing, until finally, a disaster comes up that's big enough to force Jin-wook to do something.

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The good news is that we finally get a pay-off to Mi-hee's constant efforts to get on television. The relevance of this subplot was completely unclear to me until Mi-hee finally gets on-screen and promptly manages to make a huge mess of everything for everyone except herself. Much like the Dong-goo subplot, the payoff here is much better than I was expecting. The scene is not only humorous in its own right, but it also gives a badly needed jump start to the plot.

And I do mean badly needed. Everything that happens up until Mi-hee's big scene is completely forgettable. OK fine, there's the kiss but all of these episodes have kisses that's not much of a selling point. Consider all the time spent at the karaoke bar. Yoo-mi's (former) co-workers all seem like nice people. Even so, I'm hard-pressed to take much interest in their farewell considering how little we know them. Although really, that scene was mostly just an excuse to let Song Ji-eun do some singing.

Jin-wook and Yoo-mi are both fairly flat as characters, which is why I can only really take so much of them at a time. The production team seems to be aware of this too, considering how much screentime is elsewhere dedicated to Hye-ri's backstory with Jin-wook. This is almost completely irrelevant to the main story, yet still manages to be memorable since it gives Hye-ri sympathetic personality traits and does manage to explain how she is not a completely creepy stalker.

This is important since Hye-ri has to be sympathetic somehow in order for her to end up with Hyeon-tae at the end as a sort of consolation happy ending for the two of them, doomed as their efforts to go after the leads are. I am, of course, making assumptions about how everything else will go because of the generally obviously clichéd nature of "My Secret Romance". Which is a shame, since it's always the surprises in this drama that impress me the most.

Review by William Schwartz

"My Secret Romance" is directed by Kang Cheol-woo, written by Kim Ha-na-I and Kim Yeong-woon and features Sung Hoon, Song Ji-eun, Kim Jae-young and Jeong Seo-ha.