The Heirs
Genre: Episodes:
20 Year: 2013
Romance
Comedy
School
Synopsis:
Kim Tan is a
wealthy heir to a Korean company, who is studying abroad in America . He has
no real desire to take over the business, and easily stepped aside to allow his
older half-brother, Kim Won, a chance to inherit. He has an arranged engagement
to Rachel Yoo, the heir of a large fashion company. While in America , he meets Cha Eun Sang, who came from Korea to find
her older sister who is in need of money. After Kim Tan sees Eun Sang’s sister
take all her money and leave her stranded in a foreign country, he allows her
to stay at his house until she can get back to Korea . When the two
return to Korea ,
Eun Sang finds her mother has been able to enrol her in an elite school as a
scholarship student. It happens to be the same school that Kim Tan attends,
along with his finance and former best friend, Choi Young Do.
Kim Woo Bin (Choi Young Do) |
Kim Ji Won (Rachel Yoo) |
Choi Jin Hyuk (Kim Won) |
Kang Ha Neul (Lee Hyo Shin) |
Kang Min Hyuk (Yoon Chan Young) |
Krystal Jung (Lee Bo Na) |
General Thoughts:
How does South Korea
keep churning out these rich-boy, poor-girl dramas. Are there any new ways to
spin this idea left? The main couple in our drama, Eun Sang and Kim Tan, are
typical and unsurprising for this type of storyline. Lee Min Ho is back again
as a rich heir to a large corporation (hello Boys Over Flowers), and Park Shin
Hye is back again as a Candy-girl (hello anything Park Shin Hye has ever been
in). Most of the wow in this drama comes from the supporting cast and smaller
storylines.
Could this concept be any more overplayed? |
Kim Woo Bin is magic
as Young Do- the violent, angry opposition to our main lead. He accurately
portrays the hurt child inside the hardened shell, and delivers massive amounts of cute both with Eun Sang and his close friends.
Even more cute is given with
the relationships between our main leads’ mums and Chan Young and Bo Na. Kim Ji
Won does well enough as Rachel Yoo- spurned fiancé and stroppy step-sister, but
the writers never make her character likeable enough.
Best couple out |
The main
plotline is interesting and enjoyable, if not predictable. Kim Tan’s affection
for his older brother and zero f*cks given attitude give enough uniqueness to
the story that it’s pleasurable to watch, and gives a little more depth to the
overused situation. Besides the amazingly star-studded cast, there’s nothing
too amazing, but there’s also no major downers. There’s really not a lot of
story considering it manages to scrape out 20 episodes, but the large amounts
of cute and gradual development of relationships make the drama an appealing,
easy watch.
What Was Great:
Brother
Contrast:
One of the most
interesting points of the drama were the two conflicting characters of the brothers.
It was obvious that both Kim Tan and Kim Won cared about each other, but both
had differing views on what would protect the other. Older brother Won believed
it was best to keep little brother far away from himself and the family
company, while little brother Tan believed it was best to keep older brother
close where he could love and support him. It was brilliant writing to show
that neither of the brothers was completely right, as both pathways had their
own downsides and consequences.
They even look like brothers |
It was fascinating
to watch the brothers each choose different paths, while still being able to
look at each other and view the path they didn’t take. Won chose to accept the
arranged marriage, give up the woman he loved and solidify his position as head
of the company. Alternatively, Tan stayed with the girl he loved, choosing to
reject the arranged marriage and all the perks that came with it. I wish the
drama had unveiled more of the downside of choosing the girl, as in the end, baby brother Tan seemed pretty happy and well-off, while big brother Won was
crying alone in his study. I guess, in a way, it highlights the responsibility
of being the oldest, as Won had to shoulder all the burdens so Tan could be
carefree.
Having his cake, and eating it too |
Unexpected
Mums:
One of the
elements of this drama that set it apart from other chaebol romances is the
unique situations of our leads’ mothers. Our main male’s mother is draped in
luxury and has the attention of the man she loves; yet cannot leave her mansion
in case she draws attention to Tan’s father’s adultery. The world doesn’t even
know she is Tan’s real mother, as he is listed as the Chairman’s current wife’s
son to prevent backlash on the company. Our main female’s mother is a mute who
happens to work as a maid for Tan’s mother. It is very sweet to watch the
relationship between these two women grow, especially due to their
obliviousness of their children’s relationship.
It also means we get to avoid the
tiresome and over-played theme of mothers who don’t like each other. We did get
a small portion of mother reluctance when it got to accepting the relationship
between Tan and Eun Sang, but through the strong setup and consistent
characters, we could see that this came from a deep desire to prevent hardships
for their children. This made their disagreement so much more tolerable, and
significantly less selfish than other times we have seen this situation played
out.
Cute mum besties |
Chan Young X Bo
Na:
Most functional K-Drama relationship |
My guilty
pleasure must be great side-romances, because they always manage to make their
way into my ‘What was Great’ section. Most likely because we get all the cute
without the conflict. There were many reasons I liked the pairing between Chan
Young and Bo Na. Firstly, it means that there will be at least one male character
who won’t be fawning over the Candy-girl. This is great, because it’s always a
little exasperating when we constantly see these girls who are presented as upbeat, yet
average, winning hearts of millions of extraordinary men. Second, their
devotion, trust and innocence was refreshing to watch amid a mess of tangled
and complicated relationships. A little part of me wished that we were given
some snippet of how these two got together, as Chan Young is from a lower
societal class, and they attend a school that bases everything off class. I
really hope it was more than Chan Young’s good looks, but I wouldn’t put it
past Bo Na to have fallen for his looks first, and his personality later. At
least it was clear that she adored all aspects of him currently.
What Wasn’t:
Any scene set
in America, or that involved Lee Min Ho speaking English, had a 90% chance of
inducing cringes. The U.S was presented as some glamourous, fantasy-like party,
where drugs are everywhere and girls are easy.
I mean, it was hard to watch Eun
Sang’s sister being treated like a STRIPPER while being nothing more than a
waitress at a beach café. There’s a good chance that while in the U.S, if you
slip a bill under a waitresses bra-strap or tell her she can come by your place
to make a
little extra, you will earn yourself a well-deserved slap
and get yourself banned from the café. Just sayin’. Kim Tan’s blonde, surfer
friend was embarrassingly bizarre and over-acted, and yet still managed to
avoid being the worst performance of a westerner in a K-Drama. And I think we
should just avoid the topic of Lee Min Ho’s English skills. But good on him for
trying- most westerners’ Korean would sound worse than his English. He did get
the words out eventually, but it wasn’t pretty to listen to. And what was up
with his angsty teenage diary?
This ain't no strip club |
Could you get any more ridiculous? |
Typical Candy
Cop-out:
As you would
expect, at one point in this drama, we had the oh-so-familiar scene of our
Candy-girl running off and abandoning the relationship after our main man has
worked so hard to pull everything together. And as usual, there’s not really a
good reason for it. For sure the most frustrating part of this drama.
Her unexplained absence will surely make everything better |
No Real
Resolution:
While the drama
didn’t actually have a whole lot of plot to begin with, what little conflict we
did have was not resolved in a satisfying manner. Tan’s father (who has been
slowly dying for like the whole frigging series) had some sort of plan for his
company which involved screwing around his two sons and breeding animosity. I
don’t know, it was all super vague and didn’t make a lot of sense. Then at the
end, after Won and Tan do a lot of back dealings and not-so-secret moves that
make absolutely no difference, Dad just suddenly decides that he won’t be a
butt anymore, and virtually just steps out of the way. What.
Magically woke up a better man |
Wasted Character Potential::
The character of Rachel Yoo had so much potential, but the writers did not capitalize. She’s a strong
presence in the beginning stages, and seems to be gathering her cards to make a
huge
move. She’s got a couple of big players that owe her favours or are
willing to pitch their lot in with hers, but in the end she doesn’t really do
much more than whine loudly from the background and cast disgruntled, huffy
looks at all the happy people. Even the last ditch attempt to redeem her
character was half-assed. Just because beloved Hyo Shin Sunbae thinks she’s
nice, I’m not going to believe it. Speaking of which, don’t try and tie up
those two characters together. It was hideously forced and awkward.
Mean then, mean now |
Along with
Rachel Yoo there were several other characters that weren’t developed as well
as they could have been. However, unlike Rachel, they were generally likeable,
even if they didn’t have much development. Young Do was alarmingly
underdeveloped considering how much screen time he was given. Sure, he did make
some small improvements (such as searching out his mother), but for the most
part he stayed the same. He went through all the typical motions of going from
unlikeable
to tolerable by gaining some pity, but nothing beyond that. And then Hyo Shin
Sunbae. Willing to throw away his life rather than conform to the life his
parents want him to live. Legit the only character that actually does something
about his growing sense of powerlessness in his own life. And yet, most of his
advances happen off-screen, and we’re only given snippets of his discisions and
how his life is changing.
We all wanted more of this |
What Happened
to Unnie?:
Talk about an
abandoned plot-point. Apparently the only reason Eun Sang had a sister is because
the writers failed to think of any better reason to get her character over to
America to meet Kim Tan. Considering Eun Sang was ready to ditch her mum and
live a happy life in the States with her sister, everybody seemed to forget
about her pretty quickly once we were back in Korea.
Chalk Outline:
Okay, this was
a pretty unique idea, but it was brought in too early and ignored, and then too
late to matter. Also, if there were multiple people drawing it, wouldn’t
everybody know that everyone was doing it? And while I enjoyed the symbolism, I
also found it pretty amusing that all these little rich kids felt like they
were already dead, and yet not one of them was willing to give up their
inheritance to go be happy somewhere else. The only character that really had
any right to be spray-painting that outline was Lee Hyo Shin, because he’s the
only one who defies his parents to pursue what he really wants.
After I spray-paint this outline I'm gonna go cry into all my money |
Re-watch?
I wouldn’t mind
seeing Min Ho, Woo Bin, Min Hyuk and Ha Neul being adorable again. It was probably
the cutest I’ve ever seen Lee Min Ho act. You can probably just fast-forward
all the bits that aren’t filled with rainbows and cookies, and still get a
pretty thorough understanding of what’s going on. Because not a lot happens.
Typical candy kiss: boys do all the work |
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