Second-Male-Lead-Syndrome

Welcome to a journey through the tropes of the K-Dramaland!

After watching some TV series, especially Korean ones, I came to realize that they love their tropes. Oh, yes, the writers do love their tropes.

The first thing I want to talk about is the Second-Male-Lead-Syndrome. It sounds longer than it actually is but if you've watched five Korean drama series you probably realized what happens to the poor second male lead.
When the male lead lets the girl down, the second male lead comes over and comforts her. He treats her like a princess, is ready to help her anytime with almost everything - and still is the forever alone friendzoned character in the end while the one who treats her like sh*t usually gets the girl.

I remember once reading a discussion on forums why good guys always end up like this. But I don't think they always do. Honestly speaking I get the excitement girls feel while chasing the one we like. And I do understand that this leaves a lot of options to use it in dramas in various ways.
BUT we all know the effect by now. Once I start a drama and there are two male leads, I can already make a guess how it's going to end. I would be more surprised when a girl would suddenly turn to the second lead and act like "Well, YOU, Sir, treated me like I'm worthless, your loss" towards the male lead. But as long as the Korean audience doesn't think that it's boring and that the writers probably should change something about it - they won't do anything. Who cares about the international audience? After all it's not us who watch dramas for free online who's paying them.

So, who were victims to the Second-Male-Lead-Syndrome so far in the dramas I've watched?


The very first friendzoned Second-Male-Lead I've seen is Lee Hyun-woo in To The Beautiful You.
Sure there's another problem - the female lead character dresses up as a boy so he thinks he's gay after falling for him eh, her - but even after he figures out the truth and forgives her, he's not the lucky one.

The second victim I stumbled upon is Song Jong-ho in Reply 1997. In this drama the one who gets the girl in the end is even a member of his family. In this drama it wasn't as bad though - there were times when I was seriously wondering whom the female lead will choose.

A really popular victim was Kim Hyun-joong in Boys Over Flowers. While the female lead fell for him first, he lost his chance and became friendzoned. Sad, sad, he actually had a chance but didn't want it then.. His own fault.

In You're Beautiful we see Jung Yong-hwa struggle with the same effect. Sure it's a genderbend drama as well but he figures out that the female lead actually is female quite fast. I'm not sure whether he's the first one to know but he somehow knows. However, being a close friend trying to protect her and her secret, he ends up in the friendzone as well. Sad for the character that actually made the drama bearable.

In the first season of IRIS we see a really serious case of this Second-Male-Lead-Syndrome since the poor friendzoned guy ends up suddenly fighting against both, his former best friend and the girl both of them love. Jung Joon-ho even tries to kill the male lead from time to time. Now this is a friendzoned character that shouldn't be pitied. But then again he's just like that because of being hurt and jealous.

In Monstar Kang Ha-neul gets dumped in favor of Yong Jun-hyung. Now he was really someone who didn't deserve this at all, I felt unbelievable sorry for him. He's not even one of my favorite actors but he definitely didn't deserve it. He even broke some 'rules' but still - it didn't help him out.

After winning the girls heart in Reply 1997 Seo In-guk ends up friendzoned by Gong Hyo-jin in The Master's Sun. He's not as poor as one might think since he's not alone in the end.

Of course there are many more friendzoned male second leads! But I don't want to write something about all of them. Just mentioning the dramas, we have Lee Ki-woo in Flower Boy Ramyun Shop, Kim Ji-hoon in Flower Boy Next Door, Park Hae-jin in You Who Came From The Stars, Park Yong-ha in Winter Sonata and Park Hee-soon in All About My Romance. Looking at the number of victims of this syndrome I just listed - well, you can guess that this syndrome is one of the most common in K-Dramaland.

But let's be honest, ladies - if the female lead doesn't want them, there's more left for us!

Flower Boy Next Door

이웃집 꽃미남 (Flower Boy Next Door/ My Flowerboy Neighbor) is a Korean drama series that aired from January 7th to February 26th 2013 on tvN. It's the third part of the Oh! Boy series.

Story: Go Dok-mi lives at Ocean Village's apartment #402. She works as a freelance copy editor and rarely leaves her apartment. She has been secretly watching Tae-joon who lives across from her.
Suddenly she finds herself surrounded by flower boys living in the same building.
Enrique Keum, a video game designer, just came from Spain to Korea and stays in Tae-joon's apartment. Web comic writer Oh Jin-rok and his assistant Yoo Dong-hoon stay in apartment #401. Fascinated by the shy women living in #402 he writes his new web comic based on observations. Also Watanabe who came to Korea to learn the special things about the Korean cuisine lives next to Dok-mi.
The men gather in front of her door because Enrique caught Dok-mi peeping into Tae-joon's apartment and the noise he caused in front of her house..

Cast: So we have Park Shin-hye as the female lead character Go Dok-mi. I don't know if I mentioned this in a previous post but her expressions stay the same all the time. I really can't tell if it's about the type of characters she tends to play but it's really boring to watch her (or her characters).
As Enrique Keum we have Yoon Shi-yoon and yes, he's cute and a flower boy but then again his character is quite complicated and seems so childish and cheerful about 95% of the time - the other five percent of the complete time he's a rather sensible and somehow hurt character. Once again I feel like the expressions were incredibly overdone but then again it's probably what the producers want. Compared to Dok-mi it's rather easy to figure out his thoughts but he tends to hide them with his smile as well from time to time.
Oh Jin-rok was acted by Kim Ji-hoon who's a victim of the Second-Male-Lead-Syndrome again. Ko Gyung-pyo can be seen as his assistand Yoon Dong-hoon. Kouki Mizuta accepted the role of Watanabe and he's adorable, he seems more helpless than he actually is but he's willing to learn a lot. At last I need to mention Kim Jung-san who's the object of Go Dok-mi's affection as Han Tae-joon.


Soundtrack: The soundtrack might also be a gift to fans of Park Shin-hye who performed the song "Pitch Black". But then again the song isn't that special, there's nothing really great to me included in the soundtrack.
There's one really cute scene with Yoon Shi-yoon singing at a campfire though and I really like this song. The music is just used to highlight scenes in dramas, I know, but I would want a lot more of that.
The other songs are mostly romantic-cute songs. Once again, it's not bad but there isn't really any highlight.

After all this one got a rating of 8.5/10 as well from me.
Yes, there are some typical aspects and somehow either the female lead character Go Dok-mi or Park Shin-hye ruined it a little bit for me but it's a cute and funny rom-com drama. And I couldn't help but like Enrique as a character even more because of Dok-mi giving him a hard time. And the dog! Excuse me but it's fluffy and I love it.

Almost as much as I love and want the panda hat. Isn't it somehow awesome?
Now if those flower boys would live in my neighborhood I'd probably be interested in going out instead of spending my time watching Korean dramas, studying languages and writing drama reviews.

Secret Investigation Record

조선X파일: 기찰비록 (Joseon X Files: Secret Book / Secret Investigation Record) is an historical Korean drama that aired on tvN from August 20th to October 29th 2010.
It consists of 12 episodes that are relatively independent.

Story: In 17th Century Korea (Joseon Dynasty) strange things happen. Kim Hyung-do's former mentor Lee Hyeong-wook is sent to prison for "aggrandized his report with mendacious claims of a bizarre flying object” and “divine retaliation against His Majesty’s alleged lack of virtue." To save his own and his mentor's life, Kim Hyung-do needs to find an explanation and create a demonstration to a public that's terrified by an Unidentified Flying Object. At the end Kim Hyeong-do becomes an investigator for the secret Shinmuhwe.
During the next episodes the hero and his team consisting of his assistant Heo Yoon-Yi, a librarian, and Magistrate Jang Man is sent to various places to solve mysterious cases about supernatural objects, diseases and phenomena as well as ghosts.

Cast: Kim Ji-hoon did a really good job as Kim Hyung-do in this one. I've never seen a drama with him before but well, I think acting in a historical drama isn't that easy anyways. Im Jung-eun can be seen as Assistant Heo Yoon-yi. Damn, I like her character. Either she's a badass hot librarian or just a perfect not-so-nerdy bookworm but she's really really good. Jo Hee-bong can be seen as Magistrate Jang Man. Sometimes a little cowardly, always trying to save Kim Hyung-do once he's in trouble, so.. a plucky coward? To be honest I had to laugh about Magistrate Jang because it was just completely overdone from time to time. He seemed not to be that smart.. Last but not least I have to name Kim Gab-soo as Ji Seung who's the leader of the Shinmunhwe (if I remember right, however, he's the one collecting the records so.. I don't know how to describe that.)
YES, the acting was good and usually fit the story. It was relatively nice to see only four characters directly involved in the story, it wasn't too complicated.

Soundtrack: The soundtrack supported the drama. No modern pop music, no modern ballads, just some instrumentals and an effective use of silence as well. Nothing I could really criticize about this.

My personal ranking is 6/10 though. The first point may be that I'm usually not that experienced when it comes to historical dramas. Followed by the second aspect which was like "What the heeeell..." because of the effects. While I think they looked like some of the effects used in the 1990's and kind of old school others say those were awesome. Third thing is.. that I seriously couldn't take some things seriously because even if you do believe in the existence of aliens it's completely absurd.
I think the combination of a Korean historical drama and the X Files just didn't do it for me, I think it's more about the story than the actors who are indeed doing a great job.