The Suspicious Housekeeper

수상한 가정부 (The Suspicious Housekeeper; formerly known as House Keeper Park Bok Nyeo) is the South Korean remake of the Japanese drama series 家政婦のミタ (kaseifu no mita; I'm Mita, Your Housekeeper). It was aired on SBS from September 23rd to November 26th 2013 and therefore consists of 20 episodes with an average duration of 60 minutes.

Story: Woo Sun-young, mother of Han-gyeol, Du-gyeol, Se-gyeol and Hye-gyeol and wife of Eun Sang-chul suddenly passes away. 49 days after her funeral Sang-chul tells his children that he hired a housekeeper to help them out while he is busy at work.
Park Bok-nyeo is an extremely serious person that never smiles, has all sorts of things in her bag and does everything she is ordered to do - going as far as killing when she is ordered to do that.
All of a sudden the family receives letters that their new housekeeper is a murderer. The children try to figure out what happened on their own after a fight with their father but even though they keep on following Park Bok-nyeo, Du-gyeol, Se-gyeol and Hye-gyeol fail to find out about her secrets. Bok-nyeo threatens to quit when the children won't stop asking her private questions so that the family who learned to appreciate their housekeeper as a kind of second mother, especially Hye-gyeol, stop and ask Bok-nyeo to stay. But the curiosity stays for sure.
At first this story really sounded interesting to me, especially the title. I never watched the Japanese version so I can't compare them at all and didn't know what I was getting myself into. This story itself is like a rollercoaster - at first it goes up all the way just to let you gain speed during the first drop. When that excitement disappears you have some time to calm down and just let it flow before it picks up speed again to get you to a second exciting point - and after that it slows down and slowly takes you to the end. This was my impression after 11 episodes and after finishing it I can say that the second "drop" is actually really interesting and probably one of the reasons why I kept watching. The main problem I have with this drama, however, that the slow paced parts of the track are just too much. There are so many stories and you know they are just supposed to make this drama longer. It cannot keep up its pace for 20 episodes and that makes it lose some quality.

Cast: Choi Ji-woo as Park Bok-nyeo. Thinking about it Park Bok-nyeo is not the most exciting but probably the most developed character. The background story and the effects she experienced all make sense and I couldn't help but pity her. As for the acting, I think it was outstanding. I see why people might disagree with me but emotionless acting to me would be incredibly difficult. Always maintaining the exact same expression for - just guessing, I don't remember the exact episode - 10 episodes is extremely hard to do. Still, the chemistry (not in a romantic way) she had with the children, especially the youngest daughter, made it seem as if there were some feelings shown. It is difficult to explain but it really impressed me.
Lee Sung-jae as Eun Sang-chul. As a character I still don't know what I should think about him but the development the character went through - from a terrible husband and father to an actually caring person who tries to do what could be best for his children - was a huge step. So I kinda admired the character in that way. From one of my most hated characters he made it to one of my favorites. As for the acting, it seemed true to its nature. Lee Sung-jae was good in this role but I wish he would use stronger facial expressions from time to time. However, it was still a solid and actually good performance.
Kim So-hyun as Eun Han-gyeol. Han-gyeol is a typical teenage girl going through puberty and her first love while being the oldest daughter of the household and somehow taking the role of the mother and a student before Park Bok-nyeo starts to work for the family. The rebel character actually suited Kim So-hyun and her expressions, especially the huge problem with her father, were good. I enjoyed her acting in this drama and don't think they could've found a better actress for this role.
Chae Sang-woo as Eun Du-gyeol. As the oldest son he feels like he needs to act as the head of the household when his father is gone. However, his biggest issue is that he feels like he can't do anything and that gives him quite a hard time. I would say he is going through puberty as well and has to find himself and his dreams. Chae Sang-woo did well in this role, playing sometimes the tough guy and sometimes the emotional boy Du-gyeol is according to his age. So he was good in this role.
Nam Da-reum as Eun Se-gyeol. The younger brother is the opposite of Du-gyeol. Se-gyeol can't fight but is extremely good at studying and wants to make his deceased mom proud while being probably the most rational sibling in this drama. I really imagined Nam Da-reum to be Se-gyeol. Maybe it just suits his character, maybe he's just a good young actor but Se-gyeol was great.
Kang Ji-woo as Eun Hye-gyeol. The youngest sibling, Hye-gyeol, suffers the most after losing their mother. Her character is heartbroken and accepts Park Bok-nyeo as a "second" mother soon. While sometimes children can be quite annoying it was heartwrenching to watch her in this drama. Kang Ji-woo is incredibly cute but she did so well in this drama and was either getting along quite well with Choi Ji-woo or they both are just great actresses. I sometimes wonder how child actors even manage to deliver really good performances but she did.
Other actors in this drama include Wang Ji-hye, Song Jong-ho, Jung Moon-sung, Park Geun-hyung, Shim Yi-young, Kim Hae-sook and Jang Seo-won.

Soundtrack: Actually the soundtrack of this drama doesn't include many songs. About the instrumentals I really loved the one playing everytime Park Bok-nyeo was about to appear - I guess it's one of the Park Bok-nyeo themes.
As for the songs sung for this drama by idol singers my favorite is "Twilight" by Yoo Sung-eun. Except for that, Lim Kim sang a song titled "부탁할게요 (I'm Asking You)" which I personally liked, too. The song I can't stand, however, is sadly the one on the drama performed by Kim So-hyun and the band. I don't know why but I'm not a huge fan of her singing or the song.


5.5/10
I see why the rating might seem bad but it's mostly because of the long times without anything happening that was worth noting. I found myself on my phone way too often while just listening to what was said but this drama failed to keep me focussed. Now you can say that it is just not the perfect drama for me - while I love the mystery and suspense I found myself bored by the daily life of the family and the hint of romance that were supposed to be there but probably wasn't. And for the story itself 20 episodes were too much, 14 to 16 would've been completely fine. The length however might be the main problem about the episodes that were just used to fill in without anything, really. Plus, I personally found the first two episodes incredibly boring so I wasn't sure if I should continue watching at all. I'm still glad I did though as this drama has more to it than one expects.
Recommended to fans of family and melodramas. According to what I heard and read the Japanese version is much better so if you know and liked that maybe you should skip the Korean version as most people were disappointed.

Second-Female-Lead-Syndrome

After following the Second-Male-Lead-Syndrome - we cannot forget about their female counterparts. We could actually summarize it as the Second-Lead-Syndrome but both have different effects.

Let's be honest, in most dramas the second female leads belong to a not-so-positive category. It's not only that they're trying to manipulate everything and anyone for their personal benefits - most of them are pretty annoying as well and sometimes I just reach the point when I want to beat them up because they are seriously pissing me off. But I admit that they usually are really beautiful women - that's why they're not used to being rejected.
Sure there are some good second female leads, sometimes this manipulative type of character is represented by the mother of the male lead, or maybe someone else who's related to the male lead or female lead in any way.

Who were the most annoying Second-Female-Lead-Syndrome characters then?

The first one that appears in my list is Ok Joo-hyun in The Musical". Yes, at some point her character was pitiful but still one of the most annoying female characters I've ever seen in a Korean drama.

Now we have Kim Yoo-ri in The Master's Sun. In the end she's not that bad though she is annoying throughout the story, yes, but she's not one of the typical characters falling into the category of this syndrome.

However, NOW we have the personification of this syndrome! I think I've never, never, never hated a female character as much as I did hate Jung Yoo-mi in Rooftop Prince. There wasn't even one time when I was freaking out because of a second female lead this much. But what should I say.. People always get what they deserve. So does Hong Se-na. Yes, karma is a bitch.

Another female character that seriously made me freak out.. I don't even know what to say about such a malicious person. Park Soo-jin was seriously getting on my nerves in Flower Boy Next Door. She wasn't trying to get involved with the male lead, that's the only thing she did right, but her character was still one of the most annoying ones I remember.

The next one is Yoo In-na in You Who Came From The Stars. I somehow couldn't dislike her that much though because in fact I do understand her frustration after years of hard work. However, back-stabbing someone who thought of you as their best friend for years definitely isn't the right thing to do.

Of course there are more female characters that fit into this category. But compared to the male leads these manipulative characters are sometimes taken by others as well. We still have to mention Choi Ji-woo in Winter Sonata and Han Chae-ah in All About My Romance.

Sure I know that those actresses might be completely different in real life but somehow they tend to get on my nerves just when I see them in a drama again. However, when they're characters are okay in the next drama, I'm usually able to forgive them.

Winter Sonata

Welcome to this review of the oldest Korean drama I've ever watched.

겨울 연가 (Winter Sonata) is a Korean drama series that aired from January 14th to March 29th 2002 on KBS2.
It was one of the first Korean drama series that were aired in Japan, and there it was known as "冬のソナタ" (fuyu no sonata).

Story: The story starts with Kang Jun-sang transferring to a high school in Chuncheon because of the desire to find his father. He meets Jung Yoo-jin in school and the two of them fall in love. But one day a horrible accident happens and Kang Jun-sang dies.
Years later Yoo-jin and her highschool friends started working and most of them live in Seoul. Oh Chae-lin, a girl who had a crush on Kang Jun-sang, brings Lee Min-hyung from Paris with her - surprisingly Min-hyung looks like Jun-sang and Yoo-jin starts to wonder if it's possible Jun-sang didn't die back then.

Cast: At first we have Bae Yong-jun as Kang Jun-sang and Lee Min-hyung. Choi Ji-woo appears as Jung Yoo-jin. Her close friends are played by Park Yong-ha as Kim Sang-hyuk who's deeply in love with Yoo-jin and one of the first victims of the Second-Male-Lead-Syndrome, Park Sol-mi as Oh Chae-lin, Lee Hye-eun as Gong Ji-sook and Ryu Seung-soo as Kwon Yong-gook.
It's a good cast but I didn't know most of the actors before. It's not surprising though since most of them aren't that active today anymore (and Park Yong-ha committed suicide a few years ago, may he rest in peace).

Regarding the age, the drama is good. What is actually interesting is that sudden patterns and tropes even appeard in 2002, so roughly 15 years ago. Sure the style is kind of old school, yes, but it would so definitely work. Maybe we should sign a petition for a new version. (Just jokin', though I'm sure it'd be a huge success just by adding new actors and rewriting the story a little.
So my personal rating is 6.5/10 because it seems too old but I'm pretty sure it would work again today. So check it out if you're in the mood for some romance next winter!