The Heirs

Well, I just finished watching The Heirs. It's not a new drama. It was released in 2013, but since it was suggested to me, I just watched it. 

Everybody is very stylish in this drama, obviously because it's supposed to be about rich kids and high classed homes. So far, not many Korean dramas annoyed me. The only drama so far that I couldn't even finish was The Night Watchman's Journal. Seriously, The Heirs was almost about to make me give up also. The word draggy can't fully express my feelings. All dramas have their Interaction Delay. Yea, that's what I call it. Its those moments, where it gives you palpitation and anxiety when the guy is running to meet the girl who was lost for 10 years - but the directors will drag that moment just enough to make you really want them to meet, and when they do, you get goosebumps all over. The skill needed in directing dramas is knowing exactly how much to delay. In this drama - the Interaction Delay was overdone to the point of annoyance.

For me the drama that really conquered the Interaction Delay was of course my favorite drama of all time, Empress Ki. I didn't really blog about Empress Ki because I watched it before even starting this blog. In fact, I watched a whole lot of movies before blogging. Besides the Interaction Delay being a major disappointment, most of the appealing Korean dramas usually comes with suspenseful childhood trauma. The Heirs merely focused on the love story for the first half, and the taking over of Jeguk Group in the second half of the story. So much focus was given on the love story (which I don't really mind), but the taking over of the father's business was so superficial and simplified. Usually Korean dramas can come up with something more complex and watchers get to learn more about the conflict - just as how the life of reporters were portrayed in Pinocchio. In The Heirs, the taking over of the business was so superficial it just consisted of dialogues about percentage of shares, loyalty and partnership.

The third disappointment will be the Age Setting. Seriously? You want me to look at Lee Min Ho and Park Shin Hye as school students? They look so much like adults, the high school love didn't match them at all. In fact, all the other actors are too old to take on school kids characters. The fight between Kim Woo Bin and Lee Min Ho didn't look like school boys fighting - it looked like someone is going to crack their skull. The forth disappointment will be the fact that, this would be the first drama that I've watched that I think no one should have got the girl. Its because she is the kind of girl that isn't even worth fighting for. At every chance she gets to bounce, she flees like a bird that just received freedom from its cage. How many freaking times, does Kim Tan have to come looking for her, and begging her to just freaking stay by his side. Sometimes, people don't want to take the battle. They just want to give up. Contrary to the popular notion, I actually don't mind that. My problem is that, if you wanna give up, don't be bloody hesitant about it. At the point where Kim Tan fell crying on his knees in the empty apartment - I really felt pitiful for him.

Acting wise, it was good. Min Ho and Shin Hye did well, for me at least. Both of them know how to cry - well for Min Ho, not really, but his facial expressions has variations, which is good. Kim Tan's mother did really well too. Park Shin Hye's, about-to-cry-face is really good. She has truly mastered that technique. While I have full loyalty to Shin Hye because of her looks (she still remains as the worlds most terrible kisser), I have to say that my favorite female character is actually Lee Bo Na (Krystal Jung). She looked too cute in the drama. I'm not too sure about her in real life though. 

Korean dramas and their relationship issues are always fun to watch. Someone actually took the time and effort to actually come up with a relationship chart. Uh-maze-ing.

Actually, its a little more complicated that than. Some of the characters are left out. But that's mainly the relationships, and since I found this online, I just decided to include it here. What I really like about this drama was their wrap up in the final episode. It was short and sweet, and very appealing. Only in the final 2 episodes, the Interaction Delay with an instrumental background was starting to make you Not want to fast forward. Another aspect about Korean dramas are Anchors and Literature. I just created the word anchors because I don't know how to group them. Its those memento like things that anchors feelings to them. In this drama, it was the Dream-catcher and the Wishbone. These anchors are not necessary, but its the little spices that make the dish different from the rest. Also, their frequent reference to literature in many Korean dramas always intrigue me. In The Heirs, they talked about Gatsby. I watched The Great Gatsby where Di Caprio acted, but I didn't know it was a literary text. My favorite quote from the drama would be "One who wants the crown, bears the crown." Overall, I do not recommend this drama, unless you really have nothing to do, or you have a really important exam coming up. 

"We may fall again, and we may get on our knees. However, one thing's certain, no matter what...go for it."