“What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim” (김비서가 왜 그럴까)

By Jae-Ha Kim
Substack
August 5, 2018

☆☆☆½
Lee Young-Joon (played by Park Seo-Joon)
Kim Mi-So (played by Park Min-Young)
Lee Sung-Yeon (played by Lee Tae-Hwan)

There’s very little wrong with the chemistry in the Korean series, “What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim.” The attraction between the main characters is so strong that (of course) the off-screen dating rumors have surfaced.

Both Park Seo-Joon and Park Min-Young deny they are anything more than friends, but you almost can’t blame netizens for their wishful thinking.

The two unrelated Parks star as a pampered head of a company and his loyal secretary. He is arrogant and socially inept. She is indispensable to him, not only because of her efficiency, but because she is the only one who can put up with his demands without cracking.

The literal translation of the series title is “Why is Secretary Kim Like That.” I’m mildly offended by both titles, because they imply that there is something wrong with her, when in reality, there’s more that’s a bit off about him. He treats people horribly — including her. (We find out later why he is the way that he is.)

One day, she announces that she is giving her notice. She’s not leaving because she doesn’t like her position, but rather because she has fulfilled her role as the breadwinner in her nuclear family. She paid off her father’s debts to loan sharks; and she has finished putting her older sisters through college. Having worked full time since she graduated from high school, she’d like to do something for herself, though she doesn’t know what that is yet.

A few thoughts went through my mind about her life at this point:

1) Never quit a job without having something else lined up.

2) And what the heck was her father doing while his youngest child was working her butt off taking care of their family?

Yes, I know that his dream was to become a rock star and that he was distraught after the death of his wife. But when you become a parent, your dreams have to take a backseat to helping your children fulfill theirs — or at least helping pay for college. Mi-So was as smart as her sisters and admitted to a good university. But she didn’t go, because she felt the obligation to earn money.

There is a brief love triangle, when Young-Joon’s older brother, Sung-Yeon, falls for Mi-So. They had both been kidnapped together as children, so he feels they are meant to be together. This one-sided romance doesn’t drag on and is handled expeditiously and in a way that doesn’t seem improbable.

Besides the stars, the child actors who play younger versions of the characters are precocious and adorable. And the supporting characters overall are excellent (though I didn’t care for Hwang Bo-Ra’s overacting as one of Mi-So’s colleagues). Kang Ki-Young is a standout as Young-Joon’s best friend and underling at Yoomyung Group. Recently divorced and still obviously in love with his ex-wife, he gives Young-Joon much-needed dating advice and is just a really good (and funny) friend.

Hwang Chan-Sung — better known to K-Pop fans as 2PM’s Chansung — is also very good in his role as Go Gwi-Nam, a handsome go-getter, who has no life outside of work.

Meta moments:

In Episode 5, Mi-So’s elder sister tells her that people from similar backgrounds fare the best. Mi-So mentions gae sae (dog bird). Dog Bird was the name of Park Seo-Joon’s character in “Hwarang.”

Chansung sings an intentionally off-key version of “Heartbeat,” a song made famous by his group 2PM.

Airdates: 16 one-hour episodes aired on tvN from June 6 to July 26, 2018.

Spoiler Alert:

Sung-Yeon had grown up blaming Young-Joon for escaping, while he had been kidnapped and tortured. In reality, it was Sung-Yeon who had left him alone, knowing that his little brother was scared. After the kidnapping, Sung-Yeon was so distraught that he began to think he had been the victim. Seeing his brother suffer, Young-Joon pretended to lose his memory and the parents thought it would be best to go along with their elder son’s theory that it was he who had been abducted.

Though the series doesn’t spell it out, this partially explains why Young-Joon is the way that he is. He has been forced to live a lie for most of his life.

The woman who kidnapped Young-Joon and Mi-So is portrayed as unhinged. Forced to have an abortion by her married boyfriend, she kidnaps the children. Why? I’m not sure. Maybe because she has regrets about not having any children of her own. Maybe because she doesn’t want other families to be happy, if she can’t be happy. It appears that she didn’t choose either child for any other reason than proximity. She took Mi-So, because the opportunity presented itself (the little girl ran out of her house, looking for her mother, who had died). Young-Joon was left alone in a deserted area. She didn’t kidnap him for ransom, but for some twisted sense of justice in her own mind.

When we first met Go Gwi-Nam, he was the company’s most coveted employee. Handsome, athletic and smart, he also was a bit of an oddball who was extremely cheap. He would treat himself to sweet and sour pork once a year, on his birthday. He had grown up extremely poor and any accomplishment he achieved was met with pity. People would say that it was so wonderful that someone from such a poor family did so well for himself. He vowed that his future children wouldn’t be put in that position. Every penny he made was put into the bank so he could buy a nice house for his future family.

While I’m not a huge fan of K-Dramas that do a lot of flashing forward in the final episode, I had hoped that Mi-So would get to explore the world before marrying Young-Joon. Or, I wish the series would’ve showed that though married, she wouldn’t be working for her husband as his secretary, but was attending college. With her brains, work experience and life skills, she would’ve been a shoo-in for Seoul University. There’s nothing wrong with being Young-Joon’s secretary, especially when she excels at what she does. But I had the nagging feeling that she decided to remain at this company not because she really wanted to, but because she knew that he needed her there.

While, of course, she loves him and vice versa, sacrificing her dreams to fulfill someone else’s needs is what she had done all her adult life.

I really enjoyed WHAT’S WRONG WITH SECRETARY KIM. Quibbles: I didn’t like the translation of the title, implying something was off with her for wanting to follow her dreams. Also, the ending left me a little sad for her potential. My review: https://t.co/86THxZN08k Let’s discuss! pic.twitter.com/JFIoXs8z66

— Jae-Ha Kim 김재하 (@GoAwayWithJae) August 6, 2018

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