Konnichiwa and Annyeong Haseyo minna-san

Konnichiwa and Annyeong Haseyo minna-san

Hope that's correct above but what I'm saying is welcome everyone. May 10, 2019 is the first day of this blog and many may know me from 'Nao Kanzaki and Friends'... aitoda.com. There I have such a mix of things and finally decided to branch out with just a blog devoted to Japanese and Korean dramas. Will also be having some film reviews but one thing you won't see are any J-Pop idols or gravure models except for their dramas, this blog is dedicated 100% to dramas and films.

Also actresses as will be having many, many posts for them. Such as them appearing at events, mag spreads, interview pics and whatever else. So you should be seeing a lot of my bigger long time faves such as Erika Toda, Park Min-Young, Lee Yeon-Hee, Tsubasa Honda and too many others to count.

News and upcoming projects

News and upcoming projects

Should have done this on my Aitoda blog which is to let viewers know what's going on. Seems like a good way to let everyone know if I'll be taking a break, what to look forward to and any other tidbits.

Updating update, May 19th:

Whew, have finally finished transferring over enough posts from the Aitoda blog. May be a few here and there in the future for some new that's being introduced but there shouldn't be too many. Have also included announcers for women that I'll be posting about as my top two current faves just happen to be in that profession.

The first five episodes of '3-Nen A Gumi' have now been posted. For series over five shows will be doing two batches of them as I figure ten posts are way too many to read through during one sitting so will have the second half of the drama coming up in 2-3 weeks, highly recommend the show.

June 4th.... Have written up the recaps for episodes 7 and 8 of the '3-Nen A Gumi' show and will have those long with episode eight by June 6th. Up next for Korean dramas is up in the air but leaning towards a pair of shorter series which will be either "Splish Splash Love" or "The Universe's Star".

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Friday, December 27, 2019

Korean drama "The Secret Life of My Secretary": Recaps for episode's 25 and 26





 Air Dates: May 6th to June 25, 2019 on SBS, two episodes Monday and Tuesdays at 10:00 pm
Ratings, episode 25 3.0%, episode 26 3.8%

Main Cast:

Jin Ki-Joo as Jung Gal-Hee.... 27 year old secretary to Min-Ik, she's the only person he can see
Kim Young-Kwang as Do Min-Ik.... President of TnT Media, has mysterious vision problem
Koo Ja-Sung as Ki Dae-Joo.... Min-Ik's best friend and a director at TnT
Kim Jae-Kyung as Veronica Park.... major character but hasn't been seen in four episodes
Jang So-Yeon as Yi Yul-Wang.... executive secretary to Dae-Joo
Kim Min-Sang as Sim Hae-Yung.... Min-Ik's uncle who wants the role of president back
Jung Ae-Ri as Sim Hae-Ra.... Min-Ik's mother though not his biological one
Seo Dong-Won as Jung Joong-Hee.... Gal-Hee's younger blind brother
Kim Ji-Min as Jung Nam-Hee.... Gal-Hee's younger sister who wants to attend college 
Kim Byung-Choon as Dr. Gu.... Min-Ik's long time doctor
Han Ji-Sun as Mo Ha-Ni.... part of the 'temp secretary group'
Son San as Koo Myung-Jung.... part of the 'temp secretary group'
Choi Yoon-Ra as Boo Se-Young.... part of the 'temp secretary group'
Kwon So-Hyun as Ha Ri-Ra.... part of the 'temp secretary group'
Choi Tae-Hwan as Eun Jung-Soo.... Min-Ik's new driver

 Finally have made it to the end of this superb series and have four recaps in a row with the last eight episodes. Will give my my thoughts about the drama throughout the four posts but to sum it up this was a show I did enjoy immensely, unlike most long Korean dramas it never lagged in the middle episodes and remained interesting for every single episode.
 For a long time stayed away from  these lighthearted dramas, this one was in a way but also was sort of intense and for a while became a bit sad. All in all this was one of the better series I've viewed in this genre and would highly recommend it but don't think all viewers of this drama share my opinion. Most didn't dislike it but on the other hand didn't give it a thumbs up either. For me it's rare to recap an entire 32 episode series so when I do it must be a good one and to me this drama certainly was.





 So much took place in these two shows there's not much time to rehash things so would help if you read the previous recap. Pair of cliffhangers ended off episode 24, one was the top screenshot. After the deception Gal-Hee had pulled on Min-Ik he's unable to trust her anymore and let her know that for in the opening seconds of this first episode she was canned. That was a short scene and Gal-Hee had no response to being fired though we'll be hitting back on it soon enough.
 The major development to end off the last show was with Dae-Joo's personal secretary Lee. Up until now her role hasn't been too big or important but had a feeling she was a woman of mystery and that she'd be playing a major force in the storyline which is what happened and that dominated the first ten or so minutes of this first episode. Where we had ended off was with Jung-Soo referring to Lee as his 'boss'. He's responsible for the attack on Min-Ik and also breaking into Gal-Hee's house twice to first steal a USB and then a laptop, he failed both times but eventually got both at work.
 Jung-Soo is now a wanted man for the attack on Min-Ik and the attempted robberies, he's in hiding thanks to Lee and can only see her. Since that attack we thought the mastermind behind Jung-Soo's actions was Min-Ik's uncle Hae-Yung but we first got an inkling he wasn't a few episodes ago as
Hae-Yung had seen Jung-Soo one day at the office and wondered who he was. That man has a very short memory or just doesn't care for the lower class as Jung-Soo had been his driver until he got fired. After that is when Jung-Soo had hooked up with Lee, she was irate that Jung-Soo had been canned and with Dae-Joo's help they arranged for him to be Min-Ik's new driver.
 Jung-Soo has committed a few criminal acts but all in all seems like a decent young man who had wanted to turn himself into the police but was forbid from doing so by Lee. She has a plan in works which was never to bring Min-Ik down but to make things so difficult for the directors at TnT Mobile. Lee revealed to Jung-Soo what she's been doing for many years now and it's such a key piece to the entire story. She told the tale to Jung-Soo but it was mainly being told so us viewers could understand everything behind her secret group called Euldoguk.
 Lee began her secret group about fifteen years ago, using that figure because of Dae-Joo's age which is now 34. TnT Mobile has had and still does a bad history on how it treats it's lesser employees such as drivers and secretaries. When they're let go, usually for inane reasons, the company never pays them the benefits they should and the employees really get shafted in the end. Lee just had enough of the way the employees were being treated unfairly and started her Euloguk group which looked after those treated unjustly. Some actions Lee and her group would do was to steal artwork from the TnT Mobile's office and sell it. The they would replace the object with a forgery and keep the profit which has been very high over the years. Almost always the objects were stolen from a director and to date their thefts had never been discovered. Lee would never keep the money for herself but instead hand over a large sum of cash to an employee who had recently been treated unjustly or fired.






 Whew, lot of new details in this opening scene and upon reflection it may have been closer to twenty minutes long than ten. Lee had started the Euldoguk group fifteen years ago when her fellow secretary and friend had died. The pair had been ordered by the then TnT Mobile president Do to take a very sick and expensive fish to the vet as it was about to die. He really tore into the pair and said if they didn't get the fish to the vet immediately both would be canned. Lee and her mate then dashed out of the office and were running down the street when the other secretary dropped the container that held the fish.
 When that took place the woman was crossing a street and a mac truck was barreling down on her. Instead of saving her own life the woman pushed the container with the fish to safety and was run over by the truck. All of that was observed by Lee and what a needless death it was, it happened only because someone put his expensive fish over the well being of an employee. To make matters worse the president Do wouldn't give her son the full benefits from the mother's death, at that moment is when Lee started her group which has increased over the years. The other members are current drivers and secretaries, they've all had a hand in the theft and reselling of objects. And as mentioned the profits from the resales are given back to one of them if they're ever fired or treated unfairly.
 The son of the woman who died just happened to be Dae-Joo who was and still is unaware of the secret group even though Lee is his secretary. Dae-Joo didn't know the circumstances of his mother's death nor how TnT Mobile had shortchanged her death settlement. What Lee had done was to sell that expensive fish for $100,000 and to buy a look alike replacement for $10,000, the director Do never saw any difference in the fish. With that huge profit Lee gave it to Dae-Joo for his college tuition as he was about to graduate from high school. Just recalled that the ledger about to be discussed had a date of 2004 for an entry which was made out to Dae-Joo which means he was nineteen when he received the huge sum of money.
 Lee had told Dae-Joo the money was from director Do but to keep it a secret which he somewhat has over the years. The only person he's mentioned it to was Min-Ik and Dae-Joo has felt so indebted to the Do family. If you haven't figured it out the ex-president Do, who is now dead, was Min-Ik's father who had adopted him when he was seven. Back to the present time and with the pressure building on the Euldoguk group Lee has decided to disband it. She's told the other members to never say a word about their involvement and she'll take all of the blame for herself.
 A main reason for that is because her USB drive with an important file has fallen into the hands of both Min-Ik and his uncle. While Min-Ik can't understand anything on the Excel spreadsheet his uncle Hae-Yung has sent it to the company's IT department to decode. They haven't been able to but one entry that was uncoded was the payment to Dae-Joo many years ago. The spreadsheet was Lee's ledger of her group's activities over the years, if it ever fell into the wrong hands she'd easily be canned but that would be the worst of her problems. Of course it has fallen into the wrong hands and more about the file will be coming up but let's finally move on from Lee but the details were too important to skip over.





 Keep drama recaps at four segments which means we're at the halfway point and have to somehow squeeze all of the other action in. Not much has been going on with the fired Gal-Hee who had been lounging around at home. She's not actively looking for a new job as it seems to me Gal-Hee keeps thinking that Min-Ik will have a change of heart and bring her back. She's so important to Min-Ik as with his vision condition the only person's face he can see clearly is Gal-Hee's and the company's presidential election is coming up in just a few days.
 Veronica had visited Gal-Hee at her house, for such a busy and successful person Veronica never seems to do much work at her Cinepark company. Veronica had suggested to use the time to enjoy herself such as seeing a play, eating an expensive dinner and such, as she left Gal-Hee's residence Veronica gave her a company credit card as Veronica probably felt a bit guilty as she was partly responsible for Gal-Hee being fired.
 Next up Veronica met with Min-Ik as she thought she could talk some sense into him and perhaps even get Gal-Hee rehired. Veronica spilled her guts out to Min-Ik which is very rare for her, as much as Veronica pleaded Min-Ik wasn't impressed with her confession and is still furious the pair pulled such a deception on him. Least things are going better in Veronica's love life as finally Dae-Joo has fallen for her, actually he fell for her many episodes ago but would never admit that fact to her.
 Gal-Hee took Veronica's advice and went out to spoil herself around town. But first she stopped at the hospital to get her cast taken off, she had hurt her left hand in a car accident three shows ago. At the hospital Min-Ik had passed right by Gal-Hee and never noticed her, with his condition Min-Ik can only recognize Gal-Hee when she's wearing her regular attire of a red cardigan, skirt and flat heeled shoes. After having a lavish lunch Gal-Hee decided to try a comedy play as Veronica told her humor is what's now lacking in her life.
 A very big surprise was waiting for Gal-Hee at the play. As she was enjoying it about halfway through who should come out on the stage but her younger sister Nam-Hee! She was supposed to be attending college in America but never left Korea, we viewers knew that but of course Gal-Hee and her blind brother were never aware of it. Instead Nam-Hee has somehow hooked up with Veronica who had felt sorry for her and gave her a small role in one of her plays, Nam-Hee's ultimate goal is to be a major star. Gal-Hee was naturally angry seeing her sister but not overly so as she cared about her so much. What Gal-Hee was mad at Nam-Hee for was not being honest in the first place about not being accepted at the college, the word honesty then really struck a chord with Gal-Hee.






 Gal-Hee had thought to herself, 'Here I am preaching to my sister about being honest and that's something I haven't been with Min-Ik'. With that Gal-Hee took her leave from the theater and dashed over to TnT Mobile to have a heart to heart talk with Min-Ik. Which is what Gal-Hee finally did as she explained why she had been impersonating as Veronica and how it had gotten out of hand. Had to feel a bit sorry for Gal-Hee as she related to Min-Ik how it felt to finally be pampered in life and have a man looking out for her. Her confession was so sincere but it didn't move Min-Ik or at least he didn't show it as he asked Gal-Hee to leave as he wants nothing to do with her.
 Gal-Hee was of course saddened by Min-Ik's remarks but she has a never give up attitude as we'll soon see. We're getting near the end as that opening scene took up about a third of this recap but it was a very interesting and informative one. Things are really heating up between Dae-Joo and Veronica and it appears the two may have even spent a night together doing you know what. He was at her house when he finally met Veronica's mother who was not pleased her daughter was not getting married to Min-Ik. Dae-Joo is a sweet talker and convinced her he's the perfect man for Veronica, the mother still prefers Min-Ik but gave the pair a month to see if they're right for each other.
 Second to last scene once again featured Lee and what an important character she's become. That evening at the office she had run into Min-Ik's uncle Hae-Yung who is also a director. The IT department has made some headway on Lee's spreadsheet, from what they gathered someone was embezzling money from the company. That wasn't the case as we know but it showed the profits from Lee's group. However her name was on the ledger and when she met up with Hae-Yung by accident he of course demanded to know what going on. This scene gets concluded in the next recap but for now Lee tells him she has some important info about Min-Ik which could open the door for
Hae-Yung being elected the company's next president and he's all ears.
 Down to the final few minutes and after Min-Ik told Gal-Hee to leave the office she didn't quite do that. She told Min-Ik she would be waiting outside if he needed any help. And that's what Gal-Hee had been doing for hours and Min-Ik started to feel a bit guilty about the situation. In another scene that will conclude in the next recap Min-Ik finally goes outside to meet Gal-Hee, he brought her red cardigan along for her to wear so Min-Ik could see her face clearly. As the show ended Min-Ik wrapped it around her while also saying could she be his secretary for one more day?





 Kind of zipped trough the last forty minutes but don't think anything was left out, wish I could condense things in that manner more often. Not much more to add in about things as this is the first of four straight posts with the final eight episodes so naturally that means the next three are recaps.












































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