Secret Love Affair

Exquisitely beautiful is how I would describe this drama. Everything about it is just exquisite. As a matter of fact, it is so good that I cannot come up with anything to complain about.

The story:

Secret Love Affair is about a love affair between an unlikely couple; Lee Sun Jae, an impoverished delivery boy and YouTube-taught piano prodigy, and Oh Hae Won, a director of planning for the Seohan Arts Foundation. Everything should be fine and dandy if not for the fact that she is married and twenty years older than him. She is 40. He is 20.

Hae Won is beautiful, elegant and sophisticated. She thought she lived a fulfill life until she met Sun Jae. His passion for music, his boyish naïveté and his unassuming personality draw her to him. The attraction they have toward each other is intense. And that is when Hae Won realizes for the first time what truly falling in love is like.

Kang Jun Hyung is Hae Won's husband. He is a whiny music teacher who relishes a comfortable life his wife can provide. They live together more like friends than husband and wife. She is a ticket to a good life for him. Her job provides them with a luxury lifestyle that he enjoys. Despite all that, he wants more. He wants to be a renowned professor like one of his friends. In order to accomplish that, he has to find a talented student to be his apprentice. Hae Won is helping him when she spots Sun Jae online playing piano. Jun Hyung asks Sun Jae to apply for the music school. But his mother is killed in an accident the morning of the audition. Sun Jae is so distraught that he decides to quit playing piano for good. But Hae Won manages to convince him to come back.

Eventually, Sun Jae receives a scholarship to study at the music school run by the Foundation. Everybody there is excited about him and wants to show him off. The chairwoman of the Foundation orders Hae Won to be his trainer. That is when their relationship has a chance to grow.

As a matter of fact, Hae Won's attraction to Sun Jae is instant, right from the moment she heard him played piano for the first time.

Their mutual love for music and his amazing skills in playing piano bond them together.

They become closer. She tries to suppress her feelings toward him because society dictates otherwise. But he keeps pushing forward. He constantly shows how much he adores her. He even calls her 'goddess' to Mak Kee, a friend he met online. He pours his heart out to Mak Kee, not knowing that, in fact, Mak Kee is Hae Won herself.

As their relationship deepens, Sun Jae finds out how complicated Hae Won's life is and how her bosses abuse her and use her. He keeps asking her to leave that Foundation before she gets herself in trouble. But she is reluctant to do so. She has been living a luxury life, paid for by the Foundation, for so long she does not want to lose it.

The family that owns the Foundation has many businesses. From time to time, they engage in illegal business deals. Hae Won knows all about it. She even plays a part in it. When they are investigated, they set her up to take the fall. Not only that, her husband threatens to file a criminal charge against her for adultery. Adultery must be a crime in Korea. Hae Won has to decide what to do. She has her bosses' secrets in her hands and has the power to negotiate with them. Or she can do what is right, which is exposing their illegal deals. She chooses the latter by giving all the documents she has to a prosecutor even though it means she herself will also be found guilty of wrongdoings. And after everything has been said and done, Hae Won realizes what is the most important thing in life. In court, while explaining what she has done, she mentions what she thinks she has thrown away;

Hae Won: Then one day, my life was unexpectedly changed. My life's report was in front of me. How will I live my life? I vividly remember that moment. It was a highlight of my life. For the first time someone devoted himself just for me. He didn't give up his life for me or give a romantic confession. He just busily wiped the floor of his place. All he did was try to provide a clean seat for me. But then I realized that I had never received such devotion from anyone.

Sun Jae is also in court, listening to everything. Dae Won thinks he will leave her. But he does not. He visits her in prison and tells her about the competition he participates in. He tells her that if he wins, the money he receives will be for them to get away from everything together. She tells him to go, meaning to leave her. He tells her he will not go anywhere. His home is here. Big sigh of relief from an avid fan like me! Eventually, they will have a life together.

To sum up in one sentence what this drama is about, it has to be 'a struggle between an attraction and societal expectations'. It is a conflict which plays out beautifully by two fine actors, Yoo Ah In and Kim Hee Ae.

Yoo Ah In as Lee Sun Jae is the heartbeat of this drama. He literally nails the role. He does a phenomenal job of capturing an innocent and passionate someone so young, so talented, so untempered. His gestures are all subtle, be it the shaking of his voice and fluttering of his eyes to convey the nervousness of a young boy who tries so very hard to gain an approval from his teacher, or squirmy, angst ridden and awkward movements when he is alone with the one and only woman he adores and is madly in love with. Of course, she is also the woman who is old enough to be his mother. Any young boy his age would feel the same way. And that puppyish devotion of his, who could resist and not falling in love with him.  

Kim Hee Ae is gorgeous. It's unbelievable that she is 47 years old. Her portrayal of Oh Hae Won, a woman with all kinds of conflicts raging inside, is plausible. The chemistry between her and Yoo Ah In is through the roof despite their 20 years age difference.

There is very little background music in Secret Love Affair because it is used for other purposes. Music is used to reveal hidden emotions and personalities of characters. it is used to express the highs and lows of the drama. Main characters like Sun Jae plays his music (piano) passionately like he is having an affair with it. For this drama, music is everything. The two main characters also fall for each other because of music. Most of the music in this drama are classical except for one. When Sun Jae and Hae Won escape to the country together to avoid problems they are facing, he plays Billy Joel's Piano Man on his phone for her.

I can go on and on about this drama but it's getting too long. Regardless of what, one thing is for sure, Yoo Ah In is a good actor. He is unbelievably talented. I watched him in Jang Ok Jung and he literally stole that show. Without him playing King Sukjong, there is probably nothing much to talk about.

Kim Hee Ae is also very good. She gives life and soul to Oh Hae Won, an older woman who falls in love with a much younger man, a woman who is complex enough to keep getting herself in trouble.

I watched the last episode last night. And I definitely will watch it again.

Create Date : 17 พฤษภาคม 2557		5 comments
Last Update : 21 พฤษภาคม 2557 23:58:39 น.
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