KARA: Secret Love

KARA: Secret Love

5.5/10

KARA: Secret Love

Genre:                               Episodes: 5                           Year: 2014

Romance

Comedy 

Fantasy

Synopsis:

Five different love stories, staring the members from hit girl-group KARA.

Cast:

Han Seung Yeon (Ji Hye)

Yeon Woo Jin (Jang Hyun Jin)

Goo Ha Ra (Hyun Jung)

Kim Young Kwang (Yoon Joon Moon)

Kang Ji Young (So Yeol)

Bae Soo Bin (Hyun Joon)

Nicole Jung (Mary)

Lee Kwang Soo (Tae Yang)

Park Gyuri (Park Sun Woo)

Ji Chang Wook (Angel 2013)

General Thoughts:

It’s mostly a cute, enjoyable, easy watch. The girls aren’t exactly the best actresses ever- but they’re far from awful. All the boys give rather fantastic performances. The different stories are pretty cute and they get the job done- telling an interesting, short story about some form of love. 

Such love, much wow

And weirdly, they all involve death in one way or another. I guess the writers thought their best bet at getting some emotion going was some good ol’ death and separation. Didn’t exactly fail, but didn’t really succeed either. Separating the stories into five entirely different sections kept the drama cute and easy to watch, but also deprived the drama from going into too much depth- as each story didn’t really have enough time to go below surface level. The stories never interacted with each other, with each world staying firmly in its own episode and not influencing any other stories.

The only thing they had in common was DEATH

While this can be considered a little disappointing, as none of our stories or characters related to each other, it was also rather freeing for the writers, who could come up with new rules for each universe they created in each episode. Whether that universe included time-travel, angels, or was completely normal.

What Was Great:

Stories 1, 2 and 5:

The first story was sweet, innocent, and surprisingly moving. The idea of going back in time to save someone has been done before, but the story still managed to be engaging and addictive.

Two adorable people that make one adorable combo

Han Seung Yeon and Yeon Woo Jin made a convincing pair and their couple scenes were adorable. Story 2 was just plain wonderful. I now fully understand all the Goo Ha Ra love in the world- because that girl is just pure adorableness. And paired with Kim Young Kwang- magic. It was one of Kim Young Kwang’s more endearing performances, and the two managed to completely nail the bickering to love dynamic perfectly in the short space of time they were given. Story 2 was probably the most fluid and well constructed of all the episodes. And that brings us to Story 5. Which is basically just the Ji Chang Wook show- and who wouldn't want to watch that? I could literally sit and watch Ji Chang Wook be a moody, sarcastic angel for the rest of my life. Talk about perfection. Swoooooon. The girl is annoying as all hell (probably just the character) and the story’s kind of lame. But Ji Chang Wook is phenomenal. His acting is a cut above the rest. Good Lord, can that man act.

I love the Ji Chang Wook Show- definitely one of the best shows out

Soundtrack:

The soundtrack for this series had some pretty brilliant songs- surprisingly (and thankfully) by a group of very talented artists and not purely KARA. The soundtrack was always used excellently to compliment the tone of the series and set the mood beautifully.

What Wasn’t:

What the fudgesicle is this?

Stories 3 and 4:

I don’t even know what was going on in episode 3 there. It was by far the most confused and dysfunctional of the lot. While I understand that the writers were aiming for an unreciprocated first love kind of vibe, it didn’t translate all that well. The chemistry between the actors never felt that believable, and the twist was far too predictable. As for Story 4…oh, Story 4. It could (and should) have been so much more than it was. Nicole Jung seemed to be a competent little actress, but nothing in the storyline was really explained. I still don’t know why Tae Yang owed all those people money Speaking of Tae Yang, he was basically just a stock-standard Lee Kwang Soo character. Bumbling and awkward. Which is really disappointing as Lee Kwang Soo can do so much more than that. Sigh, oh well.

Lee Kwang Soo- under-utilised once more

Re-watch?

Maybe Story 2- because it was the best. Maybe Story 5- because Ji Chang Wook. The rest? Not a chance.

Cute but unsubstantial