The Heirs

The Heirs

6/10

The Heirs

Genre:                                   Episodes: 20                                   Year: 2013

Romance

Comedy

School

Synopsis:

Kim Tan is a wealthy heir to a Korean company, who is studying abroad in America. He has no real desire to take over the business, and easily stepped aside to allow his older half-brother, Kim Won, a chance to inherit. He has an arranged engagement to Rachel Yoo, the heir of a large fashion company. While in America, he meets Cha Eun Sang, who came from Korea to find her older sister who is in need of money. After Kim Tan sees Eun Sang’s sister take all her money and leave her stranded in a foreign country, he allows her to stay at his house until she can get back to Korea. When the two return to Korea, Eun Sang finds her mother has been able to enrol her in an elite school as a scholarship student. It happens to be the same school that Kim Tan attends, along with his finance and former best friend, Choi Young Do.

Cast:

Park Shin Hye (Cha Eun Sang)

Lee Min Ho (Kim Tan)

Kim Woo Bin (Choi Young Do)

Kim Ji Won (Rachel Yoo)

Choi Jin Hyuk (Kim Won)

Kang Ha Neul (Lee Hyo Shin)

Kang Min Hyuk (Yoon Chan Young)

Krystal Jung (Lee Bo Na)

General Thoughts:

How does South Korea keep churning out these rich-boy, poor-girl dramas. Are there any new ways to spin this idea left? The main couple in our drama, Eun Sang and Kim Tan, are typical and unsurprising for this type of storyline. Lee Min Ho is back again as a rich heir to a large corporation (hello Boys Over Flowers), and Park Shin Hye is back again as a Candy-girl (hello anything Park Shin Hye has ever been in). Most of the wow in this drama comes from the supporting cast and smaller storylines.

Could this concept be any more overplayed?

Kim Woo Bin is magic as Young Do- the violent, angry opposition to our main lead. He accurately portrays the hurt child inside the hardened shell, and delivers massive amounts of cute both with Eun Sang and his close friends.

Best couple out

Even more cute is given with the relationships between our main leads’ mums and Chan Young and Bo Na. Kim Ji Won does well enough as Rachel Yoo- spurned fiancé and stroppy step-sister, but the writers never make her character likeable enough.

The main plotline is interesting and enjoyable, if not predictable. Kim Tan’s affection for his older brother and zero f*cks given attitude give enough uniqueness to the story that it’s pleasurable to watch, and gives a little more depth to the overused situation. Besides the amazingly star-studded cast, there’s nothing too amazing, but there’s also no major downers. There’s really not a lot of story considering it manages to scrape out 20 episodes, but the large amounts of cute and gradual development of relationships make the drama an appealing, easy watch.

What Was Great:

Brother Contrast:

One of the most interesting points of the drama were the two conflicting characters of the brothers. It was obvious that both Kim Tan and Kim Won cared about each other, but both had differing views on what would protect the other. Older brother Won believed it was best to keep little brother far away from himself and the family company, while little brother Tan believed it was best to keep older brother close where he could love and support him. It was brilliant writing to show that neither of the brothers was completely right, as both pathways had their own downsides and consequences.

They even look like brothers

It was fascinating to watch the brothers each choose different paths, while still being able to look at each other and view the path they didn’t take. Won chose to accept the arranged marriage, give up the woman he loved and solidify his position as head of the company. Alternatively, Tan stayed with the girl he loved, choosing to reject the arranged marriage and all the perks that came with it. I wish the drama had unveiled more of the downside of choosing the girl, as in the end, baby brother Tan seemed pretty happy and well-off, while big brother Won was crying alone in his study. I guess, in a way, it highlights the responsibility of being the oldest, as Won had to shoulder all the burdens so Tan could be carefree.

Having his cake, and eating it too

Unexpected Mums:

One of the elements of this drama that set it apart from other chaebol romances is the unique situations of our leads’ mothers. Our main male’s mother is draped in luxury and has the attention of the man she loves; yet cannot leave her mansion in case she draws attention to Tan’s father’s adultery. The world doesn’t even know she is Tan’s real mother, as he is listed as the Chairman’s current wife’s son to prevent backlash on the company. Our main female’s mother is a mute who happens to work as a maid for Tan’s mother. It is very sweet to watch the relationship between these two women grow, especially due to their obliviousness of their children’s relationship.

Cute mum besties

It also means we get to avoid the tiresome and over-played theme of mothers who don’t like each other. We did get a small portion of mother reluctance when it got to accepting the relationship between Tan and Eun Sang, but through the strong setup and consistent characters, we could see that this came from a deep desire to prevent hardships for their children. This made their disagreement so much more tolerable, and significantly less selfish than other times we have seen this situation played out.

Chan Young X Bo Na:

Most functional K-Drama relationship

My guilty pleasure must be great side-romances, because they always manage to make their way into my ‘What was Great’ section. Most likely because we get all the cute without the conflict. There were many reasons I liked the pairing between Chan Young and Bo Na. Firstly, it means that there will be at least one male character who won’t be fawning over the Candy-girl. This is great, because it’s always a little exasperating when we constantly see these girls who are presented as upbeat, yet average, winning hearts of millions of extraordinary men. Second, their devotion, trust and innocence was refreshing to watch amid a mess of tangled and complicated relationships. A little part of me wished that we were given some snippet of how these two got together, as Chan Young is from a lower societal class, and they attend a school that bases everything off class. I really hope it was more than Chan Young’s good looks, but I wouldn’t put it past Bo Na to have fallen for his looks first, and his personality later. At least it was clear that she adored all aspects of him currently.

 What Wasn’t:

America:

Any scene set in America, or that involved Lee Min Ho speaking English, had a 90% chance of inducing cringes. The U.S was presented as some glamourous, fantasy-like party, where drugs are everywhere and girls are easy.

This ain't no strip club

I mean, it was hard to watch Eun Sang’s sister being treated like a STRIPPER while being nothing more than a waitress at a beach café. There’s a good chance that while in the U.S, if you slip a bill under a waitresses bra-strap or tell her she can come by your place to make a

Could you get any more ridiculous? 

little extra, you will earn yourself a well-deserved slap and get yourself banned from the café. Just sayin’. Kim Tan’s blonde, surfer friend was embarrassingly bizarre and over-acted, and yet still managed to avoid being the worst performance of a westerner in a K-Drama. And I think we should just avoid the topic of Lee Min Ho’s English skills. But good on him for trying- most westerners’ Korean would sound worse than his English. He did get the words out eventually, but it wasn’t pretty to listen to. And what was up with his angsty teenage diary?

Typical Candy Cop-out:

As you would expect, at one point in this drama, we had the oh-so-familiar scene of our Candy-girl running off and abandoning the relationship after our main man has worked so hard to pull everything together. And as usual, there’s not really a good reason for it. For sure the most frustrating part of this drama.

Her unexplained absence will surely make everything better

No Real Resolution:

While the drama didn’t actually have a whole lot of plot to begin with, what little conflict we did have was not resolved in a satisfying manner. Tan’s father (who has been slowly dying for like the whole frigging series) had some sort of plan for his company which involved screwing around his two sons and breeding animosity. I don’t know, it was all super vague and didn’t make a lot of sense. Then at the end, after Won and Tan do a lot of back dealings and not-so-secret moves that make absolutely no difference, Dad just suddenly decides that he won’t be a butt anymore, and virtually just steps out of the way. What.

Magically woke up a better man

Wasted Character Potential::

The character of Rachel Yoo had so much potential, but the writers did not capitalize. She’s a strong presence in the beginning stages, and seems to be gathering her cards to make a huge

Mean then, mean now

move. She’s got a couple of big players that owe her favours or are willing to pitch their lot in with hers, but in the end she doesn’t really do much more than whine loudly from the background and cast disgruntled, huffy looks at all the happy people. Even the last ditch attempt to redeem her character was half-assed. Just because beloved Hyo Shin Sunbae thinks she’s nice, I’m not going to believe it. Speaking of which, don’t try and tie up those two characters together. It was hideously forced and awkward.

Along with Rachel Yoo there were several other characters that weren’t developed as well as they could have been. However, unlike Rachel, they were generally likeable, even if they didn’t have much development. Young Do was alarmingly underdeveloped considering how much screen time he was given. Sure, he did make some small improvements (such as searching out his mother), but for the most part he stayed the same. He went through all the typical motions of going from

We all wanted more of this

unlikeable to tolerable by gaining some pity, but nothing beyond that. And then Hyo Shin Sunbae. Willing to throw away his life rather than conform to the life his parents want him to live. Legit the only character that actually does something about his growing sense of powerlessness in his own life. And yet, most of his advances happen off-screen, and we’re only given snippets of his discisions and how his life is changing.

What Happened to Unnie?:

Talk about an abandoned plot-point. Apparently the only reason Eun Sang had a sister is because the writers failed to think of any better reason to get her character over to America to meet Kim Tan. Considering Eun Sang was ready to ditch her mum and live a happy life in the States with her sister, everybody seemed to forget about her pretty quickly once we were back in Korea.

Chalk Outline:

Okay, this was a pretty unique idea, but it was brought in too early and ignored, and then too late to matter. Also, if there were multiple people drawing it, wouldn’t everybody know that everyone was doing it? And while I enjoyed the symbolism, I also found it pretty amusing that all these little rich kids felt like they were already dead, and yet not one of them was willing to give up their inheritance to go be happy somewhere else. The only character that really had any right to be spray-painting that outline was Lee Hyo Shin, because he’s the only one who defies his parents to pursue what he really wants.

After I spray-paint this outline I'm gonna go cry into all my money

Re-watch?

I wouldn’t mind seeing Min Ho, Woo Bin, Min Hyuk and Ha Neul being adorable again. It was probably the cutest I’ve ever seen Lee Min Ho act. You can probably just fast-forward all the bits that aren’t filled with rainbows and cookies, and still get a pretty thorough understanding of what’s going on. Because not a lot happens.

Typical candy kiss: boys do all the work