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Monday, July 1, 2019

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





 Air Dates: May 6th to June 25, 2019 on SBS, two episodes Monday and Tuesdays at 10:00 pm
 Ratings: Episode one 3.2%, episode two 3.6%

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'

 Whew, big cast and there are more characters whose names will be added in if their roles get bigger. As is my norm with 32 episode dramas will be recapping four shows at a time with two in each recap. Keep saying that rom-com's aren't my cup of tea yet seems I've been watching more in that genre lately than any other Korean drama. It's been a hit or miss with them but so far my hit rate is much higher than the failures. To date will count this one as a big hit as I really enjoyed the first four episodes but it is hard to keep things interesting for 32 shows, wish they would decrease the number of episodes to twenty for some series. Let's get on with the recap and the post following this has shows three and four.





 Though a huge cast the series mainly revolves around the two characters of Min-Ik and Gal-Hee who are in just about every scene. Will get to the other characters a bit here and there but let's start things off with Gal-Hee and this recap may be a bit different as I'll describe the two characters more so in this recap but really writing this up with no plan on how it'll actually be done.
 That 'ten years later' in the above screenshot refers to 2019, the series had started out a decade prior with Gal-Hee and her siblings in a hospital room as their mother passed away. The mother's credo in life was ' One moment of patience may ward off great disaster'. Gal-Hee thought the saying was a load of rubbish as patience hasn't worked for her in life, she didn't quite understand the meaning behind it at first but slowly does as time goes on. That saying is also on the wall at TnT Media where Gal-Hee is employed but perhaps for not much longer.
 For one year Gal-Hee has been the personal secretary to the president of the company, Do Min-Ik. Actually a slave would be a better term for Gal-Hee as she does everything for the man from buying presents for his family, taking his place at medical exams and such, just being Min-Ik's secretary is actually minor to all of the other tasks she does for him. But Gal-Hee is a temp employee, her one year contract is about to expire and Min-Ik never extends anyone's contract though he'd be a fool not to keep Gal-Hee on. There's four other secretaries who you can see above, even though they're also temps none are that close to Gal-Hee and don't respect her too much for all of the work she does.
 But slowly it seems the four warm to Gal-Hee which we'll get to though it did take quite a bit of alcohol to get them on her side. In her home Gal-Hee also has a blind brother along with a sister who is nine years younger. We don't see them too often but they will play an important role, especially the sister Nam-Hee who is trying to attend college in America. That is if the family can afford it for at work Min-Ik has shown no interest in keeping Gal-Hee as his secretary though she's been badgering him about it. Takes a while but things will work out and they have to as there's thirty more shows.






 The second screenshot above is of Hae-Yong who is Min-Ik's uncle. So far we haven't seen much of him in four shows but his role is shaping up to be a key one as he was once president of TnT Media. He lost the board election to Min-Ik and will do anything to regain that position. Now on to Min-Ik who is the 34 year old president of TnT Media, they're into everything electronic and thanks to
Min-Ik's cleverness the company has becoming much more successful. The background story hasn't been revealed yet but think the company has been in Min-Ik's family for a long time, next recap has many more details of his family and how Min-Ik grew up.
 At work Min-Ik is known for his incredible memory and face recognition, he can recall any name or face in a crowd which to date has been such a strength for him. The secretaries have nicknamed him 'Director Mind Reader. But though Min-Ik is such an intelligent guy it doesn't seem he has a lot of other strengths as he has to depend on so many others around him to get things done, such as his secretary Gal-Hee but in no way can Min-Ik be referred to as incompetent. Also in a high position at TnT is Min-Ik's long time friend Dae-Joo, the pair have known each other for at least twenty years.
 While Min-Ik always dresses professional can't say the same for Dae-Joo, if you looked at him you wouldn't think he's a high ranking exec though he is quite business savvy. But when we first met
Dae-Joo some suspicions began to enter our mind and also at the time they crept into Min-Ik's. Though friends for so long seems Dae-Joo is hiding many things from Min-Ik who also realized that. This is a subplot that appears it could be a major one as the series goes on. As mentioned the company election for president is coming up, you would think it'd be a no-brainer for Dae-Joo to vote for his friend but it appears it may not be the case. That's the impression we viewers are getting and also it seems that Min-Ik is thinking the same thing but is keeping it to himself.





 Those top two screenshots will prove to be very, very key and it could be the setup for the rest of the series. Gal-Hee had been helping Min-Ik deliver some packages to a friends apartment, think it was the main character we haven't met yet. But as she was opening the door Gal-Hee whipped it open too strongly and clobbered Min-Ik in his head drawing a few drops of blood. Min-Ik didn't appear to be badly hurt though he was in such a daze, he took Gal-Hee's advice and went to the hospital. There he met a doctor named Gu who we'll see much more of in the next recap. Dr. Gu has been Min-Ik's primary doctor for over twenty years and knows the mystery of the operation Min-Ik had when he was a child. We don't yet but do learn the details in that next recap.
 Min-Ik wasn't too sore with Gal-Hee, he even went to the company's sports day the next day for her even though he's not supposed to run or do strenuous activities. The employees were shocked to see him at the sporting event as Min-Ik had never attended one in the past. Though he's supposed to refrain from such activities Min-Ik entered the piggy back race with Gal-Hee with him naturally carrying her. It was kind of humorous as Gal-Hee fully expected that she would have to carry her boss! But all ended well in the race as the pair ended up victorious but the true ending was not as happy. That's because after the race Min-Ik had informed Gal-Hee her contract would not be renewed, they had a long conversation about it which left her in tears and it's shocking he couldn't realize that Gal-Hee is irreplaceable.
 Gal-Hee's emotions ran the full gamut after the news of her termination. At first she's down, then a bit upbeat as she should be able to get a new position and then anger takes over which leads to the next scene. As said way above Gal-Hee wasn't too close to the other four secretaries but they did hold a going away party for her. It was organized by Ha-Ni who is played by Han Ji-Sun, she's a bit new to dramas but is such a looker and I'll be keeping my eye on her. At the party there was of course plenty of Soju which the gals finished off in record time, needless to say all five were smashed and were ready for an adventure. That adventure was to hunt down Min-Ik and take revenge on him for not retaining Gal-Hee, the five wobbly women grabbed 'weapons' and left the office to look for the director. Of course they didn't find him so eventually all took their leave save for Gal-Hee who still wandered the streets looking for her soon to be ex-boss.






 Final segment and like all other dramas will keep these recaps at four of them. Towards the end is when we got another inkling about Dae-Joo's feelings towards his best friend Min-Ik. Dae-Joo had set up a meeting for the two which was to take place on the boat 'There', that's the actual name of it and like so many things will be explained in the next recap as of course there's only so much we can learn in two half hour shows. Min-Ik had been waiting patiently at the boat, he didn't know it but we viewers did which was the fact that Dae-Joo wasn't going to meet his friend. As a matter of fact during that time he had met with the other execs from TnT who seemingly think they have the vote of Dae-Joo in the next presidential election.
 But at the boat there was a visitor but it naturally wasn't Dae-Joo. Who it was is unknown and it was to Min-Ik also as the man had a ski cap on. That man came for one intention and that was to hurt
Min-Ik badly, perhaps even to kill him! The pair had quite the struggle on the boat, though Min-Ik isn't known for being a fighter he was able to defend himself and ran from the boat with the masked man behind him.
 Eventually Min-Ik found himself trapped on a roof, he had tore up a set of stairs without realizing where he was heading. Right behind him was the assailant, up to now it had been a fist fight but now that man whipped out a long knife and was lunging at Min-Ik. The pair were grappling which led them to the roof's side, who should be passing by but the irate Gal-Hee who still was looking to take revenge on Min-Ik. From the roof he screamed to her for help, having no clue to what was happening Gal-Hee eventually made it to the roof.
 Just in the nick of time too, she was unnoticed by the unknown assailant and managed to beat him over the head with the mini bat she was carrying. Min-Ik had been stabbed by the attacker during their struggle but it wasn't too serious.With the man lying on the ground Min-Ik took his cap off, he said he recognized the face but hadn't known the man's name. That person soon revived but now with two people against him the attacker fled the scene with Gal-Hee being the hero though of course
Min-Ik won't admit it.
 There was a short scene to end things off but won't really discuss it here as it began the next show off. But Min-Ik had ended up at the hospital after the attack, he wasn't severely hurt but was having many problems with his vision as he couldn't even recognize his doctor. With that this post comes to it''s close and the first recap to a series is usually the longest one.





 Actually the next recap may be even longer as so many new events took place plus many questions from these two episodes were answered. One site did recap these first two shows also but stopped them and just did a mini review for the next fourteen shows so think this is the only place you can read about every episode. Covered all of the major points though a few minor ones were left out which is why it's always a good idea to view these screenshots and do have plenty as usual.












































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