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Hajimemashite minna san....welcome to my site on my fave Japanese Pop Culture likes such as dramas, movies, magazine scans, promo events etc. Mainly concentrate on my faves...Risa Watanabe... Kyoko Saito... Yui Kobayashi....Miyuki Watanabe.... Nene Shida.... if you're a fan at all of any of them then you've come to the right place(!) but many others are featured here besides them. Do mainly quick reviews on things I've watched, try to make the reviews brief, quick to read through with not too many spoilers, just whether they're good or bad and why I thought so plus whether you may find them enjoyable. Many, many screenshots are included from everything I've watched plus any video trailers if they're available. Hope you find something that interests you, don't hesitate to comment, arigato gozaimasu!

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Wednesday, July 17, 2019

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





 Air Dates: May 6th to June 25, 2019 on SBS, two episodes Monday and Tuesdays at 10:00 pm
Ratings, episode thirteen 2.8%, episode twelve 3.5%

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

 Whew, big cast and there are more characters whose names will be added 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 to twenty for some series. There's quite a few videos on YT for this series such as ones with interviews, behind the scenes and trailers, will have a different one for every post.





 The next four shows were all once again quite good though the pace has slowed down a tad. At 32 episodes most dramas have a period where the scenes tend to get stretched out a bit which is beginning to happen. Had also heard that it tends to get a bit silly as time goes on, wouldn't say that's been the case but there have been scenes a bit like that but all in all it's still been a fun watch.
 The previous two episodes were a bit tense as Min-Ik needed to fight off the board of directors to retain his position as main director of TnT Media. He did that with quite a showdown at a shareholders meeting and Min-Ik in a special vote held on to his position by a total of five million votes out of 105 million cast. He and Gal-Hee heard the news while they were at a nearby beach, Min-Ik just needed to leave Seoul to clear his head. But also to thank Gal-Hee for all of her hard work in helping him keep his elite position, what he did was to offer Gal-Hee a new contract with one major new provision, it's up to her when she wants to leave the company.
 You'd think Gal-Hee would have been jumping for joy though she wasn't. She was really becoming uncomfortable about deceiving Min-Ik with her impersonation of Veronica, he's been so honest with her yet she hasn't returned that honor to him. So when it came time to leave the beach Gal-Hee told Min-Ik to return by himself much to his bewilderment. But also it was because Min-Ik was returning to Seoul to meet Veronica as their mothers had set up a 'date' with the four of them. To Gal-Hee that meeting would be the end of her ruse and couldn't bear being with Min-Ik any further.
 That above ended off the previous recap but a bit of that action did take place at the beginning of the thirteenth episode. Min-Ik did arrive at his house to see Veronica and their two mothers but to his disappointment Veronica had already left as an emergency came up at the Cinepark office at which she's the president. Most should remember that Min-Ik has a rare condition called Prosopagnasia which means he can't see faces at all though can see the rest of the body perfectly. To date Min-Ik has never seen Veronica's face but then again it wasn't her who he had met twice but of course his secretary Gal-Hee as she has the only human face he can see clearly.






 The following day at the office Gal-Hee was a bundle of nerves wondering what happened when
Min-Ik met Veronica. He beat around the bush explaining how their 'date' went, Min-Ik kept his secretary on edge as he had to leave the office to attend to another matter. It eventually came out that he never did meet Veronica much to the Gal-Hee's delight, of course if that meeting did take place
Min-Ik may have fired her on the spot. But he's still confused on why Gal-Hee won't sign the new contract, for now she says there's no way she's going to change her mind though tells Min-Ik that the current contract is still valid and for now she won't be leaving.
 Above we do see Veronica and of all people she's with is Gal-Hee's younger sister Nam-Hee. Her family thinks she's left Korea to attend an American university, her departure took place five episodes ago but it was all a hoax on Nam-Hee's part as she never did leave Korea. The why hasn't been explained yet, did she get turned down by the college and if so why not just go to a Korean university? For the time being Nam-Hee has been living in a rundown apartment building and after not seeing her for a few episodes she resurfaced two shows ago at an audition for one of Veronica's movies.
 According to Veronica Nam-Hee bombed the audition and the pair had quite the spat about it with the entire crew watching in fear. But there was something about Nam-Hee's spunkiness that Veronica liked and she saw her again at her office, those are two of the above screenshots. Nam-Hee so desperately wants to become a huge star, would Veronica help her in that quest? Veronica stated there was no chance but once Nam-Hee told her a big reason for her wanting to be a star was to avenge the way others treated her older sister Veronica was all ears. Nam-Hee didn't let on who her sister was, Veronica does know Gal-Hee well and she was once Veronica's secretary.
 There's nothing Veronica loves more then revenge and backstabbing. 'Okay' Veronica told Nam-Hee, if you truly want to avenge what's happened to your sister than she'll begin training her. But that got put on the back burner for a while as we didn't see the pair again in these two episodes. Veronica's relationship with Min-Ik's best friend Dae-Joo also has remained rocky through these two shows. The pair often get together with Veronica trying to make him her 'toy' but Dae-Joo constantly rebuffs her advances. However things to begin changing slightly towards the end of the 16th episode but for now there's little new between them.





 The name of Min-Ik's long time doctor is Gu and he explained to him what happened during the recent stockholder's meeting. For about twenty seconds Min-Ik could see the faces in the crowd clearly, then they went back to being just a blob. Gu told his patient that with his rare condition a quick spike in your blood pressure was the cause of his seeing clearly though temporary. Of course at the meeting Min-Ik was quite nervous so his blood pressure would rise. Gu suggested some tips to increase it more regularly such as exercising more, drinking alcohol and doing things which will make his heart beat much faster. Gu also gave Min-Ik a Manometer which keeps track of your BP, he should be able to see clearly when it reaches 140 over something.
 So that's Min-Ik's new goal, to increase his blood pressure and he began bicycling frantically. It didn't help as he couldn't get the figure over 110 so Min-Ik stopped in a small cafe to consume massive amounts of Soju. And who should be there but Gal-Hee and it's a good thing she was as
Min-Ik has no tolerance for alcohol and quickly became drunk. But his BP was still at such a low level, even in his tipsy state he began to wonder will he ever hit the 140 mark on the Manomaeter?
 As mentioned it was a good thing Gal-Hee was at the cafe as she had to pedal Min-Ik home as he could barely stand up. The two still aren't looking at themselves as lovers or even friends but they really spend so much time together and have become so much closer. For now they can't see that happening and both seem to be so slow about the opposite sex. When Gal-Hee returned home who should be waiting there but Veronica! Yes, it's time for another request from Gal-Hee's ex-boss and once again it's time for her to impersonate Veronica. But not for an official date as Veronica wants to 'end' whatever there may be between the two which is zero as it's only been Gal-Hee who has met Min-Ik while impersonating as Veronica. Gal-Hee said she would do it one more time as she too wants to end the charade. Veronica told Gal-Hee to use the reason of she's seeing another man which should infuriate Min-Ik's mother, that excuse gets carried on for a few more episodes.






 Min-Ik is trying anything to get his blood pressure up, he's even taken to wearing a special kind of medical stockings. Of course Min-Ik wants to see all faces clearly but more than any other it's the face of Veronica who he wants to see. After those two mini dates he's started to fall for her and is thinking there's something going on which there isn't. Well, there may be which is that he's actually starting to fall in love with his secretary Gal-Hee!
 Second screenshot from the bottom shows Min-Ik's dastardly uncle Hae-Yung. He's been the mastermind behind the attempts to oust Min-Ik from his main director position, so far no success but it's just a matter of time until one of his plans hit their mark. Min-Ik had left the package of stockings in the men's room at the office along with a copy of a medical statement. Hae-Yung quickly took a picture of it and the package, he's now formulating another plan to oust Min-Ik. Right below that pic is one of Min-Ik's new driver Jung-Soo who overheard Gal-Hee talking about a USB.
 He had stolen a disc from her house but it was the wrong one, the USB is actually Min-Ik's and it contains some secret company data which his uncle wants. Once again Jung-Soo was sent to heist the USB but that doesn't take place until the next recap and what a shady character he is. On to the finale which continues on into the next episode as Min-Ik and Veronica are now about to have their third encounter but of course it'll be Gal-Hee in her place.
 But that encounter didn't happen but has been set up. Min-Ik's driver had dropped the pair off as they were going to walk the short distance to the office. But then it began to downpour so the pair quickly jumped under a large bulldozer to keep them dry. That's when Min-Ik decided to call Veronica and to set up the their meeting right then and he wanted it for that night. During the call Gal-Hee had hidden herself away and it was her Min-Ik was actually talking to. The 'date' is set up as Veronica said she would be there but in a new place then originally planned. With that this recap comes to it's conclusion and really think I'm making this much more manageable to read.
 EDIT: Actually wanted to add in a few sentences about Dae-Joo as I did skip over him for the most part. He had once again been interrogated by the police who are still investigating Min-Ik's attack that happened in the first episode. New CCTV footage has revealed that he hasn't been entirely truthful but once again Dae-Joo talked his way out of it with an excuse that will be hard to check. But he's still a suspect in the attack and may be until the show's end. Also he has something going on with his secretary Lee, not a personal one but business related. At the very end of the episode she gave him a confidential folder at his house, what's in it is unknown for now but is very secretive. Felt it'd be better to say this now than to begin off the next recap with this.




 Doubt if the next recap will be as 'manageable' as much more takes place but also the silliness begins to creep into the show. Left a few small tidbits out about the Manometer but will get to it more fully in the next recap as it'll make more sense. Also expect another Ki-Joo solo post real soon as it seems she's had one a week for about the last month. No recent activities but still some older happenings to get to and she's on the track of becoming my new #1 Korean gal.







































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