Review:
If you’re looking for another Cinderella story, then Secret Garden is not for you.
In fact, writer Kim Eun Sook dismisses our hopes of finding a Cinderella story at Episode 6, where Joo Won tells Ra Im that instead of being Cinderella if he falls for her, she’ll be the Little Mermaid. And they were not talking about the Disney version of the tale, but Hans Christian Andersen’s lonely tale of the Little Mermaid’s unrequited love and of how she chooses to disappear like bubbles into the ocean. This imagery is recurrent and consistent throughout the whole series, as the characters Joo Won and Ra Im kept relating themselves to the Little Mermaid.
In fact, writer Kim Eun Sook dismisses our hopes of finding a Cinderella story at Episode 6, where Joo Won tells Ra Im that instead of being Cinderella if he falls for her, she’ll be the Little Mermaid. And they were not talking about the Disney version of the tale, but Hans Christian Andersen’s lonely tale of the Little Mermaid’s unrequited love and of how she chooses to disappear like bubbles into the ocean. This imagery is recurrent and consistent throughout the whole series, as the characters Joo Won and Ra Im kept relating themselves to the Little Mermaid.
And as it is with the lonely tale of the Little Mermaid, Secret Garden is not your ideal love story. This, perhaps, is what makes Secret Garden appealing and moving at the same time — it has the element of fantasy (thus the soul-switching), yet it has the bittersweet reality of life. In fact, it breaks most of the Korean drama stereotypes we could ever think of.
Characterization:
Gil Ra Im is not your ideal leading lady. She’s not your typical damsel-in-distress, absolutely not helpless, not drop dead gorgeous, not ill (you know, those leading ladies who always end up dying or having all sorts of terminal diseases), not pretending to be someone else (like pretending to be rich or to be a guy), not girly, and most of all, not perfect. She is a stunt woman yet there were times she can’t throw Kim Joo Won off her. And like Kim Joo Won would always say, she uses her body too much that she sometimes forgets to use her head.
Same as Gil Ra Im, Kim Joo Won is definitely not your ideal leading man, too. He has claustrophobia and retrograde amnesia. He’s a conceited jerk, flaunting his ludicrous tracksuits as if they’re the best in the world. He hurts Gil Ra Im’s feelings for all the petty reasons he can think of. He’s not your knight-in-shining armor who comes to defend you against all evil. He won’t shower Gil Ra Im with flowery talk. He won’t defend Gil Ra Im in front of his mother. He won’t give up everything he has for Gil Ra Im — instead, he bargains his CEO position with his mother. Kim Joo Won is stubborn, insensitive, and spoiled.
On another note, the biggest strength of Kim Joo Won’s character is that he is logical. He is not the prince who would give up everything once he has fallen in love for the woman. He is not the prince who loses his mind thinking only of love and love alone. Kim Joo Won has all the right reasons why he did not think of giving up all his inheritances right when he realized he liked Gil Ra Im so much. He has all the right reasons why he did not defend Gil Ra Im in front of his mother that when you hear him tell them to Gil Ra Im, you’ll understand him. He would not give up on his CEO position until the end, because he thinks he’s the only person suitable for the title.
Gil Ra Im’s character, on the other hand, was not as whole as Kim Joo Won’s. Even though we are given the reasons why she loves action, Ah Young, and her father, it would always feel like a huge part of her is a mystery. It is probably because Gil Ra Im’s character speaks through the eyes most of the time. Unlike Kim Joo Won’s talkative character, Gil Ra Im’s silence paints the most of her emotions.
The characters are as flawed as we all are, yet Secret Garden made us love them, and made us want to be them.
The characters are also consistent. Even when Gil Ra Im and Kim Joo Won switch souls, they do not pretend to be the other. They tried to, but they wouldn’t really fool themselves into pretending to be the other 100%. Oska’s cheesiness and Yoon Seul’s bitch-in-this-room attitude, Ah Young and Sung Woo’s childish love story, Director Im’s seriousness remain consistent throughout the whole series. And though most people will argue, I like how Moon Boon Hong (Joo Won’s mother) remained dead set against Ra Im even when she already has three kids with Joo Won. (See how real it is? Not all mothers end up accepting their in-laws in real life even after having grandkids with them. Oh, I have to say this, I just love the kids! They’re so cute. Haha.)
Note: Because the characters are consistent, the dialogues are consistent, too.
The only downside I can think of is how Kim Hee Won‘s (Joo Won’s sister) character can be removed from the series without affecting the story at all.
Plot:
The reason why a lot of people (including me) find the series dull at times is because it is not character-driven. Kim Joo Won and Gil Ra Im’s story is heavily dependent on the plot, as their story has something to do with destiny. And for that, I have to give two thumbs up for writer Kim Eun Sook for maintaining viewers’ interest because it is hard to keep the action coming in a plot-driven story. (Of course, humor is expected because of the soul-switch. Its witty humor kept the first half of the series upbeat without delaying the flow of the story.)
As the story unfolded, it appeared to me that Gil Ra Im’s father was destined to save Kim Joo Won’s life; that Kim Joo Won mistakes Gil Ra Im for Park Chae Rin; that Kim Joo Won was destined to find Gil Ra Im in the forest and to drink the flower wine; that Gil Ra Im was destined to die but Kim Joo Won was destined to fall so deeply in love with her that he switches their souls for her to live. If one had not happened, the others would not have followed.
I also believe it was destined that Gil Ra Im does not wake up from her dream after Kim Joo Won touches her forehead for the first time (at her father’s funeral), else the story would have been different.
One more important thing that I noticed is that the reason why the story opened with the Park Chae Rin incident is that if Kim Joo Won did not mistake Gil Ra Im for Park Chae Rin, we would not have a story at all. It could have been that Gil Ra Im’s father dies saving Kim Joo Won, but we would not have a story had they not met during the Park Chae Rin incident. This fact is spoonfed to us when Kim Joo Won tells Gil Ra Im that if she only told him that she is not Park Chae Rin, he would not have to be in a difficult situation (in other words, he would not fall in love with her).
The characters develop slowly and quite mutely. He liked her at first sight, but unlike other dramas, he does not fall hard for her at a quick pace. The more Kim Joo Won hung on hopelessly to the wounded yet proud Ra Im, the more he fell in love with her.
We are made to realize how deep Kim Joo Won’s love for Gil Ra Im has become when he switches his soul to the brain dead Ra Im. It was the first time Kim Joo Won is finally (and actually) giving up everything for a woman. This is probably the most heartbreaking moment throughout the whole series.
The story takes its interesting turn when Kim Joo Won and Gil Ra Im wake up in their own bodies after being switched back by Ra Im’s father in their dreams. It’s when Gil Ra Im’s father said, “It’s time for you to make your own magic,” and Joo Won wakes up as his 21 year old self. And then their own magic starts. They get married, have three kids, but they still don’t have the approval of Joo Won’s mom. Ra Im’s line, “We still don’t have a single wedding picture” breaks my heart, but the ending is still sweet, showing us how Joo Won has all eyes for Ra Im even after five years (and after having three kids).
On the other hand, the reason why the story finally ended with Kim Joo Won falling asleep beside the high school Gil Ra Im is to tell us that Joo Won and Ra Im’s ‘magic’ began not only recently but 13 years back, to show us that Ra Im’s father’s role to bring them together did not begin with the flower wine but with his death.
I also want to take note of how the writer juxtaposed Kim Joo Won and Gil Ra Im’s love story with that of Oska and Yoon Seul’s. As you can see, Oska and Seul’s love story is more open. We were given more details, and Seul and Oska were more open about their feelings towards each other, while we were left thinking and filling out spaces in Joo Won and Ra Im’s love story. Some empathize with Oska and Seul’s love story more, and it is because Oska and Seul’s love story was purposefully tailored to be everyone’s love story, unlike Joo Won and Ra Im’s own personal ‘magic’.
The magic that made us love the series, aside from the magic of Joo Won and Ra Im’s love, can be found in its simplicity.
It doesn’t blind you with spectacle. It doesn’t make you deaf with endless bickering. It doesn’t attempt to make you weep buckets of tears, to make you laugh your hearts out, or to make you fuming mad. It doesn’t attempt to make or tell the greatest love story of all. It only wants to tell us the magic of Kim Joo Won and Gil Ra Im’s love, plain and simple.
In the end…
I won’t argue with people who say that Secret Garden is overrated. I understand, because if you won’t watch it closely, you would not be able to appreciate its beauty. It is full of cliches, yes. But those cliches were beautifully put together that you don’t even mind having a lot of them put together in one drama. Secret Garden is definitely one of the most beautifully-written Korean romance-fantasy dramas as of this year, and will definitely remain a favorite.
