I’m continuing to relish Secret Love Affair, which is reminding me why I fell in love with K-drama in the first place. Secret Love Affair is recognizable a K-drama, with all the usual K-drama tropes. But Secret Love Affair is of such an outstanding quality, I don’t even mind some elements which are usually Pet Peeves of mine.
THE COINCIDENCE
South Korea is a pretty darned big country, and Seoul is a very big city. It annoys me no end when someone falls in love with the guy who happens to be the brother of her childhood sweetheart from her home village, or someone finds himself the boss of the girl he nearly ran over at the airport yesterday, or some such other nonsense, passed off lazily as ‘fate’.
The interesting thing is that when a coincidence of the same incredulous magnitude occurs in Secret Love Affair, I hardly mind. I guess I don’t really mind plot devices all that much so long as they are sensible plot devices which are well done. In this show, the coincidences are surfaced relatively quickly without too much fuss and without being milked to death, and the plot seems to just move organically right along.
THE FLASHBACK
That annoying old time-filler. Annoying when the flashback plays no real purpose, except to give viewers the impression that the show thinks they are idiots who need reminding of every plot point. Particularly annoying when the flashback is a particularly long one near the end of the series when you suspect that the live shooting is killing the show and it’s desperately throwing in time fillers.
In Episode Four, Ahn Pan Seok gives a masterclass on the proper use of the flashback. That is, when it is part of the story, when the characters are really mulling over scenes and really playing them over and over again in their minds. As we do when we are trying to work out what to make of a situation. As we do when we are attempting to console ourselves in an overwhelming situation. As we do, obsessively re-playing every interaction, every touch, and every word, when we are falling in love.
The flashbacks in Episode Four are not time fillers. They convey an important aspect of the story: They tell us what is going on in our lovers’ hearts and heads. Very nicely done!
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