Heirs: Series Review

As for my first review I will be writing about what is arguably the most popular drama of 2013, dubbed as the "trendiest drama of the year" it's none other than Heirs. Boasting of top Hallyu stars and rising actors and written by Kim Eun-sook behind numerous successful dramas namely Lovers in Paris, Secret Garden and A Gentleman's Dignity, it was no suprise that the drama achieved numerous milestones. But, objectively, is it any good? Heirs, did I perhaps... like you?

WARNING: Overflowing with juicy spoilers!!

MAIN STORY

 

The series begins in California in a rather moody tone, we are first introduced to our hero Kim Tan (Lee Min-ho) who, despite his priviledged background, seem to be very troubled and confused. He is the heir to one of Korea's largest monopoly organisations, succinctly named the "Empire Group," and is a contender into gaining control and  inheriting majority of the shares of the company against his older half-brother, Kim Won (Choi Jin-hyuk).  "Half-brother" because Tan is an illigitemate son. Cue drama blue balls. Whats interesting in their relationship is, Won dislikes his younger brother, but Tan wholeheartedly looks up to him, despite continously being ignored and pushed around. Tan has no interest in their company but Won insists that its Tan's age and mentality that he doesn't seem to care, yet.

We are then introduced to our heroine Cha Eun-sang (Park Shin-hye) who is polar opposite to our hero in terms of social status. Surprise, surprise. She comes from a poor family, with no father, a mute mother and an older sister who is purportedly engaged in California - the one light Eun-sang sees that can change their family's life for the better. But all this falls to pieces when Eun-sang, after flying to L.A, finds out that her sister has been lying to them all along and is in fact not engaged and not even attending university. Sheesh, way to crumble down her dreams, sis. 

In the cafe where Eun-sang's unni works is where our main OTP meets, Tan is caught by the presence of a crying Eun-sang after realising her sister's betrayal, frustrated upon not knowing whether to run after her or not, she scrawls on the street, cleaning up her mess. As if sharing the same pain, Tan stares at her soulfully and emphatetically which leads to an eventual mutual understanding in the long run, where two scarred and lonely souls come together to learn how love can complete and fill the vacancy and loneliness in their hearts.

COMMENTS

We start the series off, I would say in a rather unconventional way for such a conventionally-plotted series. We don't get any explosive comedy hijinks and extremely fast paced, laugh out loud encounters, but rather a completative and soft start. I have a love-hate relationship with this writer, she writes such cliched settings but is great at creating complex and memorable characters and witty dialogue and situations. This show isn't an exception. We have a rich boy falls in love with a poor girl dilemma, opposing parents determined to break them apart, furthermore a very pressurizing society who think they can meddle into other people's affairs as they like. How cliche can it get? Not that I was expecting anything game changing either, what I was surprised was is how the writer tackled this situation differently and refreshingly, well in the first half that is. 

Besides the embarrassing engrish and rather disturbing and stereotypical presentation of American society and culture, I particularly liked how important the American portion is in displaying the importance of difference in social status in Korea compared to foreign countries, and not just used as promotional gimmick. I liked how the writer tackles Tan and Eun-sang's similarities first and focusing on the development of their feelings, without having to worry about how their worlds apart. This is important so that the change of their feelings for each other doesn't seem so fast and unnatural. So no, I don't agree with others saying that the romance began unrealistically. If you think about it, when liking someone, the majority would try to find out and learn about the other person's background first, their interests and so on to see if they are compatible or not, which hinders relationships to progress naturally because we are so worried about what other people will think when we date someone that may not be considered "at your level," so excluding such dilemma, feelings are able to develop more naturally without any boundaries. This is what the show did really well in.

The transition to the Korean portion I loved, as the show already got the main couple's feelings for eachother sorted out when they were overseas, the conflict now enters naturally now that they are in their home country. I loved the cohabiting drama side story and the re-encounter of Tan and Eun-sang, as house owner and house helper. The confusion of Tan whether to approach her or not after realising they're worlds apart was deftly executed. The scene in the front yard at night time when Tan and Eun-sang face eachother again, the frustration the two characters felt, excited of the thought of having a nice and lovely reunion, all crumbled down, as they both realise that they can't even think of being together, that they're no longer equal as strangers in a foreign country was beautifully tackled that no further words were needed to make sense out of the scene. Quiet scenes like this is what the drama did its best at. 

Unfortunately though, after the end of the first half (episode 10) I felt the show slowly progressed into inserting and relying on cliche and makjang elements possibly for ratings purposes, and though the ratings rose extremely high, the quality of the show lowered. There were many unnecessary scenes inserted and didn't help the show in terms of story development. For instance the second half focused predominantly on Tan and Eun-sang's ill-fated love story, they break up, make up numerous times both from their own accord and by being forced by opposing parents. Entertainment wise, for casual viewers, it was still very easy to watch and cry with, but if you're looking for much more depth, the last few episodes would be a frustrating and painful watch. Its a shame because the first half had so much promise and potential but sadly we don't get to see any of that. 

What I particularly found frustrating is we got to see more angst than happy moments overall with our OTP. The main conflict was simple but the show spent so much time milking the melodrama out of it that it took so much unnecessary time on what could have been used for more interesting and logical plot. Whats annoying is that after all the drama they still end up together and resolve their conflict so easily just by introducing Eun-sang to the press... I mean why couldn't you have done that earlier?! Why spend so much episodes running away and crying when you could have gave those time for the other characters? If you can't handle writing about a lot of characters writer-nim, why bother creating so much? For instance those precious time could have been given for more background story to the other characters especially Choi Young-do (Kim Woo-bin), Rachel (Kim Ji-won) and Lee Hyo-shin (Kang Ha-neul) and their family history so that we can at least understand their personalities and actions, giving a few hints why is so frustrating, I would've preferred a complete resolution. I mean why make their characters so mysterious and promising but not do anything with them? Aish, so much potential, but it turns out of to be a big tease. Also the relationship between Tan and Young-do - was it that hard to give us a resolution, I don't think it would be out of character for Young-do at all since he apologized to the guy he bullied earlier in the series Isin the latter half, why can't he make up with who used to be his best friend? Ugh I swear that last scene in episode 19 would have been the perfect time for reconciliation but turned out to be a tease, again. 

CHARACTERS

Kim Tan, overall, is probably the most developed character of the bunch but isn't necessarily the most interesting. First off, I went into the show, glad that he wasn't another asshole rich kid ('cause we all know Lee Min-ho has played that character before). So no, I don't believe Heirs is anything similar to Boys Over Flowers whatsoever in story or character, so lets get that cleared out because its annoying surfing around the web reading comments of ignorant users talking as if they're identical, when all they've done is read the very general plot line and haven't actually given the show a chance. Now back to topic, Tan, as a character, is on the soft side, though I wouldn't call him introverted, he definitely showed signs of repressed loneliness. Although he seemed happy go lucky on the outside, he's rather empty and extremely cautious of his actions. Thats probably why he quickly falls in love with Eun-sang to fill this void of sadness plus the notion of undescribable and passionate first love explaining his obsession and over possesiveness of her - which is still quite disturbing. The question is, is this really love? I'd like to think it is but I'm honestly not experienced enough to argue. His breakdown was particularly key to his development, the audience get to witness how he struggles to live, when Eun-sang who served as the filling in his empty heart leaves, and therefore makes him empty again (back to square one), except this emptiness and loneliness is no longer repressed and has let it all out, which can be very mentally exhausting. Personally, I think he's rather weak  and has yet to learn of the harsh reality out there, and Eun-sang is just the right person to help him get through this cold world, for this reason they must be together. As for Lee Min-ho's acting, I was pleasantly surprised with his crying scenes in the latter half plus his soulful and quiet gazes, which solidifies my personal opinion that he acts best at melo. However I did find his tough guy acting a bit off (or rather not at par with Young-do, the thought of Tan being stronger is hard to believe, since he's  been predominantly shown to be so delicate in the first half), his comedy was rather forced as well and didn't really appear natural. He is not a bad actor, he just needs to improve on consistency.

Cha Eun-sang is my least favorite character, not only is she one dimensional but is also so inconsistent. Where did all her sass and confidence from the American portion disappear from when she came back to Korea? I get that she's ashamed of not being the same social class as the other students in Empire High but no need to keep crying about it, sheesh Eun-sang you make it seem as if you have the most wretched fate in the world. Seriously though I don't think theres any episode without her crying. There could've been so much interesting face offs with Rachel if she wasn't so self consious - that one slap when Rachel insulted her mother was so out of character, yes it felt good as a viewer, but where did that confidence come from all suddenly? Yes, you can argue that she's been repressing it all along in fear of being found out of her real status and identity, but that doesn't explain her crybaby nature. I like Park Shin-hye and I don't think she's a bad actress at all, but I can see why she's getting a lot of criticisms because frankly, her character sucked. Her acting's fine, especially her expressions, just that we see it way too many times that we come to a point that we don't feel anything anymore and have grown immune to her emotional scenes because we're already so used to it. What sucks is we didn't get to see any improvement on her up to the last episode.

Choi Young-do is one of the most interesting but underdeveloped characters out of the cast. He's had it pretty tough after witnessing how his family fell apart with his father's affair and his mother running away. Which explains his bully-like persona, violent tendencies which he inherited from his father and his motorcycle escapes alluding to his mother. All this is set out in the first half and I thought it would be further developed in the second half but was tactlessly ignored. I mean, why leave his reunion with his mother in the last episode? If only we saw them reunite earlier maybe we could have seen deeper development from him. His unusual display of affection to Eun-sang also links to how he never really received love himself so find it difficult to express his true intentions. In this aspect I pity him, he's such a troubled character but he has no one to run to for help - which reinforces my idea why the writer should've patched things up with him and Tan, because he at least needs one person by his side. And no, the mother who popped out of nowhere doesn't count. I particularly loved his scene with Eun-sang's mother in episode 19 where he was fed his first homecooked meals in years, It's where we see him in his most delicate state, having no mother figure for years, it served as him letting out the this repressed loneliness of being motherless and secret desire for a happy family. What angered me was all these came up so belatedly and rushed to give way for less interesting love story. I also noticed that Young-do's hairstyle also represented his emotional state, his hair up when he was in his over the top and rock-like character, then his hair down served as a transition to his real and vulnerable self. Although I didn't root for him as a love interest for Eun-sang, I did want him to grow as an individual (which we unfortunately don't get to see in the most satisfying way). As for Kim Woo-bin, his acting has never really bothered me, but through this show I did notice that he needs a wee-bit work in the melo department, but nevertheless tough guy acting: perfected.

Next we have Rachel Yoo who I personally liked  better than Eun-sang, she's just so fascinating and intricate in comparison. I liked that she tries to act all tough on the outside but you can see in her eyes and actions that she's not as grown up as what she wants others to think she is. This is evident at her meltdown in front of her mother in episode 15 ordering her not to interfere with her life again - though insufficient, I saw the flourishing of her character, who is starting to grow and mature. In the end she no longer submits to her mother's requests. Like Young-do, I feel that her heartless persona reflects the lack of affection she gets from her mother - maybe thats why they go so well together, wink wink. What's regrettable is that this development and complexity is only revealed in the end, when its too late to treat her as a grey character and understand her actions - the writer decided to make her seem like the one dimensional villain predominantly in the drama's run when she could have been so much more. As for Kim Ji-won's acting, I've followed her since debut and this project is no exception in projecting her acting abilities and I'm glad this drama has introduced her to the wider market.

I also enjoyed Kim Won's story and character, how he tried to convince himself to dislike his dongsaeng, when in reality he actually doesn't, evident when he talks about him to his girlfriend Jeon Hyun-joo (Im Joo-eun) - just that his ambition to succeed in inheriting the company was too great that he decided to think of everyone thatyh comes in his way as his enemy. This explains why he ultimately becomes lonely in the end - he chose to bear the crown of wealth over love. Though I was secretly hoping for a happy ending for the both of them, it would be out of character of him to let this all his sufferrings go, especially when he's devoted most of his life for his career advancement. In this aspect, I feel he's really realistic and organic and the type of person you'd find in the real business world. What I noticed with Choi Jin-hyuk's dramas in 2013, is that he always ends up alone in a tragic love story, then again it did help him into showcasing his powerful melo acting abilities, and although he's a late bloomer in the industry, I'd definitely keep an eye on him.

Then we have Lee Hyo-shin sunbae who I found the most wasted characters in the series who had so much content potential. Although he didn't appear in to too many episodes, I liked his extremely observant and mature nature. I hated that the writer didn't do much more for him, for instance the writer could have tackled, in greater depth, the cause of his suicide attempt, how he did it and how he got over it. Also his family background , why is the family so against him for pursuing his interests, why does it seem like they don't care about his emotional stability at all? His breakdown in front of his mother begging her to stop controlling every aspect of his life was well acted, and could have been the perfect time for further development, but no, false alarm. Furthermore his love line with his Hyun-joo, those small glances and gestures were such a tease, Ugh it frustrates me how much content the writer could have experimented more on his character. Sigh, so much promise... I guess we'll never get to know. On the bright side, like Kim Ji-won and Choi Jin-hyuk, this drama has helped them into getting recognized in the industry and getting a lot more projects than they previously had under their belt. Kang Ha-neul is another rising actor to follow.

Last but not least, in a drama full depressing and vulnerable characters, its a must that we get at least a few cute and light hearted characters, and this is where Yoon Chan-young (Kang Min-hyuk), Lee Bo-na (Krystal) and Myung-soo (Park Hyung-sik) comes in, though the're not particularly complex, they do give a smile on my face. They were the characters closest to real-life teenagers. They don't outwardly express their struggles, even if they do have their own casualties, revealed in the last episode through Eun-sang's narration about the dead body outlunes around the school which I will further eleaborate on later. Frankly, excluding Tan and Eun-sang, all the characters had a lot of potential and were hinted to be convoluted characters but unfortunately weren't evolved enough, but despite this each were still able to stand out memorably.

These two shooting their own movie in the midst of all the drama /I can't/


Lets not forget these cute eommonims!

SYMBOLISM

Though the show lacked character development, I did think that the symbolisms used were very fitting. For example the slogan "One Who Wants to Wear the Crown, Bear the Crown," I honestly didn't really expect a tie back in the ending for this rather I thought it was just a promotional gimmick to emphasise the wealthy characters. The way the slogan incorporated to every character was clever, with "one who wants to wear the crown" accounting to the characters and their ambitions and the act of "bearing the crown" symbolises the consequences and possible setbacks of wanting to achieve this dream. Furthermore it can also serve as a "warning" to the characters of perhaps not to dream to big as the negative effects of this is too "heavy" to bear, Kim Won is a great example of this, whose ambition for power was too great that he consequently needed to give up his love. In business terms love is his opportunity cost, what could've been the better alternative. He ultimately chose stability over happiness and loneliness is the weight he has to endure. 

The allusion to A Midsummer Night's Dream was smart, with the American portion serving as the "dream", this reference goes particularly well for Cha Eun-sang whose vacation in California served as her temporary escape. Tan could also serve as the poison for her to think that she's happy when she's just living in an Illusion. Her return to Korea serves as her waking up from this dream and getting back her senses to reality. However unlike the play, the real world she left was exactly the same at her return. 

Furthermore the reference to The Great Gatsby further emphasised the slogan and the theme of great ambition that can lead to one's own end. Which again, links very well to Won. However can also refer to the star crossed love story of Tan and Eun-sang, only that we get a happy ending but the various struggles holding them back to continue their love fits very well.

Lastly the metaphor of the dead body outlines around the school. At first, I thought there would be some sort of back story to this that would later be revealed in the series, I even thought as far as the supposed student being a victim of Young-do or even Tan's bullying just so that we could get a glimpse of his previous sinister nature but that would be too depressing for our rather emotionally weak hero so I was glad with the explanation the writer gave in the ending. I loved how it represented as a way to "let out" the characters inner difficulties that they have kept to themselves or rather too scared of sharing their struggles to others in fear of being outcasted and rejected. Furthermore it can also be a way for these wealthy students to let out the burden they feel from their parents of having to do well on their studies to be able to inherit their family business.  These students feel extremely suffocated that drawing the dead body can also be an act of rebellion, and even suicide: as in killing their old burdened self and starting anew.

CONCLUSION

So is the story worthy of all the awards and recognition it's getting? Not really. But it's not as bad as what others make it seem to be. Rather the drama just had so much potential that many just found it unfortunate that it didn't deliver to the best of its ability. Otherwise it's still an entertaining drama that I would recommend others to watch, disregarding the over exaggerated melodrama in the second half. It had some very memorable, though raw, characters and clever symbolism. Others will like it, others wouldn't, it all comes down to your taste as a viewer.  

Entertainment wise: 8/10

Objectively: 6/10

(cto all pics and gifs)