Staff

Director	Hong Jong Chan (Life, Live Up to Your Name, My Secret Hotel…)
Screenwriter	Kim Hye Young (her first work!)
Actors	Park Min Young, Kim Jae Wook, Ahn Bo Hyun, One, Kim Bo Ra, Park Jin Joo…

Characters

Watching Crazy Love made me crave for more Kim Jae Wook, and so I begin to watch Her Private Life.

A background story that no one wanted

In Her Private Life, there is subplot about a certain painter and her relation to the Love Interest Ryan Gold, and it frankly bored me. Maybe it would have been better if it was used before the MC and LI got together as a way to make them bound together. Were are presented with an overly sweet romance and then suddenly we are propelled into the sinister past of Ryan Gold. I actually didn’t finish the kdrama and have still 2 episodes to watch, but since they focus on this part of the story I lost interest.

No competition for Ryan Gold

The friends of Sung Deok-Mi weren’t the brightest. You have Nam Eun-Gi who, after 14 years of friendship, doesn’t understand that he’s stuck in the friendzone for good, giving us the viewers some awful second-hand embarrassment. The guy is homeless, dresses in sportswear and acts like he’s her brother… And he still has the audacity to confess to Sung Deok-Mi who’s the epitome of stylish, is carreer-oriented, and view him as a friend? We all know from the beginning that as the second male leader he had no chance with her and was doomed from the start, but couldn’t they have made him a little bit more charming or even tolerable? Love triangle can be no fun, but they can create some tension when the 2 love interests are good match for the girl. What is the sole redeeming quality that Nam Eun-Gi used to scare Ryan Gold and make him seem like the golden match? He’s the one who knows her the best. The guy doesn’t have anything to offer her, he just stick with her for a long time and that makes him superior… wow

Geez, I wonder who’s going to win the heart of our main character… The suspense is unbearable!

Unrealistic, even for kdramas standards

While they truly fail Nam Eun-Gi, the screenwriters of Her Private Life made Ryan Gold a little to good to be true. I’m aware that it’s a romcom and it’s not supposed to give us realistic characters. But he doesn’t have any flaw or character development (aside from his story with Lee Sol). I wish that the show explored his view on fangirling, especially as someone who’s not familiar with it. Maybe I’m too cynical, but I expected him to be critical our at least surprised at first, and then slowly accepts this part of her personality.

As Ryan Gold is too good to be true, I also thought that the fangirl Sung Deok-Mi wasn’t realistic. You cannot be a fan of this caliber and still be this invested and diligent in your work. And you can’t be this enthousiastic about an idol (and have your whole apartment filled with stuff about him) and still have this healthy relationship with him. I would have liked it if the show explored more on why she was such a devoted fan. There is a fine line between being a fan and being obsessed with someone. She doesn’t have any personal stuff in her own apartment, her hobbies and occupations resolve around Si An (taking pictures, managing a website and social media page)… She basically have no life aside from Si An, which to me make her look not like a casual fan but a sort of obsessive one (in lack of better terms).

101: Healthy relationship

I saw a lot of persons mention how Ryan Gold and Sung Deok-Mi had an healthy relationship. While it was nice to see the main characters communicate, at times it felt really forced. As if they were 2 robots trying to appear human. You have a whole scene where they essentially apologize and thank each other for small things which results in a bizarre dialogue like « I’m sorry I did this. But thank you for the thing you did. as the other responds « No I’m sorry you felt like this, and thank you for explaining me this ». Who talks like this ?! There is another instance where Ryan Gold is really emotional and Sung Deok Mi litteraly looks at her watch and says along the line « It seems like you need some space, I will leave you alone for 12 hours to help you sort your thoughts out. ». She could have spared him 12 more seconds by just leaving him alone but oh well…

These small instances made me too self-aware that Her Private Life was really trying to hard to be « mature » while in the end it just looked sloppy.

This is all in the same scene!

The show shines when it’s more subtle and quiet. There is a scene where Ryan unties the knot on the hair of Sung Deok Mi and for a few minutes you just hear drops of water and their breath. Such an intimate moment was the perfect opportunity to capture the burgeoning love between them. It gave us a peek at what could have been a more mature romance between two grown adults.

Sadly, Her Private Life leans more on the comedy romance genre and gives us overly sweet romance that may have been fun in a highschool setting but look a bit out of place with 2 leads who are in their 30’s. Park Min Young tends to exagerate her facial expressions and while it may look cute at first at a certain point it makes those scenes even more childish than they are.