What am I supposed to say about the frenzy that was Secret Garden? This drama created social phenomena in South Korea. It'll be hard to picture how big Secret Garden is, but I'll try.
Secret Garden is another collaborative effort between Director Shin Woo Chul and Writer Kim Eun Sook. They are the ever-so-amazing team behind Lovers in Paris, On Air, City Hall, Secret Garden, and most recently A Gentleman's Dignity.
Director Shin Woo Chul is famous for his ability to capture beautiful moments with a variety of angles and a variety of sizes. I remember the comments from (quoting ockoala) 'the goddess herself', Javabeans of dramabeans.com, about Secret Garden, "SBS has had a number of dramas with truly beautiful cinematography in the past year -- Bad Guy, Dr. Champ, Will It Snow For Christmas, Jejoongwon -- and now we can add Secret Garden to that list. ... This drama is such eye-candy to watch, purely for the visual palette alone."
Writer Kim Eun Sook, on the other hand, has collected many popular quotes, including 내 안에 너 있다 (nae ane neo itta, means "inside me, there's you") from the drama Lovers in Paris. It's kind of funny that I heard the quote for the first time from CNBLUE's Yonghwa. It was the last day of We Got Married filming, and somehow it coincided with White Day. Yonghwa gifted Seohyun some candy with 내 안에 너 있다 carved on it. From Seohyun's reaction, I knew it must be some cheesy lines from a drama. Later, I found out that it was from Lovers in Paris, and must be one of the most popular too, since Kim Eun Sook herself parodied the lines in her subsequent works (as far as I know, Joo Won in Secret Garden and Jung Rok in A Gentleman's Dignity recited it).
If you read this article from allkpop, you'll find that Lovers in Paris is one of K-drama classics. "Was there any other drama that had as many parodied quotes and scenes than 'Lovers in Paris'? From calling your girlfriend 'baby' to singing Yurisangja songs at a piano, this drama had it all." And "While the plot wasn't the most inspired, as I mentioned earlier, there were individual moments and lines of dialogue that have become a part of Korean pop culture and subsequent dramas tried their best to create these catchphrases and iconic moments, but never could really get to the same level."
Well, I can't say I understand exactly the epicness of Lovers in Paris (I was K-drama illiterate back then), but I think PD Shin and Writer Kim had repeated the success with Secret Garden. Right from its pilot episode, Secret Garden had impressed with high viewer ratings. Then, throughout the drama airing (and even months afterwards), you could sense SeGa arh-ie, Joo Won arh-ie, and Ra Im arh-ie everywhere (arh-ie 앓이, often translated as 'ache' or 'illness'. It literally means 'to be distressed', 'to think a lot'. When you arh-ie about something/someone, it means you like it/him/her so much, your heart hurts. This post informed us that the term used to appear a lot, especially on internet in the context of Secret Garden. I don't know why, if you google it now, most of the results are related to Onew.)
Even celebrities confessed their SeGa/Joo Won/Ra Im ache. Among those I can remember are legendary actress Go Hyun Jung, actress Park Han Byul, comedian Park Kyung Lim, composer Shinsadong Tiger, After School's UEE, SNSD, and 2NE1 members. Oh, and Super Junior's Eunhyuk. Let's not even start with this guy. He's a huge fan. He had parodied almost all scenes and lines of Secret Garden.
Additions from seoulbeats.com: "Fans included celebrities like BoA, Lyn, and members of SISTAR and Rainbow to name a few. But, this is the first K-drama that I've seen have so many older male celebrities as fan boys. Se7en, Yoon Do Hyun, DJ DOC's Chang Ryul, and Kim Jae Dong all either talked about or tweeted of their affection for the drama."
In July 2011, Sports Seoul surveyed 100 idol group members to see what dramas stole their hearts. Secret Garden came out on top, along with MBC's Greatest Love. Idols who had voted for Secret Garden said, "The plot wasn't boring," and "In addition to both male and female protagonists' charm, I fell in love with the OST, That Man."
Secret Garden might be the coolest thing in Korea at that time, that it made even the fugliest of things trendy. We're talking about the notorious bling bling tracksuit, folks! People on streets, celebrities, and even dogs were seen sporting the look. hellochloe from chloeplus.blogspot.com couldn't get this trend. "I mean, Japan's Hotaru no Hikari is downright popular too, but won't see no Japanese flaunting their jerseys out the streets, no? At this rate, why don't we just post celebs who has NOT wear it yet, sheesh. My eyes! Ooh, they burn..." Hahahah.
Anyway. I heard that Secret Garden is an enjoyable drama that even men love. You might want to read this to find out why.
Early in 2012, Arirang TV's Showbiz Korea opened up a three week long poll that asked international netizens to pick their most favorite K-drama. According to 2024 participants, the drama that won over the most hearts was none other than SBS's Secret Garden, which came in at first with 16.1% of the votes. It beat out Boys Over Flowers, You're Beautiful, Coffee Prince, Goong, Sungkyunkwan Scandal, and Full House.
Seems like it's well-loved, right? Well, to be honest: not so much. There are also those who don't get SeGa glory.
Dramafever might describe Secret Garden as "a modern television classic, one of those fantasy romances that just about everyone falls in love with", but some beg to differ. This is Javabeans and girlfriday, not so impressed by the drama. ockoala even put SeGa in "What's That I Watched?" category of her 2011 Year End Drama Reviews. Donnapie put it in the 4-star ranking (I regret nothing), but similarly to ockoala, she thinks that this drama was about Hyun Bin and his hotness.
I'd have to agree about Hyun Bin. He's GREAT in this drama. Some say, he was "rediscovered" through SeGa. He rose to popularity due to the 2005 K-drama My Name is Kim Sam Soon, in between there was a time when he became ratings poison, until Secret Garden. He bagged many awards for his role as Kim Joo Won and became an A-lister. Concluding the drama, he also got massive CF lineup. Hyun Bin himself admitted that SeGa is a drama that gave him a great amount of luck. Well Binnie, that's because you're good.
No matter how one hates the drama, no one can deny the sizzling chemistry between Hyun Bin and Ha Ji Won. Salima from seoulbeats.com wrote, "I loathe to bring this last one up since I think the drama is ridiculous, but Ha Ji Won and Hyun Bin in Secret Garden had an almost tangible onscreen chemistry. It's the only thing that saved that drama." Donnapie also did enjoy their onscreen chemistry.
Even in early episodes, the chemistry is already there. This is what girlfriday had to say about episode 4, "I didn't necessarily get the 'you're prettier when you're angry' thing, but I definitely get it now... Joo Won and Ra Im are totally angry-hot, as in having especially explosive chemistry... when they're at each other's throats. I mean, I always knew the bickering hate phase was intended to spark a few flames, but these two are downright X-rated. I swear, every time they yell at each other, I half expect them to rip each other's clothes off. Whew! Is it getting hot in here?"
Ironically, some say, it felt like Hyun Bin and Ha Ji Won were holding back or just subdued in romantic scenes, whereas other interactions with each other created a powerful showing of romance.
Ha Ji Won in the drama
Based on a survey by @hajiwonworld, long-time fans of Ha Ji Won tend to like Gil Ra Im the least among all of her drama characters. They find Gil Ra Im character a bit off. However, Ha Ji Won sure grabs lots of new fans through Secret Garden. Hyun Jung Hwa is one of them. Hyun Jung Hwa started to notice Ha Ji Won in Secret Garden and sent a love call to the actress to play her role in Korea (As One).
And when we think Gil Ra Im played lesser part in Secret Garden, Hyun Bin thinks otherwise. He repeatedly said, "Without Gil Ra Im, there never will be a Kim Joo Won ."
To Ha Ji Won herself, Gil Ra Im is the character she's envious of. She said, "In the last episode, the couple have sons, but Joo Won still only has eyes for his wife. Though it may be a girlish dream, I'm still hoping for that great love who will love me as his first priority."
She talked about it in her book (At This Moment) too. "In one of my interviews, I've been asked which character's life would you like to live if you were to choose from your dramas or movies? At that time, I answered without one second of hesitation that I would like to become Gil Ra Im of Secret Garden. Even until now, when I think of Ra Im, I wonder how she is living her fortunate life with Kim Joo Won." (cr: Amazing Couple fan page)
Ji Won seems to like this drama a lot. She keeps saying that she had fun filming it. And when asked which project was the most memorable to her, she said all projects are memorable, but the most memorable are the much-loved Secret Garden and the recent one, The King 2 Hearts. In an interview with a Chinese magazine, when the interviewer asked her if there is any of her movies/dramas that she would like to watch again from the beginning to the end, she laughed and said, "Yes, there is one. It is Secret Garden."
Memorable things
Seriously. How can I even list them when almost all things in the drama became hot topic? The scenes, the lines, the tracksuits, Ra Im's text message tone, Lewis Carroll classic Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, the OST, you name it. Since there are too many to mention, I'll discuss only one thing instead, and that is: THE sit-up scene.
THE sit-up scene has been chosen as the best scene out of the entire drama. Can you believe it? It even beats out foam kiss, party kiss, and elevator scene. Now you get the picture of how phenomenal this scene is. enewsworld.mnet.com seems to like this scene a lot. I find it hilarious every time they try to describe this scene. There's this one:
"The most memorable and cherished scene in the SBS drama Secret Garden is probably the sit-up scene of Hyun Bin and Ha Ji Won - you know, the one where Hyun Bin gets so close to Ha Ji Won you couldn't breathe?"
LOL. And then another one:
"Perhaps one of the most memorable moments from Secret Garden was when Hyun Bin bickered that he needed a partner for sit-ups and Ha Ji Won ended up being that partner against her will.
After he does some bad sit-ups, Ha Ji Won scolds him, making Hyun Bin properly do the exercise, shortening the gap between their faces.
The heart-fluttery moment that made all the women unable to sleep the night the episode aired. Hyun Bin just had to go a step further and smile while peering into her face.
Then he whispered, 'Since what age did you become so pretty?' and ended up making that scene one of the most parodied in 2011."
So true. IT IS the most parodied scene of Secret Garden. Not only in 2011, but until now. I read in seoulbeats.com, "The great Kim Kap-soo did a parody of the infamous sit-up scene on his current drama All My Love. I don't think I've ever seen a drama parody another drama that was airing at the same time, especially one on a different network (MBC vs SBS)." No less than Won Bin himself (the other hot Bin. ehem.) had joined the parade of parodies.
It's even more amusing that the two lead stars also picked this scene as their favorite. Both Hyun Bin and Ha Ji Won confessed that the scene made them feel a little weird and tingly inside (even more heart-fluttering than kiss scenes, they said). And the lines following it... is much to Ha Ji Won's delight. Keke... It's true, she LOVES it. In an interview with Star Meet Today, Hyun Bin also picked this as the most memorable. "The sit-up scene where I told Ra Im, 'Gil Ra Im-ssi, since what age did you become so pretty? Since last year?' I think this scenario was hit with the ladies." (cr: hellochloe)
(Comment from hellochloe: hellochloe thinks back on ppl's reactions in soompi and viki. *nods*)
Tell you what. That line was so popular, it's now become a mandatory question to pretty ladies in Korea. I bet you've heard it in Korea's variety shows. Oh, the power of Kim Eun Sook.
