phoenix 2 Unexpectedly, Secret Garden is quite entertaining. Sure, the story and the romance wasn't the best of the best, and the performances were so so, but still I can understand why this drama is so popular. First of all, the drama is about a rich, cynical CEO who meets a poor stand woman who gets his interest. Their lives get even more complicated, when they magically change bodies. Oaky, the magic part wasn't that good. It was a little childish at first, but it had a not-that-great explanation in the end. And the body exchange was very entertaining the first time, but the second time was just uncomfortable. The main male character was very funny, due to his character, and in the end, that was the only thing supporting the drama. For me, the twenty episodes were a bit too much; the story could have easily finish at the sixteenth or the eighteenth episode, and still, it would have been as good, as the final episode was a quick wrap up mixed up with a few concert songs, some flash backs and family life moments. So, 6 out of 10.

troylb Every time I watch a show from Korea, I am never disappointed. This one is no different. An emotional roller coaster show with fantastic characters, beautiful cinematography and amazing soundtrack. You will fall in love with the show and its characters. The script is well written and the actors and actresses have such chemistry.You will find yourself laughing, crying, smiling and being angry right along with them.A word of caution though. You will find yourself wanting to start the next episode once you reach the end of the one you are watching because it is that good and addicting. I was sad that I got to the last episode and it ended. So, I started watching from the first episode again. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.

vampiroconti SPOILERS !!! 1- It's not funny, I hardly ever laughed. Part of it could be poor subtitles, but you don't need those for physical comedy, and there's precious little of that.2- The main premise of the body swap, which offered unlimited possibilities, is terribly underutilized.3- Characters do not behave in a realistic way, for example we are asked to believe that while swapped they aren't curious about their new bodies. Also why pretend they don't feel any kind of sexual impulse? If the creators didn't want them to have sex before marriage they could have found some perfectly good excuse.4- How and why the female lead, from the original distaste for him, comes to love the male lead, is poorly explained, we are left to assume she gets tired of him insisting so much and gives in.5- The story arc of the sidekick couple, even in its simplicity, is a lot more interesting than the protagonists' one.6- While the bodies are swapped they are sometimes showed as un-swapped (for the viewer benefit I guess?) but this only causes confusion and negates the premise.7- The main actress shows good acting skills when she does a man in a woman's body, but below average ones otherwise.8- The two most important conflicts (the difficult love stories of the two couples) are resolved too soon, so the final episode lacks any punch and is reduced to some 50 minutes of happy ending, which is way too many.9- The evil mother thing is overdone.10- The sister of the main character is first introduced and then completely forgotten about.11- Other characters which either had the potential for an interesting sub-plot (the gay musician) or were genuinely funny (the assistant of the department store director Park) were underdeveloped/underutilized.12- To an extent this is to be expected in most TV shows, but when it comes to Secret Garden there are way too many plot holes and inconsistencies.13- For a series produced in 2010, there are too many K-drama stereotypes: rich boy/poor girl, evil mother, sidekick couple, hospital… we've seen this for a decade now. Still it would be OK if at least it was well done, but it isn't.The series by which I jusge all others is "Kim Sam-soon" which, with all the limitations inherent to a family TV program / k drama, is funny, realistic enough, not too syrupy, and sports the best female lead character in the history of television.That show set the standard for rom-coms, and therefore we can expect it to be copied a lot, but Secret Garden went to far: - same actor in the male lead role - in both shows there's a trip to Jeju island - in both shows the male lead had a life threatening accident when younger - said accident left the male lead unable to ride a transport (car/elevator)

lia00027 This drama indeed is depicting a different male main character of the usual Korean drama, on this drama Hyun Bin acting cold-hearted, speak straight forwardly but also arrogant and loving at the same time. Ha Ji Won acting as a rather weak female character who pretended to be strong but needed to be loved and taking care of. These 2 characters across their paths and with quite boring some arguments they managed to fall in love and charmed by each other. Don't really get into this drama at 1st but the funniest part is when at 1st they changed souls into their bodies, the 2nd one is predictable of how the story goes on, 3rd one rather sad and I almost cried of how sad it could be. Overall it's a happy ending but without the approval of Hyun Bin's mom and she's being stubborn and hateful till the end. The soundtrack is nice an enjoyable. I don't quite say that it's a good drama, but this one is not bad to killing time. The acting of both the main actors are not that great and quite ordinary may be they could put more effort to bring different characters.