The Secret Life of My Secretary is about a cold and intelligent boss (Kim Young Kwang) at a media company who constantly relies on his hot-tempered secretary (Jin Ki Joo) for everything…that is until he fires her.  But when life unexpectedly throws him a curve ball, he suddenly needs his secretary more than ever.

Well, this drama was a pleasant surprise! The Secret Life of My Secretary turned out to be a fun and romantic drama with plenty of heart. It also has a very old school feel to it with its tone and the way it presented the story. Of course, I loved that!

Kim Young Kwang plays the boss Do Min Ik. He’s initially a bit icy on the surface, but he has plenty of sweetness on the inside. He’s also very intelligent, but a chain of events puts his abilities to the test.

Jin Ki Joo is his hot-tempered secretary Jung Gal Hee. She’s dedicated herself to being the perfect secretary for Min Ik, so when he ends up firing her, she is devastated. But circumstances also throw her for a loop when she gets a rare opportunity to see her boss in a different light.

Then we have Koo Ja Sung as Ki Dae Joo. He’s been best friends with Min Ik since childhood. Next is Kim Jae Kyung as Veronica Park. She’s a spoiled and wealthy heiress with a personality that is larger than life.

I wasn’t initially very interested in The Secret Life of My Secretary. I really like both Kim Young Kwang and Jin Ki Joo, but it sounded like a basic office romantic comedy with the plot revolving around the cold boss and his secretary. Most of the early plot descriptions I came across left out some very interesting details though!

I will be revealing some important plot details from the first few episodes of the drama. I wasn’t aware of these going in, so they ended up being a fun surprise. I’ll talk about a minor spoiler first and then signal when I go into the major spoilers.

If you don’t want to be spoiled at all, stop here and just go watch this fun drama! But if you want to see that there is actually much more to this basic story than meets the eye, then continue reading.

MINOR SPOILERS BELOW

It turns out that Min Ik gets into an accident early on and develops that pesky condition that affects a lot of people in Dramaland: facial blindness. Although this condition has been used a lot lately, this drama was much more creative with it.

First, it was interesting to see someone start out not having it and then having to cope with developing it. It’s a very scary and disorienting disorder that took some major adjustments for Min Ik. He can’t recognize anyone’s face…except his faithful secretary Gal Hee that is.

There’s actually a pretty fascinating reason why he can recognize her though. He knows her so incredibly well from how she speaks, to the sound of footsteps, to her attire that his eyes aren’t really seeing her face, but his brain instead “remembers” her enough that it fills in the blanks for what her face would look when he sees her. The brain really does have some amazing capabilities similar to this in other areas in real life, so I thought this was a very creative explanation.

MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW

But then the twist I really wasn’t expecting came at the end of episode 6. Circumstances lead Gal Hee to have to dress up and act completely different from her normal self. This causes Min Ik to be unable to recognize her and to believe she is someone else, namely the heiress Veronica Park. Next thing you know, he is dating Gal Hee pretending to be Veronica! This really explained the title of the drama, hehe.

I was so surprised by this turn of events, and it really sent the story in a fun direction. It was cute seeing Gal Hee impersonate Veronica, who is completely different from her, and enjoy being treated differently by Min Ik. Because of course, Min Ik falls for her!

This may just be my favorite role of Kim Young Kwang. He was rich and spoiled, but he was very approachable. And he just comes off as a puppy as he begins to fall in love. On one hand, it’s sweet watching him develop feelings, but on the other hand, he thinks he is falling for two separate women. He becomes quite conflicted and just feels awful that he could have feelings for both his secretary Gal Hee and her alter ego Veronica Park.

Gal Hee also struggles immensely with guilt over her lies. Finding the right opportunity to tell him the truth proves difficult, so she has to live a double life for a while. Jin Ki Joo was super adorable here, and I loved seeing her play both Gal Hee and Veronica.

END OF SPOILERS

Aside from the primary story, the show has a secondary plot involving a mystery and someone out to cause trouble for Min Ik. This was a nice little addition to spice things up. They do keep the audience in the dark for most of the drama though as to who is behind everything and what their motive is.

That all gets revealed in a big information dump towards the end of the drama. In this type of drama, I don’t love this approach since it doesn’t allow me to understand the full picture and understand the villains for the bulk of the show. The mystery was good though, and it was just a minor annoyance as to how it was handled.

There’s also a second romance in the drama between Veronica Park and Ki Dae Joo. They get a fair amount of screen time and go through their own struggles to be together. He’s a little ho-hum, but Veronica sure does make up for it!

The Secret Life of My Secretary was just such a fun series. It won me over from the first episode and then continued to engage me all the way through. It was cute, funny, and thoughtful. The show also delivered plenty of heart. I was invested in Min Ik and Gal Hee’s relationship right from the start, and that allowed me to be excited to watch it develop all the way though. Such an excellent series!

My Rating: 8/10

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29 responses to “The Secret Life of My Secretary Korean Drama Review”

  1. Kdrama Crazy Avatar

    I was planning to watch it. Now it’s next. ☺

    1. Kay Avatar

      That’s great! Please let me know what you think of it 🙂

      1. Kdrama Crazy Avatar

        Ok sure ☺

  2. BiblioNyan Avatar

    I love fun, romantic serials so I’ll have to put this on my list for sure! It looks very cute, to be honest. 🙂

    1. Kay Avatar

      This one is a lot of fun and very easy to watch. Especially good for when you need something a little more cheery 🙂

  3. honeycrunch321 Avatar

    Yay!!! You finally gave it a try. And you loved it toooo!!!
    I’m so happy that you’ve enjoyed the first until the last episode. I guess this is one of my favorite rom-coms this year. 🙂 And it’s truly funny, entertaining and full of heart! <3

    1. Kay Avatar

      I did! And yes, I loved it! And it was your review that prompted me to start sooner rather than later when I found I had an opening for a new drama on my schedule. So thank you! It really was a lot of fun and filled with heart 🙂

      1. honeycrunch321 Avatar

        Oh really! That’s super cool 🙂
        * high-five * And you’re super welcome! Let’s find another good drama to watch, shall we? 😀

        1. Kay Avatar

          Yes, we must find more good ones to fill the void! 🙂

  4. raistlin0903 Avatar

    Hmmmm….🤔🤔 Okay…I might, emphasis on might, give this one a try. The full of heart sentence won me over with that (you know I love feelgood kind of things 😊).

    1. Kay Avatar

      This one definitely has an easy, feel good factor to it. It’s heavy on the rom-com though, but it does have a nice story, a dash of angst, and a small mystery to liven it up 🙂

  5. D Avatar
    D

    I can’t wait to watch this one. Just waiting for it to become available on Viki.

    1. Kay Avatar

      Hopefully, you don’t have to wait too much longer and that you enjoy it 🙂

  6. Kate Avatar
    Kate

    Finished this last night and LOVED it from start to finish. The leads were so incredibly cute and you used the term “puppy” to describe Do Min Ik in your review and that’s the same thing I kept thinking throughout!! Oh what a cute rom com this was! And I can’t tell you how much Veronica Park lit up the series for me. She.Was.AWESOME! LOL.

    1. Kay Avatar

      Yay! Soooo glad you enjoyed this one so much too 🙂 Yes, the leads were both so good here, and Kim Young Kwang was such a cute puppy! Veronica was really something too! She’s one of those characters I didn’t much like at first, but then she becomes hilarious because of how over the top she is. This drama truly was such a cute and fun rom-com. I’m happy you went ahead and watched it 🙂

  7. Sahara 🌵 (@Radicalmemerer) Avatar

    I literally was watching it every week since it aired. It had me so hooked. I am so glad you liked it! I enjoyed it very much myself.

    1. Kay Avatar

      It really was such a cute and fun drama! I’m glad you enjoyed it too 🙂

  8. […] The Secret Life of My Secretary was just such a fun series. It won me over right from the start and held my attention all the way through. The show was cute, funny, thoughtful, and delivered plenty of heart. Kim Young Kwang and Jin Ki Joo were wonderful in their roles, and I was invested in their relationship from the beginning. A great series overall! (The Secret Life of My Secretary Review) […]

  9. MyKDramaticLife Avatar
    MyKDramaticLife

    So excited to start with this one, Hopefully find time to.

    1. Kay Avatar

      It’s so cute! I hope you find time for it too 🙂

  10. […] The Secret Life of My Secretary was just such a fun series. It won me over right from the start and held my attention all the way through. The show was cute, funny, thoughtful, and delivered plenty of heart. Kim Young Kwang and Jin Ki Joo were wonderful in their roles, and I was invested in their relationship from the beginning. A great series overall! My Rating: 8/10 (The Secret Life of My Secretary Review) […]

  11. himanshi tantway Avatar
    himanshi tantway

    I want to know the other dramas in which someone contains a secret and then tries to cover it up, can you please provide me a list over here

    1. Kay Avatar

      I like dramas where people have secrets too 🙂 Here are a few I enjoyed off the top of my head:
      She Was Pretty (rom-com)
      Start-Up (office rom-com)
      True Beauty (high school rom-com)
      Healer (action romance/secret identity)

  12. Monette Cabib Avatar
    Monette Cabib

    Very light and easy to watch. I love it. I just wish it has part 2 or chapter 2… I was left hanging at the end. I thought to see them walk down the aisle both couple and change ceo position… Many part for me is not ended well.

    1. Kay Avatar

      Yes, it was a really nice drama that was fun and very easy to watch 🙂 I’m sorry you didn’t love the ending, but I’m glad you liked it for the most part 🙂

  13. Soniya Avatar
    Soniya

    Thank you for the review. I loved your writing. Please keep writing such amazing reviews.

    1. Kay Avatar

      Aww, thank you so much for saying that! I’m so glad you enjoyed the review ❤

  14. sovietredstar Avatar
    sovietredstar

    The Secret Life Of My Secretary was good and a fun watch. Jin Ki-Joo was adorable as Secretary Jin and really beautiful as Veronica Park. So much so that it took me a couple of episodes to be able to accept her again as Secretary Jin. Kim Young-Kwang was pretty good but I’ve seen him in roles where his character was a goofy loveable guy, which is seen to a lesser degree in this show. Thich made it a little bit tough accepting him as a corporate executive.
    The second romance was good though Koo Ja-Sung seemed to be a bit too laid back.
    Of Secretary Jin’s office buddies Baek Hyun-Joo stood out from the rest.
    As with many Kdramas the romance takes too long to fully develop but when it does it’s pretty good.
    SPOILER ALERT: The ending was good, much better than many Kdramas. But as always with me I was hoping for a wedding and that he proposed at the planned dinner instead of just the two of them on the roof.
    Rating 7.5/10

    ERROR: Episode 8 at about 22:36 Secretary Jin’s sister’s room the school banner on the wall for the University of Pennsylvania misspelled Pennsylvania as Pensylvania. The small school pendants also got the abbreviation for Pennsylvania wrong. Thay said PEN, should have been PENN.

    1. Kay Avatar

      Yes, this one was such a fun watch! Agree, Jin Ki Joo was both adorable and beautiful. Perfect for this role. Kim Young Kwang was definitely a bit less goofy than usual in this one. I really liked him with Jin Ki Joo.

      Yeah, Koo Ja Sung’s character was a bit bland for me, but the character of Veronica really made up for it.

      I too would have enjoyed a bit of a “bigger” ending for our couple though it was still nice. A very entertaining drama overall 🙂

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