‘She Would Never Know’…Rowoon is fantastic in this leisurely paced romance, that could have used some bite.
Korean title translates to Sunbae, Don’t Put On That Lipstick.
Spoilers Ahead…
In my recent review for True Beauty, I had mentioned how Cha Eun Woo’s recent characters have positively impacted the popular male lead archetype of the cold, handsome, rich man. However, upon watching She Would Never Know (and the recently watched Romance is a Bonus Book also came to mind), I realized that this isn’t new and this sweet, caring, near-perfect boyfriend that has eyes only for you, has been a trope in noona-romances for quite some time. The Take (a film and TV analysis channel on YouTube), in one of their recent video essays called them the manic pixie dream boy. For K-dramas, I would call them the manic pixie dream hoobae.
Though this isn’t true across all noona-romance dramas — both Encounter and Something in the Rain feature backstories and motivations for the men, separate from the women — it has somewhat become a staple of this sub-genre. In this drama too, we know nothing about Chae Hyun Seung (SF9’s Rowoon), apart from the fact that he has two older sisters and seems rich. His decision to work at KLAR, the cosmetics company where the show largely takes place in, is due to his attraction towards Yoon Song A (an adequate Won Jin A). We meet her as his mentor, and learn the initial details of her life through him. And unlike most noona-romances, where the story majorly centres around the female lead (her family, her career aspirations), here, it is Hyun Seung who is the primary protagonist of the show, not Song A. It is him, who we watch grow at work, taking on more responsibilities and professionally dealing with the different hurdles he encounters (in one of the best scenes of the show, Hyun Seung skilfully removes himself out of an after work meeting at a hostess bar). It is he, who exposes Lee Jae Shin’s (Lee Hyun Wook) adultery to Song A and steps in to protect her when Jae Shin refuses to break up.
Despite a shaky start (due to Hyun Seung’s forceful advances towards Song A) the drama keeps things simple, straightforward and enjoyable. A solid supporting cast provides many interesting mini-plots of their own and whenever the story momentarily shifted focus to these characters, I never found myself waiting to go back to the main storyline.
The drama also employs many known tropes but the characters aren’t boxed into them. A great example of this is Lee Gyu Han’s Lee Jae Woon, who plays a balanced and level-headed chaebol heir. His relationship with Chae Ji Seung (a gorgeous Wang Bit Na) was simply adorable. The drama’s main charm lies in fleshing out characters and their relationships with care, like Song A’s fractured relationship with her mother (Lee Ji Hyun) and Lee Jae Shin’s backstory, while maintaining a buoyancy that kept the show from becoming too serious.
This charm however wears out towards the last four to six episodes, when the understated aspect seems to come off as more calculated and curated in the second half of the runtime. A reason for this could be that both Hyun Seung and Song A — with reference to their personal character arcs — are pretty stagnant characters. There isn’t any conflict between them, and soon, the adorkable romance becomes tiring.
With the ample amount of time the show had, I wished we could have gotten a reason as to why Lee Hyo Joo (Lee Joo Bin) was so obsessed with Jae Shin. Was he in any way different from other guys she knew? Or more insight into Jae Shin and Song A’s relationship as they both came from similar backgrounds with similar family dynamics and that in comparison to both Hyun Seung and Hyo Joo. Unfortunately, the writers apply the same last minute breakup and makeup trope, which doesn’t do the show any justice, apart from giving Rowoon time to showcase a different range of his improved acting chops.
There were many moments where the drama could have sank its teeth into and extracted some strong emotions (example: when Jae Woon meets Jae Shin after his re-appearance and punches him when the latter declares that he never once considered Jae Woon his friend) which would have given the show, its much needed bite.
