Introverted Boss
I know this show was highly flawed, but it was total drama crack for me.
Synposis:
Eun Hwan Gi is the introverted CEO of a public relations company, Brain. He spends all of his time (literally all, he sleeps and eats in his office) in an isolated office away from the rest of his employees and wears a black hoodie everyday. All of his employees are either scared of him or think he's arrogant and pompous. Hwan Gi's charismatic childhood friend, Kang Woo Il, represents the face of the company and carries out its day to day operations.
Woo- Il has been in a relationship with Hwan Gi's sister, Yi Soo since they were children. However, 3 years ago, Woo Il developed feelings for Hwan Gi's secretary, Chae Ji Hye. They spend a night together, though Ji Hye secretly had feelings for Hwan Gi. When their mistake is exposed to Yi Soo and Hwan Gi, Ji Hye commits suicide by jumping out of Hwan Gi's office window.
In the present, Ji Hye's younger sister, Ro Woon is an extroverted musical theater actress. She becomes employed at Brain in order to get revenge for her sister's death. She assumes that Hwan Gi was ultimately responsible for the death and plans her revenge by seeking information on Hwan Gi and embarrassing him by making him speak in public and publishing articles about his corruption.
As Ro Woon gets to know Hwan Gi's character better, she determines that he's not a psychopath. There is no way he could have been responsible for her sister's death. Her interest in him becomes romantic as she discovers what a caring person he is. Hwan Gi had cared for Ro Woon since her sister's death. However, this care was only out of a responsibility he felt towards her. However, her acceptance of his personality leads him to open up to her and fall in love. However, Ji Hye's death haunts the couple. They must confront her death and her feelings for Hwan Gi in order to stop blaming themselves in order to accept each other and become happy.
Reaction:
While it was airing, Introverted Boss was the drama I eagerly awaited for each week. I was never entirely hooked by the story. This may be a very superficial reason to like a drama, but I just thought the two leads would make such a cute couple and I was just really looking forward to when that would happen. Though I think I was a little disappointed by the reality later on.
I do think the re- writes made the drama better overall, but I actually didn't dislike it as much as other people did in the beginning. Hwan Gi was utterly adorable from the start and it was always enjoyable to watch him. And, yes, Ro Woon was excessive in the first few episodes, but I understood her motivations. Of course she was snooping around his office. She wasn't trying to be a model employee, she joined Brain to avenge her sister's death. And of course she's going to have negative preconceptions about Hwan Gi. He's the CEO of the company that horribly managed her sister's death, which destroyed her family. If anything, I was the most annoyed by the fact that she couldn't recognize Hwan Gi as the CEO for quite some time.
And I'm actually really glad they went back to the past 3 years prior in episode 5. I had felt nothing but empathy for Hwan Gi up until that point. I felt pain for him when he took on responsibility for others and when he was forced to be friendly when it made him uncomfortable. Lastly, even though I understood Ro Woon's motivations, it pained me to watch her treat Hwan Gi so carelessly when he was so careful about taking care of her. However, I empathized with him a little less after watching the way he treated Ji Hye after discovering her mistake with Woo Il. I don't care if he was protecting his sister and Woo Il, he treated Ji Hye like trash and she didn't deserve it. Hwan Gi handled the situation poorly. I had placed his character on a lofty pedestal previously, and his actions brought him a little closer to the ground.
Hwan Gi and Ro Woon's romance was adorable, though not exactly what I was expecting. There were scenes that I replayed, such as the zombie make up scene. And there were some nice (haha) kiss scenes. But strangely enough, it was always during the kiss scenes that I felt a disconnect. The way Hwan Gi kissed was always so intense and physically involved. It seemed out of character. These scenes were a testament to Yeon Woo Jin's kissing ability, for sure. But I always felt like I was watching Yeon Woo Jin kiss, and not Eun Hwang Gi. And Park Hye Soo responded to Woo Jin's kisses well and professionally, but it also strangely didn't seem like Ro Woon. I ended up feeling as if I was watching two professional actors kiss, instead of the two characters. It always threw me off.
And I'm just going to admit it, I watched this drama primarily for the romance (as I do most dramas). But it's so easy to fall into criticisms of the female lead. It's so easy to hate the extremely talkative and invasive Ro Woon in contrast with the sensitive introvert with a big heart Hwang Gi. And it's so easy to criticize Park Hye Soo's acting and judge her for being miscasted. At a certain point I had to shut out what other people were saying about this drama in order to fully enjoy it myself. I just wanted to squeal and clench my fists at all of the cute and intense romantic moments. It was so much easier to do so when I wasn't paying attention to what other people think all of the time.
I was originally interested in this drama because I watched Park Hye Soo previously in Age of Youth. But I was pleasantly surprised by Yeon Woo Jin. He played Eun Hwang Gi brilliantly and in a way I'm not sure anyone else could have. He made Hwang Gi such a special character. I had never heard of Yeon Woo Jin before watching Introverted Boss, but he's definitely on my radar now. I'm not one for watching older dramas, but perhaps I'll give Marriage Not Dating a shot!
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