Her Private Life (2019)
Review of Her Private Life / 그녀의 사생활 (2019)
In my dreams, I would work at an art gallery and curate collections for a living. I love art with a passion. And so when I saw this drama available on Netflix, I was sold almost immediately.
I wasn’t completely sold on the fact that the curator was a huge K-pop stan in the synopsis, because the connotation tends to be that she might be a saesang. But wow, I was presently surprised by the plot and the lead couple. I really enjoyed the male lead and his background, although there’s more to be desired from the female lead. More on that to come.
Let’s dive straight into this review, shall we?
Content
The female lead in this drama is named Sung Duk-mi. She works at an art gallery in Seoul with only two other employees (which is a bit odd for a major art gallery, to be quite honest) and under an eccentric Head Director.
After flying to China and having a run-in with our male lead, who buys the painting she wants for $30,000, she returns and discovers the Head Director has been engaging in fraud and has been arrested. The jerk (re: male lead) who bought the painting she wanted is suddenly instated as the new director of the museum and now Duk-mi must handle that and her life as a leading fansite for the idol Si-an.
I will admit, there is a very specific reason that I came to like the idol storyline and it’s because I kept wondering who the guy playing the idol was. He looked extremely familiar to the point I was wanting to slap myself because I knew this guy. And then I looked him up and he was my favorite Korean rapper and I didn’t straight up recognize him.
The shame is real. I had no idea ONE acted in a drama, and he looked completely different than how I came him to know him as with the bleached blonde hair. Majorly face-palming though because I had VIP tickets to his concert that got cancelled. Big sad.
I like how the female lead is competent enough to have her own successful career, but then there’s some ways in which she’s also depicted that’s lacking to me. Her life revolves completely around the men that she’s obsessed with.
As soon as her relationship with Ryan begins to evolve, she kind of forgets the obsessive nature she had with Si-an as the drama shifts gears. I also think that the love triangle is way too forced in this, the guy who’s her older adopted brother just suddenly falls in love with her as she gets a real relationship which is kind of weird.
In the final arc of the drama, the conflict just seems to be finding abut the real artist behind some of the paintings they’re showcasing.I wish it was a bit different or longer so they could flesh out the conflict in this part of the drama, because they get into some heavier topics when it comes to who exactly the artist is.
Trying to avoid spoilers here for all of our fans who haven’t read it! The acting throughout the drama is also pretty decent, especially considering who our female and male leads are. I also didn’t recognize Ahn Bo-hyun from Itaewon Class at first too, which was a major facepalm for me too.
This drama also seems to gloss over saesang culture a bit. The character played by ONE, Si-an, talks about how this one fansite is the only one to understand him—which is run by Duk-mi, he doesn’t know that fact.
I feel like we could’ve delved into the darker parts of this fame throughout the drama, but it’s kept fairly lighthearted except for Duk-mi’s best friend’s husband seriously violating her privacy and she wants to separate because of it.
Overall Thoughts
It’s a decent drama because I didn’t get frustrated with it halfway through and quit it completely (unlike some dramas recently, cough cough Doom At Your Service).
It wasn’t boring and the acting was fairly decent. The characters came to life for me, although I wish Ryan had a bit more expressions. He seems to have a basic palate of expressions at times which got a bit old. If you don’t talk it seriously, and ignore how the intern is kind of questionable legally with her stalking, then this’ll be a good drama for you.
