The Heirs Review

The Heirs (2013)

Ever wondered where the sons and daughters of conglomerate and famous people get their attitude? Well look no further! Just follow the lives of these heirs, and one poor girl -as if there was something new in that- and see what they do on daily basis. Though, I doubt you’ll find anything different to your expectations. In all, a pretty story about a cast away rich guy making decisions to decide his path; all with the strength of young love. Are you up for the ride?

The Heirs follows the lives of Cha Eun Sang (Park Shin Hye) and Kim Tan (Lee Min Ho). Cha Eun Sang lives a hard-disappointing life having to fend for herself and her mother. But when the opportunity of studying at a prestigious school arrives, she will learn to become stronger. Though making her life at her new school a bit difficult unintentionally, Kim Tan will try to fight to help Cha Eun Sang, and to stand his ground against everyone that opposes his desires, and that includes his family.

The Heirs gives us a story that, thought it may not be new, presents interesting and fun interactions between each teen character. I didn’t feel like the conflict was that complex as it probably could have been, but instead the writer kept it simple. On the contrary, what made the situations difficult were actually the characters themselves. The ending was nice, but I wasn’t fond of it -at least not the couple of episodes before the end. How can you attempt to leave your loved one in an attempt to make everything better, but then appear in the next episode? That doesn’t give us enough time to miss you or feel for your relationship and your love! Aside from the ending, Eun Sang and Kim Tan’s first meeting in the states was neat! It gave a different feel to the drama and it really set the mood to the whole rich environment setting. Yet, I am not sure it was strong enough to move the plot in the drama -I guess Kim Tan felt identified with Eun Sang’s situation. Love, love and LOVE!

Even if it’s love, rich guys have a way of showing it. Specially Kim Tan, though in this case it wasn’t as hard or annoying as in Boys Over Flowers -If you saw it you will know what I mean. Being mean doesn’t say “I love you”, something both Kim Tan and Young Do (Kim Woo Bin)should learn. Though the rich kids like Choi Young Do, Rachel Yoo (Kim Ji Won), Lee Hyo Shin (Kang Ha Neul), and Lee Bo NA (Krystal) had power, it felt limited, which I liked because it reflected how they were kids, still controlled by their parents. The whole “used-to-be-best-friends” interaction between Kim Tan and Young Do was enjoyable; innocent rivalry, something that could be found in any other setting. What made it likeable was their performance and the fact that, well, being rich means that they have sources, and you can do a lot with that. Speaking about Young Do, it was interesting how he was pitiful at time. This goes to show that, although these kids are rich, their lives are not smooth sailing. Another enjoyable interaction was that of Yoo Chang Young (Kang Min Hyuk) with both Eun Sang and Bo Na. I would love to have him as a best friend, and even better: as a boyfriend. His story, I think, was interesting enough to be the center of another drama -there is potential. Krystal’s acting was good, and her character was annoyingly well done, but Eun Sangs character was lacking at times. I found it too indecisive; it took her too long to find courage and stand her ground alongside Kim Tan, who was having a difficult enough time. These two spent a lot of time playing the cat-and-mouse game, which bothered me more than once. It also drove me crazy how Kim Tan wasn’t wanted nor accepted by Kim Won (Choi Jin Hyuk). These was a beautiful yet heartbreaking relationship between brothers. This was obviously accomplished by the great performance of each character, though I cannot say the same thing about the acting by the Americans at the first half of the drama. Where did the director find these guys? And speaking about Americans, Lee Min Ho’s English in the drama was a surprise, but not entirely in a good way. He definitely needs more practice in his English -I volunteer! I volunteer as his teacher!  

The situations with every family was different yet they all had something in common: the kids suffered from their parent’s decisions. This is a side that is not always portrayed in grand scale whenever there are too many rich kids involved. It’s also important to mentioned how the writer payed attention to the other lesser characters, like Kim Won, Hyo Shin, and Cha young, because it took from being solely a love story and it help to keep it in the high school genre. The sceneries were beautiful, both in the U.S. and in Korea. They created a young feel to the eye and set both the poor and wealthy mood of each scene. Of course, the original soundtrack also played a major role in this, with memorable and catchy songs like “I’m Saying” by Lee Hong Ki from FT Island, “Moment” by Changmin from 2AM, “In the Name of Love” by Ken from VIXX, “Serendipity” by 2Young, and others.

This was a fun and loving story of young love that might be refreshing during the fall. There are different perspectives in which you could watch this drama, yet I saw it with the eyes of watching a rich boy’s first love and his pursuit to acceptance. The Heirs was filled with cute and romantic moments as well as serious moments, sad moments, funny moments and bromantic moments. Although I would have loved it to be 25 episodes, for the last one to not seem too cramp, this 20 episodes’ story was a nice ride.

 My rating for this drama is: ♥♥♥