Her Lovely Heels (2014)
SBS Plus - 10 Short Episodes
Short Drama / Romance, Grade: B-
Korean Drama Review by Jill, USA
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Her Lovely Heels (2014) is a short and sweet romantic drama of ten episodes which only last about fifteen to twenty-five minutes each. You can watch it on the drama.net web site with English subtitles. It's not on the two major K-drama streaming web sites, for whatever reason. I think a lot of young people would enjoy it, so it should be on both of those web sites. I enjoyed it, too, even though it's not exactly earth-shaking. Just pleasant, something light to watch when you're bored, or tired after a long day's work.
I wanted to check it out for the fresh faced young actor I had enjoyed in Beloved (2012), Jong Hyun Hong. Such a good actor! He is going places in the industry. This role here in Her Lovely Heels wasn't as demanding as that one, but he was still good in it. He has good acting instincts. His leading lady was from Kara: Secret Love (2014), Han Seung-Yeon. She is sweet and appealing too. Her character Shin Ji Hoo is getting over an old love and a broken heart and is slow to trust men again, and then she meets a new love named Oh Tae Soo while she's trying on pretty high heels in an upper end shoe store -- he's the shoe salesman!
They are attracted to each other immediately but try to suppress it. Then they end up both working at the same company in public relations jobs. He tries hard not to fall for her, but ends up doing it anyway, goaded on by his male friends. "Do you want to be lonely all your life?" they ask him. "I don't need a woman to have a fulfilling life" he gruffly responds, but all along you know he feels something lacking in his life and he needs a good woman to love. When they are attending business meetings together in the beginning of the show he keeps sneaking looks at her, and she toward him. Even he can't ignore the chemistry between them for very long and one thing leads to another and they're hooked on each other. .
The show does have the typical K-drama cliches: she loses a heel and falls and he runs to help her and sparks fly between them. Fix the boo boo scenes (I always laugh at those: "here comes another one!"). Piggy back rides, back hugs, love rivalries, work intrigue, animosity at first hiding secret romantic attraction, staring at the loved one while they are sleeping, etc. The charm results when the ice melts between them and they truly fall in love and commit. You even get a rare bed scene, breaking all standard rules of K-dramas not to show them! Amazing. It's done in as good taste as possible, if you get what I mean. ;)
Nice background music and background images of Seoul help this romance drama stand out a bit from some others of its genre. It's professionally done, not amateurish. It feels contemporary, not old-fashioned.
Check it out sometime when you want something simply relaxing and sweet to watch, and if you really like this actor like I do then don't miss him in Beloved. It's a much more heavy duty script and covers more than just a simple romance. Her Lovely Heels is more personality-driven than plot driven. Sometimes I'm in the mood for that, and other times I prefer a more intriguing story line. I rate this a B-. It's nice enough not to fall into the C category. LOL. If it's your cup of tea, enjoy it.~~~~~~~~
