Story: You think a story about accounting and finance would be boring but it is not, mainly because while they do mention some stuff, they never really get into any equations - so don't worry if you aren't good in math ^.^ Chief Kim has a straight story which means it goes in one direction and one direction only and won't sway from that path. There are comedic scenes - a lot actually - but as for romance or side stories, there are almost none. I liked that about it though because it made it an easy watch and really used its 20 episodes.
Cast/Characters: The cast is perfect and the characters are awesome. They managed to give so many characters and interesting backstory or trait, you just cannot forget about them. From the always nagging office worker to the two-faced and funny side kick. You'll get all sorts of characters in this drama and the chemistry between the male leads was off the charts...yes, you read correctly, the MALE leads. The bromance in this story is awesome and you really start wishing they were brothers. They do bicker and go on each others nerves a lot but you can kind of see the respect they have for each other. I also loved Gwangsook's two faces, but you'll understand after watching. The cast did great work and I think another name for this drama should be "the one with the amazing facial acting"
Music: It was kind of confusing when there was romantic music between some of the leads, since there is never actually something romantic going on but expect for that the music was placed just at the right time. Also the sound effects were awesome and just made the whole drama better.
Rewatch: Some scenes, definitely. The whole drama, probably not.
Overall: Chief Kim offers you a wide range of characters with amazing and believable character development and also shows a lot of "I'm badass and I'm here to own this show" scenes from our heros and villains. Chief Kim is a must watch show if you want an office and company comedy drama without the romance factor, which is a nice change once in a while!
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This review may contain spoilers
yes yes yes
Easily one of my favourite dramas ever. Skyrocketed up my list so fast I was taken aback. It lived up to it's recommendations and even exceeded my expectations to be honest.It is seriously refreshing to watch a drama without dragging, without a stupid love-line, and unnecessary drama. It was hilarious, well written, beautifully detailed. It's twist and turns made sense and satisfied the viewer. Perfect OST, outstanding actors and actresses (they couldn't have been better).
Fell in love with Nam Goong Min seriously this time! I started his new drama Hot Stove League and couldn't wait for more so checked this one out and omg. I didn't like him in Beautiful Goong Shim (or didn not like the drama) and am so happy to have found him here. Amazing artist.
Junho, once again, my crush is still well alive for him. Damn, I didn't think he would pull off a badguy this well, acting on point bro.
One of the best things is definitely their bromance, I laughed so much every time Chief Kim sent Seo Yul kisses or winks. I really appreciate the fact that you could tell from the beginning that Seo Yul didn't despise Chief Kim as much as he seemed to, the bromance started way before Seo Yul became "good".
Honestly even the side characters! They were all so amazing! Shout out to Ga Eun (she bae), Ha Kyung (lovely UNPROBLEMATIC female lead), Mr. Choo (loved the bromance between him and Chief Kim so much as well, his emotional scenes were beautiful), Myun-Suk (gosh he was terrible in the beginning, but just LOVED what they did with his character, instead of making him evil like his father, they made him vulnerable and humane; highlight was his Tanzarian).
The writers and directors did an amazing job at wrapping this up so nicely. The ending was not rushed or dragged out, it ended the best way it could have, giving us a slight taste of what their future plans are. I will miss this so much.
And lastly, I love that they showed us humans with flaws and mistakes, I loved that they showed us HUMANS and not just figures. Chief Kim and Seo Yul were both "bad" people they hurt others for their own good, but they learned, got hurt, cried (Chief Kims crying scene with Mr. Choo was one of its kind!) and changed. They accept their mistakes and their past, but still look forward without giving up.
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It has great actors, especially Nam Goong Min, I liked him in the show The Girl Who Sees Scents, but here he was perfect, and Junho, I loved him in the Just Between Lovers, he was great, but he shined in this show, I am so looking forward to his next projects, the guy is not just a pretty face, he can act and I mean, really act. :)
The best part of the show is of course a splendid writing, the world of accounting has never been more exciting and the characters are one of the best written I have watched in K-Dramas. :)
The show is a perfect combination of action, humor and a little bit of crazy story telling, even if it did not have the romance and I adore romance, I did not mind it, the show is that good, plus the OST was also great and the song Will You Love Me is just beautiful. :)
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The main conflict between Kim Seon Ryong and Seo Yool reminded me of Falling for Innocence. It has a similar vibe. There is virtually zero romance in this show which was refreshing, but was also a missed opportunity. I thought that the initial scenes between Seo Yool and Ha Kyung were promising and I was waiting for more scenes between the two of them. I am not saying there had to be any serious romance, but this showed did a good job showing the progression of many cool relationships except for this one. I think the writers dropped the ball with those two characters.
Most of the actors did a good job in this. Personally, I am not a fan of Namgoong Min's acting, though. I didn't like his style of acting in Beautiful Gong Shim and I didn't quite like it here. I was totally flabbergasted about Ha Dong's performance after seeing him in Suspicious Partner. What a versatile actor!
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This drama is overall enjoyable because of the added comedy and originality that was incorporated. Personally, I thought the deliberate choice not to include romance was a great thing. Many dramas have added romance, where it derails from the storyline, or just gets super boring in some scenes. This drama brings the viewers to different levels of emotions, such as anger, sadness, and laughter throughout. Re-watch value is high if you give it some time before seeing it again.
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Story: Perfection, there's no way to better it in my opinion.
Acting/Cast: I couldn't think of anyone who could have played these roles better.
Music: So perfect. The music enhance the drama without ruining it as I find often in other dramas. Sometime in dramas, I find that the music completely ruin the drama, by being to loud or giving away the plot. (Like based on music, you could tell something bad/sad/happy.. is GOING to happen, and I hate that, I don't watch dramas to listen to the music to know the plot, I watch dramas for watching it)
Rewatch Value: Often times I just give a drama a rating that matches my overall, because I don't want it to affect the overall because I generally don't rewatch. I find for most dramas, rewatching could actually ruin a drama, because you could find a fault that you didn't realize the first time. But Chief Kim is definitely 10/10, because I rewatched it, and still considered this drama 10/10.
If you are watching this drama, thinking it has romance, you are clearly in the wrong place. Each character has some chemistry with one or more other characters, I think it was done perfectly on purpose, so the audience could ship whoever they want and is not limited by the actual drama. For example for one scene you would think "Oh, are they going to end up together?" but it is so subtle and done multiple times throughout the drama with multiple characters, so you can't exactly pinpoint who's going to end up together.
This drama is very realistic, I don't know how to explain it but it's like there's no conspiracy for every character.
A little bit of a spoiler but not really... Chief Kim actually stays pretty much the same in that he doesn't believe in stealing from people who have less than you. I read a review about how they think Chief Kim got better morally, but I don't think that's the case. Chief Kim always believe in stealing from the rich and never from the poor.
SPOILER ALERT: In the beginning he taught people how to steal from their boss, and near the end he was still teaching some people how to steal from their boss, but warn them not to steal from people who worked below them.
Some people could have finished the drama, and think it's morally wrong, but to each their own.
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Excellent Bromance, give it a go once
●I really would have dropped it with the third episode. But it suddenly grew on me when he saved the lady from the accident, and became mr.righteous. I binged it for two days and completed it.He was total funny character doing his witty acts within the company.●Story- corporate politics when meets a man who himself was another level of mad person. Plotline isn't unique but the way this script Is written its a masterpiece. This one doesn't have romance but tons of bromance is there.
●Acting- Nam-goong-min as chief kim is just terrific. His dancing in the office, running throughout the company, and doing numerous pranks. This character is written very well and is played well too. NGM has made this more powerful. I had seen him before ad he is very natural.
Lee-jun-ho as seo yul was very nice too.playing the baddie he was finally infected with chief kim rib-tickling energy.
Kim-won-hae as choo nam ho. He is just awesome,any drama where he is as a supporting character he just makes the show more lovable and light with his superb acting skills.
●Music- “must be the money” by Dindin is full of energy with the lyrics,music and rap. Other tracks are also good.
●Re-watch- ofcourse yes, the story is ok but the acting takes you on a different level.
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It's super funny and contains many life lessons
The acting ! My Goodness ! The lead is a top class actor for sure. The cast was spectacular and the bromance !!!?? ooof! No wonder they won the best couple award, which is hilarious ahahahThere was no boring episode. The OST was really cool. The characters, everyone really, had so much depth which indicates a really good screenwriter. I am genuinely so impressed and happy to have watched it.
The lack of romance was just perfect for the genre of the drama. You could tell who the final couple was and there was no force fed romance, just a lot of amazing human relationships, friendships and warmth of a family of non-blood-related people...I cried many times and I never get emotional in the dramas ahaha
The ending cartoons were hilarious and super duper cute though!
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The casting is pretty great. The Titular character is amazing to watch with his little mannerisms here and there.
The story is good imo, but gets a little 'crazy' at the end. The music is great and borrows themes from certain Korean dramas, as well as some references here and there.
Overall, a very funny drama with some serious moments. Lots of feel good stuff especially near the end. The characters are what makes this show great.
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This review may contain spoilers
Good Manager (2017) - Corporated greed and corruption
The Korean society must have quite a big number of issues ... especially with hirarchy, based in the old feudal structure of the Korean society which seem ro be manifested till today and despite a functional democracy.The story evolves around the TQ Group and its corrupt and power and money greedy CEO.
Namkoong Min as Kim Sung Ryong paired with Nam Sang Mi as female counterpart Yoon Ha Kyung and Lee Jun Ho as capitalistic sociaphat Seo Yool and Jung Hye Sung as enthusiastic undercover agent Hong Ga Eun give a wonderful set of characters which develop quite well in the story line and acring their alias.
Accounting is the key to uncover even most creative strategies and placing numbers in imaginairy companies/accounts. Slush founds/black money and labour rights and abuse of employees is the theme in this white colar crime story.
Sung Ryong and Sang Mi seemed to be the love affair of this story ... with Seo Yool as the rival? ... but arn´t. But sparks flew. Even with their counterpart Seo Yool ... incl. homoerotic flashes acted against a bit homophobic, taking in accounting the ridiculous anti LGBTQIA+ attitude and lack of womensrights in ultraconservative Korean society. Jokes made on the back of LGBTQIA+ is still not to accept and won´t!
Sang Mi distrusted Sung Ryong but got convinced by his fight for what is right, as she herself cna´t stand injustice, especially done by her company she is working for.
The back and forth bewtween Sung Ryong and Seo Yool is one of the highlights in this show for sure
Some bosses for real think they are the masters of desasters, or better a godlike given entity to whom everybody has to obey and bow.
Decisions are made ... with an good end the revenue is privatized and if its going wrong ... the result is socialized and empolyees are "set free", succed out and spewed out like waste. the Financial Crisis of 2007/08, in which we still are, has shown this drastically and paved the way for the far right poppolists (populists) which fish/ed among the vast numbers of losers. Which by far did not drink too much latte ...
The show shows us protesting employees for beeing succed out and lousy paid for and other employees even not paid. And the reaction of the boss? Angry and still sitting on its slush fonds, which ruined not only one of the subsidiaries.
The reations Sang Mi gets from the rivaling department and the ladies fight in the canteen but pictures too the disrespect of women as equal to men ... and the sispite 2017 when staged.
The film is a loud cry against corporations behavior and missing respect for their employees who create the lavish lifestyle of the chaebols and their family.
Here the son (Dong Ha Park Myung Seok) and heir is going a similar way as the main male heros Sung Ryong and Seo Yool from prick and sociophat to getting a social concience. His arrogance is based as usual on missing education and here accounting in special. Tzhe brat got his lecturwer in Sung Ryong. He ends as the key figure for saving his mother´s corporation.
When the guys in the cellar and Seo Yool unite their forces the team of not so white knights start to walk the winners lane ... and its a fun to see them acting one step ahead of the bosses blended by their greed in incompetence.
Only one couple does found itself as a sideline during the fierce battles ... but okay. GOOD MANAGER is not a love show.
The original CEO is ending with his croonies in front of the bar and is sentenced and even then can´t see and accept his guilt ... like so many CEOs and company owners when going down the gurgler because of fraud, shitty decisions. We can use their cases as tapestry for our homes.
Therefore we need more and stricter control mechanisms to prevent cases like pictured in GOOD MANAGER and strong and effective unions for employees.
The show staged 10 years after the ww Financial Crisis, starting 2006 with the Subprime Crisis and collapse of LEHMAN BROS. in 2007 calls for regulations of corporations. Not only for their employees, but for the nations economy and with that the ww economy.
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Loved every episode of this!
Namkoong Min was absolutely phenomenal as he is in all his dramas like Doctor Prisoner, Veil, Awaken. The rest of the cast was good too.I'm glad it didn't have the typical office romance you see in office dramas. The plot and flow was executed well from the 1st episode to the end i actually binged it all! Particularly loved the undercover agent Jung Hye-Sung (Ga Eun) her vibes were really great and funny . Loved how he always teased Lee Hun-Ho (Seo Yool) and end up working together in the end One of the best dramas I've ever watched for sure.Was this review helpful to you?
