Short, sweet, and to the point web series I found very enjoyable
The Guilty Secret aka I Have a Secret aka I Met You Again is a 12-episode slice of life web series from the company Playlist Global who are best known for A-Teen (my favorite of theirs) and Love Playlist though Just One Bite, Seventeen, and The Best Ending are also pretty popular. All their dramas center around high school, usually the last couple of years of it, at least what I've seen (there may be some 20-something characters in there, too). This one, as with many, is set in school where most teen-geared dramas do. It's clearly meant to cater TO teens and preteens, but I still like their stuff to varying extents despite being an elder to the ones in it! The episodes go from 8-15 minutes in length and are all available now on v live as I Have a Secret; they'll all be on YT as Guilty Secret pretty soon (9 are there as of this review), but they do delay the release there for whatever reason.The basic setup (spoilers would be pretty tough given the length of episodes and slice of life feel but I'll refrain from any) is that a trio of girls and pair of guys make up a pretty tight, loyal friend group in a high school. The main character is a somewhat bookish girl who has the typical teen reservations/nervousness but is still eager to be around her friends, loyal, honest, careful not to hurt her friends, and so on. She's in the reading club along with the more quiet of the guys who we're never told but get a clear idea has a crush on her and is very protective of her and loyal. Her closest friend is a bubbly, somewhat loud but harmless, hypersensitive girly girl in the "Animal Club" which I am not sure exists in real schools but whatever floats their fictional boats! She's dating what seems to be the most popular guy in school. That said, we don't see an awful lot of guys at all in the story-they're definitely plot devices though the quiet one gets a bit more screen time and isn't always doing one of 3 things like the popular one who is either seeking food, wanting to play soccer, or with his girlfriend flirting or arguing. The last of the females is an idol trainee, quiet, shy, and apparently at least half Japanese. The characters are a bit cliche, sure, but how much can you create complexity with about 150 minutes total and a school setting/peer relationships to portray
Enter the sixth character (an easy favorite acting-wise) who becomes the game changer. She went to the female lead's academy, became friends with her quickly, and became the confidante to the lead. Secrets that could only be told to her were told as she went to a different school entirely and would not know who was being talked about. One day, she disappears from the academy mysteriously, and with it the female lead's secrets disappeared... until she transferred to the lead's school and quickly knew in a matter of hours who was who. Oops. What once gave her strength has now become a weakness, someone who could easily tell everything to everyone. Will she, though, and how will she use the information? I'll leave the rest for you to find out in quick cute snippets.
The acting is very believable throughout. The characters aren't anything special, but that's kind of what MAKES Playlist Global's web series special-they are completely ordinary stories about ordinary lives. Being a teen is enough to create drama without being an abnormal teen, at least when the total time is under 3 hours! It was a pleasant 2.5ish hours of time and one of the better recent web series I've seen (A-Teen is still their best and possibly -the- best of this genre to me). Music? Eh, not a lot of it to speak of-again, we're talking about episodes that are only a few songs long total. Rewatch value? Hmm, better than most web series and short enough to certainly casually have on again, but nothing new will be discovered, I don't think, if you watch it without distraction the first time, so I'll personally be moving on to another series or few!
All said, I'd be quite happy to see a second season of it (and I came with low anticipations). It's got good cinematography for what it is, the limited sets are all well-lit and make for a nice looking set of videos, and the chemistry is pretty natural-teens being teens. It's not soapy or sappy (overly dramatic or cringeworthy sticky as honey romantic), and it has very clear messages each time and a really nice ending I won't say a thing about here! :)
Enjoy!
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The story was interesting, as they didn't focus on the young love and high school romance. Rather, that guilty secret was used to prompt the actual plot that was about bullying, friendship, redeption and the web of misunderstandings that lead to misbehavior. The performances from all the actors and actresses in the cast were pretty good and helped the drama a lot. However, the first episodes were too awkwardly presented and too rushed.
So, six out of ten.
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Slice-of-life is my favorite genre, and this drama reminded me a bit of Age of Youth where it had a large focus on the friendships over romance. Going off of this though, there were some small sub-plots that I felt like could have been fleshed out more and some side characters that I wanted to know more about — but with this being a short web drama, I'm not surprised that there wasn't time to cover all the bases, and if there are future seasons I'm sure each character will get their turn (kind of like A-Teen!).
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Story: story of this movie is not only focus on what the title is, all my expectations are wrong like who is the real bad and who is the real good among the them.
Acting/Cast: the cast of this movie are very good in doing acting, by the way i watch this because of Jung Subin (Jo Ah Sung).
Music: ahhhmmm...
Rewatch Value: for me you don't need to rewatch it because every episodes is on point and it is only 2 hours (overall)
Highly recommended it
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This review may contain spoilers
Another average webdrama with mediocre characters
No Spoilers Until WarningThe drama is centered around a girl and her high school friends, including that one classic transfer student that somehow knows all about her.
MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD!!!
Her friend group obviously has one guy that likes her, an exhausted idol trainee who's not around much because she's always training, a constantly arguing couple, and then the new girl who she opened up to when they attended the same summer academy and knows all about her forbidden feelings and past bullying.
The ending fell flat for me because all the new girl did was tell an old friend to cut out someone who she was told was 100% flirting with her boyfriend. And then she felt guilty about it because she knew how much the main girl suffered so she wanted to tell her when she was ready. But then the main girl sees something and assumes she knows the whole story (which seems to be a trend in the drama). And then when she finds out the truth of what happened, she graciously ends a bullying situation that she inadvertently started anyway but also blames the victim for not defending herself as if everyone hadn't already decided what they wanted to believe. And after the new girl apologizes she still doesn't talk to her for the rest of the year, but she benevolently allows their mutual friends to keep hanging out with her.
Until episode 10 I thought this would be a 7 because it was an okay webdrama, but then the main girl's overreaction and outburst in front of everyone made the new girl an outcast and the friends were all telling her she did nothing wrong because everything she said was true (even though it lacked context). It bugged me that all the friends were okay cutting out the new girl who had no other friends without asking for her side. And even after the misunderstanding was resolved they didn't hang out with her again until the main girl told them they could. It was clear that she partly blamed the new girl for the bullying she went through even though she knew nothing about it.
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Unlike the former, this drama however, does not have much of a romance, but focuses more on school issues such as bullying, rumors, honestly, and friendship. After all, a good drama doesn't always have to have romance in it!
The Guilty Secret is interesting as it is not cheesy nor cliche, and is a more refreshing take on friendships, and the problems they face at that age. There is really nothing special about its plot, but this drama has its own unique qualities that sets it apart from other high school web dramas in a good way. Every episode neatly written and executed without making it too dramatic for high school nor cringy, it also makes you curious as to what secrets are yet to be revealed, which what made me finish this in one sitting.
The casting and the actors were also good. Everyone looked like their typical high school students, and were able to pull their roles well even despite the limited lines and scenarios! I was able to really see the characters genuine friendship towards each other.
The character growth, resolve, and positive outlook of the female lead at the end was heartwarming, that it made me become satisfied with what i just watched. An overall nice drama! 7.5/10!
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