A New Leaf (2014)

There was a potential. A great one.
Premise was intriguing, cast was excellent and first two episodes were a good start.
But.
Most of that potential was left unused.
When we hear that story starts with a man who used devious means to reach his current high status, and then in an accident lost all his memories but his knowledge of the law, regaining his conscience and facing his past wrongs that he doesn't remember, we usually assume that there are lots of psychological and emotional elements in the story. And while there are some it's not the amount we were promised in the summary. Still many of us would have been satisfied even with the legal part of the drama being in the highlight if we were given good explanations about lots of technical terms and complicated law cases. As it is I often felt like they were speaking some unknown alien language.

Drama was cut off by two episodes and it is really obvious at the end. Many things were left unresolved.

Still I liked this drama. My rating would have gone below 5.5 if I haven't.
Kim Myung Min is an amazing actor. He delivered his part very well.
Oh Jung Se is the actor I saw for the first time in this drama and I'm looking forward to see more from him.
Park Min Young wasn't a weak link, she did good. Her character was likable and not overly naive or damsel in distress like in some of her other dramas.
There are almost no eye-candy here but there are ear-candies. We have three actors with amazing voices in the same drama: Kim Myung Min, Jin Yi Han and Kim Sang Joong.

This had a potential to be one of the best for this year, and because of that potential I feel a bit betrayed. If complicated cases where explained better and human element was more present this would have been very interesting drama to watch this year.

I would recommend this drama to people who understand business and law, to all of you who like to watch dramas with those themes, also Kim Myung Min's fans and people who like to listen to some great voices.
If you are only looking for a romance skip this one. Romance here is in traces and not enough explored though that may be because the drama was cut short by two episodes. On the other hand too much romance would have ruined this drama.

Read More

It started really well and was quite interesting in the beginning but my interest dwindled towards the last few episodes. This drama left me with one question: What happened? It felt prematurely ended and left me a bit disappointed. It's supposed to be a drama and I had a narrative for an ending. I guess it's mainly because the last few episodes dealt with matters that were beyond my understanding: Accounts, stocks, mergers and acquisitions in legalize. Perhaps, if I was a native speaking Korean, I would be able to understand better because I can follow the conversation. As it was, there were times when the subs were coming so fast my eyes were getting strained from reading.
Anyway, there is no question as to how well KMM portrayed his role. I feel bad though that "Jeon Ji Won's "(JYH) character was not completely fleshed out. I enjoyed listening to the two arguing in court, not for the content but for their voices.
I may re-watch, perhaps, just to try and understand what al the talk was about.
This is not a drama for everyone unless you are KMM fan.

Read More