Thoughts on Protect the Boss, or…Workplace Ethics? What Workplace Ethics?

Having finished another drama, it’s time for another recap. I’ll say up front that this drama underwhelmed me. Perhaps after the thrill ride that was City Hunter it just seemed like a bit of a letdown, or perhaps it just didn’t click with me. Either way, I’ll share my observations.

Plot

No Eun-Seol is a former “bad girl” who spent most of her life making trouble, getting into fights and not doing well in school. However, she manages to land herself a job as the secretary for Cha Ji-Heon, the notoriously difficult son of a conglomerate owner. Ji-Heon only works for the company due to his father, because he’s otherwise ineffective as an executive. His father, a stern man with a short fuse, wants Ji-Heon to succeed him as chairman, but due to several factors the father is unaware of, including anxiety disorders and emotional baggage, Ji-Heon has fallen short of expectations.

Eun-Seol has two qualities that make her the perfect fit for the secretary job: She’s a tough cookie and she needs the money. She’s willing to put up with Ji-Heon’s antics on account of the latter quality, and she’s able to keep him in line on account of the former quality. It isn’t long before Ji-Heon falls in love with her, however, and their relationship takes on a whole new dimension.

Also complicating the storyline is Ji-Heon’s cousin Moo-Won, who also works at the company, is much more competent than him, and is competing for his position. He takes a liking to Eun-Seol as well, as does she to him, but Ji-Heon’s possessiveness makes it hard for her to pursue any relationship with him. A childhood friend of the two cousins, Na-Yoon, also factors into the story, as she hopes to marry one of them.

Writing and Acting

It was passable, as it usually is in these dramas. I thought the actor playing Ji-Heon could’ve been better at times, although he was usually good. Na-Yoon and her mother were both a bit hammy, but that may have been how their characters were intended.

As for the writing, the more I watch these dramas, the more frequently I notice repetitions of certain words and phrases. The characters have certain stock phrases that get used all the time, but they aren’t really catchphrase-ish. I wonder if it’s just lazy writing.

There were occasionally moments that made me emotional, but they only happened near the end at really pivotal moments. The constant back and forth in this drama wore on me pretty quickly, and I was often too disinterested to really care about what happened.

The ending was good, though it was another one of those dramas where the last few episodes had sort of a rushed feel to them, because they were trying to wrap everything up. I was glad they told us what happened to the supporting characters, because as I believe I’ve mentioned in previous write-ups, it seems like there are often loose threads I wish they’d tie up regarding the supporting characters. The way they relayed the information though, seemed kind of shoehorned in.

Music

Country music isn’t that popular in Korea as far as I know, as it’s a pretty distinctly Anglophonic genre. The only countries I know of where they listen to it are the U.S., Canada and Australia. However, one recurring piece of incidental music had a fiddle in it, and the background songs included selections from The Zac Brown Band and The Eagles. It seems there must’ve been a country fan on the musical staff.

Here are the songs I was able to identify (in part thanks to the Shazam app):

Eric Clapton – Wonderful Tonight
Girls Day – Twinkle Twinkle (Eun-Seol imagines singing and dancing to this song while she’s bored at the job interview)
Hyuna – Bubble Pop
Sarah McLachlan – Building a Mystery
Manhattan Transfer – Java Jive
Zac Brown Band – Knee Deep
Earth, Wind and Fire – Boogie Wonderland
김수희 – 남행열차
린 – 잘 알지도 못하면서
2NE1 – Don’t Cry
The Eagles – Best of My Love
이적 – 다행이다
허영생 - 슬픈 노래는
At a noraebang, Na-Yoon sang what sounded like a Korean version of “I Will Survive.”
신성우 – 서시
성시경 – 넌 감동이었어
백지영 – 잊지말아요
Brian – 못가요
Fleetwood Mac – Don’t Stop
휴우 – 너 때문에
A Pink – Let Us Just Love
Chris-DeBurgh – Here is Your Paradise
동물원 – 널 사랑하겠어
재중 – 지켜줄게

Some of these songs were sung by the characters, while others were just in the background. Also, I’m pretty sure several of these songs are unique to the soundtrack of this drama. It’s common for dramas to have songs specially-made for them. The last song on that list is sung by “재중,” which is actually Kim Jae-Joong, the actor who played Moo-Won. Jae-Joong is a member of a popular boy band, so it figures he can sing. For what it's worth, I thought he was a pretty good actor too.

Moo-Won’s ringtone was “Brotherhood of Man,” just like Eun-Seob’s on Spring Day. It must be popular in Korea or something.

In one scene two characters were in a coffee shop and a piano version of “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” was playing in the background. I don’t know why. It wasn’t Christmas.

English

Here are the words and phrases I heard (that I don’t offhand remember hearing in previous dramas):

Smart, supermodel, freedom cash, Ivy League, golden brand, hegemony, grooming, leadership, kickboxing, elite, fresh, X-man, intranet, slam dunk, tissue, noblesse oblige, stop, Botox, testosterone, estrogen, serotonin, cute, ninja (OK, not really an English word, but still), sunglasses, season, business, positioning, prince, wrestler, trauma, yes, reception, curriculum, superhero, trend, “yeah baby!”, goodnight kiss, “Isn’t She Lovely?”, relax, simple, event, rush time, whipping cream, “bye bye,” risk, consortium, application, happy, cross line, business, percent, coffee experience, “go ahead,” update, nightmare, client-friendly, “dumb and dumber,” campus, opening, sample, massage, eye mask, blockbuster, academy, “new resident,” penguin, soulmate, pass (Korean people annoyingly use this word), headhunter, scout, software, upgrade, marketing team, proposal, incubating.

Eun-Seol’s friend wore a shirt in one scene that said: “LIFE: SNOOPY of the 1970s.” I have no idea what the meaning of that is.

In one scene, Ji-Heon and Eun-Seol speak English to each other and it made me laugh out loud, because there were parts that were hard to understand. At least they’re aware of it, because Eun-Seol comments afterward “your pronunciation sounds as bad as mine.”

You can see the English portion of that scene in this video, at about 2:12 to 2:44:

There were other uses of English too, such as Ji-Heon singing the song “Isn’t She Lovely?”, Eun-Seol’s English teacher speaking it to her, and secretaries speaking it.

Other Observations

I saw some more repeat actors:

A doctor early on was one of the actors from City Hunter, but I don’t think he was in any episode but the first one.

Ji-Heon’s first secretary was Il-Sook’s husband in Unexpected You. The actor’s name is Kim Hyeong-Beom, and a look at his credits says he was apparently also in Lovers in Paris, though it must’ve been a small role, because I don’t remember him.

This drama’s subtitles seemed to be less literal and more simply rendered, which made some of the dialogue seem dull and straightforward. Often the subtitles made it seem like they were saying less than they actually were.  At one point I even caught a joke that the subtitlers completely left out.

Moo-Won abruptly changed hairstyles in the middle of an episode, which was kind of silly, because I wasn’t even sure it was him when I first saw him with the new hairstyle. I guess being in a boyband means you have to work around the look they give you.

The two lead actors (for Eun-Seol and Ji-Heon) were born in 1977, and it definitely gave the drama a strange feeling at times. This drama was from 2011, so they were both about 34 when it was made. The character of Ji-Heon was supposed to be in his late 20’s, and he actually looked the part. Presumably though, Eun-Seol is about the same age, and it was clear to me that she was noticeably older. They actually seemed to make her look younger as the series went on, because in the early episodes her face is definitely not of the young and fresh variety.

Jae-Joong (the guy who played Moo-Won, if you’re confused by all these Korean names) was born in 1986, making him 9 years younger than the two leads. His pursuit of Eun-Seol seemed a little absurd when you consider the age difference.

As I noted with Lovers in Paris, sometimes there were ambiguous potential sexual encounters. It’s strongly suggested that two of the characters sleep together at two different points, but it’s never definitively stated. I’m pretty sure they were supposed to have done it both times, but they have the tact not to go into graphic detail.

The main reason I chose this drama was because I saw a message board thread where someone said it was extremely funny. I figured I’d laugh frequently, because hey, who doesn’t enjoy a good laugh? While there were definitely some funny parts, I laughed a lot less frequently and boisterously than I was expecting. Considering how much Three Dads, One Mom made me laugh, I know that dramas are capable of much better humor.

A big problem I had with it is that I didn’t feel much emotional connection to the characters. They just seemed like people doing stuff, but I didn’t care all that much what happened to them. I mean, I wanted them to succeed and all, but just in a general sense of caring for one’s fellow man, not any personal involvement. Often when they slowed it down and focused on the romantic storylines, my mind would wander because I just wasn’t all that interested in who ended up with whom.

As I mentioned before, the character of Na-Yoon was a bit hammy. I suppose it added humor to have a character like that, but because she was portrayed more clownishly than realistically, it created a barrier to empathy. She seemed like a character that was only there to laugh at, so when they showed her crying or genuinely sad, it was hard to suddenly see her as a real person who we were supposed to relate to.

The scenes that moved me the most involved Ji-Heon’s father, Cha Bong-Man. The older I get, the more I appreciate the bond parents have with their children, and I become more aware of the way one’s view of the world changes with age. Chairman Cha was perhaps the most interesting character to me, because he had been rich and powerful most of his life, and the questionable and downright unethical things he had done over the years were finally catching up with him. His realizations that he needed to change his ways and also be more understanding of his son perhaps affected me the most.

Another character that I really appreciated was Mr. Jang, Chairman Cha’s secretary. Mr. Jang took a lot of abuse from his boss, but he remained fiercely loyal to him, and did his best to serve him. It was clear how much Chairman Cha actually appreciated him underneath it all, because he knew how difficult he was to his employees. There was something touching about Mr. Jang’s humility.

Final Thoughts

Protect the Boss is not a bad drama. It had high production values, and was acceptably written and acted, but of all the dramas I’ve seen, I probably got the least out of watching it. I’ve long put Spring Day at the bottom of my rankings, but thinking back on that one, as mediocre as it was, I feel like I was more invested in it than I was this one. Besides that, I think I was able to glean some insight into Korean culture from it, as I detailed in a past post. Bottom of the list, you’ve got a new occupant.

1. Beethoven Virus

2. City Hunter

3. Unexpected You

4. Three Dads, One Mom

5. Lovers in Paris

6. Hwang Jin-Yi

7. Spring Day

8. Protect the Boss