Rich man, poor woman? Stupid boy and dancing whale. Remakes are rarely credible, but let’s drop stereotypes and talk about the drama itself. Yes, "Rich Man" is a remake of the almost eponymous Japanese series "Rich Man, Poor Woman". The first thing that confuses the viewer in both cases is the inconsistency of the content with the title. The fact is that these dramas do not even talk about the social inequality of the characters. Yes, he is rich, yes, she is not rich, but this does not affect the development of the plot at all (compared to the same “Heirs” or “Flowers after berries”).
If we talk about the beginning, it is quite intriguing. Before us from the threshold there are at least three mysteries: Where did the main character's mother go? Who's Kim Bong Hong? How does Kim Bo Ra know the president? And this intrigue, I must say, holds interest for quite a long time. This is the reason why the first half of the drama is simply swallowed in a volley (and so quickly that you do not even have time to taste it).
Characters. Dry, who played the president of Next In Li Yoo Chan. Let's be honest, he may be a boy, he may be a boy, but he's not a man yet. Only once you look into these innocent, carefree and angelic eyes, you cease to believe in his dramatic and hopeless history of the past, in his genius and depth of mind. It cannot be said that the actor failed in his task. Dryho squeezed himself like a lemon to show us all he could do. But it's not his role. The writers tried to adapt the character to the actor, throwing jokes and focusing on the manner of the hero’s behavior, creating, again, a comic effect. But behind these attempts, Lee Yoo Chan himself is lost: who now agrees to believe that this naive and behaving like a boy, not showing his mental abilities (even in the form of subtle and sharp phrases) man is the president of a large company? This discrepancy between the actor and the hero as if was intended to correct "the best in the whole universe Kim Bo Ra" ( Ha Yong Soo). If God doesn’t exist, who is it that these two are the main characters? They look very harmonious on the screen, just cute kittens. In the event that they starred together in some light and unobtrusive youth drama, they would get all 10 out of 10. Let’s talk about the most controversial character – Ming Tae-ju (O Chang-suk). Above all, the actor impressed more than the hero (as with many in this drama). Masterful reincarnation. Oh Jang Suk, using his charisma, was able to breathe life into the character and make him remember himself.
Plot. This is the weakest and most vulnerable part of the Rich Man. Yes, you can watch because of the actors, because of the genres, because of the love for the Japanese original, because of the hitiness of the drama among the ongoings, and even because of the love for EXO, but it still will not save you from involuntary yawns at the screen in a bad scenario. Trust in the characters finally disappears somewhere after 9 episodes, revealing intrigue and resolving conflicts with originality do not shine. It is interesting that the director of the drama Kim Du Shik stated as follows: I think that the original story lacks a love story and a love triangle. Yeah, and for some reason I think that no triangle is better than such a banal, clichéd and superficial, which we saw in “Rich Man”. “There were also a lot of moments in the Japanese version that didn’t work properly, so I was working on it.” I will leave this phrase without comment.
Conclusions: The best thing that was in this drama was a whale dance performed by Kim Bo Ra. It's just as crazy but cute as anything we saw on the screen.