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Pierce Conran

This article contains mild spoilers.
Lead cast: Park Hyung-sik, Huh Joon-ho, Lee Hae-young, Hong Hwa-yeon
Latest Nielsen rating: 8.1 per cent
Seo Dong-ju, played by ZE:A K-pop boy band member Park Hyung-sik (Happiness), has it all.
He is the young and dashing executive director of the powerful Daesan Group, reporting to its chairman, Cha Kang-cheon (Woo Hyeon, Alchemy of Souls), for whom he confidently performs any task no matter how complicated. In short, he has the smarts and the smart suits.
Dong-ju also has a very happy personal life.


He lives with the beautiful artist Yeo Eun-nam (Hong Hwa-yeon, Mental Coach Jegal), and the pair like to spend their time sharing candlelight baths and professing their undying love for one another.
Since it is far too early in a series for everything to be on the up and up, we patiently wait for the other shoe to drop – and it is not a long wait.
But before we get there, let us step back and look at Dong-ju’s work environment. Kang-cheon adores him, treating him like a son.
Dong-ju is the only person besides the chairman who knows the combination to his secret safes. The walk-in one at the corporate office contains mountains of cash and gold bars, while the one in his home office merely holds soju – although, curiously, it is not refrigerated.

While Dong-ju is Kang-cheon’s right-hand man, there is another very important person in his orbit, who pulls strings for him behind the scenes – Yeom Jang-sun (Huh Joon-ho, Bloodhounds).
Jang-sun is a former prosecutor and National Intelligence director who acts as an influential political power broker, relaying instructions from his home in the mountains while sipping on fine wine.
Then there is Kang-cheon’s son-in-law Huh Il-do (Lee Hae-young, Bloodhounds), the CEO of Daesan Energy. He desperately seeks Kang-cheon’s approval, dreams of moving up in the company and views Dong-ju with a considerable amount of jealousy.
At the start of the show, Il-do is subpoenaed for National Assembly hearings. Thanks to Dong-ju and Jang-sun’s work behind the scenes, Daesan Energy emerges from the investigation unscathed.

When Il-do returns home, he is delighted to receive a congratulatory bottle of champagne from the chairman.
Since they all live in the same private compound, he brings over the bottle and two flutes to celebrate with his father-in-law, only to find Dong-ju already preparing soju in the chairman’s office.
The type of alcohol associated with each of these characters is significant. While high-quality drinks such as wine and whisky are increasingly popular and accessible in South Korea, they are still symbols of social mobility.
While this will vary depending on context, generally speaking characters in K-dramas who drink cheap Korean alcohol are honest, salt-of-the-earth types, while consumers of pricey foreign alcohol are either vain or calculating.

Kang-cheon’s penchant for soju, despite his immense wealth, makes him relatable. Meanwhile, Il-do, with the champagne bottle he covets, is positioned as a vain character, while wine aficionado Jang-sun is the dangerous puppet master.
Dong-ju, who shares soju with Kang-cheon, falls somewhere in between, as he shares wine with his girlfriend at home, a symbol of his ambition and personal desire.
The shoe drops for Dong-ju when he attends the wedding of Kang-cheon’s granddaughter to Jang-sun’s slimy prosecutor nephew. He had earlier considered courting her to assure his future at Daesan, until he was swept off his feet by Eun-nam.
Dong-ju’s world falls apart when he discovers that Kang-cheon’s granddaughter and Eun-nam are one and the same. His romantic despair is compounded by a career crisis when Jang-sun attempts to have him pushed out of Daesan.
Eun-nam’s behaviour makes no sense to Dong-ju, but he is not privy to the same information we as viewers receive in the show’s cold open – a corpse floating on a raft wearing a watch that Eun-nam gave to Dong-ju.

Il-do is Eun-nam’s stepfather, and all signs point to there having been foul play in her father’s death. Her loveless marriage is surely a ploy in a broader revenge scheme.
Buried Hearts is a fairly stylish show that plays confidently with the trappings and signifiers of wealth, and each member of the cast is well matched to their familiar character types.
Park and Hong do their best to sell the romance early on, but are not wholly successful. This is down to the clunky staging of some scenes, particularly the unconvincing flashbacks of how they met and instantly fell in love.
Following a dramatic, if uneven, start with effective yet simplistic metaphors, we should expect lots of twists and back-stabbing in this romantically tinged tale of corporate deceit and the hunger for power.
Buried Hearts is streaming on Disney+.


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ZE:A’s Park Hyung-sik plays a man who sees his world fall apart as his private and working lives collide in unexpected ways in this K-drama


ZE:A’s Park Hyung-sik plays a man who sees his world fall apart as his private and working lives collide in unexpected ways in this K-drama.


Disney+ K-drama Buried Hearts: Park Hyung-sik slicks up for corporate mystery-thriller

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}ZE:A’s Park Hyung-sik plays a man who sees his world fall apart as his private and working lives collide in unexpected ways in this K-drama

ZE:A’s Park Hyung-sik plays a man who sees his world fall apart as his private and working lives collide in unexpected ways in this K-drama