Temptation Korean Drama Review

It’s been a while since I watched this drama called Temptation. Maybe because I didn’t like it so much that I took so long in writing the review. I have to tell you, I was frustrated to read viewers comments of it. Most of all, after realizing that I had a complete opposite view of the entire plot. This usually happens, but in this case, it was just complete opposite conclusions.

I also took a long time to decide to finally watch it. This genre is not one of my favorites. On the counterpart the female lead is usually great in her role picks so, I gave it a try.

After I started watching I really couldn’t stop. Not because it was a nice drama to watch, but because I wanted it to be over as soon as possible. Sadly as the episodes passed by, the troubles just kept on adding on and on.

Synopsis of Temptation

Cha Suk Hoon and Na Hong Joo are a married couple that go through financial hardships. The reason is that they entrusted all their money to a close friend that lost it. When they travel to Hong Kong to try to solve this issue, they accidentally meet Yoo Se Young. This lady is a powerful business chaebol woman who is business traveling over there. They also meet Kang Min Woo, Se Young’s competitor in business and a womanizer.

They go through so many troubles that they asume everything (economically speaking) is lost. That’s when Na Hong Joo decides to commit suicide leaving a letter behind. When she jumps into the sea, it will be Se Young who saves her.

Se Young and Suk Hoon have a past together. It isn’t anything romantic, but they both remember each other back in time. The meeting took place when he tried to apply for a job at Se Young’s company and got rejected.

Having saved his wife’s life, she now asks for a retribution asking him to spend time with her. For that time she will pay him a huge amount of money, which he obviously needs. Hong Joo, totally forgetting that she almost died, now makes his husband decide wether to stay with this woman (imagining her intentions) or go back to Seoul.

He decides to stay, in order to solve all their financial issues. The time Se Young asks from him, is in order to act as an assistance of hers. But of course, his wife doesn’t know that and that time, with this strange and mysterious woman, can be hard to bare.

Everything will start when they all go back to their lives back in Seoul and try to get back the pieces of something that was always broken.

Starring in Temptation Korean Drama

Choi Ji Woo

Star’s Lover, The Suspicious Housekeeper, The Actresses

Is Yoo Se Young, an apparently cold woman that only thinks of money and business. Her true nature is really far away from that, in fact the only thing she could leave everything for is love and someone who loves her truly, because that’s all she never had.

Kwon Sang Woo

Bad Love, Queen of Ambition, Medical Top Team

Plays Cha Suk Hoon, a truly smart business consultant that made a bad investment with a friend and ends up loosing all his savings. He’s married to Na Hong Joo, who he thinks is a supportive and lovely wife. Destiny will prove otherwise with time.

Park Ha Sun

Two Weeks, Ad Genius Lee Tae Baek, Love Clinique

Is Na Hong Joo, a woman that has everything she needs in life, except money, and of course, that’s all she wants. When she finds out her husband lost everything they had, she tries to commit suicide. Later on, when her husband stops trying to make up for what she thinks was his mistake, she will try to get revenge over jealousy.

Lee Jung Jin

Pieta, A Hundred Year’s Inheritance, Love on Air

Is  Kang Min Woo, a powerful business chaebol who’s actually Se Young’s first competitor. He will try to win Hong Joo’s love through his recently acknowledged son. He’s a despicable human being that usually gets what he wants, but at least he doesn’t hide his true nature.

Also starring in Temptation Korean Drama: Kim So Young, Kim Seong Kyeom, Hong Yeo Jin, Joo Jin Mo, Kim Tae Hoon & Choi Il Hwa, among many others.

The following video is not a trailer but includes highlights of the first episode. This is the starting point in the story. It’s only 8 minutes long, so you can get a small preview of what this drama will be about. Everything that you can watch here, happens in the first episode. So basically there aren’t big spoilers.

Conclusions of Temptation

If you want to watch a depressing as hell drama, then go for it. Don’t expect the characters to act like they should. They will do the complete opposite, and complain about the hard lives the others make them suffer. Even tho they do nothing for themselves and whatever hardships they find in their lives, are they own karma consequences.

Its a drama that portraits how some people don’t realize that what they have is all they need. And that their actual life is precious enough to be worth the hardships life puts ahead for them.

It’s a almost cliché drama with the “money doesn’t make you happy” premise. Except from some really sad and despairing turning points, I’m not really sure if I would recommend it blindly. There are too many business dirty tricks involved, and not many of them are out of the ordinary.

There are also too many twist and turns that feel the same, without surprises. For a drama this long, you need to have many things to tell to keep everyone interested. Watch it at your own discretion, but it won’t be a turning point in life, that’s for sure.