Temptation is a show you will either love or absolutely hate. There is no in between, and i generally believe that, this is the case with controversial stories like this one. People don't necessarily hate the drama, but what the drama presents. If there is one thing this drama does right, that is that it makes you want to watch, you cannot stop! Take a moment and think, how many people rated this drama with a 1.0. I, for one, when i hate something i drop it, but no, people stuck with it and watched it all, and even bothered to write several hate reviews (big ones). Before you rush to rage-dislike my review, since you hated the drama because of its nature, give my thoughts a go. We live in free countries, don't we? STORY The story talks about extramarital affairs. It doesn't say that they are good, and everyone should have one, no. It doesn't defend cheaters, no, not at all. Affairs are situations that happen, life isn't about pink rainbows where hot cute chaebol men with abs and hidden psycological issues but big hearts live and wait for a cute girl to love forever. No. Life is shitty and it hurts, and can go from being absolutely perfect to being absolutely hurtful and miserable. The drama also talks about money: 'Money can, indeed, buy everything. How much are you worth for?'. This is an idea that circled my mind many times while watching. Can money make you really happy?. The show generally posses the notion of MONEY VS MORALS. Which one will win? The answer may seem easy, but in reality it may not be! Lastly, the main idea of the show is Happiness. Life's goal should be happiness. What i understood from watching the drama was: 'Do whatever the fuck you need to do in order for you to be happy'. There is no shame in trying to be happy. Have you heard the proverb: 'The end justifies the means'?. Ok now, you can hate me, i kind of hate myself because i know this is wrong, but i believe it and the drama obviously believes it too (no don't rage-dislike the review yet, i talk a lot) Firstly, i'll judge the shitty description. What an awful description, whoever wrote it hated the show himself lol. What the description says, happens and finishes in the first 2 episodes. The drama wants to show what happens after that. Also the 'submission' part, the description throws in there, doesn't even happen. The description lets everything in the air, give you a very vague and misleading idea of what the drama is about. The affair, barely ever happens, never gets physical and doesn't include any type of 'submission'. I, myself, was expecting some heavy sexual stuff happening, but nothing like that happens, at all! The show basically has 2 goals: 1. (delivered in the first half) how can a loving marriage break down in a few minutes because of DOUBTS! Yes it can happen, love can't save everything (like rom-coms make us think), love isn't enough, and love isn't forever. Even if the affair never really happened, all it takes for someone's trust to be destroyed are a few moments of doubts, and everything crumbles down like it is nothing! Amazing, yet so true! Goal 2. Can't a person love a different person? No? Because they were married that is it? I am against adultery by all means, of course i am, but everyone is raving about love and how beautiful it is, but love isn't one-sided, like: i love YOU, it's YOU it will always be YOU. Yes, we all want that YOU to be forever, but sometimes, it isn't. Should we be forever depressed if that love with the YOU doesn't work? Or should we try to be happy once again? SECOND CHANCES, thats what i understood from the 2nd half of the show: second chances! Happiness is in our hands, if it didn't work the first time, we can either stay at home cursing our life (what i do every day), or go out there and try again! Is my thinking unrealistic? Do you hate me right now? Yes, i do that to people :P To be completely and utterly honest, i have nothing bad to say about the show lol (if there was any shred of compassion, i just lost it, didn't i? xD). The drama is heavily based on the characters, it only goes forward based on the character decisions and actions. There is no backstory, no huge revealings, no plot twists. This is about the characters and how they cope with difficult situations like adultery! I am saying this just so you know what kind of show this is. One can argue that the show is boring, i cannot argue with that. Temptation was one of those shows, that had me constantly at the edge of my chair as i wanted to see what the characters will do next. What will they choose, how will they react to what was thrown at them! You need to be a fan of this kind of thing, not everyone is one, thats why i can describe the drama like, more of an elitist show than an inclusive one. The drama targets a select few that like this genre, and if you are a fan you won't be dissapointed! I want to mention that one thing that shocked me. It was the honesty of the characters. Honesty, as in, their actions, and everything bad or good that comes with that. Example: I want your man, girl, i really want him, i'll come up straight in your face and say it, i don't even care if you are married! Surely this is wrong, but still wow... Another example: I see you have your ex-wife's wedding ring on the counter, you obviously have feelings for her, so i feel bad and leave. I don't keep it inside because i want to torment the viewers. I go straight up to you and ask you, DO YOU HAVE FEELINGS FOR YOUR EX WIFE?! HELL TO THE YES PEOPLE. Yas, thank you writers, thank you for making the characters real ADULTS for once who know how to adress their misunderstandings! Oh! One last thing! Usually when i see melodramas, i except some heavy crying. The show is bubbed a melodrama, but i barely cried in the 20 episodes (and i cry waaaaaay too easily). So don't worry about this being a tear-jerker, it is not. CHARACTERS The show is character driven, so i will give the characters a special section in this review. Potential spoilers ahead, read at your own discretion. (scrap that, heavy spoilers ahead, skip this part if you haven't watched, i just really need to talk about the characters) CHA SEOK HOON. He is your average hero. He was great and i loved him. I read some cute comments that he is selfish and values money too much. People apparently didn't watch the full show, or didn't understand or were dead set on hating. Let me start by saying, if you were in debt of 1 million dollars, and a nice lady one day said she'd take you to work for her for 3 days and she will pay off your debt, but you just can't contact your wife while doing so, what would you have done? Say, buh bye bitch, i want to take my jail time, i love jail! Shove your money up your *** and jail ftw! If you have such great values, great, good for you, i am a pitiful person that would take the deal, and start fresh without a debt. I don't think his decision was selfish, *other decisions were selfish by other characters, that really wanted us to pity them*!! He believed his wife will understand and not make a fuss of things. Ok he might had been wrong, of course his wife didn't, and ok this is understandable, and he freaking tried like crazy to make this work. It didn't work obviously, his marriage fell apart, but, do i have to hate him for wanting to move on? Really? No, i cannot hate someone who wants to be happy, he never cheated! He tried to make this work, and it didn't so he moves on! 10/10 He was a great character for me, definately someone to look up to, i found myself saying 'Thats my boy' and 'Thats my man' several times during the show. A staightfroward guy, who sees what he wants, he isn't afraid to fight for it! The only minor problem i had with him, was that in the first half, he obviously doesn't want a divorce but he always finds himself on that other woman's steps. Its not that he wanted an affair, he was forward about that, but he cared for her. I cannot really blame him for caring, i do want to believe his feelings were pure, but it did seem that his marriage was over from his part too, even if he wanted to try. Still he adressed everything right and he was noble. YOO SE YOUNG. Such a complicated character, and what a character development as well! She starts as the main 'evil' of the show, and ends up as the anti-hero. I never hated her, i mostly tried to understand why she did what she did, but i ended up rooting for her SO much, i was shocked at my self! A very closed-shut down person, that has never been loved, never loved anyone, a workaholic that hates lovey dovey couples. Is that unrealistic? I have met people like that in real life, and i am afraid i am turning into one! What she wanted was to test their seemingly perfect love. Did she have a right to do that? No, but she did. Why she did? Because she was a cord hearted rich bitch! Yeah why not? Why can people accept hot chaebol guys falling for poor girls, but not this? Anyway, what she did was wrong, but i wasn't ready to hate her.To be honest what she really wanted was the other woman's life. She wanted to be loved deep inside. So she did what she did in order to prove to herself that her way of living is the right way... that hateful and resenting way. However she found herself falling in love. Yes she was selfish and evil... Yet, she grows up so much, she opens up, she gets loved and she loves back for the first time in her life, and understands how wrong she was. I rooted for her i loved her, i hope that she is happy right now, and i am not even sorry that i loved her that much! I can understand how rooting for her is wrong somehow, but still i don't regret it. NA HONG JOO. Probably the most important character in the show. She actually reminded of the main evil guy in Secret. The way she devolves, and then realises what she has become.... I read some very very cute comments about how the writers hated her and how they apparently hated women, lol. Secret will forever be the most shovinistic kdrama, temptation has no shit on secret in that department (yes i want some hate, i reaaaaaly want some hate)! She started as a nice woman, seemingly sefless, ready to die for her husband, but from the starting point, she was so selfish! She decides she can't trust her husband after everything. Yes, of course girl, i am 100% with you. And then she wants a divorce, YAS GIRL, I WOULD HAVE DONE THE SAME!!! And then she wants him to sit on his couch, and cry his life away, as she does the same... lol... no! And on top of that, she blames him when he tries to be happy again, and makes her life's goal to destroy him... why? Why do you want to victimize yourself girl? because you cannot accept that he is happy again? Girl, my sweet, sweet, selfish girl! YOU kicked him out! YOU decided your marriage was over, and oh! he fought for you! Now, go your separate ways. Live your life for YOU! The 2nd half of the show made me hate her, while i was rooting for her in the 1st half. She was selfish, she made her bed for what happened in her life, and i couldn't feel bad for her! However, her character felt amazing, she was very emotionally driven, and yet all her actions felt so damn realistic! I loved how even at the end, she decided to grow up, even a little! KANG MIN WOO. I still haven't figured out if he was an evil or a good person. I guess the answer is somewhere in between. He wasn't either of that, he was just selfish. I mean every character was selfish as people are selfish in real life, but he was exceptionally selfish, the type that makes you wanna vomit, you definately know the type. He was your average cheater, he was so full of himself, so over-confident, it made me wanna puke. He said at some point: 'if i wanted you, i would have made you want me first!'. I mean where do they teach that? Is there a school that teaches that? I really need to enroll there. Or is it something, like a prilivege that only hot rich guys have?! I was so amazed at how he had some moments, where i felt like: 'aw there is hope for him' and then he literally turned them all around, and there was nothing left but hate. He got exactly what he deserved, he wasn't even evil, but believe me between absolute selfishness and evilness, i vote evilness! As i already said the drama was very character driven, all the decisions and actions made sense, to me at least, i loved all the characters in their own way, with their flaws, even Min Woo, i liked him and hated him with his weird personality! The characters here could have been better, a little more *deep* maybe, but overall the characterization was good. ACTING KWON SANG WOO. He was great, he was a great leading man, i loved him, he was emotional, very charming, he has great expressions, especially with his eyes! CHOI JIN WOO. Whoah! Girl, knows her shit! I loved her, she pulled off the bitchy attidute greatly, and her character development felt very real. She never lost that independency that she had, she just became more humane by the time as she fell in love. She expressed that perfectly. The 2 actors' chemistly is possibly the best i've seen in kdramas thus far. Like WOAH!! PARK HA SUN. As i already said, her character maybe was the most important, and while she was good, she could have been better. her role could have renevated the drama a lot, and she wasn't good enough, she left most of that part to CJW whose character has to be hated. She was alright, she just felt small, not only in front of the older actors, but in her role overall, she felt small. She definately needs to work on her crying, i felt nothing while she was crying. LEE JUNG JIN. He was great, and completely on par with KSS's performance, which is commendable, usually 2nd leading males fall short in front of the leading males. He was great, and he made me doubt about whether he was evil or not, a lot, when he would have been easily hated! RECOMMEND/REWATCH Would i recommend it? Well, no! Because i cannot accept any more 1.0s lol! :P In all honesty, however, this is a show to be watched by open minded people (no offence to anyone), and also by people who like character driven shows, to avoid the boring thing i said earlier. If you like watching people handle difficult situations, potentialy love, hate, get angry and bare with the characters, root for them, want them dead ect and don't expect backstories and plot twists, you will most definately enjoy this! This is definately not a show for everyone, so i wouldn't recommend it easily, no! Would i rewatch it? Yes, and no. While the first part was slightly slower (it had to be, a marriage doesn't break up in 2 episodes), the 2nd was a roller coaster imo. Still the show was kind of difficult to watch. I wouldn't rewatch it myself alone, but i'd definately rewatch it with someone else, mostly to discuss what happens here! I'd like to end this, rather long review, by laughing in everyone's, who said that 'This drama is for the home wreckers and the cheaters', face. Lol People, really? Am i a home wrecker now that i liked this drama? Lol, i will definately add this to my resume! I am not sure who was superficial and shallow in the very end, the show itself, or the people who watched it?! Ok, now you can rage-dislike this review all you want! Kisses from cheater's hell!