40-year old Kim Hee-ae vs. 39-year old Uhm Jung-hwa

JTBC "Secret Love Affair" and tvN "A Witch's Romance" are two age-gap romance dramas that started off at the same time.

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Kim Hee-ae is a successful career woman in her forties and Uhm Jung-hwa is a 39-year old reporter. Kim Hee-ae and Uhm Jung-hwa are so different in their dramas, it's hard to believe they are only one year apart. They are both victims of age-gap romance and they show how different it can be according to genre. "Secret Love Affair" looks into the deepest parts of the higher class society, while "A Witch's Romance" is a lighter romance comedy.

"Oh Hye-won, a career woman in her 40s, exhausted from everyday life".

Oh Hye-won is the assistant minister at the Seo Han Arts Foundation. She is part of the high income family who makes over 100 million won per year; however, she's not as fancy as everyone thinks her to be. She has to play along with her superiors who can't stand each other and has to take care of all kinds of personal errands, occasionally doing the dirty work. She knows that her job pays for her nice house and car, so she can't complain.

Unfortunately, Oh Hye-won's private life is even worse. Despite her nice skin and body, her husband Kang Joon-hyeon (Park Hyuk-kwon) isn't attracted to her. He is the past lover of her friend and superior Yeong-woo but Hae-won and her husband have a stronger bond towards work rather than intimacy. Oh Hye-won has never been in a proper relationship, even in her twenties, as she has been too busy studying music in an insufficient environment.

Therefore, a relationship with a younger man fulfills her. Lee Seon-jae (Yoo Ah-in) is the innocence and passion she had forgotten. She's right in the middle of a corruption but now she can think about the music that she loved when she was younger and can be in the middle of a romance that she always thought had belonged to someone else. Oh Hye-won is a stone cold woman who didn't break down in front of a wealthy chairman who tried to seduce her.

The relationship between Hae-won and Seon-jae is forbidden in so many ways but it's an everyday thrill for her.

"Unmarried, breaking news reporter named Ban Ji-yeon".

Ban Ji-yeon is a successful career woman who finds breaking news like it's her life goal. She gets paid a lot, has a bad temper, and is lonely. She's the perfect example of a typical spinster (unmarried older woman). It doesn't matter how hard she works in romantic comedies. She runs off with a stolen bike and even breaks into a school wearing a uniform.

Ban Ji-yeon imagines herself being found at home, stone-cold dead and bullied by her younger colleagues who claim she's hysterical. She drinks alone at a street stall and becomes pressured by her mother to get married.

As a result, Ban Ji-yeon's fantasy with a younger man satisfies her. Yoon Dong-ha (Park Seo-joon) is a man who suddenly enters her life by saving her face in an almost embarrassing moment and stands by her side when she's drunk. In his handsome existence, everything about Ban Ji-yeon is now complete. Dong-ha has a safety measure for backup, as he's a undergraduated medical student.

The most trustable thing about all of this is Uhm Jung-hwa's acting, of course. Even though she's a spinster, she could be different given the great reviews from her past movies. Anticipation is rising although it's only been the first few episodes.