Buried Hearts had everything on paper: a gripping premise about a man who hacks a 2 trillion won political slush fund before being murdered and losing his memory, Park Hyung-sik in his darkest role yet, a writer known for the critically acclaimed Money Flower, and all the classic makjang ingredients—secret births, betrayal, generational trauma, chaebol dysfunction, and cliff accidents.
What it delivered instead was a drama that started strong, stumbled through the middle, and face-planted into one of the most polarizing endings of 2025. With a 7.4 on IMDb but deeply divided viewer reactions ranging from “best drama of the year” to “complete waste of time,” Buried Hearts is the textbook definition of wasted potential.
Here’s the brutal truth: Park Hyung-sik gave a career-defining performance that deserved a better script, better pacing, and a much better ending. This is a drama where viewers will stay for Park Hyung-sik’s phenomenal portrayal of cold, calculating revenge but leave frustrated by everything else that surrounded it.
The Premise: Money, Memory, and Murder
Seo Dong-ju (Park Hyung-sik) is a secretive corporate secretary who successfully hacks into a two trillion won political slush fund—the kind of money that controls elections, politicians, and entire industries. It’s his insurance policy, his ticket to survival, his leverage against the powerful.
Enter Yeom Jang-seon (Huh Joon-ho), a law school professor and former National Intelligence Service director who is the puppet master of South Korean politics. Yeom is the type of man who feels alive only when controlling everyone like marionettes, wielding money and power without conscience or remorse.
When Yeom discovers someone has accessed the fund, he orders Dong-ju killed. In a brutal sequence, Dong-ju is literally driven off a cliff. But he survives—barely—with one critical complication: complete memory loss. The money is hacked, but only Dong-ju knows where it is, and he can’t remember anything.
Yeom realizes his fatal mistake and switches tactics: instead of killing Dong-ju, he needs to keep him alive and recover his memories to reclaim the stolen fortune. What follows is a cat-and-mouse game of manipulation, memory recovery, revenge plots, and corporate warfare, all while Dong-ju slowly pieces together who he was—and what was taken from him.
Complicating everything is Yeo Eun-nam (Hong Hwa-yeon), a woman with her own revenge agenda who’s connected to both Dong-ju’s past and the web of secrets surrounding the money. Their relationship—romantic, complicated, and built on betrayal—becomes one of the drama’s most contentious elements.
What Works: Park Hyung-sik’s Career-Best Performance
Let’s start with what everyone agrees on: Park Hyung-sik is phenomenal.
This might be his darkest role yet. He really had the vibe of a psychopathic killer in his darkest moments. The best thing about Buried Hearts is Park Hyung Sik—he was the antihero, cold and calculating, and seeing a whole new side of him was incredible.
Gone is the charming, warm Park Hyung-sik from Strong Girl Bong-soon or the romantic lead from Happiness. In his place is Seo Dong-ju: a man with murderous eyes, a calculating mind, and a capacity for violence that feels genuinely dangerous. When Dong-ju stares someone down, you believe he’s capable of anything.
The way Park conveys Dong-ju’s internal war—between the man he was before the memory loss and the ruthless avenger he becomes—is masterful. He plays multiple versions of the same character: the confused amnesiac, the cold strategist, the man who once loved deeply, and the killer who will sacrifice anything for revenge.
Just look at the impeccable hair on this man’s head, with each strand perfectly styled for every scene. But beyond the aesthetics (and yes, he looks dreamy), Park brings genuine depth to what could have been a one-note revenge character.
Multiple viewers noted: “He might not be considered as the best actor out there, but his performance here? So so good. I loved the Park Hyung Sik I saw in this drama. His dark vibes and murderous eyes were enough to elevate the drama’s story.”
If you watch this drama for nothing else, watch it for Park Hyung-sik proving he can carry dark, complex material with the skill of a veteran actor.
What Works: The First Half
The initial episodes are the strongest because both the ML and FL are in it together. The setup is genuinely gripping: the heist, the attempted murder, the memory loss, and the dangerous game of recovering memories while avoiding assassination all create legitimate tension.
The dialogue is excellent, the production lovely, and the OST well done. Action, drama, and comedic moments are well blended in the early episodes. The show establishes clear stakes, introduces compelling mysteries (Who is Dong-ju really? What’s Eun-nam’s connection? How will Dong-ju get revenge?), and gives viewers reasons to care.
Huh Joon-ho as Yeom Jang-seon does a remarkable job of making you hate him every episode. What’s worse is his hair is crazy too! He embodies pure villainy—the kind of antagonist you love to hate, who commits atrocities with such casual cruelty that you’re actively rooting for his downfall.
The supporting cast—including Lee Hae-young, Yoon Sang-hyeon, and Gong Ji-ho—all deliver solid performances that flesh out the world of political corruption and corporate warfare.
For the first 6-8 episodes, Buried Hearts feels like it might be something special—a taut political thriller with genuine emotional stakes and a revenge plot that matters.
Then it all starts falling apart.
What Doesn’t Work: Almost Everything Else
The Female Lead Problem
This show’s major flaw is the minimal role that Yeo Eun-nam plays in the overall narrative. The promotional images led to disappointment—they suggested an equal partnership, but as the drama progresses, the FL just drops out of the picture.
Eun-nam starts as an intriguing character with her own revenge agenda, but the drama never fully develops her. We get hints of her backstory, glimpses of her motivations, but the writing never commits to making her a fully realized character. She was never held accountable for her choices, and the writing gave her a tidy redemption arc without making her earn it.
Hong Hwa-yeon beat 100-to-1 odds to land this role, but the script gave her nothing to work with. Her acting felt flat during key emotional moments—though that’s likely more a script issue than performance.
The Betrayal That Divided Viewers
Here’s where opinions sharply diverge: Eun-nam chooses to marry someone else while in a relationship with Dong-ju as part of her revenge strategy.
For some viewers, this was an unforgivable dealbreaker. Multiple reviews stated: “I draw a hard line when it comes to cheating in any form. The fact that the FL chooses to marry someone else while being in a relationship with the ML is something I cannot get behind. Cheating is cheating, full stop.”
The drama treats this as strategic betrayal—painful but necessary for the larger revenge plot. But for viewers who can’t separate strategic marriage from emotional betrayal, this ruins the entire romance. “Even if the female lead divorces her husband and gets back together with the male lead, it doesn’t erase the damage. She chose revenge over love once—who’s to say she wouldn’t do it again?”
Others accepted it as par for the course in revenge makjang: sacrifices must be made, love gets messy, and characters do questionable things for greater goals. Your tolerance for this plot point will largely determine whether you can finish the drama.
The Story Lost Control
Honestly, it felt like nobody was in control of the story—not even the writer. It was just spiraling out of control with no clear direction. The drama leaned heavily on exaggerated tropes. We didn’t get anything new here: the usual chaebol dysfunctional family with secrets, betrayals, and secret kids.
What started as a tightly focused revenge thriller became a sprawling mess of subplots:
- Secret parentage reveals (multiple)
- Corporate power struggles
- Political corruption schemes
- Memory recovery arcs
- Romance complications
- Family dysfunction on multiple levels
- Side character revenge plots
The final quarter of the show features some messy writing. Things are wrapping up, but the drama appears to set up for a potential second season, which may or may not happen. This leads to some unusual and unexpected character shifts in hope of securing another season.
The Pacing Dragged
16 episodes all dragging towards the end. Many viewers felt the story could have been wrapped in 10 episodes. The problem isn’t solved clearly, and honestly, it can be quite boring once you reach the middle episodes.
Scenes that should have been tight and tense get stretched. Revelations that should hit hard get diluted by repetition. The middle stretch becomes a slog where you’re waiting for the plot to catch up to what you already figured out episodes ago.
Villains Faced No Real Consequences
This is one of the most frustrating aspects: Huh Il-do quite literally drove Dong-ju off a cliff, murdered his ex-lover and best friend, and spent 99% of the show embodying pure villainy. And Eun-nam’s mother? She literally had her lover killed and walked away without a hint of remorse or consequence—just moved on.
Where was the emotional payoff? Where was the justice? The drama builds these characters as monsters deserving punishment, then either gives them quick deaths without satisfaction or lets them walk away relatively unscathed.
For a revenge drama, Buried Hearts is shockingly light on meaningful revenge payoffs.
The Ending: Controversy and Disappointment
WARNING: Ending spoilers ahead
The finale is where Buried Hearts completely lost the audience. Opinions range from “fitting and poetic” to “absolute betrayal of everything the drama built.”
Here’s what happens: After 16 episodes of Dong-ju fighting to reclaim everything, building his revenge, and finally achieving his objectives, he… walks away. He worked so hard for 16 episodes only to walk away like that, dropping everything he strived so hard to achieve.
Then, in a shocking twist, Taeyun—described by viewers as “the only kind soul in the whole drama”—is murdered by his uncle in a post-credits scene that suggests future conflict.
The “It’s Poetic” Camp:
Some viewers found meaning in the ending: “When I thought back to the title Buried Hearts, I realized this is exactly what the writer wanted to convey: all the characters ended up with their hearts buried in some way. Every action has consequences, and not every ending is meant to be happy.”
The argument is that Dong-ju achieves his revenge but realizes the hollowness of it. He chooses to leave behind the world that destroyed him, sailing away with Eun-nam to find peace elsewhere. It’s open-ended, but purposefully so—life doesn’t always tie up neatly.
The “Are You Kidding Me?” Camp:
Most viewers were furious: “What kind of ending is this? He achieved his objective, got together with the girl he loved—then just sails away? What was it all for? They really thought an open-ended finale like this would make viewers happy?”
The major complaints:
- Dong-ju’s journey felt pointless if he just abandons everything
- Taeyun’s death felt cruel and unnecessarily dark
- The setup for a potential Season 2 (that may never happen) leaves too many threads dangling
- No proper closure for the main revenge plot
- Characters deserved better: “Dong-ju and Eun-nam deserved a wedding. We deserved to see their wedding.”
The Consensus:
Whether you like the ending depends on whether you value thematic consistency over narrative satisfaction. If you can accept “sometimes revenge is hollow and the real victory is walking away,” you might appreciate it. If you wanted Dong-ju to triumph, claim his empire, get married, and live happily, you’ll hate it.
One reviewer summed it up: “Such an ending to a drama that will never get a second season is unacceptable. K-drama writers often drop the ball when it comes to writing satisfying endings, and Buried Hearts is just another victim.”
Who Should Watch Buried Hearts?
Watch Buried Hearts if you:
- Are a Park Hyung-sik fan and want to see his best dramatic performance
- Enjoy political thrillers with corporate warfare
- Can tolerate messy middle sections for strong performances
- Don’t mind open-ended, ambiguous conclusions
- Appreciate dark, morally gray protagonists
- Want to see makjang tropes with higher production values
- Can accept betrayal as strategic rather than romantic dealbreaker
Skip it if you:
- Need satisfying endings with proper closure
- Can’t forgive romantic betrayal regardless of context
- Get frustrated by draggy pacing and repetitive plotting
- Want female leads with equal narrative weight
- Prefer tightly plotted revenge stories that deliver payoffs
- Need villains to face meaningful consequences
- Want romance that isn’t built on lies and strategic marriage
The Verdict: A Showcase for Park Hyung-sik, Little Else
Buried Hearts is the epitome of wasted potential. It had the cast, the budget, the premise, and the pedigree (writer of Money Flower!) to be one of 2025’s best dramas. Instead, it’s a frustrating experience where one element—Park Hyung-sik’s performance—elevates material that becomes progressively weaker as it goes.
The first half is genuinely engaging. The middle drags. The ending divides and disappoints. The female lead is underutilized. The villains don’t get proper payoffs. The romance is built on betrayal that many can’t forgive.
But Park Hyung-sik? He’s phenomenal. Every scene he’s in crackles with intensity. His transformation from confused amnesiac to cold-blooded strategist is compelling throughout. He brings nuance, danger, and surprising vulnerability to a character that could have been one-dimensional.
If Buried Hearts had focused solely on ambition, justice, and survival without dragging love into it and tainting it with betrayal and dishonesty, it might have been something special. Instead, it’s a drama that will be remembered primarily for Park Hyung-sik’s performance and the controversy around its ending.
Watch it for him. Just be prepared for everything else to disappoint.
Rating: 6.5/10
What works: Park Hyung-sik’s career-best performance, strong first half, Huh Joon-ho as compelling villain, excellent production values and OST, intriguing premise
What doesn’t work: Underutilized female lead, draggy middle episodes, controversial romantic betrayal, unsatisfying villain payoffs, divisive open ending, messy plotting in final quarter
Bottom line: Come for Park Hyung-sik’s incredible performance as a dark, calculating anti-hero. Stay despite the drama’s numerous flaws if you can. Leave frustrated by an ending that betrayed the 16-episode journey—but at least you witnessed Park Hyung-sik prove he can carry complex, morally gray material with the best of them. PHS deserved better. So did we.
