Love Triangle

The Inheritors (also known as The Heirs) is an older k-drama that is more like an American soap opera, and yet has one of the best high-school love triangles I've ever seen.

As the illegitimate son of a wealthy conglomerate chairman, Kim Tan (Lee Min-ho) was exiled to study in California so that his older half-brother could be groomed to step into their father's shoes. Instead he mostly surfs and goofs off. He meets Cha Eun-sang (Park Shin-hye), who comes to LA in order to escape her dismal life in Korea while bringing wedding money to her older sister, only to find out her sister has lied about her marriage, and is living in squalor.

After the sister takes the money and runs off, leaving Eun-sang with no place to stay, Tan ends up alternately taking care of her and making her situation worse. He also falls for her, but she finally connects with a friend and returns to Korea. The money her sister took ends up forcing Eun-sang and her speech-impaired mom to move into the house where the mother works as a housekeeper -- and Tan's family lives.

Hoping to reconnect with Eun-sang and mend his relationship with his older brother, Tan returns to Korea, and soon discovers the girl he loves is living at his home. He's never told her that he's been engaged for years to the rich daughter of another conglomerate owner. Tan's father begins manipulating the situation by transferring Eun-sang to Tan's exclusive high school, where Tan makes sure she's mistaken as the daughter of a newly-wealthy family.

Tan's former best friend and now enemy Choi Young-do (Kim Woo-bin), who is currently the top bully at the school, also falls for Eun-sang, but decides to use her in his war with Tan. Tan's fiancee, Rachel, is Young-do's soon-to-be step sister, and is genuinely in love with Tan, so she decides to make Eun-sang's life at school miserable. Things just escalate from there as the families face off and the high school becomes a battleground between the two heirs, with Eun-sang caught in the middle.

I loved the performances by the entire cast of this series, but Kim Woo-bin did an especially fantastic job as this antagonist in this one. Seeing a bad boy redeemed by love is one of my favorite tropes, so I'm a bit biased there. Lee Min-ho and Park Shin-hye were completely convincing as two teens from opposite worlds who fall for each other. The series is a little over-the-top, but it's fun to watch just for the love triangle. Available on Netflix in the US.