My Lovely Sam-Soon

Well, I apologized for the last post (I know I still owe my readers two posts, seeing that I had not updated for Saturday and Sunday) but I have a very valid reason, at least in my opinion. I was actually rushing to complete the hit Korean series, 'My Lovely Sam Soon'.

Shocked? (Yes, the epitome of masculinity, the great Deus actually watches Korean dramas...sue me.)

Let's proceed. :-p


Synopsis:

My Lovely Sam Soon depicts the rather endearing tale of a 30 year old woman, plump and unattractive in every sort of way, who sets on a journey to quest for her true love. Kim Sam Soon (Kim Sun Ah) is a patissier (a fanciful name for a pastry chef, for those who were uninformed - and yes, by that I mean YOU ... :->) born with a talent in making pastries and disasters out of relationships. After a disastrous Christmas Day outing which saw her losing both her job and her boyfriend Min Hyun-Woo (Lee Kyu Han) and meeting with arrogant restaurant owner Hyun Jin-Heon (Hyun Bin) in humiliating circumstances, Sam-Soon manages to obtain the post as patissier in the latter's restaurant, although they both remain in bad terms with each other.

A chance event, however, leads Jin-Heon to propose an outrageous plan to his patissier: pretend to be his girlfriend to convince his mother to stop arranging blind dates. While rejecting the offer at first, Sam-Soon is then forced to accept as a series of unfortunate events which involved her father, her uncle, bankruptcy and the house as mortgage leaves her and her family in need of 50 million won to keep their house. Both slowly grew on each other, but things fall awry when Jin-Heon's ex-but-bot-really-ex-girlfriend, Yoo Hee-Jin (Jung Ryu Won) comes back from the States to claim back her man. Throw in Hee-Jin's smiling-I'm-sorry-I-can't-speak-Korean friend, Henry Kim (Daniel Henney), Sam-Soon's volatile mother, Jin-Heon's authoritative one, a cute little girl who chooses not to speak and messy events into the fray, and voila! - one hilariously funny but still heartwarming tale of My Lovely Sam Soon for the audience :-).

Plot:

While certainly not the most original of plots, My Lovely Sam Soon still differs greatly from many of its peers, as it injects much needed humor into the Korean drama market. In fact, what makes this drama unique, in my opinion, is its seamless interplay between humor and drama, between the times you would laugh till you cry and the times you would cry till you laugh (at your silliness at crying in the first place...;-)). Within its mere sixteen episodes, creators Kim Do-woo and Ji Su-Hyeon had managed to create a heartwarming drama without all the unnecessary complications one commonly finds in the average Korean drama, while including just enough slice-of-life moments to provoke some soul-searching amongst its viewers.

The plot, which started a little slowly, picks its pace sure enough, always leaving the viewers asking for more. In fact, I'll give the plot 4 stars and a half out five for its engaging plot.

Characters:
Kim Sam-Soon:
The middle-aged patissier with the dream of opening her own cake shop and an fanatical obsession of changing her name, Sam-Soon is the third daughter of a rice-cake chef. A little heavy around the body with a penchant of for cussing and hitting people (and incontinence, when she's drunk), Sam-Soon is not an attractive woman. Period. With age catching up on her, she faces difficulty in securing her soul mate, especially after being played a fool by Hyun-Woo.

Nevertheless, she's an upbeat, optimistic woman who faces every challenge with determination to succeed. She's also a very forgiving character, at least in my case, or she's just plain stupid for forgiving Jin-Heon everytime he hurts her. In a nutshell, her character is likable enough to be a protagonist, and you just have to empathise with her luck in relationships.

Kim Sun-Ah as Kim Sam-Soon: Kim Sun-Ah performed admirably as Kim Sam-Soon, to the point that she was willing to even put on 15 pounds just to act in this drama. She's amusing to watch, with her very malleable face capable of capturing the many emotions that make Sam-Soon so special. She cries well enough, and her scenes with Henry Kim (Daniel Henney) are a joy to watch. I have only one minor complaint: her voice sometimes get really really grating, especially when she gets drunk. And perhaps she's too attractive to play the role of an unattractive middle-age woman?

Hyun Jin-Heon:
The male lead of the drama, Jin-Heon is the angst ridden man of mystery who's past casts a cloud over the blooming relationship between him and Sam-Soon. He simply loves to irritate the latter, and loves to get her all riled up. He grows to be more mature by the end of the series, though.

Personally, I hate this character. I find him too indecisive; usually leaving Sam-Soon in a lurch, what with him leaping before looking. His jokes on Sam-Soon tend to get out of hand as well, usually ending up with him hurting her a lot. Fortunately for him, one redeeming feature of him is a side of his personality which cares very much for his niece, Hyun Mi-Joo (Suh Ji Hee). Apparently he's a nice guy as well...;-p.

Hyun Bin as Hyun Jin-Heon: Ah, the Jae Hee and Kwon Sang-Woo lookalike. Seriously, he just looks way too much like the other two in this series. Hyun Bin played Jin-Heon okay-ly, I guess. He did the angsty-wangsty-ness well enough, but he just doesn't look sincere enough for Sam-Soon (maybe I'm just biased against the character...:-p). His interactions with Henry was less hilarious than Sam Soon's but still funny all the same. His English ain't that good, however. His angry scenes are brilliant, and you could almost feel his anger (however irrational and misplaced) vented out at poor Sam-Soon.

Yoo Hee-Jin:
I can't really say much without spoiling the entire drama for my readers, but suffice to say she's the cause of the drama-ishness of the story. She's the childhood friend-cum-lover of Jin-Heon, and while I would normally root for such relationships (I believe matches aren't made in heaven and most certainly not in a first look), I find her a little spoilt and selfish.

Sure, she's sweet and all, but her callous way of treating Henry and her rude behavior with Sam-Soon makes her look ugly, at least in a deeper sense that transcends looks.

Jung Ryu-Won as Yoo Hee-Jin: She's good as Hee-Jin. She plays the lovesick part very well, and you can see her neediness for Jin-Heon clearly on the screen. She speaks near perfect English, and her voice is really soothing to the ears too (especially after a Sam-Soon drunken bout...:-)).

Henry Kim:
The half-Korean, or at least, that much we know from his brief past. His mother was Korean, certainly, but he was brought up in the States and thus can't speak any Korean (like me! Haha...). He's on a six month sabbatical in Korea. Though only considered a friend by Hee-Jin, he's completely in love with her, and his patience with her lovesickness just makes me wonder, sometimes, whether he's a masochist or not.

He's quite the comic relief of the show, especially through his interactions with the various characters, most notably Sam-Soon. He would smile his queer smile as the Koreans would just prattle on and on, occasionally scolding him or mocking him.

Daniel Henney as Henry Kim: I honestly thought that he had a receeding hairline, and was not all that good-looking from the first looks of the box cover of the discs. Thus, I was pretty shocked when I saw that he was actually quite good looking, and has a very rich baritone that fits his mature character very well. As mentioned, he plays the comic relief very well, and his scenes with Sam-Soon are amongst the most hilarious.

Couples:
Sam-Soon and Jin-Heon: The cliche of all cliches, this couple has it all, in terms of 'let's pretend we're in love but then I love you' and 'I hate you so much that I love you.' As mentioned, I disliked Jin-Heon, so I'm not really much of a fan of this couple, though I'll admit that their chemistry is visible on screen. Their interactions tend to be intense, and there's always a competition between the two to see who can achieve dominance over the other. While he tends to be hurtful towards her, he can also be very nice and doting as a partner.

Jin-Heon and Hee-Jin: The classic lovers - the close friends who relationship eventually develops further. This couple is mostly built on memories of the past, and there is always a faint feeling that that the relationship is somewhat unbalanced, with her pining more for him. His anger in the beginning was justified, and so was his forgiving her, but his sudden capitulation to Sam-Soon's (nonexistant) charms left me wondering what exactly went wrong.

Hee-Jin and Henry: He makes her laugh...a lot. She tends to be very happy whenever she's with him, and it's clear that he really loves her. I prefer their chemistry than that of hers and Jin-Heon's, if not for the fact that his temperament suits her better (i.e. he's actually rational most of the times when she's not) then simply for the reason that I like their conversations (I've a fetish for both voices and English...;-p).

Sam-Soon and Henry: Ahhh...the couple that is NOT meant to be. As there's no inkling or sign of interest between these two, its safe to say that these two will never ever hook up in any case, except in the imagination of thousands of viewers. Nevertheless, I would have like to see them together, because I feel that in their relationships, both tend to get the short end of the stick. Besides, their interactions would be something to die laughing for...:-).

Suffice to say, the casting and characterization are pretty well done, but my main grouse is still there: I still hate Jin-Heon's character, so I'll only rate a 3 and a half out of five for characters.

Conclusion:
This series is quite an engaging K-drama to watch. It is well enough that there weren't any sappy and/or unbelieveable story arcs, and I'm grateful that the creators did not try to extend the story by adding more drama. I'll rate this a 4 out of 5 stars in general. Try and watch it if you can, it'll be worth your money!

Some useless trivia:
(1) Noticed that the two main leads share the same surname as the characters they play?
(2) There's actually a localized Phillipines version.
(3) People actually say that this series is like an Eastern adaptation of Bridget Jones (overweight and unattractive, much?)
(4) There's a beautiful poem in this series. It goes like this:

Dance like no one's watching.
Sing like no one's listening.
Work like you don't need the money.
Love like you've never been hurt before.
Live like there's no tomorrow.

(4) I finished 16 hours worth of drama in 2 days.
(5) That's why I'm owing two more blog posts...hehe.

P.S. Due to the demands of my *fans*, I've allowed for anonymous comments already. Cheers!