intro info: Scent of a Woman (Korean)

Kim Sun Ah as Lee Yeon Jae
Lee Dong Wook as Kang Ji Wook
Uhm Ki Joon as Chae Eun Seok
Seo Hyo Rim as Im Se Kyung


Yes, I held off on finishing Scent of a Woman for a long time after it's finale was broadcast. I'm a pansy and after having sat through an extremely depressing climactic turn in My Girlfriend is a Gumiho, I chose to avoid anything tragic or angsty for a while. I told myself that it was too close to be watching Scent of a Woman -- a story line that I had convinced myself would end up sad and depressing. I mean, the series is based off of a woman finding out that she has cancer and then living for the next sixteen episodes (well, fifteen, since she finds out at the end of Episode One) trying to make the most of her few months of life left to her.

Scent of a Woman was set up to be tragic from the get-go, and unless some sort of seriously lame miracle of god (a la THE ALMIGHTY PRODUCTION STAFF) chooses to somehow cure her cancer and let her live, happily ever after, I was ready for a tear-jerking ending.

And so for the next two weeks after finishing My Girlfriend is a Gumiho, I avoided Scent of a Woman, telling myself I would watch something more light-hearted first before completing my watch of this series. And so what do I do? I chose Warrior Baek Dong Soo...

Yea. That went well too... -_-

Needless to say, I was not in the right mindset to keep watching these extremely depressing scenarios, more than once in a row. For Gumiho, it hadn't started off with melancholic expectations, but halfway through, it was a given and I was ready for the angst -- but I hadn't expected it to be so tumultuous. Nonetheless, I'm not saying it was a bad thing, because in my own opinion, the execution of that full on hit of tear-inducing sadness wasn't too inappropriate. Unforunately, Warrior Baek was a different story altogether -- nonetheless, it included a tragic end (see link above).

And so, once again, I found myself avoiding the ending of Scent of a Woman. Having grown to care about the love line as well as Lee Yeon Jae and her two potential love interests, I wasn't ready for another cry-fest. But after finishing up two more series that were less angsty in comparison and then beginning other series randomly, I finally decided that it was time to stop putting off the ending of Scent. I had to brave it and what better way to do as much than to ready myself all over again by reading all those nice recaps from Dramabeans. I read about the series to re-aquaint myself up to where I had left off, as well as giving myself a better understanding of the series, storyline and characters and all.

And then I dove right back into the series.

The most recent Scent of a Woman post chronicles only my thoughts about the story line up to Episode Ten, but it doesn't give much in the sense of detail about the entirety of the first ten episodes. More thoughts on the entire series as a whole will be discussed in a future article (as is typical of my formats).

Scent of a Woman, as mentioned already, is a sort of journey to self-fulfillment. Lee Yeon Jae is a woman who has lived a dull life with that "I can wait until tomorrow" mentality. It had never occurred to her before that there would come a time when "tomorrow" may not exist at all until she is diagnosed with gallbladder cancer and told that she would only have six months left (at the most) to live. And so she quits her life-sucking job and vows to live the rest of her life to the fullest, including falling in love and being loved.

The beginning of the series was quite exciting as the story sets itself up for Yeon Jae's embarkment into "fun and exciting last days of my life" territory. She goes on a vacation, tries to seduce the main male lead, pampers her mother, seeks revenge on her evil coworkers, and even starts maintaining a bucket list of all the things she wants to do before she dies. It was a very A Walk To Remember (the movie, not the book) nostalgic progression.

Of course, this is not saying that the series was anything like A Walk to Remember outside of the dying female protagonist base plot. The American novel had cutesie moments and the movie was a guilty pleasure paradise with pretty people. This series had heart and passion and a really good message within a message that sneaks up on you by the end of the story line. It also had pretty people as well, but that's not the point. Both were great in their own rights, but Scent of a Woman had a bit more depth than just the "live like there's no tomorrow" idealism.

By the end of the series, Scent became so much more than just a story of a dying woman and her decision to live her life to the fullest. By the end of the series, a whole new message comes full circle to beat us over our heads as something we would have never thought of. Basically, while there's a grand "live like there's no tomorrow" concept going on, there's also the need to remember to "live like you will STILL have a tomorrow" for those who have truly been given an ending date.

And because of this, for the sake of needing to be complete in my review of this series, I will simply say that, Scent of a Woman had a pretty much perfect ending. At this point in the series, the way that it had wrapped up, I don't think it would have made much of a difference whether or not we know what Yeon Jae's end was. The message that came with her entire experience was fairly inspiring and surprisingly refreshing at the same time. And this is why Scent of a Woman may be one of 2011's best gems in kdrama land.

There were some dull moments in the series as it progressed, but some of it was probably because we veered off the concept for a while. But when we re-entered that attractiveness wherein Scent had drawn in the majority of its faithful viewers, the story line came back together rather beautifully.

Cast were chosen excellently. As stated on an earlier post, Lee Dong Wook and Kim Sun Ah exhibit extremely passionate chemistry. I held my breath during their tango scene because of the intensity of it -- who needs graphic love scenes when you've got tango to substitute for it as both a lovely and a sensual symbol of our main couple's raw emotions? I was worked up about it and I'm sure that fangirls all over the world felt rather flustered just watching the tango scene.

Uhm Ki Joon was absolutely endearing as the "best friend and doctor" role -- he was a man who loved Yeon Jae, but he was also a man who understood what was best for her. Here is one of the few series wherein you DO feel rather bad that the other man won't be getting the girl. Chae Eun Seok had wanted to become closer to Yeon Jae, but he also knew that in her condition, the best source of support would come from the man she loved who also loved her, rather than simply from a man who loved her without her reciprocated feelings. And in this sense, Chae Eun Seok was a fabulous person. The love line no longer mattered in a "who gets the girl" sense; because in the end, it wasn't like getting the girl meant "happily ever after." And so the love line became a very beautiful "how can we make sure that Yeon Jae can live happily for the remainder of her life?"

It was a much more touching concept than forcing a love triangle with meddling love rivals (this doesn't describe the Im Se Kyung role, but we'll ignore her for now).

I loved seeing the interaction between Yeon Jae and Eun Seok just because of their "would be love". They are close friends and they treat each other as such and care about one another very much. I'm sure that Yeon Jae loves Eun Seok as well, if only as a friend and like a family member important in her life. Uhm Ki Joon did a wonderful job portraying the caring, yet socially awkward doctor who just doesn't quite seem to know how to express himself and so hides it with terse coldness.

The relationship between Yeon Jae and her two men truly thrived more on how her presence in their lives helped to change the two of them. It wasn't so much the romance line and who she would end up with, nor was it only about her own self-fulfillment in life. The heart of the relationship was in how, because of Lee Yeon Jae, Kang Ji Wook ended up finding direction in his life while Chae Eun Seok learned the value of friendship and open kindness.

While I fully enjoyed Seo Hyo Rim's portrayal of the rich chaebol daughter, arrogant and terribly skewed in her ideals about status and wealth and power, I didn't much care for Im Se Kyung as a person. She had potential for depth, but through her consistent meddling by using her father's power and wealth, she became just another rich brat who threw grand temper tantrums if she didn't get what she wanted. I truly thought that there would be more to her than that, but she turned out to be rather tiresome (as did her and Ji Wook's fathers) and sometimes almost psychotic.

As a romantic comedy, there is very little that isn't already predictable about this story line. But in general, the series survives on the heart it shows through character development and portrayal by the actors and actresses, as well as that delightfully surprising new message at the end of the series. Background music and some richly shot scenes were also quite crucial to this series' success -- see the Okinawa trip in Episode Two as an example.

The only disadvantage that Scent may have had would be it's lack of memorable value; because while the series began with heart and ended with heart, it also had a case of lull-ing towards the middle. And because of this, it ended up being just like any other series with a dying woman presented. In about two or three months, I may not remember the series, even if I can recall a few details about it that might have stood out: sensual tango scenes, the already mentioned Okinawa vacation, Chae Eun Seok, the overall message given as the series wraps up...

Finally, the last thing I will comment about would be Yeon Jae's transformation from "ugly duckling" to "fashion model" that took place well into the beginning of the series. I like that it was incorporated as a will of the female lead on her own. She knew what she wanted to do for herself and so she went and did it. Her makeover scene wasn't an act of a Prince Charming showing her how to be beautiful -- Yeon Jae already knew that she could be beautiful and took advantage of her savings and that newfound sense of self in order to live her life on a grander scale. But her transformation (unlike most romance genre female leads) doesn't change who she is aside from making her a braver person with more clarity in her life.

In other words: I like that she changed herself FOR herself and not for a man. It was a much more refreshing concept to see in a rom-com.

I will proudly say that Scent of a Woman was a wonderful series. I regret having put it off for so long, but really, who could blame me after so many run-ins with angsty tear-jerkers? However, with certainty, I will vouch that Scent of a Woman is worth the watch -- one of few drama series that, aside from having some dull moments, ended up being quite an amazing and beautiful experience.

***

Related articles:
first impression: Scent of a Woman
thoughts: Scent of a Woman - a gem among gems -- mid-series brief thoughts

intro info: Brown Sugar Macchiato (Taiwanese)

Here's a little filler for the mean time until I've finished writing a couple other pressing articles to publish which include those of drama series I've just recently finished. And yes, I admit, I'm procrastinating the endings of Scent of a Woman and Love Keeps Going. I don't know why. And on top of that, I'm in the midst of watching two different dramas starring Kang Ji Hwan.

Go figure.

***

黑糖瑪奇朵 - Hei Tang Ma Qi Duo

Lollipop
Ao Quan
Wang Zi
Xiao Yu
Xiao Jie
Wei Lian
Ah Wei

Hey Girl
Da Ya
Tong Tong
Mei Mei
Gui Gui
Ya Tou
Xiao Xun
Apple
Xiao Man
Xiao Jie

For more information on the summary of this series, check out any wiki page such as: Brown Sugar Macchiato @ dramawiki

The basic story line of this series involves six boys who find out that they all have the same father who is very rich and who is a womanizer. All six boys, apparently, are the same ages and have never met each other before nor did they ever really know what kind of a person their father is until he brings them together, tasking them to learn to live together and get along with each other. What kind of motivating factor could possibly get six stubborn boys together?

Of course, money. Apparently, after a specified duration of time as well as following very strict stipulations, if the boys succeed, they will all six become rich, wealthy millionaires, inheriting their father's money, home and many, many other things. But, of course, along the way, aside from their own rebellious personalities, lots of obstacles are encountered that keep threatening the boys' hold on their hefty inheritance.

To boot, the boys all transfer to a new school where they meet a group of nine overbearingly rude and "dominatrix-like" girls who pretty much rule the school with their selfish and irrational regulations. As the new students and as the male gender, the boys are certainly NOT exempt from the girls' wrath, but, of course, for the half-baked story line to progress decently, the boys are the type who will stand up against these girls where no other man has managed to do before, and usurp the Class President, Tong Tong, from her imperialistic rule.

And then more antics ensue involving silly romances, talks about dreams and the future, anecdotes about friendship and betrayal, and ideals about the rest of their lives.

Brown Sugar Macchiato is certainly not the best drama series I have seen. In fact, it's pushing it to even really call it a drama series since it truly settles under an advertisement or a promotion of sorts. Consisting of the six boys from young Taiwanese boy band Lollipop and the nine girls from their sister group Hey Girl, the series was produced with only one idea in mind: to promote the already highly popular young idol groups by telling the world that these boys and girls are here to stay.

In the far future, I DO plan to write an article about my brief obsession with the boys of the Mo Fan Bang Bang Tang television program that had broadcast in Taiwan for a little over two years. But as a brief introductory, Bang Bang Tang phonetically translates into Lollipop, which is why the six boys end up forming a group to the same name. The program that they hail from consists of a group of twenty boys wherein they had spent a few months competing, performing, and being observed and tested so that the final six could be chosen to represent them. And not long after that, Brown Sugar Macchiato was born. On an aside, the girls from Hey Girl were from a similar program and debuted a year before the boys did.

Brown Sugar Macchiato is definitely not my type of series and to this day I still question why I had watched it in the first place. In fact, I'm kind of questioning why I'm even blogging about it, but here it is. Short and brief, while the series itself survived mainly on a freakishly stellar fanbase, there were a few other aspects that could hook a viewer if one were inclined to watch the series at all. Humorous antics, silly and nonsensical ideals as well as pretty girls and handsome young men dominated the screen. While the story line was fairly non-existent, acting was pretty much on par with starch-stiff unnatural, and plot devices were thrown together almost too haphazardly, Brown Sugar Macchiato isn't a complete failure in entertainment value.

I certainly enjoyed bits and pieces of it despite it's intended promotion value. I was a fan of the television program after all, and thoroughly enjoyed the young humor that permeated the twenty young boys. This was merely cheap entertaining comedy, valued at exactly what it was worth. Very little else can be said about the series, but it sure did quite the job of helping the youngsters gain more fame than they already had. The uniforms were pretty good looking.

Otherwise, I would have just skipped over this series and still been happy.

***

Related articles:
thoughts: Brown Sugar Macchiato -- yea, there's more discussion for this series too; wait for it, I guess. It'll be published pretty soon.

***

intro info: Warrior Baek Dong Soo (Korean)

무사 백동수 -- Musa Baek Dong Su

Ji Chang Wook as Baek Dong Soo
Yoo Seung Ho as Yeo Woon
Yoon So Yi as Hwang Jin Ju
Shin Hyun Bin as Yoo Ji Seon

Choi Min Soo as Chun
Jun Kwang Ryul as Kim Gwang Taek
Park Joon Gyu as Heuk Sa Mo
Yoon Ji Min as Ga Ok
Lee Won Jong as Hong Dae Ju
Sung Ji Roo as Hwang Jin Gi
Choi Jae Hwan as Yang Cho Rip


***

Finally to be done with the whole Warrior Baek Dong Soo fiasco, here's the intro info post to tie everything together; brief summary, brief opinions, and more reason for me to splash Yeo Woon pictures everywhere! There are NEVER too many Yeo Woon pictures in my book!

Enjoy!

***

It's hard for me to really dive into this one with a brief review and not give away anything. The way in which the series had been built up was truly an amazing experience with a wonderful cast of characters and actors to portray them. The imagery and scenery was mesmerizing and the music was well placed where necessary. Unfortunately, the build up of the intrigue to the story line quickly lost it's go power when it seemed that the writers weren't quite sure which direction they were trying to go. Ultimately, this is the only downfall of the series, because overall, the series itself could have been one of the most outstanding ones of the year.

It's not a perfect series, but it was definitely built to be memorable.

High ratings show that Warrior Baek was one of the most hyped and anticipated series during it's broadcast. While I don't really know the rest of the cast that well, Yoo Seung Ho's presence seemed to be quite the catalyst for fan appreciation, myself included. Ecstatically, the young boy does not disappoint in his portrayal of Yeo Woon, a lonely and tragic hero with a doomed fate.

The defining summary of Warrior Baek Dong Soo is hard to grasp. But the basis of the story line truly involves the growth and development of the titular character as he becomes the best swordsman in Joseon. And so along the way, we give him room to grow, we throw in a lot of political intrigue, a lot of side conspiracies, a lot of emotional troubles and issues, some romance and some bromance, and we get a rather amazing experience to follow along with.

For the sake of anyone else who would be interested in this series, the only thing I can really say is that it WAS a captivating series to follow along with. Each episode left you wanting to continue on to see what would happen next. The underlying friendship between Yeo Woon and Baek Dong Soo managed to hook any viewer into that desire to know how the relationship will end up after all the suffering, pain, and conflict goes away. A potential love line is even present for all those hopeless romantics out there who are also attracted to genres where romance isn't the main factor.

Warrior Baek mainly chronicles the life of Baek Dong Soo as he grows to become Joseon's best swordsman while at the same time circulating all sorts of obstacles for him to overcome as he trudges through his journey. Parallel to Dong Soo's adventure is Yeo Woon's own fight against his fate as the antagonistic foil to Baek Dong Soo's impending hero status.

Unfortunately, the series takes a turn for the worse and loses it's grasp on what should be to come. While the series in general was great in many different ways, the loss of many significant plot devices which dwindled into nothing kind of threw off the pacing and the direction of the story line. Where was production staff trying to go with some of these devices and why didn't they continue in that direction rather than just brush the entire thing aside and try a new tact?

There were a lot of issues concerning continuity and even things that made sense versus things that were developed magically by an ALMIGHTY WRITER's faux de machina tablet. The impending ending and rekindling of friendship was what kept me going, but for the most part, the rest of the series' devices dragged on senselessly.

There's very little that I can actually say about Warrior Baek without giving away a lot about the plot and the ending's utter disappointment. And so with this, my thoughts on this series are truly best noted with detailed descriptions of certain elements and certain devices in the series. (Refer to all three, extremely long and extremely detailed thought articles concerning Warrior Baek Dong Soo.)

The series ultimately survives on the cast of great actors and actresses as well as the decently choreographed action sequences. Some memorable scenes helped to entice, and the first half of the series was really not that bad to follow along with.

Being unfamiliar with any of the cast except for Yoo Seung Ho, the series truly did amazing things in terms of these actors and their portrayals. Yoo Seung Ho was amazing as Yeo Woon's tragic embodiment, and I don't feel ashamed at all for having picked this series to watch, 80% due to the presence of Yoo Seung Ho. The rest of the reasoning behind my choosing of Warrior Baek was really due to curiosity about a historical Korean drama series. But mainly, the reason why I continued to watch the series ended up being 60% for Yoo Seung Ho and his character Yeo Woon, and about 20% due to the opening scene depicting a fierce yet friendly sword fight between Chun and Sword Saint. The rest of the percentage can be divided evenly between the impending love line, the celebrated "bromance" and Hwang Jin Ju's possible plot device because I like strong female leads. For a while into the series, I was actually pretty ecstatic to enjoy it in it's ever-great glory without too much superficial influence. The casting was great and the story line was interesting even if the love line was kind of dull to begin with.

By mid series, my pie graph changes once again. It ended up being 90% Yeo Woon (no longer just about Yoo Seung Ho anymore), 2% hope for Jin Ju's revived significance, 3% "how will the political intrigue end", and 5% anticipation of the rekindling of brothership between Yeo Woon and Dong Soo. As you can see, I ended up caring little for the titular character of Baek Dong Soo himself, gave up on the love lines altogether, and pretty much just started worshipping the ground that Yeo Woon walks on.

To be brief, I personally DID enjoy watching the entire series. It was captivating. I had a lot of hopes for where the story line would progress and how the characters would develop. And in the end, maybe it was because I had too many expectations of Warrior Baek. By all means, it was not a perfect production and probably wouldn't have been even without the final, defining downfall of it's story line and ending. But in my opinion, the series probably would have faired better had a few things not occurred.

Would I change anything about the series? Definitely. Because unlike a lot of other story lines that bug me, the turn of events at many points in this series truly needed to be smoothed out and rewritten. The ending, for one, was truly unsatisfying and rushed and depressing at the same time. The female characters ended up being cast into the shadows, and some characters would have done wonders if they were allowed to stay alive.

Nonetheless, the series in general wasn't a bad one. There were just too many things that I would have liked to change about the events and plot devices and character development. Maybe in the future, we can find a common middle ground for me and I'll be much happier. But for the long run, I don't think I'll ever be able to forgive the final climactic ending even if anyone else can justify it for me in defense of the writers.

Noteworthy are some of the supporting characters. Chun, the Sky Lord of Hoksa Chorong pretty much owns every scene he sets foot in. Choi Min Soo was fantastic as the roguishly kickass, best assassin in Joseon. How he pretty much walks to the beat of his own drum is amazingly inspiring and it upsets me that others in the series couldn't learn from him and his ways. Yoon Ji Min as Ga Ok was beautiful and also kickass as the one and only strongest female character in the entire series (you will find that Hwang Jin Ju really pales in comparison, which is disappointing). Kim Gwang Taek is also noteworthy, but to be honest, I cared little for him.

What I DID harbor an attraction towards was the underlying love triangle between the three above mentioned, as well as the love-hate-battle-foil relationship between Chun and Kim Gwang Taek. As the best swordsman in Joseon and the best assassin in Joseon, these two had quite the understanding of each other with a fairly friendly rivalry. The fact that, in the end, only one could remain standing was a moot point.

Finally, while not really lending too much significance, I also happened to really enjoy the presence of Hwang Jin Gi, the bandit and Jin Ju's adopted father. He was an admirable man with strength and loving care for a rambunctious daughter.

The political scandals and conspiracies fell on deaf ears after a while, because things just started getting exhausting. I'm already NOT a fan of political struggles and battles for power in government settings; the politics of Warrior Baek just totally DID NOT appeal to me at all. Whether this was personal bias or an actual result of the way things were depicted in the series in general, I don't know. I just couldn't quite follow without feeling strained... or worse yet, bored.

I don't know whether or not to recommend this series. It was amazing from the get go. But I guess the only thing one would have to prepare him or herself for would be the ending. And I'll leave it at that.

***

Related articles:
first impression: Warrior Baek Dong Soo
thoughts: Warrior Baek Dong Soo -- the childhood years
thoughts: Warrior Baek Dong Soo -- the hero and a twist of fate
thoughts: Warrior Baek Dong Soo -- the end and an overall review

***

intro info: My Girl (Korean)

마이걸 (Ma-i-Geol)

Lee Da Hae as Ju Yu Rin
Lee Dong Wook as Seol Gong Chan
Lee Jun Ki as Seo Jeong Woo
Park Si Yeon as Kim Sae Hyun


Ranked in the top twenty during it's airing in late 2005 to early 2006, My Girl is a hit romantic comedy that gained popularity among many Asian viewers during it's reign. With the likes of Lee Da Hae, Lee Dong Wook, and Lee Jun Ki (lol, they all have the same surname), it was no wonder that My Girl ended up being so well-received; already popular from their other works, the cast of this series managed to breathe wonderous and endearing life into the characters and the story.

Also, according to My Girl @ wikipedia the series cameos Jae Hee and Han Chae Young from then popular drama series Delightful Girl Choon Hyang, reprising a couple role near the end of the series.

Lee Da Hae stars as Ju Yu Rin, a boisterous young girl who has spent her entire life dodging debt collectors with her father due to his continuous gambling problems. Ever since she was young, she has traveled to various countries for this very reason, developing the ability to fluently speak several languages (Japanese and Chinese showcased in this series) as well as a talent for weaving the most elaborate, yet believable lies in order to survive life. A chance encounter with Seol Gong Chan, played by Lee Dong Wook, brings Ju Yu Rin into one of the biggest and most emotional lies she would ever have to tell in her life.

Straight laced and stick-in-the-mud Seol Gong Chan has only one desire: to help his sickly grandfather find his long lost granddaughter after learning about the death of his renounced daughter in an earthquake in Japan. Upon the news of his grandfather's worsening condition, Gong Chan desparately enlists the help of the liar Ju Yu Rin to pretend to be the lost granddaughter to ease the worries of the dying man. While unwilling to lie to a dying man at first, Yu Rin knows that she needs to quell her financial problems somehow and so accepts the job, which eventually leads to the quickly improved condition of the grandfather's health as well as a newfound bond with the household, and the beginning of a slowly flickering romance between the now fake cousins.

My Girl had not been on my list of series to watch in the beginning. But apparently, it had drawn the attention of my parents; I couldn't help but to stop and watch with them, the series that had been causing my mother to laugh hysterically for hours. And so when I found what few scenes I watched to be quite enlightening, I resigned myself to pick up My Girl as well and start from the very beginning.

The series shines with the presence of Lee Da Hae's Ju Yu Rin as she carries the story line from beginning until the very end. Her antics will have anyone rolling on the floor with laughter; I, myself, hadn't been able to resist the urge to burst into guffaws whenever she pulls each of her stunts, telling lies to humiliate Gong Chan when he pisses her off, or even when she just acts like herself, doing the most embarrassing things one could ever think to do. Admittedly, even after rewatching some of her silly scenes, I still find her actions hilarious beyond words. Lee Da Hae is an excellent actress and the character of Ju Yu Rin is so readily lovable despite and inspite of all her many character flaws; you can't help but to begin relating with her almost immediately, while at the same time wondering whether or not someone like this could even possibly exist. Ju Yu Rin is NOT the most perfect persona even as far as fictional standards; it's a delight to watch her flip back and forth from "heart of gold" to "I'll do anything for money" and struggle through that conflicting conscious that bugs her consistently because of it. It's a matter of obligations versus "good samaritin" and it's hard to know which side will eventually win out in the end.

Balancing her rambunctious personality is Lee Dong Wook's Seol Gong Chan who is the most serious and proper young man to ever walk the world; he does not and cannot tell a lie to save his life, and he's clearly above being even a little bit immoral for fun's sake. But upon the meeting of Ju Yu Rin, it's like her abilities are contagious and he finds himself telling a fib or two every so often as well as being able to keep the continuous lie of Yu Rin's identity ongoing and successful. In my opinion, I think the charm of Seol Gong Chan's extremely straight laced personality lays in Lee Dong Wook's ability to breathe life into this otherwise monotonous individual, giving Gong Chan more emotion and personality than the character would call for. He's a very stressed out person; the moment that he decided to hire Ju Yu Rin to lie to his grandfather, his entire life had already changed, whether for better or for worse.

Along with our main couple are two supporting love rivals.

Lee Jun Ki is Seo Jeong Woo, a lazy and charming ladies's man who starts off with the impression of having a handful of girlfriends, probably one per country. It's a bit of a mystery as how he managed to fall so deeply for Ju Yu Rin right off the bat, but his interest in her is evident from the start when he saves her from her father's debt collectors with very action-movie-like fighting skills. One cannot help but to wonder how someone with such a pretty face could also be cast in such a manly role at the same time; I guess this really WAS Lee Jun Ki's way of putting a new spin to his image and cutting away from his The King and the Clown role. One thing to point out is that my parents kept telling me how much this guy looked like a girl; to be totally honest, I think it was the amount of make-up that was put on him because the way he looks in Hero is quite different; but then again, he IS fairly pretty for a man. Anyway, Seo Jeong Woo, though made out to be the love rival, is also stereotyped as the "good guy third wheel" of our main love relationship; whatever it is that made him love Yu Rin so much it also propelled him to continuously support her in her endeavors despite knowing what her true feelings were. Of course, this guy has his own flaws, but it's not to say they were condemning or anything like that.

Park Si Yeon is cast as Kim Sae Hyun, the pro-tennis player and ex-girlfriend of Seol Gong Chan who had abandoned him during his most difficult time in order to fulfill her own dreams. Having left him two years before the start of the series, she returns only to hope that Gong Chan will forgive her and rekindle their relationship from where it ended two years prior. Of course, even as the two get back together, the relationship between Gong Chan and Yu Rin had slowly begun to blossom. And so cast in the more "antagonistic" love rival role, Sae Hyun will do almost anything to keep Gong Chan to herself, even if it means hurting other people as well as Gong Chan himself. It's a bit of a controversy as to whether Gong Chan should have just stayed separated from her so that he could legitimately fall in love with Yu Rin; but then again, Kim Sae Hyun was NOT the most readily likable woman in Korean dramaland (as is typical of all the female third wheels).

Supporting cast of the series were ever-fun to watch as well, especially Yu Rin's two friends, Ahn Jin Kyu and Ahn Jin Shim, a pair of brother and sister who had dutifully taken up the posts of comedic reliefs. While supporting our main female lead with advice, a place to stay when she was down and out as well as ears to listen to her woes and troubles, these two were easy to relate to as friends and Jin Kyu even comes upon his own strange yet sweet little love story as well with Gong Chan's faithful secretary Yoon Jin Kyung.

The characters of Gong Chan's grandfather, Jeong Woo's mother, and Yu Rin's father were pretty painful and exasperating to watch throughout the series, each caught up in their own stubborn or foolish ways. Some would wonder whether these people even TRY to be reasonable in their own ideals. There was something about these three that made me want to roll my eyes and hit something at the same time.

Finally, as for the strange and... well, almost kind of creepy 70s romance between Jang Il Do and Gong Chan's aunt... I... well, I honestly, really don't have words for it. These two were just, I don't know... peculiar?

All in all, My Girl was a great series consisting of lively characters, a fun story line, lots of Korean drama-esqe heartwrenching emotions, and good-looking people. The music score was also really catchy for the background and ending themes. Lee Da Hae, as I already stated, pretty much carries the entire series with her crazy shenanigans and I don't think the series would have been the same with anyone else in her role. On a side note, the character of Ju Yu Rin seems to spend the entirety of the series eating, as my mother pointed out -- she would go and have her snacks, then have dinner, then eat some side dishes, and then go on to eat even more snacks. It was no wonder she kept getting indigestion...

This is definitely a must watch for lovers of romantic comedies, Lee Da Hae, or Lee Dong Wook. Fans of Lee Jun Ki can also check this series out, but his role is fairly insignificant, a bit cheated, and almost pitful while at the same time, easily likeable too. I, myself, am not quite sure how I feel about the role of Seo Jeong Woo, but he wasn't entirely a third wheel worthy of rotton tomatoes like some others one might find. He's pretty cool and I rather enjoyed his presence. And as for Kim Sae Hyun, while I totally despised the character, I think that Park Si Yeon did an excellent job portraying the selfish and dejected ex-girlfriend really, really well (AND she's really pretty too).

My Girl was fun, entertaining and hilarious. I certainly enjoyed it enough to sit through some scenes twice, thoroughly loving it each time Ju Yu Rin came up with something else to induce laughter with.

***

Related articles:
thoughts: My Girl -- *coming soon* -- Look forward to a more in-depth look at the series in discussion

***

intro info: My Girlfriend is a Gumiho (Korean)

내 여자친구는 구미호 (Nae Yeojachinguneun Gumiho)

Lee Seung Gi as Cha Dae Woong
Shin Min Ah as Gumiho (Mi Ho)
No Min Woo as Park Dong Ju
Park Soo Jin as Eun Hae In


While the title as well as the official series poster sounds and looks like they would belong to some cheesy comedy flick, the actual sixteen episode drama series is truly an amazing, enchanting, lovable and emotional journey. But as anyone can see, I chose not to use the official poster just because I'm not too fond of it. So instead, I chose a different titled picture which just so happens to be one from the original soundtrack... but we all get the idea, right? If anyone is interested in seeing the official series' poster that is used everywhere else, you can always go to My Girlfriend is a Gumiho @ dramawiki to see it. Without even realizing it, upon watching the story unfold, you easily grow attached to it, so much so, that the ending will leave you yearning for so, so much more. Unfortunately, there tend to be a lot of dragging scenes that don't stand out as too memorable; however, the overall effect of the series as a whole... I would definitely place this one on my list of re-watchable series because of the effect it had on me, personally.

My Girlfriend is a Gumiho roughly starts off as a more comedic, fantastical telling of a Nine-Tailed Fox (a gumiho) who's one wish is to become human and live among the human world. But circumstances surrounding her dictated that she would not receive that wish very easily and ends up trapped in a painting for 500 years until the day that fate brings an ignorant fool to unlock her cage.

Lee Seung Gi is Cha Dae Woong, a young college boy who has dreams of fame and fortune through action movies. Unfortunately, he has no intention of working for his ambitions, simply wanting a free ride through his grandfather's wealth, ditching classes, spending money, and just having all the fun he wants to have. One day, after running away from his grandfather again, he ends up in a country-side temple where the Gumiho, played by Shin Min Ah, frightens him into freeing her from the Three Gods Grandmother painting by drawing nine tails onto the fox. Following, Dae Woong rushes off in fear and ends up severely injured after tumbling down a cliff onto a riverbank. Since she owes him her freedom, the Gumiho gives him her most precious bead, which is pretty much like her fox's soul and energy which will keep him alive, slowly heal him as well as keep him from any other kind of damage. However, the effects of keeping this fox bead in his body means that Dae Woong must remain by Gumiho's side and never "share his energy", as she puts it, with any other woman. In other words, he is restricted from doing anything that can be defined as cheating, because while he has the fox bead in his body, he pretty much belongs to Gumiho. Doing anything of that nature would damage the fox bead and Gumiho, as well as bring grave trouble to the woman who shared that energy.

And so during this time, Gumiho ends up living with Dae Woong in the Action School attic room, is named Mi Ho by Dae Woong, and slowly learns how to become more like other humans in the human world. Meeting Park Dong Ju who is half-human also helps as he can directly explain to her everything she needs to know according to her own knowledge.

The story then leads into Mi Ho and her plan to become human using the method formulated by Park Dong Ju (No Min Woo). By drinking his blood, Mi Ho will slowly die within the next 100 days and during that time, her fox bead must be kept within a human body without damage or being removed. After that 100 days is up, Mi Ho can retrieve her fox bead and finally become human. What Mi Ho doesn't know, however, is that by the end of that 100 days, the human container for her fox bead will die when the bead is removed because it has absorbed all of that human's soul.

This was a truly beautiful scene, if only because of the way it was shot.
Just check out that lighting.

And thus begins a tragic love story of gumiho and human as Mi Ho and Dae Woong slowly fall for each other, not realizing that after 100 days, only one of them will be allowed to live in the human world.

To be totally honest, even with my own half-baked summary above, I think I would still be hard-pressed to watch this series if it hadn't been due to random curiosity. Because THAT was really one of the only reasons I even chose to watch this series in the first place: I was still trying to figure out what to watch next, I was picking up random series and viewing first episodes, and I was a little curious about Lee Seung Gi.

Every time I went through the list of Korean drama series, My Girlfriend is a Gumiho never once crossed my mind as something I would be interested in at all. I figured that, maybe if I were wanting to watch a cheesy comedy flick, then I would pick it up for fun. The official series' poster looked kind of unappealing and the summaries given sounded too outrageous for my liking. But as stated already, this series turned out to be so much more.

As for Lee Seung Gi, he is not known to me aside from the select few episodes of Shining Inheritance that I caught glimpses of while my parents were watching the Cantonese dubbed version of it. He came off as a fairly charismatic main lead, although having only seen bits and pieces of the series, it wasn't like I was enamored with him... at least not until I watched My Girlfriend is a Gumiho.

Needless to say, Shining Inheritance will soon be one of the next series on my "To Watch" list.

The summary at dramafever.net was spot on when it said that this series boasted two of the most charmingly endearing Korean drama series stars known. Even if the story line had been without substance (which was definitely not the case anyway), the series would have still survived on the wonders of Shin Min Ah and Lee Seung Gi and their stunning, attractive chemistry with each other.

Shin Min Ah is absolutely adorable with her innocent and bubbly, yet straight forward and kickbutt portrayal of Mi Ho, the lovely Gumiho. Judging from the poster and her first appearance in the first episode, I had expected her character to be somewhat of a sassy, sneaky, manipulative vixen who just crashes into the life of the main male lead without any shame or hesitation. This is how a lot of Nine-Tailed Foxes are portrayed in Asian culture story-lines. In historical times, the fox spirit was always a vile woman who came from evil and stole men and caused havoc.

While the crashing into the main male lead's life without hesitation is true, Mi Ho's level of cuteness and childlike carefree spirit is not at all like my expected impression of her. Instead, she is readily lovable and it's hard not to smile and cry with her when following her little sixteen episode tale to the very end. Needless to say, I pre-judged Shin Min Ah because this is the first series I've seen with her presence.

As for Lee Seung Gi, while there is a slight bit of unnaturalness to his acting at times, this fault is very easily overlooked due to his character's enthusiasm and charm as well as the fantastical and comedic mood of the story line. Cha Dae Woong is the typical misguided hero with a heart of gold, starting off as a spoiled rich boy with no ambitions in his life and slowly turning into a more responsible human being who any grandfather would be proud to call his own. In my personal opinion, Lee Seung Gi isn't the most handsome man I've ever seen and I really didn't care too much for him in the first few episodes. But for some strange reason, the moment that Cha Dae Woong shows the first signs of falling in love with Mi Ho, somehow, Lee Seung Gi suddenly becomes so much more handsome and so much more attractive. With some actors, there is just a certain charm to them that cannot be described, and upon the unofficial joining of our couple, that charm that Lee Seung Gi has seemed to suddenly burst ten-fold.

Is it the effect of knowing his sudden change? Is it the demeanor at which it happens? Or did Lee Seung Gi somehow completely become the Cha Dae Woong in love, thus projecting a sense of attractiveness that he would have otherwise not had? Because people say that a lot of women look the most beautiful when they are in love. Does the same apply to men? Do they look more handsome when they fall in love? Do their demeanors change? Does the look in their eyes suddenly captivate everyone in sight? If so, then Lee Seung Gi's ability to become his character role and bring Cha Dae Woong to life was absolutely astounding.

The pairing of Lee Seung Gi with Shin Min Ah is delightfully beautiful. After Gumiho happily attaches herself to Dae Woong and the two end up living together, the combination immediately became a sweet new relationship, even in spite of Cha Dae Woong's continued protests and consistent annoyance with Mi Ho's naivette about the present day world. It was simply natural how the two started off as a funny "master-slave" relationship, slowly became friends, and then finally entering the tragic love story when Dae Woong could finally admit his feelings, getting over his fear of Mi Ho being a non-human.

This series was absolutely amazing from beginning until the end and even the supporting characters were enjoyable to watch. The love rivals, of course, were the typical formula of an annoyingly evil female love rival, Eun Hae In, who selfishly wanted everything to be hers, even Dae Woong; and the good man third wheel, Park Dong Ju, who readily loved Mi Ho for his own reasons, calmly doing whatever Mi Ho desired in order to make her happy, even if his first intentions had been to just quietly observe what she was up to in the human world. Park Dong Ju, however, was a complete enigma to me as I wasn't really sure what it was he was up to; but for the most part, anyone could tell that while he was the guy who hunted and killed supernatural beings like Gumiho, he truly DID keep her happiness as his number one priority the more he got to know her.

Forming a teacher-student relationship, even though Park Dong Ju ends up caring for Mi Ho as more than just a student or a friend, they still gave off more of a brother-sister air about them. Mi Ho was the whiny but excited cute little sister while Park Dong Ju was the loving, wizened elder brother who was there to protect her. In it's own way, it was pretty sweet.

Dae Woong's two best friends, Kim Byung Soo and Ban Seon Yeo were pretty much nonexistent and useless (as like most of the main male leads' best friends). The crazy little side romance between Cha Min Suk (Dae Woong's aunt) and Ban Doo Hong (Seon Yeo's father) reminded me a LOT of the strange love story in My Girl between Jang Il Do and Bae In Sun due to over-dramatization and weird antics.

Needless to say, this is another extremely successful Hong Sisters' Production and seeing as how I have already seen and enjoyed four of them, I will continue to look forward to more series under their names.

My Girlfriend is a Gumiho is a very surprisingly wonderful gem among drama series. Because I had gone into the story line with low expectations, I was greatly ecstatic about what I ended up getting out of it in the end. It isn't perfect by any standards at all; in fact there were moments that, once gone are simply history and you don't think about them anymore. The story has a lot of innocent humor, charming actors and actresses, and an extremely emotional climactic turning point and ending. Despite the fact that we have an idea how the ending will happen and how much more heartbreak there will be just to get there, when everything suddenly presents itself, the story line really DOES hit where it hurts the most. But because of the way it is executed, it's all extremely memorable and worth the sixteen episode journey.

The series also showcases music by the main lead, Lee Seung Gi, who originally debuted as a singer at the young age of 17 in 2004 before making his first acting debut in 2006. Other music was very in tune with the mood of the series and I especially liked Fox Rain by Lee Sun Hee which sounds very like traditional Asian music. This is definitely a series worth watching even if you're in the middle of catching up with other current series.

***

Hoy hoy!

Related articles:
thoughts: My Girlfriend is a Gumiho -- **coming soon** -- Look forward to a more in-depth look at this series in discussion

***

intro info: Personal Preference (Korean)

aka 개인의 취향 - (Gaeinui Chwihyang) -- aka Gae In's Taste/ Personal Taste

Son Ye Jin as Park Gae In
Lee Min Ho as Jeon Jin Ho
Kim Ji Suk as Han Chang Ryul
Wang Ji Hye as Kim In Hee


Personal Preference, while summarized with a refreshing idea of a man pretending to be gay in order to live with a woman for his own career-related motives, ultimately ends up becoming a personal journey of our female lead wherein she learns how to respect and love herself with the help of her "gay housemate." There were moments when I wondered whether there had been controversy by viewers about how the homosexual roles (or even the pretend homosexual roles) were portrayed, but then I just shrugged and moved into enjoying the series.

Park Gae In is introduced as an indifferent fashion disaster with no respect or care for herself as a woman. She does not care for her appearance and will meet her boyfriend for dates wearing only sweats and no make-up; and she is a total pushover, readily answering to her friends' and boyfriend's every beck and call. Entirely trusting of people is what eventually ended up causing her hurt and pain when her ten year long roommate and best friend ends up stealing her boyfriend with plans for getting married without Gae In's knowledge. (Can you say, total failure in life?)

Jeon Jin Ho is an ambitious and one-tracked business man; as an architect and CEO of a very small company nearing bankruptcy, his one goal is to attain the rights to the popular Dam Art Project which is being granted by Choi Do Bin and his company. Learning that the preferred ideals for the project would be similar to a place called Sanggojae, Jin Ho is determined to study the small home in order to come up with inspiration for his own designs.

Having met Park Gae In recently and getting off on the wrong foot with her, it comes as a surprise as well as a complication in Jin Ho's plans when he finds out that Sanggojae is the home created and built by Park Chul Han, Gae In's father, and that the house is currently home to the chaotic and strange young woman. Due to circumstances, Gae In must put up one of her rooms in Sanggojae for rent after her roommate, Kim In Hee leaves and so Jin Ho does not hesitate to pick up that opportunity. As fate would have it, a few misunderstandings from an earlier moment causes Gae In to mistaken Jin Ho as a man who loves men, thus making her readily allow Jin Ho into her home.

After all, what girl in their right mind would want to live in the same home as the charming, good-looking, sexy Lee Min Ho look-alike? Right? Right? Let's just say that in HER shoes, I would probably pretend to mistaken this guy as a homosexual in order to grant him the rights to move in as well. After City Hunter, I think it's time that this blogger admit that she totally fangirl's Lee Min Ho...

ANYWAY...

Moving right along: the story continues on from there, following the new lifestyle of Park Gae In, now living with a "gay housemate" and struggling with her recent heartbreak and betrayal by her boyfriend and ex-housemate, Kim In Hee. Along the way, the cliches of any romantic comedy begin to catch up with the story line including humorous scenes, emotional turns, and a sweet and new blossoming romance between land lady and tenant -- a failed woman and a fake homosexual man.

I really enjoyed watching this series a lot, if only for the comedic value and light hearted entertainment. Instead of simply focusing on the everyday lives of a strange set of housemates living together, the story continues on to include Gae In's development and improvement as Jin Ho teaches her how to love and respect herself as well as demand love and respect from others when she deserves it. While starting off with a really refreshing plot idea, the series eventually tapers off into a simple love story, much like any other romantic comedies out there with the same values and ideals being taught as well as the same, predictable events that serve to turn the plot.

This is not to say that I didn't like Personal Preference. The way it was directed and presented was very delightful to follow along with despite some unfortunate dragging moments. Son Ye Jin excellently portrayed the unpredictably chaotic yet trusting Park Gae In, bringing her to life with perfect comedic timing and wonderful emotional ups and downs. Gae In's strange actions every so often tend to make any viewer smile just as Jeon Jin Ho finds her few antics endearing. Lee Min Ho, aside from being a bit monotonous, presented to the viewers an extremely serious and mature young architect with only slight tendencies towards teasing and joking as well as a cute boyish charm. Of course, his character was sometimes so straight laced that it was hard to believe he'd allow himself to simply move in with a woman and live with her so naturally (even IF he often claimed that he didn't see her as a woman). Asian culture is fairly more conservative than many would like to believe, after all.

The characters of Kim In Hee and Han Chang Ryul were both characteristically and predictably selfish third wheels, caring only for what they wanted without even thinking about how they would hurt another -- or even how they had already hurt someone else in their own plights. Of course, Chang Ryul DOES redeem himself by finally realizing that his care for Gae In does not mean that he needs to make her fall for him again, but rather, allowing her to be happy with her own life.

Aside from a few little factors, Personal Preference is a great series. It consisted of a more complete happy ending than a lot of other series usually have; but at the same time it still left much to be desired about the conclusion to all the series' conflicts. The progress of the story line was built very well, but after the final climax, the final ending seemed to have lost all steam and simply ended. Conclusions dropped from the sky like hail and the series wraps itself up in time to meet the sixteen episode quota.

Nonetheless, for an entertaining and funny enjoyment, Personal Preference is one that I wouldn't mind recommending to people for it's intended value as a romantic comedy.

For fans of Lee Min Ho, definitely check this one out, although I wouldn't say that this is one of his best. I certainly wouldn't have paid much attention to him (aside from his good looks and charming qualities) if I had based my newfound love interests in Personal Preference's Jeon Jin Ho. Of course, with only so few series to compare with, it's hard to say which is his best, but as of today, I'm totally going for his presentation in City Hunter as vastly improved from this one. Then again, I might just be too obsessed with Lee Yoon Sung to really give an objective opinion.

Personal Preference had a good and stable story line, excellent characters to relate with, a lovely setting in the home of Sanggojae, and some very laid back and catchy insert songs by Younha, 4minute, Kim Tae Woo and 2AM. Setting aside various cliches and flaws, the series itself was overall a fun experience.

***

Related articles:
thoughts: Personal Preference (Korean) - *coming soon* - Look forward to a more in-depth look at the series in discusion

***