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.

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

random thoughts: Ahjumma(?)-hood Blues

Age seems to be a perpetual problem when it comes to women in kdrama fiction land. In fact, age comes as a BIG issue (yes, with the capital letters and all) when it comes to MANY an Asian drama fictionland rom-com. I only ever thought it was just me and my own same-age friends (you know, I've never used that term before kdrama) lamenting the fate of rushing head-long into our impending thirties. In one of my friends' case, it feels akin to racing straight at a semi reluctantly, but with no other choices.

Yes, we have wasted many hours pathetically sobbing about becoming another year older for the past couple birthdays. Sometimes, we get superficial like that... and yes, it kills me to admit it. There are so many other things in life that we should be more concerned about.

However for me and my friends, the idea of growing old and slipping out of those youthful adolescent years had become a big sob story. Of course, when faced with a lot of the women I work with in real life who have long since trudged through the years that I am currently complaining about, I DO shamefully cringe and apologize about my dramatic agony.

After all, there is always someone older, and aging really isn't that big of a deal. But to my friends and I, we had spent the past four or five years trying to avoid talking about the big three-oh.

Not long ago, after watching a couple kdramas with gusto, I finally talked myself into admitting that I am twenty-seven years old and it's not the end of my life. It took a while, but I finally got there and proudly proclaimed my hold on my true age without wincing or trying to pretend that I'm about three years younger or that I will only ever be twenty-five for the rest of my life.

For one thing, I blame television (even if I really should be blaming one particular same-age friend for her own dramatic woes of "pushing thirty"). Television, especially Asian media, has brought to us the fictional fantasies of excitement and entertainment while only ever showing us eternally young faces of those very people who are enjoying their drama series' lives. After all, it's a good market -- younger generations prefer to see younger faces on the screen -- and who is the entertainment industry not to cater to their most rabid fanbase?

But really, it ISN'T all just a "for the fans" thing. Nor is it really a marketing ploy. In the past couple years, Asian media HAS been quite socially defining as a young people's paradise, even IF we still get to see the older generation make their talents and their faces seen regularly. But for the most part, because of the young new generation of talents, society has begun to stress the ideals of getting your life on track while still young enough to enjoy it. And this is where that stubborn "life before thirty" deal gets blown out of proportion.

The first time that I ever even saw age as an issue was upon watching interaction between Taiwanese Idols. Whether men or women, age seemed to play a big role in both popularity as well as reputation and dignity. I guess it was my own fault for having even submerged into the Taiwanese Idol arena in the first place; after all, the defining characteristic of the Taiwanese Idol is their eternal youth. After a certain age, even those former idols choose to move onto bigger projects and distance themselves from the title of "Idol."

Case in point:

Taiwanese Idol, singer, dancer, actor and MC Show Luo, Luo Zhi Xiang, has been pretty popular during his reign -- and he still is. But there is a running joke about him cringing at every mention of his age because he's well over thirty years old. He looks rather young, but that's an advantage of being both Asian AND in the entertainment industry -- Asian people already look young, T.V. tricks can turn you five years back in time. Whenever people mention his true age, however, he does his display of pouting and unnecessary temper tantrums. At that time, I had always wondered: "Is age really THAT important to celebrities?"

Yea... that was definitely a redundant question.

Taiwanese cult fandom television program, Mo Fan Bang Bang Tang, which housed some of Taiwan's youngest talents at the time had also made multiple jokes about age. The eldest of the boys during the 2008 run had been pushing 26 years old, which really didn't make him just another little boy anymore. While to me, at the time, 26 didn't seem like a disastrously old number, the fact that he was about ten years older than their youngest member came as a big teasing point to run with. And so for the sake of comedy and entertainment, the guy's age was poked at regularly.

Because we often forget that for teenagers, often times being two years older to them is very much older. The age gap doesn't start to shrink until you're well into your late twenties and numbers just start running together in blurs. And so for a 16 year old boy on that television program, someone who was even 21 could have felt old to him.

Conclusion: Kids are cruel.

You can pretty much say that, for me, presently at the age of 27, as well as a woman, this poking fun of age was kind of grating on my nerves. After all, for men, joking about age is merely joking. But for women, joking about age is another matter all together -- it stands on par with joking about their weight, their physical appearance, as well as their marital status.

Of course, I'm glad that I've always been of the minority in women who really don't care about any of the latter stuff that gets thrown around. Unfortunately, the age issue has always been a matter of avoidance -- once again, I blame my friends because of all their negative exclamations about getting older. I also blame the little teenage girl who tried to bluntly and rudely point out that she was ten years younger than me and already getting married. "What? You're 27? That makes you ten years older than me?" "... The last time I checked, there are only 9 years between 18 and 27..." Not like my argument really mattered to her. Well, the joke's on you, honey; you're not even legal to drink at your own wedding. Not that THAT ever stops anyone.

But I had never truly had an issue with any type of image, attribute or the like. Age, however, began to hover around me like bad, spoiled meat and the so the next thing I know, I'm lamenting being anywhere too far away from 21. It's a depressing thought only because I had never really cared before and really SHOULDN'T be concerned with age.

Recently I started watching Lie To Me which is what brought up this "ahjumma-hood blues" article in the first place. For starters, the scene kind of came out of nowhere and pretty much beat me up senseless for about twenty minutes following. Yoon Eun Hye's character, Kong Ah Chung in episode one had just finished suffering a bad turn at work only to have it shown on the news. And so off she goes to get her hair done so that it can make her look different and unrecognizable (like that ever works). As she is leaving her home, a little kid points to her and tells his mom: "It's that ahjumma from yesterday!"

I was shocked really. Because in this connotation, the word ahjumma is typically used to refer to much older women who may or may not already be married and have kids. At least that's MY understanding of the Korean title. For a girl of Yoon Eun Hye's age, the more proper title would have been noona. But kids are so precious as to tell it as it is, that you often wonder what their cut-off age is for noonas and ahjummas. And so the only way that I ended up reacting was to very painfully utter, "Ahjumma....?" for the next ten to twenty minutes. Even after the scene had come and gone, I was still feeling the sting.

Yoon Eun Hye, if her profile is true to form, was born the same year that I was born, which pretty much makes me the same age as her. But Yoon Eun Hye also looks much younger than I do physically. And so the idea that (even in fiction land) the physical embodiment of Yoon Eun Hye could even be referred to as an ahjumma kind of raked on me.

Mind you, it wasn't really in a bad way... but it still stung.

As javabeans comments in her recap of Lie To Me's first episode: "Ouch, all noonas on the verge of ajummahood can probably feel her pain. (Unmarried = noona!)" And the "verge of ajummahood" is more correctly referred to as that age where women are ripe for marriage -- in ajummahood, you've passed that phase and, by societal standards, should really be married or seeing someone seriously. After reading that, I did a subconscious recall of the scene again and cringed. Because, yes, the idea was kind of painful. And this is after I had very proudly begun my settlement into being a young woman in her late twenties.

The show further escalated into "old age = doomed fate" territory when Kong Ah Jung runs into her old friend who very rudely emphasizes the advantages and the niceties of being married early. It was a jab at Ah Chung's currently single status since the two seem to harbor a very hostile friendship based on hitting each other where it hurts, but the underlying concept was still there:

A woman married young = good for her; a woman still not married at this age = something is seriously wrong. I do believe I wanted to hit someone, possibly Ah Jung's "stab me in the back" friend from old times?

This article had been intended to be a random, quick thought about the "ahjumma" comment from Lie To Me's first episode. But the idea kind of stuck and now I'm rambling on as I always do. And so while I'm at it, I might go ahead and throw in yet another example of age as a social issue in drama land.

Scent of a Woman starring Kim Sun Ah as a terminal cancer patient, Lee Yeon Jae, had started off the series with the big age problem. Before she even HAD her melodramatic story line thrown at her, all of her colleagues and even her mother were already beating her up verbally because she was over thirty and still unmarried.

In my first impression post for Scent of a Woman, I had written:

"Why on earth is 30 years old such a landmark age? To this day, it confounds me why it seems that, after you hit the age of thirty, a woman seems to have aged to a hundred. If we don't already have things accomplished by that age, then we've pretty much lived a life of regret. If things are going to happen, they should happen while we're young and apparently, young coincides with any age under thirty."

To add onto that, I've noticed that even the five years leading up to thirty is referred to negatively as "pushing thirty." It makes me cringe to hear that, because you can't just be in your "late twenties", but instead, you're "pushing thirty." Double ouch! For some reason, the words "pushing thirty" just sounds worse than simply saying "thirty years old" or "twenty seven." I don't know why, but it hurts.

It's like, by 25 years old, if one has not gotten married, found true love, held hands with a boy or the like, then that woman forfeits her life out for criticism by the public. It's a bit scary when you think about it; especially when you're not even a public persona.

I guess that's drama land for you. The sad part is that, the age thing isn't even JUST restricted to drama land. The rest of the world also cringes from the fact that a woman is "pushing thirty" and hasn't done much with her life. The social standards of our world really DO manage to find ways to hurt a woman's pride thoroughly and mercilessly. I have a lot of friends in this age range getting married and starting families. I have other friends who indirectly inquire about my own single-dom and why I haven't found anyone yet; following, I get the all too annoying, "It's okay, you'll find someone sometime. I know there's someone out there for you. Everyone finds someone."

Why does everyone who's dating or married feel that someone who is single is simply miserable and needs to "find someone" so that I don't go home and drink myself into a lonely stupor? I don't get it, but that small tidbit only really has part to do with an age ordeal and is best left for a random soapbox in another time, so we'll move along.

I'm not even sure whether to blame society itself, or the forever young of Asian media portraying life as a refreshing and exciting youth's dream. If not the real world, I think rom-com world would be an even more cruel place to live in since the concept is emphasized upon even more as a story line rather than our true life anecdotes. At least in real life, I can tune out the issue since I'm not a main female lead no matter where I go.

thoughts: Scent of a Woman (Korean) - a gem among gems

This article may contain spoilers; please proceed with caution.

My previous statement about this series has been overturned.

During the first impression post for this series that was published not long ago, I mentioned that, for a series based on romance, I had not the slightest care about the underlying love story. No matter who Lee Yeon Jae (Kim Sun Ah) ended up with was up in the air and it didn't bother me. I only wanted to see how she would continue to plan and act out the rest of her life. For me, THAT was the most meaningful part of the series.

While it's still true, the idea of the love story, I think, has finally taken it's hold on me.

Following the development of the story line, it had been quite passive in it's presentation of a dying woman. The angst was there, but only in hindsight, and so you never really think about the series as a sad one. Lee Yeon Jae's journey to live her life to the fullest was turning out to be an exhilarating experience, almost too refreshing for a series based around death, angst, and romance. Nothing else about the series really mattered to me as long as our main male lead seemed indifferent to everything around him.

I hadn't quite felt it before, but finally, in the recent story line, the love story has begun to reach the peak of it's beauty. For the first few episodes, Kang Ji Wook (Lee Dong Wook) was nothing but a lifeless and dull string puppet for his father to control. I didn't really care for him since he didn't seem to care for his own life. However, as the story progressed, you start to see more of a soul begin to flicker behind those apathetic eyes of his. Where he could have cared less about the fate of his father's company, he began to initiatively take responsibilities without being assigned. Where he didn't care what happened to him in the future, he began to desire a life of his own, to live the way he wants to live and not the way his father wants him to live.

Kang Ji Wook began to develop into a real individual and not just some backboard rich prince, flat and impartial to the rest of the world. Meeting Lee Yeon Jae, this man begins to take form and feel more passionate about his own life, gaining the perspective to have control rather than be controlled.

For a guy with a naturally serious expression, how can you not fall in love with that smile and that adorable playfulness?

It's foolish to say that I'm proud of the quick progress he's made from episode one and onward. But the truth is, that is EXACTLY how I feel about him and his newfound motivation in life.

Unfortunately, because of this, the love story that was doomed from the start rears it's ugly head and reminds me, as the viewer, that there will be angst, there will be sadness, and there will be tears (yes, my own). The happier that Kang Ji Wook became, the more my heart ached at the prospect of him falling in love with a dying woman. And then the more that he fell in love with Lee Yeon Jae, the more I silently pleaded the powers that be for a happy ending. From the start, it had been fated for a tragic end, but the kindling of such a stunning love story makes it hard for me to feel indifferent about the impending destiny of our main couple.

Because now we can begin to see the angsty romance that starts to wrench at our hearts.

Kang Ji Wook perfectly steals the spotlight with his progress, so much so that he is finally on par with Lee Yeon Jae's wonderfully created character. Lee Dong Wook's natural portrayal of the modest transition that Kang Ji Wook goes through is done exceptionally excellently, further proving that he is indeed one of Korean drama's most valuable assets. The romance between our main couple is set up in such a way that there are no extremes and only a simple act of falling in love and starting a relationship.

Throughout the progress of the story line, the chemistry between Lee Dong Wook and Kim Sun Ah is so breath-takingly sensual that it serves to further establish their love story. And at the same time, their romance is so playful and innocent that you can't help but to envy how simple it was for two people to admit their feelings and begin their romance.

And this is why the heart aches for these two when the reality of the situation finally hits Yeon Jae. Where her only goal had been to live the rest of her life to the fullest, it had never occurred to her that when she fell in love with someone, that same someone would also fall in love with her. As a result, when she finally succumbs to her cancer, she won't be able to remain with the one she loves and, in turn, he would be losing a loved one as well. The idea of that sadness now starts to eat at her so much that she is stuck in a conflicted fight against her fate and her desires.

What was she doing? she asks herself. What did she think she'd be able to accomplish? The anger and the resentment she feels comes to surface when she realizes just how cruel fate had been to her and how unfair it is that falling in love, for a person like her, would come with such grave consequences.

And so finally, I DO care about the love story.

Scent of a Woman has proven to become a gem among drama series for this season. These are the moments when a story touches your heart so much that you come to realize why, despite the sadness and the melancholy and the tragedy, we love emotional romances such as these. I guess maybe I'm finally coming to understand why people are so drawn to Korean drama angst; when written well and executed admirably, they tell a story that makes you feel complete in spite of the heart-wrenching anguish that must be encountered along the way.

***

Related articles:
first impression: Scent of a Woman

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first impression: Scent of a Woman (Korean)

It's hard to say how I really feel about this series. With a rather typical romantic comedy formula, it really isn't as stereotypical as the rest of the romantic comedies I have seen thus far.

This isn't so much a first impression article as it is a "thoughts thus far" type of deal since I've already seen the first six episodes of the series. But the story line, having already introduced the conflict and an almost predictable road to follow, is still in the progress of being unfolded.

Lee Yeon Jae (Kim Sun Ah) is an introverted and hard working woman. Her mother and many others around her make it their duty to point out that she is passed her thirty year mark, which is apparently quite old in Asian fictional drama land; and so without a college degree or any form of fashion consciousness, everyone thinks that her life will forever be lowly and lonely. Her mother is on a quest to find her a suitable rich husband and her coworkers and immediate manager make her life miserable because they know they can -- after all, at her age, she can't afford to lose her job, so they know she'll do everything they tell her to do and keep her opinions to herself.

Why on earth is thirty years old such a landmark age? To this day, it confounds me why it seems that, after you hit the age of thirty, a woman seems to have aged to a hundred. If we don't already have things accomplished by that age, then we've pretty much lived a life of regret. If things are going to happen, they should happen while we're young and apparently, young coincides with any age under thirty.

I'm starting to get a little bit of real life frustration from these hinted insults against age.

But anyway...

In conclusion, Lee Yeon Jae sounds like a very pitiful Cinderella case. But really now, to spend ten years keeping quiet about sexual harassment and all the mistreatment by everyone else in the workplace... I'm not sure if I'd ever be able to just take that kind of crap laying down obediently.

But then fate does a cruel number on her and diagnoses her with gallbladder cancer, giving her an estimated six months left to live. And so in a fit of anger at how unjust the world is and how unfair her life has been up to this point, and then throw in a couple more accusations and a slap in the face, Lee Yeon Jae finally throws her resignation letter at her boss, giving him a few choice words while she's at it and then storms out of Line Tour, the travel agency she'd been working at for over ten years without being treated like a human being. She grows that backbone we were waiting for and completely turns her own life around to make sure she doesn't get treated like dirt anymore.

It was a relief for her, as well as any viewer and myself, when we get to see Lee Yeon Jae stand up for herself by counting the injustices presented towards her by her manager and her coworkers. And it was also a giddy bit of pleasure when she slapped the arrogant and spoiled rich princess, Im Se Kyung.

This series is a tear-jerker from episode one. From the moment that Yeon Jae learns about her cancer, to the arguments she gets in with her mother, and then the terrible accusation of her stealing someone's precious ring... it just seems like her life wasn't meant to get any better unless she forced it to become that way. The idea that this woman only has so little time left to do things she had always been waiting out for makes you feel sympathetic for her. The sadness is conveyed very well by actress Kim Sun Ah through Yeon Jae's urgent need to DO SOMETHING with her life before she dies.

Because up until that fateful moment, Lee Yeon Jae had been spending her time working, saving money, and pretty much having no life. She wears cheap, clearance rack clothes, doesn't bother touching her savings account because she'd been saving up to buy her mother a nicer home, and she fears being hostile in the workplace because she knows she needs that job to survive. And because of her tendencies to lounge around at home, saving money and doing nothing else, she has had no romantic love life to remember. Making oneself fashionably pretty even costs money as well and Lee Yeon Jae would be hard pressed to do something like that.

And so, as a romantic comedy slash melodrama type of series, we can already predict that Lee Yeon Jae's desires for a memorable love story will be granted by the ALMIGHTY DIRECTOR.

On a side note, backtracking up a few paragraphs to the infamous stolen ring, the story made me wonder what was up with that case. Because the owner of the ring, a musician named Wilson, was very adamant that Yeon Jae had been a thief; the rich and almost psychotically arrogant Im Se Kyung was also adamant that Yeon Jae had stolen the ring. No one would believe her at all, and so she ended up guilty before any formal investigation could be performed. But then we are shown that Wilson didn't really lose his ring; it had been caught on his clothing where he didn't see it. Instead of going back and clearing up the matter or even calling to say that he'd found his ring, he just leaves the country and never even bothers to look back.

What the heck was up with that? You wrongfully accuse someone of something, realize that you wrongfully accused an innocent person, but you keep moving forward like the situation will correct itself even if you don't say anything? Actions like that could ruin lives or cause deaths and these stupid irresponsible people should never be allowed to be recognized as high and mighty upstanding citizens because heads would roll. I'm still rather irritated by this particular situation, because at present, Lee Yeon Jae is now facing a lawsuit worth more money than she could ever afford in her entire life, no lawyer is willing to take her case, and she still has a widowed mother who needs to be cared for after the cancer finally kills her off.

And these rich people are just sitting in their fancy mansions, making billions of dollars daily while trying to make one little common person's life more miserable by demanding more money?

But now to step back off of my soap box and back into the article's subject.

To continue, two men walk into Lee Yeon Jae's life almost simultaneously, both of which could become the love story she wishes for.

The first is Kang Ji Wook (Lee Dong Wook), the son of Line Tour's CEO who seems like the perfect and handsome prince charming; for a girl like Lee Yeon Jae who's never truly been in love before, she feels that it would be nice to date someone like him at least once before she dies. Unfortunately, he's not so much a prince charming as he really is just another formula rich, dull brat, living off of his father's fortune and engaged to the "most expensive woman in the country" Im Se Kyung in order for his family to continue being wealthy and high society. Neither of the two want this marriage, but Im Se Kyung seems intent on making sure people know that Kang Ji Wook is her man even if she doesn't really love him -- talk about arrogant and spoiled. As for Kang Ji Wook, he's really not doing anything to control his own life, which is pathetic in its own way; he's the type of "boring" rich boy who doesn't seem to care much about the way his life is going, as if he knows that he has no say significant enough to change the course of his future. These are the non-princes we all love to hate since they have absolutely no desire to do anything with their lives despite having the money and power to make it happen.

Lee Yeon Jae really doesn't need this kind of drama from a man who's not even man enough to decide his own future. But of course, as drama land formula's dictate, Lee Yeon Jae will more than likely end up falling in love with this guy who has no more ambitions for his life outside of being his father's and Im Se Kyung's pull-string puppet. Maybe she'll end up changing his ideals and he'll become a better person and fall in love with Lee Yeon Jae right before he realizes that she's dying and they can't have a happily ever after. The thought of that is kind of depressing, but what more would we expect from a story line based off of a woman's last six months living in the world?

Of course, there is speculation that Kang Ji Wook may soon start a development progress to add onto the suspense and intrigue of his character. Right now, he's just the boring, lazy, unambitious main male lead. Of course, even so, Lee Dong Wook's presentation is done quite well since, even as a boring character, he's able to convey a lot of different changes in expression and mood surrounding the rich brat that makes you chuckle every so often.

The second man is Chae Eun Suk (Uhm Ki Joon), a doctor and former elementary school acquaintance to Yeon Jae. He seems to be the strict and unyielding type, unwilling to become openly compassionate about his patients and making absolute decisions without considering other people's feelings. Despite being elementary school friends, Chae Eun Suk makes a point to be blunt and rude to Yeon Jae, only telling her the dreary facts of her life and not really bothering with giving her time to absorb her condition. But even after that, Yeon Jae comes back to him as her doctor and happily allows him to treat her and acts as if the two have been friends forever. Surprisingly, Chae Eun Suk doesn't seem to shy away from her friendship and almost immediately changes his attitude towards her; even though he acts like he's the jerk hole that Yeon Jae thought he was in the beginning, he is kind and willing to go along with Yeon Jae's antics. We learn by episode six that Chae Eun Suk might have had an ongoing crush on Yeon Jae since elementary school.

This guy, no doubt, is that stereotypical good man and third wheel to the main couple's relationship. While there are certain types of good men who strike me as touching and worthy of our main female character's love, so far Chae Eun Suk has proven to be less than compatible. I'm shooting for the fact that there seems to be zero chemistry between Yeon Jae and the doctor and he's also not really making much of an effort to win this woman's heart. He also seems socially inadequate to the point that not many people really like him that much, especially his patients. This is fairly different from the usual "good man third wheel" offered in other series whom everyone tends to like and will push for the female lead to get together with. Then again, he also knows that she's going to die and probably would rather not start something that didn't have an proper ending. Or, he's just not quite sure how to handle this situation yet and is biding his time; which, if he really thought about it, he doesn't have very much time left to make a decision.

And so how is a girl to choose whom she will have her first and last wonderful romance with? After all, it's not like she gets to keep either one of the two men. She only has six months left to live.

The series, despite being based on a very melancholic plot device, truly does not convey much of a sad or depressing tone. In fact, aside from scenes where Yeon Jae is crying about the unfairness of her condition, the rest of the series so far involes her trying to spend the rest of her days making the most of her life in a very high-spirited and sometimes comedic fashion. We, as the audience, rarely get to return to her inevitable death and sometimes will forget that she has cancer and is dying at all. Of course, her cancer is a secret from everyone except for her and her doctor and the nurses. If she wants to live her life normally and if she doesn't want friends and her mother to worry, she has to continue to live happily for whatever time she has left.

And so what does a woman who is about to die do?

Lee Yeon Jae takes the first month and leaves the country for a nice and relaxing vacation in Okinawa, Japan. There, she chances upon Kang Ji Wook, who has no idea that she used to be an employee at his company, and the two end up enjoying the cultural activities, delicious food, and beautiful scenery of Okinawa in full force. And Yeon Jae ends up finding the gorgeous beach that she had dreamt about where she meets the man of her dreams, some muscular dude named William. Learning that Kang Ji Wook's given English name is simply Willie, she is a little disappointed... but really, what were we expecting anyway? A perfect fairy tale where our female protagonist meets her Prince Charming within the first two episodes?

In the Korean drama world, trials and tribulations as well as loads of tears and grief must occur before someone can live happily ever after. In this case, there might not even be a happily ever after, but there will definitely continue to be buckets of sadness.

This vacation and chance meeting establishes that lasting impression that the main leads will have for each other, sealing the inevitable pairing when they meet up again back in Korea. Because even though Kang Ji Wook is engaged and Lee Yeon Jae only has so much time left, there remains in each other's minds a desire to continue seeing each other; even though Kang Ji Wook tries so hard to remain detached since he has other obligations.

The vacation in Okinawa was a fabulous experience to follow along with. Japan is definitely a wonderfully gorgeous country, whether physically or culturally -- and it definitely gives one the resolve to plan a vacation in the near future (or far future depending on priorities). The direction and filming of this vacation was done beautifully, following as Yeon Jae gives the viewers a fun and fantastic tour of the area, enjoying the activities and looking lovely while she does it.

Scent of a Woman touches upon a very meaningful ideal as we follow the main lead on her journey to a late coming self-discovery. Lee Yeon Jae had plans to save up money for more important matters and ended up missing out on life. And so it's sad to see her go through all of that turmoil, but at the same time it's a bit of an eye opener, allowing viewers to wonder about life, in general, for oneself. Because, as stated in almost every inspirational concept, people should always live their today as if it could be their last day. When you keep putting things off for tomorrow, there will finally come a day when tomorrow might not be coming at all.

Of course, as inspirational as all that is, the idea is so much easier to talk about and discuss than it is to do. Human beings are only good at one thing after all: taking life for granted. Nobody is bothered with the idea of death because we would rather not think about it. And so we continuously live our lives as if we were immortal. For those of us who have yet to reach a certain age, death is such a far journey off from present day. And then for those people who have gotten to a certain age, there just seems to be so many more priorities to occupy our time. And finally, for those people who are nearing death's door... well, they are resigned to believe that, if they haven't lived their life fully by then, there's no reason to start.

But that's how it is with people; in today' society, there IS no time to think about anything but priorities and future plans. Everything is about money and responsibilities and future investments.

It's frustrating when you take a little bit of time to think about it, because we all know that we should try to have some sense of "no tomorrow" and live in glory rather than regret.

Nonetheless, I digress (it's what I do best) and now must return to the series...

While I'm not as hooked to this series as I typically am for others, I still rather enjoy what I've seen so far. The story line has been picking up rather slowly for these first six episodes, but Lee Yeon Jae has managed to do a lot of things for herself already between changing her appearance by buying new clothes and a new hairstyle, and getting a new phone and taking tango lessons. It's refreshing to see Yeon Jae so easily go from a non-image conscious, nagging young woman with priorities to a beautiful and more confident woman. She's not klutzy in her transition and it just feels so natural for her that she might as well have started off the series looking like a fashion model rather than the homely, glasses-wearing slave girl from episode one.

Kim Sun Ah presents Yeon Jae's reaction to her cancer and her sudden change in life really well. She's not over-doing the melancholy, she's not dramatizing on the pitiful state of her character's situation, and she's not even really trying to steal the scenes with what is supposed to be the most important device in this series. She is merely presenting to the viewers, a woman who has six months left to live, resigned to making the most of her life quietly, but at the same time as a gorgeous self-satisfying display.

Thus far I haven't really been too impressed with the characters aside from Lee Yeon Jae. Kang Ji Wook is the typical rich and spoiled brat with a heart of gold. Im Se Kyung is a woman that I really despise right now, being her arrogant and bratty self, feeling like the entire world should kneel at her toes in order for her to continue living. Chae Eun Suk really doesn't stand out as much as he seems to be meant to stand out. And the rest of the characters are kind of just background.

And for once in a romantic comedy genre series, I really don't care too much about the love story and just want to see how Lee Yeon Jae continues on with the rest of her short time in this world. There is just so much more meaning behind her last few months of planned activities than there is in her finding a man to love who will love her back, even though this is one of her biggest items on her Bucket List. And I think, ultimately, this is because we know that there is no "happily ever after" for Lee Yeon Jae and her Prince Charming; there is only a "live life to the fullest before I die" atmosphere.

I'm more worried for her mother when the time comes for her to realize her daughter is dying. I'm interested in seeing Kang Ji Wook's reaction to this news as well since there is an evident attraction towards her, but he's more adamant about remaining detached and continuing his monotonous rich boy life. I'm interested in seeing how friends and ex-coworkers will react. I'd like to see a bit of revenge going on for all the people who mistreated Yeon Jae. I want to know whether or not Wilson will ever return and clear Yeon Jae's name so that she doesn't have to give up her savings and then some for something she's innocent for.

And I especially want to see Im Se Kyung's rich brat self get her just desserts. In the fictional world, there are rich and spoiled brats that you can forgive for many reasons, and then there are arrogant and spoiled rich brats that you just cannot seem to stand at all. Im Se Kyung is a woman whom I cannot find an excuse for no matter how hard I've been trying. She had been cheated by an ex-boyfriend for money which hurt her. That's fine and you can be a little bit bitter. But does that really give you the right to treat everyone like they owe you their lives? She lives to believe that she is better than everyone else and that she should always get her way because she's so successful. She looks down on everyone, whether rich and powerful or not, and despite acting high and mighty and claiming to be strictly professional, she still allows her jealousies and her irrational behavior to control her actions.

Aside from that, there is nothing that would ever give one human being the right to physically abuse another. Even IF Lee Yeon Jae had been the culprit who stole the ring, it still doesn't give Im Se Kyung the right to slap her. And whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty anyway? And then just because she was slapped in return, Im Se Kyung decided to make life miserable for Yeon Jae; well at first it seemed that she just wanted Yeon Jae to disappear, but then she catches our female main lead and the princely Kang Ji Wook together in Okinawa and so she is even more determined to make life hell for Yeon Jae. So now Yeon Jae has that hefty little lawsuit weighing her down.

But as Yeon Jae says, she just finds it irritating that she has to waste time trying to fix this problem when she has so little of it left. She's confident that she won't lose to the rich brat, but she just wished that she could have used her time for other more important matters on her Bucket List.

For Im Se Kyung, I wonder about the rest of her desolate life. Because living as a paranoid person with a "greater than thou" attitude, the rest of her life will undoubtedly be a sad and depressing one. Unless someone is trying to flatter her out of fear or out of greed, there will never be anyone else willing to approach a woman like her. And so she will never have any true friends to share her woes and happinesses with. In a way, her life is even more depressing than Lee Yeon Jae's six months. At least Lee Yeon Jae is making the most of the rest of her short life.

Scent of a Woman has, so far, been rather interesting to follow along with and I will continue to watch it until the end just to see how Yeon Jae ends up. Again, it's totally strange how, for a romance series, I'm really not that interested in seeing which man Lee Yeong Jae will ultimately fall in love with by the end of the series. The journey to the last days in her life are what's more important and I'm intrigued by what else she plans on doing for herself until that last dire end.

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thoughts: Scent of a Woman - a gem among gems - 09/01/2011 update; progress mid-series

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