My Lovely Kim Sam Soon

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My Lovely Sam Soon Korean Drama Review

This Kdrama Genre is Romance, Comedy with 16 episodes and aired on MBC network from June 2005 to July 2005. Main star cast are, Kim Sun Ah as Kim Sam-soon, Hyun Bin as Hyun Jin-heon, Jung Ryu Won as Yoo Hee-jin and Daniel Henney as Dr. Henry Kim. I liked Hyun Bin since “Millionaire’s First Love” and had seen Daniel Henney in “Seducing Mr. Perfect” and both are great in here as well as female leads.

Plot follows like a quite a few Korean Drama before, poor female leads is too good, gets dumped by boyfriend. She gets in love/marriage contract with rich and jerk male lead, and eventually both fall in love for real. Kim Sam Soon (Kim Sun Ah) is a baker who has a talent in making pastries and cakes. On one day, she caught her boyfriend, Min Hyun Woo (Lee Kyu Han), cheating on her and breaks up on the same night.  By sheer coincidence, Jin Hun needs a baker for his restaurant Bon Appetit and Sam Soon is unemployed. Sam Soon is hired as the restaurant’s chief baker. Nevertheless, they started to have feeling for each other and Sam Soon agreed to post as Jin Hun’s girlfriend so his mother would leave him alone. Things got complicated when Jin Hun’s ex-girlfriend Yoo Hee Jin came back from the States intending to win him back.

It’s a story about a 29-year-old woman named Kim Sam Soon. Prior to turning 30, Sam Soon had basically three goals, i.e. to find love, to officially change her name to Kim Hee-jin and to run a bakery business. She graduated in Paris and was a highly qualified pastry chef, who, has the habit of baking cakes and pastries to relax. Nothing was going right for Sam Soon at the start of the story. Her long-time boyfriend dumped her for a slim, pretty, rich, and younger woman. Worst, people often laughed when she introduce herself. And she was jobless. She lived with her mother and elder sister who returned from Paris after a divorce.

Buy: My Lovely Sam Soon (English Subtitles)

My Lovely Same Soon Korean Drama Trailer

Plot in details: The story starts with Sam Soon’s series of bad luck. Her luck changed when she was offered a job as a pastry chef in an expensive western restaurant called ‘Bon Appetite’. There, she met Hyun Jin-heon who was 3 years younger than her and who was also the owner of the restaurant. Jin-heon, was not a very nice boss and often bully her.

However, forced by desperation for money, Sam Soon approached her boss for a loan. At first he flatly refused. Later he agreed, but on the condition that she agreed to pose as his girlfriend and fiance for the next few months. Sam Soon reluctantly agreed and vowed to pay him back as soon as she could. Jin-heon had his own problems. He was trying to runaway from his mother’s arranged marriage plans. He thought he could convince his mother to stop, thinking that he was already involved in a serious relationship with Sam Soon.

Gradually, Sam Soon developed feelings for Jin-heon and later confessed. Jin-heon, on the other hand, was confused especially when his ex-girlfriend, Lee He-jin, returned from the United States to continue their relationship. Jin-heon refused to admit that he loved Sam Soon and forced himself to start again with Hee-jin. At about the same time, Sam Soon’s ex-boyfriend returned and started to woo her back despite being married. He wanted to make her his mistress.

This drove Jin-heon crazy and he finally understood his feelings for Sam Soon. He confessed to Sam Soon but was too afraid to break-up with Hee-jin. Hee-jin was suffering from an eating disorder and had just recovered from cancer. Obviously, the poor woman found out and fell ill again. It worried Jin-heon but luckily, her hunk of a doctor cum friend Daniel Henny was there to support her. She decided to return to the US with Dennis but requested Jin-heon to accompany her to the US for one last time and stay for a week. Jin-heon was reluctant but went ahead after seeking ‘approval’ from Sam Soon.

Surprisingly, he didn’t return as promised. After waiting around for months, the broken-hearted Sam Soon decided to move on and start a bakery shop together with her sister. When Sam Soon was starting a new relationship with another guy, came back. He claimed that he has been sending postcards to her while traveling alone in the US. Of course Sam Soon accepted him back but the ending is not 100% happy and is a bit disappointing. If you want to know, buy the DVD la.

One outstanding thing about the drama was that Sam Soon’s character wasn’t the typical feminine roles Korean dramas often portray. In fact, she’s quite the opposite. She has bad hair, a bit fat, poor sense of fashion, rough demeanor, often uses rude language and has a really bad temper. It amazes me how an anti-hero character would grow into such a lovable one.

Overall, I’m giving this drama a high score of 8.5/10. It’s highly recommended for those who are desperate for a good laugh. It has many funny scenes that would make your eyes water with laughter. (Source: CheAyu)

This drama won a quite a few awards, such as;

Awards

42ND THE PAEKSANG AWARDS
– Best Drama, My Lovely Sam-Soon
– Best Screenplay, Kim Do Woo
– Most Popular Couple, Hyun Bin, and Kim Sun Ah
– Best Cast, My Lovely Sam-Soon

MBC AWARDS 2005
– New Actor Award, Daniel Henney
– Popularity Award, The Main Couple Hyun Bin and Kim Sun Ah
– Best Couple Award,Hyun Bin and Kim Sun Ah
– Excellence Award , Jung Ryu Won
– Top Excellence Award/ Male: Hyun Bin
– Top Excellence Award/ Female: Kim Sun Ah
– Greatest Award, Kim Sun Ah

SEOUL DRAMA AWARDS 2006
– Best Mini Series, My Lovely Sam-Soon

Buy: My Lovely Sam Soon (English Subtitles)