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)

Boys Over Flowers Korean Drama Review

 Boys Over Flower:

I did not know the hype of boys over flower so much when I started out watching Korean Dramas so It was not my first watched nor it is my most top favorite Korean drama. So, why I am writing about it? Boys over Flowers created a Korean wave and made a culture impact that still visible since 2009, when it was first aired.

The show  starts with bulling and blood in high school, where a kid is ready to die to avoid all F4’s bullying. There seemed to be no signs of law and order or good teacher, adult to stop all of these atrocities. I thought I would stop it but after watching 2 episodes I got hooked and curious enough to see the end, so I invested over 25 hours to watch this and I can say I was not disappointed. The bully and all characters grows with time and you can understand loneliness around all richness and money.  F4, flower four boys are surely handsome and easy on eyes which surely helps female fan base like me.

If you are fan of Lee Min Ho, then this is show for you. The guy has charm and he makes his character alive, one can feel his pain and agony. I did not care much for the Jan Di’s character, as she hardly shows any feeling or care towards Goo Joon Pyo. I like the character played by Kim So Eun as Jan Di’s best friend Chu Ga Eul. She could have been a lead lady, she is pretty, holds her dignity while caring for a guy and is level headed.

Buy Boys Over Flowers With English Subtitles

Cast:

Koo Hye Sun as Geum Jan Di
Lee Min Ho as Goo Joon Pyo
Kim Hyun Joong as Yoon Ji Hoo
Kim Bum as So Yi Jung
Kim Joon as Song Woo Bin

Kim So Eun as Chu Ga Eul (Jan Di’s best friend)
Kim Hyun Joo as Goo Joon Hee (Joon Pyo’s elder sister)
Lee Hye Young as Kang Hee Soo (Joon Pyo’s mother)
Han Chae Young as Min Seo Hyun (F4’s best friend/Ji Hoo’s ex girl friend)
Lee Min Jung as Ha Jae Kyung (JK Group’s CEO’s daughter and Jun Pyo’s fiancee)
Lee Jung Gil as Yoon Seok Young (Ji Hoo’s grandfather)
Jung Ho Bin as Jung Sang Rok (Kang Hee Soo’s Chief Secretary)

   
Geum Jan Di (Koo Hye Sun)

As I mentioned earlier, Jan Di’s character confused me a bit. When I see her pictures on internet, she looks pretty but during most of the show she looked not so pretty most of time, sometimes she looked cute but never pretty enough comparing to other korean Drama heroine. She was about 25 when this series came out as a highs chooler, she was older compared to all F4s, but being small and petite worked in her favor.

I also could not fathom that why all the guys either was loving her or wanting to protect her. Her character came across as confused and occasionally heartless, especially when Lee Min Ho character did so much her and her family, she kept on thinking of Yoo Ji Hoo instead. At first shown as feisty female, who can kick ass. However, as show progresses, she becomes typical Korean cliche heroine who ends up crying a lot and not fighting much. I am not against crying females, as I cry myself at littlest thing but then again, I am not trying to pass a kickboxing champion too.

When she goes to Macau to meet Goo Jun Pyo and he breaks off the relationship, she is sad for moment and then she goes off to site seeing with  Yoo Ji Hoo all around and shown smiling and happy while Goo Jun Pyo who broke off the relationship looked more pained and in love compared to her. It bothered me much and felt she did not deserve the love if she was not willing to work hard for him to show her emotion. But of course, this is modern take on Cinderella so story revolves around her and we wish for her to succeed and find happiness.

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Goo Jun Pyo (Lee Min Ho)
When this drama came out, Lee Min Ho was a newcomer and this drama made him the star loved by many people in Korea and Japan. He is one of the reason I wanted to watch and find out about all hype about it.
I did not care much about his curly hair style or unique fur wardrobes that he wore. He is handsome, tall and can act just by showing his eye expressions. He made the bully character likeable. I like scenes where he spends time with Jan Di’s family, has a sleep over, makes Kim Chi and so on. He is nice guy, innocent child inside hiding behind cold, angry persona. He did well to show that, at least to me and my friend.
If you want to know more about star necklace he gives to Jan Di, see here: Boys Over Flower Star Necklace
 
Yoon Ji Hoo  (Kim Hyun Joong)
Someone wrote that out of all F4 Ji Hoo was most beautiful! Apart from Jan Di and Jun Pyo, he had biggest part and being part of love triangle. I heard he was offered the role of Jun Pyo but he chose Ji Hoo Role instead. I can see why, his character has many things that are positive, he plays music well, he is actually one of F4, who does not take part in bullying much and helps Jan Di many times and becomes friend and protector of her over the time. I like scenes with grand father and family issues that we all face regardless of how rich or poor we may be.
He hair style and color reminds me of Kang Jun Sang of Winter Sonata and he laughs and has similar mannerism as well.
 
So Yi Jung (Kim Bum)
Kim Bum had a big role and it was nice to see his character of playboy who is really good guy lost somewhere surprised me. He is cute and has a nice smile, however it was hard to imagine as a playboy and heartbreaker, as he looks innocent and young to be bad. That just me, I still enjoy his character and his talent at being a potter.
 Don’t they look cute Together?
 
 I liked to side love story of him with Ga Eul that developed slowly but surely. I think these two supporting character had more love and chemistry together compared to main lead, don’t you think? I wanted to know more about them and their life.
 
Song Woo Bin (Kim Joon)
 
Woo Bin seemed more Americanized and said Yo Yo,. and Wasss up type of things. We know he is from the mob family and handsome but we do not get much know much about his life outside of F4 and friend circle. It’s too bad, it would have been nice.Other Characters:

Goo Jun Pyo’s Mom was one nasty lady, as Jun Pyo called “Old hag” (at least in english translation, I am not sure what does it mean in Korean, is it same?) She is so ruthless to break Jan Di’s family and her so her son can be married to rich. I hated her, that means she was good at acting as nasty lady.

Goo Jun Pyo sister had a small role but whenever she came, she left a impact as a loving sister who wants to do right thing and not afraid to share what she thinks. She becomes big supporter of Jan Di as well.

Jan Di’s parents are big money minded, poor parents who do not plan things well and leave kids alone more often than they should. One thing is for sure, despite all their shortcoming, they seemed like a family who loved each others, including Jan Di’s little brother.

Ga Eul, Jan Di’s best friend was cute and much more level headed compared to Jan Di. I liked how she held on to her dignity while liking Yi Jung.

Lee Min Jung as Ha Jae Kyung was likable in some sort of way. She seemed so much more fitted and similar to Goo Jun Pyo’s Character, in some other time, they might have been perfectly fit for each other but it was not meant to be for this one.

Many other supporting characters with small roles were great. While this show is not Oscar worthy in acting part, for entertaining in super duper and 100% great. As I said, I could not stop watching, it was not love story that held me but it was charm of all F4! They all wore suits, and nice clothes and looked great in even crappy designer clothes somehow.

F4: Flower Four or Fabulous Four?

Buy Boys Over Flowers With English Subtitles

Have you watched it? What did you think of it/