*My Girl, 7.7
My Girl, Korean Drama (SBS 2005)
(Jung-woong, Seo-hyun, Yoo-rin, Gong-chan. Image from SBS website.)
stars
Lee Da-hae.......................Joo Yoo-rin, female lead
Lee Dong-wook...............Seol Gong-chan, male lead
Lee Joon Ki......................Seo Jung-woong, Gong-chan's playboy best friend
Park Si Yeon....................Kim Seo-hyun, Gong-chan's girlfriend and Korea's new favorite tennis player
Summary:
Joo Yoo-rin (Lee Da-hae), having spent her childhood running from place to place with her deadbeat swindler of a dad, has finally found relative happiness using her multilingual skills (Korean, Japanese, Chinese, English) as a tour guide on Jeju island with her bespectacled friend Jin-kyu (Jo Kye Hyung). When her dad becomes the target of an irate loan shark, the two of them must evade nefarious henchmen clad in terrycloth warmups while trying to round up the funds to pay them back. By a stroke of luck, Yoo-rin trips in front of the car of Avenuel Hotel heir Seol Gong-chan (Lee Dong-wook, an Asian, slimmer, and more dashing version of Mark Ruffalo) as she is running away from the badly-dressed gangsters, and she decides to play injured and sue him for compensation. Disgusted though he is at her lying, Gong-chan realizes that this encounter is a godsend after he finds out she has the skills to be the translator (the last one suddenly quit) he direly needs for the important meeting he has with Chinese investors at a luxurious mansion owned by his family that evening. Yoo-rin agrees, tempted by the thought of the large paycheck, and the investors are so enamored with her bubbly personality that they want to hire her as their personal tour guide around the entire island.
After a few more fiascos, including Gong-chan's discovery that she is selling tangerines from the family mansion orchards, Yoo-rin ends up on the mainland, where she hides out temporarily with Jin-kyu's sister Jin-shim (Hwang Bo-ra), who owns a hair salon in Seoul, the city that conveniently is also home to Avenuel Hotel headquarters. Gong-chan has returned to the city as well, faced with the pressing task of finding a long-lost cousin before his ailing grandfather passes away. Grandfather Seol (Byun Hee-bong), chairman of Avenuel Hotel, banished his daughter after she married against his wishes. Since learning of her death years ago, he has devoted his energy to looking for his granddaughter, who may have survived the Japanese earthquake that killed her parents. Thus, as grandfather's health continues to deteriorate, Gong-chan continues the search with increasing desperation, assisted by Secretary Yoon (Lee Eon Jeong), who is the spitting image of Pochahontas and soon becomes Jin-kyu's object of affections. Believing that he has no other options, Gong-chan finally asks Yoo-Rin to pretend to be his cousin, since she looks like his aunt, speaks Japanese, and is used to lying anyway. He buys her nice clothes, trains her to behave appropriately, and then rushes her to the hospital, where Chairman Seol is so happy he makes a miraculous recovery and returns home to recuperate with Gong-chan's artist aunt (Choi Ran) and the family handyman/chauffeur/butler (Ahn Suk Hwan).Things are pretty dramatic in the Seol household as well, with the aunt sharing a tension-filled electricity with the family handyman. This, of course, develops in to middle-aged love, though not without its own overblown obstacles. Additionally, she has a love-hate, insult-fueled friendship with Madam Jang (Kim Yong Rin), whose playboy son Seo Jung-woong (androgynous Japanese anime look-alike Lee Joon Ki) is the hotel co-heir but spends most of his time wooing women in foreign lands, returning to Korea upon occasion to brave his mother's wrath and play squash with best friend Gong-chan. He comes back this time after meeting the intriguing Yoo-rin by chance while touring Jeju island, and he is shocked (but pleasantly accomodating) to find out that she's Gong-chan's cousin.
Meanwhile, the two main characters are getting along so badly that love must be just around the corner, though the inevitable slew of problems arises. Things get complicated as playboy Jung-woong develops lasting romantic interest in Yoo-rin, though that is nothing compared to when Gong-chan's long-absent girlfriend returns to Korea as the national tennis star after a two-year tennis circuit that includes a recent "Russian Open" triumph. It seems like everyone in this drama resembles someone or something, and Kim Seo-hyun (Park Si Yeon) looks, as an observant watcher put it, a lot like a bug. Additionally, Yoo-rin's dad reenters the picture, and his clumsy attempts at financial gain only serve to thicken the plot. When the couple finally acknowledge their fondness for each other, there is also the little problem of the way their relationship has been publicly defined.
Drama Reduction:
Can the Seol family ever forgive Yoo-rin for tricking them? Will the burgeoning love of Gong-chan and Yoo-rin survive her history as a liar, his best friend's own infatuation with Yoo-rin, his ex-girlfriend Kim Seo-hyun's snarky jealousy, her father's clumsy maneuverings, and ultimately, familial disapproval? Will nerdy, awkward Jin-kyu be able to win the affections of the polished Secretary Yoon and hit it big as Korea's next big model? And who will Gong-chan's cousin turn out to be?
Opinion:
Driven by misunderstandings, missed connections, and other standard drama fare, it is unlikely that any plot developments will be new or surprising. However, the acting is passable across the board, with especially strong performances turned in by the romantic leads, though Lee Da-hae falters as Yoo-rin during crying episodes and Lee Dong-wook seems to stretch himself when playing Gong-chan in lighthearted moments. As expected, there is some corny dialogue and the requisite visual motifs designed to melt hearts, but each episode was engaging and well-paced. I was unhappy with the tendency towards wrenching melodrama in the last two episodes, but found it forgivable in light of the series as a whole.
Grandpa is an unbelievably bad dresser given his social status, even accounting for his current invalid state. Additionally, his character is inconsistent, ranging from the sheer comedic force of his early appearances to the strict ultimatum-giver that he is at the end. Yoo-rin's dad is an equally frustrating character, though here the heart of the problem lies not in his erratic characterization but the very opposite, his dogged imprudence so overdone as to far bypass the tolerance of even the eternally patient.
Verdict: 7.7 Overall, the strength of the series is in the credibility and smooth integration of secondary storylines.
posted by alice @ 9:37 AM
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